Last night my wife and I were out on a drive about half way to our destination the speakers make a pop my nav screen goes out and power steering light came on the dash. I pulled over and restarted the car and was back to normal but something happened. I have the lexus platinum extended warranty I'm hoping they will look into the issue. Im currently at 60k miles I'm thinking alternator but I'm not sure. Any pointers would be appreciated thanks.

 

Could also be a geomagnetic storm result. There's a huge one going on right now.

 

that would be pretty random. I dont think im that far north to be effected.

 

It's the end of the world, the commit is near!

 

No, cosmic rays cause memory faults in chips and this has been well known for more than 25 years. It only takes one critical piece of data to make a problem and force a reboot. CME's cause massive EMPs that can do exactly this. Since your error was entirely transitory, it's possible this was what caused it.

Your proximity to the poles has nothing to do with the potential impact of a CME. The only reason they talk about proximity to the poles is for Aurora Borealis. This has nothing at all to do with AB.

 

Have the battery fully tested for volts, amps, and crank load. It does things like this.

 

Agreed, but that's also really odd while the engine is running. The field coil would have to lose power for this to happen, and that would be more of an alternator/voltage regulator/rectifier bridge issue than a battery issue. Fixing by restarting wouldn't be likely if it were. I've experienced alternator issues with Toyota electrical systems, and the dash stays lit up like a Christmas tree when this happens. AMHIK.