Anyone else had this issue before? Is there some kind of special way to activate the hazard lights aside from pressing or holding the hazard button? I’ve tried both and nothing works. Video attached for reference.

 

Hazards should work under all conditions that's the point, emergency flashers when you need them. Since this is a safety feature Lexus should cover the repair.

 

In the good ole days, a flasher was simply a plugin unit under dash bout the size of a quarter that could be easily replaced like a fuse. I have no idea how the flashing is controlled with today’s electronics. However, I must admit that in all my 35 years of driving a Toyota, that I have never experienced this issue.

 

yeah, me either. Albeit I don’t have 35 years of Toyota experience, I’ve never had this problem, let alone with a 4 year old car. The vehicle passed inspection in June of last year, so somewhere along the line, the hazard switch relay went out. I don’t think it’s a fuse issue because more than just the hazard switch would be affected.

 

I assume the blinkers work otherwise? If so I would guess that the switch is bad. Other possibilities would be wires/connectors or the lighting control computer.

 

UPDATE: Went to the dealership to have it checked out. Asked if it was covered under warranty as it's a safety feature. They said the vehicle had 4 year/50K miles by default. Vehicle was warrantied in Aug 2017, so it's out of the warranty period, go figure. Vehicle passed inspection in June of 21 (VA inspection) so that means the hazards were working at that time. I didn't check if the hazard lights worked upon initial purchase, because that's honestly the last thing on my mind "do the hazard lights work?". Anyway, I say that to say, I had to reschedule the appointment to Wednesday this week, because I was informed that it would take 2-3 hours of teardown to get to the switch to test it and see if it's bad. At $160 an hour I'll be spending over $500 just for them to tell me whether or not that's the problem, and if it is something that's irreparable, the Button, of course, is attached to the climate control and it's a whole unit, which quoted by Lexus was a lovely $2800. I'll be regularly updating this so if someone else ever has this issue, they can reference it and hopefully learn vicariously through me.

Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

 

yes, the blinkers work as they should. Same with the brake lights, so all the lights controlled by the hazard switch work by themselves, but the hazard switch seems to be dead for some reason.

 

personally i wouldn't bother. i've never ever used hazards, except maybe once in pea soup fog to stop someone rear ending me, but apparently that's illegal these days.

 

As much as I’d love to, it’s a requirement for vehicle inspection in Virginia.

 

ah that sucks. may be cheaper to move.

 

They can be a life saver if and when you ever need them. As I recall they became standard in 1968. My dad had a 1966 Toronado that did not have them. He got stuck in a tunnel in downtown Boston. He was sweating bullets. I installed aftermarket flashers on the Toro the following weekend. I had already installed them on my 1965 Tempest Coupe. He never needed them again.

BTW, I sometimes use them if some jerk is following me to closely on the FW.

 

That's a lot of teardown effort. I wonder if you could get a schematic and find a harness access point where you could ground the appropriate wire and see if the lights flash? And how you would do it is connect one end of a wire to ground and the other to a sharp probe and just penetrate the wire coating.
If the hazards use a relay (they are either relay or computer controlled), it might be worth it to just take a chance and replace the relay.
Just some ideas.

 

Yeah it definitely is, teardown and diagnosis was quoted at $362, so not too bad. It'll save me the hassle of having to poke and prod and try and find the issue myself. Should they determine the issue is with the whole assembly which is $2800 I'll just have them leave the dash torn apart and order the part from a salvage or somewhere online and just put it back together myself. I'm already not a fan of dealerships and some of their practices.

 

UPDATE:
I was told “The tech found a poor pin fit at the connector, once properly installed the hazards are working.”. So thank God it wasn’t the whole assembly or something else, a simple fix. Thanks for everyone who chipped in with advice.