My stereo system works fine but the head unit doesn't light up at night... dealer quoted $500 to repair. Sounds a little steep to me ... does anyone have experience with this fix? TIA

Jerry

 

You can contact O.L.T. via PM or through http://www.lextech.org/

He'll be able to get the backlight working again, and have it light up a different color if you wish.

Some examples of what he can do/has done:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=88406

 

Pull the stereo out, open it up and check to see if the bulbs are burned out. It sounds like they are. I have instructions on removing the stereo here: http://www.lexls.com/head_unit.html

 

I have a 96 LS400. My Pioneer stereo backlights are out, which makes it hard to see at night. The LCD works fine, it's just that the light is out. I heard that the bulbs (or LED's) are soldered onto the board. Is there any way I can replace these myself?

I heard that I can buy the blubs at http://www.superbrightleds.com , but how do I find out which one to buy?

PS: I'm going for the super-white look (like the new LS)

 

Read up on my site under the lighting section and you will find what you want to know . My guess is that the bulbs in your stereo are just burned out, LED's rarely burn out. These units have both bulbs and LED's. Just take the stereo out and open up the front panel. Use a thin flat-headed screwdriver to get the bulbs out and see if they are burned out. While checking the bulbs take off their covers, this will give you the "white look."

The procedure will be very similar to this: http://www.lexls.com/climatebacklighting.html

 

I noticed on the link that I can get the bulbs (or LEDs) from http://www.superbrightleds.com , but it doesn't have the model number to order it from there.

 

I replaced the bulbs in my '96 for about $5 including the bulbs and glue... basically, once you have the stereo out, just start removing the screws as you get at the front... then remove the 7 screws to remove the circuit board from the face itself... the bulbs have green condoms on them.... I can't recall what the bulb numbers were, but I got them from Radio Shack. If you search, I posted before on this with the bulb numbers and all. Any advice, just ask!

 

Same here. But my lights sometimes come alive again.... Dunno what the problem is

Can anybody give me advice what to do. My dealer quoted $2000 bucks for head unit...

 

For anyone who's interested,

About 7 months ago, a couple bulbs burnt out from behind the A/C cluster unit in my '01 ES. I took apart the unit to get access to the bulbs, and when I looked closely at the bulbs in question, the filaments looked intact and in OK condition. Still, I replaced the bulbs anyway with the ones I purchased from the Lexus parts dept (about $2 each). When I put everything back together, the bulbs light up I made up a thread detailing my step-by-step instructions and pics of replacing the center console bulbs here.

Replacing these bulbs is not as bad as it seems; just follow my method or Earl's method (http://www.lexls.com/head_unit.html), and you'll be fine

 

My 96 LS stereo backlight started out like that; flcikering, turning on and off from time to time. Now it's always off. So chances are, sooner or later, you're next!

 

Can we replace with different color bulbs? ANy idea where to get different color 'condoms'?