Backlight for '97's Pioneer head unit
 

Long story short, I needed to replace the heat unit in my car to get a working cassette player for my iPod adapter since mine crapped out (inb4 "Why didn't you hardwire it or upgrade?")

When I received the new unit, the LCD display was bad, so I swapped my faceplate onto the unit I received from another CL member. Everything seemed to work fine, until night fell, and I had no lights on any part of my head unit. Now I'm trying to figure out where the problem lies.

TL;DR: my old faceplate/LCD screen is attached to the "new" head unit. Why no lights?

1) All lights worked on my old setup.

2) I didn't check to see when I had the entirely "new" unit hooked up if the lights worked or not (just that the LCD was bad).

3) The LCD panel works just fine as is - just no backlight.

4) No lights behind ANY of the radio control buttons.

5) All connections are secure. I've checked multiple times.

I still have my old unit/"new" faceplate in my house. I was looking at it today, and the lights behind the LCD panel seem to be soldered in place, not simply removable.

I'm thinking it's unlikely that ALL of those lights happened to bite the dust at the same time, so I figure either something shorted out or there's a deeper problem. I still have all of the parts of my original head unit and the face plate of the one with the bad screen (included). Is there another piece I should try swapping over to the one I'm currently using? Perhaps the circuit board to which all of the control button lights are attached?

Thanks in advance :thumbup:

P.S. The light behind the passenger side heated seat icon bit the dust the other day - still have the green "ON" light, but not the other one. (Was there a light behind the TRAC OFF button too?) The only info I found on replacing those was I *think* on the ES or RX boards, and it said the wires are so thin, it's almost best just to replace the whole module.

Your problem might be the resistor identified in this thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ust-bulbs.html

Mine doesn't work either (95) and bought another one from someone here who said theirs didn't work either. I thought I would play with that one rather than take mine out. Unfortunately, the resistor identified doesn't exist on the other radio's circuit board. Maybe you'll have better luck.

*bump/update*

Since I posted this, I haven't had time to tear the dash apart again to find the problem. HOWEVER, I noticed tonight that when all lights serving forward illumination purposes are off, the radio's LCD screen has a very dim green glow to it still, but goes black when the lights are turned on. So the lights are still getting power, but apparently not enough - perhaps a loose connection? Furthermore, I've noticed now that both the driver and passenger heated seat lights stopped working (instead of just the passenger), and the lights on the gear shift will sometimes come on only after the car has been shifted out of park, into gear, back to park, and back in to gear again. I've messed with with the dimmer control as well, but it had no bearing on the radio lights. Still stumped here.

I don't mean to bump an old thread but I think I may be having the same issue you are
I got my car with no backlight. Did the resistor fix in that post AzHotLS suggested (My post:https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...-light-up.html ) and my radio is working again, however, the past month my backlight goes out when I turn on my headlights and the radio is on. Did you every find a fix to yours and do you think it may be a loose connector?