Hoping to get some credible feedback from the knowledgeable collective of the Lexus community on what could be a very thorny electrical issue. 3rd owner of a 1990 ls400 with only 150k. Car drives beautifully and has aged gracefully....with the exception of the following....

what follows is a two part general explanation of the symptoms......Part1: Noticed a peculiar anomaly with the electrical when, somewhat randomly, at the time of startup (turn the key), all electric goes dead. Conditions included: clock goes blank, no lights, no dash, trip computer resets, no starter motor - not a click, click, but instead - simply dead.....local mechanic(chicago area) isolated a short with the ignition and put a new ignition mechanism that did not require new keys....problem seemed to be solved.

3 weeks after repair - the problem apparently resurfaced as the car is in the driveway and will not turn over (all electrical out).....

Additional observations: even before the repair, I would sometimes hear a little 'pop' on the radio while driving and touching the brake pedal. I've also stopped using the auto-steering column adjuster because it seemed to be inducing some type of short as well.

before writing this post I conducted a bunch of searches and did not find any similar scenarios (the blown fuse posts don't seem to fit the situation)

My conclusion is that a short exists somewhere behind the dash and/or in the driver's door. I'm hoping that someone knowledgeable with the wiring of a 1990 LS would be able to validate my very non-technical conclusion.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

 

Check battery connections. Make sure there are no corrosions. Get the battery tested.

 

any 1LS electrical issue= look at this first.
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/lighting/bulbout.html

 

Yes, thank you for the replies. appears to be battery post related (i even read the any "1LS electrical issue=" post prior to submitting my post having concluded it had to be something more serious).....

thanks again.

 

The battery post, loose connections and corrosion is the most over looked thing. Glad you found the problem