I recently had a bulb blow behind my stereo near the tape button along the right side on my 97. I have a bunch of other issues with it such as half the backlighting on the LCD is dim and the letters are missing segments intermittently depending on the outside temperature.

Also, is the volume **** supposed to be lit up along the outer circumference? Mine isn't but wasn't sure if that was blown out since it never had been lit up.

Would you recommend replacing the bulbs needed or sending the whole unit into a repair place to get fixed?

If I have to solder SMD LEDs to a circuit board to replace the stereo backlighting then I might send it in since my soldering skills are just OK and I don't have access to any LS400s in JYs like I used to have when I was living in AZ. Everyone drives domestics in MI it seems, which blows.

Here's what it currently looks like:

 

You could look on eBay for radios people are selling. I see some listed for around $100-$250

 

I have a '91 with the base (Pioneer, not Nakamichi) stereo. Early on in my ownership, I had some backlight bulbs out, so I took it apart and replaced the dead ones. No soldering required for me. I did not know what parts I would need until I got it all apart, so I just selected generic "grain of wheat" bulbs I had already, from Radio Shack (I said this was a while ago ;-) ). Turns out once it was dark and I could admire my work I found that the brightness did not match perfectly. But good enough for my standards.

Doing it again, I might replace all bulbs just so the brightness matches across the display. Well, of course I could order the Lexus ones and wait and pay 20x more.

But at least for me, no soldering required here.

 

I ended up buying a second hand 99 GS300 radio thinking the LCD would transfer over but I was wrong when I brought it home. But the good news is, it was only $30 and I was able to use 4 of the bulbs from it. I would only recommend doing this type of bulb replacement if you have a professional soldering iron. Luckily I did from my R/C car racing days, hence my name, Losiracer, from racing Team Losi R/C cars. I used a Hakko model 986 soldering station with a pencil tip soldering iron turned all the way up to 900 degrees.

After taking apart the radio and removing the faceplate, I was able to see how these "bulbs" achieve the backlighting. Initially, I wanted to go to RadioShack and buy some microbulbs, but as I looked into it, they only put out about 60ma instead of 100ma of power, so they'd be considerably dimmer than the factory bulbs. So my only option was to replace them with the same bulbs that came out. They only remove from the circuit board or the black bases by unsoldering. I tried pulling them at first with my fingers but couldn't get any grip, then tried pliers and shattered the bulbs only after realizing that the wires are wrapped around the bottom of the black bases and soldered to the board. Once you unsolder them, the bulbs will come out of the bases and you can replace them with RadioShack replacements but the output would be pretty lackluster, so I don't recommend it.

Luckily, this 99 GS300 had all the bulbs in great shape. Every one I removed worked when I transferred it to my LS400's circuit board. I had to desolder and resolder 4 micro bulbs to restore the lighting in my stereo to illuminate properly. The 5 tuning ***** remove just like the volume button, just pull straight out on them and then that clear/opaque lighting diffuser will then unclip from the circuit board and then you'll be able to access the bulbs behind it to be able to desolder them in between the fader, balance, bass, treble and mid *****. Make sure you gently remove the grey rubber pads as well. They secure with some rubber pull through plugs that go through the circuit board. Don't forget to put them back either since those are what the buttons use to spring back when you press them.

I didn't really mess with the LCD since I didn't have a plan B in case something broke, so since the backlighting for that was still semi working and was legible, I left it for another day.

Here's where I started, by taking things apart:





My donor 99 GS300 radio


Finished all the stereo bulb replacements....might have to tackle the HVAC controls in the future once I figure out what bulbs those use

 

nice work I hate it when these bulbs go out.

btw, I used to race team associated! now I own a few tamiyas as they have the coolest most accurate lexan bodies out there!