So ima keep this short. I AM GOING CRAZY OVER THIS
I put in some Sub and right after my dash lights began to flash... ok cool no problem.
Few months go by and the cluster doesn't even light up for my speed or my RPM but I can still see my turn signals when using them and I can see up until i put my car in reverse in the center.
So I did the easiest thing and bought another one, used for the same year and the same model. I hooked it up to my car and the same thing happened. Ok cool ima return that part and get another one. I just find it strange how its happened to both.
I checked the fuses and they are all in good working order. So what gives??? Any advice helps!

 

Can you clarify what event caused the cluster lighting to stop working?

Thanks

 

I had a shop install my sub and amp combo. And that’s when this issues started. It’s began to blink and flash and eventually it just died completely

 

So you installed an aftermarket sub\speaker setup which probably draws a ton more power than the stock system, and then your instrument cluster starts having electrical issues. This seems pretty straightforward to me.

How much power is the system drawing? Does it have it's own fuse, or is it shoe-horned by tapping the battery directly. How old is your battery?

 

The sub is 2500watt sub and the amp is 1200RMS at max power.... And yes the sub is wires directly to my battery terminal. And my battery is only 4 months old directly from Toyota. Would I have to upgrade my battery?

 

Here....

1.) Did the instrument cluster entirely function prior to the audiophile operation?

2.) Who performed the surgery?

3.) If someone else, are they going to correct the problem?

 

1200 Watts divided by 12(V) equal 100A....and your stock alternator is rated 100A on a good day.

The cluster turns off when battery is low..

Illustrious installer checked the OEM alternator specifications? or did they install a higher amp alternator that does not produce power at lower RPM's??

Have you considered a 130A alternator from a 2001-2003 LS430 (plug and play)?

Was a bass capacitor installed?

Were negative battery and engine ground cables upgraded?

Was alternator cable upgraded?

Second battery installed??

posts on related subject matter for your exploration and review on this forum.

 

That's a BIG system. I have an aftermarket system in my car and your components draw 10x the power mine does. (I understand these are RMS peak numbers, not sustained at normal listening volumes. Things get a lot more complicated and above my level of understanding)

Devil's advocate - shouldn't problems develop when you start turning up the volume, thus making the system draw more power? And if you were to shut the system off, the instrument cluster would start functioning normally? This is the first way I would test. Isolating the sound system from the electrical draw of the car will give us an A\B test to see if it's power draw is causing other issues. Because right now that's the #1 suspect.

While gauge cluster failures aren't exactly common, they do happen. But the chances of two different clusters both being bad after you install a multi-thousand watt system? There seems to be a pretty clear correlation here.

Yodaone brought up some excellent points (as always ) as well.

 

Dude Im sorry I double checked my sound system combo, I was at work when I posted this the amp is SKAR AMP and my SUB. So the power is quite a bit more than I thought

 

Im still new to car audio so im sorry man.... I what I believe to be a fuse hooked up to the lines coming from my battery to the amp (ill post a photo of the old one that was replaced due it melting or something) . I also have a Audiocontrol matrix plus hooked up in my trunk by the amp and my sub.

Have you considered a 130A alternator from a 2001-2003 LS430 (plug and play)?
I was looking into this after some googling and I think i may have to go this route along with a upgraded battery.

Were negative battery and engine ground cables upgraded? / Was alternator cable upgraded? Not that I know of....

 

And I kinda lied this is my system to be exact SUB/ AMP/ Audiocontrolmatrixplus/ headunit
The shop owner did a amp bypass also from what he told me.
To be honest this is making a lot of sense and I feel kinda silly... I am new to car audio and I honestly thought that having a shop hook it up would be good enough, The guy i went too was knowledgeable about my system but I don't think he knew what would've happened after installing it.

 

Before you go swapping more parts - I recommend just doing the test. Shut the system off for a while and just drive the car around normally. Better if it can be disconnected entirely to remove any potential parasitic drains. Test the battery voltage before & after. Then plug everything in again and run the tests again. That'll tell you a lot and it costs $0.

If the car passes that test, Mr. Yodaone will probably know a lot more than I do about seeing if there are specific lines you can test to see if there is appropriate voltage going to the gauge cluster. If memory serves me correctly, it steps up the voltage to some insane number (thousands) for the lighting of the needles and such. Perhaps there are some other electrical issues that aren't related to the stereo or the gauge cluster itself.

Worthwhile to also check the fuse box. Did the installer tap any existing circuits as part of the system install? That could cause issues.

This being said - if the sound system indeed ends up being the problem, the upgraded alternator among other suggestions by Yoda will be the methods of attack to solving it. There is tons of documentation on the forum about audio systems for this car.

 

i agree with the above; unhook the big battery cable from the battery terminal and see if everything restores. always do the quick and easy stuff first when troubleshooting before looking into the alternator/battery/etc (which all could still be valid).

of course there could be other potential issues like where did the audio installer tap the factory system for an audio signal, where did he pass the wires from the engine bay to the amp location, are there any shorts in the system. so many variables!

what i'm afraid of is that the install of the audio exacerbated the ECU capacitor failure. this should be looked at as a last resort if all else is good.
more: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...capacitor.html