Hey everyone,

First post here so hopefully i'm doing this right. I recently purchased for (way) under value an '04 LS430UL with around 116K on the dash. Suspension and engine all look great, no rust, garage kept in winters and an 8/10 interior. Maintainence records show that the car was well cared for. The only issue (and also assuming why the price was so low) is some sort of major electrical problem. From what ive been able to find so far

-rear seat controls have worked once or twice but typically will not move/recline
-lock for the gas cap had to be pried open, as it wasn't working
- headlight washers aren't working
-each window can be rolled down from its respective seat, but controls from the drivers door do not work
-cooler in rear center console is not working
-power mirrors aren't working

Previous owner has a massive speaker setup with two 12" subs and two amps in the trunk (takes up almost the entire trunk) is there any way that this could possibly be drawing power away so that other controls aren't working? I was looking to take them out because my end goal it to get as close to stock as possible and use of the trunk would be great.

any ideas on where I can start troubleshooting? If any other info would be helpful in diagnosing the problem let me know and ill be more than happy to provide it!

 

Check the sides of your trunk for any water leaks and maybe the wiring for the subs is messed up?
Look at this video

 

The amp for the giant subs won't cause things to stop working in the way you describe. Especially if the stereo is off. If you want to take the aftermarket subwoofer amplifiers out of the equation you can just pull the fuses out of them. If a massive subwoofer system were to affect a cars electrical components, it would be if/when it hits massively hard on a bass track. It would have to hit hard enough to draw the systems voltage down low enough that other components aren't getting the proper voltage that they're expecting. But if that were to happen, and it actually did affect the power windows, it would affect all of them from all the switches, not just from the drivers door. And it would be intermittent as it would only happen when the bass hits. That's why I say the subs and amps aren't the cause.

Unfortunately, often times these types of subwoofer and amplifier installations are hack jobs and I would suspect this is where your electrical problems could be coming from. Either from cut wires, broken connectors, or even improper wiring back feeding power to components. Hopefully this is not the case and the guy had someone do a clean and proper installation, but it's where I'd start looking. Also the above mentioned video is another excellent place to start looking for issues. Water intrusion into the trunk is common. And the LS430 just happens to keep some important items in the trunk floor.

As a side note, before you start removing the subwoofers and amps, you should see how much of the stock stereo system has been replaced and/or is missing. It could be very difficult to go back to stock if the entire ML system has been removed.

 

There should be a pull cord inside the trunk for the fuel door.

 

I'll look for water damage in the trunk. Maybe a could place to start would be looking for faulty wiring? I can start checking fuses as well.