needles died. help?
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 643
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From: TX
needles died. help?
this is not cool. i've got my dad's 93 es 300 and the needles for the engine temp, tach, and speedometer went out. they actually went out a while ago, but my mom's finally willing to fix it. the guy i called said the needle's would be somewhere from $100-$200 each. if you have any information on gauge needles for the 92-96 years, that'd be awesome. thanks.
Last edited by zexen; Sep 2, 2002 at 02:32 AM.
Rookie
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 61
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From: So. Cal
Needles
Dude,
Mine had the same problem, Lexus told me the whole cluster would cost like 500 bucks, and that just the short needle would cost like freaking 100 bucks, so I did some research online and bought an old one from a salvage yard. And incredibly all the needles worked and it saved me lots of bucks! You can even try Ebay from time to time, I know some salvage yards do some auctioning of lexus parts.
Mine had the same problem, Lexus told me the whole cluster would cost like 500 bucks, and that just the short needle would cost like freaking 100 bucks, so I did some research online and bought an old one from a salvage yard. And incredibly all the needles worked and it saved me lots of bucks! You can even try Ebay from time to time, I know some salvage yards do some auctioning of lexus parts.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 48
Likes: 0
From: Chicago
Do a search in the SC forum
There's a lot of talk on that forum. That has happened to alot of older SC's. My 92 has been that way for a few months. It doen't bother me anymore, I've actually grown to like it.
Those price quotes are pretty cheap. I've heard it costs over a grand. The dealerships claim that they can't replace just the bulbs and that they have to replace the whole cluster.
Good luck
Those price quotes are pretty cheap. I've heard it costs over a grand. The dealerships claim that they can't replace just the bulbs and that they have to replace the whole cluster.
Good luck
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Racer
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 1,968
Likes: 19
From: Orange County, California
Some possible fixes:
Painting the needles with reflective paint
Soldering in some new LEDs (but hard to find the correct voltage LED)
Using the short, cheaper Gas and Temp needles (which ARE sold seperately) on the Tach and Speedo dials.
As maajr said, if you do a search you'll get a lot of info on this.
Painting the needles with reflective paint
Soldering in some new LEDs (but hard to find the correct voltage LED)
Using the short, cheaper Gas and Temp needles (which ARE sold seperately) on the Tach and Speedo dials.
As maajr said, if you do a search you'll get a lot of info on this.
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Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,497
Likes: 1
From: Texas
My needles have not died (yet) but one thing very few people have tried is to test the capacitors and see if one (or more) is not charging properly. You will see plenty when you take out the dash assembly.
Somewhere in the SC forum there is actually a picture of which caps to replace, and I think it mentioned replacing a transformer, too. Do some digging. I doubt the design is too different.
I hope this helps, good luck.
Somewhere in the SC forum there is actually a picture of which caps to replace, and I think it mentioned replacing a transformer, too. Do some digging. I doubt the design is too different.
I hope this helps, good luck.
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