Hi guys!

Kind of a terrible way to join a forum.

I recently purchased a 2007 RX350 with 82,000 miles on it. I was in my garage tonight and noticed a smoke smell coming from underneath the dash and all the sudden light smoke began filling my car. Now I think it was because I put some LED lights in my door maybe? I replaced the bulbs? blew a fuse then put the same size back in. The vehicle now will not go into gear. Sunroof won't close and the dash is blinking like Christmas lights. I really love this vehicle and would have to hate to return it. I work at the dealership I bought it at which happens to be a Honda store. Not a Lexus.

So in conclusion whats going on? Something is obviously fried. The lights blinking are the ABS light, AFS light and the CEL light. The keypad to get into the car doesn't work now either. I'm so sad over this. Here I was all excitied and now I'm all bummed out and have a smelly Lexus that smells like burnt plastic. Help guys!


~Bri

 

Welcome to Club Lexus, RX350Girl, and sorry to hear of your troubles. One would not think replacing your stock bulbs with LEDs would cause such a problem without something done incorrectly in the process.

Sounds like you possibly have more blown fuses, relays and/or other problems that will need to be sorted out by someone who can actually take a look at your vehicle. Best to have it towed to your dealership for one of the techs to take a look at it for you. Should not require someone with specialized Lexus training for this.

With your car in the garage it is safe from the weather for now, however, you do not want your RX to be the cause of any further damage. If you are able or can find someone with a set of wrenches who can for you I might suggest you disconnect the battery at this time. Negative terminal should come off first.

 

Thanks. The headlights don't come on. Windows don't roll down either.

 

Smoke in the cockpit is always a bad sign.
I have replaced many of my interior lights with LEDs and have had no problem. Some are polarity sensitive, but if in wrong, they just don't light up so you just reverse them in the socket. They draw far less current than bulbs, so no fuse should blow just from putting in the LED.
Since a fuse blew, there was either a short or an overload. I can't imagine it's an overload, so you probably created a short upon installation of the LED. This can be pretty easy to do in a tight light module. If you did this, a fuse would blow. Replacing the fuse would send the current through the circuit again, and it should have blown again, but if the short was constant, perhaps it did not blow but let the current run, which heated up the point of the short. (A short here is a direct connection between the positive and negative side of the light socket, with no "load" (light) to slow down the juice.) The short could also be in the LED due to faulty construction or a bad circuit board.
Once all that juice is flowing, lots of bad things can happen. The point of the short gets hot, just like the elements in a toaster. That is what probably happened.
As for the other electrical things, that kind of thing happens in complex vehicles with lots of electronics like an RX. My service manager told me not to install an aftermarket remote starter as he has seen those cars come in later with strangely flashing lights and suddenly failing devices, just because the electronics are inter-related and go through a couple of control points in common. It sounds to me, and I'm no expert, like something like that happened to your car's grid.
You have a great car and need to take care of it. We all have made little mistakes like this that need professional correction. Get the car back to your dealership and see if they can track down the problem. Electrical test tools will be needed, and you probably don't have them. If your shop can't find the source of the problem, you might want to have a Lexus dealer look at it because it sounds like something unique to the RX electrical grid, and you may need a specialist.
Finally, you might try to go back to the beginning and take out the LED and put the original bulb back into the socket. If the LED is the problem (if it's a bad unit), then this might correct some of the problems. If this gives some relief, then you might have to "reset" the windows and sunroof, as if the battery had been disconnected. This is easy and the procedure is in your book, and is set out in this forum in several places.
Finally, your problems and the LED replacement could be unrelated and only coincidental, but that seems unlikely.
Good luck.
Please report back to us.

 

Maybe a friend tech guy from the dealership should take a look at it...good luck.

 

My best guess is that during the installation you may have accidently had an error installing the bulbs. I would take them out. The car can and will function without the door lights.

Next you need to check out every fuse in the fuse box under that dash. Next you need to pop the hood and check the fuse box near the battery. Check all fuses and replace accordingly.

Lastly, if you see any burning marks or melted plastic, make note of it and show mechanic.

Here's my educated but specific detail-less hypothesis. You may have installed the wrong bulbs (wattage) inthe doors. It was pulling too much juice. Busted the fuse. You placed fuse back in and it pulled too much current through fuse box and busted a few other fuses. Once that happens other problems can develop.

During the part where it was pulling too much wattage / voltage it burnt some the wiring harness possibly or in the fuse box. Look at the wiring harness and see if it is melted or damaged. Inspect the fuse box carefull with a light and make sure it does not appear damaged.

Hope this helps.

 

Well we figured it out. Unfortunately, it is the body control module. Our door lights are not fused so my RX used the module as a fuse and blew it! $752 dollars it should be working. Pretty awesome huh?

 

welcome to CL!

sorry to hear that...but it will soon to be good as new!

 

Another case of the $$$ (expensive) part protecting the $1 fuse. Had that happen a long time ago on another vehicle. Never offer to lend your vehicle to jump start another. Call AAA for them.

Regarding your LED selection, not sure about the source you choose, however, many here have replaced their stock bulbs with LED without problem. Even if installed backwards your bulbs could possibly not work but never should they lead to a Lucas Electronics style meltdown of your electrical system. Would go back to the original bulbs for now and discuss with others here about the LED choices you made and a possible change of vendors and bulb selection. Something just not right.

Hopefully, all will be well after this.

 

Ouch, poor BB! Hang around, we'll save you enough on other stuff to make up for it,

 

jesus christ...

 

kinda similar incident happen in my RX too. i bought these LED for turn signal as soon as i put it on it started to burn for some odd reason and the fuse was blown out. Some how it also blew like few other fuse. i was like damn this car is done. So i had extra fuse and put the news one and put the old halogen bulb back and for like 2 days a burning smell was still coming from rear side. Well now everything is ok and i aint messing with that again.
Just asking what kind of LED you installed? pic? info?