The needles are little leds. I tried several sources to find replacements but gave up and just bought a new gauge assembly for around 350.00 from the dealer. Then I had to buy both outer gauges also for around 135.00 each.
Worked perfectly.
Had to do this in both my SC's.
THe assembly is only part of the dash setup.
This does not change the odometer reading one bit.

 

Gavin - Sorry to hear about your ride. I'll keep my eye out. There was one on the traderonline website. Low mileage. I think I recall it was champaign with tan hide. Don't know if it is still there or not but might be worth checking. Also, I would like the info, when you get it, on the company in Orlando.

Neal Rikal - The dash cluster on the lexussc400 site do you know if this is the complete unit ready to drop in or is this just the speedo. I plan on checking with them sometime today but figured I would ask you too.

Pearl Power - Thanks for the info. When you had yours replaced, did they replace the individual gauges or the complete unit. And, did the dealer do the work or did you have someone do it or did you do it yourself? The reason I am asking is I have pulled mine out and looked at it, and from the looks of it, I do not want to go no where near taking the individual gauges out of this thing. Did the dealer do the work?

 

Pretty sure it is the whole deal, if it is it's simple to install. all you have to do is remove a few screws and unhook some harnesses. very basic.

Go to the site and contact them just to make sure, they will get back to you pretty fast. they are good people

 

It is a bit more involved than that.
The assembly from the dealer contains only the inner two gauges, speedo and tach. This piece must be removed from the whole gauge assembly.These are attached to a small circuit board that must be seperated from the main gauge assembly. The inner gauges and circuit board is one unit. Be very careful around the other gauges because if the board for the fuel gauge is bent slightly than the gauge will stop working properly. Also note that on some gauges on the board, the screws are different length so mark them during the R&R.
I did the whole process myself. I took the thing apart about 15 times trying dfferent LED's to work in place of the OEM needles to no avail.

It has been a while:
Remove key and disconnect the negative battery terminal with steering wheel in lowest outmost (closest to you) position for clearance.
Remove the gauge assembly. 4 connectors are in the back that must be reached and disconnected.
Lay the unit face down on a towel to avoid scratches on the face and remove the white plastic cover.
This will expose the ciruit boards.
Now on the board there will be phillip screws on the left ,middle, and the right.
The ones of the left and right hold the outer gauges. Leave those alone.
Remove the inner screws. They are long as they do double duty as contacts. Remove 1 or 2 small electrical connectors and pull up on the inner gauge part. It should just come right up.
Reverse the procedure.
It has been a while so I hope I got it all.
Best of luck,

 

The odometer memory is maintained in the dash PCB circuit, NOT the main ECU. I know this for a fact. If you buy a new complete unit, you may be asked your current mileage so the new one can be "set" to your current mileage. In the case of the GM (Caddy) I owned, that was the case, and in that car the odometer was in the ECU. There is a location that GM dealers use to "program" the chips if yours goes bad. Of course, if you don't use the dealer, I have no idea what is done.

My 2cents (with actual experience)

 

hmm your 2 cents would have helped a while ago. my car reads 95k miles with an actuall of about 130k miles.

 

Why did you replace the entire unit?and not just the defective part?
I priced the PCB board mentioned above and was quoted somethink in the order of 400.00 for just that board. This was a few years ago. If LexusSC400.com sells the complete unit for only 560.00, that is a steal. Figure if the inner needles are going, the outers will soon follow.

 

i just replaced the whole thing becuase i didn't know how to fix the little stuff, hadn't found this site. besides it worked great and i don't need the actuall mileage on the spedo because i'm keeping the car till it bombs out

 

I replaced all of my needles and lights as well. It took about 1 1/2 hours to do all of them. I chose to do this so I wouldn't have to pull the assembly apart again. I guess there is still a chance a needle will fail in the next year or so but I say the odds are against that.

No problems with the OD reading.