Took them like 4 days to respond.

 

Now just wait....this is why we cant get this fixed is because we got 20 diff. people saying this fixes it or that fixes it lol.....this place says the needles need to be done....but blade says only 2 capacitors need to be done....which is it?
Blade, why do you think this is the answer (the 2 capacitors)?
Thats one con to the search engine....like you do a search for needles or for replacing A/C LCD display lights...and the archives are filled with SO much wrong information that it confuses everyone....or you have people from other countries saying to fix this when it has no relevence to the US SC's.
Like with the A/c LED, everyone says do a search....the part numbers are in the threads....no...those part numbers are completely wrong and the bulbs are not orderable from Lexus.
Or someone will say oh Im going to attempt the fix this week or yeah I know this person and Im going to get the info. and post it tomorrow...and the person falls off the face of the earth. Argh!!
Anyways....blade, Im interested in what you have to say. I personally think you are wrong about the capacitors, I think Ive seen that somewhere from the UK site that those capacitors deal with some other aspect of dash lighting failure....but maybe you know someone we dont, clarify please.

 

Check out the AC & Radio lights.....thing looks like a spaceship.

 

i also agree, I don't think this will work because there cluster should be different from ours. They are in UK we are in USA. I also read closely and at no time do i remember it saying the "NEEDLES". all it said was the upper and lower florescent light. I read it late last night so i don't remember too clearly. but i just think this is a temp fix for the backlighting not the actual needles,

The reason why i don't think anyone has really attempted to do this is because its not something you can take out and leave out and work on it for a couple of days. you can only work on it but have to put it back in before you drive. I honestly think the only way to fix it is to replace the actual LED on the neeedles which i will try once i find out what type they are somehow. I have an extra cluster, maybe everyone can paypal me 10 bucks and i can send that cluster in and after he fixes it i can post up here what was done and we could all do it ourselfs. LOL

 

Since you have an extra cluster, you can open that one up and take pics of every step you go through and post it here.
Take apart everything possible..needles, caps, resistors, LEDs,etc.
That would help alot of members here

 

i wish i had a digi cam, last time i tried to get one from best buys they range from 200-600 dollars with a 15% restocking fee so i said forget it. LOL. i don't really use one much and don't want to keep one

 

I'm sure people would probably send $10 but even if you see what has been changed I dont think it would be very easy to duplicate it. Based on what the site says calabrating and making sure its giving correct measurments or speed would be kind of hard if you dont have the right stuff to do it with. the LEDs the needles have are extremly small. they're the type of LEDs you see on a alarm clock . If you've ever opened one up to see the lights you can see how small those damn things are. Trying to change those would probably be kinda hard just considering the size. I'm not saying its not possible. Its already been done but I'm just saying I dont think everyone can do it. Thats just my opinion. Paying 450 is a bit high for changing 2 to 4 needles. Only my speedo and RPM needles are bad and I would think the cost would be under 200 and even 200 seems high but there seems to be a lot of work put into it. A new cluster or a cluster from a wrecked SC is pretty much the same price for replacing the needles.

 

Well, for some real info, I've takin apart and put back together about 3 sc's now (def not by choice) and have come across this problem a lot. I have also talked to nextlexlcoupe guy, and he said that the needles have tiny tiny lights in them, so small you can't find them anywhere and i guess his friend or somethin he said makes them. So that's how that one was done. It's basically just bulbs in there, which is why like half of the needle can burn out and not the whole thing. Not capacitators, or at least i've never dealt with that. From lexus, they are around $300 a pop, and $1000-1200 for the whole set of all 4. Gas gage and temp being around 300 each. However, I'm hopin someone finds these bulbs so that we can play around with this ourselvs, keep us updated.

 

i'm going to try to use the same LED's that i used on my Nokia 8290. They are also extremely small. i have a feeling they use the same LED's.

Also about the calibration thingy. i don't think there is any needed. i think he is just bull shizing.

 

I bought a temp. needle for 56 bucks. Not hard to install.

 

Hey where did u get it and do you know how much a speed and tach needles go for? Thanx

 

The local dealer.. if they give you a high price tell em to bite you. Get it from Ganz or just order from a big place like www.lexus-parts.com
I dunno what the tach or speedo go for.

 

i heard the gas and temp are replacable. but the tach and the speed are not replacable. if they go out you gotta get a new cluster

 

Damn

 

I dunno, it looks like it comes apart... look in your service manual.