I recently bought a slightly abused 2002 SC430. The auction house flippers (I suspect) have disabled the check engine light. Do you know how this was likely accomplished? Is the check engine light source a bulb or LED on a printed circuit board? Is there some fuse or wire that they could have cut to disable the light?

 

As far as I know, the lights on the dash are all surface mounted, soldered, to the circuit board.

When CEL lights first came out, I did find that someone had used a long needle nose pliers to crush the bulb so the car would sell better on his used car lot. This lead to the rudimentary cpu to default to a less than ideal engine management program. I doubt that this would be relevant to your car.

Get an inexpensive OBD2 code reader to see if there are currently any codes thrown. Or, go to an auto parts store and have them check for codes.

Simplest solution is that they put a piece of electrical tape over the light. Easiest to do and easiest to undo.

 

Send a message to @TaninAuto who is a ClubLexus sponsor and ask them. They repair clusters and should be able to repair yours