LS430 switch buttons dark

[The-Acre]

I'm happy with spanners but electrical stuff baffles me so I wonder if anyone can literally shed some light on this.  I went out this evening in the dark, the dials, display screen and steering wheel switches lit up, but all the other buttons including the gear shift were dark.  On the way back (about 5 miles) they appeared again, any ideas? Also, as you can see in the photos, the centre display went back to its night colour which it didn't at first.

 

 

[noby76]

could it be it detects how much light/dark it is outside and adjusts accordingly? i'm guessing on your way back was more darker outside than when you set off on your journey? also which setting do you have your cluster set to? mines on auto-Hi which brights up more at night but less so during the day.

[The-Acre]

53 minutes ago, noby76 said:

could it be it detects how much light/dark it is outside and adjusts accordingly? i'm guessing on your way back was more darker outside than when you set off on your journey? also which setting do you have your cluster set to? mines on auto-Hi which brights up more at night but less so during the day.

It was completely dark when I set off but it all came back to life a mile before home so it seems it changed when the internal temperature rose. I tried adjusting the cluster in all directions but it made no difference.

[steve2006]

I know from experience and having repaired many units that the earlier 94-97 LS400 suffered a similar problem with back lighting which was due to bad solder joints within the radio/tape player.

The problem with the Celsior models is a lack of service manuals and being only available in Japanese meaning diagnosis is very hard.

It does sound like a poor connection or dry solder joints somewhere but where do you start looking? A hair dryer and a can of freezer spray are the tools required to find intermittent thermal faults but where do you start with them.

Have you tried a few gentle taps around the area to see if the lights then illuminate?

[cruisermark]

Maybe take out the audio unit - apply some sort of electrical conductive paste and see if it makes any difference.

I think steve might be right

[The-Acre]

3 hours ago, steve2006 said:

I know from experience and having repaired many units that the earlier 94-97 LS400 suffered a similar problem with back lighting which was due to bad solder joints within the radio/tape player.

The problem with the Celsior models is a lack of service manuals and being only available in Japanese meaning diagnosis is very hard.

It does sound like a poor connection or dry solder joints somewhere but where do you start looking? A hair dryer and a can of freezer spray are the tools required to find intermittent thermal faults but where do you start with them.

Have you tried a few gentle taps around the area to see if the lights then illuminate?

Yes, I've bashed the whole area.  Its not a massive problem and I'm guessing its maybe since the weather turned much colder.  It reminds me of my MK2 LS400 that had the blank dash until it warmed up, that was remedied with replacement capacitors.  I'll keep an eye on it during the week to see if it is heat related.