No gauge, no drive
I bought this 1997 Lexus a lmost t wo years ago at an auction. I t hought it looked lonely and needed some love. It’s just a dream to drive; t he smoothest engine I’ve ever owned. That quad cam goes rea lly well too and still shows t he young ones how to boogie. It has just gone past 143,000 k ilometres.
But just lately t he speedo and the tacho have become a litt le reca lcit ra nt. A quick tap on the dash and needles jump into action and away t hey go. But last week, t he temperature gauge stopped working completely and I’m going nowhere unless t hat’s operating.
The rest of t he car is tota lly orig inal including the built-in analogue phone and the high-power stereo. It’s an absolutely bri l lia nt car and it gets some lovely comments on its ride and its great condition. And it has a lways been ser v iced at a Lexus dealer.
It’s old but so am I, and I don’t want to trash it because the dash doesn’t work properly, but I can’t find anyone in Queensland who k nows how to f i x it. The web site bloggers say there are people in America who fi x and even guarantee
t hem for life, even t he guy at Lexus told me that. Surely t here are some bright electrica l engineers in Austra lia who can f i x t hem. Especia lly if t he yanks can.
The normal gauge re-conditioners up here in Queensland want nothing to do wit h it. So, do you g uys k now anyone in Austra lia who does recondition these high-tech gauges. I rea lly love t he old girl and I would be ver y sad if I have to send her of f to t he wreckers. But you can’t drive a car wit h no working dash. It does make me wonder how many of t hese cars are of f t he road because of t his issue.
So now she is sitting quiet ly beside my litt le red NA MX5 in the garage at the moment. And if you got to t his point, t hanks for reading so fa r.
Nigel Dunlop,
Email.
Morley Says
HI NIGEL. I did a quick internet search and found a few joints that claim to be able to fix bung Lexus gauges. They weren’t in Queensland, but they weren’t as far away as the USA, either. Maybe it’d be worth your while to remove the gauge cluster, mail it to one of these specialists and see if they can get you back on the road again.
The other thing that’s a bit hazy is that I’m not sure why your temperature gauge failed. Is it an actual failure of the gauge and/or sender, or is it just a case of the needle not illuminating as it should? Fritzed illumination of Lexus needles is a pretty common thing, especially as the cars age and the printed circuit boards and tricky fluoro displays give up the ghost.
It’d be a crying shame to see a Lexus scrapped for something as simple as a non-working temp gauge, especially when the thing has done less than 150,000km. Let’s not forget, these quad-cam V8 engines are capable of covering better than a million kays, so yours is barely run in.
Actually, when you look at it in those terms, I reckon that even if I couldn’t get it fixed in Australia, I’d be sending the cluster to the US experts. It probably won’t be cheap, but if it saves such a noble car as this with so much life left in it, then I reckon the dollars would be well spent. Your other option, of course, is to find another Lexus at a wrecking yard and pinch the gauges from that. Of course, chances are it’ll have the same set of problems, but it might buy you some time.
“I REALLY LOVE THE OLD GIRL AND DON’T WANT TO SEND HER TO THE WRECKERS”
The other option – and this is from left field, but hey… – is to fit an aftermarket temperature gauge. I’m not sure whether that’d work, given that the sensor that powers your current gauge also feeds info to the on-board computer, giving the ECU vital info on coolant temperature, allowing the engine to function properly. But maybe there’s a way to add a second temp sender, allowing the original to do its thing while the aftermarket one powers your new temp gauge. A bit of a long shot, I’ll admit.
The high-tech look of the fluoro needles on a Lexus dashboard was a big selling point when these cars were new, but they seem to have become a liability these days. Meantime, I’ll bet the conventional analogue gauges on your Mazda MX-5 work perfectly. Am I right?