2004 Lexus RX330 207K miles
When it is colder outside, freezing or below, the radio resets and the right half the dash lights turn on. They then usually turn back off and go back to normal.
Once when it was colder, in the teens, the right half lit up, as per above, and then the whole dash lit up. It seemed to go into limp mode. This only happened once, and I haven't driven it except to move it from my garage to my house. About two miles. It did the full light up in the first week of December and I only drove it back to the house now in the middle of January to air out the garage and put in stop leak.
I'd like to get it fixed so I can drive it in the winter and snow.
I checked the battery, alternator, grounds, and fuses.
My son thinks it is a bad capacitor. I bought the mechanics electrical manual for the car. It seems the dash, instrument gauges one and two, is on the BCM on the driver's side.
Am I heading in the right direction before I take out the BCM and check the capacitors?
I have a video of it happening if I can upload it somehow.
There are two other issues with the car that I believe are unrelated. 1. Small coolant leak, dye tested and found a small leak in the radiator. Put in some stop leak. 2. It smells like gas is leaking. It smells awful in the garage. Another reason I took the Lexus out. I smelled what I thought was coolant in the cabin but I think was confirmation bias. And I assumed the smell in the garage was coolant but since it's been sitting longer in the garage I think it is gas I smell.
I have a video of it happening if I can upload it somehow.
See the topic "READ THIS FIRST - Forum Guide" posted near the top of the main page.
Also see the forum rules - one question per topic please. Thank you. (It is worth mentioning here that relying on "stop leak" to "fix" a radiator leak is not a good idea. It's just a temporary bandaid, and new radiators are not very expensive.)
- Forum Rules -
- Be respectful to everyone in the forum
- One question per post, and one post per question.
- No swearing or profanity allowed
- No racist or derogatory posts / comments allowed
- No threats or violence of any kind will be allowed
- No drug or illegal substance mentioning at any time
- No re-posting of copyrighted materials or other illegal content allowed
- No adult content or pornography is allowed
- No spam. No automated messages, advertisements, or links to competitor websites will be allowed
- No multiple posts of the same thing, if you continue to make multiple duplicate posts you will be banned
- Trolls will be removed immediately and without warning.
- One forum account allowed per person.
Anyone in violation of these rules will be banned.
@chucktobias Thanks for replying. I only have one question about bad capacitors. I'm not sure why you are flagging this. I just gave other context for completeness. Also, one of Scotty's latest YouTube videos recommends stop leak for radiators if it is a pin hole. So that is what I did but in only given for complete context of the state of the car.
It appeared there were additional issues, so that was just a reminder. As far as the stop leak any such product is a temporary repair at best, really suited for a vehicle that is otherwise headed to the junkyard. A pinhole is only going to get worse over time as corrosion sets in.
An issue like this is going to require looking at wiring diagrams. Since the radio's memory is resetting that means it's losing 'hot at all times' power.
I would start by tracing the path of the 'hot at all times' circuit for the radio in the wiring diagram. If the circuit goes through any fuse boxes or the instrument cluster I would check all the ground connections for those circuits using a test light. Hook the test light clamp to positive and then touch the ground wires with the test light. If the test light is bright then the ground wire connection is good.
When a circuit loses ground it will try to back feed through other circuits in order to find an alternative path to ground. Which sounds like might be happening with the dashboard lights coming on.
You could try pulling the fuses for the radio and see if that helps.
