15yo 99' LX470 Build Thread (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Pull the fuse for the radio until you get it sorted out.
 
Pull the fuse for the radio until you get it sorted out.
At first I thought it was the radio that was the problem so I did that awhile ago but sense its still doing it we figured it could be the ingition not turning that and other things off completely.
 
At first I thought it was the radio that was the problem so I did that awhile ago but sense its still doing it we figured it could be the ingition not turning that and other things off completely.

You might start by making a list of things that operate with the key completely removed. Things like door locks 'should' work. Inside courtesy lights 'should' work. Your radio should NOT work. Your antenna should not work. None of your A/C components should work. Your windows should not work. Heated seats if you have them should not work.

Let us know if you find any anomalies like that. If not then you'll want to do a parasitic draw test and see what items are causing the draw. That will give us a hint as to whether it is ignition related (items that normally run on ACC) or if you just have a short someplace.
 
Great advice from @flintknapper, hopefully that helps you get a better idea what’s going on. I’m in UA as well if you or your dad ever need someone local to bounce 100 series questions off of.

Congrats on the new car, you’ll enjoy it once you sort through the gremlins and make it your own.
 
You might start by making a list of things that operate with the key completely removed. Things like door locks 'should' work. Inside courtesy lights 'should' work. Your radio should NOT work. Your antenna should not work. None of your A/C components should work. Your windows should not work. Heated seats if you have them should not work.

Let us know if you find any anomalies like that. If not then you'll want to do a parasitic draw test and see what items are causing the draw. That will give us a hint as to whether it is ignition related (items that normally run on ACC) or if you just have a short someplace.
I checked all the stuff you said and the only thing that does work is the radio and speakers. If I turn on the radio the antenna goes up and the speakers work, but once I turn the radio off the antenna goes down and the speakers turn off. The doors lock and unlock, the windows don't work when cars off, the heated seats dont work when the cars off, the courtesy lights do work, and the AC doesn't. My dad was home so he helped me check the fuses and wires coming out of the fuses. We found two things that could potentially be an issue. First thing is one of the fuse (ECU-B1) has a zip tie on it so it can be easily taken out, and second thing is next to the fuse box at the driverside feet area has little wires that connect to two big ones which my dad says could be something the PO did. Also the PO removed and disabled the AHC (the relay is not there) so we aren't sure if in the proccess that they might have missed a step and maybe did something to the wires.
IMG_4011.JPG
IMG_4008.JPG
 
Here's the latest, we have found that these two fuses draw .5 amps when everything is turned off (ECU-B1, and AM1 NO.2). The question is, is this this normal? Also what do these fuses do? Its possible that I could just not be driving it enough but just wanna make sure its not these fuses.


Another item I'm conserned about is the radio has to be manually turned off when car is completely off. Is that noraml?
 
Here's another update, i'm still having trouble with my battery. I had thought that the drain might be normal and I just needed to drive it more, but after a couple days of a lot of driving I let it sit for no more than a day and it wouldn't start. I did a little more research on the ECU-B1 fuse that seems to be one of the things draining the battery. I found a couple of diagrams of what the fuse controls and a diagram of all the ECU's and where they are. So im wondering if anyone could tell me how to narrow down to which ECU is causing the problem? Also like I said above their is another fuse called AM1 NO.2 which I've looked up but couldn't find anyone else that had a problem with it.



LX470 Engine Compartment Fuse Box.jpg
ECU-B1.PNG
AM1 NO.2.PNG
ECU DIagram.jpg
 
Here's the latest, we have found that these two fuses draw .5 amps when everything is turned off (ECU-B1, and AM1 NO.2). The question is, is this this normal? Also what do these fuses do? Its possible that I could just not be driving it enough but just wanna make sure its not these fuses.


Another item I'm conserned about is the radio has to be manually turned off when car is completely off. Is that noraml?

No, not normal. Head unit should turn off with ignition. Also, investigate where the taped up wires go (small wires taped up to larger wires), that does not look factory.
 
No, not normal. Head unit should turn off with ignition. Also, investigate where the taped up wires go (small wires taped up to larger wires), that does not look factory.
Thanks for the feedback I will take a look to where that leads to this weekend.
 
Hope you get it figured out man, I hate electrical issues. One thing for sure you're going to learn a lot fixing this.

The fuse box is known to have issues so maybe the short is there.

Is there an aftermarket stereo in the truck? Did the PO bypass the Ignition to power the radio? Maybe so he could run it with the truck off for longer periods? Dumb but people do strange stuff.

Have you tried turning the radio off manually when you leave the truck to see if it still dies?
 
Last edited:
Hope you get it figured out man, I hate electrical issues. One thing for sure you're going to learn a lot fixing this.

The fuse box is known to have issues so maybe the short is there.

Is there an aftermarket stereo in the truck? Did the PO bypass the Ignition to power the radio? Maybe so he could run it with the truck off for longer periods? Dumb but people do strange stuff.

Have you tried turning the radio off manually when you leave the truck to see if it still dies?
Yes as a teenager who knows next to nothing about cars its definetly a frustrating one.

The stereo in the truck is not aftermarket. Not sure about the second question, and yes after we noticed the radio stays on I had made sure to turn it off everytime I turned off the car.

Theres two other things that I should've mentioned before, the cigerrete plug also still works when car is off, and when I was doing research yesterday I saw something that said that a failing ECU could cause the check engine light to pop up. Which when we bought the car the PO said the check engine light is always on but he didn't know why. So I think tomorrow I'm going to check to see the condition of the center ECU. Could the center ECU cause the check engine light?


ECU Check Engine Light.JPG



Edit - Also forgot to mention the PO had someone take out the AHC and replace with new shocks and springs. Where could they mess up the wiring or what ECU could have gotten damaged in the proccess?


Service Record Shocks and Springs.JPG
 
Last edited:
Yes as a teenager who knows next to nothing about cars its definetly a frustrating one.

The stereo in the truck is not aftermarket. Not sure about the second question, and yes after we noticed the radio stays on I had made sure to turn it off everytime I turned off the car.

Theres two other things that I should've mentioned before, the cigerrete plug also still works when car is off, and when I was doing research yesterday I saw something that said that a failing ECU could cause the check engine light to pop up. Which when we bought the car the PO said the check engine light is always on but he didn't know why. So I think tomorrow I'm going to check to see the condition of the center ECU. Could the center ECU cause the check engine light?


View attachment 2668405


Edit - Also forgot to mention the PO had someone take out the AHC and replace with new shocks and springs. Where could they mess up the wiring or which ECU could have gotten damaged in the proccess?


View attachment 2668423
 
Yes as a teenager who knows next to nothing about cars its definetly a frustrating one.

The stereo in the truck is not aftermarket. Not sure about the second question, and yes after we noticed the radio stays on I had made sure to turn it off everytime I turned off the car.

Theres two other things that I should've mentioned before, the cigerrete plug also still works when car is off, and when I was doing research yesterday I saw something that said that a failing ECU could cause the check engine light to pop up. Which when we bought the car the PO said the check engine light is always on but he didn't know why. So I think tomorrow I'm going to check to see the condition of the center ECU. Could the center ECU cause the check engine light?


View attachment 2668405


Edit - Also forgot to mention the PO had someone take out the AHC and replace with new shocks and springs. Where could they mess up the wiring or what ECU could have gotten damaged in the proccess?


View attachment 2668423

The AHC ECU should have been been unplugged. Note that I'm saying "should have been". Normal procedure to disable AHC electronics is non invasive.
 
Owen's dad here....I want to clear up a few things. We bought the vehicle from the original owner (pretty old guy). We found out the battery was changed right before we bought the vehicle which leads us to believe he was having the same issue. The radio is original and we pulled it to see if there was any wires spliced, there were not. Completely original wiring with all factory connectors. There is the spliced wires near the fuse box (see photo above) but we have not spent time to track that down yet. We have pulled the fuse to the radio and it didn't help the parasitic drain. We did have an issue with the driver's window the other the day not working and the switch is loose. It is now working. We have 2 fuses that draw roughly .5 amps when the vehicle is off (AM1 NO.2 and ECU-B1). Obviously this is too much drain but we are not sure what to check.

Another thing that would be helpful is if someone knows the exact steps need to disable the AHC. We wonder if that was done correctly by the PO

We have 4 anomalies that we know of. The radio has to be turned off manually, the AHC is disabled, the recent non-operation of the window switch as well as the wire tie on the (ECU-B1) fuse to make it easier to pull.

Lastly keep in mind, Owen does not have his license yet so this thing barley get's driven. We put the battery on a charger and got it charged. he drove it a fair amount for a few days but the problem persisted.

Edit - We just found out that the ECU-IG (ECU controlled by AM1 NO.2 fuse) contols cruise control
 
Last edited:
Owen's dad here....I want to clear up a few things. We bought the vehicle from the original owner (pretty old guy). We found out the battery was changed right before we bought the vehicle which leads us to believe he was having the same issue. The radio is original and we pulled it to see if there was any wires spliced, there were not. Completely original wiring with all factory connectors. There is the spliced wires near the fuse box (see photo above) but we have not spent time to track that down yet. We have pulled the fuse to the radio and it didn't help the parasitic drain. We did have an issue with the driver's window the other the day not working and the switch is loose. It is now working. We have 2 fuses that draw roughly .5 amps when the vehicle is off (AM1 NO.2 and ECU-B1). Obviously this is too much drain but we are not sure what to check.

Another thing that would be helpful is if someone knows the exact steps need to disable the AHC. We wonder if that was done correctly by the PO

We have 4 anomalies that we know of. The radio has to be turned off manually, the AHC is disabled, the recent non-operation of the window switch as well as the wire tie on the (ECU-B1) fuse to make it easier to pull.

Lastly keep in mind, Owen does not have his license yet so this thing barley get's driven. We put the battery on a charger and got it charged. he drove it a fair amount for a few days but the problem persisted.
Have a look at this thread about AHC removal:
 
So we checked and the AHC control unit is unplugged. We also ordered a new switch unit for the driver's door.

Any known issues with the cruise control as that seems to be one of the fuses with a drain.
 
So the latest is we changed out the window switches on the driver door with no change to the parasitic drain. If we unplug the radio completely it drops by .3 amp. Is that what the radio should draw? That takes us down to .35 amp draw on that AM1 N.2 fuse as well as .3 amp on the ECU-B1 fuse. Does that seem normal? Not sure what else to check?
 
It's definitely been awhile since my last update, I have done a little bit while I was gone though. I now have storage in the back that still need drwers on it but haven't gotten to that yet. I also put on the 2in Ironman lift which has made a huge difference with the car. Unfortunatly since we did it ourselves we have a couple of adjustments that we'll need to do soon but nothing to major. Also after I started driving it a lot I found that I needed to turn the key more before taking it out so no more drain problems which is such a relief. Other than that I couldn't be happier with it and I'm looking forward to getting more done with it. I think my next step with it is going to be getting tires just gotta get to working so I can get them and pay off the lift.
IMG_4366.JPG
\
IMG_4365.JPG

IMG_4364.JPG
IMG_4367.JPG
 
I'm late to your show but, welcome to the club!

Where in Alabama did you find this rig? I remember seeing one like yours posted near me about the time you bought it. Would be super cool if it's the same rig! Enjoying your thread!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom