2015 Lexus ES350 Infotainment failure and fix

[Scout1]

2015 Lexus ES350 68k miles. I’m the second owner, bought it at 13k miles

Driving around yesterday my center screen went blank. Powered the car off and on but still nothing, not even the Lexus splash screen I normally see on startup. Radio not working either but everything else works including the backup camera. On this year of ES350 you need the screen to see the heat/AC controls so it’s important to get it working!

After checking the fuses (all good) I turned to the Lexus forums to find this sort of infotainment failure is a common Lexus problem across all years and replacing the “head unit” for thousands of $$$ seems the only fix. Some Indy shops will “repair” these units for much less…

I found the following procedure brought my unit back to life! Basically, it just needed to reload itself and the procedure was:

• Disconnect the battery – I disconnected mine for about 20 min
• Reconnect and hit the start button just once, no foot on brake, to put it into accessory mode
• Hit the volume/power radio button once (don’t hold it) and wait about 10 seconds
• The screen then shows a loading bar and reloads whatever software that makes it work.
• After that, the system works normally.

I’m going to drive the car more today and see if it stays “fixed” but I’m hopeful! The car runs a little rough now as it’ll have to relearn all the stuff todays cars adapt to… not sure how long that will take.

A lot of folks suffer this infotainment failure after a battery change or long time of the car sitting. My theory is this reloading process is needed after power is cut to the unit. When I changed my battery, I hooked up my jump box so as not to lose all my presets so I never had this problem before. And, like any computer, sometimes it crashes for no apparent reason, like mine did yesterday, and needs to reload itself. You've just got to trigger the reload process...

 

[cptbarkey]

There might be an aftermarket carplay type replacement unit that will be much cheaper vs OEM. I looked into it a few times with my GX and pretty sure I saw for ES's as well. It really stinks as mine has a few different AC controls that have no dedicated buttons.

 

[Pelican]

2015 Lexus ES350 68k miles. I’m the second owner, bought it at 13k miles

Driving around yesterday my center screen went blank. Powered the car off and on but still nothing, not even the Lexus splash screen I normally see on startup. Radio not working either but everything else works including the backup camera. On this year of ES350 you need the screen the see the heat/AC controls so it’s important to get it working!

After checking the fuses (all good) I turned to the Lexus forums to find this sort of infotainment failure is a common Lexus problem across all years and replacing the “head unit” for thousands of $$$ seems the only fix. Some Indy shops will “repair” these units for much less…

I found the following procedure brought my unit back to life! Basically, it just needed to reload itself and the procedure was:

• Disconnect the battery – I disconnected mine for about 20 min
• Reconnect and hit the start button just once, no foot on brake, to put it into accessory mode
• Hit the volume/power radio button once (don’t hold it) and wait about 10 seconds
• The screen then shows a loading bar and reloads whatever software that makes it work.
• After that, the system works normally.

I’m going to drive the car more today and see if it says “fixed” but I’m hopeful! The car runs a little rough now as it’ll have to relearn all the stuff todays cars adapt to… not sure how long that will take.

A lot of folks suffer this infotainment failure after a battery change or long time of the car sitting. My theory is this reloading process is needed after power is cut to the unit. When I changed my battery, I hooked up my jump box so as not to lose all my presets so I never had this problem before. And, like any computer, sometimes it crashes for no apparent reason, like mine did yesterday, and needs to reload itself. You've just got to trigger the reload process...

Good to know, I've also heard that in a case like this just rebooting the unit may work.
The unit is rebooted by pressing & holding the Radio's on/off button till it comes on.
I'd try this 1st as it is much simpler & faster and if not successful move onto Scout's advice.

 

[Scout1]

Good to know, I've also heard that in a case like this just rebooting the unit may work.
The unit is rebooted by pressing & holding the Radio's on/off button till it comes on.
I'd try this 1st as it is much simpler & faster and if not successful move onto Scout's advice.

Yeah, I actually tried that first and didn't seem to work on my model. Maybe I didn't hold it long enough... donno.