Thought I'd see if one of the many here may have had anything like what this car is doing.

I've got an S500 here, model year 2000, in which the instrument cluster lights and displays are acting oddly. The backlight for the speedometer is just plain gone, it never lights up. The time, temp and center multi-display blink on and off seemingly of their own will. It doesn't seem related to any outside influence, nor does it always affect all three displays at the same time. The backlights for the other gauges also blink on and off of their own accord, though not normally in conjunction with the others. They will also vary in brightness. The backlights for the instruments act in unison with one another. At times the entire cluster will go dark, though the instruments themselves keep functioning.

I know that some of the wiring behind the cluster has been molested in order to install an aftermarket stereo/DVD player that itself is a bit odd... The only way the screen will pop out and open is if the car is shifted into drive to allow the screen to clear the shifter... Poor choice of installation locations, but I'm not sure what, if any, affect this has on the cluster.

Any thoughts? Anyone have anything similar? Thanks.

MV