1990 Lexus LS 400 Feels like you've slammed the brakes on

I found it myself on another website, but just in case someone else has this problem--the problem is a disconnected wire in your trunk. Under the left trunk hinge is a wiring harness, and one of the wires is a black/white wire. If this wire becomes disconnected and isn't getting good grounding it will cause a bunch of weird problems including shifting problems, light problems, dashboard indicator lights, brakes, ABS system, etc. As soon as we reconnected this wire as instructed by the great guys at the Lexus Club, all the problems I had were fixed immediately. Took 5 minutes to repair, and no dealer fees for investigating a problem it would have taken them hours to even find the source of! Hope anyone who has this problem finds this helpful.

I just want to talk about my experience with a similar problem.

I have a 1994 ls 400, and I started noticing that the same issue started happening (mostly when the temperature was low outside). When I turn my car on, as soon as I hit the brake to shift the gear to drive before I even move the gear the Reverse light on the dashboard would come on until I take my foot off the brake, and the car with the rear lights symbol would also come on on the dashboard and stay on until I turn off the car. And while I was driving, each time i'd hit the brakes the RPM would jump up and then the brakes would apply and slow down the car.

I searched alot of websites online and could not find any helpful information like what I have found here! And I followed the tip that I found here and looked for that disconnected wire and that's what it was! I would have never figured that out, probably would've gave up on it before I could find out what was wrong if I didn't have this tip!

Turned out to be the cable towards the inner left corner of the trunk lid that goes to the brake lights. Within that bundle of cables there's one that is white and black that was disconnected as if it were cut! All I did was reconnect that cable and taped it back with some electrical tape and all those issues were gone and my car went back to normal!

Thanks for everyone contributing to this website and this great source of information, i'm sure it will save people alot of money especially on foreign cars that cost an arm and a leg to maintain!