causelexes

Hey there club lexus forum people! So this is some f'd up **** right here...awhile back in Nov 2012, I went to a local shop that was having a special on oil changes (saw it on yelp...a bunch of great reviews). 5 oil changes for a really good price. So I went in & got it...no problem so far. About a month later I started to notice a change in my idle. Like it was a little rough at stops. Then it got noticeably rougher, now right before stopping, during the stop, & out of the stop. Not knowing what it was & not being suspicious of anything & figuring it was just wear or something (about to be at 180k) I got the car tuned of from my regular, family known trusted mechanic. The car felt better at first, then the same thing started happening again. Argh like a ****!

Here's where it gets interesting...I was driving a few nights ago, & all of a sudden the car started smoking white out from under the hood! I pulled over immediately not knowing wtf was going on & decided to go home & wait for daylight so I could see better. The next day, I popped the hood & noticed some fluid up inside standing that shouldn't be there (on a metal part above the flex coupler on the exhaust) & figured something was leaking & evaporating from heat causing the smoke. I ran the engine for awhile a watched the spot with liquid and sure enough after about 5 minutes, I saw fluid dripping slowly then fast and followed it to the source & was shocked at what I found...

Some real SOB put some sort of low density foam in my coolant line between where the connection end is and where the hose goes over & the clamp was barely holding on! Like some sort of time delayed **** to cause a problem down the road & I'm assuming make it look like a real problem! The foam was absorbing coolant & dripping it down to the flex coupler on the exhaust having it get smokey & I'm assuming causing the idle issue. I immediately turned off the car, cursed for a bit, then came back & figured how to get to it to get it out. Got to it got it out & put the hose on right so no more leak. When I started the car the idle was still rough and coolant was coming out the muffler...a good amount from the leak as it got pretty fast.

So my questions are as follows if anyone would be so kind to offer any input:

1. Has anyone ever heard of something like this/had this happen?
2. Any idea what they were trying to accomplish? (technically...like is it messing with a sensor or something?...I know they were trying to screw me over lol)
3. Any ideas on what to do to fix the idle given the info above?

This makes me extremely sad that someone would do this...more so then even angry. What a scandalous world...how do people like this even sleep at night?

Any info greatly appreciated.

donbryce

Just speculation, but there's often a foam tube over a flexible line to protect against abrasion from vibration. A loose clamp might allow the line to work loose, under the foam, so it would look like the foam tube was inserted as a connector. Regardless, a coolant leak like you describe shouldn't affect idle.

causelexes

I wish it was that...but this was no tube. It was a small amount of foam that could only be placed deliberately IMO as it was positioned so it was very hard to see. This is a fitting that's close to the distributor cap & my trusted mechanic didn't even see it when he replaced the cap.

Coolant leaking into the exhaust couldn't cause any idle issues? Just a coincidence? I did burp the radiator but didn't get any bubbles...it wasn't low either. I'm not loosing coolant any more since refitting the hose, but the rough idle is there. No rough idle in neutral though....& my mechanic said the motor mounts are fine.

causelexes

So I took my car back to my "trusted" mechanic & he tries to hit me with "I think it's a compression issue, so I'll have to do a test"...which he says would involve as much shop time as did my tune up, to access all the cylinders. He said if what he thought was wrong, he'd need to grind out the valve yada yada BS it'll run like $2000 if that's it. WTF? Sounded like a lot of "labor" costs = money in his pocket so F that. That's what I get for trusting him...I figured a tune up off the bat was legitimate given the miles on the car, but I should have just trusted my better judgement. What made it extra suspicious is why he wouldn't/didn't do the test while doing the tune up, as it would have been simple as he would have already had access. I've read a few articles/seen videos where they do other compression test that don't have to access all the valves...don't know if that was only because it was a different make/model of vehicle.

Long story short, I took the car home and read a lot of articles & thought about it. I had all the wires, plugs swapped so spark should be good. No crazy exhaust so possibly compression is good. So I figured maybe a bad injector? Saw this article on ehow http://www.ehow.com/how_7587039_chec...e-misfire.html
about how to check for a valve misfire by pulling the wires out while at idle briefly to listen for a drop in idle, so I gave it a shot being the first 3 valves in front are easy to get to. When pulling the first wire there was no change, but when pulling the second and third, there was a noticeable drop. I did it again to be sure and sure enough, no change when pulling the first wire.

Now that I knew there was an issue with valve 1 (just calling it that not sure if it really is valve 1)
I went back and checked online for info about testing injectors...saw this video about using a voltmeter to check the ohms on the injector & sure enough, nothing.
I even checked the other two on the other valves & they both checked out at 16.2...checked the first again just in case & nothing....0 ohms.

I don't know if this whole thing was a deliberate scam to give the illusion of a bad head gasket
or something, but if anything can be learned/remembered from this, is that the internet is amazing, and if you have a little technical know-how, a few tools, and most importantly PATIENCE (my greatest nemesis ) you can save yourself a lot of trouble and possibly a lot of $.