PlatinumV8

As far as the what I have found for others with VVTI, there are two Oil Control Valves on our V8s that meter oil pressure for the system to do its thing with the cams. On the RX300 side of the board ( I made sure to lurk and not comment as another guy with an ES300 made the mistake of posting on their side and was told to get to the ES section ) they are having fits with trying to find the location of the OCV screens.

Come to find out they are nested behind what look like attachment bolts. They are usually near the OCV ( also called the VVTI solenoid ) but it looks like on our LS engines it is opposite, screens on the firewall side of the head and OCV is on the radiator side of the head. Very obvious once you see them. Like huge temperature sending units, with an electrical connection and a long shaft with multiple oil metering holes.

Slide them out with a twist to get past the oring, clean with mass air sensor cleaner so you don't damage the hard plastic parts and then clean the bore into the engine carefully with lint free cloth and a mechanical grabber like you use to pick up lost bolts in an intake or behind frame rail sections, etc.

Me, I'm going to carefully clean all the intake plumbing and then take a look at the OCVs while seeing how sensitive they are to the wrong oil via Lexus Corporate.

Audi may have caused the whole problem by using the wrong type and grade.

The LS460 guys have to run a zero weight, Lexus only oil. Scam? Who knows.

Maybe the OCVs and screens might be the best answer, when they come out.

We all know what happens when the power steering screen gets clogged. If that happens to the VVTI it certainly would be sluggish to respond IMO and quite temperature dependent.

Have a great weekend everyone and I promise to be a good ambassador for the brand and the board as a whole if someone stumbles in here and asks a question out of desperation or curiosity, but does not own an LS, let alone a 400! Lol.

Side note: The new LS will be the 500, in 2017. Lots of similarity in how 400 sounds in your mind to 500, seems the 'hundred' is new again!

Why LS500? 5.0 Liter engine, with 500 hp. Time to ditch my 460 desires, too many problems with that model anyway. So many 430 owners demanded their cars back, the day they got it. It was an interim design anyway. 460? Hour glass grill all the girls think is sexy or the old guy grill? Old guy... Oh, sorry dude. Did you pay a lot?

The LS400 is timeless. Top ten cars of all time, in fact.

Yamae

Your idle is too low in all 4 different conditions. This simply means that the ECU is confused due to the too small amount of air to obtain setting the throttle valve in accordance with the built in data table. Since the value is out of the targeting range, the confusion causes too low idle rpm and the delayed gear shift.

You definitely need to clean the throttle body and the air mix paths thoroughly as is MngreLMatt has done at the first URL of post #26.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ml#post8906720

The idle rpm should be 750 rpm sharp as is indicated in the table below.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ml#post8699210

I have fixed this problem quite many now. I'm not a mechanic but as an community leader, I know many people in the community. Among them there's an independent shop owner and I help them time to time as a volunteer. He knows my background and he informed local shop owners about me saying something too big like LScowboyLS did in the ECU capacitor thread. That made me busy but helping them often was a good way to make my own data base. The low idle issue is one of the issues in my data base. No one in the forum believed me when I suggested to clean the throttle body and the air mix paths for the first time. But now there are many who feel happy fixing the problem.

Regarding your OCV, I don't think it's causing any problem yet. There is an additional cam timing sensor for the VVT. See the drawing below. The red arrow indicates it. The blue arrow indicates the regular cam timing sensor. With these two, the ECU can check the timing precisely and when any abnormality is detected, it generates error code. As long as there's no code, it simply means that there's no error.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

The OCV will def throw code but lots of times you will get multiple mis-fires on the same bank leading up to it.

PlatinumV8

Yamae and Sha400,

Waking up to both of your posts was like Christmas, but with a bit of a hangover! I was out dancing last night with my girlfriends and some U of M football players that asked us out while doing shopping yesterday. They thought we were grad students or something! I guess our boating tans and playing Frisbee all day in the shallows had kept me fit enough to keep looking young, enough!

Lol! If the boys only knew, but maybe they did? Ha!

Anyway, great to hear the codes would get set if the OCV/VVTI system was detecting out of parameter values. Let me read the post suggested by Yamae-san and get the needed supplies.

The flood warning was cancelled here. The huge storm split in two and one part drenched northern Michigan and the other did the same to the lower part of the state and Ohio. Phew!

Trying to get my sister over to take a pic of me with my car for the board, but life gets in the way lately! Thinking by the lake, getting out of the car with boots, a sixties inspired summer dress and a sheathed Samurai sword I display in my great room. What was that line in Kill Bill about blonde girls that like to play with swords?

Thanks everyone!

Debbie

Edit : Yamae-san, the link above does not work. I'll check the other ones you listed previously.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

May be this thread:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...t-w-ac-on.html

PlatinumV8

Thanks RA40,

I found it by looking at the three page link earlier in this thread.

It looks like I have to do this clean out with the engine on so it gets all the way to the injector air passages. Engine off will leave puddles of solvent.

Yamae-san, I understand now.

Thank you for your wise opinion.

Debbie

Edit RA40, you name reminds me of the bad *** RA, from Platoon, the movie. Awesome!

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Just come back and let us know how it goes and keep asking questions.

PlatinumV8

Car is in garage and tools are ready. Went to Harbor Freight and got this multi pack of large bottle brushes and other brushes with flexible metal shafts. Also two cans of the good carb and intake cleaner. Just need to get everything clean on the surface and then back her outside and do the running part. Even bought a new respirator in case my sister helps me with the throttle.

alien1974

It seams that nearly everyone has this problem and no one has fixed it hmmm

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

I really think it's just a product of the cars age.

PlatinumV8

Here is where it begins.

PlatinumV8

Being safe, like the boards taught me.

PlatinumV8

Cover off, Audi Dealership only put 1 bolt back and two flange nuts. The bolt on the passenger side is missing.

PlatinumV8

Look closely at the previous image. The throttle cable has visible slack.

The photo does not do it justice. It looks like 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of travel needs to happen before the blade begins to rotate!

This much slack. A bit too much. Time to get the 14mm wrenches out.

I really need a manicure, sorry for the crappy nail polish!

PlatinumV8

The forward 14mm nut came loose with me crawling up there on a blanket. The one toward the firewall is seized. I unwound the front one and the back one is sitting in some PB Blaster.

I think the fact the back one is locked up means someone may have been messing around with the cable at some time. There is no corrosion that I can see.

Any ideas for loosening the back one without galling the shaft threads?

Debbie