LScowboyLS

as many of the more seasoned mechanics here on Club Lexus are aware, all cars (including Lexus) exhibit what is known as pattern failure

what this means is that if a problem occurs on say a 1996 LS400, and that problem could have 3 or 6 different causes on any other car, 99% of the time, the cause will be exactly the same on a single year and make.

so this means it would be super helpful to the other DIY'ers here if each of us would list our year model of LS400 and what has failed and what was the eventual solution, because these vehicles fail in the same way, and it could really save someone a lot of headaches!


I'll start:

1996 LS400
problem: -- idle would start out at 1600, go up to 2300, then drop to 1600, rise back up to 2300, etc.
solution that worked: -- installed new idle air control valve

1996 LS400
problem: -- several OBD-II scanners were tried and could not communicate with 1996 Lexus ECM, suspected ECM problem or wiring issue
solution that worked: -- used vintage Snap-On red brick scanner and codes were read with no problem, it turns out that some first year OBD-II cars are very picky about what scanners they will talk to!

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

Problem: Came across this thread with an extremely annoying title telling me what to do.

Solution: Renamed thread to indicate what issue I had and explained what I did. Realized that there are many guides that are specific for certain years / problems and the idea of one thread to combine all the issues LS400's have is silly and unproductive.

thesign777

Good idea LScowboyLS. I haven't solved anything other than what I could already find by searching on this forum or on Lexls.com.

One thing I've noticed that would be nice though, having people put a conclusion on their threads. There are so many threads with questions/problems. A bunch of people reply with ideas for solutions and then the OP disappears and never says what the fix is/was. Hopefully this thread will make it easier than searching through pages and pages of threads and suggestions that didn't solve the problem.

steve2006

No disrespect to the OP but a search of the forums or Google normally provides the answers to known faults on most cars.

moat

I don't know how it can be done here on CL. But it would be great if we could have topics covered as they do on wiki. For example, for all the common problems there would be a wiki page for each.

A page for power steering, a page for starter, a page for front suspension, a page for 1LS instrument clusters, etc, etc, maintained by CL members. A page of information first, followed by discussions as we currently have.

The answers are often here on CL, but one has to search and read a lot to find those answers (if they exist).

LScowboyLS

we have an old saying on the Android smartphone forums - "Don't be a douche"


EXACTLY!

anyone who doesn't like this idea, must not work on cars much, why all the anger folks? - this is a fantastic way to greatly reduce troubleshooting time, unlike the dealer, we don't know what tends to fail on a specific year & model, nor do we have an unlimited parts bin to try different things, and sometimes problems generate no ECM codes or are otherwise illogical. (see OBD-II scanning problem above in my original post)

~

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

i agree here as well. a quick search will come up with solutions especially if they are common problems. i am on board with the OP's idea though, but i don't think he will get a good response. most likely they will just be links to other threads covering the topics.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

this really sounds like what the FAQ and starter pages are for...stickied at the top of the forum....

LScowboyLS

please show me the section in the FAQ or starter pages or a stickie where it shows that my problems each have a straight forward well known solution as listed above - I posted these problems here a while back after doing a lot of reading and was recommended everything including replacing temp control sensor, TPS, and the by far most common recommendation, which was "you need a new ECM" - none of which were correct, I might add! - but my idea would have lead to the solution quickly! (because these two issues are very common on a 1996 LS400)

perhaps I just haven't done a clear enough job of explaining how valuable pattern failure information is?

I also have an Acura RL and they do this on the Acura forum and everyone gets to locate their particular problem in a flash with this kind of info! - why all the resistance here?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

because there's too much variation on the 2 generations of the LS for the same concept to apply in a single thread.

your RL for example, from '96-04 had one major engine change, and one or two external facelifts.

The LS from '89-00 had 3 major engine variations, and 2 minor. along with 2 separate chassis, and then further 2 separate mid-chassis variations, with usually drastic wiring/harness changes.

This all makes "pattern" issues only apply to very specific generations, usually broken down into either '89-94, '95-00, or '89-92, 93-94, 95-97, and 98-00. and then there's the "weird" years of "93, '97, and '00 which all had some aspects of prior and later years in terms of wiring and troubleshooting.

also, '96 wasn't the first year for OBDII, '95 was. '96 LS400s should have full standard OBDII compatibility, i've had no problem reading them with anything from old ELM readers to current snap-on equipment.

LScowboyLS

well I wouldn't mind if this thread was broken into 3 or 4 "generations" so to speak, the main thing is to get the information out there (I personally think separating the cars by single years would be best, actually, because sometimes the manufacturer finds and fixes a problem, so even though a 95 and a 96 are very similar, they may exhibit different pattern failures, such as the ECM programming change that was fixed in early 1996 model year and does not affect my late '96)

pattern failure analysis is the most powerful troubleshooting tool in the entire automotive repair industry

example: I used to run the largest automotive A/C shop in the state of Arizona, and when a car would come in with the air conditioning not working, we could predict the problem with better than 99% accuracy before ever attaching a gauge or machine, or even lifting the hood, by simply noting the year, make and model, just from our experience and the fact that cars exhibit this stunning pattern failure

also, please explain why the vintage 1990's Snap-On scanner can read my 96 LS400 codes just fine, but modern cheaper scanners (like what the auto parts stores might have to scan your car) have no luck even communicating with it?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

no idea, sometimes newer CAN-based scanners have problems with the older OBDII protocols. my $40 ELM scan and friends $20 amazon cheapie scanners never had problems with my old '95 so...

LScowboyLS

Guys, this is pathetic - I posted the same post over at the Acura forums and got over 150 problem/solution responses for a helluva lot of data to help out folks working on their own cars, and not a single submission here!

Does no one do their own Lexus repairs around here any more????

I feel like I am walking through a ghost-town out west!!

python

iTrader: (4)

ur talkin about an algorithm..and diagnosing a car based on other cars problems is ridiculous..i would like to see u perform that on a obd2 car that has an EVAP code CEL.
furthermore..we dont diag cars here..only give our experiences on the issues that come up..its never an end all be all solution. a car with a misfire has too many variables..this whole post isnt productive in my eyes

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

all the answers you could ever want are available right here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/search.php

learn to use it well, and ask if you don't know how.