edzLexus

Ok guys new lexus owner here. About three weeks ago I bought a 1997 Lexus Ls400. Everything was working perfect except the heater doesnt work. About 4 days ago the plastic part that goes from the radiator broke so i replaced the radiator. All down hill from here. So the coolant wasnt flowing through. And it would start overheating after about 10 minutes id turn it off and the next day the resevoir tank was completely empty. Called the mechanic and he said that my heads were blown. I need to know if anyone knows where to get the parts cheap in California near Los Angeles. Please help he said it could cost about 1500

LScowboyLS

it is very unlikely that you have "blown your heads" (head gasket blown) - this is not a place when LS400 has any issues

you likely need a better mechanic, who is not either crooked or incompetent, as it sound like this one is!

what it probably is that you did not get the air out of the system, it can be a bit tricky! - you could also have a leak somewhere (NOT the head gasket)

if you truly have a blown head gasket that is consuming your fluid, your car would have so much white smoke coming out the back from the coolant having had a pass through the engine that you would look like a mosquito fog truck coming down the road - is that what happened?

edzLexus

what it probably is that you did not get the air out of the system, it can be a bit tricky! - you could also have a leak somewhere (NOT the head gasket)

if you truly have a blown head gasket that is consuming your fluid, your car would have so much white smoke coming out the back from the coolant having had a pass through the engine that you would look like a mosquito fog truck coming down the road - is that what happened?[/QUOTE]

Thats what my brother said that i need to bleed it out. Ive searched on youtube and google and havent found any help. The only time it has the whit smoke out of the exhaust when its heating up. Also the check engine light is on and it says theres a bad thermal sensor or something and a problem with the catalytic converter. Im sorry if im frustrating i just never owned a lexus before. 😞

IBGREEZY

You need to remove the air from the cooling system. This can take a while as your thermostat won't open until it reaches normal operating temperature (generally 180 to 200 F). You can accelerate to 2500 to speed up the process of the temperature rising. After that it will begin to flow to the radiator and heater core. The fans turning on is a good indicator that this process has begun. Jack the front end up as high as possible and turn your heater on full blast while adding coolant. Do this until there are no more bubbles forming at the top of the radiator fill neck.

Also the white smoke coming out at start up is a pretty good indicator that your idle up valve (on your power steering pump) has failed, and is drawing in fluid to your intake manifold.

If you search the answers to all of your problems are in this forum or Google Good Luck.

LScowboyLS

just take a deep breath, and relax, your catalytic converters are fine too!

to properly bleed cooling system, you need to make sure it has a real Toyota thermostat (will say "Kuzeh" on it in tiny writing etched into it) - then orient thermostat with "jiggle valve" (shown below) at the 12 o'clock position (use a new thermostat gasket from the dealership)

then drain cooling system and refill with real Toyota long life red 50% and distilled water 50% and fill at the FILL BOLT (large downward facing bolt behind thermostat) with car running, heat on high, and squeeze large coolant hoses that go to and from radiator to burp out air - then once you are full there, tighten bolt and fill plastic reservoir to max line and keep monitoring/adding over the next days as system self bleeds

go to autozone or advance auto parts or o'reilly and get car scanned for codes (after topping up coolant) and then post the codes here - we will tell ya what the real issues are - these cars are cheap to fix if you can work on them yourself and not screw it up

all dealership parts can be purchased at 25-30% off from Sewell Lexus using your Club Lexus discount (when you register on the site and give them your username here)

thermostat is shown here p/n 90916-A3003 labeled 16331A in diagram

thermostat will show up at a price of $15.82 if you are logged in correctly with our discount

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

air in the system and not enough coolant.

Roughly steps 16+, similar but not identical for your car.
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/cooling/coolant.html

edzLexus

Thanks for all your help check engine light has turned off my car is back to normal again and running like a champ again