AuctionGuy

Hello. I bought this 96 LS400 at a California auction. It ran beautifully all the way to Las Vegas, then to Kingman Arizona, twice. This morning, as I was headed back to Vegas, I turned the vehicle on and noticed the yellow ABS light to the left was on and the yellow rear defrost button was blinking, then I noticed that the shifter wouldn't come out of park. I pushed down the release lever "rectangular lever next to the shifter" and tried to make it home (120 miles) ... and I almost did! lol

I got about 15 miles from home and started gradually losing power. It felt like a dead alternator, you know, gradual power loss. Parked it and had my friend tow it to the house. Upon a quick inspection, I do notice that the serpentine belt is very loose. If I push or pull up on it, the tensioner will move significantly. If I wanted to use a little force, I could actually pull the belt off a pulley.

A little more background:

Changed the brake pads and rotors. Silly question, but could one of the ABS sensor wires be causing this short and setting off the ABS light? No other lights like traction control or vsc come on with the ABS light if I jump the vehicle. The brake lights all work, including the center third brake light, so I'm thinking a new switch may be $40 bones down the drain.

The alternator looks pretty new, and the power steering reservoir doesn't seem to leak at all. I haven't taken the lower engine cover off to have a look at the wiring yet. If you remove the positive battery lead, the vehicle will die.

I did open the steering column to fix the tilt function of the steering wheel, I need to replace the big plastic gear (for now, I put a plastic washer behind it). I do hear clicking in the column when I go to put the vehicle into drive and the shifter won't budge.

I've also noticed that the discharge light is off (it may have been pulled by the previous owner due to a drainage problem)... although I usually check for this before I purchase a vehicle. The battery is a high end one from Lexus, 84 month warranty sold to the previous owner. I couldn't see a manufactured date on it, will look more closely tomorrow.

I do have a decent digital multimeter, but I'm clueless about circuits, in general.

I'm hoping loose belt (but probably not).. leaning towards bad alternator wiring or alternator itself, but the ABS light being on and the vehicle not going into gear has me baffled. I know a Mercedes ignition switch won't even turn if the battery is dead, it this some kind of a Lexus low voltage warning occurrence? I don't have any gremlins that I know of which would point towards a bad ignition switch, the driver's power window works fine, I haven't checked the rest of the power windows or sunroof, but the ABS light and shifter issue is weird. Oh, the trunk release button under the steering wheel doesn't work, and the cruise control worked on the way to Kingman, but stopped working after this ABS light / stuck shifter issue.

Thanks for any input.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

first start with the obvious, the serp belt and why it lost tension. the serp runs the alternator so it could all trickle down to other problems. certainly fix the tensioner first, then go from there. as for the ABS, check that fluid level but the serp belt could be related as it's electrical.

use your multimeter to measure the voltage across the battery terminals with the engine off, and on. report back with your results, but of course do this after the serp belt is fixed.

AuctionGuy

thanks for the reply, tim. last night, i put the battery on a charger for about 45 minutes, the car sat for over 24 hours and started right up. Battery voltage is 12.55 with the vehicle off and 12.2 with the vehicle on. all of the fuses on the driver's side fender are good, did not check relays (don't know how, i don't want to jump the wrong wires). completely disassembled all terminal links and cleaned battery terminals. haven't changed the belt yet or visually inspected the alternator and its wiring, doing that today. Took front wheels off and cleaned front abs sensors (they look great), wheel bearings aren't making any grinding noises. popping belt off and replacing it first thing in the morning for another voltage test.

AuctionGuy

looked at the replacement belt at autozone, the thing was bigger than this belt, it's not the belt or the tensioner, that was one of my pipedreams. If I'm throwing money at anything, it's going to be the solenoid or relay clicking in the steering column (I've read about this in a couple of threads, but it's not clearly defined). Does anyone have experience replacing or servicing this solenoid? Again, the brake lights work, knowing that, I'm not throwing $50 at a brake switch that I can't return?

RA40

iTrader: (6)

As the car was losing power, did the check engine light come on?

This is one condition where the car will default to a safe mode based on an error:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ml#post9073825

There is a high probability due to the model years and that is the ECU capacitors. Could be a fuel delivery situation too. If you can get a readable error code it will help in preventing throwing $$/parts attempting to find the cause.

AuctionGuy

RA, everything was fine until the morning that the abs light was on and it wouldn't go into gear. I couldn't see a CEL because all of the instrumentation went blank, but the engine was running enough to get me off the freeway. I am going to take a look at the ECU, but would that cause the srs light to come on, the gear shifter to get stuck, knock out the cruise control, and cause improper battery charging? I read about one LS owner having similar electrical issues and the culprit was the crank pulley (although he didn't have the shifter stuck in park). Going to pop off belt and check for movement after the vehicle cools down. This is a strange problem, I can use all the help I can get. Also not ruling out a bad ignition switch. I'll post the results for sure.

AuctionGuy

having loads of fun talking to myself here. removed ecu and carefully inspected board and capacitors, no leaks of any kind.

AuctionGuy

took ecu out and carefully inspected the board, no leaky capacitor. rechecked alternator and battery at auto parts store, no problems there. next, I'll be removing the shifter cover to check the shift solenoid.

really disappointed in this vehicle, right now, I expected it to be much more shade-tree mechanic friendly.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

suggestion: it helps everyone if you breakdown your problems in bullet points rather than paragraph. makes it easier to decipher everything since you have more than one issue. people are more inclined to answer when then can easily read your inquiries.

the shift solenoid lock is a common problem. you should hear a distinct "click" at the shifter when depressing the brake pedal to disengage the lock, even before touching the gear selector. also the ignition switch needs to be in the "on" position for the shift lock solenoid to engage, so that needs to be checked as well.

abs is an independent system. how is your brake fluid level?

RA40

iTrader: (6)

That's good that there was no visible signs of leakage from the capacitors in the ECU. Doing this check will clarify if there is an ECU issue to be taken care of:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...-by-yamae.html

Timmy has you with the shift solenoid.

To test the alternator:

RA40

iTrader: (6)

For the battery drain, this check for parasitic drain:

AuctionGuy

thanks RA and Timmy. Timmy, the brake fluid level is fine, i wil do the test RA suggested too. meanwhile, i think i found the problem with the shifter. i removed the cover off the floor shifter and noticed that the long thin plastic arm that connects the shift release lever to the pivot is disconnected (where there's a green twisty now), there should be a rivet there, it's broken. Also noticed that there are several broken plastic pieces down there.

here's my new problem, when i removed the four 10mm screws to separate the top part of the solenoid for inspection, i heard four clips (or nuts) fall down into the abyss(the hole the pointer is aimed at, 4 of them). i believe those nuts or clips fasten the big plastic piece attached to the solenoid by threading into the opposite end of the 10mm screws. how do i remove the bottom part of the shifter (the part that has a brass rod going through it horizontally with a pin attaching the actual shifter to it?)... looks like i need to remove that bottom white plastic portion of the assembly and at least partially thread the bolts into the nuts or clips on the other end. just shaking my head at how hard some engineers have to make simple tasks. it's like a puzzle, really upsetting.

AuctionGuy

never mind, got it out, removed the panel around the ignition switch and dropped the panel under the steering wheel on the driver's side, dropped the dash enough to free up the front portion of the console.. separated it from the slot, it's not screwed in, just fits into a slot, but you have to drop the panels and pull the ignition panel... i'll be doing a youtube of this whole s-show so nobody ever has to get taken to the cleaners at lexus for this again, nobody with internet access lol

AuctionGuy

well, struck out again! i put everything back and the damned thing is still stuck in park. so after pulling my hair out (again) and looking like kramer from seinfeld, i decided to take a closer look at the lighs, i noticed both corner markers were out, changing those in the morning. if this returns the vehicle shifter to normal i'm going to be simultaneously super upset and happy. stay tuned...

381s

I have a 95 ls400, same thing, came out of home depot , started the car, abs light came on would not shift out of gear. No biggy popped the cap by the shifter depressed the over ride, Pulled forward brakes worked so on my way I went. I figured some sort of sensor craped out and I had to get back to a brake job i was doing on a frinds car.
I made a total of two more 7 mile trips , everything worked fine except ABS light was still on. Got home late from the brake job, had to run back out , when I did this time headlights were on made it about 3 miles transmission started shifting abruptly, dash gauges started dropping /dimming . Pulled over made sure there was not some obvious smoke or fire under the hood. There was not any so I returned home. I have replaced the Alternator before about 4 yrs ago due to power steering fluid leaking on Alternator. At that time The Battery light came on . The difference is this time there is no battery light. It is not charging. Strictley running on the battery this time . SO TO RECAP, abs light on , solenoid is not releasing gear shift when brake applied. Not charging.
So far, replaced Alternator, pulled it back out and had it checked , it tested fine. I have a lexus wiring manual. Checked all the wires and fuses related to the Alternator, everything is checking fine but something with in the car is not telling the regulator on the alternator to charge the system. Still looking over the wiring diagram to see if there is a connection to the ABS, but not seeing anything. Anyone that I have read about having an ECU problem said nothing about ABS , which I'm pretty sure is causing or being caused by the park/shift solenoid. I will let you know if I come up with a solution please do the same. Tomorrow I will address the ABS issue and see if I can make heads or tails of that.