Kruso

Recently I had been pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the hell was causing my car to hesitate so bad that it damn near buckled. Drove fine after having approached your cruising speed. Spoke with a friend that worked at the local Lexus dealership who had diagnosed and fixed another LS400 earlier during the week for the same issue. The problem came out to be a problem with a bad ECU. The repair cost from Lexus for that car was $1400 with labor and a $900 ECU.

Well talking to the guy there he gave me the direct number to the contact that LEXUS uses here in town and several other dealerships that rebuild their ECU's and sold as refurb and sometimes new. I contacted the guy and visited him today. Well, after an hour there and $200 later, my LS is back on the road just like new. I went through all the damn trouble shooting specs including replacing the coil/ wires/ plugs/ ignitors/ dist caps/ ran codes out the *** but to no avail. Today for the first time I drove the LS without any problems... it was very nice. Moral of the story is take it from experience and try to locate a ECU rebuilder or replace it instead of wasting your money on useless items. The guy is not a vendor here thus I will not post his info but will PM the info if requested individually.

Kruso

Yotarip

I had my ecu repaired a few days ago and I am very happy with the results. This is a common problem with the ls400 and this topic really should be a sticky.

BTW, would your ecu give you a trouble code? If not, that's a sure sign of a bad ecu.

Kruso

My ECU was throwing codes... if it helps anyone it kept throwing a 41 even though I had taken care of the airbag light issue. I knew that no codes was a dead give away but mine was acting very normal.

avalon42

iTrader: (1)

Ok, what was wrong inside the ECU? Replacing the ECU does what? Need more info...

...also, what kind of hesitation were you experiencing?

python

iTrader: (4)

ecu's can be reflashed,cardone does it, i dont know if u can send it in urself or if u have to have an auto parts store do it

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

whats the point of having it reflashed if the caps on the board are likely bad

acidfire52

Now is this a 95 only problem?
I have a 97, should I worry about this?

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

seems like the number of LS owners have had problems with their ECU.....another major lexus problem.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I had my ECU repaired by this company, and it didnt do a thing, the car still doesnt run right.

http://autocomputersupply.com/index....ROD&ProdID=239


Streer clear of these folks.

Kruso

If I initially knew what was wrong with the ECU I would have posted the fix. As far as needing more information, open your eyes and read the initial post.

According to the person who repaired it, its not a simple cap issue, more intricate boards are what fry inside which is what he replaced. In a nutshell if your LS is experiencing problems that should be fixed by a simple tune up but it doesn't... odds are the ECU is at fault.

Kruso

avalon42

iTrader: (1)

Calm down. What's with throwing the insult when I ask a valid question?

When I said specifics, I meant I wanted specifics...what killed your ECU? Moisture, heat, what? I think that the person that took apart your ECU could at the very least tell you that...which you could pass onto us.

As for your hesitation problems, more details on the symptoms...like I was hitting the accelerator to the bottom of the floor and the car just bogged, there was a ton of smoke coming out of my exhaust, etc. This will really help others by being specific as possible.

And also, how long have you been running your re-worked ECU from since you had the problems?

EUBT

This is essentially correct. If the caps are bad, you can replace them. But if they have leaked, likely the board is toast.

KMinAF

How long is the ECU covered under an emissions warranty?