lexus_love

So, this is my first time postig here. Been here a while but never have posted

About a year ago i got a '90 ls400, its in ok shape and has run fine. It sat for a few months due to bad tires and i work at walmart so i cant afford to drop huge amounts of cash at one time. Started it a few times a week and kept it running fine. Started driving it a few weeks ago after the purchase of new rims and tires and i havent had a problem with the engine at all. Theres about 180 something thousand miles on it but like i said, it has run fine since i got it.

Driving home today about 1 1/2 hours ago, the car started to shimmy and lurch, the rpm guage was bouncing up and down then it just died! I was going about 65 when it suddenly died on me. I had also just switched on the cruise control, i dont know if that would have anything to do with it, since there hasnt been an issue with t before. I coasted to a stop, waited a few minutes, tried to turn it back on. It sputtered once before starting. About 14 miles down the road it shimmied and lurched again, but this time it didnt die right away, it seemed to be fighting to stay going. It limped about 50 feet, across the highway and finally died on my road. Thankfully it died on my road and not in the middle of the highway so i waited a few minutes again but this time it died 4 times after i started it up *vroom-sputter-dead* just like that (i explain things a little weird) it stayed going after the 4th time and i got home, kept it running for a little bit to see if it would die again and nothing. Now its starting just fine. It hasnt had a problem until tonight. it has always run strong

Any help would be greatly apreciated! I love this car and i sold my honda cuz i was tired of breaking down :'( i dont want go through that again. My boyfriend is a honda guy, and he doesnt know much about v8's and lexus's so hes not much help

lexus_love

I ran into this same problem on hondateh when i had my honda. Everyone ignored me cuz i was a woman with a car. Thanks alot guys, this community is a big help! Maybe club lexus will actually help

deanshark

Welcome, I don't think anyone here at CL will turn you away b/c you're a woman, it's all about the LS. It sounds ignition related like one of the coils is starting to fail. (the drivers side coil is known to fail first) Or it might be that it just needs a tune-up. (plugs, wires, caps, rotors) When was the last tune-up? Another thing people change, that's cheap, is the ECT. Not sure if that would help with this problem but if you do anything to the car, it can't hurt. The ECT helps regulate the fuel. Search the forum for it and you'll get all kinds of info on it.
Oh, sorry to hear you work at Walmart.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

sounds like a dying coil or ecu. start troubleshooting.

lexus_love

Thanks for he help guys, im not sure whenthe last tune up was. The last oil change was in 2009! The cap, rotor, plugs and wires were supposedly replaced before i bought the car but the guy i got the car from is a horrible business guy and would rip his own mom off for a profit! So i dont know if the were actually replaced. Good to know this forum is not like hondatech, where i was treated like crap for being a girl. I will start with the parts u both mention here and go from there. Hopefully shes fixed soon, i cant afford to miss anymore work

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

make sure to search the forum on how to TEST the parts mentioned instead of just blindly replacing them.

good luck and report back.

vaughn37

mine has done that a few times.if it die's while driving. or if it sounds like it is fixing to die

what I did was go ahead and shift it to neutral... turn the car off while coasting then try to restart. that way I didn't even have to pull over

both times mine died on me.I was pretty low on gas. and had got on it hard right before
and it was hot out


I have replaced my drivers side coil since so what the guys are saying is probably true
and it has not done it to me since replacing the coil

lexus_love

It seems to me that every problem that happens with this model has happened to me so far. The drivers seatbelt wont retract, the lighter sockets are dead, the power tilt for the steering wheel dont work, the trunk pop and gas door pop stopped working, the little center consol display went dead lol one thing after another. But nothing compared to my honda! Oh and the guy that had it before me ripped the drivers seat apart to figure out why it wouldnt recline alexus (my cars name lol) needs some tlc but i love her despite her problems

willhickey

iTrader: (1)

you get a good deal on her?

lexus_love

$2500. All the electrical worked when i got her. The guy who sold her to me is, like i have said, a terrible business man. There were brand new front seats and brand new tires on the old beat up 19" rims that were on the car when i bought it. I had to do payments cuz walmart sucks, and when i picked her up there were seat covers on the seats and i didnt notice anything wrong with the tires right, so i didnt think anything was wrong. Well when i got home and took the covers off the seats looked like a couple of wolverines got into a fight in the front! So i looked at the tires, compleatly bald with hunks of rubber peeling off, showing bands! Oh was i pissed, he never answered his phone, wasnt at his house, he moved to cali last i heard, but its my fault for not double checking i guess

johnnyg66

When i got my 92 a year ago on the way home it started to run bad. It kinda kicked and wanted to die had to keep one foot on gas other on brake at stop lights to keep from killing it. Turned out yes the drivers side coil failed. been fine ever since. One thing i am guessing is your check engine light is not on. Double check this on the upper rim of gauges make sure someone didn't tape over the check engine light. I found black tape over mine late. Still didn't have a check engine light on anyway. Funny i would have never noticed it if not for the fact it covered half the check tail light light. That came one but only showed half a car.

Hope you get it figured out.

lexus_love

I will definatly report back, im gonna start work on her tomorrow, just got off work and im beat. Lol thanks for all the help guys, if i need anything else i'll let u all know

91LS400vgb

Same thing happened to me a while back. In my case, it was the passenger side coil - I later found out that the driver's side coil had already been replaced in the past, and the passenger one was original. The coils are easy to check with an ohm-meter. I'm sure if you do a search, the range of good values for the primary and secondary are detailed somewhere.

deanshark

I just listed the coil specs in here; https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...oil-packs.html It's for a 93 but it should be the same.

lexus_love

Thank u deanshark for posting the specs, thats a huge help. Im not very good at searching for things and until now i have come up with nothing u all have been such a huge help and i cant say thank u enough! My bf is a honda guy so hes been looking at my car with a look of confusion tellingme he has no idea what it could be lol