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Nah, that's the connector bodies. Lexus sells pigtails with the pins on them. I'd start with that. I can look up the part numbers in TIS easily enough if I know which connector we're talking about for absolute sure.
Crimpers can be cheap or super expensive. Daniels makes the aircraft quality units, but they'll be very pricey. Klein makes decent stuff too. I've used everything from the most basic wire stripper/crimper/screw cutter tools to the most expensive hand crimping tools you can find (when I was working on aircraft in the Air Force). I wouldn't spend a fortune on crimpers and dies unless you really, really think you'll be needing them a lot. Heck, I only recently bought a Panduit zip tie gun because I wanted a flush cut on the ends, and that wasn't cheap, but nowhere near aircraft grade. I was doing a lot of cable tying when I did my home theater, so it made sense to me to have the right tool. I still haven't paid over $50 for any crimper, and the last one I bought was a Klein for RJ-45 connectors.
You need either 82998-12880 or 82998-12860. The pins are gold plated.
Last edited by lobuxracer; Mar 29, 2022 at 09:01 PM.
I’ll order the pigtails Lance posted. They are a must… I don’t have enough wire to work with.
I definitely think this is the problem.
Take a nice zoomed look at the connector and the tiny red circle. You will see that the crimp isn’t even on bare metal, it’s on the insulator. The crimp cut into the insulator slightly, so it was getting a signal, but of course it is delayed. I’m shocked it worked at all. The crimp isn’t even the correct size.
This just goes to show that nobody works on your own car as thoroughly as you will. I have zero official automotive training, but I can take my time, research, and bug people on forums.
Lance gave me a wiring repair crash course last night, so I’ll be repairing this correctly with oem pigtails.
Last edited by Jwconeil; Mar 30, 2022 at 04:40 PM.
That is really ugly. I would not be proud of that work at all. That said, it's very difficult to get a good crimp on a wire when you can't actually see where it is because the crimp is shrouded with plastic. That's why I recommend a bare crimp covered with shrink tubing. You can see the wire's engagement with the conducting part of the joint. Using the plastic covered connectors, you're having to play a guessing game with how well the crimp went. Don't get me wrong, I've used connectors with plastic shells in the past, but it's not something I do today for exactly the evidence in the photo above.
Yes, you could flow solder into the connector and make a solid connection, but at the same time, flux and solder will wick up the wire under the insulation and create stress points you can't see. It will work for a while, but if the environment has any significant vibration (like a motorcycle, car, truck, airplane, etc. does), the wire will break under the insulation and you'll be back to the same issue causing you to solder in the first place, only this time, it's invisible unless you slice back the insulation to find the strands broken and causing intermittent connection. Got that t-shirt working on WC-135Bs in the Air Force. I won't do it to my cars because I keep them a very long time. I don't buy used cars because some guys think this repair method is just fine, when for those who keep their cars a long time, it's not.
Lexus spends a tremendous amount of time and effort making our cars reliable. There are no solder joints anywhere in the wiring loom on a Lexus. That's not an accident, it's intentional, and it's a significant part of why Toyota/Lexus have very few electrical issues. No aircraft in the Air Force use soldered connectors in their wiring harnesses, but way back in 1982 when I went to high reliability soldering school, soldering a 100+ pin Cannon plug was a mandatory item in the curriculum because "that's how it's done." We've learned a lot since then.
Special thanks to Lance for the wiring repair data and crash course in pinning. The turkey lacer tool worked a charm.
I left a little extra wire just in case I didn’t get a great connection, but this passes the sniff test so far. I am considering this issue permanently fixed at this point, but I won’t know for about 200 miles, which is when the CEL would trip. Considering that one of the banks didn’t throw a Cel with those old garbage connectors, and the side that tripped was crimped on top of insulation, I think we finally got this problem sorted.
Pigtail part number 82998-12860 is what you need in case you jump down this rabbit hole. 82998-12880 is the larger diameter wire in the same part of the loom, but I didn’t need it.
I should check mine to see if I have these. When I bought my car it was claimed that it had the RR tune and gutted cats. Yet it is not throwing any O2 codes. I want to get the Tuned-By-Loi tune but I am afraid that it may introduce cat efficiency codes which I don't want.
Does this look normal?
Last edited by Gohanburne; Apr 15, 2022 at 11:19 AM.
I should check mine to see if I have these. When I bought my car it was claimed that it had the RR tune and gutted cats. Yet it is not throwing any O2 codes. I want to get the Tuned-By-Loi tune but I am afraid that it may introduce cat efficiency codes which I don't want.
Does this look normal?
Snap a pic of the other side of your ECU box. The wires in question are on that end.
AFAIK it looks normal down where he had his wired in...just those two wires looked like they were modified by how the electrical tape is on there. I didn't see any simulator boxes or anything. Not sure how if my cats are gutted that I'm not throwing a code right now. Is there somewhere else they could be?
AFAIK it looks normal down where he had his wired in...just those two wires looked like they were modified by how the electrical tape is on there. I didn't see any simulator boxes or anything. Not sure how if my cats are gutted that I'm not throwing a code right now. Is there somewhere else they could be?
The O2 wires look oem. The wires you mentioned do seem oddly wrapped, but I don’t think those relate to the O2s. You don’t seem to have an electrical simulator, so maybe you have extensions under the car like these?
The L shaped elbow affects the signal and eliminates the CEL.
Guys - let's squash discussion of anything that could be construed as bypassing a control put in place to satisfy the EPA. There are tuners who are being threatened by the EPA with huge fines. Let's not get anyone in trouble.
Update. I have about 280 miles on the car since this repair. I’m surprised at how much more responsive the car is. Even the throttle input seems more responsive. I’ve found it odd that, for the last four years, my IS350 felt very responsive and “zippy” around town, but not my ISF. I chalked it up to the different gear ratios. My ISF is now much more responsive.
I can also break the tires loose by flooring it in second. Part of that is because I have drag radials and it’s still not hot here yet, but even after interstate driving and spirited town driving, they will break lose in second in roughly 70 degree weather.
Its possible that placebo plays a role, but unlikely since I’ve owned the car for four years. I’ve long been used to how the car feels. The car has never spun the tires in second that I can recall.
Im guessing the delayed signal caused the Ecu to run that bank a bit richer to clean out the cat. I’m not really intelligent enough to know for sure.
Regardless, the car is noticeably more powerful and much funner to drive. Thankfully I didn’t install the new tune yet, or I would have credited this development to the tune and not the repair.
Last edited by Jwconeil; Apr 26, 2022 at 06:00 AM.
