skytrain4

I purchased my ’92 LS400 in Sept 04 with 98000 miles on it. I immediately changed the engine oil, transmission fluid, and rear lube with Amsoil and had Michelin Tires put on. I also had the A/C repaired because it didn’t hold a charge for long. The car ran great!

I got a check engine light code 25 around November. It ran fine, so I didn’t replace the O2 sensors right away.

In early February the car started misfiring sometimes, but I ignored it because it would go away.

One day, when I was about 60 miles from home, cruising along at 80 mph on the freeway, the engine went from a Lexus to a Yugo instantly. I freaked, but I was busy with work so I pressed on. Big mistake. By that afternoon, the car was crawling at 30 mph with my foot to the floor. Now I could hear rattling coming from under the car and something smelled odd. I putted into a parking lot, got out with the engine still running and looked under the car. The catalytic converters were glowing red! I called a tow truck and had the car towed back to my house. The next morning I tried to start it to move it into my garage, but it wouldn’t even start.

I discovered the right rotor was broken inside the Distributor Cap. The whole top part was completely broken off the base and in shreds. I'm sure this is what caused the instant loss of power. I also found that the left ignition coil was dead, which is why it wouldn’t start the next morning. The ignition coil was overworked because the other side was not working.

I replaced the left ignition coil, both distributor caps, both rotors, spark plugs, spark plug wires, both front catalytic converts, and both forward O2 sensors. All this damage was because of a broken rotor. I also found that a third of the base of the other rotor was completely broken off, so it was going too.

$842 later the car runs perfect. No engine light, no nothing. I did all the repairs myself, which saved a lot of money. I bought the catalytic converters from a place that sells remanufactured OEM cats ($140 each) and bought the OEM oxygen sensors ($50 each) from a salvage yard. Autozone sells the exact Denso OEM spark plugs - a nice discovery.

Lessons learned:
1. When you buy a used car, change the fluids AND do a tune-up.
2. When the car starts acting up, shut it down ASAP so you don’t do additional damage.

I just bought my wife an 01 RX300 with 73000 miles on it. I did the Amsoil fluid thing immediately. I was going to wait until 100K miles for a tune-up, but I think I'll do it now!!

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Actually, $850 Isnt as bad as having to replace something major like tranny, or engine.

Glad its up and running, and you had a serious advantage by reparing it yourself