Brian S

My car: 1998 LS400, 95,600 miles

I pulled my car out of the garage this afternoon to take some pics for this thread . So I do my thing, get ready for the evening, come back out to get in the LS and go to town and.......

Nothing. I turned the key, car half starts, then then engine immediately died. Thinking I just didn't leave it in ignition long enough, I turn the key again....and nothing. The only moving in that engine bay was the starter constantly whirring. The engine didn't even turn over. Checked the battery -- that was fine. Checked the belt -- still there. Oil was good. I turned it a few more times, the engine tried to turn once but quickly went kaput. Tried it a few more times with some rest in-between and the engine finally sputtered to life.

A running engine is good, but the first thing I noticed was smoke coming out the tail pipes and a slight gasoline smell in the cockpit. That's when I really freaked. Just 9 months earlier, I had replaced my old car with a blown head gasket that eventually killed the engine (heat damage caused it to throw a rod later) with the LS. Only the LS is worth about 15 times what my old T-bird was worth. The last thing I needed was another head gasket failure. I noticed it was smoky, but the engine - after initial hesitation - was running fairly normally.

I turned it off, waited a couple minutes, check the oil cap for milky oil, and started it up again. It came to life with a couple coughs, but then was sounding normal. And the smoke gradually died down (it was never nearly the huge amount that came from my T-bird right after the gasket blew), though a little was still present.

I drove it around the block, ran it through the gears, gave it a little gas, and it was running fine the whole time. Came back to the apartment, checked the exhaust, and there was no more smoke.

Since I was already late, I decided to drive it carefully to town. The thing has run fine the rest of the night. No smoke and not a problem starting.

Now, I'm glad it seems to be working. But I really want to know what might have caused this in the first place. I don't think it's a gasket, since it probably would have continued smoking out the exhaust and the car would have sputtered. Doesn't seem to be a battery problem. My most logical thought was perhaps bad spark plugs. But the thing is, the engine never even tried to turn over when it wasn't working. The starter was faithfully doing it's duty, but nothing beyond that was happening until the thing miraculously started running again.

I'm happy for any thoughts you might have. I came here hoping this might be one of those LS400 things that happens enough that people know what it is and how to fix it. I hope, anyway.

Thanks,

Brian

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

JUST as a guess, do you think the car was choked with gas? I mean did you step on the accelerator while the car wasn’t running? I think we have an electronic throttle, and im not sure if this sort of thing can happen. However, I remember in the old days, if you keep pushing on that pedal (as we used to do as kids, as we pretend we were driving while the car was parked), my father would always find out because it was harder to turn over, and it smoked from the back thereafter.

Just speculation, never tried it on the LS, or a new car. It might not even be possible with Fuel injected cars, but that’s all I can come up with.

Could also be spark plug? But I’m positive its not a fuel pump.


Do you remember doing ANYTHING different before/after you shut off the engine?

Brian S

I'm really curious if your theory is plausible. It is possible I didn't leave the ignition engaged long enough. Lately too, I have had this bad habit of accidentally depressing the gas pedal while starting the car. It's partly because my winter mud mat partially cover the gas pedal, making it easier to depress. Maybe I choked it by accident??? The other couple times I did this, the car just started and immediately revved (also not good ).

Thanks,

Brian

jshowell

I remember when the next generation gas came out (Costal) and it was a whole cent less than the unleaded my car got all the time, I thought I might give it a try being on a high school budget at the time. This was in an RX-7 GSLSE. When I started it the next morning, or when we finally had to pull start it, it relesed a cloud of pure white smoke. The smell was quite odd and needless to say the ten cent savings was not worth whatever happened to that engine.