ravi11

greetings,

glad to be among enthusiasts who realise the lexus pehenomenon sometimes much more than i do. my affair with lexus started when i got an 1991 ls400 about 2 years ago. my criteria for minimum engine noise was humbly put to rest. the mileage at that time (1998) 83K and 20K later things started to change.

after a few routine oil changes and the big 100K servicing ($$$!) the age of the car seems to be going down the performance chart with :

- relatively much higher engine noise (even during idle)
- throttle pedal feels like a big sponge with weak response
- weak acceleration power (V8 feels worse than an inline-4)
- dimming lights

the dealer-service-center strongly suggested changing the timing belt ($$$!) and in the process getting down into the back of the engine to fix the sluggish throttle response and other problems. but with the past experience i'm sceptical.

i'm very much willing to get down under the hood with the maunal but would greatly appreciate the experts' advice on this group on possible causes and methods of resurrection.

best wishes & happy holidays

rk

VQT

You don't have to bring the car to the dealer. Do what you can and the rest let a garage (the one you trust) do the service.
First thing is to order timing belt, 2 idlers, water pump, 2 caps, two rotors, sparkplugs, sparkplug wires, Toyota ATF type-IV.
If you have the manual and good with tools you can do it all yourself. If you haven't got the manual yet order one.

Don't order these thing from the dealer. Get it through the net or from a mechanic friend.
Manual~$90
ATF~ $21 for 4 liters
wires ~ $91
plugs ~ $6 each (NGK or Nippon Denso)
caps ~$14 each
rotors~ $7 each
These are all OEM parts.

I don't remember the rest but you can tell if the price they quote on the parts mention are close to the above. The rest of the part should be OK too.

Change all fluid, oil, trans, diff., rad., fan, P/S...
Change all plugs, wires, caps and rotors.
Change timing belt (with a pulley puller? and a manual you can do it yourself)

ravi11

thanks vqt, i'll look around and see if i can stumble on to a good website. but i'm curious if some of these replacements (besides the timing belt) were already made when i gave the car in for the 100K service (?!)

i know it's beyond the scope of a mail but it would be great if someone can post pointers or links to the possible mechanical causes for ubiquitious basic problems like increased engine noise, sluggish acceleration etc.

can't find the shop manual yet

cheers
rk

VQT

What did they do for the 100K service? You got to check with the dealer or your invoices to see when/what did they change at every schedule service time. Chance are the wires, caps and rotors never been change. If the wires wasn't replace, change it. Also the caps and rotors, just to be safe. You need to change the trans. fluid yourself every 15K miles from now on.

Noise from the engine could be anything, you need to check it yourself and detemine where the noise from. THis could be the ldler or the alternator bearing or the valve need adjustment. All depend on what kind of noise it is.

800-908-6968 ask for Steve or Gordon. These guy are from Carson Toyota and they sell Lexus OEM parts, even performance parts. They started charging shipping fee lately...so far they alright. another site is something about sc400.com I can't remeber off hand.

hellasboy

a weak battery can be a cause of your dimming lights.

I recently had a remanufactured steering pump installed and my alternator rebuilt... my ghosting problem went away but whenever i had my car in drive and stopped at a stop light my lights would begin to dim. I only had my battery for about 26 months. Well, I replaced it with an Optima battery (under a different name) and now my car is not dimming anymore.

ravi11

you were right vqt, the batter was low indeed. my cousing took it out for a drive and coincidentally the fuel and battery went out at the same time.

bought a new battery but could not get the nut loose off the + terminal. there was so much salt deposit that i could hardly see any metal. the AAA guy had a hard time trying to clamp his jumper cable.

now i guess i have to buy the battery terminal connector wire too. can someone please provide a link to a site where i can really buy some lexus parts with the simplicity of say amazon.com

guess all newbies are like this

happy new year

UZZ32

If you can't get a manual I have some photos and stuff for changing plugs, testing/changing wires and changing fuel filter.
web:Soarer (1UZ-FE) tech stuff
cheers

lextec

ravi11, you mentioned test the battery was weak, did you check that the charging system is in good repair? Hope so, because commonly the power steering pump seal leaks & guess what's directly underneath the pump........yup, your $1000.00 alternator! Petroleum products do wonders for hot electrical components(NOT!) Just don't want to have you replace a suspected weak battery that was only the result of poor charging due to a power steering fluid saturated alternator. Happens very frequently here. Sometimes these leaks are hard to spot when a quick lookover is done. Look closely. Just for your info!

ravi11

come to think, i did add power steering fluid recently because it was low and consequently the pump was making a strange noise. now if i spilt some of that stuff and let it drip over the alternator, i would assume the alternator may be going bad.

but here's the thing: i bought a new battery and attempted to replace it but both and the pepboys found that existed in the car was much bigger than the $70 battery i picked up from pepboys (this is the battery they had on the computer against the 91LS400 ). it was suggested that i contact the dealer for real one. in the meantime my ignition died again calling for another jump.

amazingly a nissan truck's battery (a security guy had stopped by) could not provide enough power to jump my car. that's when i realised not everyone can jump this beast! this calls for some heavy amperage. we also looked under the battery covers and found that battery had gone completely dry!!! so obviously it would hold no charge irrespective of how long i drive. once again AAA's apmplified battery did the job so i'm thinking the alternator is still in a decent shape. is that conclusion justified?

rk

lextec

well rav, I'm just going to have to say that it's probably charging ok but you should still check for fluid leakage onto the alternator. In addition, try to have your charging system checked for proper operation, e.i.-charging voltage @2000rpm under full electrical load & also charging amperage under the same circumstances, engine warmed up of course. You should not have lower than 12.8 volts & 50amps under these conditions. Otherwise, consider your alternator/stator/rotor/voltage regulator/rectifier faulty. You should also have someone test for a parasitic voltage draw just in case. Not to scare you though, I would just like you to make sure with hard evidence that your starting & charging system is up to par. Like I mentioned earlier, power steering pump leaks are common, over here anyways. Just a suggestion.

Erfan

Isnt that just awesome you get your car all waxed and its all shiny and you put on your shades and see the ladies walk by and you hop into your Lex and pop the hood so that someone can give you a jump What a PEICE!!! J/K

More than likely as Lextek has stated maybe you have a parasitice draw of energy from your electrical system. Or your alternator is shot. Have the repair shop do a charging system test and see if there is a draw somewhere.

Hope that helps

ravi11

whew i had hard time trying to find this thread which i left off a while ago. just to recap i was whining about my 1991 LS400 which:

- makes a much louder engine noise after 100K
- doesn't pickup speed at all as it used to
- makes a creaky sound when the front wheels go over a bump

the dealer has the following quote (i think a whopping $2600) for a major rehab. looks like this. of course some of the stuff i've never heard of. the quote i have here is in the most cryptic handwriting i've seen so a (?) indicates that i've tried to extract the most comprehensible part of the word. it may or may not make sense . . experts please approximate and let me know if you figure it out

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description Price ($) Cost w/labor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SVL Throttle Body 89.95

R&R Cap(?) 12.11
Rotors 8.70
<something> 111.36 325.00

Tune up Plugs 7.92
Air Filter 17.49 260.00

T-Belt 58.26
Cam Seal 7.48
Crank Seal 8.14
Water Pump 161.24
AntiFreeze(?) 15.35 900.00

R&R Steering Rx(?) 638.73
(leaking) P/S Head 2.75 850.00

FEA (?) 119.95

Inj flush (?) 25.95 110.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 2700.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

thought i should run this by you folks before i flush out my bank a/c


best wishes
ravi11

ravi11

sorry, the client seems to have swallowed all the formatting i did in the previous post... so here's an text attachment which should be much easier to read

thanks
ravi11

The Lex

Hey Ravi11, this is just my two cents. I'd have the routine service stuff done at a good independent mechanic. I'd also get a second opinion on that steering item. And $110 to flush your injectors? Sounds like a bottle of Techron would do about the same job. I'll bet you can save at least 50% on the total cost. Good luck and let us know what you do and the results!

VQT

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description Price ($) Cost w/labor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SVL Throttle Body 89.95

R&R Cap(?) 12.11/each (you need two)
Rotors 8.70/each (need two)
Sparkplug wires 111.36 325.00

Tune up Plugs 7.92/each
Air Filter 17.49 260.00

T-Belt 58.26
Cam Seal 7.48
Crank Seal 8.14

Where is the price of two idlers? The idlers may be the thing that's noisy when old.

Water Pump 161.24
AntiFreeze(?) 15.35 900.00

R&R Steering Rx(?) 638.73
(leaking) P/S Head 2.75 850.00

FEA (?) 119.95

Inj flush (?) 25.95 110.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 2700.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's with dealer labor rate of $80/ hr. If you go out side $65/hr
Unless you are mechanically incline, I guess that the price you will have to pay. I have changed the sparkplugs, wires, caps and rotors. I am in no way shape or form consider to be a mechanic, and it took me about 3 hrs the first time. It took about 2 hrs the second time, but I did it very slow and make sure everything were ok. I saw the timing belt replacement on my SC400. Its not that difficult, but if you don't know what you're doing and don't replace enough parts (cam seals, idlers, water pump...) you'lll be lookin at paying to do it again later.
Wit siple tools you can change the plugs, wires, caps and rotors to save money.

Good Luck