its not working because you two are assuming that in 10 years lexus didnt upgrade the ECU on the car....

 

Ok PD, to be clear, there's no other option, other than replace the pipe. Correct?

 

i mean i guess you could make a program for arduino to try and mimic the voltage changes of a car warming up but at that point you're talking about building/programming a computer to tell the computer in your car that you're not really missing a sensor...

TL: DR- buy a '98-00 and you won't have to deal with it.

 

I have a 99 already But the wife has the 96 (since 1998 - too fond of it to let it go because of this pesky little pipe.)

Cheers, I'll try again this weekend.

 

Fixed.

So myself and a couple of other guys managed to replace the pipe after about 3-4 hours of wrestling. We replaced the pipe without removing the cat or the head. But you do need minimum two people, preferable with smallish hands, to guide the right combination of socket extensions and woblers and duct-taped universal joint - one from above at the firewall, and one from below. We used mirrors to see what was going on. Had to drain a half gallon of coolant and then remove one of the heater pipes at the top of the engine near the firewall, just one more pita getting the clamps off that.

Engine light did not go out by itself after 50+ miles, so I reset it manually, and it's been off for 200+ miles now. Engine sounds great. P0401 gone.

We did have the vehicle raised around 3 feet for most of this, on a scissor lift. Would be more difficult just on stands.

Forgot to put the clamp back on the heater hose, and leaked another gallon of coolant, but what the heck who cares now!

Thanks for all the advice.

 

To be clear, the bottom two bolts are undone from below, reaching up and into the gap between the cat and the vehicle body. You can see quite well.

The top two bolts are the hard ones. From underneath, you can barely see the upper bolt of the two, but not the lower one, as the pipe itself blocks the view.. We had someone from above guide the sockets, using mirrors and sticks to prod until in the right place, while someone below tried infinite combinations of socket extension bars, wobblers, and universal joints pushing up slowly into position. Take care to seat the socket on properly - round that bolt over and all will be lost. Get a visual on the socket using a mirror. Bolts came of with quite some effort, get the right size (13mm?) metric socket.

 

Glad to hear you fixed it properly. It's all worth it in the end. Thanks for sharing the details as I'm sure it will help someone later.

 

Can anybody tell me what actuates the EGR on the 96 LS400? It does not have the modulator/vsv setup like the earlier models.