Just by expirence just one cam sensor unplugged my car wouldnt run at all or hardly start.
Now if the crankshaft sensor could be out and still run, theres something i can look at.

 

So ive looked through a lot of threads on here about peoples troubles with these cars.
Ive also noticed people sinking quite a bit of money into their cars just diagnosing and
trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with their vehicles.

I feel like this isnt very promising to even try to figure out whats wrong with my car
seeing how everyone elses expirences are.
At the same time i only paid $300 for mine so ill feel even better when i get it running correctly.

 

often people "sink" a lot of money because they go onto forums and think they can get their vehicle diag'ed on the internet,the only thing u look for are others misfortunes and see how they solved their issues..unfortunately most threads come to a screeching halt with no resolve, what I mean is this...how many threads are started by people with issues then this starts a ****** storm of replies from online car mechanics but usually the op wont report back on what was the problem.

 

I would strongly disagree - forums like Club Lexus have become a critical resource for those home mechanics and savvy consumers who don't have the luxury of a $20,000 Identifix subscription.

You see, the LS400, like all manufactured items, exhibits the scientific phenomena of pattern failure (the basis of Identifix) - this means that if the strut rod bushing or transmission mount, or lower EGR tube etc. is going out early in your 96 LS400, it likely is going out early in everyone else's as well!

Club Lexus and other forums bring together some of the world's premier experts on these cars, all in one place for free consulting. That is not to say that you should just follow every person on here and their "guess" as to what your issue may be, but you will quickly learn which members consistently give sage advice.

For example, I would listen to PD on suspensions and many other subsystems in the car, Kansas on audio and oddball option packages, RA40 on a diverse range of things, Yamae on anything electronic and most everything else, and a number of other experts here that I am not even mentioning but read their posts religiously every day!

And it is not just LS400's but all cars, my little nephew has an RX-8 and had no heat in his car and winter was setting in, I plopped down on the computer and quickly went to the largest Mazda RX-8 forum and in like 3 minutes had found a how-to on resoldering a certain failure-prone connection in the main climate control board (pattern failure, remember?) and we had his heat working later that evening! (and saved over $1000) - This happens thousands of times every day!

If you want to see this in action, read my failing ECU capacitors thread, there are dozens of posts within it of happy success stories, with new ones posted each week!

So don't believe every single thing you read in any online forum, but use a combination of seeking out the experts on your car and the factory service manual - and with those resources, any problem on an LS400 can be solved without the expensive dealership, who, in many instances, may know much less, because they don't have experts from around the world, they have Indentifix and the patterns they have seen, which is no more than we have right here!

Just remember, now matter how frustrated you are, your car's issue has come up many times before, but the expert who knows the answer may be offline for a while so search on here! - don't get lazy and just be a "parts changer" - be patient and dig out the right answer!

 

Hey, you forgot to mention someone named LScowboyLS for A/C, and many other things like ECU caps.
Most everything I reply to are the things that have happened to my car or the multiple common problems I've read about in millions of threads of searching over the years. (When I'm out of work) I would trust the advice from certain members here rather then someone from a Lexus dealership. Alot of other forums I've visited (for other cars) are mostly about modding the car, not fixing the car.

Clublexus is the best.

 

some would disagree because they believe everything is ecu related..
and this statement has way too many variables to be true:
"You see, the LS400, like all manufactured items, exhibits the scientific phenomena of pattern failure (the basis of Identifix) - this means that if the strut rod bushing or transmission mount is going out early in your 96 LS400, it likely is going out early in everyone else's as well!"such as driving habits and conditions
my car has the original strut rod bushings and I have 190,000 on my 92 and guess what my ecu is still in tact

someone makes a post stating they have a clunk in the front end..no one here can tell them what the issue is..only an alignment shop can properly diag the problem..btw there are no EXPERTS on these cars here..only owners that have experienced problems before hand and can give advice on previous experiences..remember? code 13? someone said it was a maf sensor,so believe me no one here is an expert on these cars only certain areas or systems do they excel in knowledge..u obviously have a great deal of experience and knowledge but u don't know everything and neither do I. lets just say some things are better off taking it to a shop based on a persons lack of knowledge..tools and experience, not everyone is equipped to do repairs/diagnostics. anyways good luck LANCREW..im sure this will be resolved in time..just keep us posted..whatever direction u decide to take

 

Personally i do believe that this Forum has taught me a LOT on about what things COULD be
wrong and what to look for. ECU was definitely the best advice i had on here so far
thanks (LScowboyLS). Now the defintion of expert around here is probably based more on
opinion. I dont personally know anyone here so i cant say any one person is "expert", but
people with a lot of expirence from ownership and working on these cars is a lot credit.

Id say know quite a bit about how cars work and usually can figure things out. But this is one
of the more complex "diagnosing yourself' vehicles ive ever messed with. 1 thing goes wrong
and it shows 10 different symptoms 9 other of those being related to another mechanical
failure. If i truely wanted this fixed right now and had money, i just replace it all and im sure
it go right back to working %100.

Personally id like to figure out what this ONE thing is causing this that way i can replace or
repair this one thing and not spend thousands on a car i bought for $300. Dont get me wrong
i do want this to be my daily though. I need to stop putting miles on my Evo haha

 

NOW, whos expert or not put that aside and someone tell me whats wrong with my damn car.
Hahahaha. So last night i checked the wire i said might be causing problems, it was good.
I also made sure EVERYTHING was plugged in and where it should be.
I cranked it up and its still running rich as hell and acting as it was before.

Now it says to put premium in, so i put 91 in there. Is this octane too high?
Also camsensor do work, on the other hand im not %100 sure about the crankshaft sensor.
I believe honestly this is the last thing i can really check before i blame the ECU again.

ONLY code that the car reads out is no. 13-check RPM signal

Once again ill post everything that new and has been checked on the car.
Timing - triple checked
Compression
Fuel Pressure
Spark plugs
Plug wires
Distributor caps and rotors
Ignition Coils
Ignitor Modules
Bank sensors
ECU
Injector O-rings
Fuel pump works
Fuel filter is good
Cam postion sensors good

 

I don't know why everyone is so afraid of the word "expert" - where do you think all of the experts on the LS400 are?

at the dealership? - I worked as a master tech at the largest Lexus dealership in the world, and there are some good technicians there, and many mediocre ones, but if I could put together a list of the top 10 LS400 experts in the world, I have no doubt that Yamae and Pure Drifter would be on that list and probably some others from right here at good old Club Lexus!

Even engineering wizards within Toyota are only going to be highly familiar with the area of the car that they helped design, same with Nippon Denso and Aisin - and all of these guys are now focused on LS460 etc. - so we are running out of places to find all of the real "experts"!

 

Focus on this post above! - and remember, the savvy online shopper can find cam and crank sensors OEM for cheap, and your year of ECU has a known issue with the capacitors!

when you say cam position sensors are good, are you saying that you have done all of the tests in the service manual to verify that they are good? - sometime parts will fail intermittently - and yet pass the tests in the book, but if you are sure about the timing belt, then my vote is now ECU caps, since this is a very well known and common issue, and crank & cam sensors don't tend to fail on LS400 very often. - the other possibility is a wire to one of these sensors that is not complete broken but perhaps nearly broken and making contact sometimes and not other times! - also, realise that this is a bank No. 2 (passenger side) issue, since you don't have a code #12 (bank 1) as well - so focus on the wiring and cam sensor on that side.

 

guys stay on topic. OP's running issues only from here on out.

 

Yeah haha stay on topic, you all dont know how bad i want to get this thing running correctly.

Okay i said id get pics of the ECU and ill try to do that today. Along with a few more of other
things just to help you all with visuals.

Ill admit right not im not the best when it comes to electrical. So im not sure how sensitive
wiring is, BUT the Cam postion sensor wire that comes out from the passenger side
got pinched and wore through the coating to the wires, none of the wires on the inside
looked to be damaged so i just taped it back up. Should i have rewired this just to make
sure it had full connection?

 

Also im not to sure of how big of an issue this could cause but the plastic plug in
for the ignition coil on that side broke so i just have the two open wires plugged
in as u should be able to see.

 

I want to eliminate wiring as an issue first because that wiring being pinched was
and issue before and couldnt figure out why it wouldnt run at all. Now it just runs
poorly. Also a buddy broke that plugin is why its like that now, im not sure if that could
cause these issues im having.

 

Anyone have any idea? need to know if i should replace these wires of find the clip for the coil