Tony22

Hi, names Anthony I just recently purchased my first Lexus. A 93 LS 400, odometer reads 66,000 and when I bought it for $1000 I was under the impression the only issue it had was a low idle and needed a new paint job. Came to find out that was not the case,for starters when I ran the carfax after purchasing it said it was in a wreck at around 50k and the miles were possibly rolled back. I also found out there was a rear main seal leak which I have fixed already thanks to lexls tutorials. I have also changed the spark plugs, ignition wires, coils, transmission oil, motor oil, and timing belt. After all this my idle is good, stays at 650-700, it's shifts into gear smoothly but the issue now is very low power. When I put the car into drive and take my foot off the break it takes a few seconds for the car to move forward. Then it will stop and wait a few more seconds to start moving. That happens when the car is put into gear R or D and I do not press on the gas. If I press on gas it fights to get out of 1st and 2nd, with a ticking noise either coming from exhaust line or engine area. When I get into higher gears the power is still very low and my cats start glowing hot red and white smoke come off of them. I thought about trying to hollow them out but I read good and bad forums about doing this. Also no codes are being thrown when I try to read codes with wire. I'm low on $$$ but am going to bring it to Lexus if I can't diagnose problem myself any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thank you and any other info needed please let me know and I will post

LScowboyLS

drain transmission fluid as if you were doing a regular oil change, except on the transmission, use both a new drain bolt and new drain bolt gasket from the dealership - refill with with genuine Toyota T-IV transmission fluid again from the dealership. (buy 4 quarts, but it may only take 2-3)

refill transmission a little at a time and bring up to top of cold range on dipstick with car running in Park, then drive for a while to get transmission good and hot and then park on very level ground and continue to add fluid intil transmission fluid level is up to very top of hot range on dipstick while running in Park, even up to 1/4 inch over the hot range is OK

if the transmission still engages slowly and you still have no power, then you likely have failing ECU capacitors!

Legender

Welcome Anthony and seems you've already found the forum useful.
I'm sure with the help from here you can get it up and running. Good Luck.

Tony22

thank you, I have already order capacitators so this weekend I am going to change them out, when I pulled ECU the other day I opened it up and couldn't figure out how to get to the inside. There were screws on the back of the circuit boards and after I unscrewed them I couldnt pry the circuit boards apart. Should I use more force I do not want to crack the circuit board. BTW the ECU was from a junkyard so I think there is a high chance the capacitators will fix the problem.

RupertD

Hi Tony ,did you remove the screws at the side that hold the heat-sinks to the case?

Tony22

Not sure, I will post picks when I get home

LScowboyLS

it sounds like you may have missed some screws, some can be on the sides of the casing - and please be gentle with the boards and especially the grey ribbon connector cables connecting them - they won't take a lot of horsing them around roughly!

also, there is no reason to remove the screws in the bottom board to do this repair.

Tony22

Did capacitators and hollowed out my cats because the honeycomb was broken inside. Put everything back together the car started right up, idle perfectly while I was taking my car off jack stands. Right before car was about to be test drove it stalled on me. I was able to get it started again, and barely got out of my garage when it stalled again. Got it into drive, and drove up the block same issues as before, no power when accelerating. I here a knocking noise on the passenger side of the vehicle. I parked the car tried starting it again and now she won't turn over

LScowboyLS

when was the timing belt last changed, there have been some cases of jumped time on these cars, as well as timing belts incorrectly installed and Idle Air Control Valves have bearings go out pretty often

the first thing to do is download all current codes as shown here

Tony22

When capacitators are being soldered on, does the side of the circuit board with the capacitators need solder or just the back of circuit board, I redid timing belt got everything to TDC, changed the fuel pump and still no luck getting her to turn over. Also battery won't hold a charge. No codes generate when I hook wires to Te1 and E1 and I count blinks on cluster board( steady blinking no differential pauses)