Stereorob

So over the last few months I've noticed some problems popping up with my car, weird subtle things and it still drives okay but I'm **** poor broke with no extra money to even think about trying to fix it and I work 65 hours a week so I have zero free time to deal with it anyway, I commute 39 miles to work everyday and my car never fails to get me there and back, essentially I have my dream car that it waited 5 years to get and searched over a year for, and I'm having to just drive it into the ground it's pretty depressing.

I work at a lexus dealership but employees don't get any favors or discounts unfortunately and they want $180 just to look at it so that's not a option.

1. Anyway over the last few weeks it's started smelling like burning oil when I drive it and a few days ago I noticed wisps of smoke coming out of the hood, not a lot but enough to notice. I panicked and when I got to work I checked the fluids, it isn't leaking oil, tranny fluid is good, but the coolant is brown.

2. Unfortunately I have a bad ECU so I can't run diagnostics on it but it's still drivable.

3. My temp gauge is broken so I have no way to know if it overheats or not.

4. I took it to a friend of mine who is a certified mechanic and he told me: That not only all my seals belts and hoses are going, and basically my whole front end is bad, but that my car is showing all the tell tail signs of having a head gasket that's about to go. (Reason he thinks this is because of the brown coolant and that it looses a gallon every few months, I have water in my tailpipes and if I rev it hard it spits out water like a shower head)

I also pulled all the service records for my car at work today and I discovered to my horror that yes, it was a one owner car, but the former owner was a super cheapskate and never put any money into it. (Car has original everything. Original starter, alternator, PS and water pump, radiator etc) I've got 175k on it now and it still drives fine, but I know a hideous disaster is looming right around the corner. So now I have a problem.. What do I do?

Just keep driving till it blows up or try to fix what I can and prey I get another few thousand miles out of it? It took me over a year to save up to buy this car and a year to track down one that wasn't trashed. Cosmetically it's like showroom condition, good seats, straight body with perfect paint, everything works, it's a absolutely beautiful example of a early 2nd gen Ls400 and I really really don't wanna let it go. I love my car. And besides that I doubt I'd find another one in this condition with all it's original accessories, paperwork, window sticker, etc. anyway I'm pretty depressed let's start with the head gasket. How much dose it typically cost to get one done on a Ls400? Should I just put my car away in the garage and buy some little roach to get me to and from work till I can afford to fix my lexus up?

Stereorob

Like I said, it's in beautiful cosmetic condition and stil drives nice. Having to drive it into the ground like this is absolutely breaking my heart. :/

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Your not cool with ANY of the mechanics at the dealership that might help you out on the your days off at least a couple hours to get the head gasket squared away? You could pay him/her in installments. That soon to be over heating problem is your major concern as well as the timing belt. It's a big job since you have to basically take the top end off. I would park it before you do anymore damage if it's that bad. Why buy a hoopty when you can put that money into your car?

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

the first thing that popped into my mind is the ECU, and you confirmed it! that is the single most important part in your car to make it run, so save up around $200 and have it repaired for its leaking capacitors! i can almost guarantee this is your problem since you live in humid florida!

a head gasket is very very rare, unless you kept driving the car while overheating!

lexxpro

I would get the temp sensor fixed first which is cheap if you can do it yourself. How often are you adding coolant? The brown color could be just from mixing red with green coolant. How does the oil look when you change it? Sounds like you need to have your ecu rebuilt with new capacitors and most importantly the cam belt service. I would park it before you ruin the engine for good.

Stereorob

Not yet. I've only been working there a few months and I'm still trying to get myself established there. 6 months from now I'll be making good money but I'm new and broke still lol. I don't wanna kill my car but I gotta get to work everyday still. If my car blows up so dose my job :/

Coolant is brown and when revved hard it spits out a ton of water out of the pipes. Like the amount if a shower head. Doubt that would be a ECU problem. What do you think? It runs and drives perfect still. There is no loss of power and it's still coin balancing smooth. I just don't want to blow up my car. It only spits out water when I rev my engine really hard.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

water coming out of the tail pipe is just condensation which is normal when cold. it should go away as the car/pipes warm up!

cobalt91

Start putting together the parts you need to get it running. 20 or 30 dollars here and there goes a long way. First I would flush out that brown coolant.

Stereorob

It dose this after the car has been on a 35 mile drive and is totally warmed up. It's not just a little water, it's like someone ran a hose where my tailpipes are

Shmee

iTrader: (3)

Wow, that's one big wall of text!?
Perhaps a few extra return keys next time.


As for the problems.

If you are NOT, overheating, over pressuring your coolant systems, missing and running rough, pumping white smoke out the tail pipes or have what looks like chocolate milk in your oil cap and in the valve cover.... You DO NOT HAVE A HEAD GASKET ISSUE. I'm like 99% sure of that.

Water out the tailpipe is not abnormal, that's just condensation as since you live in FLA where it's very humid, you will always get condensation in the exhaust after longer drives in humid or wet weather.

It sounds like you need to do a TON of maintenance!

I'd suggest starting with the coolant because it's fairly simple and cheap to do.

Brown coolant could just be mixing green and red or that it was never changed in the past 10years...
Grab a drain pan, upper and lower rad hose and thermostat and gasket and 2 gallons of the red lexus coolant from parts, and maybe 10 gallons of deionized water from a store. Near a garden hose with lots of pressure, pull off the lower rad hose and drain the coolant system into the pan. Pull the upper hose off the and remove the thermostat. Take the garden hose and blast into the thermostat hole, flushing everything out of the engine into the drain pain. Empty the pan as needed into something you can take to properly dispose of the coolant. Do the same with the rad. You probably only need to catch an extra gallon out of the engine and maybe a few quarts out of the rad before the coolant is all but gone. From that point you can just blast away.
After about 5mins of flushing the rad and engine out, pour a couple gallons of the deionized water through the engine and rad. Replace the old parts with the new stuff you just bought, fill the system with new coolant and the deionized water 50/50. Button it back up, run it and check for leaks and purge any air out.

You should start saving to do the timing belt, water pump and a major tune up. The water pump likely where your coolant loss is coming from. I wouldn't put this off for very long, or you won't have a car for much longer. Hook on the corner if you need to scrounge up the cash!

Smoke from the engine bay is likely a small leak from the valve covers dripping on the exhaust manifold.

Start figuring out what the front end needs.

You are going to have to find time and money or sell/park the car.

Stereorob

I'm broke but my father for whatever reason HATES my car, he hates lexus cars in general (Hese from the old school and still thinks lexus is nothing but a expensive Toyota corolla from the 80s. Anyway I told him what's going on and he wants to give me 1500 for a beater to drive around but absolutely refuses to lend me cash so I can fix my lexus.. -yeah he hates it that much. Anyway problem solved! I'll get some cheap turd I can drive around for a few months and put my Ls400 away in the garage and save up to get it fixed. My car just has to make a few more trips back and forth to work Till I find something. I also need to make friends with one of the mechanics in the service bay lol.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

You saved a long time for this car, don't give in to pops. You'll show him just how nice a car it is once running. Take Shmee's post and work one by one. You have a good list of fixes to implement.

The first ones relative to cost that I would suggest are similar to Shmee's:

1. Cooling system coolant $35, thermostat $18, radiator drain **** with O-ring $16, ECT sensor $50 (Sewell) and 4-5 gallon jugs of distilled water $4-$5.

2. ECU ~$8 if you can solder yourself.

Those two should yield big results and with the ECU working, you can pull codes.

Other areas for fluids that aren't big $:

Incremental tranny fluid drain. If you tell the parts guy you are a fellow employee, he should be able to cut a minimal discount. $4.25- $4.50 is good. Buy 12/case of it and a handful of crush washers.

Differential fluid and crush washers.

PS fluid and turkey baster, old clean hand lotion/shampoo pump to incrementally suck out the PS fluid. Mobil 1 ATF or your choice of ATF. ~$25 in fluids.

Definitely begin saving for the TB service.

Stereorob

Thanks for all the tips. So you guys really don't think my head gasket is about to blow?

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

headgaskets are a bit like bombs, they're either blown or they aren't.

In addition to what Shmee and RA40 said I offer one extra bit of advice to get that extra confirmation that it's not a BHG.
1- Swap the coolant for fresh toyota coolant
2- Drive the car for a few days
3- Spend the $30 on a combustion leak test kit (ala http://www.summitracing.com/parts/li...FRSPfgod33YAng though your local autoparts store should have something similar)
4- Know for sure if you have a BHG or not.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

If the coolant is mixed, the color can be off. Usually you'll see a drop in coolant level accompanied by gobs of white puffy smoke out the tail pipe when it is losing coolant in mass. If the whitish smoke and water condensation goes away after the car is warm, unlikely a BHG. An oil change will also tell. If more than 5 quarts* come out and the oil is watery and creamy brown...that is another symptom of a BHG. None of these show up, the possibility is less.

Compression check if you have a gauge handy. You'll spot the dropped cylinders relative to others. Not always but it helps to know how each cylinder is doing.

If the car has overheated you would also know by it blowing steam and or losing coolant from the reservoir drain tube.

*6 quarts is rough dry fill, oil fill is a few ticks over 5 quarts, want to say 5.2 give take a bit and that can vary on oil filter used.