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It sounds like you could potentially be having a lubrication issue with the new mechanism or a worn motor. If you open up the unit, I wonder if there is any old grease that has turned into mush. You might also be able to bench test the motor while it's out of the car.
I had to clean a small DC motor from a 1998 Sienna once, because it wasn't strong enough to lock the doors on its own. A lot of burnt debris came out of the inner housing, but a good wash with contact cleaner did the trick.
It sounds like you could potentially be having a lubrication issue with the new mechanism or a worn motor. If you open up the unit, I wonder if there is any old grease that has turned into mush. You might also be able to bench test the motor while it's out of the car.
I had to clean a small DC motor from a 1998 Sienna once, because it wasn't strong enough to lock the doors on its own. A lot of burnt debris came out of the inner housing, but a good wash with contact cleaner did the trick.
After looking at the pictures on that thread, I think I'm going to find bad teeth on both of them. The motor sounds fine on both, Just sounds like it is spinning in place. Not sure how it senses how far it needs to push out the antenna for the FM stations. I'll post a picture after I tear it apart today. As an added bonus, I pulled both steering motors just for back up.
Had a new 1996 pull into my local pick/pull. Got both the antenna and radio out of it. I installed the antenna and that fixed the antenna getting stuck at full mast. I installed the radio and finally had the backlight half working. My old radio had been totally dark since I bought the car. It also had the benefit of having all the pixels good too! I had gotten used to not being able to tell what station I was on from the garbled pixels. So, all I had to do was fix the 10 or so lights that weren't working. Ended up buying another radio just to get enough lights to get all the bulbs I needed. It took a few days to solder and check out the bulbs. I now have a perfectly lit radio and won't have to feel with my fingers where the buttons are at night again.
On a side note, I had the car up on jack stands the other day(inspecting for squeaky brakes) and checked out the flanges just behind the cats. It's been about four months now and there was nary a leak. I guess it's a little early to declare victory, but I have a feeling that I've finally seen the last of my cat inefficiency codes.
I bought a valve cover gasket set from China where it took over a month to get here. Wouldn't you know there were only 6 spark plug tube seals when it arrived. Had to argue with Ebay some as they only wanted to credit me $2 for the 2 missing seals. Eventually they relented and said they would send the seals. Hard to say how long they will take to get here. Its okay as its getting too cold to work on that long a repair.
I still have a few niggling problems with the car, but nothing serious. Picked up a Micro Mechanic OBDII Bluetooth reader for $12 and bought it as a lark. Figure I could take that one on trips instead of my good one. Took quite a while to figure out how to pair it up with my iPhone, but it works now.
I've been trying to learn about long term, short term fuel trims and been getting weird long term fuel trim numbers(on both banks) at idle. My idle has been very low for quite some time. Car runs just fine, but the idle has been between 500-600. At idle my long term fuel trims have gone to over 10 on both banks. If you kick up the idle by hitting the accelerator, the long term trims come back to a more normal level. While driving the car the fuel trims seem normal on both long and short term. Only at slow idle have I had seemingly strange numbers. Since I had never cleaned the throttle body, I took it off and gave it a good cleaning. From what I could see it had never been off, and was severely coked up. Below is a before and after picture. I took it for a ride and the idle is way up from before, but I think it will take some time to relearn it's desired speed. I haven't seen any weird long term fuel trim numbers since I did the cleaning.
I bought a Micro Mechanic a few days ago for $12 and spent a lot of time getting it to work. Long story but I finally got it up and running on the lexus. I started poking around at data and found out my long term trim problem had return back with a vengeance. I had thought I had fixed it after the last cleaning of the throttle body. With both banks being bad, I though it might be the MAF going bad- so I took the MAF off to clean it. Sure enough, when I took the MAF off- I discovered about an inch long crack on the other side of the tubing that connects to the MAF. For proof of concept, I duct taped the tubing and put it back together. Immediately my short term and long term added up close to zero. I have to figure this got worse right after I had cleaned the throttle body the first time and the crack just got worse over time. I found a replacement and will take a picture of the tubing when it comes in. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-L...75.c1#viTabs_0
Last edited by jaaa; 12-25-18 at 09:21 AM.
Reason: wrong link
Here are some pictures of the new hose and the packaging they came in with. From the part number that was outside the sealed clear bag it came in with, I have a feeling it might be OEM. It's too cold to change it out today(right around 0 degrees), but I'll have it in in a few days.
Late edit: Pulled the old one out to compare- and this one is not OEM. The other one had the Lexus part number stamped right on it. But, it seemed to be constructed quite well. Will come back and comment if it degrades at all.
Just had a cell come on the other day and it turned out to be a bad oxygen sensor on the passenger side. I took a look at the voltage of the sensor and it just stayed around .3 volts with little to no movement. Went to autozone and picked one up for $83 which they had in stock. Normally I go to the internet and order, but it wasn't that much more for a Denso part from there. It was an upstream sensor so wasn't too hard to replace. I did have issues with the plastic connector as the locking tab broke off as I was attempting to remove it. As time goes on, I get more and more tie wraps throughout my car.
jaaa,did you use the DENSO Oxygen Sensor, #234-4169? Did you get a sensor wrench or just use a box end and take it out?
Thanks.
Yup, that's the number on the denso. I owned an oxygen sensor socket from before, so I just used it. I even knew where it was because I replaced an oxygen sensor for my grandson on his 325xi last week.
10-22-18, 04:51 PM
