I dont have a LS but can confirm that the same quirk exists in my corolla. If operating the electric powersteering at idle, lights off, air off, it will almost stall and shudder, but once my lights are on, it is smooth and almost imperceptible (not LS-silent, but smooth like a new-110kmiles toyota)

 

so just for fun at the lights i moved the car into neutral and the revs went up and i moved to drive and revs went down. I will continue to test monitor and post back

 

I've been paying more attention to the idle these couple of weeks.

I noticed that when I start my car in park it idles above 1000 rpm, the engine will not warm up unless I drive for about 10 minutes or so, so naturally I cannot wait or don't want to sit there for 10 minutes, so when I move to drive, the rpm drops significantly to about maybe 600-700. And unlike some who have posted, it doesn't change whether I turn sonethings on or off.

Like I mentioned before the idle does change when I move to N or P or R.

I also notice some vibration in the steering wheel at the lights, when I say vibration I do not mean that I can see the wheel vibrating, I mean when I place my hands on the wheel I can feel the resonance of vibration if that makes any sense.

 

Have you tried to see if your engine is torquing? Have it in D, hold the brakes, and give it some gas. Could be something as simple as motor or tranny mount.

 

you mean hold the brakes as in physically hold the brakes down with my feet and not the parking brakes and give it a bit of gas? as in how much gas? I have to get someone to do it so i need to know what to tell them while i have the hood open and look?

 

Pretty much. Hold the brake pedal and give it some quick gas. You can do the same to check the transmission mount from underneath. There is some degree or movement from the engine but will torque or rock if the mounts are bad. There’s no measurement, it’s something any experienced eye can usually tell. The same goes for the transmission. You can see the transmission lift up above the mounts under load if it’s mount is bad.

Please do not be in front of the car. Don’t hold the gas either unless you’re planning to peel out.

 

I think you should check your engine mounting even if any one of them is broken it will create a vibration because what you tell us about your rpm its all ok .

 

So before I get someone to check engine mounts I decided to do some easy maintenance.

1. I got to the throttle body,, which is the one that is in the middle front of the engine right? not so dirty, I could not get the hoses off so I cleaned what I could. There was some laquer on the engine side of things but not horrible. I however could not locate or determine where Idling air control valve is, I wanted to clean that but I have no clue where it is. I already checked google I thought it would be attached to he throttle body somehow but I did not see it.

2. I cleaned the MAF sensors as well.

3. I ordered PCV valve and it is on the way just to cover my bases.

But when I put everything back together I expected the engine to be rougher bcoz the battery was disconnected . BUT even after the engine is warmed up i still get white steam coming out of the exhaust, it does it from start to warm no change no sign of stopping. I put my hands there and it is basically water. I cannot tell if it has a sweet smell to indicate coolant. When i was doing this it was 8 deg Celcius 84% humidity if you were wondering.

 

And today just a few minutes ago the car threw a check engine light, vsc errors psc errors and went into limp mode. I had to limp home it would not accelerate.. nothing...i'm waiting for a friend to come read the codes etc.