Vehicle Stability Control

[oohryry]

Just wondering if anyone has ever had any problem with their check VSC light on their odometer screen. Sometimes this will happen and it takes control of the gas pedal and the rpm's jump to 2000 and stay their. You have to floor the gas pedal to get the car to move above 10 mph or you can turn off the car for 5 seconds and restart it. You get control of the gas pedal but the Check VSC light is still written across the screen. Anyone have a solution to this bug before I have the dealer hook it up to their computer.

[1990LS400]

The situation sounds very dangerous! I recommend not driving your LS until a repair shop takes a look.

Thanks for letting us know about this potential problem. I love VSC but didn't realize that something like this could happen. It was hard to learn to "trust" VSC but, now that I have, I never want to drive another car without it. Now I wonder if I should trust it so much.

[oohryry]

The situation sounds very dangerous!  I recommend not driving your LS until a repair shop takes a look.

Thanks for letting us know about this potential problem.  I love VSC but didn't realize that something like this could happen.  It was hard to learn to "trust" VSC but, now that I have, I never want to drive another car without it.  Now I wonder if I should trust it so much.

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Found out the VSC isn't the problem. Lexus of Towson pulled the codes and told me when the check engine light goes on it automatically triggers the VSC to shut down taking control of the car. Which means you have to cut off the car and restart it to gain control or if you are on the highway mash all the way down on the accelerator to get enough power to drive the vehicle to the side of the road to restart it. I for one personally just put the car in neutral and shut it down and restart it while I am still in motion.

The problem is with the Throttle Body. They said it needs to be replaced. $1375.00. Wow. What's up with these throttle body replacements. I had my 1991 Acura Legend throttle body replaced because of an erratic idle last year. Fortunately I didn't have to fork out $1000.00 because the throttle body was recalled in 1993 on all Legends. I had to search the internet to find that out. Anyone know of a cheaper way to replace my throttle body on a 1998 LS400?

$1375 is rough. I will probably be driving around with this problem for a while before I go to the dealer unless some miracle pops up on this board.

Thanks.

[nc211]

Man am I glad I didn't buy that 98 GS300 now when I was looking last year. On the test drive, it did this exact same thing. Engine light came on with the vsc light. The car's motion went dead and put me in a very very tight spot, literelly, between passing traffic on my right, and on-coming traffic on my left. I shut it off, started it back up and it was fine. I thought it was because it was very very low on gas. Needless to say, I barked at the country cowboy dealer for not filling it up before hand. Not to mention it was one of our repo's. I work for a bank. You can clean the throttle body yourself I believe. Do a search for it, and see what you find. I haven't had to do it, yet, but I understand it's not to labor intesive.

[oohryry]

Man am I glad I didn't buy that 98 GS300 now when I was looking last year. On the test drive, it did this exact same thing. Engine light came on with the vsc light. The car's motion went dead and put me in a very very tight spot, literelly, between passing traffic on my right, and on-coming traffic on my left. I shut it off, started it back up and it was fine. I thought it was because it was very very low on gas. Needless to say, I barked at the country cowboy dealer for not filling it up before hand. Not to mention it was one of our repo's. I work for a bank. You can clean the throttle body yourself I believe. Do a search for it, and see what you find. I haven't had to do it, yet, but I understand it's not to labor intesive.

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Thanks nc211. I will do a search on that. I have no idea what a throttle body is or looks like. I would think that Lexus would have better judgement and realize the danger of that shut down method they installed while a person is on the highway, considering no one knows to floor the accelerator to get a little power. Glad you are a quick thinker a got yourself out of that bad situation during your test drive. However, I have the say the 98 GS300 is a very nice piece of machinery. I would've had them replace it first, then purchased it if I knew the exact diagnostics before hand. Thanks again for the help.

[nc211]

I agree, you would think they would understand how dangerous this can be. I would hate for it to happen in the rain, or at night or something like that. If you follow the air intake housing from the air filter to the top of the engine, you'll run into the throttle body. It's the part where the black air intake chamber attaches to the first engine component, I believe. It is on my 95 LS anyway. I agree the GS is a sweet machine! I really wanted one, but couldn't find one for my price range, so I went for the LS. Tough trade huh? I guess settling isn't such a bad thing! I wouldn't mind a GS400, I like the inside a lot. Not too crazy about the outside looks, but I really like the interior, a nice comfy fit.