Buff Of Smoke Came Out Of Under Hood

[mr.nite]

My 1992 LS400 (just bought 2 months ago), released a puff of white smoke with a very bad odder (like rubber) smell while my daughter sitting in the car playing her iPod via Cassette tape player. At that time, engine was not turned on, but ignition switch was turned to position 1 for radio to be on. After a while, a puff of white smoke came out. It was a lot of smoke, but it didn't last long enough for me to open the hood to see where it came from.

After that, engine could still start, but all the instrument warning lights, like brake, coolant, oil / gas level were came one and stayed on. I check all fuse, they are all look perfectly fine. Couple days before that, we saw same kind smoke came out from exhaust pipe, again it was just a puff and not enough to sort out where and why.

More history of this car, not sure if it contributed to the smoke. We bought this car knowing it leaks of Power Steering Fluid as we saw marks on ground, and seller admitted it too. We thought we would just fix it. But the garage where we brought to, ended by changing PS Fluid Pump. It didn't fix the problem. We brought it back 4 more times; it was, however, never fixed. The leak was visible because we could see fresh puddles of oil every morning. Since we were tired of bring it back and not get fixed, we started to claim for money back, and meanwhile we just add fluid weekly or so.

After a while we didn't see fresh puddles anymore and could not figure out why, but we still needed to add fluid, but not as often.

On the second day after a big puff of smoke came out of under hood and all lights came on and stayed on so long as engine is on, car went dead in the middle of driving.

I have read much on this board, and learned that the smoke may came from PS Fluid due to the failure of ACV (Air Control Valve). This starts to make sense of why my car went dead, it must busted the Alternator. But we still could not sort out why the smoke, and if the smoke has any contribution to the car dead or the warning lights stayed.

Another thing noticed right before car went dead, was radio went off. But later on, when tow truck driver tried to turn the ignition switch, we saw the radio came back on.

Desperate need help here please for any pointers.

thanks, mark.

[nc211]

Nite, man I hate to say it, but this sounds like the classic worst-case scenario when it comes to the power steering pump failure. You have three things going on. 1) your pressure valve is bad, which is pulling the fluid into the engine, which is giving you that puff of smoke. 2) your pump seals are bad, and had probably filled up your alternator with fluid, which I hate to say, has probably killed it too. You know the pump is still leaking, even after all of those trips to your local indi mechanic. I suggest you document this with a video camera or still photos with a time stamp, or even better, have your local newpaper sitting next to the car when you take the picture, to prove what date it is. THEN, I would inform the indi shop of their continuing failure to fix your car, and their mistake has now created even more problems. If it were me, I would give them 3 options to make this right by me; 1) give me full refund for entire proceedure, 2) have them share in the repair bill from the lexus dealership, or 3) be prepared to have a complaint filed with the BBB, and possibly small claims court. I have absolutely no tolerance for people who say they can do something, but clearly can't, and offer nothing more than a "sorry pal" response.

The white smoke in the engine bay, is probably the electrical current passing through the alternator from the battery to your stereo. The reason why I say it's probalby full of fluid, is because it's probably shorting out the electrical current from the battery. I highly suggest you don't mess around with this anymore and get it fixed, because to me, it sounds a little too close to possible engine fire to make me comfortable.

To save you some money: You're in it for some bucks, there is just no getting around that. You might beable to have the alternator rebuilt with new brushes "do a search, I think dcfish knows how to do this". I also suggest you check out the rebuilt stuff from Maval?? "sp?"... they have rebuilt racks that are great "talk to SRK". I suggest NO MORE general indi mechanics. Either find a lexus specialist in your area, or pony up for the dealership to fix it. If you do go the dealership route, I suggest you price your parts from www.lexuspartsonline.com first, or one of the others from www.parts.com or www.irontoad.com. Use this information on part pricing to negotiate your prices with the dealership's parts department, remember to include $20 more for shipping. I have done this, and saved about $400 on my driveshaft replacement from my wobble days. Told the dealership I could get the part for $850, they wanted $1299, sold it to me for $899, which was right in the ballpark if you include shipping and the hassle of mail order.

I have learned, that sometimes the dealership is the only option. This is usually when you have something major happen. You pay extra for thier service, but it's done right the first time "most of the time", and if it isn't right, they'll make it right! In the end, for this level of repair, you can acually come out ahead if you go the dealership route, because you're not fixing extra stuff that broke due to the indi's flaws.

[mr.nite]

Nite, man I hate to say it, but this sounds like the classic worst-case scenario when it comes to the power steering pump failure. You have three things going on. 1) your pressure valve is bad, which is pulling the fluid into the engine, which is giving you that puff of smoke. 2) your pump seals are bad, and had probably filled up your alternator with fluid, which I hate to say, has probably killed it too. You know the pump is still leaking, even after all of those trips to your local indi mechanic. I suggest you document this with a video camera or still photos with a time stamp, or even better, have your local newpaper sitting next to the car when you take the picture, to prove what date it is. THEN, I would inform the indi shop of their continuing failure to fix your car, and their mistake has now created even more problems. If it were me, I would give them 3 options to make this right by me; 1) give me full refund for entire proceedure, 2) have them share in the repair bill from the lexus dealership, or 3) be prepared to have a complaint filed with the BBB, and possibly small claims court. I have absolutely no tolerance for people who say they can do something, but clearly can't, and offer nothing more than a "sorry pal" response.

The white smoke in the engine bay, is probably the electrical current passing through the alternator from the battery to your stereo. The reason why I say it's probalby full of fluid, is because it's probably shorting out the electrical current from the battery. I highly suggest you don't mess around with this anymore and get it fixed, because to me, it sounds a little too close to possible engine fire to make me comfortable.

To save you some money: You're in it for some bucks, there is just no getting around that. You might beable to have the alternator rebuilt with new brushes "do a search, I think dcfish knows how to do this". I also suggest you check out the rebuilt stuff from Maval?? "sp?"... they have rebuilt racks that are great "talk to SRK". I suggest NO MORE general indi mechanics. Either find a lexus specialist in your area, or pony up for the dealership to fix it. If you do go the dealership route, I suggest you price your parts from www.lexuspartsonline.com first, or one of the others from www.parts.com or www.irontoad.com. Use this information on part pricing to negotiate your prices with the dealership's parts department, remember to include $20 more for shipping. I have done this, and saved about $400 on my driveshaft replacement from my wobble days. Told the dealership I could get the part for $850, they wanted $1299, sold it to me for $899, which was right in the ballpark if you include shipping and the hassle of mail order.

I have learned, that sometimes the dealership is the only option. This is usually when you have something major happen. You pay extra for thier service, but it's done right the first time "most of the time", and if it isn't right, they'll make it right! In the end, for this level of repair, you can acually come out ahead if you go the dealership route, because you're not fixing extra stuff that broke due to the indi's flaws.

Thanks nc211 for your detailed analysis and explanation. I appreciate it wholeheartly and will follow through you suggestions.

thanks, mark.