Newbie Needs Help

nicemice · May 13, 2007

Hi Everyone.

I'm new to this club. I happened to find you when looking for info on the 91 LS400 I bought back in november with 127000 miles. I took it in to my guy, who is very knowledgable with lexus, had him do some maintainence, timing belt, lower ball joints, tune-up etc. The A/C wasn't working so I had him check it out. He said there was a leak at the expansion valve. I waited till after winter to bring it back to have him do that ($400.00 is this fair?). Needless to say, after installing he found the evaporator had many pinholes in it, another 250.00. After charging it up they found the cooling fans are not coming on and there is not enough pressure on the low side. Unfortunately, the control display is not working, from what I hear, this is common, so he thinks it may be in the control head. He sends it to Lexus, they send it out & rebuild it and send it back. Another $595.00, and he won't know if that is the problem till he puts in in.

I have been reading other posts about this control head problem, that there may be somewhere to get this part cheaper?

I am at a point where I'm not sure to continue with this. He claims the compressor is kicking on & seems to be working, that is the only reason I went ahead with this in the first place. It is no longer leaking, it just isn't cooling down & the fans don't kick on.

Anybody have any ideas about this? Would it behoove me to go ahead & put a new control head in or could this turn into the money pit? Any other suggestions on what to check? It seems that he has been pretty thorough, but he can't guarantee this will fix the problem. I've read of so many other things that go wrong with the air on these older models, window fogging, etc.

Any input would be appreciated. From reading some of the posts, it seems there are a lot of knowledgeable, do it yourself types that post here. I have found a lot of good information. Unfortunately, I wish I would have found you guys before I purchased. I would have known what to look for.

Thanks in advance & keep up the good posts

92Lex · May 13, 2007

Take your car to a qualified auto technician.

larryp · May 14, 2007

Take your car to a qualified auto technician.

I agree. You've been taken for a ride. Don't know how he could know it was the expansion valve unless he took the dash apart to inspect. Probably the valve was Ok and the leak was the evaporator core all along. :pirate: Did he recharge with enough refrigerant?