1995 Ls400 Trac & Check Engine Light

[JimK]

12/15/03

Hey guys and gals,

New to the forum, but find it helpful already. I have a 1995 ls400 w/ 120k miles. So far it has been dealer maintained in New Orleans.

My Problem:

My car is running rough (maybe hitting on only 7 cylinders?) and the TRAC and check engine light came on at the same time. I had the engine cleaned with oven cleaner, then soap and water five days ago.

What I did:

I took it to the dealer today and they say water/corrosion in the spark plug wire tubes caused it. So they want to change spark plugs, wires, 2 distributors (b/c they're old?) and they also want to service the fuel injection system?!? for $780+ I'm a little bit skeptical. The car has had EVERY scheduled maintenance done up to date, so I found the distributor and fuel system issues kinda out of place. Any advice?

Another question:

Also, the telescoping steering column works only part of the way, but you can kind of coax it into working by moving the little joystick enought times in the direction you want to go. Dealer said that's a $600 electric tilt motor gone bad. Any advice on that one?

Thanks for your help. I love the car and appreciate this forum.

Jimmy Krantz

1995 LS400, 120k mi

New Orleans

[mejojo]

If the wash you gave the engine caused the problem, then it doesn't need all that. In fact, it probably doesn't need any of it (unless it needed it before, anyway).

There is no way that water in the "spark plug wire tubes" caused damage to the other parts, especially not the spark plugs. If there were corrosion, it would be fixed quite nicely with a little wire brush. And most certainly, exposure to water one time a few days ago is not enough for much (if any) corrosion to occur.

The "shotgun" approach to diagnosis only serves to lighten your wallet. "Well, it might be this, and it that might be that, or it might be the other, but all of this should be changed anyway because it's OLLLLLLD" is bs.

I would have a nice chat with the service manager about how I want to solve the problem, and that's all I want to accomplish right now. Who knows what other stuff they'll find that you just HAVE to change out once they get ahold of it...there's always somethin'.

May I ask why you had it cleaned? Was there an oil leak or something? My 92 engine compartment is very clean...there wouldn't be any need at all to use solvents on it.

Joe

[JimK]

Joe,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. Problem is solved.

I decided to go to my independent MB/Porche shop and he found a little corrosion on one of the spark plug connections, but no water in the tubes. After a cleaning all the connections, he couldn't solve the idle problem and trac/check engine flashes. He suggested changing the wires, dist. cap, and rotors for a $415 bill.

I checked the service work done at the Lexus dealer since I bought the car at 70k mi. and they'd never changed those items, only the spark plugs (100k type). After the shock of the $800 estimate from Lexus, I decided to try the independent shop (Greff Auto.) for a while. I agreed to Greff's charges and it did solve the problem.

Certainly, it was ONE of the 3 things replaced that fixed it. I felt that because of the component's age and my mechanic's hourly rate, I was tired of playing troubleshooter and wanted it done. Now I know those items are solid. The engine compartment was dirty b/c I work at a yard with a lot of dust and regular rain which must splash around the engine compartment eventually. We hadn't cleaned it since buying it 3 years ago. We won't be cleaning it again anytime soon (and this time with a cloth, no hose!)

Thanks for your help.

Jimmy

[tansupplyman]

just a comment: use Gunk to clean an engine--not oven cleaner. Oven cleaner will corrode aluminum--read the label. Go to a spray wash--don't use a garden hose for this. Also, watch the alternator--best to cover it with a plastic bag.

[chubyball]

Hello JimK,

I'm glad that I found your post which I have an exact problem with my LS400 '95 Model. I also have missfired on parkplug #7. I had engine code and traction light on I immediately took the car to Autozone to scan the engine code they said that p0302 and p0307 are missfiring.

Since this car 've never been replaced rotors, distributor caps, sparkplug wires and pcv-valve. I go ahead replaced them and also replace those 2 sparkplug head which got missfired. Now the car runs like new at start up. Before it used to hit 1800 rpm at startup but now it hits at 900-1100rpm at startup. I am not used to this sudden change yet still suspect and thought there are something wrong. My question to you is that do you experience the similar idling rpm as I do after you had rotors, distributor caps and sparkplug wires replaced?

Another question to you is that did they reset your ECU after replaced this new parts? Or the Engine light and Tract light just went away by itself?

Thanks for helping!

[wwest]

Anytime the engine diagnostic indicates an engine related failure Lexus automatically disables Trac. In this case the Trac failure light is meaningless except to say its disabled.

I'm amazed that no one told you the engine diagnostic codes. The codes are quite detailed and generally point directly to the failed component.

[JimK]

Yes, you'd think the dealer would have told me exactly what was wrong with the car, but they said I needed all kind of stuff. No thanks, Lexus of New Orleans!

Jimmy K