New Owner Questions: 1991 Ls400

[thenewmexican]

Hello All.

Today I purchased a 1991 Lexus ls400 for a very, very good price. It has 150K mi,

and is in good condition. All electricals work, except the drivers side window. The instrument cluster shows flawless. The seller also had most of the repair records, as well as the owners manual. And. The body is flawless.

The seller informed me that there was a problem with the Airflow sensor.

And that the serpentine drive belt needed to be replaced ASAP.

I test drove the car before purchasing, and noticed that when doing a fast acceleration from a dead stop, the vehicle felt like it would kind of stutter.

However. When building up speed gradually, after a dead stop,the car ran just fine.

Also, when going above 50mi/per, the vehicle stutters, and could not get to speeds above 50mi/per, which the seller had informed me of.

Since the seller had informed me of a bad Airflow sensor. I did some cursory

trouble shooting by disconnecting the wire connector from the Airflow sensor.

I noticed that after disconnecting the Airflow sensor, that it had absolutely no

affect on the engine idle. I thought this was peculiar. But. It still idled just fine.

I also observed that the drive belt was in fact, in desperate need of change,

and, also, very loose.

So much so that while driving home. The belt shredded itself as I pulled the car into my driveway, after driving to my house from the sellers home.

Also. The right tail pipe is covered in black soot. While the right tail pipe

is clean.

On the bright side. This car drives like a dream. I thought. Damn

what have I been missing all these years.

I'm going to keep this vehicle. So. I plan on investing some money in into it.

Any ideas on -

Is the vehicle stutter problem an Airflow sensor issue or something else.

Why the serpentine drive belt would shred in such an extreme fashion.

Why the right tail pipe is covered with black soot.

Any pointers/help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[python]

belt=bad tensioner, or some other failure of a pulley on ur system, check all pulleys with the belt off

black soot could be a direct result of the stuttering problem, maybe a bad coil or coils, also u would have a cel coming on if u had a bad sensor

[thenewmexican]

belt=bad tensioner, or some other failure of a pulley on ur system, check all pulleys with the belt off

black soot could be a direct result of the stuttering problem, maybe a bad coil or coils, also u would have a cel coming on if u had a bad sensor

Thanks for the reply. I'll check the things that you mentioned.

The CEL is on.

Thanks again.

[jcrome04]

...check the codes, it will tell you exactly what the problem is.

[python]

the cel on an obd1 system will not tell u what exactly is wrong, it will only point u in the right direction, from there its a matter of testing and process of elimination