Check Engine Light Comes On With Hard Acceration

[Volfan]

I am wondering if anyone has experienced this problem before and if so what the problem may be. I have a 94 LS 400 that drives great but today when I accelerated pretty hard the car sputtered and didn't accelerate and the check engine light came on for about a second. I continued driving without any more problems or hard accelerations. A couple hours later I drove again and everything was OK until I punched it and again it sputtered and the check engine light came on for about a second then went off. I am wondering what I might be facing before I take it in to the Dealer. Thanks.

[VBdenny]

volfan,

It really could be many things. Here is some things that might cause this.

gummed up throttle body - easy to clean yourself -$

clogged fuel filter - fairly difficult job

failing fuel pump - not likely, but quite expensive

there could also be some type of electrical problem, but it doesn't sound like it.

TO TRY TO FIX

dump in two conatiners of Valoline Complete Fuel System Treatment ($10/bottle)

disassemble and clean throttle body. Curt Oberg made a great tutorial and I can send it to you. Not too bad a job according to Curt.

Otherwise, take it to Lexus, have the do a diagnosis, and find out what is wrong. It the check engine light comes on it stores a code.

Finally, I would post a new topic and ask how to check the codes yourself. I have read it and you could do a search if you know how. Besides, since the crash, there are many good threads gone.

[Volfan]

Thanks VBdenny for the info and I will give your sugestions a try.

[VBdenny]

Good luck and Happy New year.

[VMF]

if the light came on it means there was an error code and even if the light is off it should be kept in the ECM until you reset it. so try to get the error code out. i'm not sure if it will work on ur LS since i have a gen II LS but i guess its worth a try and might save u some $$

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[mig25]

I agree with VBenny, It could be a fuel related issue, It looks like there was a misfired combustion, due to lake of fuel, or lack of sparks to ignite the mixture in the combustion chamber.

I have a 1990 LS 400 with 135K miles. I removed the throttle body, opposed to clean it in place. It was super gummed up. It was so bad that I had to scrape it with a razor blade first, then I used a wire brush and brake cleaner to clean it an leave it 100% nice and clean.

My engine runs like a champ.

If I were you, I would check if there is any codes stored first, as The previous member advised, then I would do the Fuel filter and make sure you are not due to a tune up.

Good luck, let us know how everything went.

Happy New Year to all of you.

welgaby@msn.com

[tansupplyman]

Concur with all--code retrival would be best. Could be just sparkplug misfire.

Don't know if your state?? has emission inspection; if you have a friend in this, an OBD1 readout will even tell you which spark plug has misfired or anything else.

Also, throttle body cleaning was the BEST thing I have ever done to my car !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone should do it about once per year. Tks--Curt.

[VBdenny]

I meant to do this already but didn't. Now it's a spring project as I am doing some home improvement stuff for awhile. Again, excellent job on the throttle body instructions Curt.

[K9crew]

I saw this today but I've never heard of "Charcoal Canister/Evaporative Solenoids" .... almost sounds like muffler bearings!!

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Reliabil...87&src=vip#Engi

Here's the relevant section from the link above.

An occasional problem on this vehicle is failure of the Charcoal Canister/Evaporative Solenoids. Failure of the Charcoal Canister/ Evaporative Solenoids will cause the check engine light to illuminate. The cost to repair the Charcoal Canister/Evaporative Solenoids is estimated at $289.56 for parts and $78.00 for labor. All prices are estimates based on $65 per flat rate hour and do not include diagnostic time or any applicable sales tax.

I don't know if this is your problem since you have a '94 LS400 and not a '99 but it might be worth looking into.

:)

[JPI]

Go to autozone and have your code read. Come back here with the code and I will tell what is wrong with your vehicle. There are many question asked on the check engine light. I couldn't help you with you don't have the code.

www.jpimportz.org

[xmanpike]

This is the original problem I had with my 1994 LS400, they told me it was a problem with my computer, now I am having similar problems and they are telling me the computer is bad again. What the hell? Did you ever find out what was wrong with yours? email xmanpike@yahoo.com if you did please!

[mann777]

I had the same problem, traced it to the sensors, and most of the failure is the front end sensors on the manifold. try it