Sc 400 Accerlation

cdamania · March 7, 2004

I have a 1995 sc400 with 154,000 miles. Now at highway speeds the car is a dream, however when driving locally after a stop light, stop sign etc, the car seems to not accerate all that well in the beginning, it seems to be a little rough? Should I be considered or is this normal. By the way, this SITE IS GREAT!

2XLexV8 · March 7, 2004

Good Morning,

Two thing you can do:

1. Run some injector cleaner through the tank, if you haven't done so lately.

2. Have someone familiar with your Lexus clean the throttle plate.

Dirty throttle plates are often a cause of accelleration problems. Since our cars are "drive by wire", we just push the pedal, and wait. On wire systems, we would notice a little harder pedal effort to make the vehicle go.

Most vehicles will eventually have a problem like this, if we're not consistent about keeping the fuel system clean.

Good Luck

AWJ · March 7, 2004

If you still have a problem after that your torque converter and tranny are next. Troubleshoot those.

cdamania · March 7, 2004

Thanks for the help, any reccomendations on a good fule injector cleaner, mind you I am dumb when it comes to car mechanics, that being said, should I add the injector cleaner myself.

thanks

2XLexV8 · March 7, 2004

Good Evening,

There are several brands. I use STP (Black bottle) or Chevron.

It's more important to be consistent, than to spend big money.

You can do an injector cleaning and induction (Throttle) clean at a dealer, but the two together are nearly $200. If it's really dirty, you may want to do this first, then maintain it with regular cleaner bottles that you pour in the tank.

I use cleaner about 4-5 times a year. Averaging $3.85 a bottle, it's cheap insurance.

Good Luck

Bubbles · March 8, 2004

I just need to clarify that "drive by wire" is only on some new cars. That is the gas pedal has no direct link to the engine, but instead uses a computer to sense changes in the pedal and interprets the signal and acts from there. The sc400 is most likely the traditional drive by "metal braided wire", which is extremely similar to the brake lines on a bicycle.