gheitman

Thanks to this Forum I just might of saved $2K . For the past 6 months my 1998 LS400 with 90K miles has been very slow to engage in gear when going from Park to Reverse or Drive (4th,3rd,2nd,1st too). Somebody had posted that CrankShaft Position Sensor might be associated. Well he seems to be right. I have taken it to the dealer and it cost me $70 bucks for them to tell me I needed new $3000 tranny. I took it to local tranny man and he said it would cost me 2k for him to rebuild it......all hogwash. Last night I read this Forum and this morning I cleaned the Crank Position Sensor and the hole it fits into as well as the connector. Wah La ...no more hesitation////car shifts like it did before and smoother, no more minute delay for it to go into gear. I plan on buyiung a new $84 crank position sensor from Rock Auto just to cover all bases.....its very easy to change out.......but for now a good clean was all it needed. For info purposes the sensor is just in front of the oil pan on drivers side and it is held in place by one very easy to access 10mm bolt. When it was bad i could sometimes hear a clicking noise coming from it. But at the time it was faint and I didnt relate the click to the tranny problem....but sure enough it seems that it was related.

I just had my 98 ls400 evaporator changed by an AC shop due to a leak. Totla came to 475$ . They did remove part of the dash. They weree not a lexus specialty shop so I am pretty sure that it is not that disfficult a job. It only took them 4 hours to so the job. :)

Before buying new left side OCV (oil control valve), otherwise known as VVT, sensor I wanted to make sure OCV was bad. Noted that after resetting the CEL light and driving car the CEL light would come back on and car would start rough idle after about 15 minutes of driving around. The OCV is a 12 volt accuated relay that receives its signal from the ECM. Well I noticed that the left OCV worked fine until it got hot and then it was sticking in the open position which caused the CEL and rough idle. So I confirmed it was a faulty left OCV. Went to lexus dealer and they said this part was prone to failure and that lexus had redesigned the OCV and the new part is more reliable ($123). So I changed the left OCV (simle 10mm wrench procedure) and the car has run perfectly now for over a week. No more rough idle or CEL problem. Highly suggest a look into left and right OCV's if you encounter intermittant rough idles and CEL's. 1998 LS400

Had local Lexus dealer change both valve cover gaskets to stop some minor leaks. After driving 5 miles away from dealership CEL and VSC light came on. Back to dealer and he says CEL is code p1349 bank 1 misfire............then he says only $1600 to replace main engine wire harness. Yikes!!!!! I know it was something they did during the valve gasket change on bank 1 (cylinders 1,3,5,7). So I look on forum and find similar code p1349 problems that all seem to relate to the Oil Control Valve (OCV). The car intermittintly idles real rough. I reset the CEL light and it stays out for maybe 10 miles then starts to idle rough again and the CEL and VSC light come on. So i started troubleshooting to save the $1600. Discovered when i unpugged the left side OCV connector the rough idle problem goes away and car runs fine. But CEL stays on.....makes sense that the CEL is still on because left side or bank 1 Oil contro valve is not connected. Anyway wondering if I should replace the left side OCV or just leave it unplugged. Any thoughts out there that might help??? I guess the ECM sends a timing signal to the OCV to adjust valve timing??? Not really sure what to do. Any help appreciated