blake918

When I approach an intersection and merely slow down, e.g., to 5-10 mph, but don't quite stop, once I start accelerating again the car hesitates momentarily and it will then "bang" into gear. The problem is annoying, but I've learned to live with it over the past 4.5 years.

Mine does the same thing, especially when I'm a few cars back at a light where I want to turn right, so you get up to 10-15mph, brake a little, get back on the gas, the rpms go up, and bam. I consider it a triumph when I can make a turn and successfully reapply the throttle! LOL I've only been able to do it a handful of times in my 18 months of ownership. Snow mode helps a little...

I think this might be it...

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...amp;#entry30426

Thanks, Somehow I glossed over the PDFs.

Was under the impression that PO172 was only for drivers side before the cat (B1S1). This is what I changed. That installation went smoothly. I had to pull up the carpet under the brake and gas pedals. I am getting a little intimidated to pull apart the intake to expose the Intake air control valve, but maybe I can change a part of the VSV ACIS circuit.

They mention testing it with a Lexus hand held tester, do you recommend I buy one of these things? I only have an OBD2 reader.

I have to say, I am starting to think I had multiple issues going on. The surging idle and the hesitation on accel. Maybe they are unrelated as sometimes I notice that idle is more steady, but I still get the hesitation problem, and now during the hesitation sometimes a misfire or two.

Yes, I am still driving it to test it out and for short trips.

The manual says that P0172 can be the left or right side, but since you also have a P0133 code, the driver's side before the cat is where I'd start my testing. If you peeled up carpet to change the O2 sensor, you changed the sensor after the cat since the sensors before the cat plug in underneath the car (and takes all of a minute to change). I'd try to take care of the trouble codes p0133 and p0172 before chasing after the components under the intake since I'd bet they have their own set of trouble codes.

I don't think that us mere mortals can buy those Lexus scanners! I hear they are quite costly too (in the thousands). Most of the sensors on the car (like an O2 sensor) can be tested with a basic multimeter.

COMP.pdf

INSP.pdf

CI__P0171__P0172_.pdf

CI__P0133__P0153_.pdf

Haven't found iacv for a 98 on at least two parts sites.

That's because it doesn't have one in a traditional sense. Look at the PDFs I posted; they are specific to the '99 LS. It shows that the ACIS VSV works with the intake air control valve to maintain the idle.

Here's a real life shot of the acis vsv and vacuum tank (found it on CL):

You mentioned wrestling with the carpet to change the O2 sensor, but the manual says that P0172 could be from Bank 1 or 2, Sensor 1 which are the sensors before the cats. Which O2 sensors have you changed so far?

To further beat a dead horse, I bought a manual (a non-hyperlinked set of pdfs) for the ls400 (1998-2000) and did a search on "iac","isc", "idle air control" and "idle speed control", nothing turned up. Maybe it could be part of a graphic and not searchable, but it seems that it is just not mentioned. This is what led me before to believe that it may not have one. So if someone has a picture of this, it would really help. :)

All of the photos so far have not been of a 98-00 LS 1UZFE VVTi engine, so here are some pics of my engine, and maybe someone can point to it on there. After rummaging through my PDFs, I did find some relating to this. I kind of thought it might not have one either since I couldn't see it either, but it looks like it's hidden if I'm looking at the PDF right.

CI__IACV_Control_.pdf

COMP.pdf

Merry Christmas!!!

To clear it, unplug the battery for several minutes, reconnect the battery, and when you start the car up, wait 20 seconds or so for the VSC light and message to turn off before moving the wheel or putting it in gear. When my battery was dying out, the VSC light and message would come on and stay on; the new battery fixed it.

Same mint condition as before. Check out some recent pics down below. Not that hard to do. No snow and no salt sure helps. Even the volvo looks good, will have to post some pics. Your collection looks to be not too shabby. I do like some of the vintage American Iron ... just dig up some of the LeadSled posts I made last year.

Oh yeah, and chelsea just wanted to say hello!

Still lookin' great....except for that left rear wheel!! :P I love your dog too; she's beautiful!

Those are the buttons for heated seats, and traction control, I believe.

Yep, and the headlamp washers too.

So this is a bummer, the car stumbled on me the other day and has had low 400 -350 idles when warmed up(sometimes). I'm pretty sure I need an updated ECU...

Checked my service history on lexus.com and couldn't find any indication that it had been changed.

Anybody ever had any luck with getting corporate to pay for a new one? Car has low miles and was dealer maintained.

Shoulda been a recall!!

Did it die on you? 400rpm idle while the a/c compressor is off is something both of my UCF20s have done. Lexus would really be bending over backward to do a TSB on a 15 year old car. You can peel the carpet back on the passenger's side kick panel and see the part number on the ECU to see if you have the newer one or not. I've seen the updated ECUs on ebay and car-part.com for $125. Here are the new part numbers...

41.pdf

should i replace this for $60. Convince me its worth it guys....

Definitely change that plate. I changed the one in my old '95, and it made a huge difference. That car is a steal. It just needs some minor TLC, and it'll look like new.

Before:

After:

I am a little confused as to what the "power steering control valve" is, or even where it is on the '97. I believe you also called it the power steering air control valve.

I'm referring to the same thing even though I didn't use the same terminology, sorry about that. It's on the bottom, right side of the power steering pump; you'll see two small rubber hoses connected to it. Barring some unforeseen circumstance, you just unscrew the old one and put the old one in its place. As I've experienced, it'll either take 3 minutes, or it will take a trip to the dealer to have them remove it. I'm not sure how much fluid (if any) will come out since I changed the ps air control valve on my former '95 in the midst of replacing the rack (I had already drained the fluid before working on the valve).

I wouldn't say it was worse going in one direction or the other. Do you have video of what your click sounds like? Is it exactly like mine?

I love the marketing platform of Windows 7 "we asked you to tell us what you want, and we listened". Why do I have a feeling most of those comments were "we want a Mac!"

I know, I have noticed that Windows is starting to look more and more like Mac OSX. And, that's fine by me, I want the market share of OSX to stay low so that we continue to be overlooked when it comes to viruses and such--why terrorize 5% of the market when you can get 95%??

Apple is the VW of the computer world!!!!!!!

Except Apple is extremely reliable and dependable, and overall, VW is not.

Also consider that the road speed indicated by the Garmin GPS is not exact but an approximation. I've had three different Garmin GPS devices and none have been advertised to be perfect.

My Garmin shows exactly the same speed that K and Ka band radar speed signs show, and it shows the same speed as my car's onboard trip computer, so I have 3 different devices that are in agreement that the speedometer shows the wrong speed -- which is enough to convince me. As it was said before, the car knows how fast it is going; the speedometer is where the problem lies.

My '99 is off too (with stock sized rims and tires), and it drives me batty. The trip computer, GPS, and radar speed signs all show the same 3mph error in my car, so 3 against 1, and LS's speedometer is the loser. It's kind of ironic that Lexus tries to slow you down by 3mph when they make a car that goes 150mph. Some claim that 5%-10% error is "acceptable." Right. I've driven many GMs with perfectly accurate speedometers, so this obviously isn't rocket science.

I've grown to live with it by using the on-board trip computer, Garmin, or judge the speed based on the RPMs. I know for sure that before my next car purchase, the Garmin is going to go on the test drive with me. I took a video of mine a while back...

This was one of the funnier Halloween cartoons that were sent to me ....

That is reallllllly awesome! B)

I recently purchased a 1992 Celsior and I believe it has a lower gear ratio than the LS400. My engine is revving about 2450 RPM at 70 mph... seems fast to me. As such, I am only getting about 23 MPG on a Canadian gallon... and that is mostly highway at 70-75 mph. Car only has 43,000 miles on it and is like new. It has the options in the back seats to entertain my teenagers and let me drive.

I see others are getting better economy with their similar year LS400's and wonder how they do it? I put in a higher flow air cleaner but no difference. Smooth engine... incredible. In fact, I have the Toyota boat with the very same 4.0L V8 but rated at 300hp... most likely due to no intake and minimal resistance on the exhaust. What an engine it is... absolutely the most economical on the lake by quite a bit.

How fast does the LS400 rev on the highway? Any other suggestions to get better mileage?

I'd love to ask the engineers of the car why the revs are so damn high on the hwy. I've had 4cyl and 6cyl rental cars that don't come close to the rpm range that the LS does on the hwy, and they did just fine running the rolling hills we have here. I believe the Gen I cars run a little faster than Gen II, but my '99 runs...

-70mph = 2200rpms

-75mph = 2400rpms

-80mph = 2600rpms

Sounds like you might need a tune-up if you are getting less than 23mpg. Despite the gearing, I get great hwy only mpg, 27-28 mpg with the a/c on, and I always run 5-10 over the 70mph limit. I inflate my tires more than most since I hate how mushy 30psi or whatever they call for feels, I run a good synthetic oil, and I keep on top of all the maintenance items.

Wow, that sounded like fun Landar! I had to drop the pan on my '99 to change a solenoid, and luckily, it went very quickly and smoothly -- maybe 2 hours to drop the pan, clean it, change the solenoid, and put it back together. I let the the new FIPG dry overnight (yes, overkill, but it has sealed perfectly.) before refilling with T-IV.

Although this job went very smoothly for me, I certainly wouldn't do it for the heck of it. There are better ways of killing time than scraping FIPG off of the pan!

I picked up the front shocks (KYB's) for 68.67 per and the rears are 71.03 per. I just put the fronts on and they're fine and I'll do the rears later. They ride just fine. Slightly stiffer, but I'm ok with them.

That's a great find, thanks for posting the link! That's even cheaper than I've seen them on ebay (all 4 are $325 shipped).

I'd skip the air ride. You are looking at big money to replace it when they start to leak, and as far as I can see, strutmasters hasn't made a conversion kit yet.

Its 12.8 hours in labor just to replace the lower control arms on my ES...at a standard shop rate of $85/hour (which is cheap) just that is $1,000!

13 hours? That sounds like a bit much. I don't know if there's something special about the ES's suspension design, but it doesn't come anywhere close to taking 6.5 hours per side to change the LCA on a LS400. On my LS, it's more like 2 hours/side (maybe 3 if you've never done it before).

Also, can you warn me of any other potential risks I have in buying a car this old?

The new power steering pump and egr pipe are huge pluses. The only other major thing I'd worry about is the starter. The starters on my past '95 LS and current '99 LS both died at 150k miles (different ages though); luckily, those repairs were taken care of before I bought the cars. The starter and power steering pump (since it will eventually kill the alternator) are all that will really stop a LS400. Suspension mounts, bushings, etc. and motor and trans mounts can get costly very quickly, but they generally won't stop you from driving where you need to go. The timing belt job is $1,000 - $1,500 at a shop or dealer, so work the price down to compensate for that expense.

I loved the MB deisel. That's the first vehicle I've ever driven that if someone didn't tell you it was a deisel, you would have never known it was. It's that quiet inside and out. And if it were up to me, I would have gotten it. The MB deisels are known for billions of miles on them. lol! But this was an 09 left over and they really wanted to get it moved. So for the price I paid, I was fine with the 3.5 liter V6.

Thanks, good to know! I rarely hear anything bad about modern diesels! I only wish there were as many diesel options as there are hybrids. It's a shame we'll probably never see a Accord diesel.

And the swing rear gate was a huge negative for us as well on the GX. Not to mention that we both like the looks of the ML over the GX, but the GX wasn't terrible either. Speaking of which, why does the LX look so stupid? Even Land Rovers look cool now, and they are the ones that started the whole stupid looking SUV thing. LOL!!

Another thing I have found on the MB that I am beginning to like is the MB's version of "On Star". Pushing that button and hearing a voice come on and say "How can I help you?" is really cool! there is another button just over the rear view mirror with this James Bond style toggle swtich cover that you press and it drops down to reveal another button that says SOS on it. If your ever in trouble and you push that button, the police and emergency help is automatically dispatched to your GPS location. There is another button in the center console with a wrench on it that does the same thing, but it only sends your road side service to you. Of course if your in an accident, and the air bags are deployed, you don't hve to press or do anything. It automatically dispatches emergency services. My wife really thinks those features are cool. Of course I pointed out that I hope we never have to use them.

I agree the ML does look so much better than the GX! The GX is too tall and disproportionately thin. I'm not a fan of any of the new Lexus SUVs. I think the new RX looks much, much worse than the LX. The front of the new RX is the worst. I had to sit next to one in traffic the other day. At least it was black, so it kind of hid some of the ugly lines! lol I think they are trying to do the family resemblance thing that the Germans do, but they just can't get it right, while the Germans get this perfectly right. I think the best Lexus styles came in the late '90's and early '00's when each model was unique.

That SOS thing sounds great if you ever get in a crash. I like that some of the new Fords can call the police via Sync if you ever get in a wreck, so there's no monthly fee like with OnStar.

I wouldn't have considered the GX right now since it is so old, and I absolutely hate that stupid swinging rear door!

I hate that door! I know several people with GXs and Rav4s and all of them hate that door...

I'd love to know why they chose that type of door. Not quite as bad was that 60-40 split type door (part hatch, part tail gate) they did on the previous gen Land Cruiser (maybe the LX470 too?). Why not make it easy and go with a hatch??

Say blake where is the transmission oil refill plug?

I believe you just fill it where the dipstick goes into the transmission...

Yep, on the LS400, you just refill through the dipstick opening.

I've been using Rhino ramps for my Lexus oil changes for almost 6 years now, and I love them and never have any trouble getting the car up on to them. Luckily, my arm is long enough to reach the transmission drain plug without having to put the car on ramps -- makes it quick and easy.