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914lps

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Everything posted by 914lps

  1. Thank you. I know I'm getting the MPG i should be in fact I'm almost on the governments MPG rating. But I would like to get better MPG. Gas is again ging down, but this time next year it will hit the $4.00 mark at the cheepest... In fact 20 miles from me one station is still at 4.25 per gallion over the boarder in California. Here in AZ it is down to 3.11 from 3.25 So more MPG would be nice.. And yes I know for thw wieght power etc... and beibg a 91 this is very nice MPG to be getting as most "new" cars in this class get 26 to 28 hwy ratings at best.
  2. I have a 91 LS 400. Get around 17 in the city and 22 on the highway. I check tire presure and keep it good. Change oil every 3,000 miles Tune up as needed (put new plugs, wires, coils etc.. on about 15,000 miles ago when I did TB). Run 91 Octain ( get less power and mpg with low Octain) Keep overdrive on and power setting to Economy. Pull and clean airfilter one a month or after a long drive of 800 to 1,000 miles Try to not lead foot it. Anyone know of other ways to get better MPG out of a 91 LS??? Have any of you added any after market parts and gotten better MPG? Thank you all.
  3. Hi! Been a long time since I have been on the board. Mostly becouse the LS has been running great after I had the Harmonic Balancer go out ( post on that some place here)... Any way time to be nice to the LS and get it looking better, etc. The Arizona summer has not been nice to the car. The front door switches ( you know window and door locks) on both the drivers and pasanger side have totaly come appart. The wod grain lifted off and the door lock switches came self distructed due to heat warpadge.... I can't believe my 88 ford truck is holding up to the heat better then a Lexus!!!!!! Anyway any one got the complet switches are know where I can get them without buying from Lexus??? I have not checked but I'm sure that Lexus wants way to much $$ for them. It is nice to stop by and use the board again. You folks have always been a help to me, and when I was up you know what creek in 2004 with a meesed up power streeing, finding you guys saved the day and 600 bucks. Happy Holidays to everyone!
  4. I put a claim in on American Family in may of 06. They said it was coverd and would pay one month later. They never gave me any money. Would not return calls. Got an atterny. I was told they most likly would pay claim within 30 days of getting sued as makes suit worth a lot less. 90 days later and not a penny. They told my atterny that claim was coverd, and aporved, but it does not matter that I have not gotten a penny, and that was thier atterny. Good news is makes my case better. Bad news is I have to fix it out of my pocket! Most insurance companies just bet on beating you down till you will go away. Or feel why pay now, when we can pay the same latter?
  5. I put a claim in on American Family in may of 06. They said it was coverd and would pay one month later. They never gave me any money. Would not return calls. Got an atterny. I was told they most likly would pay claim within 30 days of getting sued as makes suit worth a lot less. 90 days later and not a penny. They told my atterny that claim was coverd, and aporved, but it does not matter that I have not gotten a penny, and that was thier atterny. Good news is makes my case better. Bad news is I have to fix it out of my pocket! Most insurance companies just bet on beating you down till you will go away. Or feel why pay now, when we can pay the same latter?
  6. Very interesting! So when it cooled off, the car would start again? About how much didja pay for a new balancer? Am I correct to say that if one of the cam sensors were faulty, the car would still run on 4 cylinders? or??? When your balancer goes out. Your car is dead till you fix it. Just like if your timing belt brakes. Eng temp would not matter. There are lots of things that can make a car run cold, then fail when it is hot. When things get hot they expand, and a part that is getting ready to completly fail may act up when only hot. I have seen plug wires act like this, and coils. But there are other parts that can do it. It is a real pain in the you know what to fix. Find a shop that will work with you. You need to make a list of the parts that can be doing this, and replace them one at a time till you find the bad part. Use known good used parts till you find the fix. I had this on my Saab. Turned out to be the coil. But we first replaced the fuilpump as it was acting like a fuil delivery problme. Car would drive fine for about 50 miles. Then cut in and out, then die. After 5 min it would restart for another 50 miles or so. Ask lexls or some of the other good guys on this board what they think it could be. Good luck.
  7. That is what happend on my car. Also remember the sensor mounted to the balance cover got melted off due to the heat of the balancer slipping.. The effect is something like the timing belt being brorken. I'm just very happy that a 91 is a non-interferance engine.
  8. Try reading the full post. It talks about what to do. If your plugs and wries got wet, they my or may not be OK. If you have driven the car or ideled it for almost any time or distance the water is gone, but the damadge my remain. If you can't understand or follow the post, take your car to a trusted shop and let them know you got the engine wet. It could be a small cost job, or $1,000.00 with parts and labor. Lexus is like a cat. It gets *BLEEP*ed off if you get it wet.
  9. Hard to say on the cost of just doing the balancer itself, as I did the TB etc, at the same time. If your guy replaced the sensor that mounts by the balancer, they should have been able to look to see if it was slipping or not. You need to pull a lot of stuff away to get to the piont that you can see it. Then try to turn the balancer and see if it slips.
  10. Report to the cops, if needed ID the guy, etc. No this guy is not going to learn, etc... But if you report him, maybe, just mybe, no more victoms, and no one gets hurt. Report him, and follow-up on it, then lert it go. He will need to deal with the cops, and your insurance company. But remember, on your worst day, your life and you as a person are 10 time (if not more) better then then his. Last guy that hit my car did 8o days in jail and got deported... My life is much better then his and that's good enough for me.
  11. OK folks, your thoughts on this. Getting ready to pull the tranny pan for the first time in 140,000 miles. I will also flush and fill the trany. Should I just clean the "oil strainer" part #35330-50010, or replace it?
  12. two thought . You are in calif. Burow of auto repair. Yes they do help! Small claims court limi is $5,000.00 if you loose you are out some time and less then $50.00, but if you win! If parts did not come from shop that did the work, I would sue the supplier and manufacter. The fact that you went back again and again to shop helps your case. Also thr facted that you put in a deferant unit, and bingo all is good.
  13. I would say start with tracing the wireing to see if everything is OK. You can also try using a meter on the wires and try moving te wires around and see if the reading on the meter changes. Other things that can do what you are talking about are bad coils (car takes 2, and a bad coil does not always throw a code) low power and or cloged cat or muffler. If you get no luck with wires, or fix them, but still no power, try swaping out your coils, and having a shop check your back persure.
  14. There is a " Make a Donation " link ( paypal ) @ www.lexls.com You mean the one right in front of my face when I'm at www.lexls.com ? Thanks. I sent him a few bucks
  15. I do not get your remark that the dash issue has something to do with the whole car??????????? As for an electricle circut that works when hot but not cold, or the other way around... It is simply a matter of a bads conection somewere.. Most likly a bad soder joint, or crack in a circut board. But it could be a loose wire or a conector not tight enough. But in any event the expansion or conrtraction no matter how slight acts as an on off switch. I'm not that good at "cars", but I do know my basic electrical stuff. Stuff that goes on and off, is always a bad conection somewhere... The trick is finding the "where". As for a 90 LS needing work... Any car this old will need work. I have a 91 with just under 140,000 miles in it. My dad owned it before me. This car has been cared for, and I just put $2,000.00 into it. Now this should keep it runing fine for another 50,000 to 1000,000 miles, but an LS is not a cheep to keep car. And any older car just has old parts on it, and old parts go out. You can buy a used car and throw money into keeping it rumnning (as I do with my three cars), or you can buy a new car for $40,000.00 and watch it become worth $30,000 a year later. But sights like this help with DIY tips and links to discount parts etc.... And guys like Lezls letting us learn from his pain, and others. I found this board when a dealer wanted $4,000.00 to fix my power steering. I would have dumped my 91 LS before dumping 4 grand into just the steering. With this sight I found out it was the power steering selinod and had a mechanic clean it for $25.00... So I saved $3,975.00 in my first visit to this site! In any event paying for a car sucks..... And summer gas prices are going to make it more fun :chairshot:
  16. O.K., if you folks have been following my posts you know I had the joy of a 175 mile tow truck drive, when my car died in the middle of no-where (If you know the area by Hwy 8 where Calif Mexico, and Arizona come togeather, I was about 12 miles from hwy 8 on Ogilby road). Thought my timing belt at just under 140,000 miles or the water pump said a suden goodby. Well turns out putting off doing the timing belt/water pump was not at the root of the brakedown. My harmonic balancer came apart! The friction heat melted the platic cover with the timing marks on it, at the mounting piont for the crack sensor. Sensor feel off, car died. I did replace the belt and water pump to play it safe, but the belt still looked dame good, and so did the pump. As I had to really tear into the car to find the touble, it would have been stupid not to start putting new parts on. Like about $1,200.00 worth of parts. I did the following parts: Timing belt Water pump No.1 idler pulley No.2 idler pulley Timing belt tensioner Spark plugs Thermostat Distributors Rotors Drive belt Air filter I also replaced crank sensor, both coils (never replaced before) all associated seals, gaskets, and O rings. Upper and lower hoses (they had never been changed) and coolant. Also the power steering Air regulator valve (mine was messed up). Oh, and a good used Harmonic Balancer. Lexls, I bought the parts from Lextreme, off the link on your site. I did not replace the Spark plug wires as they had only about 20,000 miles on them. It took the shop I use over 18 hours to do everything on my car. This included taking the car apart to find the problem to begin with. This is a small shop, and my car is the only Lexus they have worked on. As this was a “learning” job for them, they charged me for 15 hours, and that came out to $900.00. So in the last 12 months in addition to the above I have replaced the struts, power steering pump and alternator. So this car should now be very happy……. I got the car back just last Tuesday. I Just did a 900 mile two day drive. Car drove like it was very happy. I even drove right past the place on Ogilby rd, that I broke down at. It is to soon to tell, but my MPG may have gone up by a galleon or so. If so, I would say the new coils are doing a better job then the old ones. Also an update. If you folks recall Pep Boys messed up my car when I was stuck and had to have them replace an almost new PS pump. I complained to the store manager, and was blown off. I complained to corporate thay for some reason, turned it over to the store manager who blew me off again, and killed my complaint. I again complained, very strongly to corporate. I got every penny back from Pep Boys….. I I also fixed that pain in the but EGR code. Poped the cap off the valve, but a new filter on it,and put the cap back on. It took longer to find a filter to cut to shap at the parts store, then it did to do the work. Lexls, do you have a paypal account? It is about time I sent you something for the help I have gotten off your site.
  17. Om my 84 Saab had something like you were having. Was driving my shop nuts. We started swaping out parts...... We finaily swaped out the coil. Bingo! Old coil would only act up when conditions were just right/wrong. But it tested fine. But when we swaped it out car was fine. But it back in, car acted up again. Took it out, car was again fine. But old coil tested fine..... I hope what ever it is you get it fixed. Have you called Lexus corp? At this piont, with all the money you have thrown at the car, they should be willing to help you.
  18. SRK.. Are you suprised? If you have read his posts, you would allready have had a taste of his personality... Not my type or yours...... Now before we start a war, I'm not saying other folks would not side with him, but lets just say that most of the time some knowladge comes with age, and he still has some growing time. Almost everytime I have been shafted etc., on my car it was by a big chain or dealer. Not to say all big guys are bad... There not. I was a big fan of 4 day tire before they closed. and now think highly of America's tire store. My best dealings with car work, have been from small shops where the owner gets his hands dirty. And that's not to say there are not small shops out there that are as bad as any big shop when it comes to messing folks up. As for "they have insurance for that".... Most big shops pay those claims out of thier own pocket. If they put in all those small claims their rates would be though the roof. Thier insurance is for when thier workmanship kills someone.....
  19. It is the thermostate. I just replaced mine and went with OEM, becouse it opens at a lower temp, then the aftermarket ones I found.
  20. Is the 900.00 or so he is charging for all parts and labor, or just parts???? I have a 91 LS, and I just did the water pump timing belt thing.. Now I admit I went nuts and played it safe and replaced a lot of other parts.... But I spent over a grand just on parts (and I bought at a discount). I played it safe and not only did the belt and pump, but rollers, tentioner, seals, etc., along with new cap and rotor and coils. As those parts had 140,000 miles on them I felt best replacing them. I believe job is rated at 10 to 15 hours on a 91 LS400.
  21. Becouse sales pepole don't tell the truth, and the advertising tries not to clue you in about the negative side :chairshot:
  22. I just got a manual for LS Repait. It was suposed to be for a 91. I opened it and browsed around the contents. It is for a 90. Guy I got it from states every thing the same on 90 as 91. I looked at this and I do not think so. In the diagram for the engine, the top looks diferant etc... So, you folks tell me... Are 90 and 91 repair manuals the same?
  23. The onlyu part that "came off" was the sensor and that was still hanging by the wire. The balancer never came off. The iner and outer parts seperated, but stayed in place. So, the iner part just spun free. There was no strange noise. We had no clue till we opened things up, and founf the sensor loose, then whent to pull the cover with the timing marks on it off. We then found that the balancer came apart.
  24. If you saw my post of "No Start. No Spark No Fuel. Cranks Odd?, What killed my 91 LS 400" We now now the truth. Got the car taken apart and found out that the Harmonic Balancer came apart. When it came apart the friction between the iner and out halfs got things so hot that it melted the plastic on the Crank Positon Sensor. The sensor then fell of killing the engine. It was not putting off the TB and water pump. In fact if I had done it last month like I planded I would be real mad now as I would be redoing a lot of the work. I will now do TB etc., and car will be fine.... Until something ells.... When we pulled the radeator it looked like.. Well it looked real dirty in there... Boy was there ever a lot of trash, sticks trwigs, feathers, and just dirt! Any ideas on keeping that stuff out????
  25. The truth comes out! The Harmonic Balancer came apart!
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