M.Yasir

Hello everyone Its been a long time since i posted a problem with my car, i have to say it, maybe it is only happening with me but since 2015 the ownership of my 98 LS 400 is a nightmare, if i look back at the history and calculate how much i have spent, or maybe i just bought a totally non maintained car considering its now a 20 years old car and can beat a S-500 in a race from 140 to 200 kph Problem 1 My car suddenly died on the road, i switched off the engine while i was waiting for my wife to pick her up from her office, when she came and sat in the car and i turned the ignition key a bummer!, sound coming was like hissing or when something is turning but slipping, i was at that time 99% sure that the starter motor had died, and is not engaging with the fly wheel I called recovery and went to a random garage which was open at around 8 PM in the night, the mechanic there told that please leave the car and i will open the intake manifold to see what is the problem When everything was opened and intake manifold was removed, it appeared that the bearing which holds the 9 teethed shaft which turns the flywheel had gone for good and it broke so while i was turning the ignition key the 9 teeth shaft was somehow rotating and was not moving forward to engage with the flywheel Anyway, the headache of finding the right bearing for the started motor, i went to the scrap market here and bought a LS 430 started motor due to the fact that the wiring harness clip in the engine bay was big when compared to an original starter motor of 1998 model, see the picture below of the clip which i am talking about The clip which i am holding is big, well maybe my car is all screwed up anyway, moving forward As you can seen in the below post the magenta color ice cream is being generated since the water bypass gasket was leak and it was reaching to the starter motor Moving forward, i managed to procure all the gaskets and done, mechanic put everything back together and made 1 click start After driving the car for a day or two, i noticed that the fuel economy was extremely poor, you see we have four dividers displayed at the fuel gauge in the dashboard, in my personal experience one box of divider should give atleast 100 miles, so as a total by the time your fuel is almost the E symbol you should have clocked 350 miles But to my surprise in two full boxes of divider lines i.e. in half of the fuel i have only clocked 100 miles which is just ridiculous, gas mileage is reduced to flat 50% Yes there is a check engine light, i pulled out the code, it is giving me P 0330 I dont have a clue from where to start I am trying to pin point the following Knock sensor are damaged (which i want it to be the last resort since the whole intake manifold needs to be open up again) Clogged fuel injectors Any one of the Ignition coil not working properly Please help

I believe i have somewhat similar problem in my car going on these days, i will explain my problem in another post in a detailed way By the way, bank 1 sensor 2 are you referring to oxygen sensor? or the knock sensor? what is the problem you are feeling while you are driving the car? the experience is different or you just feel something is just not right, i would highly advise not to directly jump to replacing the ECU

People just disappear? btw i am still waiting for the delivery of my code reader from new york

If the squeak is coming while you are breaking i would check the life of my break pads or the health of the rotor which would need turning

+1 to that! or Hold the cup in one hand and drive the car from the other hand simple

My best bet would be amazon.com, also it depends on your budget these devices range from as less as 20$ and go up to level of mountain 400$ So make your best bet Edit: I just ordered this code reader today for myself (Autel AL519) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007XE5LTG/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hi I have to say the engine bay is brand new! good job in keeping it that way The list which you have mentioned about replacing/ checked is a big list, but before going into replacing parts, would you mind telling which OBD code reader you have? is it powerful enough to give you correct codes? i would advise you take scan codes from a shop, why i am telling this, i have a code reader (ELM chip) which in my opinion is not strong enough to pull out the codes that well, i have 3rd party software and connect it through my laptop bluetooth Is there a check engine light?, the car hesitates... means is it having hiccups? like jerking? can you cruise exactly at 50 mph at tell the results? i had the same problem but for me the problem was spark plugs were fried i replaced them and the problem went away Knock sensor maybe or maybe the timing belt replacement job missed out something

Single mom of 5 wow, thousand pounds of love and respect and welcome to the forum Can you please tell us a little bit more about the problem the we might be able to narrow down the problem..., try to answer the questions please Is your car cranking but not firing? Nothing happens when you turn the key for cranking? Maybe off the topic but still had to ask, why did you changed the battery? what prompted to change the battery?

where do you plug it in? okay ... find the lever from where you open the bonnet, so from there keep going down towards the brake pedal and you will find a port to plug in the hardware, there is a white color cap for the port remove the cap and there you will see the pins to connect your OBD chip

For me i dont bother with the VSC light since it is intermittent, mostly and almost every time whenever i am in a bumper to bumper traffic the VSC light pops up Yes on cold start ups the light is not there, if you are light is on 24x7, then try pulling up the codes if you are unable to find anything in codes then reset it all the lights will go off and then you may start over and check that during which vehicle movement time the light came on If you dont have a code reader, try disconnecting the battery and then connecting again, by this way you will reset your OBD and all lights should be off

Be reminded that if you are talking about the rear suspension, we are talking a lot of labor in my case (98 LS 400) the whole back seat needs to be removed in order to get access to the rear suspension mounts I would advise be absolutely sure that rear suspension needs some work or not, make sure there is no tyre cupping just like i had in mine which ruined my 1 year old only Pirelly P7 tyres (check the photo), but i believe tyre cupping is caused because of alignment problem anyway that may become off topic I would also recommend to drive to your local mechanic shop and get some advise from there as well, dont just simply go what the dealer says, also better first you stockpile all the parts you have to replace and then go shop by shop how much everyone quotes for the labor

Hi All Long time i am posting, anyway following up with the above post, i replaced the 2 engine mounts and 1 trans mount along with trans filter and wow Car is smooth like butter, and yes the old mounts were broken and completely deteriorated. anybody having LS 400 with 200k+ miles i would highly advise to replace these mounts to make a difference Check out the pics

Same is the case with me, even with Pirelli P7 tire i have vibrations all over the place, saving money to buy good quality motor and trans mounts, and then will report back

hmmmmm...... and hey i did the same as @Lexus_DK advised, and man the motor was about to jump right off from the bonnet! i am almost 100% sure that the mounts which are currently in place have become stone and their date of birth is 1998! Top priority is motor and trans mount @billydpowell 4 mounts?

Sorry forgot to attach the photo of the timing belt record sticker, its difficult to read Overrunning of the alternator pulley is highly unlikely since i installed a brand new alternator which came with the pulley

Thanks for the input @Trevor Catt Harmonic Balancer... i recently changed the serpentine drive belt and while in the process each and every pulley was turning effortlessly, is there a way specific way to check it Over-running alternator pulley? how do i check that, but even before i replaced my alternator with a new one that car had the same amount of vibration Timing belt one tooth out....... well i cannot say since the belt was replaced centuries ago, i am attaching a picture but it is not clear since the date of replacement is faded off @Yamae Engine mounts, my guess would never, most probably it has been running on the same mount since 1998, same applies for the trans mount @Lexus_DK You mean to say put in parking gear and rev the RPM and check the motor if it jumps or moves, hmmm i will do it today and will try to post a video

Hi After driving a 2001 LS 430 just few days back, i realized that in my car i am missing the butter smooth ride quality, meaning there was no vibration felt in the cabin while the engine was running, super quiet cabin at idle and even while driving super quiet, you have to see the tachometer to check whether the car was in start condition or not Comparing to my 98 LS 400 it turns out to be a generator, although i noticed a remarkable difference in ride smoothness when i changed my engine oil to 5W30 Total Quartz (earlier i used to dump in shell 20W50 multi grade due to the price, which now i feel was horrible and made a big mistake), i also changed the differential oil as part of a regular service In neutral or parking gear when i bring the RPM to 3 or 4000 the steering shakes, while cruising at 85 MPH i can feel clear cut vibration at the steering wheel rest alone the whole body I believe there is a lot of work balance to be done, now i am clueless from where to start either from suspension or from the engine mounts or just replacing the shocks will do the magic, bushings, ball joints etc Now since almost 2 years of ownership i have replaced the following parts & Odometer stands at 262,000+ miles Starter Motor Spark plugs (all 8 nos replaced) Alternator Serpentine drive belt O2 sensors Suggestions please

Check engine light blinking, why jumping directly to the poor ECU, check your spark plugs or ignition coils, i had the same issue my CEL was blinking suddenly and car started jerking at 60 MPH while at idle it will not jerk I replaced all the 8 spark plugs and kept the same ignition coil... butter smooth it is

It appears that you have two separate issues 1.) Hissing sound while pressing the brake pedal 2.) Clapping noise while breaking I am not sure of how this hissing noise is affecting you except you are able to hear, are you noticing any vaccum leak while pressing your brake pedal? is it becoming soft? Clapping noise, what i understand is the sound is metallic clapping between the rotor and the brake pad, double check the installation or take help from a friend so that he can observe from outside that actually what is happening when you are applying brakes, maybe there is a problem in the caliper, or you missed something during the brake pads replacement

Best i would suggest is pulling out the OBD codes, and see if it helps, i am sure you will be pointed in the right direction, Lexus dealer most probably would suggest just to simply replace the transmission, that's the best a dealer can do

I researched the internet, it appears that the tensioner is automatic, you need to use a socket wrench counter clockwise only to take the belt off, In my case the belt was broken so there was no point moving the tensioner, i just hope that what i did will keep the things working

Hi all Posting after a long time 3 days back i was driving my car to a restaurant during my lunch break and suddenly power steering became hard and battery symbol popped up, i was luck enough that i was very near to my workplace, I parked my car, open the hood and surprise the drive belt was broken apart into pieces and tangled with the fan shaft, what to say, i was hearing squeaking noise from the belt but i took it lightly, lesson learned that the if there is noise from the belt dont wait replace! Anyway i went to the nearest auto parts shop and purchased the belt and took up the challenge that i will do it myself, first big task was to remove all the broken pieces from the pulleys and the fan shaft which took quite an effort and lots of patience, since the belt contains metal strips so you have to be patient, untangle all the pieces slowly and make your way through Ok now everything was clear but i had no clue what is the procedure to install the belt, i came back to my workplace downloaded some pictures and then went again to my car, i also noticed that under the hood towards the left of the grill, there is a diagram of the drive belt Luckily also i had gloves with me, trust me gloves do help a lot!, i started to insert the belt through the pulleys starting from left i.e. Power steering pulley, alternator, likewise and got stock on AC compressor since the belt was not big enough I tried in many ways i.e. starting from AC compressor and working towards power steering pulley again belt short and very tight you cannot stretch it that easily, after 1 hour i almost gave up Then i thought ok i will leave the center pulley and leave it for the last, i started from the AC compressor worked through power steering pulley while missing the center pulley so that i can have more belt with me but still it was short and very tight to stretch but somehow i just managed to wrap it through the power steering pulley Now the hardest part left, to stretch the belt to put it on the center pulley, let me tell you have to be hercules/hulk to do that in 3rd attempt i was able to manage that much power to pull it up to the center pulley and done! phew I am attaching an illustrative diagram which worked for me along with a photo of the temperature which we have here, you can just imagine Note: no tools are required to do this job (in case your belt is broken)

Without any doubt buy the LS and you will love the ride and will last longer, do remember that these are 20 years old and needs to some periodic maintenance dont expect that it will never break loose Components like starter motor, alternator, spark plugs will fail in the most epic style sometimes but still you will love it

Hi Micah Thanks for your response, i believe LS doesn't allows slow cranking, it will just go blank without giving any signs of warning unlike older mechanical cars in which it will try to crank slowly if the battery is weak Master key- unfortunately not, i still use the valet key, The only thing i noticed that the ABS light was glowing till the end and then when you crank no breathing at all, on the other hand the moment i connected the jump cables with another car just to test ABS light went off This is just my assumption Hi Vissine If the car is not cranking up then it should give proper codes otherwise it will turn the game into guess work which is very dangerous, from what i have researched it all depends on the capability of the code reader both the hardware and the software

very well maintained car, great job