morg96ls400

Yes, I bought an aftermarket mast on ebay for about 14 bucks, fit perfectly and has been working ever since (about 8 months so far).

Hi guys, I have pinpointed the clunking noise even further to several possible culprits. First of all, i took off the wooden interior molding around the shifter box, finding that there is a very audible "click" everytime i slightly press the brake down. This is the lock that makes sure you do not shift out of park before your brakes are engaged. However, I don't believe it should be so audible as a loud "click." So i have a theory that the owner before me somehow damaged this part because the shifting linkage underneath the car has quite a bit of play in it like it is loose due to improper shifting. My question is: how do you damage this? My shift from park to reverse is very rough-lots of resistance from the shifter knob as i try to go from P-R. Also, after it does switch, the driveshaft sounds torqued (only in reverse) so much that it makes a metal on metal noise (like a loose joint or worn down driveshaft bushing. It was suggested that it may be a loose heatshield underneath the car hitting something, however it sounds more like a substantial piece of metal (such as the driveshaft or differential) that is making contact to create this noise. I have changed the transmission and differential oil recently, but could this noise be coming from a gear worn out in either one? It is only from P-R cold that this is occurring, and the noise dies down after several shifts. After some driving or it gets warmed up, the noise does not occur. Any help/experience/tips/things to inspect/things to ask the mechanic to check would be very helpful, I'm not inclined to take apart the shifter it self and look to see what's going on as I would have to drop the tranny (out of my league). Thanks for the assistance.

Just bought and installed a whole set of OEM rotors, so far the braking is dead quiet and smooth as expected. I stayed away from the ebay rotors because I've heard bad stories from a friend of mine who works on toyotas/lexus that has seen these drilled rotors off ebay crack/warp under the occassional emergency stop on the freeway. Just beware of the ebay stuff its cheap for a reason :[.

Aha, I've made some progress in finding out what is causing the notorious clank when shifting into R from P. Yesterday I replaced my front rotors and did my oil change, and today I did the rear ones. I noticed that the rear right rotor DID NOT HAVE ANY MOUNTING SCREWS like the other three. WTH? the thing could rotate freely and clank into the hub bolts. The hub itself didn't even have drilled holes for the screws to even go into, so they weren't just missing, they weren't there since it was made. My question is, is this normal or is it a manufacturing flaw? Also, I replicated the clank I hear when shifting from P-R by hand. I did this by moving the rear left wheel while it was jacked up and I noticed that it met some resistance and clanked somewhere inside the rear differential. So I guess I'm gonna have to have someone open it up and see what's going on to cause this. Maybe the fiber joint to the driveshaft has gone out? No clue but any insight's/suggestions appreciated. (BTW i changed all the rotors due to a braking squeel caused by a glaze on the rotors and uneven runout. LUCKILY I only have to remove the pads from the right rear and press that piston in to clear the new rotor because getting the springy little return clips back into the pads was a pain in the a$$ (took an hour just for that). Anyway hope all your summer fixes go well.

Hi I just bought the pipe and gaskets for replacing the EGR pipe as mine is cracked. The question I have is whether there are any parts on the transmission or other things that need to be dropped out (driveshaft, exhaust, etc) that should be inspected/changed out now while everything is taken apart (ie like doing the water pump during a timing belt change). Also, there is some play in the shifting linkage that goes from my shifter to the transmission itself. I can move it around with my hand and it makes a "click" noise everytime I go from or between any of the gears (p-r-n-d-1-2) but makes no noise when actually driving. Also, when I shift from P-R only on a cold start (usually) there is a loud metallic clank like there is something loose underneath. The SAME noise also occurs when I go over those bumpy reflectors in between lanes, and I looked underneath while my friend shifted from P-R and it seems like the whole exhaust torques a bit, but I could not pinpoint where the noise was coming from due to the echo of the undercarriage. Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated, have a nice day!

:whistles: Ok so I pushed the thing open as the motor was moving and the thing popped open like the weather seal was stuck or something, havnt opened it in a while so i guess it made a seal. Problem fixed ;)

Hey guys wondering if you have ever encountered this problem: I went to open my sunroof and it started lowering to slide into the pocket it retracts into but the thing just lowered for a second and stopped, roof and motor. I can move it with the controls back and forth up and down but never opens. It can go from completely shut (thank god) to a lowered but non-open position. The motor seems to be fine, but could it be that the teeth of the motor have broken (like an antenna motor) and that it wont pull it all the way open? Or is it just that something could be broken inside that is blocking the thing from moving open (wouldn't the motor keep trying to open the roof though as i pressed on the control?). Any suggestions/fixes greatly appreciated.

The compound that damaged your coat was the uric acid in bird crap. Unless you apply another factory clear coat or touch up, the damage is permanent, but it will do no more damage once it is removed. Unless it was there for a long time it usually doesnt do any damage.

Hey nc, Did you get these installed yet? Any noticable change/reduction in manual shifting noise/lurch? Thinking about buying these to put in but I wanna hear if they did anything for your vehicle as it seems we have a lot of the same car woes. Hope all is well. Dan

Yeah I bought a new set of mxv4+ at costco, excellent ride now, and the day after I had an alignment (my tires were so bad before due to alignment. Had my motor mounts replaced, replaced my drive belt, replaced the tranny mount, and the car is extremely smooth. I too found a ton of weights on my wheels, so when I get the money again I'm gonna have the dealer rebalance the tires (stupid costco also chipped the outside of one of my rims...grr).

Just bought a set of mxv4+, so far they are great, dry or wet. Nice quiet smooth ride, too.

So, I did a few things over the past couple weeks. First, I cleaned the throttle body-faster response on the gas pedal, cleaner, more nimble acceleration. Second, I had the motor mounts changed. Wow, difference was amazing. Third, Got new tires, no falkens at costco, so I went with the michelin mxv4 energy luxury touring. Nice tires, 150 a pop, but the car drives smooth as glass now. Fourth, replaced the tranny mount this afternoon myself. Easy as cake, and now it seems all the problems are fixed. No more vibration at 75-80 mph. No more clunk noise when shifting. Lurch is very reduced. Smooth idle, drives like new (or how I would imagine it to feel new). So it seems all I need to do now is the brakes, egr pipe, and drive belt (which I ordered from park place, will put that in on thursday) to get rid of squeeling noise, now temporarily gone thanks to wd40. Anyways, it seems that I have the car that I thought I bought back in february. Feels good. Thanks for your guys' help!

Throttle plate and interior walls are exactly where the name implies, on the throttle body facing the inside the intake chamber. Hence, being able to clean this area thoroughlywithout removing the throttle body as you suggest is impossible. When you disconnect the throttle position sensor you remove it from harm's way, as you do not spray the exterior of the throttle body, just the interior walls. Also, when you clean the intake chamber you wipe out after you spray, doing this several times to remove the layer of grime. Being careless and spraying it too much, leaving it in there and starting your car immediately WILL damage things. I believe the 00-present have electric throttles, so i'm not sure if those are disconnected more easily (a simple connector for example) rather than the actual cables.

Throttle body was easy to clean, mine only had a thin layer of grime on it, but after cleaning the change was very noticable. The car was more responsive, felt less sluggish than it had prior to the cleaning. My car is a 96 LS but the procedure should be fairly similar: BE PREPARED: about 1.5 hrs, buy a new TB gasket from dealer (about 2-3 bucks), and a can of TB cleaner ( I Used valvoline synthetic, worked very well. Getting to the throttle body: Remove all the plastic covers off the engine and fan, disconnect the maf sensor, remove the air filter and intake. You will see the clean side of the throttle body after you remove the plastic intake. Throttle body removal: First you need to disconnect the throttle cables. I was confused on how to do this, but I then figured it out. There are three, and in order to get them off you have to manually move the metal throttle part back so you can get some slack in the cable itself, and then remove it from the the throttle by pushing it out while clearing the cable of the notch. Do this for all three cables, each one having its own little way of moving the cable around to free them, and then you can proceed to removing all the hoses, throttle sensor, and four bolts that hold the throttle body onto the engine. TIP: In the .PDF for removing the throttle body, it says to drain the coolant from the radiator. THIS IS NOT NECESSARY. Just remove the radiator cap to release excess pressure in the system, and when you remove the two radiator hoses that go onto the throttle body just cover them (I used a rubber glove held on with a rubber band). TIP: For the hoses, most will have never been taken off before, and will seem like they will NEVER come off. This is where good ol' WD40 and a flathead screwdriver come in handy. Use the small flathead to wedge it between where the hose and throttle body couple, and spray some WD40 into the opening you make. This should start the process of loosening the hose, and enough prying and spray will end up with the hose sliding off quite easily, just be patient. Take all of the hoses off before you remove the four bolts, or you will have trouble getting them off. After all the hoses are off the throttle body, remove the four bolts with a deep socket and remove the throttle body. The gasket will probably need to be pryed off as it should be pretty dried out. clean the mating suface before you put the new gasket on. Use your throttle body/intake cleaner and spray it liberally onto all the black gunk you see. You should be able to clean inside the engine side once you take off the throttle body. I used a screwdriver with paper towels wrapped around the end to clean as far as I could reach inside the intake chamber. I sprayed the cleaner everywhere inside and let the cleaner soak several times. After I was done everything was shiny clean and dry. I reassembled the throttle body and put everything back on in the same order. I also noticed the shrink plastic covering on the throttle sensor wires was deteriorated and dried out, i took that off and used some duct tape to cover them up and protect them from being damaged. -After startup, the rpms will be high for a bit until the residual tb cleaner is burnt up from the AIC, so don't be alarmed, just let the system burn it. Overall about an hour and a half of work, well worth it. Save the hundred bucks and have some fun with your car. Spend the money on the wife, good luck! remo.pdf comp.pdf torspe.pdf

Coolant is the easiest to do, all you need to do is loosen the drain plug at the bottom left of the radiator, catch all the old fluid, fill it up, run engine with heat on, top it off and you're set. The engine drain plug for the other bit of coolant isnt worth getting to, as long as your coolant is changed frequently. Glad your ps fluid change worked out without any kinks, good job!