lbinh

I think the extremely hot Texas summer has done a number on my car. The stalling issue has come back and now I have transmission issues. First, I cleaned the TB, intake, and added Seafoam to the gas and that did not help the stalling like a few months ago. I pulled the CEL DTC codes of 24 and 31. DTC code 24 is the Intake Air Temperature sensor. DTC code 31 is the Airflow meter. Does anyone know where the IAT sensor is? I think it maybe inside the AFM meter also. That would explain why I get both the codes 24 and 31. I will try to install another junkyard AFM meter. And now the tranny issues. I changed the ATF fluid but issue still there. I can't accelerate from a standstill with any power and when it finally does get up to 20 mph or more then the tranny shifts fine. I pulled the O/D codes of 62 and 63. Code 62 is Solenoid #1 and code 63 is Solenoid #2. Does anyone know exactly where they are and is it easy to replace? Thanks in advance.

Great tips Lexis, I am not sure what it gonig on but since the weather has changed to cooler weather or the intake cleaning I performed fixed the idle stalling issue. the car has been normal for 4 days now. Timed coincidentily with the cooler weather. The Seafoam in the intake brake booster, seafoam in gas tank, and aerosol Seafoam intake cleaner thru the throttle bottle while engine was running might of also did the trick. That may have freed sticky valves, restored proper compression, and cleaned the EGR components. I will post later if the problem is fixed or that this wass temporary and the issue returned. Let's see how the car does when weather gets above 90 for a longer period. Thanks for the great help Lexis.

The CEL light works. It goes on then off during ignition. It never stays on. Valve and compression tests are beyond my skills. It stalls with AC on or off. Wires (blue colored) and plugs are NGK or Denso I believe. Need to verify that. I will check plugs for residue. Cap and rotor have never been wet. Will check the connections. I will check EGR items next. If that doesn't work then I will replace the fuel filter again even though the car runs fine at all speeds (even WOT) except when it idles then it stalls. What does WD-40 actually do when sprayed and does it hurt any rubber or plastics? I will try that after the EGR check. I will check the PCV valve but I doubt that effects idle speed. Also, I read in some posts that adjusting the throttle cable does not do much since the car's ECU controls the idle.

I have a 1993 ES300 with 170K miles. My problem is stalling at idle. Car runs very good except at idle. Car has Air Flow Meter and not Mass Air Flow sensor. No engine light or codes. I first cleaned the IACV valve with intake cleaner and no help. Then, I just replaced the IACV with junkyard one last week (stalling still there) no help. Then, I cleaned the throttle body with intake cleaner, brush and rag. I ran some Seafoam in the brake vacuum hose. Next, I ran an aerosol seafoam intake cleaner thru TB while engine was on. I added seafoam to fuel tank. All still no help. Fuel filter (1yr), spark plugs(1yr), wires(1yr), cap/rotor(1yr), AFM (used junkyard part, installed about 3 years ago), new air intake hose, new air filter have been replaced recently. I think I can rule out the IACV valve since I just replaced it with a used one. Do you think it might be the used junkyard AFM acting up that is causing the idle stalling? I unplugged the harness and the engine would stall. I replaced the harness and started the car up again and it held idle at 500 rpm. Then, I drove the car and back to stalling at idle it went. Also, could it be the EGR valve and modulator be causing the idle stalling? Can the engine be running slightly too hot cause the idle issue? The weather is getting hotter here in Houston. Maybe a new thermostat and coolant flush help? I am about to vacuum (my mouth)test the EGR valvle and modulator if I can remove it. I will clean it once it is off. I am really thinking it is the AFM since I played with the harness and it gave some results. Is there any way to test the AFM and could that be causing the stalling at idle? Thanks for your help.

After dealing/suffering with Hurricane Ike's fury, my Mechanic replaced R&P for $395 parts and labor. He lifted the car and showed where the passenger R&P boot tore and flung fluid all over the bottom right side of engine. Steering is back to normal feel now. I now need an alignment. He also showed me a torn CV boot on driver side and not to mention the other repairs I already made. Man, beggining to replace a lot of parts at 145K. Better than a car note I suppose. Thanks for all the advice.

Sounds ominous. What could happen if I don't fix it in time?. The system seems to work fine at low speeds. That tells me the power is there but it is suppose to get stiffer at higher speeds which it doesn't. I will get a shop to look at sometime this weekend.

My 93 ES takes a lot of input to steer at highway speeds. Just imagine the easy power assisted steering at low speeds but it happens at high speeds with my car. Just started to do this. It has 143K on it. So just imagine trying to switch lanes or manuever on the freeway and it takes a half of a wheel turn to slowly switch lanes. Not to mention it takes the same amount to aviod things and then the opposite turn and amount to get back. Quite stressful driving experience. No power steering noises or leaks and I frequently replace the p/s fluid with Synthetic ATF for a while now. Any ideas on why this is happening? Thanks in advance.

I replaced the antenna mast on my wife's '94 ES300 a couple of years back. Before I installed the new mast I removed the passenger side trunk panel to gain access to the antenna mast tube and motor. I then unplugged the wiring harness and removed the motor assembly. Once I had the motor assembly on my work bench I removed the cover (I can't remember if it had screws or bolts) to the gear box and found small fragments of the old nylon retractor/extension tape all mixed up in the grease and around the gear. I cleaned out the gear box and repacked it with lithium grease and re-installed the motor assembly before inserting the new mast and retractor/extension tape. I'm not sure what the proper lubricant is for this part but I have not had any problems with the antenna for going on 2 years and it is quiet as can be. Not difficult, just time consuming. I replaced my mast once and it worked fine for about two years. I actually took apart motor assembly to clean and re lubricate with white lithium grease (mine had screws, bolts, and nuts). Had to remove and replace mast again last year due to antennae motor noise when fully lowered. But this time it continues to run after fully lowering and raising. The internal gears look good and I have tried even another new mast with the same results. Could it have something to do with my reassembly of the internal plastic gears? In my attempt to clean out the old grease I removed the center main gear and it popped open revealing a metal retaining clip inside the gear housing. I may have replaced it incorrectly. The metal clip seems like it was designed to stop the gear spinning in some fashion. Anyone know if this could effect the open and close limits of the antennae mast and thus causing the antennae motor gear grinding noise even after installing a new mast? Thanks.

It maybe a leaking water pump. at that milage and age I think you are due for a replacement. look for puddles after refilling coolant around your timing belt cover. Your fan may not be working properly. Check that. it sould operate at normal engine temps. It also might be a defective thermostat. From your post, the fan stops working and then you loose coolant when a boil over occurs. you might loose your coolant because of the boil over and not from an actual leak. Good luck.

I was about to change the fule filter like you but I thought would change the Distributor cap and rotor first. After removal, it did not look that bad as far as wear and carbon buildup. During the removal I decided to inspect the air intake hose I removed to get to the distributor. I used a flashlight and shined inside the intake hose and I discovered a 4 inch crack in one of the grooves as light peaked thru looking from the outside of the hose in a dark area. It was the first groove closest to the intake manifold connection. Apparently that was the stress point when handling the intake hose. I added clear silcone sealant/adhesive to the crack on the outside and on the inside of the intake hose crack. That was done last night and I drove to work this morning with so much more power and responsiveness at low speeds. It was like night and day before compared to before this repair. So, now, I do not have the cold acceleration problems like before this whole MAF meter attempt to clean mess of mine. I think the main problem was a cracked intake hose leaking air into the intake. I did replace the cap and rotor but I think the biggest problem was the cracked intake hose. I might pass emmisions this year if this was an ongoing problem for me. I failed last year's emissions test due to High NOX and High HCs at low speed (15 MPH cruise). I passed the high speed portion and the car ran fine, no CELs. Crack must of been smaller last year not to cause hessitation like this year. Leak might have contributed to dirty intake and carbon buildup plus messing up the fuel/air ratio mix causing High NOX, High HCs and hessitation. I think it definitely caused the hessitation during cold acceleration. Will change the spark plugs with Denso plugs and Seafoam intake/gas tank/crankcase treatment and I think I will pass emissions this year.

What and where is the "cog" that you can tighten to lean the engine?

that's quite a bit of maintenance and problem still exist. gees. at least it sounds like you will pass emissions test if you require one. I did not pass mine and probably needing at least what you have already done. High NOX and HCs at low speed. Have you tried the PCV valve and hose? Have you tried seafoam treatment? Maybe leaks in the intake air hose. Dunno about the cold start valve. Keep us posted.

Cool, glad to hear. I am in your boat also. Hessitation when accelerating from a stop when cold. Please share your fix if you discovered one.

The junkyard MAF meter off a 92 Es300 worked. Engine is back to previous state before I messed up. Let's hope it lasts.

How to clean the MAF meter in 1993 es300? I sometimes had hessitation during from stop acceleration. I tried searching the forum to no avail. Search only resulted in MAF sensors for 94 and later models. After the fact, for 92-93 models, I found out they are aluminum meter boxes and not the typical black plastic sensor you can pull out and clean the filaments. I tried to clean my MAF meter using the MAF sensor cleaning guides on this board and elsewhere. Just a warning to those with the same model years. You can unhook the harness but do not unscrew the sensor and pull it out. You will tear out the contacts on the circuit board and lose your electrical conections if you do. No wonder Lexus no longer used the MAF meters and wen to sensors after 1993. I found out the hard way and forcefully pulled out the connector part (after I removed the screws) which I thought was slightly stuck in the aluminum housing. Turns out it was held in by the soldered connections to the circuit board. What a crappy design. I had to open the silicone sealed black plastic on top of the sensor to try to reconnect the wires and solder the contacts that tore off the circuit board. There isn't anything to clean in there. I thought I did it and resealed everything and installed. Start the car and the CEL came on and the car dies while idling after warming up. :cries: http://www2.lexpartsonline.com/parts/parts...er&dp=false So much for trying to make my decent running car run better. Just picked up another used MAF meter from junkyard and hopefully that will bring back my car. $45 vs $350 local dealer.

Went to another shop for alignment using newer alignment machine and they did a good job. Steers straight and camber is good now. All they did was adjust the toe settings which made the camber settings fall within specs without adjustments. And visually you can see the front tires are square to the road now. Now enjoying my new front suspension after all the headaches, defective replacement parts, multiple shops, and arguing. Thanks you all for the help!

best Supsension (eBay) sent me new ball joints free of charge. installed by my mechanic for another $80 labor. he showed me the ball joints that originally came on the LCAs from best suspension. they were loose and could be easily manipulated by hand. apparently both were defective. he scuffed at the label stating made in China. Wasted lots of time going back and forth b/w shops but money wise still cheaper than buying Lexus LCAs. drove with the new ball joints and the bump steer seems to be gone. car still pulls right and needs alignment to get camber and toe settings in spec.

Might be your ball joint. Lift front end up and use crow bar to lift control arm and ball joint. If it moves, it is defective and needs to be replaced. I am learning the hard way. Another way is to grab the wheel while it isjacked up and turn in and out by hand and if you see the ball joint flex and move up and down then it is the ball joint. Steering pull, bump steer, and aligment problems will exist without replacement. Mind as well check your lower control arm bushings for play using the crow bar also. Good luck..

Got a thrid party opinion. They said it is the Lower Ball Joints. They showed me with a crow bar and it had a lot of play in it. Grabbing the front wheels and wiggling them back in forth with front end jacked up. Each move on the wheel, left or right, the ball joints would flex and move with it. They said lower ball joints are suppose to be rigid with no movement, especially new ones. My regular mechanic first thought that and attempted to reuse the old LCA nuts on the ball joints but that didn't work. Then he assumed it was just an alignment problem. So, with lower ball joint movement, the toe setting would constantly change with strut or wheel articulation and cause bump steer and pulling on the steering wheel. Alignment will do nothing for that condition. The LCAs are new with new ball joints also from Best Suspension on eBay. I emailed them today about their defective product and I am waiting for a response. I am afraid with so much time wasted going to different shops that I am out of Best Supension's 14 day warranty. Bought them on 12/13/06 and delivered on 12/18/06. My mechanic says I might have to eat the cost of new ball joints that he can buy for me. Keeping the new LCAs but replacing the new defective ball joints with new quality ball joints. So, one LCA with defective lower ball joint from Best Suspension $49.99 plus new lower ball joint $45.00 comes out to $95.98 total. Still less expensive than Lexus LCA ($180 a piece w/o ball joints). Just wasted a lot of time running back and forth b/w shops. I will wait to hear from Best Supension on eBay before I buy new ball joints. Hopefully they will refund my money or give me new non-defective Ball joints. I have my doubts about both scenarios.

It is the blame game. I took it back to the Alignment shop and they brought up a good reason why the car has bump steering. I told him the recent maintenance history. 11-09-06 Front Struts and mounts replaced....Car drove fine, no bump steering but golf ball noises still there. 12-20-06 Front LCA's replaced ......No more golf ball noises but Really bad bump steering afterwards 12-22-06 4 wheel Alignment ..........Bump steering remains but less than before. The alignment guy stated that there is something wrong with the Strut mount, bearing, or coil spring install. Said it was not replaced correctly and that threw off the wheel alignment causing too much pressure from springs (hence the increased ride height). He said I never noticed it before because of the torn LCA bushings caused the car to sit too low and with the new Strut replacement they offset each other. He says it wasn't until I replaced the LCAs and that the problem came to light. The LCA restored the proper ride height but the new struts that were replaced incorrectly causing to much spring or increased ride height. Thus, causing too much positive camber and the wheels sit like this \ / and causing bump steer. It does make sense to me since I can really see the postive camber when the car is parked on an incline/hill and less weight is on the front end. When I park on an level/even surface, the camber is less positive and almost in proper alignment. The camber changes depending on the weight placed on the front end. If this is true then my mechanic who replaced the struts did not mark the sturt in order to reinstall the spring/bearing/mount back in correctly. Does this make sense to anyone else? I will take it back to my mechanic and hopefully he agrees and can fix the strut alignment. I feel like a tennis ball. Now at least somehow has a decent diagnosis to go on. I won't take it to a third party just yet.

I got the alignment at another alignment shop. They saw the car's camber was off right away with a visual inspection. The wheels sat like this \ / in the front wheels, really obvious. They put it on their alignment machine and it says it was only slightly off from specs. Strange since it sat like \ /. Makes me question their machine's accuracy. They went ahead and adjusted the camber to "within" specs. They needed to install an additional adjustment bolt($35 part) to fix the left wheel camber which was off more then they could adjust. The camber still looks off to me but it was a huge improvement than before. Could the current camber that looks slightly like this, \ / , be causing this dangerous bump steer? Is this the bump steer you are referring to when it automatically pulls quickly to one side by itself with the slightest turn over bumps? The alignment helped with the really bad bump steer a lot but it still remains. I am very concerned about this dangerous problem and I hope it isn't a bigger issue with something else. Would a camber that is slightly more like this / \ be better and get rid of the bump steer completely? My mechanic who installed the LCA's told me to go back to the alignment place for them to do it again. He said if that doesn't work then he says it is the aftermarket LCA's from eBay that is causing the bump steer. Thanks for the responses and Merry Christmas!

I tried to solve the golf balls rattle in the front of my 93 es300. First I replaced the front strut mounts and struts, mechanic recommended. Rattle still remained. Then my mechanic said I needed to replace the Lower control arm bushings (demonstrated the LCA bushing play with a long crow bar). Got parts and labor quote from him, about $580 for new Lexus LCA's. The LCA from Lexus was about $180 each. I decided it was cheaper to buy parts on ebay (LH and RH LCA $49.99 each, $20 S/H - whole new arms, bushings and ball joints, Bestsupension was the seller) and install by my mechanic ($70 per side), $260 total for new LCA's. I also thought about pressing in new bushings but labor was $100 per side plus $50 per new bushing and you need to use your old LCA's and ball joints. Installed new LCA's from ebay and front end is raised higher quite a bit and the alignment is dangerously off by at least 90 degrees to the right (steering wheel). Plus, going highway speeds on curves with this problem and the car abruptly swerves when going over bumbs. Pretty scary at high speeds. Is it a normal alignment problem after LCA install or did my mechanic mess with the steering components? The steering feels very loose/soft and overcompensatingly sensitive. Will an alignment fix this and give me the normal steering feel again along with straghtening out my sterring wheel? Thanks.

I just had my 93 recharged for $30 (2 small cans). The last time I recharged it took only one small can (2 years ago) and now (last month) it took 2 small cans from a different shop. My question is, does over-recharging the system blow the seals or cause any other damage to AC components? The mechanic was preaching that my slightly noisy AC compressor will go out in a year and that repairing would cost $1000 and that repair would last just a couple of years. Is he trying to rip me off and keep me coming back for repairs? Did he damage my system by overcharging to get me to come back for major repairs? Thanks

I have the same year with 110K miles. I initially failed the test also when I drove it there cold. It was less than ten minute drive. Mine failed. I was puzzled also. I then read somewhere and was told by inspection person that you have to drive the vehicle about 30 minutes on freeway and then take it in for the retest. I did that and retested and it passed. I think it is especially important for older cars testing on the new emmisions test equipment.

Why not remove them just in case and add a dab of silicone grease to the screw threads. It would be a simple precaution. nice job by the way!