wandawoods

quote from: http://www.babcox.com/editorial/tr/tr110046.htm Straight ethylene glycol freezes at about 8° F, boils at 330° F, and carries heat about 15% less efficiently than water. But when mixed in equal parts with water, it creates a coolant well-suited to year-round driving for most applications. The recommended 50/50 mixture of EG and water provides freezing protection down to -34° F and boilover protection to 265° F in a radiator with a 15 psi cap. If the proportion of antifreeze to water is increased to 70% EG and 30% water, the freezing point drops to -84° F and the boiling temperature goes up to 276° F. Mixtures greater than 70/30 are not recommended because the coolant's ability to carry heat declines as the proportion of antifreeze increases. Straight EG antifreeze should never be used in an engine because it may allow the engine to overheat. Likewise, straight water should never be used because it provides no freezing, boiling or corrosion protection.

for AC fans 'constantly on' issue, have your mechnic check whether AC fan temperature sensor is actually connected to the socket at bottom of radiator or not. it could be accidentally left off when TB job was performed. that's was exactly the cause of my situation. the location of the sensor socket: http://www.apaqdigital.com/ls400/ac_fan_temp_sensor.jpg as for green coolant, review this thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...wtopic=6420&hl= if you decided to go back to red coolant, make absolutely sure the green coolant is 100% flushed out (including the 50% trapped in engine block and heater core). if the red coolant is contaminated with green coolant, the coolant life is reduced to 2-year 30K miles instead of 5-year 150K miles the red one is rated for.

well... like you, I had done everything (wires, plugs, tuneup, dist. cap/rotor, throttle...the whole 9 yards), but still only got 200miles per fill (about 19.5G when yellow light comes on). however, since I stoped warming up car no more in the morning (widely suggested in the forum), it does improve to 240~250 miles per fill. that's a 20%+ improvement! like they said, you get 0-mile per G when car is sitting there warming up.....

you can download the power point presentation by Curt Oberg (member 'obergc') for step-by-step procedure of throttle body cleaning (93 LS) http://www.apaqdigital.com/ls400/throttle_body.ppt (1.5Meg; right-click and save target as...)

this topic had been discussed in detail in the past, but the thread was lost in the big crash. my AC fans were on all the time after timing belt/water pump replacement on Sept/03. the cause was the mechanic forgot to connect the ac fan temperature sensor. after recennected the sensor back on, the 2x AC fans (outside radiators; 2 for 94 LS) have been operating normally since. they will only turn on when AC is on, and off in 10~20 seconds once AC is off. check the sensor as indicated in the picture.

well, air filter and all plugs+wires changed, throttle body cleaned about 3K miles ago, but the works didn't seam to make any difference.

94 LS400 116K about 12MPG 90% city, ECT 'power' on all the time, octain 93 always. my 96 SC400 167K is about the same. I drove less than 20-miles a day, but that can mean 10+ stops (engine on-off) because I work from home office. most trips are to vendors and UPS within 5 miles radius. funny thing is if I turn ECT off, the MPG goes down to 11~10.5 which is on the contrary to some suggestions in this forum.

JP1, do you have a referal lists of good shops in major cities? that will be very helpful! VFM, it may be a good ideal to pin a 'referal' list or a database for folks to add on any good lexus shops they have good experience past and present.

please review this thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=5822& good luck!

you can adjust height of air sus from normal to high or sporty drive, bit i don't believe you can 'turn it off'. air sus can still be good for a few years for a relatively new car, but for a 10-year old 95, air sus can go bad on you anytime and costs $3K plus to replace all 4. unlike conventional sus, when air sus goes bad, it virtually makes your car almost 'undriveable'. it makes your car sinking very low, and even a slight uneven pavement or bump would make you feel like a wild boat ride. also, it's a big risk of hitting pavement on every curb turn. that's how I got a few big bruises on the well of spare tire under carriage. I used to have air sus on my 94, after converted them to hydraulic struts, I don't really feel any noticeable difference. but that can be just a personal taste... for a 95, odds are not good, but it's your call, of course.

this is how air struts look like: and there are 2 extra push bottons assoiated with air struts located left to shift stick: sport-normal and high-normal. basically, you don't want air suspension b/c it can become a time bomb sitting in your wallet. few months back, I wrote an used LS400 buyer guide but lost in the big 'server crash': http://www.apaqdigital.com/ls400/ls400_guide.htm you may want to take a look. good luck!

if you had read the thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...?showtopic=6383 you would notice we had listed all ingredients labeled on red and green. the only difference is OAT is added to red coolant, and green is using phosphate and silicates. other than the differrent corrosion inhibitors, they're both based on ethylene glycol. by some counts, phosphate/silicate forms better protective coating on alluminum. it's not the matter of $6 vs $23 per gallon which I did buy, and of course it's my own business to use whatever I want to use, but I just didn't like to be misled that green coolant can cause corrosion or damage to your radiator which had been said God-knows how many times in the forum.

to follow up the discussion on this thread (Radiator Fluid Flush?!?) : http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...?showtopic=6383 I think this warrants a new thread. Although I am no chemist nor do I intend to introduce a chemical lesson here, but I do want to get the bottom of this confusing issue: green vs red coolant. please read this excerpt from: http://www.babcox.com/editorial/tr/tr110046.htm (it's a very good article, you should really read it if you have concern about this issue) Corrosion Inhibitors (the only chemical differrence between green and red) ============= Because coolant is in constant contact with the metal parts of the engine and radiator, some type of corrosion inhibitors must be used in the antifreeze to protect all metal surfaces from electrolysis. That includes cast iron, steel, aluminum, brass, copper and lead solder. Most conventional antifreezes formulated for the North American market, whether green or yellow in color, contain inorganic salts of borate, phosphate and silicate to prevent rust and corrosion. The additives create an alkaline coolant mixture that typically tests at about 10.5 on a pH scale. The silicates form a protective coating on metal surfaces, and are especially good at protecting aluminum. To ensure that coolant remains alkaline for a reasonable length of time, there must be enough corrosion inhibitor to neutralize the acids formed from glycol degradation that occurs over time. This neutralizing capability is called "reserve alkalinity," and it varies depending on the type and quantity of additives used in a particular brand of antifreeze. Heat, dissolved oxygen, minerals in the water, and corrosion inhibitor reactions at the metal surface gradually use up the corrosion inhibitors. And once depleted, the coolant becomes acidic and corrosion accelerates. The secret to preventing internal corrosion, therefore, is to change the coolant before all the reserve alkalinity has been used up. Periodic coolant changes are especially important with today's bimetal engines and aluminum radiators and heater cores because the different metals create a miniature battery cell that promotes electrolytic corrosion. Aluminum becomes the sacrificial anode, iron the cathode, with the coolant serving as the charge-carrying electrolyte. The higher the percentage of dissolved minerals and salts in the coolant, the better it conducts electricity and the faster the aluminum is eaten away. As long as the corrosion inhibitors are working, the process is held in check. But once they're used up, corrosion starts to eat away. The most vulnerable components are usually the thinnest, which include the radiator and heater core. -- end quote -- it turns out Toyota red coolant is based on OAT (organic acid technology) additives in Ethylene Glycol. the OAT has been surrounded by problems and controversies for GM and Ford, but the main advantage of OAT technology is extended service life: up to five years or 150,000 miles providing that it should never be topped off or mixed with non-OAT coolant such as silicates based green coolant (two years or 30,000 miles). my conclusion: 1. it’s perfectly safe to refill with regular green coolant (phosphate/silicates additives) if you perform a complete 100% flush of red coolant (OAT additives) like at the time you need to change timing belt/water pump or any radiator related works. 2. it seems that green coolant provides better protection for aluminum but red coolant provides extended service life. 3. it’s absolutely crucial you must do 100% flush if you decided to change coolant type. if you are not sure about whether you can achieve 100%, you can either stick with the same coolant type or bring your Lex to professionals. 4. never, never top off or mix with green coolant if you got red in there already 5. use only distilled water to do the 1:1 mixture. the trace contents of tap water or mineral water can react with corrosion inhibitors in the coolant (green or red) and significantly reduce their protective effectiveness. hope this info helps to clear out the coolant confusion.

tansupplyman, $23 toyota long-life coolant (red) from dealer: ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, water, organic acid salt, hydrated inorganic salt $6 'Peak' (green) from gas station: ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, water, dipotassium phosphate, corrosion inhibitors, Silicates, Deformer, Dyes anyway...if green coolant is corrosive to radiator, it must be the phosphate and/or silicates? however, the 'Peak' brand specifically states on label that pretects all metal including aluminum! I buy the idea that don't ever intermix them. so, if one want to flush-n-refill, do make sure it's completely flushed. remember the engine block and heating core contain 50% of total volume (11.4 qt), thus you will need to flush them out too, then refill 6qt (1.5 gallon) of fresh coolant mixed with 6qt water.

well, the bottom line question is: is green ethylene glycol coolant truly harmful (corrosive) to aluminum radiator or not? if yes, it's because of which ingrediant? I just don't want to pay 3~4 times more at dealer just for the color! it could be just a dealer rip-off like whole bunch of stuff they are selling over dealership.

I recently flushed and refilled radiator because of the 'green' coolant was in my 94 LS. however, I think I was misled to do so! it has been stated quite frequently in the past in this forum, the 'green' coolant is harmful and corrosive to the alluminum radiator, so one must use 'red' coolant from Toyota. so, I paid $23 for one gallan of genuine 'long-life' red coolant from Lex dealer. however, by comparing the labels, I found out the active ingrdients in the $23 red coolant are identical to those $6 green coolant anyone can buy at any gas station. my take is that the color doesn't matter! the key is the coolant must be ETHYLENE GLYCOL based which is specified in owner's manual which also calls for 'DO NOT USE alcohol type'. the bottom line is that most 'green' coolant is ethylene glycol based too, so why pay $23/gallon at dealer? can anyone more knowlegeable make clear about green vs red?

purportedly, the 'light-out' problem in cold weather only happens to Gen1 90~94. I believe yours is the first one we heard for a 98. for 90~94 models, the problem is a bad 50-cents capacitor (C212 16V/10uf) on the main circuit board inside instrument cluster. http://apaqdigital.com/ls400/instrument_circuit.jpg http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...15&pagenumber=6 but more than likely the circuit board is different on 98 model, so contact the ebayer on this item: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2452608356 see whether they can handle a 98 LS400. they only charge $175. or check with Jim Walker who knows about this sort things very well: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2452355660 good luck!

Hi Folks, been super busy in last couple of months, hardly had chances to visit the forum. hoped everyone had a wonderful x’mas and new year. I finally got a chance to tackle the fuel gauge problem on my 94 LS. before the fix, the fuel gauge needle could only go up to 1/3 max even tank was full. so I followed the instruction found here to replace C142/C147 electrolytic capacitors on the big circuit board inside instrument cluster. I’m happy to report it works like a charm! the fuel gauge is back to normal. *removing cluster and the 3 darn connectors of course, you must follow Jim Walker’s infamous procedure: http://www.lexusownersclub.com/Lexus_Circu...ard_Removal.pdf I found that the biggest pain in the butt was to disconnect 3 connectors (blue, white & orange) from the back of cluster so that you could take the entire cluster out of the car. on each connector, there is a latch to hold the connector tight in the socket. one will have to manage to press the latch inward and pull the connector out at the same time. it was much easier to say than getting it done because there is very little room behind the cluster and the connectors are pretty darn tight. you need to have lots of patience with very strong fingers too! *removing old capacitors when you have the bare circuit board on your bench, and begin to remove the bad C142/C147, DO NOT just pull the capacitors out. Be very careful not to damage the circuit trace surrounding them. the capacitor can is surface-mount on the component side of circuit board, and you can’t de-solder it from the bottom of circuit board. the two legs (+/- leads) are too short (entirely covered by the ‘can’) to be de-soldered underneath the capacitor can. What I did was to use a sharp nose pliers and ‘destroyed’/removed the capacitor can first, then the two leads were exposed to be de-soldered. *new capacitors the soldering work was not difficult to do, one just needs to use very fine soldering tip and keep your hand steady. the C147 is rated 50V/10uf, and C142 is 25V/4.7uf. however, I couldn’t find 25V/4.7uf at Radio Shack, so I used their 35V (max)/4.7uf, and it works! (note: the ‘V’ really stands for WVDC). pay attention to the orientation of +/- lead from capacitor can. usually, the ‘-‘ lead is aligned with white band on the capacity can. *my remaining issues: 1. oil level warning light is on despite engine oil is indeed at proper level. does anyone know which capacity is to control this warning light? in fact, does anyone have a circuit layout or wiring diagram for the instrument cluster? 2. the coolant temp gauge remains bad on my cluster. I believe it’s the needle itself, not any bad compoenent on circuit board. when I lift other 3 needles (fuel/rpm/tach) by finger and let go, they will return the lowest position immediately in smooth motion, but temp needle won’t do that, it just stuck, and the center dial is somewhat loose and non-responsive. does anyone know how to change out the needle/dial?

this forum has saved hudreds if not thousands of dollars for myself and others alike. a hard drive is just a small token to say thank you and please keep up the good works! according to Steve, you guys may already have additional drive outside the main RAID for data backup purpose, and that's was the cause of losing database files which I am still wondering what had happened. was the script intended for backing up ended up deleting the source files? anyway, the offer stands, just let me know where to send it!

hmmmm....is it really gone!? you guys may consider to add a small 40G/80G IDE drive (costs about US$55/$65 new nowadays) to the server as backup drive. so, anyone with administrative previledge can backup (copy) any crucial data files to the backup drive remotely. what type hardware is in the server? in fact, I have tons of new 40G IDE here! I can donate one to these great forums, just tell me where to send it!

I am in rack-mount server business, and sold tons & tons of servers on eBay. these servers primarily are hosting web sites, ftp sites, and news groups, or forums like this one. my advise is to set up at least a hardware based RAID-1 mirror (takes 2 identical drives) or RAID-5 (takes 3x drives), then none of this will happen. if one drive failed, the system will keep going, then you can just replace the bad one to rebuild the RAID on the background. in fact, if you don't have time to do manual backup, RAID redundancy is the best way to have real-time full backup continuously all by itself! are you running windows or linux based server? are you using IDE or SCSI drive? hard drives nowadays are getting real cheap...you know! seting up RAID-1 or 5 are not that expensive!

this is one of most frequently asked question. the gerneral consensus is 90K. but some members had broken TB at 84K~85K because of the seized water pump. purportedly, you would smell the odor of anti-freeze from seized water pump. material cost is about $450 (belt/pump/pulleys) if all from dealership labor varies from $85/hr at dealer to $30~$40/hr by independent mechanics. it's at least a 8-hour job if done correctly and carefully. you may also want to change thermostat ($11) and two ditributor cap/rotor ($88) inside CAM shafts when they are apart for TB replacement. prices were from AutoZone

few days ago, I had a post regarding my jammed steering column (94 LS400). it was stuck at 'up' most position and refused to go down. so, this morning, with hints from other good folks in the forum, I took sometime and completely fixed the problem. I took some pictures along the way, so anyone with the same problem, present or future, can use these pictured steps to fix it up without hundreds of ‘donation’ dollars to dealership! dealers don't fix parts, they only install replacement parts. the motor is dealer-only item and it will cost you $524 last time I checked. picture#1 take off the box-like cover behind steering wheel by removing two screws at bottom. top/bottom halfs are sort of 'snap on' to each other, the bottom part can be easily removed with the steering column telescoping all the way out. you can leave the top part on. picture#2/#3 with driver door open, unscrew 3 screws, loosen the bolt of the swing-out piece, then the small side panel for the motor's gear box can be removed to expose the blue plastic gear which drives the screw rod above to control the column up and down. remove nut/washer at center axis in front of the gear piece. the gear in mine was somewhat loose after years of use. when up-down button was pressed, it tilted inward and the teeth lost contact with the screw rod. so I had to remove the gear piece in order to put some shim piece as support behind the gear to make it rotate straight again! if your gear has totally worn teeth, then you must find one at junk yard. the gear worth only a few cents but dealer just don't sell it standalone! picture #4 but the gear in mine was kinda difficult to take out, so I made a small ‘hook’ from a piece of flat metal on my work bench and kinda wedged the gear off the center axis by reachng the ‘hook’ behind the gear picture #5 this was how I made the shim piece which must be some sort of ring shape with about 1/4" thickness: I took the cap of an empty ‘fuel injector cleaner’ bottle (long neck), and used my Dremel to saw it into half along rim side. then I took the inner ring which is hard plastic and used it as the shim ring going behind the gear piece. it’s in perfect diameter and thickness for this purpose! picture #6 place the shim ring around center axis, reinsert the gear piece, make sure it is straight and in good contact with the screw rod above. reinstall washer/nut at center axis. try the up-down button again, and BINGO! my steering column now goes up-down perfectly and freely! I assume you know what to do in reverse after that. total time spent: no more than 20 minutes, total cost: 0 dollars and 0 cents!

$3K was including new chain ($700!)/rail/rebuilt all valves/labor to disassemble & reassemble upper engine. I thought it was already pretty cheap considering all that. must agree with you regarding mercedes! they seems AWLAYS have some problems one after another! before the 400SEL, I also had a '88 420SEL which was just about the most disasterour car ever own! again, broken chain before it should, and I changed alternator, starter, steering pump, motor mount, radiator, all 5 belts, suspension, brakes...button/switch here and there, that was $6K in 2-year span, and you are right: IT'S ALWAYS in the shop for something to be fixed up! this IS the major reason I swithced to Lexus by Toyota. no more German cars (no offense to BMW, Audi, VW), enough is enough! hope Lexus will fare much better!

I know this may be a tiring subject already.... the timing chain shall last at least 120k on my Mercedes 400SEL, but it broke at 90K! since it's inside the engine so I can understand why the bent valves occured and costed me about $3K to get it going again. so I'm super sensitive to anything starts with 'timing' after that incident. so, few days ago, I just spent about 2 hours watching my mechanic removing bunch of stuffs under the hood of my LS400 to expose the timing belt which is entirely external to engine. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/albums/LS/ti...timing_belt.jpg so I can't really comprehend the suggestion that a broket TB can damage internal valves. but what do I know.... anyway, both my 'personal' mechanic and lexus dealership told me that 1UZ-FE engine on my 94 LS400/96 SC400 are 'non-interference', and broken TB will not and should not doom the engine itself.