stroked4.6

I finally figured out how to remove the EGR. This thing is filthy with a lot of carbon build up. Carbon comes off in chunks when I move a toothpick over it. All data says you have to disconnect the engine wire harness but i couldn’t figure how to do that and it actually might be more work. I disconnected the ECU wiring hoping to pull the wires up enough so I could get a rachet in there but that was useless. I was talking to this mechanic i know and he mentioned using long extensions and a swivel socket. So i went to sears and bought a 17" extension and a swivel 12mm socket. Well it worked great. Now I have to worry about getting it back on. Its 26 degrees right now with a wind chill of 13 degrees so I think ill call it a night. Its so time consuming the first time but now it seams easier. I think im going to make a write-up of the EGR disassembly and reassembly just because its seems there isnt that much tech info regarding this car and it will hopefully help out someone else. GuyTelefunken thanks again for the help :D . -John

Well im almost done with all the basic maintenance items which were neglected for many years. I’ve got two more things to do and they are giving me the most trouble. First off I cant remove the EGR valve and the fuel filter is rusted on. Im trying to remove the EGR valve and can not get the two bolts on the bottom of the EGR pipe off. Im following ALL DATA instructions but they are very vague and im so close but so far. The all data instructions say to remove the heater control valve and wire harness. I got the heater valve off but can not figure out how to get the wiring harness out. It doesn’t seem like there is any way to remove this harness but all data says to so i guess you should. The only problem is iI cant get the ratchet in to unscrew the bottom bolts. Ive got the bolts off the egr and everything surrounding it is removed disconnected. Can someone please help me out? I need to get this car on the road because I need to drive it to school on Tuesday. I’ve been soaking the fuel filter inlet and outlet tubes in PB blaster for the last 3 hours and it still wont budge i put some more on and will try again after school tomorrow. Hopefully I could get this thing off soon. Its been on there for 60k miles and my boss always used the lowest octane so its most likely filthy. Thanks in advance John

Well I pulled the carpet up and took the seat partially out and there the connector was. Well I found out I have the California emissions system in my car. Im in NY and my boss bought the car at a local dealership so I don’t see why it would have this. I guess the car was imported in California? Well I had to go to the auto parts store and buy another oxygen sensor which was $40 more than the one i bought previously. The California o2 sensor has four connectors instead of one. Another thing is the EGR temp sensor which is only on California models which i have. Are there any differences between the California system and the federal system? This is only emissions related right? Does the California model have slightly lower power due to emission equipment?

How many miles do you have on the car? Have you flushed the trans system at all. Depending on mileage or if you have changed it recently i would change the fluid. When doing this look at the fluid to see if there are any particles or black chunks. You might have worn some of your clutch discs or bands. By doing this you will see if any clutch disc material is floating around. You don’t really want to do this if you have high mileage and have not changed the fluid because it will disturb everything in the transmission. But since yours is going anyway you might not have a choice. Next question. Are you low on power at all? If this happens in all gears it might be your torque converter. You should do a stall speed test to see if it working correctly.

I need to replace my oxygen sensor in my 93 GS300 because its throwing a code for it. I tried removing it but cant figure out how to take it out. I know how to remove the oxygen sensor itself but where does the wire lead to? I removed the grommet on the underbody of the car but the wire goes further up to where I can’t access it. Is the wire connection under the floor mat in the interior of the car? This is the only thing I could think of. Any ideas on how to remove the rear O2 sensor?

Yep your right. I bought a SRS module and plugged it in. No light now :D !! Thanks

I figured it out. The whole center console had to come out and it was right under the vents.

I just took out the back plastic tray for the armrest thinking it would be under there and there is just the ducting for the rear a/c vents. I took out the ashtray, center coin holder and tray under the center armrest and there are no signs of the srs module??? I guess ill try and remove some of the a/v vents to see if I can see it under it. Any ideas?

OK cool Thanks

Every car will have its problems. Everyone likes to rag on Ford and American cars but they could take more abuse than any foreign car I could think of. Id like to see a fleet of NYPD and NYC Taxi Camrys and see how long they last. Ford has its share of problems and believe me Lexus and every other car does as well. Sorry back to the original question... Too bad you cant keep both :( . I guess it’s a matter of your situation now and where you plan to be in a couple years. If you have a family I would stick with the Lexus just because its more roomy and more comfortable. But if its just you and your wife I would keep the Mustang. I have a mustang and it’s a great car. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The only flaw is its awful in the winter so i have to garage it. BTW is it a GT? If you ever need any help with it im on a mustang board www.modulardepot.com. It’s a very good informative site. Good Luck on the house!!

Have you checked all the fuses under the hood and in the dash?

Just like the title states I need to know where the airbag module is located. I’ve gotten two answers and wanted to double check on here. Some say its on the right side under the console near the passenger and others say it under the center of the console. Does anyone have a diagram? I called the junk yard and they say they need the code on the module to make sure this one will work correctly. My car is 1993 and the module I will be getting is from a 1995. Can anyone shed some light. This is the last part I need to get the car running like new again (hopefully).

Good thing they replace your rotors you wouldn’t want to do new rotors and pads out of your pocket, especially from a dealership. Well my family has a Suburban and the brakes don’t pulsate at all under hard braking or at slow speeds unless the ABS is activated. This isnt normal and the dealership did the right thing. Rotors dont begin to warp from going through a puddle unless the rotors are very hot and you go through a cold / almost freezing puddle. The main reason for warping rotors are mis-torqued wheel lugs. Almost all the time rotors are warped either from applying the wrong torque or tightening them in the wrong sequence. For the person with the warped rotors at 20K your wheels were most likely torqued down im-properly.

I read those links... Thanks great info. Yeah i think its the airbag module as well. Luckily I have a credit to a junk yard and they have the airbag module. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

Beyond the rim factor which will make the car seem slower the K&N might be the problem. Yes it felt good at first but the oil on the filter can sometimes go into the intake tube due to the induction. I would remove the MAF and clean that. I bet your MAF has some of that K&N oil on it and is messing up with the reading therefore *BLEEP*ting on your performance. And yes I would change your plugs. Im not sure what yours are rated at but I always try and change the plugs on my cars at around 60K miles. Im changing the plugs on mine this weekend with NGK plugs.

Well I was able to check the SRS light on my Lexus gs300 and found out its code 22. Has anyone gotten this before. Luckily its not the airbags themselves but its somewhere in the wiring. Its either grounded or a problem in a harness or the air bad center module. Does anyone have access to a Lexus service manual? Do they have a flowchart I can follow to track this problem down?

I am going to order one of those ebay ones...are they no good? If I were you I would give that one a try. I was going to order that one as well but wanted to get this done over the weekend. I also am taking the engine and trans out of my other car so didnt want to spend that much time on this one. If you do buy this harness would you let me know if it works just for my own knowledge and if anyone else ever wants to try installing a cd player in their car. Its crazy that all new wires must be ran so if this works I bet alot more people would be trying this install. Terrifik1 i'll try and take those pics tomorrow im off from work and school.

At least you have eliminated fuel from the question. Well from there you need to see if you have spark and compression. First I would check to see if your getting any spark from the plugs and then I would move onto compression. Are you sure thats oil on the plugs or unburned fuel? Hopefully its not oil. Did you pull all the plugs and if so is this oil on all the plugs or just a couple?

It’s a good idea to replace the PCV valve every 30,000 miles just like the interval for the trans fluid change. The PCV is a very cheap item to replace and help your car run more efficiently. If I were you I wouldnt do the alternator drive belt (inspect the belt yourself and look for cracks or wear) or valve adjustment. Im new to working on foreign cars but do they normally adjust valve clearances during a 60K mile service?

Is this a very common problem for the older gs300s? I have several pieces of trim which are cracked. Im ordering my kit from http://www.mimousa.com/. They have so many different materials to choose from. You could stick with the stock wood trim look or go with carbon fiber or gray marble wood. Since I have several pieces of trim which are cracked im ordering the whole gray marble kit. I think it will look very good especially with the new stereo. And by the way that is a ridiculous price. Personally I shop around online because I know what some dealers will charge (prime example). When you think about it, its still a Toyota.

Hey there, I got the stereo installed at Circuit City and they did a very good job. It cost $125 with tax just for the install. I had the faceplate (black housing). What they did is run speaker wire from the amp in the trunk to the headunit in the front. The only problem is the sub in the center (rear) of the car doesnt work anymore. He said no matter what you cant get it to work with the aftermarket stereo without another amp. If you still want to do the install i could take pictures of the wires and post them or e-mail them to you. Looking at the wires it should be easy to figure out how to install it. They didn’t hack into the factory harness in the front of the car so if I ever decide to sell it and put the stock stereo back in I could. Im waiting for a marble wood dash kit since the wood trim was all cracked. When its all done Ill post the final pics. I order the harnesses and factory integration kit from www.sounddomain.com. The company that makes the harnesses are: Peripheral. I made sure I could return them if they didnt work so i have to do that now. -John

Dear Lord that seems very very high. Did you go there with a problem? What are they doing that costs $1400?? So just this service is costing you $1400 did they say whats wrong with your car? Unless they tell you whats wrong with the car i wouldnt accept that. Seems like dealership bull to me.

Did you connect the jumper cables the right way? There should be a very small amount of sparks. Did you switch the cables? I actually did this once and thought I blew the computer but with some testing figured out it was the main fuse. I jumped to a conclusion and bought a computer which I didn’t need. Now I have a $250 credit to a junk yard - I guess its all a learning experience. Well your suppose to attach pos (+) first on the dead batt then the (+) on the good battery. After that attach the neg (-) cable on the good battery and you want to ground the other end (-) on part of the dead car's engine block. And when removing take of neg (-) off first then the pos (+) cable. This creates the least amount of sparks. In school we are taught not to jump start a car because with the new computers jump starting could actually send a voltage spike to the computer. If you could I would invest in one of the self contained battery packs which are made for jump starting. I have one and its been very useful. When dealing with the battery always (+) then (-) and to remove (-) then (+). If there were a good amount of sparks there is a good chance a fuse popped. If the car's main fuse did pop the car should do absolutely nothing even with a good battery. You could use a DVOM (voltmeter) to test and see if your getting voltage. Check to see if you getting voltage at the starter before you buy a new one. Hope you get this figured out if you have any other questions Ill try and answer them. Good Luck -John

I tried installing it today with no luck. On that harness wires dont match up and even with my DVOM couldn’t figure out which are the 12v leads. For some reason there is a 12v source on the harness connection that’s not being used. I got install quotes from $110 to $250 just to install this thing. This is just my winter car and wanted to spend the least amount of money possibly. It needs alot of work but I could do all the labor myself. This is my only obstacle. I have everything else but just need some help on the wiring. Im going to circuit city in the morning for them to install it. I hope they could because he said there are 3 wires which should be the ground and 12v sources but with the DVOM they are getting no voltage with the car on. Im really at a loss here. I dont want them to work on it and have to pay them if they cant get it working properly. Im just so frustrated I tried all morning and am nowhere. He says they were going to bypass the factory amp and wire it up that way. Well ill update you guys tomorrow when I know whats going on. Why do jap cars have to be such a !Removed! to work on? Why would Toyota make it so difficult to add an aftermarket stereo or why are there no aftermarket harness that work properly? Now i know why i like domestics so much better.

I just wanted to see if anyone else has a problem with their passenger side mirror. I bought the car used and this has been very annoying. It seems as though the pass. side mirror magnifies everything by 2. The drivers side mirror is fine but whenever looking in the pass mirror the cars are magnified an no matter how i adjust it there is the biggest blind spot ever. You have to totally turn your head to see if there is a car near the trunk. Ive gotten more used to it but I actually almost hit a car because this blind spot was so big. Do you guys think this an aftermarket mirror or something? Would I just be able to buy the glass for the mirror since the housing is in great condition.