chilkoot

I started doing my own transmission drain/fills about a month ago, switched out about 4 times since then. one day as I was leaving for work my car was making a loud whining noise that got louder with rpms. It sounded like an old 4-cyl that was revving up, a very thin sound if that makes any sense. While I'm at work that day I periodically check on my car and notice that the tranny fluid dipstick is bone dry, and there's fluid around the drain plug (cheapo Advance Auto gasket failed). I freak out thinking I borked the transmission running it dry. I put about 2 quarts of T-IV in it, the level reads fine now while running in park, it behaves perfectly normally. at no time (even when it was 2 quarts low) did I notice any difference in transmission behavior. So naturally at first I assumed this loud whining was my transmission tearing itself apart, however now that the fluid level is fine the noise has still not stopped. with the hood open standing in front of the car it sounds like it is coming from the left bank of cylinders. I would suspect the power steering pump, but it really sounds like it's coming from the holmhertz resonator beneath the throttle body. I also checked for pulley wobble, none visible. The noise hasn't gotten any worse since it started, but it's louder than the whole rest of my engine (not really saying much though). I did recently re-route my vacuum lines to bypass the IACV, so I'm thinking that's the only other possibility. I've had a low idle (400 since I got the car and recently 200), and bypassing the IACV made absolutely no change to the car's behavior, even after disconnecting the battery. The goofy thing is that since I've gotten this noise (~1 month after IACV bypass) my idle sticks at 600, and the car has throttle response I've never experienced with it before while giving it much less gas. anyone got any ideas? could it still be the transmission? the noise is obnoxious, and I'm actually a little embarassed to drive it like this.

it's entirely possible that there's a short in your dash and the fuel gauge is incorrect. very common on 1st gens, not so sure about 2nds. or your float could be stuck. try to fill it up again and see if it takes more than 2 gallons.

could be any number of things, headgasket being the lowest on list of possible suspects. 1. could be condensation in the exhaust, if the owner rarely drives it and/or only ever makes short trips with it. how long did you drive it? 2. could be power steering fluid burning due to a leaky IACV, check the intake tract for any signs of liquid and see if it's short of PS fluid. 3. could be low on gas. my LS smokes when it's under 1/8 of a tank, stopped when I started keeping the tank full. 4. could be that the previous owner was careless and changed his oil every 10k miles, the first three are easy fixes, the fourth is a waste of a fine automobile. Headgasket failures are all but unheard of on these cars, and highly unlikely unless the car's been allowed to overheat - like pegged to the red.

I could easily be wrong, but I don't think a fuel pump would lead to glowing cats. Your description of power loss in post #5 sounds exactly like an ls running on 4 cylinders. however, IIRC if you can see your cats glowing red the honeycomb structure inside is already hosed, so while a dead cat may not have been your original problem I'd bet money that it's an issue now. my vote still goes to that second ignition coil.

symptoms also seem to possibly indicate a bad coil. your glowing cats are a direct result of the misfire, IMO. Does your car seem to have no power beyond 1000RPMs?

I replaced with NGK Iridiums, supposedly identical to stock and you can get them at Advance. They work very well, worth every penny. At that age I would suggest wires too, but make sure to use OEM.

i got seat vibrations at those RPMs in park when I had bad motor/trans mounts, but it was not really noticeable at speed, and my cruise control was just fine. I'm throwing my .02 on motor mounts

I've had a slightly low idle since I got my car, it starts normally and idles from 1100 down to about 600 as the temp gauge approaches the first bar. It would idle, and still does, perfectly at 600 with the temp gauge between 1/4 and 1/2. Almost immediately as it reaches full temp, it would either idle at 400 or 600, seemingly at random, like the engine hunting for an A/F it liked. This never really bothered me as it's unnoticeable inside the cabin except for on the tach. However, since it's gotten hot outside it now idles at either 400 or 200 once it gets hot, and now instead of hunting between the two it's more often than not at 200, with the needle touching the zero on the gauge. The idle sounds just fine, you wouldn't know it if you couldn't see the tach. When it started idling at 200 I bypassed the IACV out of desperation, but it made absolutely no difference in the car's behavior. I've replaced all of the ignition components within the last year except for the coils. The air filter is fine, it revs to 4k RPMs smoothly, so I doubt the fuel filter. The battery has also been disconnected multiple times with no change in behavior. The car drives smoothly otherwise, but 200 is about as low as an idle can go without shutting off on me in traffic. Now, what is funny is that when it's idling at 200 I can depress the pedal slightly and keep it at 400 RPMs, does this point to a mis-adjusted TPS?

if it makes you feel any better, the 1st gen thermostats fail open, so if it does go south the temp gauge sticks at the second needle and not the red one. I can only assume that a '99 would be the same.

head gasket failures are very rare on LS's. If you just bought it, more likely that the oil has not been changed in years and has broken down. change the oil and see what happens. the cats should have nothing to do with that. if they are bad you will smell fuel and they will glow red as the engine bogs.

wwest sounds right on. I had the same problem in my Taurus, recurring problem of only hi fan blower speed would work. Turned out there was a leak in the windshield that dripped onto the fan speed resistor board and fried a series of replacement boards, each time same symptoms. High was full unregulated voltage and never went through the fried board, so as only the lower speeds ran through the resistors, only the resisted speeds were cut off when the board fried. side note, some water got inside of my blower motor and caused some corrosion. it sounded like a cricket was living inside of my AC ducts.

I don't recall ever hearing about a vent, as far as I know there are only two ports on the differential, the drain and fill plug; otherwise it is sealed. A vent wouldn't really have any function as I understand it. Aren't the differentials a fairly simple gear system? I don't see how a "leak" could be anything more than a simple seal, it's at the rear end of the car, it's not like it's hooked up to a pump and a reservoir.

I get ~400 miles/tank highway, ~300 city, with a '93. if you're really getting 25mpg mixed i'd like to see how. how are you figuring the numbers? 25mpg is not unheard of on the highway, but that'd be quite the lucky owner. 20mpg highway and 16-18mpg city is typical. check and double-check your numbers if you think you're getting more.

how many miles since your last transmission flush?

i too have this problem, and am very curious to know the answer.

you were given all the advice that we could have reasonably supplied you with given the miniscule details you've mentioned thus far. we requested more information to help you further, but haven't gotten any yet. ball's in your court, chief.

I forget what they call it, but there's a service where you send in a quart of your used oil after a change and they analyze it for wear materials, essentially telling you the condition of your engine. If you're positive it's not the ACV then that would be a good place to start. check your PS fluid if you're not losing any oil, the smoke has to be coming from somewhere. at what RPMs does the smoke start? will a WOT run make your car smoke, or only extended highway travel at high RPMs?

aarman is correct, it was 15's until '93, when 16s became standard. you should have more options than any other gen given that you have the smallest brakes, and brake clearance is one of the bigger factors. come to think of it, if you're stepping to 17s or 18s you may want to fit some '93-94 brakes to it so that you can stop the extra rotating mass.

FYI, posting in all caps is obnoxious.

with the door lock sticking, does it start to move and get stuck about halfway? when flipping it over manually is there more resistance than usual? if so, I'd venture a guess that somebody removed the door panel previously and didn't take care to make sure that none of the insulation tar was in contact with the lock rod. same thing happened to me when I replaced my window motor. Try taking off your door panel and seeing if the rod moves freely.

ajowan...I don't see how this could be true, provided the replacements front speakers are component and correctly rated. I could see the head unit not playing nice with a non-OE amp, but speakers?

Denso is the OE manufacturer of spark plugs, wires, caps and rotors. I would not be surprised in the least if they made the AC compressor too.

could you possibly take the undercover off and get a picture of where the oil is? the cover makes it really hard to tell where the oil is actually coming from, and without anything more specific we'll do nothing but alarm you if we start guessing. if you can't get a picture there are a bunch on LexLS that show the underside of the car, take off the cover, check it out and MSpaint an arrow in where it's dripping down.

i can also vouch for the improvement, idle vibration completely gone, and can say that if you're getting them changed for $350 at a dealer you're getting one HELL of a deal. my local indie got $475 for the motor mounts, and wanted another $125 for the transmission with labor of course. If you seafoam it, flush your fluids and change those mounts it will not only feel like a new car but have a new lease on life. FWIW, I was faced with a similar decision, considering trading my LS for a Gen4 Taurus in anticipation of $1000 in suspension work during this next year and I decided against it. It was a purely emotional decision.

I'm not sure if this could cause the issues you're having, but there are V shaped clips at the top and bottom of each set of pads that act as spreaders to keep the pads off of the rotors when you're not actually braking. They don't look very important, and they're easy to overlook on a brake job and twice as easy to lose - but new Lexus pads don't come with them included, so if he lost and/or damaged one they might have been deemed "unnecessary" and been omitted. worth a quick check.