chilkoot

it's worth it, if only for peace of mind.b

are you losing any fluids? it's not the timing belt, as idlers would have been done with it. perhaps a plug or plug wire got fried and it's misfiring? i'm not sure if that would cause a cel or not. you say you adjusted the TPS, is there a chance a random hose got disconnected or severed? maybe a vacuum line? from the fact that you've had to mess with the MAF recently I'd suspect it's on the air delivery side of the engine.

Next time you feel like your '92 needs it rotors turned try doing some hard braking. Sometimes it's just pad deposits built up on the rotors and heating them up will fix the issue. This is especially true if you're really easy and gradual on the brakes, which one is inclined to do driving a car as smooth as the LS.

Have you had any sudden jolts recently from the engine directly prior to this issue? it sounds like possibly your timing belt idler seized and the belt slipped a tooth and mussed up your cam timing. It's not an engine damage issue as your engine is non-interference, it's just a timing belt failure that requires replacement (which is a 100k service anyways, about $1500 for everything). If you just had a 100k service done, then your mechanic didn't install the belt correctly. how long between the seafoam and the bogging?

the flames he's referring to are a term we use for people who bash others needlessly. regardless, I'd bet money that the '92 you're looking at still has the OEM plugs and wires, probably timing belt and water pump too. Don't pay a penny over $4k for that car unless you're absolutely sure everything down to the water pump has been replaced, with dealer records. Also, there were significant changes made in '93, most notably bigger tires and brakes. That's the oldest you'll want to buy a used LS400 unless it's a super good deal (what you're looking at isn't).

Premium is always 15-20c more expensive than regular, so technically the higher the price of gas gets the less of a financial difference it makes whether you're running premium or not. you'll get about the same gas mileage you did with the corolla. and a '92 isn't going to last very long at all if you run 87 in it. period. octane rating isn't about power, it's about stability. detonation is NOT a good thing.

when you flip the tab by hand is there any more resistance than the other doors? same thing happened to me, but it's because i took the door panel off to replace the window motor and after I was done the rod that runs from the actuator to the lock tab was touching some of the black silicon sealant and binding. does the tab move at all with the auto lock function?

yes. running lower than premium can cause knocking (detonation) that can be very stressful on certain engine parts. some do run medium, but my old LS ran like crap with anything but 93. also, make sure it's had the 100k service done or you're out another $1500-2000.

I'm 3/4 of the way through my timing belt/water pump change. the water pump and and thermostat housing are reinstalled, but while I was trying to get the timing belt back on I encountered a challenge: before I removed the old timing belt I set it to TDC, with the L and R cam pulleys at 11 and 1 o'clock, respectively. They have not been touched until today. When I was putting the timing belt back on I tried to spin the L cam pulley a degree or two clockwise to get it to the correct tooth on the belt. I did it by hand, and there was a little resistance but as soon as the resistance gave the pulley spun to almost 12 o'clock. I tried to continue turning it clockwise thinking that spinning it counter clockwise would damage the valves, but I met a lot of resistance when the pulley got to 12 o'clock, a far cry away from a full revolution. This was spinning by hand so that I didn't damage anything if I were doing it wrong, I haven't taken a wrench to the cam pulley to try and spin it yet. The pulley now sits about 30-40 degrees past where I need it, is it safe to use a wrench to push it past the resistance (clockwise of course), or should there even be resistance in the first place turning the cam pulley? Will loosening the spark plugs on that bank help the cam pulley spin more freely? Any advice is appreciated. After I get the timing belt back on it should be smooth sailing. I'll post a long thread on my experience with this DIY once I have everything back together and running, there are some omissions in the LexLS tutorial that make it insufficient for a full guide unless you have lots of patience and time.

...sounds like a bad misfire. similar symptoms happened when I had a full service done to a '90 by my mechanic and one of the wires from ignition coil to distributor was knicked and/or defective and I lost a whole bank of cylinders on my way home. absolutely no power, but didn't shut down on its own.

park in front of a winn-dixie and flip the switch. if you go deaf, it's the radar detector.

I don't see any reason not to flush the fluids. Transmission fluid certainly does wear out, as any informed Taurus owner can tell you. If it's changed every 30k they'll run to 200,000 miles, if never changed The AX's fail from 60k or in the rare case up over 100k. Also, I wouldn't assume that your PS problem is fixed. If it's the '92 it's probably time you replaced the ACV, before it kills your alternator. Also check the solenoid screens and you'll see why it's a good idea to flush the system, contaminants clearly build up. As well known as 1st gen LS400s are for having power steering problems I can't see how anyone could ever advocate a "don't touch it until it fails" approach, especially if you can save your alternator with a little prior care.

I am in the market for a 98-99 right now. I'm curious as to what the deferred maintenance items were and how much you paid for the car. I'm looking at a 98 with nav, nak, &97k that needs tires, brakes and the timing belt-water pump to be done. you're lookin at $1500 in parts to get that '98 back in shape, assuming it needs plugs/wires/caps/rotors too. A mechanic would probably charge $700-$1000 in labor in addition.

AFAIK there's no scheduled maintenance that early. Either something's wrong, the brake pads are getting worn or there's a fluid that needs changing (oil, transmission, etc). You didn't give us much to go on.

the only way to really be sure is to do it yourself, but import mechanics are a good place to start. walk into the office of the mechanic, if they seem to have focus, such as a passion other than mechaniching (maybe boating or porshe racing, the hobbies of my two best mechanics) then that's been in my experience the kind of guy you want doing work to your car. I know that's a little, well, stupid for real advice, but my point was that you have to feel them out. finding a good mechanic is worth the effort, and IMHO you'll click with your mechanic when you find one you trust to work on your vehicle and not take advantage of !Removed! you out of hundreds of dollars when he easily could.

this makes perfect sense, are the pistons always at exactly the same position when the crank is at 0, and it's only the cam pulleys that need two rotations to reset?

I've never noticed any engine braking in either of the LSs I've driven, through good or bad mechanical condition. There was recently a thread posted about how flushing the PS fluid helps mileage by reducing drag on the engine, how are the conditions of your fluid? How old are your idlers/tensioners? If it's slowing down by itself in O/D it sounds like there's undue drag on the rotating assembly somewhere.

In that case, I would wait and be picky. Find one with standard suspension, traction control, nakamichi and heated seats, is maybe 25-30k past its last 100k service. You won't find one much closer to just having had the 100k done, simply because she seller would be insane to sell at that point without major mechanical complication or lottery winnings. Get the color you want. If your son has ever mentioned putting a spoiler on it, disregard his color choice. You can pass that down to him in confidence, that would be identical in major options to the '90 I drove in high school (except for anything 93+ having bigger tires and brakes), and after having driven a Taurus my last 30,000 miles I can say learning to drive in winter on an RWD TC car was much safer and made me a better driver than learning on the '02 Taurus would have been. I just picked up a '93 I'm doing a full service to and expect it to be mechanically fit to run another decade. Water pump, Timing belt/idlers/tensioner, Drive belt/idler/tensioner and sparks plugs/wires/caps/rotors are the big ones to make sure were done, they require removal of engine covers and some "digging in" to the engine. It's not hard, but it certainly qualifies as DIY

I don't think many people in this forum own RX300's, much less with that problem. You may have better luck in the RX300 section.

depends, I guess. If they do fail you can switch to regular shocks, and you'll be able to revamp your suspension. This could be worth it if all other maintenance is caught up. Is the COMPLETE 100k service done, all the way down to rotors/caps, water pump and idlers/tensioners? If so, I'd say take it if you like the price. Try and take it over a few speed bumps on the test drive.

given that it's at 160k with original parts, if you intend to keep the car for any real amount of time and want it completely "tuned up", I'd recommend: Sparks Plugs Ignition Wires Distributor Caps/Rotors Water pump Timing belt/idlers/tensioner Drive belt/idler/tensioner Thermostat All genuine toyota, of course, except for the spark plugs (NGK Iridium IV). About $800 in parts. This will have all of your bases covered in the ignition/rotating assembly.

if you had a mechanic or dealer do it have them tow it and fix it, that sounds like the source of your problem, otherwise a chilton's or haynes manual might be your best bet, it doesn't sound like a very common question.

because the information is sorted in such a way that all of the tutorials are one link away from each other and easily findable, and the creator gives credit where due. the LexLS tutorial I referenced states at the bottom of the page that it was originally posted at the LOC, and he goes on to say that if you have any questions you should not e-mail him directly but post it here for everyone to benefit from. It's an archive of everything here that's generically useful. If someone new joins any forum and asks any common question they hear "omfg search". well, sometimes that's horribly inefficient.

swapping them in would be a pain in the !Removed! due to dash buttons unless you were to rig up a stealth underseat button. If you're looking specifically for an older model with heated seats then there's a higher chance it will originally have been a northern car, so you'll either want a 95+ with rust-resistant body (not listed in Gen1 features, but is in Gen2) or to inspect the underbody carefully to make sure it hasn't seen many a long hard salty winter (especially if it also has traction control). No reason not to consider a healthy Gen1 though, especially if keeping wifey happy is a factor. You could get into a Gen1.5 (93-94, will feel more modern than a 90) that may just outlive you for $5,000, just check for rust (especially on the parts of the frame underneath the coolant tank and power steering cylinder, which are two common leak points). Make sure the timing belt, timing idlers AND water pump were all replaced within the last 50,000 miles, there should be a sticker somewhere under the hood denoting this if it has been done. Stereo, windows and power steering are also possible problem areas, check for a thin layer of oil on the bottom of the car, on the metal thing directly behind the engine under cover. if there's any engine oil stay away, that's an expensive fix and not a DIY project. Another good option would be finding one in need of a service interval. You could concievably find a gen 1.5 for a couple grand, as people get scared of $1,500-$2,000 mechanic quotes (for just basic 100k, then the mechanic tells them it's wise to do this and that and it gets real expensive) for a standard 100k service and dump their cars cheap for newer models when they see it's only worth 5 or 6 grand in the first place. You can do it yourself and replace EVERYTHING (all belts, tensioners, idlers, water pump, plugs, wires, dist. caps+rotors if you've got a garage and a couple days of free time for less than $1,000 in parts with hand tools (you'll have to buy a chain wrench, a breaker bar and a 200ft/lb torque wrench as well as rent a harmonic balancer pulley removal kit, but aside from that a set of socket wrenches will do it). There are guides illustrated with actual photos of the process online and it is fairly straightforward, there's just a lot to replace. If you're mechanically inclined and love projects it would be hard for the wife to argue with a $3,000 Lexus that you know is absolutely mechanically capable of running another 100,000 miles. Doing it yourself means you know it was done right, which is important if you're going to go used and 75k+ miles.

the lexls.com timing belt tutorial in the engine maintenance section has pictures that point out the left and right coils. as for the surging and dying, more info would help us diagnose it. how long did you drive it after replacing the injectors before you ran into problems? after replacing them did it behave normally for a time and this seems like a different problem, or just the highway drive home and after you got it to your garage and shut it down it wouldn't start? how was your mileage between repair and failure? how long as it been since you've replaced your plugs/wires/rotors/caps? any funny smells? fluid levels all normal? you say it surges then stalls, what do you mean by surge? initially surging to 1.5~2k RPMS is normal, obviously. does it even try to idle and just fluctuates like hell until it goes low enough to shut down? how many times will it surge and recede before it dies (not including the initial 2k as it fires up), and how far? about how long does it run before stalling, and has it acted consistently since the problem surfaced? any dash lights at all in the past month? as stated before, why were the injectors replaced, and who replaced them (you, mechanic, dealer?)