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Just finished removing the tint film on my rear window as visibility was fogged up. (94 LS400). I used http://www.autodetail-school.com/window-tint-removal.html - worked great. Just regular windex, one razor blade, one black plastic yard clipping trash bag. Start before lunch (!) Cut the bag, both sides so to spread it into a single film, cover the entire rear window. Spray the windex on the inside and spread the trash bag on the inside of the window. This traps the windex between the trash bag and the tint film. Let the sun shine on the window for couple hours. The heat and windex sweats and separates the film. Peel it out gently with the help of the razor without damaging the antenna / defroster heater lines (0range). Keep soaking with windex and wipe off the glue layer wherever necessary.

its a bad capacitor in the intrument panel. easy to replace. search this forum for exact part value and instructions.

.. the reason I say that is once you look at the hardened deposits, baked varnish inside the engine block, and see how difficult it is to scrape it off, the minor oil left over appears to be the least of the worries.

Oh my god. That has got to be the worst advice I have EVER heard. ← There is more than enough oil resting for this procedure. Turn the car on and off do not let it run. You get an extra 8-10 oz's of the old oil out. Don't be so shocked it occurs everytime you start your car. :P ← better safe than sorry - get some regular oil, fill, run and drain one more time if you want to be so thorough. there are also "cleaning oil" quarts available. You are supposed to run the engine for 5 to 10 minutes with this stuff and then drain the whole thing out. IMHO, Utility is questionable for both the procedures.

For what its worth, I change Mobil 1 on my two LS400s (94 & 96) once a year, every 20K miles -- have been doing it for the past 8 years+ ... engines run beautifully. Even after a year, the oil has good viscosity and drains out well. I started with every 5K but judging from the quality of the oil coming out, I gradually kept increasing the interval from 3 mos to 6 mos till I finally settled at 1 year. However, I do believe that you should start with synthetic at very low miles - right from the get go. Switching to synthetic after 100K .. the benefit may be marginal.

I have been using Mobil 1 on my cars from day one (first one is a 1994 LS400, next is 96 LS400) and I have had no engine troubles. I stand by Mobil 1. I fell in love with Mobil 1 when I bought my first new Toyota some 18 years ago. I had that vehicle for 10 years, used only Mobil 1 and never had engine trouble. I sold it to a friend who still drives it to work everyday and hasn't had engine trouble. Ofcourse, I learnt my lesson the hard way. I bought my first used car (100K on it) The selled did not believe in changing (regular) oil every 3K miles. Soon, I had engine trouble and opened up the valve head cover. I scooped a few pounds of oil sludge, more like hot chocolate fudge, residue from push rod, cam shaft linkage area. So, in my opinion - if you are switching to synthetic after the car has seen 100K miles of regular oil, you are getting very little return on your investment unless the previous owner religously changed (regular) oil at less than 3K mile interval.

Or do what the dealer's mechanic does -- they use a vise grip on the rod at the end of the cylinder which keeps the strut from retracting back!

Search for "Fuel Gauge Fixed" in the LS400 forum. I couldn't find a easy way to locate posts by their reference number.

Lexls is right. I suggest you read post #109959. While you are at it, replace all other caps and one transistor mentioned in the post. Gas gage is the begining - next thing will be flickering needles, loss of speedometer and all speedo lights etc. Do replace all the suspect parts mentioned in the post. If you prep well, read all instructions, buy the parts upfront, it should take you about two hours total - assuming you know how to solder surface mount tantalum caps!

Your problem seems to be a choked up throttle body. When was the last time you had it cleaned?

Dare I suggest "clogged fuel injectors" ? Sorry to hear about all what you have gone through.

Me too! Thanks for starting the thread. ← I still have idle problems, only hesitates at complete stop. ← You need to do a throttle body cleanup. I used some oven cleaner to dissolve all the carbon deposit and the car runs great after that. No more stalling at idle after a long drive. see www.lexls.com for procedure to get to the throttle body.

Quite likely, you need new spark plugs and cables. If so, you will find that over time, the problem will get worse at around 45 mph, 1800 - 2000 rpm.

Me too! Thanks for starting the thread.

Well, it was a nice sunny weekend and I decided to get under the hood. My intention was to just replace the spark plugs and see if that fixed the problem. Once I opened the covers, it was evident that I was duped some 4 years ago! I had the plugs and cables changed the last time around. I found that I still had the original cables from 1993 in the car. Needless to say, I snapped two of those just trying to pull them off the plugs. The plugs still looked very clean which tells me that everything else is running good in cylinders. Special tools needed: You need a 5/8th inch deep (6" deep) spark plug socket (had the rubber catch to snugly grasp the plug) to do this job right. Also, use dielectric grease at the cable contacts. Check plugs for 0.044 inch gap. A long slender pair of nose pliers will be handy if you snap the cable end on the plug. You will have to pull the broken piece off before you can reach the bottom of the plug with your socket. All said and done - the hesitation, jerking, shuddering is all gone now. The engine runs smooth. Conclusion -- old and bad spark plug cables was the likely cause. I did not have the patience to mail order NGK-Iridum and Vitek cables. I went with the local AC Delco after market cables, autolite double platinum plugs from the local parts shop. Will see how long these last. While I was at it, I did my annual Mobil 1 synthetic oil change. I change engine oil every 15 to 20 thousand miles, have always used synthetic oil only. Every year the old oil flows out smooth and clean with good viscosity still intact. This is one of my first LS400s (1994) and I have now over 200K miles on it. Still runs like a champ! As you can see, I am pushing the limits of sanity here with oil change etc. This engine is very well designed. The less you muck with it, the longer it will last!

From all I can make of this problem, you need new spark plugs and cables. Why not do that instead? How many miles since the last change? If over 80K, it may be the better bet.

my air filter is brand new and not related to this problem at hand. no harm replacing a dirty one though. air flow meter and idle control valve seem a remote possibility for this problem at hand ... but do keep us posted as to what you replace and what the effect is.

I have tried an aggressive fuel injector cleaner treatment with zero effect. So, it is quite likely not the primary cause. I cleaned the Throttle body with zero effect on this problem. (Fixed the other problem of engine dying at the off ramp after a long drive.) At this point, I bought a new fuel filter but I will not change it for now. Next thing I will do is change the spark plugs and wires only. I intend to fix one thing at a time and really nail it down because I am so annoyed with this problem! It will be a few months though since this is my third car and gets attention after everything else in life. I will definitely come back to this thread and post my findings. Keep checking.

Thanks for your reply. I see that you did not change the fuel filter. So it eliminates that as a cause. Can you confirm? Thanks.

Even though it's at the top I would think a bunch of coolant would spill out.... Have you done this without draining the coolant or is this just a hunch? Doesn't make much difference to me, just wondering :whistles: . ← I have done it without draining and don't remember if a cup full was lost or a few teaspoons! I just shoved a rag underneath the valve before starting and don't remember it being dripping wet.

No need to drain coolant! The valve is at the highest point of the coolant circuit. Draining the coolant will be a bigger chore than replacing the valve. My two cents!

Please join in this thread: "My Car shudders when idle" started by PK_Lex A couple of other people are reporting the same problem. One of us will find the source. If you do read the codes as suggested by above, please do share on this forum. Thanks.

It is quite straigthforward. One of the hose clamps is rather funky. You have to "unwind" it to make it loose. Spray some WD-40 all over, makes slipping the hoses out a little easier. The leaking coolant corrodes the parts underneath and is a good idea to replace the valve. I bought mine from irontoad.com for about $70 including shipping.

If you are planning to clean the TB using the procedure on lexls.com ... here are my 2 cents. TB deposits cause dying at idle after a long drive due to deposit blocking the clearance for idle air flow between the disk valve and the throttle body. Open the the valve by pulling on the accel lever/cable and scrape the throttle body deposits so you see a good clearance when the valve is closed. Taking the throtlle body off is a pain. You may want to avoid that excercise if not required to change the spark plugs. There is a hose that runs between the TB and the valve cover which will quite likely rupture when you try to take the TB. ( I have not yet changed the spark plugs personally.)

Do let us know if changing the plugs and wires fixes your problem!