powerwave

we swapped intake manifolds, wiring harnesses, ecms. the 90 block had a knock sensor port but not the 89. if you use the lexus ecm you'll have a check engine light from the lack of knock sensor signal. the difference is because of the model year changes.

if the guy is/was a toyota/lexus mechanic and can prove he's currently ase (preferably engine/advanced engine) and/or toyota/lexus certified... then and only then do you accept that offer. i just realized how many slashes i put into that post :P

it's currently the dead of slow season over at the dealer service department so they'll be looking to pick up a job. if you go over to talk to them, they'll want to do it for you :P in 94 they came out with the first 1mz-fe, 97 still runs the 1mz but they've made some big changes to it since 94. they both run a 4spd automatic a541e tranny (i assume out of rarity you don't have a 5sp manual). i'm guessing you'll need to pick up a new ecu. even swapping our 89 2vz-fe into a 90 we had to swap ecu's along with a few other things. good luck!

linkage sounds like it's broken, if one is moving freely of the other. motor's probably bad.

vvt sensor code bank 2 sounds like one of the cams is off a tooth. redo timing belt lining up cams properly.

when we bought ours, it came with a separate keyed lock for the drivers door. it wore out, just like yours. wish the previous owner had dealt with that in a less annoying fashion, but it works with the different key just fine. the little red alarm light comes on periodically when the car is locked.

thank you kindly for the congratulations, kingjack. but i would like to set some things straight on the record here on behalf of my husband. 1. he loved fixing cars until his body couldn't take it anymore. he was very happy as a mechanic, but there were serious trade-offs to working for a dealership. 2. he already was well educated. ASE master, advanced engine performance and undercar expert don't just come with time- they come with hard work and a lot of studying. dealerships send their techs to school frequently. 3. never once did he forget his own personal ethics code. he hasn't brought home a ton of money but he hasn't come home with a guilty conscience either.

yes that's half him and half me, galaxee. on PC i usually act as a translator since most of the folks there are newly interested in how cars work... other places it's pretty much me typing what he says- minus a comment or two.

worked for a dealer. dealer work/flat rate is murder on the spine, on the family life, on the pocketbook if you have the least bit of dignity left in you. no, flat rate is the reason the business has its reputation. back to school next month to do something else that pays in dollars and not afterhours equipment availability... that pays for all the overtime hours.

LOL, yeah we screw people over. we replace a set of vcg's on a v6 camry for under a hundred bucks and that's !Removed! people over. if you can tell me how a worn out a/c compressor bearing and a valve cover gasket replacement are related i'll retract all my statements. you want the other side? we've had that on our cars too. try a cv boot job shortly before having to replace a wheel bearing... unrelated! or throwing a clutch into a car only to have a halfshaft go. unrelated! oh oh i know! we just dropped an engine and trans into an es250 in july and a bearing is starting to go in the engine. SH** happens! some of us just know how to get over it.

you can't say at what point the fuse blew. maybe it was after the tech finished the job. maybe it popped when you started the car. it's not like you can spot a failing fuse, you know. they just go. if they noticed it, they would have tried to sell you something. you've got this huge mistrust of dealers thing going on, and yet you think they'd pass up an opportunity to charge you for something? HA! at any rate, i can tell you many stories of people who have tried to pin their car breaking on US because we fixed something completely irrelevant. the best one was the a/c compressor story... late spring we put a set of vcg's on someone's car and a week later it got hot out. they turned on the a/c. compressor made horrible noise. gee, that must be powerwave's fault, yeah, they were under the hood last week. i've got more.

mechanics are paid flat rate. he got $18 for the job if he's lucky, don't gimme that "for that price" line. "that price" is 80% dealer profit.

geez. dealers consider guys like the OP to be scary. coincidences happen, especially on older cars. i can think of three off the top of my head that have happened to us on one side of the coin or another. so in short, chill.

when you've already replaced the engine once and sure enough the replacement is knocking already, but you won't give up on it, no, you start looking for a *better* engine to drop in... stupid 2vz engines (if you're curious, that's not actually a 300, it's a 250)

our saturn POS had an interference engine. we had a timing belt GUIDE, not the belt but the cheap POS plastic thing that was integral to holding the thing on, snap on us and the whole head ended up being screwed. valves were a sad, sad sight. i believe your 92 lexus has a 3vz in it, which is non-interference. those were here in north america from 92-93. the 1mz came around in 94 and was also non-interference until it was redesigned with vvt in 99. as far as i understand.