NewGuy19

Ok here it goes. I'm trying to figure out as many problems as I can with my car that way I can fix them over my break in a couple weeks. I already plan on fixing the antena and replacing the sub in the car. As well as do a brake job. I have a couple questions about a few other things though. When I bought this car the mechanic told me there was a vaccume line broken somewhere which caused the cars rpm's to surge while in park or neutral. However I have not found any bad lines as of yet. The car typically won't start surging right away when you start it up. The rpm's slowly climb to around 2000 and then it starts surging, usually going between 700 and 1800 rpm's. I did a little searching of my own and noticed that when I unpluged the mass air flow sensor the car stopped surging and simply idled around 1800 rpm's. Do you think the MAF is the cause of this problem? I also noticed about a week ago, that when I'm accelerating with the car the parking brake light comes on. It will stay on while accelerating then typically shuts off when you let up on the gas and are either slowing down or maintaining a constant speed. I have pulled the lever in the car several times to release it and make sure the brake isn't patially engaged, but have not done much other checking since it's fricken cold outside now and I don't have a garage to put it in at the moment.

I started wondering this myself this morning while filling my car up with premium. It's $3.59 a gallon for premium and $3.09 for 87 and 89 up here. I always run premium but do remember a mechanic telling me awhile back that 89 octane gas now days is better than premium gas ever was back when they built the motor. He was talking about boat motors at the time, but they seem to be even more temperamental when it comes to gas than any car I've ever seen. I've been running 89 in that motor for 3 years now and its run just as good as it ever did with super premium marine gas (93 octane). I don’t think I’m going to switch unless someone can come up with some rock solid evidence to back that up. But it’s something to think about I guess.

Thanks to everyone that helped me out with this problem. I just got it back from the mechanic today. Turned out to be the water pump as many of you said. He replaced the water pump, belt and flushed the system for me. I guess all in all it could have been a lot worse, so I got of a little lucky. He charged me $449 bucks to do the job, and had it done within a day after getting all the parts in finally. Glad I got my problem fixed and have my car back again. Life really does suck without it.

Thanks again for the help. I went out and checked the oil again today and did not see any water or coolant in the oil. I see now that the little coolant that was in the over flow tank is now gone, but it doesn't look like any more has dripped out on the cardboard I put down. Does that mean it could be evaporating? And keep in mind it was 24 degrees up here last night. I'm going to get a ride from a friend to the autoparts store when they open at noon, and pick up a cap and hopefully some distilled water or coolant. I was told before that you don't want to mix coolants because they can cause problems in the car. If this is true and I don't know what coolant they used last time, would it be best to just go with distilled water? I know from previous experiences you can sometimes hydrolock your motor if you try turning it over with a head gasket leak, what do you guys reccomend I do from here? Should I just call a tow truck and have it taken to a mechanic so he can do some tests and tell me exactly what's wrong?

Thanks for the replies guys. I just bought this car in August and the timing belt was replaced right before I bought it. I currently live in Fargo, ND and the closest Lexus dealer is a little over 200 miles away. Is changing the water pump something any mechanic that know's their stuff can do? Can I purchase the tank cap and the premixed coolant at any auto parts store? Or would I have to go to the local toyota dealer to get them? Is there any problem with driving it right now if the pump might be going out? And do you think it would last long enough to make the 400 mile trip back home so I could have it fixed there?

The only way I can start to explain this problem it to write a little story so, hang in there with me because I really need some help on this. I started my car up yesterday afternoon and headed down the street from my dorm. It sounded like I had something dragging under my car, so I decided I'd pull over as soon as I had a spot where I could. After about a block or two I noticed the sound went away but still pulled over to check, I didn't see anything out of the usual under the car. So I went on with my trip. On my way back home I had been driving down the interstate for about 10 miles and all the sudden my temperature gage started rapidly climbing, I slowed down to pull off the interstate and as soon as I did so the gauge went back to normal. So I didn't think anything of it and drove the 3 or so miles back to my dorm. When I got out my car smelled hot, so I started checking things out. I found some sort of fluid dripping off the oil pan underneath the car and it appears to have a little oil mixed with it. I checked the oil and it looks to be at normal levels and doesn’t look to have any water or anything in it. I checked the coolant and first noticed the cap seems to be damaged and I am not sure if it is sealing properly. I also noticed that the tank seems to be empty or nearly empty. I went back today to look at the car and apart from the empty tank everything seems to be normal. So my questions are: 1. What would have caused the gauge to rapidly climb and then go back to normal like that? 2. How much coolant should be in the tank? I can't seem to find a line in the tank marking any level to fill it to. 3. If I need to fill the tank up what coolant do I need to use? 4. And finally, what do you think the liquid was dripping under the car? And what could cause it? I can try checking things if you ask questions, but I am up at school and all of my tools are back at home. A friend of mine mentioned something about a head gasket when I told him it looked like oil mixed with something else dripping under the car.

Hey thanks for all the help. After !Removed! around for a few hours, I pulled the switch and it worked that time. I tried the release tab in the trunk but nothing happens. It seems like the wire on it is stuck or something. I think I'll take it appart and clean everything and change the spring on the latch when I get a bit of free time. Thanks for all the help. I now know what I need to do if I ever run into this problem again.

I went to fill my car up today but I could not open the fuel door to fill up. The lever inside the car to open the door will not do anything. I pulled it 50 times but still nothing happens. There is a tab in my trunk that says pull to open fuel door. But when I pull on it nothing happens. I really need help quick. I am just above E on the gas gage so I can't drive it anywhere before I get it fixed. Please any advice is needed.

I bought a set of Good Years from Discount Tire in Rochester and had them siped. They got great traction on the ice and snow, but the summer after I had them done, small pieces of the tire started crumbling off. I didn't do anything about it but probably should have. As a result I only got about 30,000 miles on them and they were rated for 75,000 miles.

I just purchases a '90 LS400 a few weeks ago. I replaced the factory radio with an aftermarket one and promptly blew my sub out. Now I need to replace the sub. I don't know much about Lexus' and need some help. Can I replace the sub with any sub or do I need to buy one from Lexus? Can I remove the sub through the trunk or do I need to pull the back seats? And finally, will the factory amp still work if I am able to put in a different sub? Any help would be greatly appreciated.