killerFatty

how do you unplug the MAF and still have a running car? I forgot to plug it back in one time when I was working on the car and when I started it, it idle really low and "thumpy" sounding, and when I gave it throttle it died. Is their an advantage to not running a MAF or something?

I can atest to the value of a good clean TB. I cleaned mine myself and after removing nearly a 1/4 inch of carbon (OK not a 1/4 inch, but close) the whole power band was much smoother. I can't vouch for it fixing any idle issues because I didn't have any, but as far as an improvement in the whole rpm range, its the best bang for your buck. The only thing I can think of that would be better than a TB cleaning is a complete overhaul.

Two accidents.. sounds VERY FAMILIAR!! I feel your pain...sorta. Both of mine where my fault and they both totaled my car(which I'm still driving) So lets hope for everyone's well being that they don't come in three's.

Is it just me or did the OP say that the CAR HAS BEEN CRUCHED!!!

You and Romane should start a club.... And not Lexus Owners Club! :P :D "Lexus owners nightmere", "lexus LSF", "1UZ-GTE" Which one should be it's name? :D I think Romane's thread is HALARIOUS. I would NEVER EVER tape my headlights or put purple rims on a lexus. His Megan coilovers are nice though. Other than that you don't have to worry about me stripping my interior to save 100LBS in a 4900LBS car. If I was half witted like him I would have 80 spoke gold rims and hydralics with shaggy white interior. If he wants performance Jcrome's custom exhaust and an intake would probably be the first thing Romane should do. Or just pop off the two back mufflers like I did after my last accident. Sounds great and has noticable top end gains.

I installed EBC redstuff ceramic brake pads on the fronts yesterday and WOW. They BITE HARD!! On stock rotors that are warpped beyond help I might add. They still have the brake in coating on them and I can't wait to see what they do when they are fully seated. Also my cross drilled/slotted rotors came too. I plan on having a shop do the rotors for me because I cant manage to get the caliper braket bolts off. I might see if I can get a bigger breaker bar and give that a try first.

thanks pics would be great. I tried to tape it at first but had little sucess, so I switched to glue. I'm used to a dark needle so its no problem for me. Do you know if it possible to swap a spedo and tach needle. They are the same size and I think I could do it because my other cluster has a good spedo needle.

MY GAUGES WORK!!!!! :D :D I'm so happy!!! I had the caps. soldered in by the computer shop guy for $40. Then I reassemble everything. Put it in and now they work. The only problem is that in the 2.5 hour process of reassembly, I let the gauge faces fall by accident about an inch on to the table. I snaped the tach needle, but everything else is fine. I glued the tip back on as straight as I could, and since it didn't light up anyway, I don't really care too much. I might take the gauges out of my spare cluster and pop those in, but I don't feel like another three hours of gauge cluster work.

IF you do do it please take lots of pics. A DIY write up would be great. I have been thinking about doing mine for a while, but I've never had the courage or time. It seems pretty simple but that doesn't mean it will be easy. ALLDATA says its about 3 hours per side. That for a competnat tech, so I would venture to guess a day or even a weekend dipending on your pace. I think it is simple enough not to screw up so long as you take your time though. BTW time on valve clearance adjustment is 6.6 Hours and I checked head gaskets just for a laugh, 12 hours for one 14 hours for both banks. Don't pop one of them!

Hahahaha

Its a shame that they wont sell you a perfectly good product. The floor mat has absolutly no effect on the gas pedal in your car or any other toyota/lexus for that matter... just an excuse

Power Steering

Thx AzHotLS. That helped reassure me quite a bit. I put a screw in the hole on the front of the intake manifold and it seemed to stop the smoke. I'll be able to tell for sure tomorrow morning.

I got my capcitors yesterday and stopped by a computer shop today. Fortunetly or unfortunetly the boss/owner guy does gauge cluster repair for a local auto mechanic. What a coinsidence. The problem with this however is that he wants to charge me $100 to solder in two new capacitor even though I have the circuit boards already out and ready to work on. Do you think I should just pay him or find someone else that can work on circuit boards? What bugs me is I can pay $75 on ebay to ship the whole gauge cluster, have it dissassembled (30 min of work right there), new caps. soldered in, reassembled and shipped back with a three year warrentee. The only reason I didn't do that in the first place was that I didn't want to be shipping a gauge cluster all around the country if I didn't have to. Plus I thought it would be cheaper this way.

Really? where did you hear that? You certintly have my intrest.

faucet

If I just put a vaccum cap on the line going to the front of the intake manifold will that stop the smoke then? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by putting a bolt where the control valve is. A pic would be great if somenone has one of how to remove the valve and bolt it closed. Sorry if I seem stupid I'm just trying to make sense of this.

WOW thats nice. My personal favorite color too. It would pretty easy just to pop off one of the timing covers and check the T-belt for dry rot. I don't suspect to see anything wrong with it though. The main reason I think that lexus puts the six or nine year clause, which ever it is, is to make money. A belt that hefty should be good for another 20K+ miles I would guess. And it seems like he kept up with the matinance pretty well. GREAT CAR

apple

Let me know the details of that manuel convertion. The only guy I know that has done it around here had to have the ecu reprogrammed by a guy in New Zeland. He pulls the motors out of parts cars and puts them in dune buggies and off roadrers with a stick shift behind them. I would love to see the 2JZ swap too. Alough the 1uz seems like it has more future potential in the power department over the 2JZ. Nice to see someone other than me thinks that this is a race car. What all other mods have you done in terms of performance?

We got some snow today. My trac does nothing but cut the throttle when it detects wheel spin, and that is only when it works. Which is almost never. Even with 4 sand bags in the trunk my wheels SPIN. On my way out of the parking lot tonight I couldn't give it any throttle. I had to Idle out onto the major roads. The only thing scarier than wheel spin on the snow is braking on the snow. That I think is much worse. When I went to hit my brakes I could barely rest my foot on the pedal before they lock up and the ABS kicks in. THAT IS SCARY. If you think about it, 4 sand bags only weighs 240LBS. (60lbs. each). This car wieghs close to 5000lbs fully fueled and passangered. 4900 and change on the door jam to be exact. Even if you put them right over the axle it still doesn't do much but hurt ride quality and make the LS look like a low rider. Throttle control is really all you can do besides dedicated snow tires like the firestone winterforce or bridgestone blizzaks. My current all season tires are only around 5/32 tread left and I can really tell it in the weather.

I bought some on the internet. Here is the link. Tell me waht you think. http://www.electronix.com/catalog/product_...products_id/590

limited slip or not, I expect snow tomorrow so I loaded four sand bags in the trunk today. Drive smart and the traction control which never works anyway, is pointless. I know, ironic coming from me right??

where did you get the new capacitors? I tried radio shack and computer superstore place and they both didn't have the right ones. Does anyone know what happens if you have a capacitor with a slightly higher voltage rating?

Thx a bunch guys. I'll take that with me tomorrow when I go get the capacitors. How difficult is it to change them out. Do you think a computer shop would be the place to do it?