Project Celsior, The Story So Far.

[steve2006]

Well having bought and had transported from a fellow LOC member work is well on the way to restoring what is basically a sound car back to its former glory.

The car came with a wad of paperwork including the original handbooks in Japanese and both Japanese and UK service history up to 2012. This includes around £4000.00 in 2008 when most of the Air Suspension system was replaced

I have now sorted out the blinky dash syndrome with 3 capacitors and a bit of soldering, replaced the leaking heater valve (another came with the car) and am now repairing the Power Steering system with a rebuild of the pump and replacement of the hoses.

Going to Lexus Derby later to collect the copper washers for the high pressure pipe so should have this running later today.

The only other problem apparently is an intermittent misfire and this was the main reason I ended up with the car, the previous owner has spend over £400.00 trying to sort this without success with new HT leads, rotors and distrubutor caps.

What I did find when removing the PS pump was one of the vacuum pipes on the valve to the intake was actually off, this may be enough to cause a fuel/air imbalance.

Time will tell when it's all back together again!

Looks a bit of a mess at the moment but it's getting there, oh and yes they are the original bonnet struts holding up the bonnet still.

[IHgs300]

Sure if anyone can restore her Steve, you can, What's the missus think to having two lexus on the drive?

[ROYT]

I just broke up a series one to rob for the parts that will fit mine.

When removing the camshaft sensors I found the wires on both had been trapped and one was cut through the insulation

Strangely the car ran fine with no misfire or check engine lights,if you run out of checks, this might be worth a look

[steve2006]

Sure if anyone can restore her Steve, you can, What's the missus think to having two lexus on the drive?

Arr double that number Ian and you are there, the 1997 Celsior I am breaking has to go yesterday, then as well as my 2 I have the one 95 being collected next week.

[steve2006]

I just broke up a series one to rob for the parts that will fit mine.

When removing the camshaft sensors I found the wires on both had been trapped and one was cut through the insulation

Strangely the car ran fine with no misfire or check engine lights,if you run out of checks, this might be worth a look

Cheers for that information Roy, I did notice yesterday there is a pair of wires entering the passenger bank cam area and there is no grommet in the hole.

[IHgs300]

Sure if anyone can restore her Steve, you can, What's the missus think to having two lexus on the drive?

Arr double that number Ian and you are there, the 1997 Celsior I am breaking has to go yesterday, then as well as my 2 I have the one 95 being collected next week.

Have you any replacements lined up? :winky:

[steve2006]

Sure if anyone can restore her Steve, you can, What's the missus think to having two lexus on the drive?

Arr double that number Ian and you are there, the 1997 Celsior I am breaking has to go yesterday, then as well as my 2 I have the one 95 being collected next week.

Have you any replacements lined up? :winky:

Well I keep looking at other women just incase a better model turns up but found nothing yet :)

[steve2006]

Arr sorry Ian you mean in the way of cars :)

No not buying any more until the scrapper has gone and the other 2 also.

I got the PS sorted today, it all bled out really quickly so thats done.

It still has the misfire so today I did a code read and it came up with 4, 2 were related to the MAF so I swopped out the one from my other Celsior which made no difference and all the wiring checks out.

The other 2 were for both O2 sensors so these will be checked out tomorrow.

From cold it starts and idles fine, drops to 650rpm when warmed up and then it begins to splutter and misfire.

[IHgs300]

Sure if anyone can restore her Steve, you can, What's the missus think to having two lexus on the drive?

Arr double that number Ian and you are there, the 1997 Celsior I am breaking has to go yesterday, then as well as my 2 I have the one 95 being collected next week.

Have you any replacements lined up? :winky:

Well I keep looking at other women just incase a better model turns up but found nothing yet :)

Like that Steve,

[IHgs300]

Arr sorry Ian you mean in the way of cars :)

No not buying any more until the scrapper has gone and the other 2 also.

I got the PS sorted today, it all bled out really quickly so thats done.

It still has the misfire so today I did a code read and it came up with 4, 2 were related to the MAF so I swopped out the one from my other Celsior which made no difference and all the wiring checks out.

The other 2 were for both O2 sensors so these will be checked out tomorrow.

From cold it starts and idles fine, drops to 650rpm when warmed up and then it begins to splutter and misfire.

Sure if anyone can find electrical fault it will be you, especially with all your electronic gizmo's

[steve2006]

Well work has slowed progress some what but the misfire is still present so next plan is to check the operation of the O2 sensors using the engine bay diagnostic socket, a piece of wire and an alalogue meter ( yes I still have one with the needle pointer).

I have also been studying the ECU issues on CL and have ordered the capacitors to replace the possible iffy ones in the unit.

I did start on the CD changer in the boot and discovered there was a pool of water under the units, I pushed the drain plug though and allowed it to dry out to discover a very soaked wiring loom/plug/connector which had been submerged in the water.

I managed to clean the wiring up and noticed one wire had been previously rejoined and 2 others were completely disconnected.

After reconnecting these wires the air suspension warning light then started flashing!

After an exhaustive search I have not found where there 2 wires go to/from but obviously they have something to do with the AS.

Again the same piece of wire in the diagnostic socket should reveal the problem.

The mission continues. :)

[Chris Skelton]

Oh for the simplicity of a 2CV!

The complexity was one of my concerns in sticking with the Ser 4- not that THAT is simple!

Admire your dedication, Steve!

Now I'm awaiting delivery of a Nissan Elgrand E51 van from Japan!

[mikeyv]

Now I'm awaiting delivery of a Nissan Elgrand E51 van from Japan!

Nice, I looked at them a few years back when I bought my camper, the later ones are a proper eyefull.

Pics when it arrives please.

[steve2006]

Well things are moving on, after reading the fault codes again I had 2 indicating both pre cat O2 sensors were faulty which was rather surprising if both had failed at the same time but there was no CEL light on.

Still not convinced I risked it and fitted the ECU into my regular Celsior and discovered the misfiring fault had been transferred to it confirming a duff ECU.

I had already replaced all the capacitors known to give trouble in it and there was corrosion to one area where one had leaked onto the PCB so this had not cured it.

I have been frantically searching for a replacement but of course being an import it is different from a UK specification ECU.

I have been in contact with Puremoto based in Chesterfield who specialise in Toyota Soarers and will know by Saturday if they have the correct ECU.

I have also made enquiries with an eBay seller who has a UK specification ECU going for £17.50 delivered so may also buy this and see if I can remove or bypass certain functions like the EGR as it is not fitted to JDM models.

The dash is now sorted, as is the power steering and even the remote locking works after replacing the Battery in the fob.

The boot mounted CD player is still ongoing as both the original and spare one provided are both faulty albeit with different faults so I may be able to make one good one from the two.

Oh well slow but sure.

[cruisermark]

so if you can get hold of a JDM ECU you will have a perfect car right? have you tried contacting breakers in japan?

[IHgs300]

Try nippon auto spares in Derby, they specialise in importing engines and engine parts.

[ambermarine]

Hi Steve

Go to www.sekaimon.com this is japan eBay and input your requirement there are dozens of rebuilt and secondhand Engine ecus it is translated to english so purchase should be fine,site relates to american connection

Update; There are 23 japanese home market celsior ecus on www.jauce.com input celsior ecu in search box and they all appear

[steve2006]

Thanks for all your help and information Guys.

To update Puremoto do not have the required ECU, The Soarer Sanctuary also do not have one but even if he did doesn't post them out so impractictical to drive the car over 90 miles just to see.

But I have now secured the one from the eBay seller for £19.95 delivered,being posted Monday.

This is the UK version of course 89661-50160 as opposed to the JDM version 89661-50170/50171.

From what I can see from the wiring diagrams the only difference is the addition of the EGR control system for the UK ECU which is not fitted to the JDM models.

There are 4 outputs for the EGR valve control solenoids which I think I can leave alone and there is an EGR temperature sensor input which may if not addressed cause the EML to come on.

Fortunately the workshop manual provides the resistance of the sensor at various temperatures so I am hoping I can replace the sensor with a suitable fixed resistor so the ECU is tricked into thnking the EGR is connected thus eliminating the fault code flag up.

All being well I will know midweek.

[IHgs300]

Glad you got sorted (sort of) good luck with it.

[steve2006]

I paid extra to have the ECU sent RMSD so should be here tomorrow :)

Tonight I managed to repair the CD changer so that's another job done.

Once the engine ECU is done I then have to see why reconnecting 2 presently disconnected wires in the driver's side of the boot cause the air suspension light to blink, another code read job.

Strange thing is it all seems to work OK with them disconnected.

[Ruud]

Hi Steve,

I have a friend in Canada with a Celsior and had the exact same misfiring issue - he swapped the ECU with one from an Ls400 with no issues and it solved his problem completely.

[steve2006]

You've made my day Rudy!

Ironically I paid the guy extra to have it sent Special Delivery and found a card through the letterbox saying they tried to deliver it at 7.30 this morning so now chasing it at the Sorting Office although the card says I have to wait 12 hours before enquiring.

[Ruud]

Any update on the ECU Steve?

[cruisermark]

hurry up steve and get it sorted because another early ls has come with a misfire which needs rescuing!

[steve2006]

Yes,

I fitted the replacement UK spec ECU and as Rudy said it was "plug and play" with no error codes flagging up.

The car started fine and seemed to have been cured of the misfiring problem until it began to warm up more when the problem then returned.

Checking the fault codes revealed 21 and 28,both O2 sensors faulty the same codes as I had before so it's now time to climb under the car and take some more measurements of the sensors.

The strange thing is the fault definitely transferred to my working Celsior when I put the original ECU in that so the ECU must have been faulty as well as both O2 sensors.

I have started a new thread requesting comments on universal O2 sensors as the car is really not worth spending on for OEM ones.

What can I say Mark, once I do finally fix it I will certainly be a Lexus LS400 misfire expert :)