New Toyota Celsior/ls400 Owner

[TRD-1]

Hi all

Just wanted to say hi to everyone, im new to the club, Ive come over from clubaristo, my names Kam also known as TRD-1 on clubaristo.

I recently did a swap for a VIP UCF20 and after owning it I was very impressed with everything about it, I impressed a good friend of mine who decided to purchase a cheap project which he found on eBay, i went in on it with him and we ended up with a mk1 celsior 1991 which at the moment is quite ill, this car was described with all the probs so there was not to many hidden extras!

We brought it from fort william and suprisingly it made the 550mile journey back down south, but after using almost 4 full tanks of fuel, overfuelling or what!!!

I just wanted some advice on things we could begin work on, its overfuelling big time, the is alot of petrol smell around the car (but no leaks that are visible), the exhaust is leaking, idle is at 1300rpm, there is no power in the car (took us ages to get to 65mph), temp gauge does not work, speakers are f**ked. These are all the bits we found on our drive back down, but its all good to investigate and solve if possible.

Any advice and help is much appreciated.

[Dajwid]

Hi all

Just wanted to say hi to everyone, im new to the club, Ive come over from clubaristo, my names Kam also known as TRD-1 on clubaristo.

I recently did a swap for a VIP UCF20 and after owning it I was very impressed with everything about it, I impressed a good friend of mine who decided to purchase a cheap project which he found on ebay, i went in on it with him and we ended up with a mk1 celsior 1991 which at the moment is quite ill, this car was described with all the probs so there was not to many hidden extras!

We brought it from fort william and suprisingly it made the 550mile journey back down south, but after using almost 4 full tanks of fuel, overfuelling or what!!!

I just wanted some advice on things we could begin work on, its overfuelling big time, the is alot of petrol smell around the car (but no leaks that are visible), the exhaust is leaking, idle is at 1300rpm, there is no power in the car (took us ages to get to 65mph), temp gauge does not work, speakers are f**ked. These are all the bits we found on our drive back down, but its all good to investigate and solve if possible.

Any advice and help is much appreciated.

I get about 300 miles a tank. Mines a MK1 LS400.

Did you take the hand brake off?? ;-)

There is a mk1 celsior in Bishops stortford up on eBay. only 150 at the moment, won't go much higher, but would be ideal for spares.

[Manc]

my god, thats the worst Lexus i've heard of...looks like your project might become a full time job.

What do you mean by exhaust leaking??? liquid out of tailpipe or blowing air? If its liquid it sounds very ill indeed. Are the revs constant or erratic. Hopefully its not engine managment. ECU's are expensive on rovers so god knows what Lexus would charge.

Speakers from scrap yard mate, the system is excellent and worth keeping. Think its Panasonic which is also Technics, a top quality sound system.

Temp gauge might well be disconnected due to engine issues...check this soon as it can cause endless damage if overheated. Head gasket damage and warped blocks leading to poor compression (no power) has been the result of overheating on a Peugeot i once owned. This could have happened and not fixed properly. but im no expert sorry

The car should idle when warm at around 600 to 800 rpm. Cold does start up around 1300/1400, but does drop after 5 mins or so.

Lack of power could be the thottle body amongst other things, but its usually ok when driving. They have tiny air inlets inside that send air into the engine mix, when these block up with years of carbon they starve the engine of air and it usually cuts out when you pull up, or struggles to get going when pulling off. I've not heard of it being constant slow when driving so there will be more issues along with it.

Im no mechanic but have had mine for 5 years now and have visited this site hundreds of times for info and came across other issues...my bookmarks are rammed with links to this site on the issues I came across or am expecting in the future.

This forum will help you with almost everything, its excellent for the older models. I've got the mk2 '93 and the people here have helped me immensely. This is the first place to look...always

This forum has loads of posts on most faults. Use the search at the top right and use single words or just browse the ls400 section and you will find things you need to know. You can spend days, even weeks on here once you start investigating stuff and end up knowing more than your local garage does about these cars. (so you know when they try to rip you off!!)

Other top sites I use are:

www.lexls.com - this is a free site but it has a pay-pal option. I'm intending on getting pay-pal just to sort this guy a few quid. He has saved my car from the scrap-heap. He's got photo step by step info on most jobs. Excellent site

http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/ - this has exploded diagrams of most parts and allows you insight into jobs and part numbers. Insert chassis no. and away you go.

There is a recent post here about fuel smell in a ls400, i think it was a seal on his tank. But no mention of using that much. Sounds like an engine issue rather than a leak from the tank, but possibly is both. 4 tanks...wow. I drove from Manchester to Godstone (J6 M25, or 6'o'clock if you look at m25 as a clock) and back and had just under 1/4 of a tank left.

If you didnt set on fire in that 550 mile journey then its probably not leaking from the engine bay or anywhere near the exhausts but you were brave mate.

When seeking help here as im sure you will find a few more issues once the fuel problem is fixed, you can either search in various ways as described above, post a thread (in the relevant section) with each fault as some people browse the sections and answer to problems they have had, and only some subscribe to new posts so you will be limiting your help if you throw it all in one.

Mine has done 230k and is the engine is fine, but I've had most of the common faults with the mk2:

-Make sure the transmission oil is pinky/red coloured, not brown..if its brown change it (lexls.com)

-Suspension ball joints are starting to fail now, so yours will probably be on last legs too. Control arms can be expensive but i replaced mine with no experience. The rear ones are also on the brink...

-The throttle body will need cleaning out but yours is without doubt a bigger issue than that.

-Emmisions...dont bother yet obviously... but is usually the 'egr pipe' if your model has one?? you get told it could be o2 sensors etc but it can cost as there are 4 sensors i believe and its usually just the pipe.

-Dash / center console or clock display issues....dash is listed under 'instrument cluster' in the search bar..not expensive to fix or replace if you dont go to Lexus direct. The a/c & clock display is a different issue but again is a reasonable cost to fix off the same man. see instument cluster posts when this happens

- P/s leaks - cheap & very easy to d.i.y

Thats about it for the common things i can think of...not many eh?

Good luck with the fuel issue, once you sort that you should enjoy the project a little more

Keep us informed too, to tell us what fixed it