lexusn1ce

yes i was wondering if they could be made brighte but it seems you cant even get to the bulb

those symptomes sound like a weak spark, when you glide along its good enough to ignite the mixture and when you flood the cylinder for more power its overwhelmed and gives up. I would check the spark plugs after a start up and look for one thats wet or darker than the others this indicates rich mixture due to intermitent firing on that cylinder, then change the plug and check the lead with a multimeter from end to end on k ohms and then compare the reading with another lead of similar length if its miles out then try flexing the lead along its length whilst taking a reading if it jumps around you have a break and will need a new lead if it doesnt make any difference to the reading then re-crimp the ends after cutting a small length off on the bad end ( do the plug end first) this will prob fix it as the end corrodes and breakes down the carbon. I did this on mine at an earlier date to cure a misfire when i first bought the car and it turned out to be a bad lead which i recrimped and has been fine since. I doubt if destributers would cause this as it would be misfiring on multiple cylinders and also if it were a bad coil you would loose the whole bank on one side (had that happen as well) hope this helps. If you can still drive it ok i would think its just one playing up its suprising how bad a little misfire can be when you demand power because you then have 7 cylinders trying to drag the 8 which isnt easy because it still has compression and also pull the car, i had 4 go down when a coil went and it was nearly impossible to start let alone drive, also it takes less off a spark to ignite the fuel once the engine is warm because the fuel mixture is reduced by the ecu so it would be a lot better when hot.

Thanks for the link - and wow, they _are_ cheap. Unfortunately, I already bought everything except the coils from various vendors, all of them more expensive Ah well, lesson learned. At least if I do need coils, I can get 2 of them from that link for less than the price of a single one off fleBay. Coils are showing at £14.16 +vat + delivery presumably. Is there a "howto" on changing the dizzy caps & rotors, before I dive in there with a screwdriver & a hammer? Ignore that, I see LexLS.com has an excellent tutorial. I shall leave the job for now, until my leads & plugs show up... may as well do it all in one fell swoop. i had this problem on my 92ls and some injector cleaner cured it. i acted on a local garages advice, my misfire was there the whole time but less noticable when hot.

i have full history up to when i bought it and it has 1 owner from new and i did a full service when i got it too. The pas and alternator has just been done because it went begining of this week its in another post on here the only other minor probs im aware of is the float is weeping on the water res, the pas cooling pipe is rusty but not leaking yet and a slight blow on egr pipe which im gonna leave bexause i can hardly hear it. So at the moment i think its ok.

thanks to both of the members above thats put my mind at rest because it has passed an mot couple of months ago before i bought it so if i get som warning that would be good given the cost of repair

hi i have an ls400 1992, and wanted to ask about the lower rear suspension arms, as mine seem to be very rusty but still strong, do these normaly fail due to rust or is it normal? i dont have any knocks etc from the rear its just the rusty arms and i cant find these anywhere online so not sure if i have the right name its the box section bar that links the rear hub to the middle of the cars chassis any one who knows about this ? also i get i slight very occasional (sometimes not for weeks) knock when turning and braking at the same time from the front only does it once, and also the other moving arms seem to be very rusty, so i was wondering if anyone knows where to obtain these for a reasonable price or can the balls be replaced on their own. if i am being ott and these parts are ok rusty please let be know, the last thing is on the underneath of the car just infront of the right rear wheel arch there is a patch of rust not very penetrating but its there none the less and is it something to worry about. has anyone else noticed this on theirs the body is mint so finding this when i was in the pit was quite annoying its on both sides but you cant see it on the other side because its covered. any help appreciated

all sorted now, new battery as well as the above and all is good also the noise was from the alternator pully because it was rusty its worn off now and the noise has gone. My old alternator has been sent away to be refurbished so i will soon have a spare if it goes again. Please let this serve as a warning to others if you have a leaking pas fix it because the result of not doing so is very expensive and finding a good alternator at a fair price localy was very hard, its fairly easy to remove the alternator but the pas whas a complete runt to get out and even worse to rebuild, the cause of all this was the pulley bearing in the pas went which took out the oil seal and dumped the whole of the reservoir into the alternatot and destroyed the brushes and then the shaft as the springs were rubbing on it, all of this caused the alternator to charge intermitently and high volts causing the destruction of the battery over time. Thanks for your advice and i hope this helps others

ok, today i took the car to a friends pit and stripped out the alternator only to find it soaked in pas fluid so i cleaned it up and then took off the rectifier to get to the brushes and the brushes were shot and the copper had worn off the shaft so i then took the pas pump off to see why it leaked and then bought a seal kit and rebuilt it. pas seems ok now and dry, managed to source a refurb alternator and fitted everythink and it seems to be charging but i now have a whine which i think maybe i overtightened the tensioner pully bolt or its the alternator i will look tomorrow. Also the alternator doesnt seem to charge at idle only when reving slightly i think this could be the duff battery so im going to get a new one tommorrow as the standing voltage is only 10v. Sorry about the lack of punctuation but im really tired, if anyone has any suggestions on any of the above i would be glad to hear them thanks.

hi all, i have a 92 ls400 and just made it home tonight with headlights like candles and the battery reads 8.5 volts i think if the car didnt have an oversize battery it would have stalled out. So looks like if off work tommorrow not good as i wont get paid. Now just a couple of questions, i know the battery hasnt been good for a while (it has a dead cell) now is there a cut off point where the alternator says thats it ive had enough and refuses to charge, for example if the battery has got worse as i am getting no charge but havent a spare battery to try. Or is it most likely the alternator has failed in some fashion and needs replacing ?

yeah you can change them its fiddly though because they are soldered to the board. I did mine got the bulbs from maplins.

also check the 2 wires that run past the plastic cam covers about midway down the front of the engine i think its the knock or the cam sensor because if its mis routed it gets cut by the fan belt and has similar symptomes to what you describe. I know i did it lol

im afraid im not local m8 im in norfolk lol, but the company is called "drive cool" great company

hi, anyone ever heard of people using some kind of paint on the steering wheel and gear shift, just that when i bought my ls400 the previous owner was keen to mention how little wear was on these parts, however after owning the car for a couple of months it seems to all have worn off and on closer inspection i could see brush marks and now im left with tan very worn wheel, and after letting a leather specialist have a look he said its too far gone to be restored so he sugested painting it (like the last owner) but apparently the previous job was done with some kind of boot polish type stuff and thats why it came off, this guy suggested using a ordinary car paint but mat finish, and apply very carefully with a brush, so cautiously (knowing where i can get another wheel) i painted it in the same colour it would have been origionaly and guess what it works perfectly, unless you knew what to look for you would never know, exept i wanted a funky look so i laqueered it too, always remains slightly sticky so using the wheel is no problem for grip but it looks excellent. mat.

i have already done the cam belt when i stripped it out to fix something else what a job! , any way a should think the seals didnt go because there was still a small amount of gas left but not enough to get things cold but enough to get the pipe cold in the engine bay bay therefor the system fired up and so kept the oil on the seals as the aircon was always turned on as long as the oil is pooled at the compressor it doesnt matter too much if its a bit low as long as the pump gets oil so it doesnt sieze.

hi, i have some experience in radio repair on indoor systems and your problem sounds like it could be the radio itself possibly the amplifier within or a bad capacitor, at a wild guess i would say its probably a dry solder joint because its not present right away. maybe there is someone out there who could repair it but if not they are about on ebay.

its a 1992 with 120k and to my knowledge no never been filled. It had 3 bar or pressure in there but the gas had escaped over those 18 years lol

hi all, today i went to have my aircon fixed as the cold didnt work, so the guy plugged it in to his machine and ran diagnostics on the system and said there are no leaks its just a little low on gas because its never been filled up so he put the system under a vacuum and refilled it with the new gas after he converted it from r12 and tested it and after an hour and a half it was all fixed. I took it to a specialist and after converting the fittings and fitting an orifice suited to the new gas and filling it up he charged me 60quid which i thought was very competitive. he said the system is in good condition. So looks like something went right lol

found the cause of the problem the pos battery terminal is broken and so loose and when going over a bump it seems to get disconected briefly and that seems to trip out the alternator and it wont charge again untill the engine is turned off and then back on, i have rectified it and tested with meter and reading 14 volts so all is ok. also found the source of a loud tapping which i thought was a tappet but turns out it was the ht lead guide rubbing on the cam pulley! so engine is pretty quite again apart from the egr pipe. so i will keep an eye on it and see what happens thanks for everyones help.

thank for your replys it seems to have fixed itself for now its charging as for the ps pump the leak was stopped by an additive a month ago but i still dont know what damage has been done already. From what i understand ps fluid dissolves the brushes in the alternator so in theory new brushes should fix it it started not charging the other night and it would charge if the revs were over 3000 but not on idle but i left it off for 10 mins and when i started it was charging and is still working now after about 100 miles so is there a relay or something that could have stuck ?

help please, i have power stearing leak (bought with prob) and just today the wipers were slow and lights dim, radio cutting out when full beam is on so clearly not charging but still started and once left for a while it started and all lights bright again so can alternators be intermittent? anyway if its gone i will change both together so can somebody give me the best place for a recon or similar alternator and ps pump, preferably with the o ring for resorvoir, maybe a member has these parts for sale or a good garage but i have a tight budget so i prefer secondhand over new thanks. mat.

that sounds like the same array of micro switch faults that they all get just more intermittent than usuall, the door lock switches are the culprits for turning the key twice and the motor arm sensor switch is the reason for the lock fault which will prevent the fob from being sync as you cant use the preceedure there is another post about this from a couple of days ago.

even if you buy a new key and chip its not definatly gonna work i got two new keys and a chip for mine and it is still not working, i think i may know why though it says that you have to follow the precedure to sync the keys but this didnt work for me, but when i came to fix a fault on the drivers door lever i found a microswitch inside the motor housing and since all my central locking works my theory is that it detects the pressing of the drivers manual door lock which is part of the procedure for the sync and this little switch is completely destroyed by rot and its part of the system so i dont even wanna know what the drivers motor housing costs anyway i believe that withought that switch sync is not possible so i have given up.

i had the same problem with my 93 ls when i first got it i fixed it myself its the little swithches on the back of the lock, they detect when you are turning the key and arm the alarm and lock the doors, you can either take them off and clean them as they get corroded or you can replace them, they are not fun to get to and require the door card to be removed and then you should be able to reach up inside and undo the bolt that retains the lock, theres also some rods to remove from the lock. remember to do passengers side too because if one is shorted the other wont work, as for the fob i gave up on mine costs silly money to fix its much easier to get and after market system and fit yourself i have seen a few that even wind up the windows and close the sun roof for not much over 50 quid.

thanks very much i tried to get my hand down the seat and i couldnt feel anything but now i know how to remove the seat i will have a look when i get a chance hopefully it hasnt been removed. by the way i think now is the time to mention this is by far the most helpfull forum that i have had the privelege of being a member of and i have only been here for just over a week! :D

hi, my 1992 ls400 appears not to have a middle seat belt on the back seats, is this correct or has somebody removed it? also if it was fitted withought a seatbelt in the middle is it a 4 seater or can i carry 5 passengers as im sure the log book says its a 5 seat car? thanks i appreciate your response as i have not carried 5 people but i would like to know where i stand.