tim hunter

Hello The Mark Levinson system uses an 8 inch, 16 Ohm sub. Mine needs replacing, and nobody seems to supply subs in 16ohm. Has anyone found such a thing, or know why I cannot use a 4 or 8 ohm device with a load resistor added? Thoughts, advice and experiences would be appreciated. Tim

Thanks for the reply. I have checked fuse 9 in the right hand footwell. The fuse is good, and there is 12v coming in to it. Zero volts between pins 16 and 4/5 on the OBD port though.

Good morning so my '02 has developed a slight misfire so need to read the codes. Plugged in my trusty code reader, and there are no lights displayed on it. Plugged into one of our other cars and - as usual - get the red power light and green lights when engine running. So its not the device, it must be the port in the car. Same reader, same car - has worked just fine previously. Anyone seen the OBD port not working before? Regards Tim

Hello our 02 car has developed a fault with the LCD screen for climate control, with several areas of dropped pixels My research shows that the only fix is to spend around £120 and an hour with a soldering iron to replace it with the new one supplied by Tanin Auto Has anyone here direct experience of doing this please? Thanks Tim

Hello my 02 SC430 is in the local workshop having new rear reluctor rings and dust defelctors. As expected the rings were completely worn away. One side is done, but on the drivers side one pin will not come out of its bush. If the bush gets destroyed, I need to find a replacement. So can anyone advise the correct name for this bush and/or the part number? I have searched the Febest site, and it looks like this is the one bush they do no make 😞 Its the one circled here, on the end of that lower arm Its shown on the left in this photo If it does get destroyed, I will need one quite quickly! Thanks Tim

The procedure is pretty well documented on the web, with several clips on youtube, of somewhat varying quality. Here is the actual procedure, taken from the Lexus manuals. It looks daunting, but is actually straightforward and can be done in a couple of minutes. I use two paper clips, one in each of these pins: ..and just touch them together when needed.. Performing Zero Point Calibration WITHOUT using Diagnostic Computer 1. If the vehicle is equipped with A/T, ensure that the shift lever is in the "P" range and the parking brake is applied. If the vehicle is equipped with a M/T, ensure that the parking brake is applied. 2. Turn the ignition switch ON. 3. Using a paper clip or auto wire, repeat a cycle of short and open between terminals Ts and CG (Pin 12 and pin 4) of DLC3,(16 pin Data Link Connector located under the steering wheel side) 5times within 8 seconds. 4. Verify that the VSC indicator light is lit indicating the recorded zero point is erased. 5. Turn the ignition switch OFF. 6. Be sure the terminals Ts and CG of DLC3 are disconnected. 7. Turn the ignition switch ON. 8. Check that the VSC warning light goes off about 15 seconds after the ignition switch is turned ON. 9. After ensuring that the VSC warning light remains OFF for 2 seconds, turn the ignition switch OFF. 10. Connect terminals Ts and CG of DLC3 using paper clip or auto wire. 11. Turn the ignition switch ON. 12. After turning the ignition switch ON, check that the VSC warning light is lit for about 4 seconds and then starts quick blinking at 0.13 second intervals. 13. After ensuring the blinking of the VSC warning light for 2 seconds, turn the ignition switch OFF. 14. Remove the clip from terminals Ts and CG of DLC3. 15. Drive the vehicle for at least 5 minutes to confirm Zero Point Calibration is complete. That will put all your dash lights out - but they may return as soon as you drive the car, unless you fix the underlying problem. In my case it was the badly fitted front sensor - and I also need to replace both rear relector rings. The sensors were covered in shavings. This is also well documented if you do a search. Good luck. Tim

Thanks again for your continued interest This is now FIXED! The more I thought it through, the less likely it felt to be an ECU/wiring failure - the car worked fine when it was parked in September, and the only thing that had changed since then was the front ABS sensors. I took another good look, and the problem was immediately apparent: The new sensor had not seated down properly when I nipped up the fastener, and I had - stupidly - not noticed at the time. In fact there was a big ridge of corrosion at the top of the bore in the mount that was stopping the o-ring compressing into place. Always check the obvious mechanical stuff first! I cleaned it all up, did the full zero point reset one more time and took it for a few miles down the lane. All lights have stayed out, at last. Tim

Thanks for the reply. I have no idea where the skid ECU is mounted, or what it looks like. Are there any illustrations or instructions anywhere? I will check the electrical connections, though the fact I have voltage at the connector for the ABS sensor would suggest that the harness is ok?

Hello again. So, this afternoon I borrowed a Snap-on OBD tool, and now see .. I was also able to take the car down the road and watch graphs of the signals from the wheel sensors in real time ..so clearly the brand new front left is not working at all, and the rear left looks a bit dodgy too. I now have the front wheel off and the ABS look disconnected - it all looks absolutely fine and the connector was in firmly. With the ignition on I get 2.3V at the connector coming from the car. The resistance on the sensor is 1.5 ( on the 20k Scale) - which is exactly the same as the old right front sensor I still have in the workshop. Other than blindly installing another new front, and a new rear, not entirely sure where to go next.

Hello again the ABS sensors were removed over the winter for cleaning because the ABS was kicking in under gentle braking at 10mph. Dirty senders are a common cause of that. The rears were covered in iron filings - presumably bits of disc surface and pad. They came out easily, were cleaned and put back. Both fronts were very very stuck, but looked clean when removed. Anyway, the second front sensor arrived the other day and is now fitted - so that's both fronts are brand new and matching brand. I did the zero point reset and all lights were out. Half a mile down the road, and they all came back on again. Also, after driving twenty miles or so, and restarting after a rest, the brake warning light is also on now. The car drives and stops absolutely fine. Finally, I also have a Bank 1 Sensor 1 fault code on the Lambda, which appears after around 50 miles. That sensor was replaced last year because of the code, but it is still recurring. All very frustrating really.

thanks for the reply. All tyres are same brand and almost new. I am tending to think it is ABS related, since that is the work I did on the car over winter. Both front sensors were very reluctant to be removed and I broke the left one, which is replaced with a new Holstein unit. The right side was also very difficult and looked okay, but I wonder if it was damaged. Anyway, I just ordered a new one from Rock Auto. Should be here is a week or so, and we shall see then. Odd that the Snap-On code reader showed no ABS issues though - which I tested specifically. Best regards Tim

thanks for the replies. Next I tried a zero point recalibration - which successfully cleared the lights. However, half a mile down the road, they came back on again. Josef - how did you conclude it was an O2 sensor? My OBD reader displays real time graph data for all four sensors, and they appear to be responding as they should. Chris - do you have any procedures to actually do any of the diagnostics you suggest please? I got a techstream adapter and software from the web last year, but never had much success making it communicate with my 2002. Do you have a known version that may work? Thanks and regards Tim

Hello I have an 02 SC430 and have used the usual paperclip procedure (jumping between the Ts and CG pins) many times to reset the VSC light, over the years. However, I now have the two VSC lights, and the ABS light on, and the reset is not working. So, while the car was off the road over winter I had all four ABS sensors out for cleaning, and replaced the front nearside which broke during removal. It also had new rear discs. After reconnecting the battery I now have these three lights. If I add the paperclip and turn on the ignition, the lights stay on and do not start to blink. I borrowed a professional Snap-on code reader, which found no codes in any system in the car. All the dash lights went out too. However, as soon as I drove it the VSC lights came back, and first touch of the brakes brought back the ABS light. Any suggestions? Hard to proceed with apparently no error codes at all! Regards Tim

Interesting - I guess it could well mean that. Obvious next question - where, exactly, is that switch?

I have obtained the list of all possible fault codes related to the roof mechanism - there are 55 of them - and so today I connected a professional code reader, assuming it would diagnose the problem. It correctly communicated with the car and interrogated four screen fulls of status conditions - all appear correct. Did not expect that! I am now wondering if the fault could be in the valet switch? For a normally operating car, if the switch is used, does that produce exactly the same symptoms I have - can someone please confirm or otherwise? I have attached screen shots of what the code reader told me, in case anyone can spot anything there.