PicassoPete

Hi 'VSC Warning' I have a 98 LS400 and suffered the same problem. I found out that it was my own silly fault. When I was cleaning the throttle body / butterfly from the build up of carbon deposits. (Tick-over is so smooth now that I have to check it's still running.) Afterwards I decided to give the same attention to the combined MAF (Mass Air Flow) - Air Temp Sensor. In my exuberance and the use of a cotton bud I left a small amount of cotton wool on the tiny sensor at the end of the recess. In my attempt to remove said contaminant I accidentally bent the tiny 'fuse wire' sized wire supporting what I presumed to be a tiny resistor. I managed to remove the bits of cotton wool caught on the small paper clip sized metal posts and straighten the wire between them. However when I boxed everything up and started the engine, Oh dear the 'BONG' and the warning that the VSC was inoperative. After investigation it appears that if the Vehicle's Electronics can't have complete control over the engine management system then logically it can't control the VSC (Vehicle Stability Control) effectively and therefore leaves it switched off with the appropriate warning. I'm not saying this is the problem you have but for you to check any other thing that would not allow the correct operation of the engine. I fortunately own a diagnostic scan tool and was able to diagnose my problem with the defunct MAF, however it did not mention anything about the VSC being inoperative. If you think about it there wasn't anything wrong with it except it just wasn't switching on. The vehicle also went into 'limp mode' and only allowed the engine to reach around 3000 revs before it would cut the ignition. As a side note to all of you out there wanting to 'dabble' the tiny 'resistor' I mentioned before turned out to be a coil with about thirty turns of the finest wire wound round a former. As this was only about 3 m/m in length I was only able to see this after I broke the plastic end cap off and looked through a record deck stylus 50 X magnitude microscope. WARNING! If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it! A new one is £193.00 ... OUCH! I did get a used one for £20.00 and a 40 mile round trip and once fitted the VSC switched on as normal. I touched lucky at this price as everyone else wanted in the region of fifty quid. I could have taken a chance and got one from Hong Kong for about a tenner. I'm retired and located in Wallasey on the Wirral so if you are anywhere near I can plug said scanner in and see what's cooking. I must mention another point totally unrelated in that I have found a supplier, after three days of internet trawling, of the rear hub / suspension 'Rose Joints'. Dear old Lexus and most motor factor establishments don't even list them and in Lexus's case they want to supply the complete hub at a cost of £250.97 inc Vat. plus I have it on good authority from my friendly Lexus engineer that the wheel bearing may not be saved so a new one is probably on the cards. I won't repeat the verbal description he gave to the type of job it is! I only had to remove the wheel and one nut and bolt to access and replace the joint in situ. It was however quite stubborn but a big hammer and the right dolly, not too difficult. This is my first upload to this site so I'm not sure if I can advertise and mention the supplier in question save to say I've been in the motor trade for many years and their help and consideration is well worth mentioning to all. They even sent me the other bush, free of charge, so that I would have the correct one for my vehicle. There was apparently two sizes depending on the year of the vehicle as mine was on the change. Best of luck. Regards Peter A. PicassoPete (Every job's a masterpiece!) Ha-ha. :) PS. Sorry if I have waffled on a bit, still very keen.