1997 Lexus LS 400 - Page 7 - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

idle air control valve is shot, replace it

remove the door panel the plastic clip attached to the window has broken away from the regulator arm. you can replace the regulator easily at that point or you can cut a 2x4 to fit and do not forget to unplug the regulator motor. jam the wood between the window and the bottom of the inner door frame.

are you sure you didn't blow a head gasket?is it whit smoke?

Need to check next time it quits,pull a wire and see if it has spark,I suspect it is a ignition problem,not fuel.

More often than not this is caused by a large vacuum leak on the engine, the surge up and down is the computer trying to slow the idle. Use a bottle of propane gas and a torch adapter with a rubber hose on it, spray the gas around the top of the top of the engine and alos around any vacuum hoses from the engine, if you hit a vacuum leak the engine will sound much different, repair as needed.

idle control motor its on the inlet manifold and either needs renewing or a good clean

First, make sure your battery is fully charged.Next, check your plus and minus connections on your battery posts. Don't just check them, clean the clamps on the inside and the posts. They make a tool that is a battery post wire brush tool for under $6 bucks, get one so you can clean them well. This may help the issue. Once they are clean and it still is slow starting, my conclusion would be you may have a bad starter. The slow start means you typically have a dead spot on the starter armature which you cannot do anything to fix, replace it. .Their is only other reason it could be slow to start and that is if you had a compression issue, and your car actually runs, so that is not it.

Hi.

There is no document showing a single procedure for vacuum hoses, fuel hoses and wiring in the engine. The procedures are illustrated in the single document of ENGINE MECHANICAL, SFI, IGNITION, EMISSION CONTROL, COOLING, CHARGING and AC sections of service manual (e.g. see individually vacuum, fuel system, EGR, IAC, cooling system etc.) . The whole diagrams and the single procedures to reassemble the hoses and wiring in the engine compartment are in the service manual. The service manual has been uploaded here. Click on the rapidshare download page and in the page use the Green button to download for free to your computer. Any other option will ask you to pay extra to download the file (sorry but the free file repository service works in this way).

Regards.

Ginko

Try first to jump start the car with another idling car. If you get the car running it is likely a power supply issue. To test if it is the battery or the alternator, remove the jumper cable and then the negative terminal. If the car dies after awhile then you may have a weak alternator or the lines from the alternator may be bad. If it runs it is the battery that may be weak.

If jump starting the car does not help then it may be an electrical issue. It may be a bad starter relay or the starter may be going bad. Heat affects the starter and the wiring. Inspect also the wiring for loose connections or exposed conductors.

u can get in the car correct? If not you need a locksmith or the dealer, but if you can get in. I found a great method to get the trunk popped if your car is still open and the trunk lock is activated. Drop the under dash. 2 screws under the gas tank/ hood/ trunk release cluster. The panel left of the steering wheel pops off with safe prying. 1 more screw and another tab. Then you have access to the backside of the trunk release. Unplug the relay behind the switch ( Should be the blue/black wires) Use a paper clip to touch both the positive and negative points of the relay. Pop and wallah the trunk should open. Worst case situation you can remove the rear seat or subwoofer to gain acces to the trunk. pop the subwoofer out and get a coat hanger or remove the seat to get the keys. If you type in( how to remove the back seat of my 96 lexus ls 400) in your google search bar there are several posts on how to do this.

I don't think I've ever worked on one of those... I can give you general instructions, though. First of all, you probably have some plastic covers on your engine - remove them first. Then remove your plug wires. NOTE: it is a good idea to mark them first; normally they are in specific lengths and will only fit back on one way but you do not want to mix these up! Find out what the pug gap is for your engine (most cars have the plug gap included in the info on the engine decal stuck to the underside of the hood or elsewhere in the engine compartment) and gap your plugs. If you cannot get them exact, a bit smaller is better than a bit bigger - gaps grow over the course of use from all the heat. Taking care NOT to get any dirt in your cylinders, (best blow with compressed air around the plugs first) pull your old ones using a spark plug socket (regular deep sockets lack the rubber boot that protects the ceramic). Have a look for any abnormal conditions when they come out: are they black? wet? white? all different? these conditions will tell you if there is something else going on in your engine. Check the box of new plugs for torque: usually the package will say something like 18 ft-lbs or quarter turn past snug or something like that. This is very important - tighten just a hair too much, you pull threads out of your head - tighten not enough and you risk having them be blown out. IF package doesn't say: is there a crush washer? If so, go finger-tight then 1/4 turn; if not, go finger-tight then 1/16th turn. If you can't get your fingers in there to turn the plugs in, use a piece of rubber hose stuck on the tip of the plug and spin the hose.

DRAIN COOLANT SYSTEM.DISCONNECT THE RADIATOR INLET HOSE FROM INLET PIPE. REMOVE THE TIMING BELT FROM THE WATER PUMP PULLEY. REMOVE THE RIGHT SIDE IGNITION COIL.REMOVE THE WATER INLET HOUSING AND THERMOSTAT.REMOVE THE MOUNTING BOLTS AND STUDS. LIFT OUT THE WATER PUMP BY CAREFULLY PRYING BETWEEN THE PUMP AND THE CYLINDER HEAD. REMOVE ALL THE OLD PACKING AND CLEAN THE MOUNTING SURFACES. INSTALL NEW SEAL PACKING TO THE WATER PUMP GROOVE AND A NEW O - RING TO THE WATER BYPASS PIPE.INSTALL THE TIMING BELT AND CONNECT THE INLET HOSE TO THE INLET PIPE.THEN REFILL THE COOLING SYSTEM. RUN THE ENGINE CHECK FOR LEAKS.

levers are usually connected to cables. can you reach under the car to the cable and pull it manually?

The two are unrelated. First the no power is the catalytic converter, it is clogged up. Second is the purge solenoid is not working. The solenoid could be bad or the wiring. Check engine light on?

This is a known problem and is due to excess lubricating oil on the needle spindles drying out over time and mixing with dust making it more viscous.The suggested remedy is to strip out the pod remove the plastic front and gently remove the excess oil with a cotton bud (UK) Q-Tip (US)
The speedo is electrically driven there is no cable drive involved.
The speedometer is sticking.---------- Try this :--- 1: Wack the top of the dash over the gauge cluster when it sticks.Not very hard, but wack it few times with your hands.-------
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2: Take cluster apart and wipe excess lube off of the needle rest with a q-tip. ------- But if you wack/tap/hit on the dash and your speedo starts working, this indicates problem with instrument cluster board itself.---------- The cost of new cluster board is approx $1200.But there are few online sites who deals with cluster board repairing .They charge very less for repairing this board as compared to new.--------Click this link below to get your cluster board completely repaired. http://www.mrwhizard.com/ -------------- If you want to repair your instrument cluster board yourself, then you can also do it.To go through the repair guide, click the link below:--- http://technoanswers.blogspot.com/2011/08/lexus-ls-400-speedometer-starts-working.html ---------------
This will help.Thanks.Helpmech.

First you have to determine weather you have a FUEL problem or (ELECTRICAL)Spark problem ??

Pull the coil wire off or a easy to get to spark plug wire, Lay it close to were you pulled it off of (Do not hold or touch you may get SHOCKED) and crank motor (need two people) look and listen for a spark, if you see or here a spark, then go to next step which will be to check for Fuel (gas). Be very careful when checking fuel, as most lines are under pressure and may cause bodily harm such as BURNS to EYES and SKIN!! Loosen or pull the inlet fuel line off and put rag over line. Some fuel injected vehicles have a fuel rail the has a valve that looks like a tire valve. Put a rag over this valve and push it in with a small screw driver and have someone crank motor a couple of times to see if fuel is coming out.

If NO Spark---Could be a lot of things Points (older vehicles) Modules, Coils, Crank Sensors, ECT......

If NO Fuel---- Could be Clogged fuel filter, Fuel Pump, Fuel pump Relay, Fuse, ECT..........

Hope this helps you ??

GIve me some more details

Give me some more information about this problem. May be i can help.

Give some more details of the problem.