UnDead Lexus: Stuck Retarded

[Dennisch]

Last time I checked around my knob, the "D" was in working order.

And, remember, this is not just any trundling zombie. She ate a cylinder's capacity of brake fluid, drove 1,000 miles, and gave up the ghost doing 100mph in Jacksonville

Did you guys take that destroyed engine apart?

 

[Omnis]

No, the dealer in Jacksonville did. He had to tow it to the nearest place and then fly home. If I recall correctly, it had a bent rod that caused the failure. I don't remember whether it grenaded. I think it just lost compression and died as the rod was compressed and bent downward.

 

[Crash]

Last time I checked around my knob, the "D" was in working order.

Of course your knob works around a "D". I wouldn't expect any less.

 

[Omnis]

Of course your knob works around a "D". I wouldn't expect any less.

Damn it.

 

[Omnis]

So I got the rear shocks replaced. It sounded boomy and was jiggly, so new struts were in order. Sadly, when my mechanic tore the seats and the trunk carpet out, it was obvious that the car had been in an accident. One that didn't show up on any of the reports. Does Carfax owe me a new car now? At least I know why the 🤬 trunk started leaking now. Luckily there was no frame damage-- looks like only cosmetic. Still, it was an absolutely terrible job. Looks like they just slagged it together with a stick welder and some bubble gum. I knew something was fishy since the trunk didn't sit exactly flush like it is supposed to.

Guess I'll never do business with MBSF again. I can't believe they did my dad like that. I can't even believe my dad bought a crashed car without having it inspected. WTF. I guess desperation does that to a man.

At least my car handles like it should now. The garage owner and I almost spun the car swerving at 60mph as a diagnostic. (OK, not quite erhabe style. allahu akbar!) Now she's totally grounded to the ground and understeers like a proper, luxurious pig.

 

[Omnis]

Puff the Magic Lexus started drooling power steering fluid. I gave it to my mom to drive a long distance, and she must have cranked the steering so hard on lock that Smokey yakked ATF all over the place. I've put 2 quarts of ATF into it since the week before Christmas, so the good news is that I won't have to flush it. I'm hoping it's just a loose hose. Haven't had the time or the patience or the jack stands to crawl under it. Are hose clip failures a thing? Looks like it's leaking way down by the pump. Anyone know if it's a huge pain in the ass to replace a power steering pump on a Supercamry?

 

[Pupik]

Usually the P/S pumps were 1 hour jobs, tops, but longer for the high-pressure and return hoses. Those add time. Or just keep adding power steering fluid...a quick and painless fix. Leaky racks aren't unheard of, and the aftermarket is a lot cheaper.

Not sure why you'd be leaking that much ATF, but the transmission pans leaked freely in the first-gen RXs. There's no actual gasket, Toyota uses a sealant called FIPG (call it "FIPpige" when you call the parts department for extra Toyota Cred). If there's no red fluid leak, the gearbox is eating the fluid like crazy, and you'll just need a rebuilt transmission...

 

[Omnis]

No, the transmission isn't leaking. The power steering leak is what spewed ATF. It's just Dexron that's specified for the PS system.

Shoot, I hope the transmission isn't leaking. It sometimes bucks into 2nd or 3rd. I think the shift logic is confused because I baby it and my dad put 60k mi on it like he had an oak stump for a foot. Anyway, the torque converter pisses me off because I try to gently go when I have passengers and the car just doesn't move. Then I give it some more gas and it suddenly grabs. Really annoying.

Also, I found a new rattle when I turn the steering wheel. Sounds like a crunch in the actual steering wheel as it goes upside-down. Perhaps it's coming from the turn signal as I make a full turn? It's just a quick rattle. Weird.

Car's coming up on 100,000 miles. One more tank of gas should do it. It'll be the first car I've ever had or been in with 6 digits on the clock. Hopefully it's not a doomsday timer.

 

[Pupik]

The 4th-gen ES 300/330 had rather annoying shift logic built right in. Drivers were bothered by the "hesitation upon acceleration" after a few thousand miles of ownership. It was Lexus' first attempt at a throttle body without a cable, and a couple software updates or resetting the shift logic memory didn't seem to cure the response lag by much. Others reported that constantly hammering the car helped, or being an extra gentle great-grandparent behind the wheel made the response seem normal. Definitely the Achille's Heel of that vehicle.

That generation ES also had a steering column wobble at the intermediate shaft (John Shaft's stunt double?) which was common at the first 2-3 years of that generation. If it's happening when you move the turn signal switch, it could be a loose column trim piece, or a wire connector which is rubbing the inside of the steering column housing...occasional issues we'd see on a bunch of cars, although a harmless issue.

You mentioned earlier that you find it understeers, but switching off the Traction Control/TCS helps. I found it overly-intrusive in damp (not pouring buckets) weather if playing around during spirited driving. Mid-corner bureaucracy is not desirable if you know what to expect when tossing around a 3300-pound FF car.

 

[Omnis]

You know the noise the turn signals make when you signal left but turn the wheel right? It's like an obnoxious click sound, which I assume is the wheel ratcheting on the signal. I'm getting what sounds like a very muted, subdued version of that, but a bunch of clicks in rapid succession. It's like a rip cord, or something dragging over a washboard. Probably some kind of wiring banging around in there.

As for handling, I think it's fine. Haven't had to worry about nanny systems. Only thing is that the suspension geometry is stupid. This car eats up sidewalls in the corners. The edges of my front CatchPowers are almost shot. Gotta rotate them.

 

[Omnis]

Bae got a bath.

 

[Omnis]

I AM THE ASPHALT JESUS.

New General G-Max AS-05s on the car. Coming off of Lanvigator Chinese nightmares. It's a new vehicle. I haven't pushed it because the bead is still lubed, but my god are these tires good. The steering has gone from plowing through dog **** to rollerblading on glass.

 

[Omnis]

I can't believe this **** happened to me. I get home and my car doesn't start. Pop the hood and look what I find.



It's either sabotage or negligence, but they almost destroyed my car.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Jesus christ. How does a repair shop do that? Did they at least tell you?

 

[Omnis]

So I'm still driving this thing around, but it's full hooptie status now. I've had no 5th gear for a year or two, so we save this thing for my mom to drive to work (she could walk if she wanted) or for little mile trips to the gym or grocery store, etc., if someone else is using the Mazda. I got all the parts (except for a floor jack) to fix it when it first started throwing the code, but they've sat in my garage seemingly forever because I was too much of a wuss to get under the car. Never really had time for it. But after cleaning out my garage, I really just didn't want to see those parts sitting there anymore, and I kind of want to take the Lexus on the highway again or at least on some longer trips if I had to. Youtube was super helpful in giving me the confidence to just get the job done. I didn't want to open a can of worms, but having a good floor jack is freaking awesome. Makes everything so much easier than using garbage trolley/bottle, or even scissor jacks. I just made a quick video to pay it forward to the next shlub who tries to fix their hooptie



The speakers were also all rotted out, so today I'm installing replacements. I cut the special lexus wire clips off the Mark Levinson speakers and wired them up to some Kenwood amazon specials. Without having to worry about aftermarket brackets, it should just screw right in and be a piece of cake. Getting those door cards back on is a total PITA though. These were the only two days in the forecast that weren't hot, so working outside has been refreshing at least. Besides, a loud ass sound system should help me sell it to someone at the Swap Shop when that time comes. The HVAC doesn't hold a charge, but who needs AC when you can have subwoofers circulate the air instead?

 

[Omnis]

Figured I should also update the random issues that this thing has had over the years...

No, the transmission isn't leaking. The power steering leak is what spewed ATF. It's just Dexron that's specified for the PS system.

Shoot, I hope the transmission isn't leaking. It sometimes bucks into 2nd or 3rd. I think the shift logic is confused because I baby it and my dad put 60k mi on it like he had an oak stump for a foot. Anyway, the torque converter pisses me off because I try to gently go when I have passengers and the car just doesn't move. Then I give it some more gas and it suddenly grabs. Really annoying.

Also, I found a new rattle when I turn the steering wheel. Sounds like a crunch in the actual steering wheel as it goes upside-down. Perhaps it's coming from the turn signal as I make a full turn? It's just a quick rattle. Weird.

Car's coming up on 100,000 miles. One more tank of gas should do it. It'll be the first car I've ever had or been in with 6 digits on the clock. Hopefully it's not a doomsday timer.

The leaking power steering fluid was coming from the banjo bolt on one of the PS lines. IIRC, it was before it got to the high pressure hose to the steering rack, thank god. I was preparing to fix it with my dad at his old house, when his neighbor came over to chat and talk **** about the mayor of Fort Lauderdale. He goes to us, "The hell are you guys doing? Why don't you have my guy Ansel do that." Not sure if his name was Ansel, or what, but he was this old retired Jamaican Benz mechanic that the neighbor would have watch his house and maintain his cars while he was out flying helicopters and traveling for his business. Anyway, the guy comes over and takes a look at the car, then calls up his son who's also a mechanic. The next morning the two of them came over, the old guy got under the car and the son jumped on top of the engine, and they had the whole PS system fixed in like 45 minutes. They only wanted $80 or something ridiculous as payment. We gave them like $200 and a case of beer for being hall of fame level dudes. But I don't think they wanted any part of that car again after that

You know the noise the turn signals make when you signal left but turn the wheel right? It's like an obnoxious click sound, which I assume is the wheel ratcheting on the signal. I'm getting what sounds like a very muted, subdued version of that, but a bunch of clicks in rapid succession. It's like a rip cord, or something dragging over a washboard. Probably some kind of wiring banging around in there.

As for handling, I think it's fine. Haven't had to worry about nanny systems. Only thing is that the suspension geometry is stupid. This car eats up sidewalls in the corners. The edges of my front CatchPowers are almost shot. Gotta rotate them.

I remember the stalk noise, but I can't remember what it was. It seemingly went away on its own. The car still eats sidewalls. The chinese tire experiment was a disaster, but as a newish driver coming from a Hyundai Accent, I didn't care. Those replacement General AS-05s were sweet but soon got totally destroyed. The middle of the tire still had tread, but the edges of the sidewalls had cord and wire showing through before I got a replacement set. Those tires were never rotated again after the first 5-10k miles, so the fronts just took a beating. The rears were still in great shape though. I got a replacement set because one of the rears got a huge nail through the sidewall. I still have the other rear in my garage as a spare. Rotation and any other maintenance wasn't really done because of the HVAC issue. In the summer, the car just basically sits. It's probably done 1,000 miles per year for the past 5 years.

These are the hooptie chronicles.

 

[Pupik]

I remember the stalk noise, but I can't remember what it was. It seemingly went away on its own.

My old '94 GS 300 made a slight noise similar to that, and it turns out there's a clip that holds the wiring harness along the steering rack which comes loose after a while. It really took like 10 years for it to show up on some cars, but not all of them. But you're right, it would do it for 3 weeks, and then go away for one week, and come back. One of the techs showed me how to loosen the column plastic and put the clip back into place, and the noise went away until I sold it.

 

[Omnis]

@Pupik, so I replaced all the rotten speakers in the ML system and wired them back directly into the original harness clips. Impedance on the new Kenwood speakers is all matched AFAIK. When I turn the car on, however, there's no sound and the volume control doesn't even work. Like, I can turn the knob and the volume doesn't even show up. When I go to the audio screen, I can't adjust balance or fader either. Everything else with the radio tuning, Audio Off/On (knob push-click) and CD buttons works. Have you ever encountered this in LexusLand? I'm kinda stumped on what to do next. Not sure if it's an amp thing or a weird software/controller thing.

 

[Pupik]

@Pupik, so I replaced all the rotten speakers in the ML system and wired them back directly into the original harness clips. Impedance on the new Kenwood speakers is all matched AFAIK. When I turn the car on, however, there's no sound and the volume control doesn't even work. Like, I can turn the knob and the volume doesn't even show up. When I go to the audio screen, I can't adjust balance or fader either. Everything else with the radio tuning, Audio Off/On (knob push-click) and CD buttons works. Have you ever encountered this in LexusLand? I'm kinda stumped on what to do next. Not sure if it's an amp thing or a weird software/controller thing.

Eh, I can't remember anyone asking us to troubleshoot their stereo modifications. From this point forward, I'm honestly talking out my wazoo...

Unless there's a small internal amplifier / pre-amp in the radio itself (since it doesn't need as much juice to push a lot less audible range from AM/FM), a bad amp would typically mean no sound at all under any circumstances. Maybe there's something else to it? Speaker wires out of phase?

 

[Omnis]

Eh, I can't remember anyone asking us to troubleshoot their stereo modifications. From this point forward, I'm honestly talking out my wazoo...

Unless there's a small internal amplifier / pre-amp in the radio itself (since it doesn't need as much juice to push a lot less audible range from AM/FM), a bad amp would typically mean no sound at all under any circumstances. Maybe there's something else to it? Speaker wires out of phase?

Nah, the speakers totally work. I ran signal to them before putting them in the car. The only thing I can find that sounds similar to my situation is the amp going bad/shorting and blowing out the 25A fuse. Fuse is totally fine though. I'm kind of at a loss, lol. $60 down the drain for speakers isn't crazy, but I don't want to buy another amp that may or may not fix the problem. Maybe this is my calling to build a giant-ass subwoofer enclosure and just bypass the entire Lexus Nav/sound system.

 

[Omnis]

Welp, the same P0766 code came back even after replacing the solenoid. I guess whatever clutch pack that puts the car into overdrive is totally shot, however that works. Probably explains why the ATF was so black.

 

[Keef]

clutch pack that puts the car into overdrive

Overdrive ratios are always more stressful on clutches because the engine wants to accelerate faster than the drivetrain wants to. On manual transmissions, a slipping clutch is also most problematic in the highest gears.

 

[Omnis]

Good point. Still, the car works and gears 1-4 are nice n smoove. I got another Mark Levinson amp from an ebay junker on the cheap. Plugged her in and the stereo works again, like a charm.

The next job is replacing the knock sensors and therefore everything else on top of the engine and between the V. I keep getting P0333, and as soon as the code trips, the whole engine sounds like ass. Weird whiny sound, like it's struggling to retard itself into limp mode, but then it goes back to normal. Can some kinda shot bearings cause knock sensors to freak out? Kinda wondering whether my water pump is on the fritz, but I haven't had overheating/coolant issues at all since replacing the radiator last year. The water pump/timing belt job is not something I want to do. Since 4th gear lockout is part of the limp mode, I'm wondering whether there is some other software bug that has the gearbox locked out of overdrive, too. Initially thought maybe it piggybacked onto this knock sensor issue.

 

[wfooshee]

Overdrive ratios are always more stressful on clutches because the engine wants to accelerate faster than the drivetrain wants to. On manual transmissions, a slipping clutch is also most problematic in the highest gears.

That's not because the engine wants to accelerate more than the drivetrain, it's simply a matter of having less mechanical advantage over the drivetrain. A non-worn clutch can carry whatever torque the engine applies to the drivetrain, assuming it's being shifted well and the clutch isn't being dropped under screaming revs, but a worn clutch can slip, and the slippage appears in higher gears first, simply because of the difference in gearing. There is nothing "more stressful" about the upper gears or overdrive gears.

In motorcycles, the most common failure in transmissions is second gear. Not third, fourth, fifth, or sixth. It's SECOND gear, because somebody running hard on a bike is going to engage second rather firmly and harshly. My own bike (in my avatar) has had second gear replaced for severe wear of the dogs on the gearwheels (which I don't think is my fault. I'm not a wheely-ing hooligan, and I did buy the bike used.)

 

[Omnis]

Well, my next big project was to replace the knock sensors and harness because I kept getting an intermittent P0333 error code and the car would go into limp mode, maximally retarding the engine timing and locking out anything above 3rd gear. I can deal with the car not going into overdrive, but not having 4th gear is a real dealkiller for around-town driving. Long story short, I went from a malfunctioning knock sensor to a non-functional one. Now I'm getting P0327 and it's immediate and constant. Will have to splice that wire after all because I'm not taking the engine apart again after a week of doing this lol.

Some of the design decisions these Toyota/Lexus engineers made are pretty mind-boggling. I had to remove the whole plenum (the "Surge Tank") and throttle body to get to this one pesky bolt. I want to meet the guy who decided that the hardest bolt to access on the entire car should be made of play-dough. Everything I tried to get on it would just slide off. Couldn't understand what was going on. After bending over the car for a whole afternoon, I had no success. I put penetrating oil on it overnight and was finally able to get some purchase on it with a bolt extractor inside of a ratcheting wrench, and by some miracle it came off. Just look at this thing...

Every pigtail I touched disintegrated. Thank got the DTM-looking connectors remained intact. I guess everything made from PVC just bakes out its plasticizer and turns to a crinkly-crackly mess after 20 years. I think the episode where the car overheated really did a number on everything between the cylinder banks. But at least the latches breaking off makes them easier to remove and replace than something getting stuck closed or stuck together. Also, FYI, cleaning stuff with brake cleaner and intake cleaner eats through mechanix gloves. But maybe it's a built-in feature to have a convenient fingertip grease-application pad...

The good news is that having taken the time to replace the spark plugs, PCV valve, all the pigtail connectors that disintegrated, and cleaning the crud out of all the intake runners and the throttle body, the car runs butter-smooth now. Even if this was an exercise in futility, I now have the experience with all my tools to tackle anything on the Mazda. This was after the last spark plug was changed:

... By the way, the iridium plugs in the original engine were still gapped appropriately and, while dirty, didn't even look like they had worn. NGK Iridium is great stuff. And this is what a throttle body looks like after removing 20 years of caked-on sludge lol:

That used to be totally closed . When I restarted it the idle was crazy high, but after 10 minutes or so (even with the new code in limp mode) the ECU finally closed down and reset the throttle position with a nice idle at around 900rpm.

 

[wfooshee]

Further proof that cars are designed to go through assembly on the factory floor, and not designed to be serviced.