My beloved wifey drove my beloved LX450 two weeks ago and noticed that it was running slightly rough when returning home one night. She had driven a distance of approx 10 miles with a maximum speed 40 mph. The next morning she started it up and it was idling more roughly. She also reported a lot of white smoke was coming from the tailpipe 
. Being the smart lady she is, and knowing how anal I am about the LX ( 150,000 miles and rust free!), she shut it down immediately. She also reported that it had not overheated at anytime while she was driving it home the night before.
I was not able to look at the LX until last Friday. I started her up and it was misfiring with the dreaded white smoke coming out of the tailpipe. The OBDII reader said it was a misfire on cylinder #5. The tailpipe smoke was thick, wet and did smell heavily of gasoline. With the gas smell I was feeling a bit more optimistic about a stuck injector/wiring harness issue. I let it run a few minutes longer and then noticed coolant leaking from the PS side of the engine near the exhaust manifold
.The coolant also appeared to have some oil contamination.
To make a long story longer, I have ordered the HG kit from Lowe Toyota (BTW, Sam Stewart was excellent to deal with!). I planned to start digging into the LX ASAP but the weather here has not been cooperating much and I did not want to start snapping bolts, plastic parts and my fingers off unnecessarily (unheated garage, high of -2 F with -40 Windchill two days ago) The weather is warming up today ( a balmy 18 F !), however, my schedule is going to prevent me from getting started on this project for several more weeks. Plus we should be in the 20s or 30s by then.
1) Should I be worried about piston corrosion or anything else developing in the interim? I was thinking I should probably at least drain the oil and coolant today, but in rethought I wonder if not draining the fluids may actually be more protective if I have to let her sit for awhile.
2)Also, is it likely that I will have to replace the cats too? are they likely to be damaged by prolonged retention of the watery/gas/coolant/ exhaust mix I observed coming from the tailpipe?
Any advice, recommendations, comments or suggestions are always welcome!!!
Tom
. Being the smart lady she is, and knowing how anal I am about the LX ( 150,000 miles and rust free!), she shut it down immediately. She also reported that it had not overheated at anytime while she was driving it home the night before. I was not able to look at the LX until last Friday. I started her up and it was misfiring with the dreaded white smoke coming out of the tailpipe
. The OBDII reader said it was a misfire on cylinder #5. The tailpipe smoke was thick, wet and did smell heavily of gasoline. With the gas smell I was feeling a bit more optimistic about a stuck injector/wiring harness issue. I let it run a few minutes longer and then noticed coolant leaking from the PS side of the engine near the exhaust manifold.The coolant also appeared to have some oil contamination.To make a long story longer, I have ordered the HG kit from Lowe Toyota (BTW, Sam Stewart was excellent to deal with!). I planned to start digging into the LX ASAP but the weather here has not been cooperating much and I did not want to start snapping bolts, plastic parts and my fingers off unnecessarily (unheated garage, high of -2 F with -40 Windchill two days ago) The weather is warming up today ( a balmy 18 F !), however, my schedule is going to prevent me from getting started on this project for several more weeks. Plus we should be in the 20s or 30s by then.
1) Should I be worried about piston corrosion or anything else developing in the interim? I was thinking I should probably at least drain the oil and coolant today, but in rethought I wonder if not draining the fluids may actually be more protective if I have to let her sit for awhile.
2)Also, is it likely that I will have to replace the cats too? are they likely to be damaged by prolonged retention of the watery/gas/coolant/ exhaust mix I observed coming from the tailpipe?
Any advice, recommendations, comments or suggestions are always welcome!!!
Tom
