LX450 that ate my wallet ! (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Threads
2
Messages
18
Location
OC - California
Hello All.....hope you can help, here's my story: I have a 97 lx450 w/110lk miles all stock and so far one engine, one head gasket with full head rebuild, ECU and today new plugs, fuel filter, both O2 sensors, new plugs and wires, new distributor and rotor, throttle body intake hose, PVC valve, pvc grommet and hose, Air filter, Oil change and ran Sea Foam and last week two bottles of Gummot fuel injector cleaner, Inspected Wiring harness near EGR valve and rewrapped w/heat resistsant wrap tape
And still having problems !!!!!!!:crybaby:
CEL light on and engine shakes really bad but smoothes out if I take it out of overdrive

ERROR CODES:
P301B - CYL 1 MISFIRE
P304B - CYL 4 MISFIRE
P171B - o2 SENSOR
P300B - RANDOM MISFIRE
Just noticed tonight that the first CAT is glowing red and for some strange reason I'm getting water under the passenger side floormat
HELP! the wife is pressuring me to get a minivan if I don't get this beast fixed !!!!
 
I would take a second look at the wiring harness and not just rewrap it. Looks like an electrical problem with all those misfires.
 
The water under the floor mat is most likely a stopped up drain line from the sun roof. Search and you will find the different ways to fix it. ie. unplug the plastic covers in the rocker panels....

Could you explain if and why you changed out your ECU or did I not understand your post correctly. Did you use Toyota parts?.

Did you replace the complete distributor? Could you have missed putting it in at TDC or missed it's placement by a few teeth?

Start with the easy stuff first. Check the wire connectors to the O2 sensors to make sure they are seated correctly and the wires have not melted to anything.

Give the wife a margarita and tell her it is only a minor problem and you can't wait to learn more about the car as you figure this problem out yourself. :hillbilly:
 
Good gravy man. You are having some issues.

Normally, when the cat is glowing red like you mentioned, it's time for a new cat. I would not go oem but get an aftermarket, free flowing, better able to be tucked up high cat. The other issue with a glowing cat could be due to the timing being off.

The bad 02 sensor reading is probably due to insufficient flow through the cats. That is my guess considering you already replaced both of them. It never hurts to recheck the connection though.

Everything else I'll leave to the experts here but if I had a guess, wiring harness issues or those injectors are not correctly seated. Are you absolutely positive the timing is correct?



Buck
 
I only replaced the distributor cap and rotor and the ECU was sent out to be rebuilt "reprogrammed"

Thanks for all the quick responses and I will follow up in the next day, I already pulled the second cat and it's looks fine but I'm pretty sure the first one is history so I will check with CDAN for availabilty, I will also double check the wiring harness for meltdown again
Looks like my weekend will be full with this beast again
 
Glowing CAT is caused by excessive fuel getting to the exhaust stream, which is directly caused by the misfire of the engine. I would strongly advised against installing a new cat before the misfire issue is resolved.
 
Fuel injectors could be stuck too.
 
Anyone have a good ballpark figure of what I should pay to have all six injectors removed and rebuilt ?(if I don't do the work)
I have decent wrench skills but should I attempt this myself? I've read on other posts that this can be a real PITA if I make any mistakes and at this point in the game I do not want to make any......anyone also know of a good honest mechanic in OC that has "Cruiser" experience
 
The cylinder misfires are a major problem that you need to fix before you buy any more parts. Barring any other issues you haven't shared with us, you are probably looking at a wiring harness issue. We have seen problems with the main engine wiring harness in 3 areas. By the EGR valve, at the entrance/exit of the firewall, and directly behind the glove box. Sometimes it gets chaffed behind the glove box and people don't usually look there.

If you are 100% sure the wiring harness has no issues then you need to start looking at the connectors to the injectors and possibly the injectors though it would be extremely rare to have 2 or 3 injectors fail at the same time. Have you inspected the wiring to your crank position sensor? There might be a test in the FSM.

I agree with CivicFerio that the red-hot cat is due to excessive fuel being dumped into the exhaust system, then burned in the cat. That will dramatically shorten the life of the cat so you really need to get this resolved before you drive it much.

-B-
 
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Anyone have a good ballpark figure of what I should pay to have all six injectors removed and rebuilt ?(if I don't do the work)

IIRC, about $1600 at the dealer... (ask me how I knew. The dealer misdiagnosed the HG problem, replaced all 6 injectors for me. It was $5k hole in my wallet when it was all done.:bang:)
 
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the ECU was sent out to be rebuilt "reprogrammed"

That sounds like a complete and total mechanic sham to me. This isn't an ECU that can be flashed or reprogrammed. Who is doing your wrenching? I would be completely suspect of anything they have done if they say they did this and actually charged you money for it.
 
I can't imagine that the injectors would need to be serviced with only 110k miles on them.
How does the engine idle, does it stumble under load only or all the time.

I wonder how the computer senses a misfire situation and pinpoints it to a certain cylinder, is it receiving its readings from a dead injector or the distributor or what.
 
Where is the crank position sensor located ?
 
I paid a "Specialty" foreign auto service center near my house to do the ECU work and was charged $950 and 5 days down time, the car ran good for a few days and then started running like road apples again, I complained to the mech and he said he was going to charge me $200 more to diagnose the problem, so of coarse I gave hin a one finger salute and my rig has been limited to market trips.

I looked behind the glove box this evening and noticed some suspect splicing and wire crimping on the ECU harness.........I'm going to pull out the ECU this evening and double check all the "wire work"
I am not going to give up until I can figure this out
ALL of you guys have been a great help !!!
 
Have you checked the ignition coil? I didn't see it listed in your original post.
I wouldn't drive it with a glowing cat. If it's clogged or if the substrait is loose causing the clog, then you could damage the engine from the back pressure.
 
The coil appeas to be fine, do you know of any easy ways of testing it ?
 
I paid a "Specialty" foreign auto service center near my house to do the ECU work and was charged $950 and 5 days down time, the car ran good for a few days and then started running like road apples again, I complained to the mech and he said he was going to charge me $200 more to diagnose the problem, so of coarse I gave hin a one finger salute and my rig has been limited to market trips.

I looked behind the glove box this evening and noticed some suspect splicing and wire crimping on the ECU harness.........I'm going to pull out the ECU this evening and double check all the "wire work"
I am not going to give up until I can figure this out
ALL of you guys have been a great help !!!

I can't figure out why someone would be cutting and splicing a harness that only needs to be unplugged to be removed. I would definitely start the diagnosis process here. Preferably with a mechanic who is not the one you already used. You should pm robbie "powderpig" and see if he can talk you through some diagnosis over the phone. Hopefully someone with a bit more experience in dealing with the ECU will chime in as well. Best of luck, I'm sorry to see someone have these kind of troubles with a rig that should be near bullet proof.
 
Thanks for the info, I will get in touch with "powderpig" and see if he can assist with this monster
 
I would also double check the cam gear timing and distributor gear timing just to eliminate the possibilities. They may be off by a tooth and is causing your problem.
 

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