Hey guys, 92 LS, need your help. Have a situation where I started my car this afternoon, started fine, took off driving and all was well. Got about a 1/2 mile from my apt and made a left turn when all of a sudden the car just seemed to die (powerwise) on the spot. I didn't get any warning lights on the dash at all, but the car was barely moving, even if I floor it, and is now idling really rough. I suspect it to be either clogged cats, or a bad coil, however when I stopped and looked under the car, the cats were not glowing. They may not have had a chance to b/c I only went a mile away from my apt. Right now car is only getting to a top speed of about 35-40 and by the time I got back to my apt, and looked under the car again, the exhaust system was smoking; not badly but my mufflers and pipes were smoking. I did do a search and from what I found, this is probably the closest thread to come to answering my question,,
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...%2C+rough+idle

Just looking for a second opinion, before I spend alot of money to replace all of the cats as well as both of the coils (fix it now,,no problem later,, right!!)

Also can someone recommend a site where to get the parts from at a decent price. I know Sewell is one of our vendors, just competitive price shopping is all.

 

My 93 had this similar issue after the timing belt was replaced, the coils were replaced as well as the coil wire connectors were replaced as they were all cracked and rotted from the engine heat.

Based on your search, I would start with the coils, they are cheaper than doing the cats.

To me cats don't clog up all of a sudden, especially two of them at the same time. To me they would gradually get worse.

 

Thanks photoinc, pretty much what I was thinking as well with the coils. I was gonna replace them soon anyways, seems like I have to do it sooner than later now.

 

Had same experience before. I had replaced both Cat and custom exhaust but didn't fix. Finally found out was the ignition system- one of the spark plug wire from coil to the dist. cap was cut by the cam pulley and grounded so i was only running with 4 cyl. so take off the cover to inspect each spark plug wire. Also get a DMM(multi-meter) from hardware store(sometime only 3 bucks) to test the coil resistance before you replace the coil.
Hope it would help

 

Spark plugs, wires distributor and cap are only 6 months old. Your suggestion is a very good one, and I did check these areas yesterday after I parked the car. Pretty sure at this point, it is the coils, so ordered them last night and they are being shipped out today. Will be replacing both of them, along with new O2 sensors (been needing to replace them, might as well while I am working on the car.). Car is a 92, and am pretty sure that these are the originals, so it was time to replace them.

 

My car did the same thing. It's a 1993 model. I replaced the TPS sensor and it has not given me any issues.

Chris

 

Don't forget to double check the wire connectors at the coils. We ended up soldering the ones on the 93, mainly because, new connectors were not readily available, and I wanted to get it Done

 

My friend had a 94 that would do this about once a month or so. It would be normal, then after driving for 10-15 minutes it would barely go at all. He would limp home and the next day, back to normal again. We tested stuff for months trying to figure it out. I was skeptical, but it ended up being a bad ECU. He ordered one from a rebuilder on ebay for about $200. Go figure.

 

It was the ignition coils. Replaced both of them, and car was as good as new. The driver side was a real PITA to break loose and change out though.

 

glad to hear this was resolved...how much were the coils and where did u get them?

 

Coils were about $70 per side. Got them for a local, lesser known parts store that just happened to have them in stock.

 

what parts store? and what brand were the coils? wells? standard?echlin?borg and warner? bosch?

 

Parts store is called Standard Auto parts, like I said, local to the area which happened to have them. Lucked out b/c they ordered them for another customer who never came to pick them up, so they were stuck with them. Brand was Denso, same as OEM.

 

wow...denso is what u want thats for sure

 

Re hashing from a search. My 92 Ls400 just suffered a similar loss of power, all of a sudden, shop thinks the timing went out. I was driving 24 miles to work and the last 8 miles issue started w/ a couple stop and goes. w/ the last stop b4 shop, I could see smoke come up from the cat area. I couldn't see them glowing, but they were hot. So w/ everyone here, did the coil system seem to fix all or were there some here that this did not solve the issue?
Thanks