wow what a way to start off in these forums but im kinda in a panic here. just picked up a 1990 LS400 and was on my way from southeast MO to Kansas City when i lost all power. Car shut down, engine light went on, and when i tried to restart all i got was the starter and a whirring noise in the engine. Im afraid that i broke a shaft or something. car has 190,000 on it and was running strong with no problems till now (supposedly). the timing belt got changed at 172,000. does anyone know if i need a new engine? i really dont know much about these cars so any help will be greatly appreciated. thank you so much in advance.

 

Sorry to hear that. Kinda sucks to have this as your first experience....

How did you get home? Got the car towed? Check the basics. Battery fully charged? Check all plugs, check all connections, grounding, cap/rotor, alternator.... Yeah, start there and hope its only something simple.

 

yup did all the basics i could in a thunderstorm (it was a hell of a night) and to top it off my insurance company was giving me grief since i bought the plan YESTERDAY! lol

anyways i had checked the oil when i bought the car and it was topped off when i checked it after my little mishap the oil and coolant were completely dry. sigh this really doesn't bode well...

sorry for being such a noob but thats really all the info that i have at this point.

 

Ugh... that dont sound good. In fact, it sounds dreadful. Sorry I dont have any info to help.

Good luck!

 

got a closer look and timing belt seems to be the issue...


i didnt think that was it because the guy had a receipt for timing belt replacement 20,000 miles ago.

 

Hmm.. thats interesting.... very strange.

 

The coolant and oil are completely out? Wow, maybe you have a majorly blown headgasket and flooded your cylinders with oil and coolant, causing them to hydrolock? That would probably be the worst possible screnario.

 

im crossing my fingers and hoping its a timing belt.

 

Yeah.. hope its just the timing belt... keep us posted... Would love to know the overall problem/solution.

 

ok heres the final issue the LAST shop to do the timing belt left out parts. they didnt reinstall the bushings correctly. this led to the water pump seizing up and breaking the timing belt. FINAL cost $1027 ugh. thank god for non interference engines.

 

Be glad you dont have any bent connecting rods and valvetrain due to the engine design. You got lucky on this one. I would raise hell to the previous shop if you could track them down.

 

ouch.. another $1K on top of that you just bought the car? When did the guy said he did the belt? don't they warranty that for X amount of miles?

Well, glad your all back on the road.

 

not back on the road yet i hope its soon though! lol...

quick question, since you all are MUCH more knowledgeable about these cars than I are there any other things i might need to look out for? ANY help would be appreciated! thanks in advance!

 

i got REALLY lucky thank god for Toyota engineers!

 

he didnt get lucky, the '89-94 used the non-interference version of the 1uz