LexGX

iTrader: (1)

Hows everybody doing. I'm experiencing some troubles that with my 94 ls400. She currently has 215,xxx miles on her. I'm running supertech synthetic oil (used to be mobil1 5000 but this is an experiment). I'm also running her on regular gas (yea i know its horrible for her).

I believe that my car needs a new alternator because when i roll up my windows, i can tell that my interior lights dim. My car also has a viper remote start alarm that i believe is malfunctioning. My car also idles at around 3-400 rpm, very low. On a cold crank, it'll idle around 1,000 rpm until the engine warms up and when the a/c is turned on.

This is the problem that i experienced the other day. I was exiting on the ramp to get onto the interstate when all a sudden all the lights turned off and then it turned back on. At this point, the engine tried to crank by itself. It was weird. I pulled over with no power steering or anything to the side of the road. The car tried to crank itself again 2 more times until i decided to take my key out. When i did that, the car tried to crank itself again. I thought to myself, maybe my alarm remote is acting up and its trying to start the car, so i pressed the two buttons to stop the car. I checked under the hood and everything seems fine. I put my key in cranking the car about 4 times before it stayed cranked. When the engine decided to stay cranked, i proceeded to drive home, about 2 or 3 miles later, my car started to do the same thing. The engine would turn off and it would crank itself but this time the engine would stay cranked.

this happened about 1 1/2 weeks ago and it haven't happened again since.

3 days ago, I've been noticing that when i step on the brakes, my aftermarket cd player would turn off and turn on again. Also at night time when i press the brakes, my interior lights will dim. During the day time when my a/c is on, when i step on the brakes, i can tell that the a/c stop blowing for maybe 1/2 sec and it'll start blowing again.

What is wrong with my car? Is the alternator causing this problem or is it my alarm creating this problem? Or is it both? I love this car to death and i want to fix her up. Thanks

Suddog

The engine cranking itself sounds like a viper alarm with a remote start malfunction. Some Viper alarms control the power to the ignition. This will cause all kinds of weird electrical problems. If possible, disable your alarm and check the battery leads both negative and positive for positive connection both at the battery and their final destinations. This should give you a good indication of what is the problem.