I knew it was going to look fantastic when you mentioned the wheel wells—nothing says detailed better than finished wheel wells! I see guys in these nice F150s and Silverado trucks with unfinished wheel wells and think how much nicer they would look if they would finish them with black, rubberized spray. I noticed the Camry we rented a while back didn’t even have plastic liners—they’re some sort of padded material. Sound-proofing I guess, but no way to clean those.

 

Didn’t get to clean it any more today but I got the sensor installed and took her for the first drive. She runs great and the AC cranks.. amazing. There is a bit too much vibration at idle in drive for my liking and sometimes on decel so I’m suspecting a bad tranny mount.

Also, it’s very subtle but I think I have the dreaded EGR pipe crack. There is a definite exhaust leak sound coming from that area and the exhaust is wayyyy too clean to be rotted anywhere.

Also also, check engine for code 28 popped up immediately. I then switched around both upstream o2 sensors (gotta love rust free exhausts) and got code 21, confirming one bad o2 sensor heater circuit. A new one is already on the way.

Heres a pic I snapped today — I still have more work to do but you can see the rear door is coming along nicely.

 

Slow but sure, looks sharp!

 

Looking good! Darn about the EGR pipe, but it's a job that can wait.

What did you do to get the yellowing out? Looks fantastic so far.

 

Just clay bar so far! I think the polishing will bring it back to near match. At least, good enough.

Also, I fixed my EGR leak for free with some homemade block off plates now the car idles as silently as my 430, no exaggeration... and best of all it took me less than an hour. Didn’t even remove the egr pipe, just slid the block off plates in on both sides! I can’t understand why I didn’t see any mention of doing this on any threads.

 

Very nice. How did you manage to access both sides of the EGR pipe to install the plates?

Also, what did you make the plates out of?

 

For the top side the bolts are right there — just removed the two 12mm’s, pulled the pipe back and slid the plate and gasket in.

For the bottom side, just put the car on ramps and used a 1/4” drive ratchet with a 12mm short socket on it to remove the two nuts on the bottom. No need to remove the cats or anything!

However I could not get the pipe to move up off the studs on the bottom... so I improvised again.. and cut a different block off plate that covered just the hole that went in between the studs. Slid it right in and bam.. no exhaust leak at all. I mean, none.

Actually used a large putty knife with a thick metal blade as a donation to cut the blocks out of. Lol!

 

A free fix is the best fix. I seen that done with the EGR when I had my 91 Grand Prix but nothing ever here with the LS400, Most people always talk about OEM and want to keep everything like that. After blocking it off does it throw a new code other then your O2? At least you don't have to go through emissions with it anymore to get it registered.

 

It does throw a code but if you get a simple 10 cent resistor to put in place of the egr sensor that code goes away (for the 90-94’s apparently).

 

Gotta love Collinite 845