njamal

picture is from the left front side by the tire looking at the engine

hyperopt

The black thing that you rotated is a mini-filter and you can rotate it anyway you want. It's part of the emission system used to reduce emission during deceleration.
Since you have taken care of vacuum lines, your next step is to check for electrical shorts due to fluid spills (eg. spark plug wire junctions).

njamal

Thank you for explaining the black **** thing. There are actually 2 right across from one another. Good thing they are not broken.

link13

Is is possible that an air bubble within the cooling system has something to do with this?

njamal

I have run the car hot with reservoir bottle opened and not sure what else could I do to bleed or clear the system.

Any ideas on how to clear this bubble from the cooling system?

jml

Check the spark plug wires/boots. You will probably find moisture down in the metal spark plug tubes in the engine and moisture on the boots. If the wires are oem they will have a year printed on them. In your case if they say 1993 they are original and need to be replaced. order genuine Lex set and it comes all numbered and in a harness which is easy to install. do caps and rotors too.

njamal

I am getting desperate here. Please help.

Spark plug wires are original with '1992' on them. Did find little oily moisture on wire contacts at spark plugs (couple of them), cleaned them and reconnected. Did not see any improvement at all. Reluctant to change plug wires since did not have idle/hesitation problem before that 'stupid coolant by pass hose' replacement.

Here is what car is doing. Please help.

1. When in 'D' and applied brakes (without A/C) car shakes like you re running a Diesel Engine. Does same except a little harder with A/C.

2. When driving at 45-50 mph and give it Gas, car stutters and accelerates slowly. So, it stutters if you are driving 45-50 and start pressing the gas pedal more. But if you let go and then give it gas again, it stops to stutter.

3. When driving city with traffic lights and A/C is on, Check engine light comes on and goes off in 5-10 minutes. This does nnot happen on highway continuous driving.

4. When getting out of the car, it does smell funky pungent irritating order under the car or around the car. Make me wonder if emission is working properly. Again, that **** in the picture had hot Coolant dripping on it. Is that thing bad?

When I first started this thread, the car was really in bad shape. Since then, vacuum hoses have made some difference. But, it is still not the original idle/acceleration etc. Please read details posted above and respond with any suggestions.

Thanks.

VQT

Do you know how to check for trouble code? Do a search on SC400 forum, I wrote a detail procedure on how to retrieve trouble code a long time ago. Then let us know the code number...

njamal

Dealer checked, no codes, but said needs spark plug wires. Still do not understand how a coolant leak and a little driving afterwards with a vacuum hose off, can cause a spark plug wire to go bad. Yes, they are original 1993 but why were they not bad before this unfortunate incident?

Parts are on its way from Carson. Thanks Steve & Gordon.

Will post results when done with the change of spark plugs, wires, rotors, caps, pcv valve (whole tune up).

Wish me luck.

persian451

i still dont this its that.. dealer will of cours have you change the entire ignition system though, that is always their first answer to everything...

RODDMOD

Yes, they are original 1993 but why were they not bad before this unfortunate incident?


After 130K your poor Lex could use new plugs and wires.

kbconv

Might want to throw a timing light on each plug wire. Not scientific but they should all pulse/blink about the same rate. If you find an intermittent blink it may help you narrow your search to a particular cylinder if it's an HV electrical problem.

Good luck!

njamal

OK. Got my OEM parts from Carson Toyota. Done with replacing:

Spark plugs (found oil on #5, #7) (That's probably what was causing stutter & hesitation, now gone).
Wires
Rotors
Caps
PCV Valve
Made an effort to clean Throttle body. I don't think I was 100% successful. But, did what I could.

Car is running better (not best like it used to, yet.). It has vibration. I can feel it in steering wheel, shift lever, etc. Will continue to troubleshoot. Not sure where it will lead me to.

Overall experience for doing it myself.

1. OEM parts. I think that saved me good amount of hassle on the Wires, spark plugs Gap, etc.

2. Rotors/Caps are a pain since you have to work with Coolant hose, Coolant leaks, clean up, etc. The 3rd screw that other people have mentioned. Yes, that is a pain to get to. But, I did it so others can do it too. All I am saying is that Rotors/Caps added extra 4-5 hours + coolant mess.

Thanks to everyone who responded and participated in this thread.

All the best to others who want to do similar change themselves.