poorman_nicelex

Hi every body.O.k heres my story. i bought a 1995 lexus ls400 with 126,000 miles.I had the car for two days when the check engine light came on,needless to say iwas not happy.i called the dealer i bought it from and they said no problem just take to a service station and they will have it taken care of it.Well at first the technician said the car through off like 10 codes so he tryed again and it said bank 1 converter,which is 700 dollars.So i called the dealer and they said the converter was just replaced 4 months ago and was still under warranty{the lexus was the owners mothers car....i checked,it was true}so i took it there and they said ,it was the bank 1 top sensor but they didnt have the part in stock.So i took it back to the first dealer who said they were crazy and it was the converter ,they told me the other place put a cheaper after market converter on there and it just wasnt holding up.now my question is does this sound like a reasonable explanation?im taking the car back monday to get the new converter put on it but if they put another after market on it dont you think it will happen again?help tell me if this has happened to you or if you have any info i will gladly appreciate it

Jmai22

prolly a stupid suggestion but when my friends lexus was low on oil the light came on. check your oil see if you have enough

poorman_nicelex

all is well ive been to two shops and the first result was converter,4 trips and 200 dollars lighter,final result converter again,but they drained me on replacing a couple of unneeded repairs first.....lol

DevilDog

Do you know the specific code?

Sounds like you had a Catalytic Converter Efficiency Code Bank 1. I would say the cat was bad, but I have never seen one go bad after replacing it. Get the factory cat installed.

poorman_nicelex

but i still have to wonder is another after market piece going to hold up.mechanic said it wont hold the pressure.is he full of it or should i put out the dough for an original replacement.

poorman_nicelex

the after market is under warranty[free] lol.but they replaced the sensors on bank 1,light came back on.then they switched the wires lasted three days then on again.

poorman_nicelex

do you know the correct temperature range for the4.0,i was runnin 185 and they said it was two low another reason for the light to come on they said,but now im runnin193,did i get ripped off again?

DevilDog

"switched the wires"

????


There is still a problem. The reason it takes a couple of days for the check engine light to come on is because that is how long it takes for the engine ecu to run the cat moniter test twice. Somethings not right.

For some reason the engine ecu is seeing the same waveform pattern from both the main O2 and the sub-O2 sensors. This only happens when the cat is not properly reducing HC, CO, And NOx. I think the aftermarket cat is causing the problem.

Good luck, let us know what happens.

DD

DevilDog

Coolant temp has nothing to do with it. 185-195 sounds normal to me. Ripped off? What did you buy? In your first post you said you had 10 codes, are they all gone except the cat code?

poorman_nicelex

hey thanks alot.i go monday to have replaced and ill definutly get back on here and spread the news.the mechanic said the back sensor might not be hooked up right so he switched the wires??????...what do you think about the thermostat did i get ripped?

poorman_nicelex

he said a whole bunch of codes came up but he says it does that sometimes,he rechecked it was just the cat,2 trips to him later he kept the moniter hooked up as he drove and it said the thermostat,,,but now it just says the cat.

poorman_nicelex

i bought two sensors and a thermostat.

DevilDog

Based on what your saying I still think it's the cat. If the sensors were bad then it would also have different codes. I've never seen a code that says the t-stat is bad. Sounds to me like he's not properly diagnosing the problem. My best educated guess is still the non-oem cat. That's where my money would be.

DD