I have been in the online car community for some time now with Lincoln Mark VIII's. So I'll turn to the Lexus owners that I'm sure know all.

I bought my wife an RX300 about 3 months ago, it has 100,000 on the ticker, now I have some questions/problems.

1. The check engine light came on yesterday. After checking all the standard fluids, etc, I had her drop by Autozone and get the codes read. It came back with one code only, P1133 (HO2S insufficient switching sensor 1 / bank 1, Fuel control shifted lean (FAOSC) ).

I'm hoping this is an O2 sensor, but I need someone to confirm this would fix the issue, ie. that this is a common issue/common fix.

2. The RX has some light clunking sounds up front. I'm thinking some bushings need replaced, what are the common repairs on these cars at 100k miles. (Mark VIII's are upper control arms and swaybar end links).

3. The RX is in need of new tires. Any consensus on what tires are the best? OR, anyone have some tire/rim take offs because of upgrading to a different rim? (I'm in Houston area and willing to make a little drive to surrounding cities for the right prices).

Any help on these items would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike
http://nightsky.home.texas.net/markviii

 

First, I gotta respect that Lincoln of yours

I was looking at your page and you have some fantastic modifications. Reminds me of what I do with my RX300.

1. As for P1133. Only thing that can go wrong here is either a bad condition or a bad sensor. If it is the sensor, bank 1, sensor 1 is the one just behind th engine block. (see photo below).

 

Basically if after you do the procedure below, the engine light comes back on again, then sensor is kaput.

Look in the fuse box in your engine bay for this fuse. With the engine off, pull this fuse out for a few seconds, then put it back in. This will temporarily clear the light. I find it preferable however, to also pull the negative and positive battery cables off, too, should this procedure not work as sometimes some readings remain in memory through th miracle of capacitors.

 

We recently went over some potential busing and other suspension noise areas.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=245743

As for your last question, I like the upsize 235 (over 225) -70-16 Michelin Crossterrains.

 

Welcome to CL, Nightsky!

Those upsized Cross Terrains are a great step up from most tires, particularly the OEM GY Integritys. I'm sure at 100K you are not dealing with these, as I was lucky to get about 30K out of these tires. The CT's smoothness rivals that of the OEM tire (even though it can't match the often seen $40 sale price), while the grip and handling is far superior, especially on anything but clean, dry pavement.

If you elect to upsize to the 235-series tire, it requires no mods, fits the standard rim, and even if you upsize your spare (HIGHLY recommended if yours is an AWD - difference in diameter and all that), it fits easily into the spare tire well.

The O2 sensors seem to be a common fault at high mileage (my rear O2 sensor quit at about 40K), throwing that CEL code. As Lexmex suggested, you might try pulling the fuse or negative battery terminal for a few minutes to clear the code and see if it reappears. (Sadly, it probably will, but it doesn't hurt to try . . . )

That suspension noise you are hearing from up front is probably struts. The '99 and '00 had some issues on this and I seem to recall a TSB issued on them. Mine clunked pretty good at full rebound, so I tried to limit my off-road airtime.

Before going to the expense of replacement, you might try Lexmex's WD-40 trick noted on his link (scroll about 2/3 of the way down). Those struts are kinda pricey, and anything to stretch their life will save you significant $$.

Most folks seemed to have less trouble later in the model run, but at 100K yours are maybe getting a little long in tooth anyway, especially for an early example. I assume you will want to keep your stock ride height and smooth ride rather than inflict the penalties of a performance suspension and a cosmetic drop on your wife.

Does anyone have a recommendation for replacements?

 

KYB-GR2s are the most likely in this part of the world, though I have seen some JDM market setups in HyperRev magazine.

 

Thanks for the info. The check engine light went out on its own yesterday. I'm thinking my wife might have got some suspect gas. We'll keep an eye on it and see what happens.

I'll also get this thing up on some jack stands to check out the suspension that the other thread refered to. I'm thinking its the struts because of the solidness of the thunking sounds.

As for tires, I don't really want to up the tire size any more as our roads are pretty good here. Has anyone ever tried Kumho Solus tires on these cars? I'll check the wheels and tires section for this too.

Thanks again,
Mike

 

Are you a denizen of LincolnsOnLine.com? I posted there for years when I had my Town Car. I put Kumho Solus on the TC and can recommend the ride and handling, nice tire.

 

You could say I was a denizen there, but I was more of a squatter at that site.. I posted on there very little, but that forum was more for Town Car owners and Mark VII owners. The VIII has its own following that was mostly on www.markviii.org at the time. I was a moderator there for some time, wrote the newsletters, and tested newly developed items for companies. Now I just do air ride repair work on the side for Ford/Lincoln/Mercury owners.