Only warning sign so far that is pointing to a bad ECU is the hard starting issue.

The car NEVER starts the same. I havent had to turn the key off and then try starting it again, it will always start, but sometimes it sounds like the battery is about dead. Other times(sitting over night for 8+hrs)it starts up like a brand new car. One thing to keep in mind, I went to start my car before leaving work last week to let it warm up and there was ZERO power. So i replaced the battery that was in the car when i bought it, with a new one from work. Every time i started it for the following few days, it started up with no hesitation. But now(after about 10 days of putting a new battery in it)we are back to it acting like it was with the old battery. SOMETIMES cranks with zero hesitation, other times it sounds like the battery is about dead but it will always start. W.T.F.?!?!


My diagnosis
-starter
-alternator
-ECU???


Input GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

Voltmeter on battery while it's off, should be 12.5v. Then same test with car on, should be over 13v. If it's under then it might be the alt, could also be corrosion/loose wire going to alt/batt/stater/ground.
if it's a sc4, then it might be the alt getting soaked in power steering fluid.

 

NA 2J's will soak the ALT in oil from the distributer too. Make sure you aren't having anything leach power. Check your grounds, get the starter tested. Make sure the terminals to the battery are good and clean too. Those can bring a lot of wierd issues.

 

93 SC4. Garage kept by previous 1 owner. 104k miles. I work at a dealership, gonna get one of our techs to throw it up on the lift for me tomorrow. Trial and error at this point. I wanna take baby steps on this before getting into replacing the ECU with a remanned one from Lexus directly(750 my cost with 100 core)with an amazing warranty.

 

Just have someone repair the ECU for $100-150. The capacitors may well be toast by now. You're almost certain to need to replace them before long, anyway, so you might as well get that out of the way and see if it eliminates a lot of other troubleshooting.

 

Does anybody have a spec sheet for exactly what the capacitors in our ECUs are? There's plenty of info for the LS but not the SC.

 

The massive LS400 ECU repair thread covers both.

 

whaaaa? well damn, something for me to check tomorrow.

 

Link? I never found a chart showing the SC ones.

 

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...capacitor.html

Skim through there and you'll likely find your car listed. They're all pretty much the same capacitors, just slightly varying quantities.