Ls430 Blowing Smoke

[exsentric]

Hi, would appreciate input on this problem ( unless it's terminal - then don't tell me!!!)

The car is operating perfectly normaly in all respects - starts every time, pulls well, ticks over fine, no knocks or other untoward noises under the lid and nothing leaking from it, but on two recent occasions - both times after arriving home after a run, parking facing downhill on a sloping drive - it has blown out a huge amount of smoke when next started up! (within 1 hour of parking) and I mean a huge amount of smoke - dirty brownish on the first occasion, blue grey on the second.

After the initial cloud has dissipated ( and I've located the car again!) everything is back to normal.

These were not consecutive occasions, it had been used without it occurring in between.

Haven't checked anything yet nor had anything checked - thought I'd ask the experts first?

Richard

[exsentric]

Forgot to mention, it's running on LPG

[The-Acre]

I'm surprised you haven't had any replies on this. If it was an old Cortina I'd be suggesting valve stem guides. Either way, it sound like something seeping into the top half somewhere. Come on you experts!

[Malc]

Possibly learned thoughts are confounded by the car being LPG'd !!!

Just a mystery, and not a single one knows the likely answer

Malc

[exsentric]

Bit surprised myself, but most of my problems tend to be one of's!!!

Guess I could try running on petrol for a while to see if it does it again. Trouble is it's only done it twice so far with several trips in between when absolutely no smoke or vapour appears, but when she blows she really blows - my dread is that it's going to pull this trick in the middle of town or in a multistory car park! If it does that someone is bound to call out the fire brigade!!

Embarrassing or what?

Got to have the cam belt done very shortly, so probably take it to the local Lexus dealer for that ( can anyone smell money burning?) and pick their brains at the same time - since all the club experts seem to be on their hols at the moment.

Richard

[goldtop]

Got to have the cam belt done very shortly, so probably take it to the local Lexus dealer for that ( can anyone smell money burning?) and pick their brains at the same time - since all the club experts seem to be on their hols at the moment.

Richard

Alas, as messages on this forum confirm, Lexus won't touch your car because of the LPG conversion.

(Which is what made me change my LS search criteria.) :(

[exsentric]

Oh well, if they're going to be picky............... Backstreet here I come!

Did dig out online the other day, how to do it yourself, but not sure if I'd sleep nights if I went down that road - that is unless a heap of members tell me they have done it and it's a doddle????????

[The-Acre]

If I had a garage big enough (and several hours) I would happily do my own cam belt. I don't think there's anything particularly difficult, just tons of dismantling and reassembling. And of course wondering whether to throw the one bolt that you've got left at the end of it away or start again!

[plastic orange]

Is it using brake fluid? - if so, may be a servo problem. Are there any blocked breathers? I had this problem on one car I had - thought it was a van next to me blowing smoke at traffic lights, but no, it was me. A new one way valve sorted it - crankcase was pressurising.

It could be valve stem oil seals, but this seems a remote possibility.

Pete

[exsentric]

Interesting, will check the brake fluid today - would never have thought of that one!

Beginning to consider doing the cam belt myself and checking these other things while I'm in there. Been reading up about it and it seems having it done professionally (?) doesn't guarantee no horrendous outcome. Used to do all my own repairs and servicing on all the Senator I once owned, though they didn't have cam belts - that's something that baffles me, I have a Toyota Yaris Verso (virtually a dodgem car!) of exactly the same age and it has a timing chain - (so I'm told!) Yet Toyota build a top of the range,luxury flagship with practically every gadget under the sun, then stick a glorified elastic band in the motor??????? Does that make sense?

Richard

[plastic orange]

If you do some research on vehicles with cam chains, you'll find that there are quite a lot of failures with these too - and catastrophic. They are also a bigger job to change as some are service items too (costly). Incidentally, Senators were known for snapping chains back in the day.

Pete

[Malc]

The later Ls400 cambelt changes are at @100k miles, that's not bad and I did read a while ago that on earlier Ls400s the cambelt wear destruction point emerges at @ 150k miles.

that's got to be better than any goddam chain I bet :outforcount:

Malc

[The-Acre]

Personally I prefer a belt, simply for the reasons mentioned. Chains do snap, but if a belt is changed at the correct interval it should never be a problem.

[exsentric]

OOps, apologies to all the belt fans, you're probably right - I'm a bit of a dinosaur I guess - set in my ways - if you study my little motif

up in the corner you will notice it depicts the ark!! Thats the transport I arrived on!

Richard.

[The-Acre]

I'd rather travel on Noah's ark than the Costa Concordia, at least it had a reliable captain! Any more news on your smoking guns, has it done it again?

[exsentric]

Gotta come clean here! No news yet I'm afraid, I had intended to check some stuff on it today, but had forgotten that I was on a course today and tomorrow so wasn't/aren't able to do it yet and Friday I start another course so it will be the weekend at least.

The first two course were/are golf courses!! Unfortunately Fridays course is at our local hospital - not quite so enjoyable!!

So the Lexus must languish in it's garage for a while - at least it's not smoking in there!!

Richard

[Mybikes a cx500]

On the Mk2's there was a vacuum pipe from the steering pump to the inlet manifold, so that the steering pump could lift the tickover if you asked a lot of the pump, by turning the wheels at tickover, it tended to suck steering fluid into the manifold, and the fix was to block it of, as it was a bit of a not really necessary refinement. Perhaps something similar is your problem?

By the way, my "bit of a rubber band" was changed at 150k, and looked new, its the water pump you have to worry about...

[exsentric]

Thanks for that Ian - I do hope you are right as that would be an nice easy fix, something I could try out in any case. Not usually my luck to have something that simple, but here's hoping!

Think I might need to re-assess my opinion of rubber bands, but in fairness I did say 'glorified' and that has connotations of worship doesn't it???? TIC!

[The-Acre]

Thanks for that Ian - I do hope you are right as that would be an nice easy fix, something I could try out in any case. Not usually my luck to have something that simple, but here's hoping!

Think I might need to re-assess my opinion of rubber bands, but in fairness I did say 'glorified' and that has connotations of worship doesn't it???? TIC!

Steady now, the worship of rubber bands is a pagan practice! We're all interested to know what the problem is anyway, keep us posted.

[exsentric]

Got a load of Druids camped just over the river from here - hence the weird rituals!! Heard someone down there is collecting discarded cam belt - he heard how long they last so he's planning to convert them into chastity belts and market them to the local lads for when they march off to Twickenham and have to leave their wenches at home!

Nice that you are interested in my anti smoking campaign, and I will keep reporting on my efforts, but can't promise how often as just at the moment I'm in a less healthy state than the car - however, I reckon I should be able to try a couple of the suggestion out - check for disappearing brake fluid (Pete) and shut off steering pump vacuum pipe (Ian) Thanks for those gents.

Richard

[exsentric]

Thought it was time I gave the promised update on my blue smoke issue.

The news is not good - today for the first time I had the problem while driving. After a 20 minute run down the motorway I had to stop at traffic lights near home after about best part of a mile on overrun so no throttle for several minutes then lights changed so pulled away uphill leaving blue fog for some 100 yards before it ceased.

It's not done that before!! Have had gas checked and given the all clear and PS is not loosing any oil nor is the brake master cylinder so am now convinced it has to be valve stem oil seals. Not an easy fix I gather, but trawling the internet brings up much discussion on the matter, some saying they never give trouble, others saying they often give trouble!! Fact remains I've got a problem with this engine which I need to address. If there are good and bad ways to go about it I would be grateful for any input from members who have had experience - or just opinions on the subject.

Loving the rest of the car!

Richard

[mikeyv]

If it happens again on your drive, turn it off mid smoking session, then whip out your spark plugs to see if any are wet.

Might give you a point in the right direction.

[exsentric]

Thanks for that suggestion, though I seriously doubt my ability to 'whip' out the spark plugs - probably take me half a day to find them!

Going to go and have a chat with local friendly garage next, might get some idea how big a mortgage I need to sort this out.

Richard

[plastic orange]

Are you sure all engine breathers are free including any PCV (positive crank ventilation) valves are operating correctly. If not, you will pressurise engine giving symptoms you describe. What grade of oil are you using, and has it been changed recently?

My LS400 puffs a bit of smoke at start up, but clears quickly and level never drops. I use Mobil 3000 (5/40) fully synthetic oil and changed before 5k - annually.

Hope you get to the bottom of it, but a compression test should show any problems with engine. Do a dry test, then a wet test and note any differences in compression readings. If wet figures increase it could be rings, but it could also depend on how the car has been used and things may be gummed up which could be sorted with an engine treatment.

Pete

[exsentric]

Thanks Pete for your input, recently had the oil changed by my local garage, but don't at this point know what they put in - probably whatever came to hand or they had on the shelf (that may be doing them a dis-service!) however, I must say I had a suspiscion the problem was more frequent after the oil change! Can the oil used make that much difference? I'll gladly change it again if it's likely to be that simple!

Also interested in the engine treatment you mention - any chance of some more detail on that?

Should tell you that my ability to do complicated procedures(I know how to open the bonnet...!!) is rather limited so have to rely on my local garage for much of the work that needs doing. They are very good and I trust them (in the main!) but it must also be said that they are not exactly snowed under with large Lexus models so their experience is somewhat limited. Would consider a Lexus agent, but the car has been gassed so I gather they wont go near it and my occasional contacts with them to date have not filled me with confidence.

Final point, do you know if the PCV valves you mention are accessible and recognisable? It would be nice to be able to point the garage in the right direction and that might save yours truly a tad of readies if they don't have to spend hours hunting for them/it!

Thanks again for your trouble.

Richard