hey guys...great forum...just joined and this is my first post... my new baby has about 193k miles on it... the CARFAX was very clean... pristine inside and out...and it purrs... almost no interior noise when engine is on... the guy that sold it to me is a flipper in the raleigh area...had this car only about 2 weeks before he sold it to me.. After reading this forum...i'm thrilled to see how many of the little nuances in my new ride are common problems... such as:

D4 light is out
CD Player only plays about half of my originals...haven't tried a burned copy yet..
slight wind noise after i hit about 50 mph....

surprisingly, my power windows are really fast and i've got no complaints...but i'm a little concerned since he has been unable to provide any maintenance history for the car... all i know was that the timing belt was changed around 160k.

is there any easy way to find out what other maintenance has been done? i'm hoping the starter has already been replaced since that seems to be a fairly expensive procedure.. what should i be on the look out for? i don't think a lot of people here have gotten their TLs to 193k so

i recently got a CEL and the code P401 was revealed....the nearest japanese specialist was asking for $300 to clean it out (is that fair?) but i need it fixed if i want to pass emmissions. Can a novice do it himself or should i just take it to a pro?

finally...is anyone in the raleigh area? maybe we can meet up and show off our rides...

thanks in advance for any help.

 

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!! do you know exactly what the code means????

 

p0401 means your EGR Valves are dirty... if you can locate where it is, a few cans of carb cleaner should do the trick to clean it up...

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

 

Welcome to the board. You always want to know the maintenance history period before buying a car. Him having it only two weeks is sketchy.

 

Thanks Mod, I did think it was sketchy too, but I figure I paid a little over $4000 for the car so whatever his reasons were for selling it, I was OK with it after the CARFAX was clean and I got a chance to take her for a spin. I figure it's worth at least $6500 right now so I have about $2000 after tag/title to play with. I would like to save the money I have set aside for upgrades on the head unit and speakers, instead of spending it on things I can do myself with a little knowhow.

The main thing right now is that the EGR valves are dirty which prevents me from passing inspection. It seems a lot of people do it themselves here so I think $300 is a lot to pay for the service. If anyone can lend some advice on what to do and what not to do when trying to clean them, it would be greatly appreciated. Does it really take multiple cans of carb cleaner to get it clean? Based on other threads it seems really easy for a 2.5 but a 3.2 is a lot trickier.

 

Yeah taking it for a spin was a good choice. You can see a lot by doing that. Ya I have an entire stereo from my TL for sale, headunit, subs, amps, so let me know if your interested. Also a Weapon R Air Filter....