92 Ls400 Keep Or Dump

[davey07]

:( My 92 LS400 has 149000 miles on it and the air conditions went out, the power steering is leaking and now its blowing blueish/white smoke when starting also when more and more excelerating.

Is this car worth repairing or should I just get rid of it?

Its in really good shape and it rides nice.

[silvermate]

you need to just take it to your mechanic and have him access the problems, and give you a ballpark figure and go from there.

i would check your oil to see if its a milky color, you might have a cracked head. huge problem if thats the case

[wandawoods]

blueish smoke can mean engine oil buring! do u have to add engine oil often? if yes, it can be worn piston rings which is indeed a major cost ($3K+) to make good.

[UCF3]

it can't be more than $1000 to repair it.

Powersteering pump about $200.

alternator(if really damaged) about $300

Air condition recharge/replace about $70-150.

Hopefully it's not a blown header gasket. Expensive if you don't do it yourself.

(about $450-1000) by pro.

I wouldn't dump it, since you won't get full value for it anymore. Repair.

[chips229]

I had the same sort of options my self with my old car,not a lexus but i know where your coming from davey.

How do you feel about the car...i was on my second one(the same model,same colour,same spec,just that id owned that model for nine years and i needed a change,something different.So if you still enjoy driving the car and its in good condition and you know the car inside and out and its not been a money pit id keep it ....if you fancy a change and your tired of the car sale it mate..

If you can do most repair jobs yourself then you will be laughing.

Ive thought long and hard about having the emmisions pipe what runs from the exhaust down pipe back up to the inlet manifold replaced by lexus..they wanted £100 for the pipe and 5 hours labour at £89 a hour to do the job.

I took a days holiday on Tuesday this week cos the weather was forecast hot and dry...surprise surprise for us in the uk.

I ended up doing the job my self

I started at 8.45am and finished it at 6.30pm :chairshot:

but i saved a fortune....everything went wrong all day,nothing to eat all day till 8pm :chairshot:

But the feeling of fixing it my self and saving loads of money as well,driving the car after fixing it :D out ways the effort it took.

Have a go mate do as much your self and the tricky stiff get the garage to sort out mate...

Good luck with her...let us all know how you get on ;)

[99lsguy]

well said chips!!!!!

[lex4me]

It is possible that your smoke is caused by a bad air control valve on your Power Steering pump. Check the two vacuum lines leading up from the pump for fluid inside. If you have some, $80 or so for the part and pretty easy to replace, especially if you are putting a new pump in anyway. I'd drop the alternator to make access to the pump bolts easier and go ahead and pull it apart while out (and at least replace the brushes - $12 from the dealer).

[wwest]

Motor oil costs what? $1.00 Qt?

Drive she said........

[90LS400Lexus]

Unless it has been severely abused or very poorly maintained- it would be very uncommon for a 149K LS400 to have a bad engine.

[wandawoods]

Unless it has been severely abused or very poorly maintained- it would be very uncommon for a 149K LS400 to have a bad engine.

well, my 98 ES3 with only 138K are suffering from the same blue-smoke thing:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...howtopic=10359&

it looks like a case of very poor upkeeps from previous owner.

I am also trying to decide whether to dump it, fix it or get engine swap with a much lower milleage one.....

[UCF3]

:( My 92 LS400 has 149000 miles on it and the air conditions went out, the power steering is leaking and now its blowing blueish/white smoke when starting also when more and more excelerating.

Is this car worth repairing or should I just get rid of it?

Its in really good shape and it rides nice.

What's the status on your car?

[SKperformance]

check the pcv it can cause smoke and bad idling also when plugged

[davey07]

It is possible that your smoke is caused by a bad air control valve on your Power Steering pump. Check the two vacuum lines leading up from the pump for fluid inside. If you have some, $80 or so for the part and pretty easy to replace, especially if you are putting a new pump in anyway. I'd drop the alternator to make access to the pump bolts easier and go ahead and pull it apart while out (and at least replace the brushes - $12 from the dealer).

I think that might be the problem, because it seems that when I was having the power steering problem the smoke started.

It does look like one of the lines has some fluid in it. I'm looking at buying a remanufactured pump online autopartsplace.com for about $250, is the air control valve a separate part from the pump itself?

The p/s hose also seems to have fluid all along the line, do you think I should replace that also?

I haven't done a lot of mechnical work but since this is a extra car right know, I'm going to repair it myself.

[davey07]

I decided to replace the P/S pump and the Vacum valve, I took the alternator out but know I'm unable to loosen the bolt that connects the pump and the hose together, also can't get the pump bolts out either.

Any suggestions on breakin them free, very little space to work in.