obergc Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Well guys, been the proud owner of a 93LS for 3 years now. A very nice 93 with 105,000 miles. All the normal problems have been repaired, including instrument cluster, lower ball joints, power steering pump, alternator, TB, new ignition wiring set, plugs, rotors and caps, throttle body spotless, no fluid losses, new set of Michelin V rated tires and ran so smoothly you couldn't tell the engine was running at a stop unless you looked at the tach. Last night, the wife, was pulling into our driveway and was applying the brake when her foot slipped off the right side of the brake pedal when she was about 10 feet away from a small live oak tree next to our driveway. When her foot slipped off the brake pedal, it naturally hit the accelerator and the car accelerated into the tree trunk, about in the middle of the bumper. Haven't told the insurance company yet but I feel they are probably going to total out the car which will be a shame. Needs a new bumper assy, hood, grill, radiator, radiator supports, 2 new fans at front of condenser and fan blades on engine side of radiator. Haven't had any luck at finding body parts from TAP or similar salvage yards. If I could find the parts I would be tempted to do the repairs myself since most of the damaged parts are simply bolt ons. Sitting here quietly weeping in NW Florida. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcfish Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Well guys, been the proud owner of a 93LS for 3 years now. A very nice 93 with 105,000 miles. All the normal problems have been repaired, including instrument cluster, lower ball joints, power steering pump, alternator, TB, new ignition wiring set, plugs, rotors and caps, throttle body spotless, no fluid losses, new set of Michelin V rated tires and ran so smoothly you couldn't tell the engine was running at a stop unless you looked at the tach. Last night, the wife, was pulling into our driveway and was applying the brake when her foot slipped off the right side of the brake pedal when she was about 10 feet away from a small live oak tree next to our driveway. When her foot slipped off the brake pedal, it naturally hit the accelerator and the car accelerated into the tree trunk, about in the middle of the bumper. Haven't told the insurance company yet but I feel they are probably going to total out the car which will be a shame. Needs a new bumper assy, hood, grill, radiator, radiator supports, 2 new fans at front of condenser and fan blades on engine side of radiator. Haven't had any luck at finding body parts from TAP or similar salvage yards. If I could find the parts I would be tempted to do the repairs myself since most of the damaged parts are simply bolt ons. Sitting here quietly weeping in NW Florida. I hope your wife is ok, I feel for the lex, Looks like the repairs could be made fairly easy. I really hate looking at a damaged lexus :cries: Personally I would fix it DO or DIE Have one or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRK Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 My wife drove into the back of a CJ-7 a few years back and did less damage than yours. It was over $8000.00 Can. to repair, plus $2000.00 for mechanical ( all of the engine mounts were sheared off, the AC was hooped, and the driveshaft had to be aligned. The car is like new now, but had they known how fussy I was about the repair they would have declared it a loss. All new parts, no used, that kind of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obergc Posted March 11, 2006 Author Share Posted March 11, 2006 Wife is ok except for her pride. She's wondering why airbags didn't fire, so do I although she said that seat belts kept her from going into the steering wheel. You're right in that you really don't know the extent of the damage until you dig into it like the motor mounts, drive shaft, etc. I'm sure that the a/c condenser is toast as is the radiator. Surprisingly, both front fenders appear to be untouched. Lost all the coolant onto the ground. I'm sure that by the time you start adding up the cost of all the little pieces that it will be more than the insurance company will spend on it. Since the car is 13 years old now, I probably wouldn't scream too loud if they did put on some used parts, I would rather have that then lose the car completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFeldes Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Sorry to see that obergc.. Let's wait and see what the insurance says..I think all will be okay.. You will be okay because we all care and are concerened and totally elated your wife is okay. Which matters more to us all than the LS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vyhanh Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Hi, Sorry to read about your accident. Lucky it happened in your driveway and not on the freeway!!!! All the best VH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadfoot Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 My commiserations also, I am always sad to see the potential of such a well sorted out car lost for purely economic reasons. The airbag sensors are set deep in the fenders and are set off by very high g loads. The deformation that is shown in the photo would have absorbed a lot of energy. Unfortunately these cars have very well designed crumple zones, and the end effect is that the car is severely damaged after a "minor" impact, and usually uneconomic to repair. I feel your pain! Makes me want to drive a lot more carefully. Glad your wife is fine. Regards, Leadfoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaCraig Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Dear Curt, I am truly sorry to hear that. But I'm glad you're wife is OK. My heart goes out to you. Both of you. No doubt your wife feels really bad about it too. But accidents happen. I'm glad [as I'm sure you and your wife are] that it was a tree and not some kid on a bike. [or whatever] Don't assume anything yet. And don't take the first thing any insurance 'guy' tells you as if it's the last word. [especially if what he says isn't to your liking] Get the damage assessed. Find out what it will cost. And if the insurance balks at the idea of getting your car fixed - ask them how much they would have paid in repairs. Then consider making up the difference. My dad did that many years ago. A 1982 Lincoln he owned was badly damaged in an accident. The insurance company wanted to 'right it off'. My dad didn't want to lose that car because it was his recently deceased wife's car. The damage came to about $11,000. The insurance company paid about $8,000 worth [i think] and my dad paid the rest. Let us know how things progress. And TRY to get some sleep. Take care of yourself, Craig!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
93ls400walt Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Dear Curt, I also am sorry to see this happen to your beloved Lexus. I know that you have put a lot of time and love into your car. And that you have been a great help and friend to me. \ If you decide to fix her up. Let me know if I can do parts search in my area. Best of luck, Walt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obergc Posted March 12, 2006 Author Share Posted March 12, 2006 Walt, Craig and everyone else. Thanks for the kind words, we're talking to the insurance company tomorrow and we'll go from there. I'd like to get in there and start unbolting damaged parts to see what I actually have there. My first choice is to fix it up and get it back on the road. It was too nice an car to send her to a shredder. I think I can get a front bumper assy for around $500, I haven't been able to find a hood and grill yet and I'm been trying several salvage yards on line. At first I thought TAP Recycling might have just what I needed because in their inventory pictures they have a 93LS, same color as mine that the front end looked good. Unfortunately, they told me that the car was pretty much bare bones now and that the front end parts had been sold. I need to find an LS that has been totaled because of rear end damage and that might be hard to find. I'll check to see what's available before I let the insurance company have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falciott Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Sorry to hear about your wifes' accident and the car, but I have a question for you.. do you need to necessarily look for a junked LS400? I was just looking at the ads here in Hawaii and someone is selling a high mileage 91LS400 in great body condition for about 2K, so it occured to me, why don't you just do a search in your area for some high mileage LS400 that you can just take apart and use whatever you need? So even if it costs you a couple of grand, and you dont; need everything on it.. whatever is left over you can sell it for parts. Who knows, that way you can almost come out even after all... just my two cents. Wish you best of luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sapper_daddy Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 hey there is a 95 front end here in LA i looked at in a salvage yard it was totaled because of side damage, the lights bumber and hood are still in great shape......everything under the hood is still there too i think for all the front clip parts it was under 1000 but i dunno if a 95 will work for you or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFeldes Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Just checked E-Bay motors and a lot of the parts are available...examples; grill $65, Bumper $175, Bumper filler $32.95 etc. Good luck tomorrow with the insurance. You've had a lot of good input on this thread and I for one, and I'm sure a lot of others will keep our fingers crossed!!! ;) PS, it seems 89-93 parts interchangeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nc211 Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 I think I hear "Taps" playing in the back ground of obergc's life. Dang man, now that's a Murphy's Law example of "if it can, it will" if I've ever seen one. I'm glad your wife is ok! You didn't by chance sneeze in church earlier that week and accidentally say "damn"? Trust me, he's listening.....I did that one time many years ago while in college. Went home to finish up my term paper, took my shoes off, walked over to the computer to turn it on, and ZAP, static killed the computer, and my 22 page paper. So, took a shower, only to find the seal on the shower head decided to break and spray water everywhere. Got dressed, put on my tennis shoes to go to Lowes for a replacement seal and to the computer lab....only to find my socks had a hole in them, right on my middle toe which drove me nuts all day, lowes didn't have the part, and the computer lab was closed due to a virus attack....That sneeze cost me my A and had to take a B for being late on my paper. Much didn't matter after the $500 to fix the computer either, nor the fact I had to BEG my pshyco ex-girlfriend at the time to let me borrow her laptop. I won't even go into detail what that cost me, or should I say, ummm, well best left with 2 words.... nasty b@!ch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swiggins Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Hi Curt, try looking at www.car-parts.com, I think you can find every thing you need. Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akewlguy Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Never let a lady drive the LS. Man just buy all used parts and get it fixed. Sorry for the accident! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obergc Posted March 20, 2006 Author Share Posted March 20, 2006 Don't worry. The wife has voluntarily turned in her keys. As far as fixing the LS goes, I'm afraid that's a no go. If the insurance company wasn't involved I would probably try to find a Lex with a good body but other issues on the cheap and then just swap out parts. Seems that isn't as easy as it sounds. The insurance co appraiser has a direct link with all the salvage yards and on the spot, he makes an inquiry as to the availability of any used parts. There are none in these parts. He says that by the time you pay transport costs, the used parts can end of costing more than new parts. He quoted less than $700 for a new hood for instance. The problem is that there are a ton of parts right behind the grill and they all need replacing. He totaled up $9300 estimated repair and that is more than the car is worth. I'll probably let the insurance co haul it away with a set of Michelin V rated tires with less than 5000 miles on them, an engine with new caps, rotors, sparkplug wires, an immaculate throttle body. Has an rebuilt a/c compressor, new condenser, expansion valve and receiver/drier installed, plus a filter in the return line. Several guys have got in touch and tried to help with leads on parts but in the end it'll just be too difficult. Special thanks to Sapper Daddy for the leads and information that he provided. This forum is a great bunch of guys and I'm happy to have been part of it for the last 3 years. Don't be surprised if you see me resurface down the road with another Lex. Right now I'm feeling like I'm hooked and it will be difficult to accept anything less than a Lex. Cheers, everyone. Curt Oberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sapper_daddy Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 roger roger and hooah sorry about the lex but good luck finding something nice if i'm not mistaken there is someone getting rid of a gs next to my house, green and i think its a 96 or 97 i am still trying to talk myself out of an f body car, i'm doing so good because i keep finding myself at autotrader.com and looking through classifieds, keep in touch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akewlguy Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Tell the insurance skum you want to buy the car back. They might sell for almost nothing. They just move forward as you find parts. Maybe its not worth your time.. Either way it really sucks to see the LS like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadfoot Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Personally I would try and get the car off the insurance company as a write off and have it as a fix up project. The main advantage you now have is your wife has lost all rights to complain about it taking up space! Don't know if you would even want to do this, but sapper has found you a donor for $1K and as summers coming there is plenty of light! Go on! Don't let it get crushed! Don't make us start a campaign to save it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sapper_daddy Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 ocberg!!ocberg!!ocberg!!! come on we have to cheer you on man!!! good point about the wife can't complain about it anymore, i know i use my grandmother's garage and between my truck, car and current high pro rebuild on my sportster she's getting a little po'd........ i wonder what she is going to think when i park a cherry trans am with 35k and a loud set of pipes and loping cam under there and start leaving black marks in her drive way.....poor granny but she makes really good cookies when i'm over there! :whistles: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sv7887 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Don't worry. The wife has voluntarily turned in her keys. As far as fixing the LS goes, I'm afraid that's a no go. If the insurance company wasn't involved I would probably try to find a Lex with a good body but other issues on the cheap and then just swap out parts. Seems that isn't as easy as it sounds. The insurance co appraiser has a direct link with all the salvage yards and on the spot, he makes an inquiry as to the availability of any used parts. There are none in these parts. He says that by the time you pay transport costs, the used parts can end of costing more than new parts. He quoted less than $700 for a new hood for instance. The problem is that there are a ton of parts right behind the grill and they all need replacing. He totaled up $9300 estimated repair and that is more than the car is worth. I'll probably let the insurance co haul it away with a set of Michelin V rated tires with less than 5000 miles on them, an engine with new caps, rotors, sparkplug wires, an immaculate throttle body. Has an rebuilt a/c compressor, new condenser, expansion valve and receiver/drier installed, plus a filter in the return line. Several guys have got in touch and tried to help with leads on parts but in the end it'll just be too difficult. Special thanks to Sapper Daddy for the leads and information that he provided. This forum is a great bunch of guys and I'm happy to have been part of it for the last 3 years. Don't be surprised if you see me resurface down the road with another Lex. Right now I'm feeling like I'm hooked and it will be difficult to accept anything less than a Lex. Cheers, everyone. Curt Oberg I got to echo everyone else's comments. I sure as heck wouldn't let a car like that go. Make it into a weekend project or something. You know this car inside and out, so I'd give it a shot. Most of that damage looks superficial. (Be sure to check to hidden damage though) I'd hate to see a lovely LS like yours go to the crusher. I went through the same heartache when my 92 LS got slammed into by some girl in a Honda. It was really close to writeoff but they let me go because the car was in such good shape. Fixing an accident car is a major PITA..It took me over 18 months to get mine right. But...It was worth it. I can't imagine not having my LS. (I know I sound like a nut..but there aren't cars around like this anymore). Think over it some..I know keeping it is not a "rational" decision, but I like to say, if we were all perfectly rational people we'd be driving Toyota Camrys..In the aftermath of my accident car, I really did think about selling it, and even advertised it once. I can say in retrospect I'd be really upset if I had let it go.. Hope this helps -Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90LS400Lexus Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Thankfully, your wife was not hurt. About the airbags- thank goodness they did not deploy, because they could have caused unnecessary injury. The reason they did not deploy is because they are designed to deploy in higher speed crashes. Looks like these may have been on the verge of deployment. Another plus is that the value of the car is much higher because they did not deploy. Typically when they deploy, the insurance company "totals" the car because these are very expensive to replace. I was surprised too when I hit a deer with my mothers 1997 Oldsmobile. As you can see from the damage (in the photo), one would think they would have deployed, but they did not. I looked and the sensor was moved a bit (its mounted on the radiator support), but it too was probably on the verge of blowing out too. They gave her $1800. damages and let us keep the car BTW. My dad repaired it for something like $200. :) It was all "upper" damage however, as the deer hit the hood area. I know you must be upset- I know how you loved and babied that car over the years. I was also a little saddened when I heard that my old 90' LS400 was crashed by the girl I sold it to. It was repaired, but then I saw her again and she claimed that the engine started knocking shortly after it was repaired - something that was knocked off of the engine she said. Good luck - hopefully you can "buy the car back" for a low price and do the repairs yourself as time permits and use that money to buy you another car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RFeldes Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 ocberg....this may help....informative anyway..http://moneycentral.msn.com/Editorial/Index/homedept.asp?c=2&a=2&d=33011 The one about 12 ways to save on insurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obergc Posted March 27, 2006 Author Share Posted March 27, 2006 I really appreciate all the recommendations, sources for parts, and otherwise good advice but after much soul searching and considering what is known and most of all, what is unknown about the drivetrain, engine mounts, and other things that could be a huge problem once we got into a repair, we decided to let the insurance company have the car. They're picking it up tomorrow, so salvage outfit named Coparts will get the car in Jackson, Alabama, near Mobile. We've had 2 weeks to mull it over and that's the story. I am not giving up on owning another Lexus, it will definitely be a much later model with low or no miles on it. BTW, if anyone wants to know a clean way to remove all the gas from their gas tank without spilling more than a few ounces of gas, let me know. Takes about 15 minutes and the car does all the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.