Getting A 92 Ls400 Into Tip Top Shape?

[dyn4mik3]

I have a 1992 LS400 with 160K miles on it. Other than changing the oil every 3k miles, I haven't done anything else to maintain the car. (Unless something breaks like the air conditioning).

Lately, the car hasn't been running as smoothly as before. It feels like it is stuttering or the engine is misfiring.

What should I do to get the car to tip top shape? In addition to taking it in to get the engine misfire fixed, are there any other maintenance things I should be doing? I always thought that it was time to buy a new car, but now that I've found this forum - it looks like this car should last another 100K miles!

[miamistyle]

Have you tried the obvious, like plugs, wires, caps, rotors?

[landar]

Have you tried the obvious, like plugs, wires, caps, rotors?

And from what I have been reading, you are overdue for a timing belt.

[chilkoot]

given that it's at 160k with original parts, if you intend to keep the car for any real amount of time and want it completely "tuned up", I'd recommend:

Sparks Plugs

Ignition Wires

Distributor Caps/Rotors

Water pump

Timing belt/idlers/tensioner

Drive belt/idler/tensioner

Thermostat

All genuine toyota, of course, except for the spark plugs (NGK Iridium IV). About $800 in parts. This will have all of your bases covered in the ignition/rotating assembly.

[LScott400]

And coils :)

[dyn4mik3]

Anyone have recommendations as to where I should go for this service? (as you can tell, I'm not too knowledgeable about these things) Should I goto a local mechanic or should I take my car into the dealer?

I haven't found any toyota specific local mechanics in my area - would something like a sears/goodyear work?

[chilkoot]

the only way to really be sure is to do it yourself, but import mechanics are a good place to start. walk into the office of the mechanic, if they seem to have focus, such as a passion other than mechaniching (maybe boating or porshe racing, the hobbies of my two best mechanics) then that's been in my experience the kind of guy you want doing work to your car. I know that's a little, well, stupid for real advice, but my point was that you have to feel them out. finding a good mechanic is worth the effort, and IMHO you'll click with your mechanic when you find one you trust to work on your vehicle and not take advantage of !Removed! you out of hundreds of dollars when he easily could.

[dyn4mik3]

So I had a mechanic do a tune up, oil change, replace the timing belt, drive belt, water pump, spark plugs, and ignition wires. The car is running smoothly again.

Forgot to tell them to change the distributor caps/rotors.

[miamistyle]

So I had a mechanic do a tune up, oil change, replace the timing belt, drive belt, water pump, spark plugs, and ignition wires. The car is running smoothly again.

Forgot to tell them to change the distributor caps/rotors.

Good job on properly maintaing your LS! That's pretty much the big one on these cars. I find it strange they didn't mention the caps/rotors. There is a great DIY site that you might want to look at called LexLS.com, that will show you how to do some common maintenance yourself and save some $$$.

Some things I would have on your list to do yourself:

1. flush power steering (good preventive maintenance)

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/steering/psflush.html

2. clean your solenoid screen (part of the P/S service) ---> do a search

3. flush brake system (brake fluid breaks down over time)

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/brake/bleeding.html

4. clean your throttle body

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/EFI/throttlebody.html

[dyn4mik3]

Is there a way for me to check the caps/rotors?

Thanks for the links.

[chilkoot]

yeah, in the LexLS tutorials you'll see directions for removing the engine covers, the caps/rotors are at the top/front of the engine and can be accessed without removing any belts or pulleys.

if they are original, they're toast. i noticed when I pulled them out that the tips of my 130k rotors had almost completely oxidized, i'm surprised they could pass a spark.

[dyn4mik3]

Alright - I'll try some of these things in the next couple weekends. Never performed any maintenance myself, so wish me luck.

[miamistyle]

Alright - I'll try some of these things in the next couple weekends. Never performed any maintenance myself, so wish me luck.

Don't worry a lot of the people that do these procedures have never done much maintenance if any before either. The LexLS site makes it real easy with great write-ups and pictures. All the ones mentioned are pretty simple and straight forward. Oh yeah, Good Luck!