1990 Upper Control Arms & Timing Belt

[Bali26]

Wheels are directional because the fins cool the brakes. No other issue.

[mossyoak]

you folks dont really believe that the gorgeous lady in the pic is the wrench who is doing all that mech work. I love the joke and love her looks, but no way is that doll in the pic doing this work. I have changed timing belts and have never heard of a pretty lady being able to do this job. :chairshot:

Ferd

[nc211]

you folks dont really believe that the gorgeous lady in the pic is the wrench who is doing all that mech work. I love the joke and love her looks, but no way is that doll in the pic doing this work. I have changed timing belts and have never heard of a pretty lady being able to do this job.:chairshot:

Ferd

Well that's not sexist......geez man. She's not pregnant, has shoes on, and not in the kitchen, so what else is she going to do with her time? I bet you're a real hoot at parties..

[SKperformance]

lol, try and stay on topic , we all know it is not often pretty women with good bodies play with cars.

Their are enough crack heads posting pictures of random strangers saying it is themselves is what mossy may be referring to.

So how about those control arms ..........

[oddeven2u]

Thanks for the compliment. It is just a cabin cruiser with a 5.7 I/O. I bought it for 7K with a dual axel trailer. I have a friend with a house on Lake St. Claire and he lets me keep it there for free all summer. Seems like having me around is payment enough! I think he nearly has a heart attack each time me and my female friends clean and wash down the boat in our bikinis after or before a trip to go tanning or partying.

Here is a pic of it (stupid looking golf cap I know, but its pink!) Yea it is a bayliner, but I not trying to impress anyone and I hate payments. The depreciation on a new boat is one of the most horrendous things I have seen my friends make the mistake of getting into. They buy a 250K luxury brand boat and five years later it has lost 50K of that value. Let alone the interest on the principal that they pay! I am on the same water and get to do the same things they do.

To keep this post on topic about our cars. I noticed when I put on my winter tires that they mounted two of them so that the wheels are not facing in the proper direction (swirl of the fins facing backwards.) Are these wheels directional? Am I going to have vibration issues and need to remount the tires? I have the two narrower tires on the front and the wider ones on the back, so I can't just turn them around and make them face in the right direction without !Removed! that up.

The manual says not to run them backwards, but is it just for looks or are they really directional wheels? (1990 LS400)

[oddeven2u]

Thanks for the compliment. It is just a cabin cruiser with a 5.7 I/O. I bought it for 7K with a dual axel trailer. I have a friend with a house on Lake St. Claire and he lets me keep it there for free all summer. Seems like having me around is payment enough! I think he nearly has a heart attack each time me and my female friends clean and wash down the boat in our bikinis after or before a trip to go tanning or partying.

Here is a pic of it (stupid looking golf cap I know, but its pink!) Yea it is a bayliner, but I not trying to impress anyone and I hate payments. The depreciation on a new boat is one of the most horrendous things I have seen my friends make the mistake of getting into. They buy a 250K luxury brand boat and five years later it has lost 50K of that value. Let alone the interest on the principal that they pay! I am on the same water and get to do the same things they do.

To keep this post on topic about our cars. I noticed when I put on my winter tires that they mounted two of them so that the wheels are not facing in the proper direction (swirl of the fins facing backwards.) Are these wheels directional? Am I going to have vibration issues and need to remount the tires? I have the two narrower tires on the front and the wider ones on the back, so I can't just turn them around and make them face in the right direction without !Removed! that up.

The manual says not to run them backwards, but is it just for looks or are they really directional wheels? (1990 LS400)

I'M a girl and changing my fan clutch bracket

. All bolts and nuts are out but i'm having a hard time removing the bracket. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Maybe i missed something obvious.

thanks

[chilkoot]

check again to make sure you got all the bolts. IIRC, there's one hidden by the timing belt tensioner and two hidden around the right side of the bracket by the A/C compressor. I missed one on my first go-round and if I hadn't realized my error it would have been a LONG job.

Even after I got all of the bolts out mine wouldn't budge in the least without some heavy elbow grease, so be stubborn.

[IS400]

Why does a woman have to be out of shape to work on cars? Rhetorical question of course.

If you live near me you know how much I like cars and boats. If I am going to get screwed by a mechanic it had better be after a date and not for working on my car. That is why we are on this forum right?

I hope everyone is enjoying the spring with their cars and thanks to the guy that posted how to adjust the rear emergency brake by going backwards and stopping hard. That was fun! I did it three times and slid the car with abs lockup each time! Whoops, I'm a pretty girl and should not do brake stands or J turns either. ROFLOL!

:P

[Daniel Ward]

Wow, I am really impressed. Will you marry me?

You're awesome.

I just finished a major repair job on my 1990 LS400. Took 3 days of wrenching and two days in between resting.

As a 120lb girl working by herself, I don't think I did too bad. The results are amazing.

1. Got Timingbelt/waterpump kit from CA via E-bay. All Japanese parts and lots of extra stuff like s.plug seals etc. ($200).

2. Lower ball joints and tie rod ends for the front. Wish I had not done them, the old ones were pristine and were tight, but once that pickel fork cuts the seals, not much you can do but replace them. Got the parts off e-bay as suggested by a site member here and it was a nightmare. Three attempts and I still had to settle for a mismatched set of tie rod ends. ($120 for all four parts + my own grease and tie wrap to make the driver's side tie rod work until I can get a spec part to replace it.) Watch out for Miami suppliers.

3. Upper control arms (pair) from Arnott Industries. Beautiful pieces. My god they are sweet looking. ($199 pair) Drop the spindle to the floor using a jack and the spring gets out of the way to unbolt the old ones and put in the new. Jack it back up in place to re attach the strut and you are done.

4. Replaced the PS control valve as a cross referenced tercel part and cleaned out the screen of the servo by the rack again. ($80 + fluid)

5. Two bags of cotton rags to sop up all the oil and fluids that seeped by the drivers side valve cover where the last mechanic from lexus failed to tighten either the bolt on the valve cover at the corner or the distributor housing at the bottom corner. (That is where I had been losing a quart of oil an year and could not find the cause.)

The timing belt had been slinging it everywhere! Used nearly a whole can of degreaser just cleaning plastic covers and crevices around the timing system and crank!

Analysis: The engine had been serviced by someone regularly. That someone, probably a mechanic and not the owner, did not seem to think of failing to torque things that are designed to keep fluids and dirt from migrating into the engine.

My distributor housing, with the cam sensors (look like little silver coins) were covered with a 1/16th of an inch of crud. All from the housings not being tightened or gaskets jammed on and showing gaps and warped edges. Lots of places for things to invade the timing belt cavity all day long in what ever weather or debris the car encountered.

The radiator had pounds of stuff between the condensor and radiator. Surprised the car cooled itself at all.

The throttle linkage had about 1/2 inch of play before the pedal moved the throttle plate. Adjusted and now the car takes off smartly from a stop. Speaking of which, the car is SMOOTH running again. That timing belt had stretched a lot. The new one is much thicker in construction and looks like it is either a factory redesign or the maintenance on my car had been fudged. The timing belt looked old and had cracks everywhere. One crack was 9/10ths the way across the non toothed face of the belt and when I twisted it I heard fibres breaking. I was probably a few weeks away from being stranded.

The seal around the thermostat was torn and needed to be replaced. It looked like the person that installed it was in a hurry and just jammed it on and threw it in there no matter how it was oriented. The steam hole with the little pebble sized flapper was not pointing straight up like it should either. Replaced both pieces along with the o-ring for the housing ($40) at the local Lexus Dealer. Ouch! Glad I was not forced to buy the other parts there!

The car runs smooth now and does not clank or bang over expansion joints or irregularities. Now though, those rear carrier bushings are obvious and the next thing on my list.

BTW the best method I found to keep the engine from turning while removing the harmonic balancer when doing the timing belt, is quite simple and a tool we all have at home.

Get under the car, look for the access panel where the trans meets the engine and take off the two bolts and look for the round holes (big) in the flywheel. Take the largest Allen Wrench you have (90 degree style with a short and a long end, not the T handle ones) and slip the short end of the wrench inside one of the large openings. Slowly turn the engine over with your breaker bar and you will feel sudden resistance in about a quarter turn or less. Now you can take off that 180 foot pound bolt with no problem. I had to get on the fender and use my legs since i am a girl, but it is the perfect tool to make it a one person job.

Just remember to take it out before you start your engine! Eeek!

Alert: My 1990 did not have obvious timing marks for the cams. I marked the cams with a sharpie and eyeballed a fixed point behind them on the sparkplug wire holder. Kind of like dead reckoning in the woods. See a tree on the heading, go to that tree, pick another tree on your heading, etc...

Well I had set everything and had marked the crank and taken off the belt and was about to go to lunch and thought I really can't see any marks to interpret on the cam gears, so i made my dead reckoning marks and ran the new belt around to see how the stiff new one was going to be getting in place and --whizz, the passenger side cam gear rotated on its own about a 1/3 of a turn in a split second.

My heart jumped and I thought oh no, I lost my timing! I took a look and turned the gear back to the mark and realized it was under compression or at the top of its stroke or something. I felt a good amount of resistance until I got it back on mark and it rested there and did not move again. I have a feeling if I had not made that mark I would have had to guess or at least not felt confident I had done the job right when I turned the key to start it up the first time.

Mark your stuff as soon as you get the crank at top dead center. Do not mess around with knowing where you started from because weird things can happen when you least expect it.

Last FYI. The tutorials do not list the huge bolt running perpendicular in plane to all the other bolts. It runs through the housing under the ac compressor and needs to be removed to take out the water pump. When your engine is covered in crude you cannot see the seams where the metal meets. Look at your new part and use it as a guide. When you remove the old pump don't use a chisel like the tutorial says, there is a tab on the pump in the passenger side quadrant that lexus designed into the part to make it easy to pry off. I just used that same allen wrench like I would open a beer bottle. A flick of the wrist and the seal is broken and you can pull the old pump off a little at a time until it slides free.

Happy Holidays everyone!

[fisher972002]

Good Job IS400

Yeah, you need to do the rear carrier arm bushings... You can grab them and if they have even a little bit of play they are destroyed.. Replacing those was so cheap and pretty easy, That really makes the rear end of the LS handle sooo much better!

And the engine mounts..my 1991's were torn and hard, replacing those, it's such a smoother car now, the degradation of the mounts takes such a long time, over 8 years I never really notices it much, but now that I replaced them, WOW.. no vibes at all..

[rob22]

FWIW I just had my engine and tranny mounts done a couple of days ago. All the old parts were cracked so it was a good call to replace. The car seemed pretty smooth beforehand but now it's smooth as glass. The difference is felt in the steering wheel during start-up. With the old cracked parts there was a slight rumble felt in the steering wheel when I started up the engine. With the new parts there's nothing at all. You hear the engine roar to life but there's no vibration felt through the steering wheel. Spooky!

Rob

'97 LS400

[LexSmoov]

I just finished a major repair job on my 1990 LS400. Took 3 days of wrenching and two days in between resting.

As a 120lb girl working by herself, I don't think I did too bad. The results are amazing.

1. Got Timingbelt/waterpump kit from CA via E-bay. All Japanese parts and lots of extra stuff like s.plug seals etc. ($200).

2. Lower ball joints and tie rod ends for the front. Wish I had not done them, the old ones were pristine and were tight, but once that pickel fork cuts the seals, not much you can do but replace them. Got the parts off e-bay as suggested by a site member here and it was a nightmare. Three attempts and I still had to settle for a mismatched set of tie rod ends. ($120 for all four parts + my own grease and tie wrap to make the driver's side tie rod work until I can get a spec part to replace it.) Watch out for Miami suppliers.

3. Upper control arms (pair) from Arnott Industries. Beautiful pieces. My god they are sweet looking. ($199 pair) Drop the spindle to the floor using a jack and the spring gets out of the way to unbolt the old ones and put in the new. Jack it back up in place to re attach the strut and you are done.

4. Replaced the PS control valve as a cross referenced tercel part and cleaned out the screen of the servo by the rack again. ($80 + fluid)

5. Two bags of cotton rags to sop up all the oil and fluids that seeped by the drivers side valve cover where the last mechanic from lexus failed to tighten either the bolt on the valve cover at the corner or the distributor housing at the bottom corner. (That is where I had been losing a quart of oil an year and could not find the cause.)

The timing belt had been slinging it everywhere! Used nearly a whole can of degreaser just cleaning plastic covers and crevices around the timing system and crank!

Analysis: The engine had been serviced by someone regularly. That someone, probably a mechanic and not the owner, did not seem to think of failing to torque things that are designed to keep fluids and dirt from migrating into the engine.

My distributor housing, with the cam sensors (look like little silver coins) were covered with a 1/16th of an inch of crud. All from the housings not being tightened or gaskets jammed on and showing gaps and warped edges. Lots of places for things to invade the timing belt cavity all day long in what ever weather or debris the car encountered.

The radiator had pounds of stuff between the condensor and radiator. Surprised the car cooled itself at all.

The throttle linkage had about 1/2 inch of play before the pedal moved the throttle plate. Adjusted and now the car takes off smartly from a stop. Speaking of which, the car is SMOOTH running again. That timing belt had stretched a lot. The new one is much thicker in construction and looks like it is either a factory redesign or the maintenance on my car had been fudged. The timing belt looked old and had cracks everywhere. One crack was 9/10ths the way across the non toothed face of the belt and when I twisted it I heard fibres breaking. I was probably a few weeks away from being stranded.

The seal around the thermostat was torn and needed to be replaced. It looked like the person that installed it was in a hurry and just jammed it on and threw it in there no matter how it was oriented. The steam hole with the little pebble sized flapper was not pointing straight up like it should either. Replaced both pieces along with the o-ring for the housing ($40) at the local Lexus Dealer. Ouch! Glad I was not forced to buy the other parts there!

The car runs smooth now and does not clank or bang over expansion joints or irregularities. Now though, those rear carrier bushings are obvious and the next thing on my list.

BTW the best method I found to keep the engine from turning while removing the harmonic balancer when doing the timing belt, is quite simple and a tool we all have at home.

Get under the car, look for the access panel where the trans meets the engine and take off the two bolts and look for the round holes (big) in the flywheel. Take the largest Allen Wrench you have (90 degree style with a short and a long end, not the T handle ones) and slip the short end of the wrench inside one of the large openings. Slowly turn the engine over with your breaker bar and you will feel sudden resistance in about a quarter turn or less. Now you can take off that 180 foot pound bolt with no problem. I had to get on the fender and use my legs since i am a girl, but it is the perfect tool to make it a one person job.

Just remember to take it out before you start your engine! Eeek!

Alert: My 1990 did not have obvious timing marks for the cams. I marked the cams with a sharpie and eyeballed a fixed point behind them on the sparkplug wire holder. Kind of like dead reckoning in the woods. See a tree on the heading, go to that tree, pick another tree on your heading, etc...

Well I had set everything and had marked the crank and taken off the belt and was about to go to lunch and thought I really can't see any marks to interpret on the cam gears, so i made my dead reckoning marks and ran the new belt around to see how the stiff new one was going to be getting in place and --whizz, the passenger side cam gear rotated on its own about a 1/3 of a turn in a split second.

My heart jumped and I thought oh no, I lost my timing! I took a look and turned the gear back to the mark and realized it was under compression or at the top of its stroke or something. I felt a good amount of resistance until I got it back on mark and it rested there and did not move again. I have a feeling if I had not made that mark I would have had to guess or at least not felt confident I had done the job right when I turned the key to start it up the first time.

Mark your stuff as soon as you get the crank at top dead center. Do not mess around with knowing where you started from because weird things can happen when you least expect it.

Last FYI. The tutorials do not list the huge bolt running perpendicular in plane to all the other bolts. It runs through the housing under the ac compressor and needs to be removed to take out the water pump. When your engine is covered in crude you cannot see the seams where the metal meets. Look at your new part and use it as a guide. When you remove the old pump don't use a chisel like the tutorial says, there is a tab on the pump in the passenger side quadrant that lexus designed into the part to make it easy to pry off. I just used that same allen wrench like I would open a beer bottle. A flick of the wrist and the seal is broken and you can pull the old pump off a little at a time until it slides free.

Happy Holidays everyone!

[LexSmoov]

Hey IS400,

Maybe you can help me. I have a '96 LS400 and when I apply the brakes, the car feels like someone is rapidly slamming a baseball bat back and forth between the front tires. I was told that this is a rotor problem, but I'm also concerned because when I hit one of the many Metro Detroit potholes I get a loud and heavy thud. It feels like the car has fallen off I-75 and landed on the street below. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

LexSmoov

I just finished a major repair job on my 1990 LS400. Took 3 days of wrenching and two days in between resting.

As a 120lb girl working by herself, I don't think I did too bad. The results are amazing.

1. Got Timingbelt/waterpump kit from CA via E-bay. All Japanese parts and lots of extra stuff like s.plug seals etc. ($200).

2. Lower ball joints and tie rod ends for the front. Wish I had not done them, the old ones were pristine and were tight, but once that pickel fork cuts the seals, not much you can do but replace them. Got the parts off e-bay as suggested by a site member here and it was a nightmare. Three attempts and I still had to settle for a mismatched set of tie rod ends. ($120 for all four parts + my own grease and tie wrap to make the driver's side tie rod work until I can get a spec part to replace it.) Watch out for Miami suppliers.

3. Upper control arms (pair) from Arnott Industries. Beautiful pieces. My god they are sweet looking. ($199 pair) Drop the spindle to the floor using a jack and the spring gets out of the way to unbolt the old ones and put in the new. Jack it back up in place to re attach the strut and you are done.

4. Replaced the PS control valve as a cross referenced tercel part and cleaned out the screen of the servo by the rack again. ($80 + fluid)

5. Two bags of cotton rags to sop up all the oil and fluids that seeped by the drivers side valve cover where the last mechanic from lexus failed to tighten either the bolt on the valve cover at the corner or the distributor housing at the bottom corner. (That is where I had been losing a quart of oil an year and could not find the cause.)

The timing belt had been slinging it everywhere! Used nearly a whole can of degreaser just cleaning plastic covers and crevices around the timing system and crank!

Analysis: The engine had been serviced by someone regularly. That someone, probably a mechanic and not the owner, did not seem to think of failing to torque things that are designed to keep fluids and dirt from migrating into the engine.

My distributor housing, with the cam sensors (look like little silver coins) were covered with a 1/16th of an inch of crud. All from the housings not being tightened or gaskets jammed on and showing gaps and warped edges. Lots of places for things to invade the timing belt cavity all day long in what ever weather or debris the car encountered.

The radiator had pounds of stuff between the condensor and radiator. Surprised the car cooled itself at all.

The throttle linkage had about 1/2 inch of play before the pedal moved the throttle plate. Adjusted and now the car takes off smartly from a stop. Speaking of which, the car is SMOOTH running again. That timing belt had stretched a lot. The new one is much thicker in construction and looks like it is either a factory redesign or the maintenance on my car had been fudged. The timing belt looked old and had cracks everywhere. One crack was 9/10ths the way across the non toothed face of the belt and when I twisted it I heard fibres breaking. I was probably a few weeks away from being stranded.

The seal around the thermostat was torn and needed to be replaced. It looked like the person that installed it was in a hurry and just jammed it on and threw it in there no matter how it was oriented. The steam hole with the little pebble sized flapper was not pointing straight up like it should either. Replaced both pieces along with the o-ring for the housing ($40) at the local Lexus Dealer. Ouch! Glad I was not forced to buy the other parts there!

The car runs smooth now and does not clank or bang over expansion joints or irregularities. Now though, those rear carrier bushings are obvious and the next thing on my list.

BTW the best method I found to keep the engine from turning while removing the harmonic balancer when doing the timing belt, is quite simple and a tool we all have at home.

Get under the car, look for the access panel where the trans meets the engine and take off the two bolts and look for the round holes (big) in the flywheel. Take the largest Allen Wrench you have (90 degree style with a short and a long end, not the T handle ones) and slip the short end of the wrench inside one of the large openings. Slowly turn the engine over with your breaker bar and you will feel sudden resistance in about a quarter turn or less. Now you can take off that 180 foot pound bolt with no problem. I had to get on the fender and use my legs since i am a girl, but it is the perfect tool to make it a one person job.

Just remember to take it out before you start your engine! Eeek!

Alert: My 1990 did not have obvious timing marks for the cams. I marked the cams with a sharpie and eyeballed a fixed point behind them on the sparkplug wire holder. Kind of like dead reckoning in the woods. See a tree on the heading, go to that tree, pick another tree on your heading, etc...

Well I had set everything and had marked the crank and taken off the belt and was about to go to lunch and thought I really can't see any marks to interpret on the cam gears, so i made my dead reckoning marks and ran the new belt around to see how the stiff new one was going to be getting in place and --whizz, the passenger side cam gear rotated on its own about a 1/3 of a turn in a split second.

My heart jumped and I thought oh no, I lost my timing! I took a look and turned the gear back to the mark and realized it was under compression or at the top of its stroke or something. I felt a good amount of resistance until I got it back on mark and it rested there and did not move again. I have a feeling if I had not made that mark I would have had to guess or at least not felt confident I had done the job right when I turned the key to start it up the first time.

Mark your stuff as soon as you get the crank at top dead center. Do not mess around with knowing where you started from because weird things can happen when you least expect it.

Last FYI. The tutorials do not list the huge bolt running perpendicular in plane to all the other bolts. It runs through the housing under the ac compressor and needs to be removed to take out the water pump. When your engine is covered in crude you cannot see the seams where the metal meets. Look at your new part and use it as a guide. When you remove the old pump don't use a chisel like the tutorial says, there is a tab on the pump in the passenger side quadrant that lexus designed into the part to make it easy to pry off. I just used that same allen wrench like I would open a beer bottle. A flick of the wrist and the seal is broken and you can pull the old pump off a little at a time until it slides free.

Happy Holidays everyone!

[IS400]

Hey IS400,

Maybe you can help me. I have a '96 LS400 and when I apply the brakes, the car feels like someone is rapidly slamming a baseball bat back and forth between the front tires. I was told that this is a rotor problem, but I'm also concerned because when I hit one of the many Metro Detroit potholes I get a loud and heavy thud. It feels like the car has fallen off I-75 and landed on the street below. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

LexSmoov

I just finished a major repair job on my 1990 LS400. Took 3 days of wrenching and two days in between resting.

As a 120lb girl working by herself, I don't think I did too bad. The results are amazing.

1. Got Timingbelt/waterpump kit from CA via E-bay. All Japanese parts and lots of extra stuff like s.plug seals etc. ($200).

2. Lower ball joints and tie rod ends for the front. Wish I had not done them, the old ones were pristine and were tight, but once that pickel fork cuts the seals, not much you can do but replace them. Got the parts off e-bay as suggested by a site member here and it was a nightmare. Three attempts and I still had to settle for a mismatched set of tie rod ends. ($120 for all four parts + my own grease and tie wrap to make the driver's side tie rod work until I can get a spec part to replace it.) Watch out for Miami suppliers.

3. Upper control arms (pair) from Arnott Industries. Beautiful pieces. My god they are sweet looking. ($199 pair) Drop the spindle to the floor using a jack and the spring gets out of the way to unbolt the old ones and put in the new. Jack it back up in place to re attach the strut and you are done.

4. Replaced the PS control valve as a cross referenced tercel part and cleaned out the screen of the servo by the rack again. ($80 + fluid)

5. Two bags of cotton rags to sop up all the oil and fluids that seeped by the drivers side valve cover where the last mechanic from lexus failed to tighten either the bolt on the valve cover at the corner or the distributor housing at the bottom corner. (That is where I had been losing a quart of oil an year and could not find the cause.)

The timing belt had been slinging it everywhere! Used nearly a whole can of degreaser just cleaning plastic covers and crevices around the timing system and crank!

Analysis: The engine had been serviced by someone regularly. That someone, probably a mechanic and not the owner, did not seem to think of failing to torque things that are designed to keep fluids and dirt from migrating into the engine.

My distributor housing, with the cam sensors (look like little silver coins) were covered with a 1/16th of an inch of crud. All from the housings not being tightened or gaskets jammed on and showing gaps and warped edges. Lots of places for things to invade the timing belt cavity all day long in what ever weather or debris the car encountered.

The radiator had pounds of stuff between the condensor and radiator. Surprised the car cooled itself at all.

The throttle linkage had about 1/2 inch of play before the pedal moved the throttle plate. Adjusted and now the car takes off smartly from a stop. Speaking of which, the car is SMOOTH running again. That timing belt had stretched a lot. The new one is much thicker in construction and looks like it is either a factory redesign or the maintenance on my car had been fudged. The timing belt looked old and had cracks everywhere. One crack was 9/10ths the way across the non toothed face of the belt and when I twisted it I heard fibres breaking. I was probably a few weeks away from being stranded.

The seal around the thermostat was torn and needed to be replaced. It looked like the person that installed it was in a hurry and just jammed it on and threw it in there no matter how it was oriented. The steam hole with the little pebble sized flapper was not pointing straight up like it should either. Replaced both pieces along with the o-ring for the housing ($40) at the local Lexus Dealer. Ouch! Glad I was not forced to buy the other parts there!

The car runs smooth now and does not clank or bang over expansion joints or irregularities. Now though, those rear carrier bushings are obvious and the next thing on my list.

BTW the best method I found to keep the engine from turning while removing the harmonic balancer when doing the timing belt, is quite simple and a tool we all have at home.

Get under the car, look for the access panel where the trans meets the engine and take off the two bolts and look for the round holes (big) in the flywheel. Take the largest Allen Wrench you have (90 degree style with a short and a long end, not the T handle ones) and slip the short end of the wrench inside one of the large openings. Slowly turn the engine over with your breaker bar and you will feel sudden resistance in about a quarter turn or less. Now you can take off that 180 foot pound bolt with no problem. I had to get on the fender and use my legs since i am a girl, but it is the perfect tool to make it a one person job.

Just remember to take it out before you start your engine! Eeek!

Alert: My 1990 did not have obvious timing marks for the cams. I marked the cams with a sharpie and eyeballed a fixed point behind them on the sparkplug wire holder. Kind of like dead reckoning in the woods. See a tree on the heading, go to that tree, pick another tree on your heading, etc...

Well I had set everything and had marked the crank and taken off the belt and was about to go to lunch and thought I really can't see any marks to interpret on the cam gears, so i made my dead reckoning marks and ran the new belt around to see how the stiff new one was going to be getting in place and --whizz, the passenger side cam gear rotated on its own about a 1/3 of a turn in a split second.

My heart jumped and I thought oh no, I lost my timing! I took a look and turned the gear back to the mark and realized it was under compression or at the top of its stroke or something. I felt a good amount of resistance until I got it back on mark and it rested there and did not move again. I have a feeling if I had not made that mark I would have had to guess or at least not felt confident I had done the job right when I turned the key to start it up the first time.

Mark your stuff as soon as you get the crank at top dead center. Do not mess around with knowing where you started from because weird things can happen when you least expect it.

Last FYI. The tutorials do not list the huge bolt running perpendicular in plane to all the other bolts. It runs through the housing under the ac compressor and needs to be removed to take out the water pump. When your engine is covered in crude you cannot see the seams where the metal meets. Look at your new part and use it as a guide. When you remove the old pump don't use a chisel like the tutorial says, there is a tab on the pump in the passenger side quadrant that lexus designed into the part to make it easy to pry off. I just used that same allen wrench like I would open a beer bottle. A flick of the wrist and the seal is broken and you can pull the old pump off a little at a time until it slides free.

Happy Holidays everyone!

IMO this is the upper control arms. The big wishbone pieces of metal that connect to the upper part of the strut/shock absorber mount. My 'clunk' was bad on the right side as you described and after replacing with arnott industries pieces out of florida the noise went away completely. It is back a little now and annoys me but it is on both sides and mostly on deep potholes or irregular approaches to drives. I just go real slow when I have people in the car that would make a comment about the car being junk if they were to heard it. People look for reasons for you to buy a new car just because they are stuck with payments themselves it seems!

The other could be the lower ball joints but that can be checked pretty easily when the car is on jackstands. The upper control arms are hard to get any play out of unless the car is in motion and going over uneven ground.

Hope this helps!