Hello New Owner Of 96 Lexus Ls400 Please Help

[msaunders]

Hello Lexus owners, was hoping you can help me. I was very excited to get my Lexus and was looking forward to this incredible ride I heard everyone talk about. My husband surprised me knowing I was interested in an LS400 and bought me this from a sale by owner without me test driving it. Not sure if he overpaid, 5,000.000 for a 96 with 132000 miles, great body. After a week driving, the audible clunk got worse and steering was all over place. And when I hit brakes the clunk was so bad I thought something was going to fall out. Cost me 1,100 ( not Lexus dealer) to replace lower ball joints and radius arm bushings,( not factory that came all in one, arm and bushings,though wish I had) and 2 "fluid filled" motor mounts. The loud thunk on braking went away, but it still rides like a truck...I feel every crack in the road and hear the bumps, and the vibration is so bad at 75 mph I can hardly hold the wheel. I feel like I got ripped off by mechanic and not sure where to take it to fix the problem...now I understand it may be the upper control arms? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I already have too much money in it now to not go all the way to make it the dream car that I understand it could be. Thank you all!

[ElbowDrop]

Hello Lexus owners, was hoping you can help me. I was very excited to get my Lexus and was looking forward to this incredible ride I heard everyone talk about. My husband surprised me knowing I was interested in an LS400 and bought me this from a sale by owner without me test driving it. Not sure if he overpaid, 5,000.000 for a 96 with 132000 miles, great body. After a week driving, the audible clunk got worse and steering was all over place. And when I hit brakes the clunk was so bad I thought something was going to fall out. Cost me 1,100 ( not Lexus dealer) to replace lower ball joints and radius arm bushings,( not factory that came all in one, arm and bushings,though wish I had) and 2 "fluid filled" motor mounts. The loud thunk on braking went away, but it still rides like a truck...I feel every crack in the road and hear the bumps, and the vibration is so bad at 75 mph I can hardly hold the wheel. I feel like I got ripped off by mechanic and not sure where to take it to fix the problem...now I understand it may be the upper control arms? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I already have too much money in it now to not go all the way to make it the dream car that I understand it could be. Thank you all!

The problem could be many things, but it could also be something simple. Now on the simple end, it could be your tires are all different. That happened to someone I knew. The minute he hit 60 on the expressway - his car would start to shake almost uncontrollably. We took it to a shop and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. But then we took it somewhere else and the guy was like "you know you have 4 different makes of tires on this car!" so we fixed it and the problem went away. It could also be that you need a good tune up of the system. If cars are bought and sold by a dealer then they have no responsibility to tune the cars up. As long as they run they can be sold. I would honestly find a good body shop in your area, let the guys know that you want to mod your car, put some new gear in and make sure to tip them well. As long as your honest about it, youll come out on top.