I May Be Nuts.....

[pachanga]

I have a 1994 LS400 with 145K miles - it is my daily driver and in very good shape for its age except for a left front fender that was crumpled and fixed with bondo at some point in its life. After checking around for a good fender at a local pullapart yard (and I did find several) but - I found a 1994 LS400 with a broke engine for a very, very low price via craigslist.. low enough I bought the car and hauled it home immediately. My wife thinks I am nuts.. and I may be...but now I have parts galore and I can practice on removing parts from the donor car and see how the car is put together. One of the first things ..besides the fender installation and have my car painted... is to take the donor car's exhaust and perform that resonator delete thing and install the modified exhaust on my car. I attached a couple photos of the parts car... all the sheet metal is in excellent shape. Another plan is to pull the transmission and have it rebuilt even though it was said to be perfectly good before the engine died. Then I will have a spare transmission ready to go if my current one decides to quit.

[dcfish]

Welcome To The Club..If you plan on keeping your current LS Stock, What is the purpose of the "resonator delete" ? Do you plan on any other Mods ? I'll follow this one ;) Merry Christmas

[VBdenny]

Awesome Freddie,

There is no better way to learn about a car than to disassemble the thing. I often go to local junkyards to learn how to disassemble things without breaking what I am working on. Your wife will not be unhappy for long because these cars are worth more in parts than assembled. Much more fun to take apart than an American car since all the plastic parts won't break.

[VBdenny]

Oh yeah, those fog light bulbs are rare and hard to find. I paid almost 30 bucks for one to get my car inspected once.

[sha4000]

Good luck on the tinkering.

[pachanga]

dcfish... My wife's 1998 LS400 is pretty much off limits to me. I like to open up things and see how they work. I even look at her car and I can feel the lasers.... So.. one day I found my 1994 LS400 sitting on one those lots where the faded sign proclaiming "Honest Abe's Cars" along with the "No Credit Check" and "EZ Payments" also faded. It was sitting in the back of the gravel lot looking pretty sad. It was a spur of the moment thing.. I stopped.. saw it was not all that pretty exterior wise - but the interior was in excellent shape, the odometer said 135K, the engine cranked easily and was very smooth and quiet and it idled. Transmission shifted excellent, everything electrical and mechanically worked - so I took a chance. .. I bought a LS400 without any pedigree whatsoever. I could have bought a bucket of problems... but the poor thing actually performed pretty decently as I drove it home but it had 4 different tires on it - all were worn so bad - none of them would hold air. I suppose what I liked was that overall it was all original.. nothing aftermarket had been added not had anything been changed as far as the motor or body. Radio worked.. power antenna worked... the AC and heat controls worked. I bought a carfax on it afterwards... no mention of an accident -- but the left front fender had bondo in it.. along with the inner fender liner was missing. Obvious a fender bender occurred in it's past somewhere. However the hood was straight.. all seams were straight and even. The paint is dead. First thing I did was to change oil, filters, service the transmission, clean the body and interior. Leather interior - no tears or wear spots. I then searched craigslist for a set of factory wheels in good shape as the chrome wheels on the car were nasty, chrome peeling off, and corroded as if they had been sitting in salt water for a few years. However, no rust or corrosion on the car body or underneath anywhere. But... I have found out via researching the VIN that the chrome wheels were installed at the dealer when the car was sold along with the gold badges. I purchased a nice set of LS400 wheels from a wrecked 1993 LS400. Purchased a set of Yokohama Avid ENvigor tires to mount on the wheels and wow.. a firm ride, but will turn on a dime and give you 5 cents in change. Now.. 7 months and 7000 miles later .. I have had zero issues with the car mechanically and electrically. When I bought it .. my wife did think I was nuts then... now she thinks I am really nuts when I bought the parts car - the LS400. I wanted a good left front fender... and came home with a car with a broke engine.. but a perfect fender. . My goal is to replace the bondo'ed fender with the donor fender, and have the car re-painted with the original color ... I was not going to pay for a premium paint job, but after today - with looking at the badges and the grill from the donor car which are in excellent shape verses the faded badges on my car...I think I will go for the best paint and finish I can get ..within reason. No need to pay more for the paint than I paid for the car. But I am thinking I can bring this car up to a real nice level of originality and excellent exterior shape.

[pachanga]

I removed the fender and inner fender liner. I found this (look at photos) item under the fender... it is labeled "buzzer" ... what is it? ok.. it's says it is a buzzer... I assume it is a buzzer... but when does it buzz?

[pachanga]

My 1994 LS400 is what I call is a 20 footer... get closer and the exterior flaws can be seen.....

Notice the photo of the fender - the cracks in the bondo are circled. Once I get the new fender is in place - and the re-paint done.. I think it will be pretty darn sharp looking.

[landar]

I removed the fender and inner fender liner. I found this (look at photos) item under the fender... it is labeled "buzzer" ... what is it? ok.. it's says it is a buzzer... I assume it is a buzzer... but when does it buzz?

I have seen that before and it supposedly is a "wireless door lock buzzer". In other words, I think it may buzz or beep when you wirelessly lock/unlock the doors. Did you get a wireless key fob with the car? I am guessing not.

[pachanga]

with the parts car - where this "buzzer" is located - I did get a key with a "remote unlock" key button. It has a little button marked "lock/unlock" on the edge of the key's plastic body. When I purchased my car - the key I received was just a plain key without any buttons.. So that is where the "beep" noise comes from when unlocking or locking the car remotely.... and if you are wanting a good laugh.. picture this.. I took my wife's keys, went to her car and was pressing the buttons and with my ear pressed to the fender of her car - trying to listen to see if that is where her "beep" sound is coming from..... and my wife comes out and goes "WTH are you doing?"

[MrScott]

LMBO... Do you ever feel like squirrels are watching you? (RE: Topic Title) You might be able to turn up the volume as well..

Cheers!

[13IS250C]

My 2 cents worth. Take pics before you take something apart so you will know how everything goes back together.

[pachanga]

Let's say... there are quite a few squirrels around here... and I bet a couple have been laid back snacking on nuts and having a few good laughs this week.

[pachanga]

I have taken many photos as I take things apart... and to really top it off - I have a Contour helmet camera (like a GoPro) I have been wearing that records all disassembly work. that camera has been invaluable to help me see how something came apart - as in order of washers, nuts, wires, etc.

[13IS250C]

Excelllent! I always had something left over that I didn't know where it came from.

[landar]

I am not sure that 'test' will work with your wifes' 98 LS. The 94 and 98 models are different animals. Lots of revamping between the two.

That is an excellent idea about the helmet cam. I never thought of doing that. I guess it would help if I first bought a helmut cam...details. ;-)

[VBdenny]

Never thought of using my GoPro for mechanics so thanks for the excellent idea. I have all kinds of mounts for the thing.

Never heard of the buzzer. Looked it up and seems to be part of the door lock system although on my 1990, there was no beep, just a click. The door button was a tiny button on the side of the key. I did find out the car had an alarm system (after owning it for 9 years) when I set it off once in the driveway. Perhaps this is also for that.

[pachanga]

I have always used a camera for recording my work when I work on anything.. be it a motorcycle engine or a washing machine - Back in the day - I wore out VCRs (as I had used a VHS-C camera) by constantly rewinding and then playing a segment when I had to see how I worked on something.. When digital cameras came out ...I was able to take detailed photos then but the videos were not all that great. Now I have a Contour helmet camera which I really purchased for my off-road motorcycling adventures, but I quickly adapted it for work on mechanical and electrical issues. For my editing of the video, I purchased a hardware/software package from a company called Honestech - (Best Buy or on-line) for $79. It s easy to use when you want just segments of an particular sequence of video. Even though it is really made to convert VCR tapes to digital format (DVD or save as a mpeg file) if you already have the digital file - such as a GoPro or Contour video file - it is pretty simple to use.

Amazing what these POV cameras can do for you. I wear the Contour on my head via elastic strap much like the LED flashlights you can purchase with a strap that you wear on your forehead. I wear the camera on the side of my head with a LED light on the forehead. Yes... I look like Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" but I have so far (fingers crossed) been able to put 99% of the stuff I took apart back together with the end result being positive.

[VBdenny]

Got that right Freddie. Sure helps to have pictures or video. Like you, I have always used a camera to take pictures of things as I disassemble. Really is worth a 1000 words sometimes. after learning my lesson the hard way in which you find you have to take everything back apart due to something missed. Worst case I had of this was when I put a new clutch disc in my 66 Cutlass, crawled out and jammed the throwout bearing that was on the ground into my back. Double pain.