Almost Perfect $500 1990 LS400

[killianeric]

I bought this LS400 at auction for $500. 192,xxx miles, 1 owner, interior and exterior in near perfect condition. I drove it almost 90 miles home and it drives amazingly. There is 1 issue that I need some help with, it's posted at the end of this post.

The Lexus and my 2012 Corolla. 

The Corolla was my project car, but there's only so much you can do with a slow 1.8l fwd car. 

It was static

Now back to the LS400

No rips on any of the seats, no cracks on the dash, and hardly any signs of wear on everything

It has most of the maintenance records back to 1990. 

 

There is only 1 major issue with car.. The driver door does not open from the inside or outside. I was able to get access to the clip thats broken with a wire hanger and the door still will not open. Any suggestions? Or do I have to destroy a door panel thats in great condition? No one will smog the car because it's a safety hazard. Which means I can't register the car or get it insured. 

 

 

[M.Yasir]

Beautiful, in 500 bucks its great

Blowing off the door will be the last option honestly delete this option, ofcourse there must be something which is making it stuck, try to open the door panel from inside meaning when you open the panels to replace the door glass for example, you will definitely find something,  good luck

[jamesm182]

What a car for $500

My personal guess is you will end up having to destroy the interior door panel to get it open, but then I'm sure you'll be able to track one down in good condition.

Bit of shame but at that price the rest of the car looks fantastic.

[sha4000]

If you can't open the door then you can't get the panel off in one piece. I would suggest to start looking in junkyards for the panel in anticipation of destroying the one on the car. This what the door looks like with the panel removed. The picture is of my 98 so your might be slightly different.

[Exhaustgases]

Good find for 500. How can you see that a clip is broken?  And what is really going on with it? Is it like its still locked and nothing will unlock it?

If it was me, I'd try to sell the car to the guy up in WA (me) for a 1000 profit, or remove the front seats and try to work behind a partially removed door panel, before just messing it up.

[killianeric]

19 hours ago, M.Yasir said:

Beautiful, in 500 bucks its great

Blowing off the door will be the last option honestly delete this option, ofcourse there must be something which is making it stuck, try to open the door panel from inside meaning when you open the panels to replace the door glass for example, you will definitely find something,  good luck

 

18 hours ago, jamesm182 said:

What a car for $500

My personal guess is you will end up having to destroy the interior door panel to get it open, but then I'm sure you'll be able to track one down in good condition.

Bit of shame but at that price the rest of the car looks fantastic.

I really don't want to destroy it, but if it comes to that I hope I can find one in equal condition. If not it'll be getting 4 new custom door panels made for it.

13 hours ago, sha4000 said:

If you can't open the door then you can't get the panel off in one piece. I would suggest to start looking in junkyards for the panel in anticipation of destroying the one on the car. This what the door looks like with the panel removed. The picture is of my 98 so your might be slightly different.

I took the passenger door panel off to see what I was looking for and how it worked, thanks for the picture though!

12 hours ago, Exhaustgases said:

Good find for 500. How can you see that a clip is broken?  And what is really going on with it? Is it like its still locked and nothing will unlock it?

If it was me, I'd try to sell the car to the guy up in WA (me) for a 1000 profit, or remove the front seats and try to work behind a partially removed door panel, before just messing it up.

I was able to pull off the trim piece at the top of panel by the window. I used a pair of long needle nose pliers and pulled the plastic cover back. I saw that the rod for the inside handle was not connected to the plastic clip. Then I was able to hook the metal piece that the clip holds onto, and pulled it. Nothing happened, so I tried locking and unlocking the door with the key and that didn't help either. I'm thinking the issue is more than that plastic clip being broken. Could it be that the lock is just stuck locked along with my clip issue?

I've already been offered $2,500 for it haha

[Exhaustgases]

If it had the air suspension along with the other options like power head rest and driver memory, and also under 100K miles and there were no door issues that someone would be scratching paint and what ever else to fix,  and body and paint were perfect all glass original. I'd give 6K for it. Oh and since you already have a car that plows off speed bumps (ride height), please keep this one original, as its money in your pocket, other wise a total lost of the breed and of investment.

[jamesm182]

I would definitely go ahead and look for one in similar condition before destroying it. But ultimately, I think you're going to have to.

Doesn't matter if you can find a decent replacement first though right?

[Exhaustgases]

I haven't had to play with door locks and latches yet, I have fixed the trunk lock though. I think the worse thing to ever have to deal with on these cars would be the hood latch or cable breaking. A failed trunk latch would be the 2nd worse thing then the doors. Keep us posted on what the fix is.

[sha4000]

There's a rod that clips into the back of the door handle that's probably not hooked up also. You see the metal hook on the right side of the door actuator? That hooks into a clip that's part of the door handle.

[billydpowell]

This is what your lock looks like, look close and try to move both rods

 

[billydpowell]

here is the parts list showing the rods from handle to lock .. hope it helps.

[pj8708]

50 minutes ago, billydpowell said:

This is what your lock looks like, look close and try to move both rods

 

Hi Billy,

Good information and pictures. The Club guidelines say that postings or threads cannot contain any content about religion or Politics. Thanks for your continued support.

[billydpowell]

3 hours ago, pj8708 said:

Hi Billy,

Good information and pictures. The Club guidelines say that postings or threads cannot contain any content about religion or Politics. Thanks for your continued support.

tell me what you want removed at billydpowell@hotmail.com and I will take care of it

[pj8708]

21 hours ago, pj8708 said:

Hi Billy,

Good information and pictures. The Club guidelines say that postings or threads cannot contain any content about religion or Politics. Thanks for your continued support.

Just take out any religious or political referance's.

Thanks.

[pj8708]

On 3/2/2016 at 10:16 AM, sha4000 said:

If you can't open the door then you can't get the panel off in one piece. I would suggest to start looking in junkyards for the panel in anticipation of destroying the one on the car. This what the door looks like with the panel removed. The picture is of my 98 so your might be slightly different.

 

On 3/2/2016 at 10:16 AM, sha4000 said:

If you can't open the door then you can't get the panel off in one piece. I would suggest to start looking in junkyards for the panel in anticipation of destroying the one on the car. This what the door looks like with the panel removed. The picture is of my 98 so your might be slightly different.

i

Hey sha4000, great photo of the inside door panel. It should be of great help!

To 

Paul