Veteran Ls400 Owner

[chromiez]

well i dont know if i could be considered a veteran, but driving this car for 3years got me quite familar with it.

my car has a good 133k (1991) on it and still runs pretty smooth. the gas milage is kinda iffy i say i get around 220-240 miles when i hit the 1/4 tank line.

i've observed some small things and i was wondering if you guys have noticed it on your early 1st gen ls400's

-for some reason when i'm using the cdplayer and i turn off the car, and when returning say hours later its back on the radio, when it should be playing the cd.

-odd rattles and shakes on two of my doors, passanger and rear right passanger. it sounds like the whole door is lose or something, like the window is lose.

-on and off sluggish performance. sometimes i feel the car is all mighty and powerful with good response. then later it just feels slow and sluggish its different each time

what do you guys think?

[wandawoods]

>> on and off sluggish performance. sometimes i feel the car is all mighty and powerful with good response. then later it just feels slow and sluggish its different each time <<

if not done yet, I would start with troddle body cleaning, and plugs/wires/distributor caps/rotors replacement could helps too! basically a tune-up job.

how does the tranny shift? have you changed tranny fluid yet?

[vyhanh]

Hi,

1. The door rattle: It seems to be a loose screw. Search the forums for this. It is easy to take the door trim off and confirm. It happened to me on the driver side.

2. The CD/Radio: It does not happen to me.

VH

91 LS400 (137K)

[luvmy98LS400]

on and off sluggish performance. sometimes i feel the car is all mighty and powerful with good response. then later it just feels slow and sluggish its different each time

I strongly recommend a carbon cleaning service to address hesitation, sluggishness, reduced gas mileage and cleaner emmissions. This cleans out carbon deposits that build up over time in your injectors, and valve seats. The best service for this is to use a pressurized system like the MotorVac, but others that use the car's fuel pump will still get results.

I recently had this service done using the "IV" type of carbon cleaning that use the car's fuel pump on my car. I noticed the sluggishness and hesitation dissappeared and my gas mileage went from 19.3 on average to 21.0. My experience is typical from others that have had the service. The longer you go without it, the bigger an improvement you'll have.

For the life of me I cannot figure out why the OEMs don't recommend this service. It just doesn't show up in the owners manuals. Yet they all seem to recognize carbon build up over time. Chevron's Techron additives try to address this, but it probably just slows the build up process. My Lexus manual says that you should use gasoline with these additives, so they must know it's a problem. Maybe they don't want to add another maintenance item.

I also suspect that is you use gasoline below the 91 octane recommended, your carbon buildup will be accelerated, causing you to lose power, mileage, etc. I've read some things that suggest this, but I have not heard of a study that proved it.

[tansupplyman]

Don't forget about BG44K !!!!

[tds]

The door rattle could be a broken weld on the mounting bracket for the electric window motor. I had a broken weld on the mounting bracket on the front passenger door. I had Lexus take off the door panel, drill a hole through the spot weld and retighten it with a bolt through the hole and nut on the back. This fixed the rattle. Now I have a similar one in the driver's door...I think I'll take off the door panel and fix this one myself.