New Member, Just Bought a 99 LS400

[greatman77]

I wasn't in the market for one, but this was one of those "too good to be true" deals that I couldn't resist. I bought this 1999 LS400 from an elderly widow who was downsizing to a smaller place after her spouse passed away. It has been garaged it's entire life, and only has a legitimate 48,000 miles on it. The car has every option except navigation, including the Nakamichi sound system, which works perfectly. Two minutes into the test drive I decided to buy it. The car drives like new, no squeaks or rattles, starts right up, doesn't leak anything, and the dashboard has no cracks or fading. The paint finish is fantastic, like new, with the exception of a few minor scratches, a scrape on the corner of the bumper where she scraped the garage parking it, and one tiny ding. It isn't perfect, the power tilt/telescope steering doesn't work and the passenger side mirror vibrates at speed (the Lexus dealer wanted $876 to fix, hard pass). The previous owner was a smoker and a pet owner, and it took a lot of cleaning the interior to get rid of the odors. I paid to have the (original, 20 year-old) timing belt, water pump and tensioner replaced, to be on the safe side. And finally, there is a warning message on the dashboard about a tail light being out, even though the tail lights are all working (how do you turn the warning off?). But I think I got a great deal. I paid $4800 for it, not including the ~$1100 for the timing belt work. Thoughts? 

[sha4000]

There is a fix on the web for the warning message. Just Google those exact words that the message reads and it should come up.

[billydpowell]

congratulations, and welcome to the club..  sounds good...  my 99 also gave me a tail light out warning signal, and it was one of the package tray lights... 

If this was mine I would want to replace all the 20 year old fluids in it ALL, 

Here is my 99 it has 231K  on it at present....

[mikaelse]

Nice car. I own a dark blue 1998.  You have to do some research to fix these cars at a reasoanble cost if something goes wrong . The dealer prices normally are very high.  

 

 

 

 

[billydpowell]

On 7/8/2019 at 7:32 AM, billydpowell said:

congratulations, and welcome to the club..  sounds good...  my 99 also gave me a tail light out warning signal, and it was one of the package tray lights... 

If this was mine I would want to replace all the 20 year old fluids in it ALL, 

Here is my 99 it has 231K  on it at present....

all the fluids have been changed, have rebuilt the front steering, replaced brakes twice ALL front bushings, twice or more. owned it 11 years now

 

[billydpowell]

Here is my 99 it has 238  on it at present....

all the fluids have been changed, have rebuilt the front steering, replaced brakes twice ALL front bushings, twice or more. owned it 11 years now

 

[mikaelse]

My powertilt and telescope on my 1995 started acting up. Only worked sometimes. Since I am the only user I put it where I wanted and disconnected it.

To be honest I think the automatic function is a bit annoying. You need to wait for it to finnish before using steering wheel as support to get out.  My impression is that I would need a new motor for the tilt and some lubrication to get it working. 

Ratling side mirror could mean something loose you could fixate again. Quite expensive to get even a used mirror where I live. Seem in demand.      

[vissine]

On 6/27/2020 at 10:34 PM, billydpowell said:

Here is my 99 it has 238  on it at present....

all the fluids have been changed, have rebuilt the front steering, replaced brakes twice ALL front bushings, twice or more. owned it 11 years now

 

Your car is so nice. I need to re-paint my car but don't know where to send it to.