What still works on your old GS

[Bykfixer]

Realizing a lot of folks like it when all those creature comforts work, and the early GS cars certainly had their share of them. Yet after a while, 1 by 1 those little gadgets and gizmos stop working or become unreliable. 

When I bought an 04 with 250k miles on the odo a few creature comforts had become parasitic draws so they had been shut off. Seat memory, cd player, and overhead lamp. 

My car thinks a door is open despite nothing wrong with the doors or actuators, so the door ajar lamp is off on the dash. 

The little handle you tug on to pop the trunk broke in half. The key fob won't lock/unlock the doors with a new battery. The pea soup radio display fades out at times and the volume knob requires a special touch to work. Actuators under the dash moan and groan when it's above 80 degrees farenheit in the cab. 

However, I turn the ignition key and the car starts lickety split every time. It runs like a new car, the seats are awesome, it rides like a dream, shifts silky smooth, it's engine prrrs like a kitten, it looks more sexy than a Farah Fawcett poster, and a whole bunch of other cool gizmos and gadgets still work including the cassette player I use as an mp3 player host. AC still blows cold and the his/hers climate control is spot on. Speakers at all four corners and the sub still work, the radio works mostly. All windows roll up and down including the auto feature up front.  Oh I suppose the garage door opener works but I'll never use that. Cruise control, paddles on the steering wheel, adjustable seat features, the sunroof, and simply put stuff I can't remember right now either work or I didn't know the car could even do that. 

I figure on getting around to fixing some of the stuff someday, but so long as it starts and runs well that's pretty much good enough for me these days. 

 

[RX400h]

It's funny that you hear all the time that sedans don't sell because everyone wants an SUV or a truck. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have abandoned many sedans as they claim no one wants them.

Yet, I see many, many new Camrys, ES350s, ES300hes, Corollas, Mazda 3s, Subaru Integras/ Legacys, and Honda Civics and Accords. The Wall Street Journal states that Toyotas sells more vehicles than GM because Toyota has more to sell but really, it's the quality and reliability that keeps customers buying Japanese vehicles and not American, Italian, and German vehicles. How many 2004 Impalas do you see on the street? I see lots of older GS sedans out there.

 In that vein, I must mention that our made-in-2005 RX400h has a perfect score with electronics, although it has "only" 134,000 miles on its Odometer. Yes, everything still works perfectly. Perhaps the weather here in Southern California helps but we know that Japanese quality is real reason it has served us so well.

[Bykfixer]

So today I went to start ole Lexi but……the 8 year old battery no longer holds a charge. 

Dratz!! 

But she shor looks sexy sitting there……

[RX400h]

...talk about waiting until the last minute!😏

[Bykfixer]

That's the view when I pull into the driveway after work. 

Unseen in the photo is the dog wagging his tail "it's that guy, he's back, yay!!" 

[RX400h]

Where's the moonshine factory? 🙂
I have never been to Virginia but did drive from Connecticut to San Diego, many years ago. The fun part is that the trip was via my 68 Corvette with no air conditioning.

[Bykfixer]

When driving in the mountains in far western VA at night the sides of the hills look like a Christmas tree from all of the stil fires going.

If you mean the official factory? Got me. The good stuff comes from the "unofficial" factories. 

[1stgenlexusgs300]

I have a 93 gs300 and everything still works ! ! ! except the drivers window. The motor purrs but it doesn’t go up and down. Haha. 
 

other than that this car now has 400K on it and you can still eat off the engine. It still runs so smooth that you could put a cup of water on the cover and would hardly see a ripple. I’m not sure about the first 10 years of the cars maintenance but I have all the records of every little thing repaired or replaced on it including oil changes since 2003. Since I’ve owned the car I’ve had to replace all 4 calipers and rotors, the front upper control arms, lower ball joints, alternator, battery, ac compressor, water pump, and 3 timing belts @ every 100k. I have yet to do the rear upper control arms.The upper ball joints are starting to show a little bit of wear.

[1stgenlexusgs300]

Funny that we just talked about this. Now my heater fan shuts down intermittently. I did notice this on my stereo in the past but it was due to a bad alternator putting out low voltage. The funny thing is my stereo is working fine so I think it’s something else. The whole heater display shuts right off sometimes and then comes back on and sometimes the lights stay on and the fan stops for a few seconds. Gonna have to post about it and see if anybody else has encountered that. 

[Bykfixer]

I started this thread to see what dilemmas I face with a 2004 GS300 with 252k miles on it.  

The display on my 04 goes dim from time to time but I either listen to a local jazz station as background music or pop in the cassette adapter with mp3 player cord so I really don't need the display. Today's modern car stereos don't appeal to me so I'll stick with the factory set up as long as sound comes from the speakers. When that quits I'll get some kinda razz-a-ma-tazz thinga-majig contraption to replace it and probably upgrade the speakers.....or maybe not.

 

[tom_mcmullen06]

Everything but my cupholders and trunk lever on dash, and aftermarket radio work. Easy fixes.