Leaderboard

I was also sold this "invisible" ad on! Only to be told by the dealership "after" that it's not adjustable. So basically it's just a dimly lit thin strip! This should be included. Lexus could and should've done better!

Hi. Some friends of mine suggested that I should post this here for more people to see. Hopefully it'll help people for years to come. You will need: About 50 bucks budget for the balljoint rod and the pipe clamp. Height sensor with bracket. 10mm wrench Washers that fit 10mm/M6 bolts. 10mm/M6 nuts Some smaller (8mm wrench) I own a 2001 LS430. The height sensor control arm's slider has rusted and become damaged over the last 19 or so years. The ball joint rod to the height sensor has also seized too. The height adjustment rod there in the red was seized, and the height slider in the blue was badly corroded and broken off. Rather than buy an entire control arm (green) this is an alterative method to repair it The arm is ~26mm in diameter. Buy yourself one of these pipe clamps in 26mm diameter. Or make one. Shouldn't be expensive. The hole needs to fit a M6/10mm bolt. Grind off the remnants of that slider from the control arm, and slide the pipe clamp over, and put your 10mm/M6 bolt and nut through and secure it in place where the slider used to be. Rather than using the control arm as a slider, we can instead use a sliding ball joint rod such as this one; This is a 220 320 00 32 from Mercedes - a height adjustment rod with a 8mm locking and a 10mm/M6 ball joint bolt. You can pick one up off eBay for cheap. Or find some other M6/10mm adjustable ball joint rod. Look at the diagram and try to imagine it in your head. This is what your bracket and rod/clamps should look like. One day I might snap a picture of what my repair looks like, but I hope you can make out what I mean via the diagram. This repair should be very easy. Maybe some sanding/grinding and surface preperation. The clamp will hold on tight and is easy to replace. The adjustable link rod will last longer and allow for easy adjustment, and less risk of corrosion damage. Hope this helps. This is a fairly easy job and took me less than 2 or so hours to do.

Did I mention this?..... I don't like the fact that our governments plan to force us to buy EVs. I wouldn't mind having one, as we already have solar panels and don't pay for electricity, but I think we should be able to choose what we drive (within reason).

At the part store they run a load test on the battery that mimics a big draw. If it holds up to a certain voltage it means the battery itself is not weakened yet. As the battery ages it will weaken as in not be able to supply a given amount of cold cranking amps. When its cold the oil thickens some thereby making the engine have to work harder to rotate. Hence the term "cold" cranking amps. I'd say you should investigate why the check engine lamp is lighting up. It could be a sign of what is taking place to cause your car to struggle to crank over. The part store can often "read the code" and determine why the CEL is lighting. My gut tells me your voltage regulator in the alternator is hit and miss. A long time ago that was a little box on the fire wall or fender. These days they are inside of the alternator. It determines how much electricity goes to the engine to keep it running and to the battery to charge it. It only has to be off by a little to keep the engine running but not have extra to charge the battery. Another issue could be a parasitic drain. An out of the ordinary draw on the battery when the car isn't running. In my 04 GS 300 for example the CD changer kept trying to change discs and the seat memory kept activating. Now I could not hear the disc changer nor was the seat memory moving the seat, but they were drawing on the system leading to a weak or dead battery if I didn't drive the car every day. Yet another issue may be short trips don't allow the battery to charge enough. Example; start the car, drive to a store 10 minutes away, finish there, start car and drive 10 minutes to another store. Never giving the engine a good 30-45 minutes to charge the battery back up to the voltage used to start the car can also lead to the hard to crank or dead battery issue. Hope you find it soon and it's a cheap and easy fix.

No reason to upgrade, Those stock wheels are Classic on the SC 😉

But you love the Covid virus? 🙄

I just installed the rr racing supercharger. It’s the only way to go bud

That one is my son's new puppy. Her brother came home with me Chocolate lab mom, stranger in the night dad Yesterday they played all afternoon.

Purchase has been made!...I could not turn down the deal I got & the actual ES...2020 ES 350 'premium' with only 11k miles in Nebula Grey Pearl (windows are already tinted)....over 2 years of full factory warranty remaining; 1 owner, full service history & Lexus CPO. Our 'premium package' in Canada is equipped quite differently than our friends south of the border....with more features / standard equipment. Originally I wanted the UL package....but in these parts, they are very rare (I reached out to 17 Lexus dealers in a 400 mile radius of me...the UL units that are available are 5 to 6 k more & only about 20% are actually at Lexus dealers...the premium pkg checks 95% of the boxes I was looking for....as the expression goes 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'. I literally have a 6 minute drive to work... I pick the car up this Saturday.

I like it when I'm trimming a rose bush, grab one to place in a jar and while heading indoors the Mrs arrives from work so I hand her the rose. Or when I come from work and the dog greets me at the door, tail all wagging-like. And the parrot says "welcome home"…… Or when a nice breeze blows just as the grass cut chore is over and the Mrs brings out a tall glass of ice cold spring water. Or when a new baseball cap fits my noggin just right without adjusting it. Or I step on the bathroom scale expecting to have gained weight but the scale shows I actually lost a little. Or when my son and I went to do the first start after an engine swap, expecting a hard to start issue but ole bessy fires right up. Or when the lawnmover starts first pull……again. Or helping out old people. Or thanking a soldier/veteran. Or tipping the person at the toll booth. Yes I stop and pay in cash so I can do that. Or when the voicemail on your phone was not a robo-call and instead was a friend telling you "hello, here's my new phone number" Or when you sneeze and a perfect stranger says "bless you". Life is short. But smiling makes you live longer. Trouble with being dead is it lasts so long.

The cost of dental work, especially deep cleaning by laser and periodontal surgery, but also including implants.

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!!"

Update: I think I have got it after all the work, time, and money spent. I started checking again I found an unbelievable vacuum leak around lower intake manifold. replace gasket today runs great thanks for all of the support. something that simple fix. when the engine was swap the starter was replaced. The gasket moved or something apparently cause a vacuum leak. I had no idea a vacuum leak could cause random misfires. I was sure it was an ignition problem.

My Daily 😀

The Lexus brand cell phone that was a dealer installed option lowered the HVAC fan speed and muted the audio system while a call was in progress. I even connected an aftermarket Nokia CARK-91 phone system I installed in my second (2000) LS400 to mute the audio system but I didn't bother to connect it to lower the HVAC fan speed. Even when a Lexus phone system was never installed, corrosion of the factory installed cell phone harness in the trunk can cause HVAC and audio system issues.

20 years ago I swapped a domain name for a Lexus. The love affair started and I am now on my 10th Lexus

And Because We All Love Pictures 🙂

My Lexus is my weekend car. My daily is my 2009 Mazda 3i.

Just acquired a 97 LS400 with 5 keys, second owner, all original paperwork from the dealer including the peel away handbook that came with the car. Have the original window sticker even! Crazy come up from working on the car for a neighbor during the plandemic. Just like to say hi and start helping where I can here, been a tech for over 15 years professionally, 26 cars owned probably more including bikes. Hope to help out and be helped if inrum into some issues here on this new venture. Hope to add an air ride system in the future, tint, visors, etc. Who knows..

I changed my oil but haven't changed the transmission oil yet. Haven't had any issues with it till recently. I have owned it for a few months now and it just started to act up by not wanting to shift into fourth gear. So it's been parked for the past week. i have just started reading so much on this vehicle that I'm excited then worried then relieved as I continue to learn more and more. I never had any issue so I would chalk it up to I must not know how to read the dip stick or did I understand it. I am so glad I found this group, the fact that I get replys with their past experiences or some what of a direction that helps. I'm waiting on a mass air flow sensor and new coils already did the plugs. Then with I forgot how many videos I must have watched, but I swear it took me longer to change out 2 of the back plugs then it's takin me on any other vehicle to do plugs, oil and filter for both engine and transmission. They make it so that you have to take your vehicle in to a dealer.

I like being alive !!!

I found several potential causes:

According to Car & Driver magazine, Side note: I have a Samsung 23 Ultra and would NEVER switch to an iphone. My night photos are amazing, I have up to 10X optical zoom, and my stylus can be used to: Remotely advance PowerPoint slides Remotely take photos and videos, up to 30 ft away Translate embedded languages Zoom in to very small text that cannot be pinch-screened Create instant hand-written notes and drawings alone or within photos. I am thoroughly spoiled!🙂

It's cheap in the view of things. I don't want to have to replace this motor. I shopped for 9 month before buying my SC430. I have done maintenance that it turned out had already been done. I'm not going to call the prior owner with these types of questions. I save those calls for important stuff. So I did all the fluids a week ago. engine oil it was due and I knew it from the miles I had put on. Transmission fluid was perfect when I dropped the pan, no burnt smell, no metal on the magnets in the pan. Cleaned it all anyway, changed the filter and gasket and added 6 quarts back in. But perfect fluid should have been my clue that it had been done. LOL Get back to the differential, and you guessed it, dumped out perfectly clear, like new gear oil. Let it drain anyway and refilled with 2 quarts. I think most people with these cars keep the maintenance tip top. That is a plus in my book. I intend to keep this car so I like knowing where it stands maintenance wise. Yes it costs a little money but I do believe it helps the cars last. And that's why I picked a Lexus and not a Mercedes or other cars of this type of styling. If you want to gamble on maintenance there are plenty of other models of Lexus cars or others out there to do that with. But I bought this car because it's becoming a classic and its got the Toyota drive train. I plan to keep the car the rest of my life and enjoy it for all that time.

I am an 2023 IS500 owner, for an almost $70,000 car, it does not have a place for your phone, Lexus did a very very poor job of not updating a 20 year old interior! I’m disappointed there’s no space for my sunglasses on the ceiling space, no wireless charger, wire coming from center storage, the speedometer display is so tiny, I had to take my eye off the road while driving. I’m totally disappointed with Lexus’s CHEAP DESIGNS! The ok thing is the V8 & the 1,800 watts stereo. Even the V8 @5.0 L. IS SLOW @ 4.4 Sec. (0-60mph)! 472 Horse Power should be under 3.5 sec., but Lexus blew it again with a slow 4.4 sec., not acceptable. I regret buying this new Lexus IS500, I should of buy a Mercedes AMG instead. The handling of the IS500 is barely sporty!!! Disappointing, Lexus did a lousy job of creating this new IS500!

Do like Eric Burdon - paint it black

The spec sheet that Lexus of Birmingham gave me for the ES300h shows these two add-ons: WOOD TRIM WITH AMBIENT LIGHTING $740. ILLUMINATED DOOR SILLS $400 Can you possibly imagine the sheer excitement as I finally got it home in the garage and hit the automatic garage door opener, and then in the dark, I see this pale blue strip highlighting the edge of the dash? And I only paid $740 bucks plus an additional 4% sales tax? Followed by the thrill of opening the door and seeing a crummy advertisement projected onto my garage floor ("Lexus of Birmingham") for $416. what a RUSH!!

Fixed! Put the transmission in neutral, took off the bolts and rotated the driveshaft. Tightened everything down and drove it and it was connected back the right way. Thank you to everyone for your help!

https://youtu.be/vnOM7RfgP1A this is about as easy as diy projects come. No tools needed and instant results!

This partially why I gave up riding a motorcycle to focus on convertible sportscars in which I can drive with shorts and a tank top during Summer months.. 😏

If you fail to timely replace your timing belt and water pump your engine could suffer catastrophic damage. Do it. Do it now. My mechanic charged $475 today for labor to replace the timing belt and water pump on my LS 400 with 174K miles. My AISN brand kit cost $189 from Sumit plus antifreeze and liquid gasket for a total of $300 for parts. The Stealership will rob you blind. I saw that my belt was cracked and my pump’s weep hole was crusty from leaking. It looks like I was a whisker away from shredding my motor. I’m glad I did it now and avoided killing my Lexus.

I thought there was a recall concerning this. You should be able to check, here: Lookup Safety Recalls & Service Campaigns (toyota.com)

A vehicle with salvage/rebuilt title has historically been valued at 50-60% of a "clean" title vehicle of same or similar make, model, trim level, and mileage. Based upon my conversation with a very experienced auto body shop technician, try to stay with those vehicles that had rear damage, not front with air bag deployment. The "before" repair photos can be very helpful. If possible, take it to an auto body shop for inspection. I bought a 2008 Mazda MX5 PRHT, back in 2012. It was a salvage vehicle with slight front and mostly rear damage. It had 42,000 miles on it and it has been almost bulletproof for all these years. One suspension component had to be replaced but everything else was fine. Check with your insurance company to see what value they would place on your possible purchase.

I've been researching car wraps for a while, possibly for a future body color swap when I eventually get a new car. Apparently, wraps last about 3 years because if a wrap is left on too long, it may be very difficult to remove it. This is true with many types of tapes, even those with very weak adhesion. So before you have a wrap done, I suggest discussing this with the "wrapper".

Before pulling the bulbs, you should look for a change in voltage on the meter with and without the lights/audio on. If fact, what I typically do when performing a quick test, observe the meter as you switch each component on...one by one. If the brake lights are showing a large dip on the meter or with everything on together you are dropping below 13 volts...you have a problem. It's rare, but you could have a bulb that's not lighting up and instead shorting out. If the charging system stays above 13.5 under full load than I'm leaning towards a problem with the wires coming from the battery or loose/corroded battery terminal. Most of the situations that I've worked on where there seems to be an electrical demon and all the tests are good...It's usually something like a poor body ground.

There's a bleed location just by the firewall at the top of the engine (at least on mine, I'm unsure about yours); pop the cap off of it and see if the fitting spurts fluid and no bubbles with the car running. If it has bubbles or no coolant comes out, bleed the air from the system. LS400s tend to like being bled parked on an incline (front end higher than the rear). My car also has bleeding instructions printed on the coolant reservoir, check yours and see if it details the procedure. After that, check the heater control valve- it should remain closed until the engine nears or reaches operating temperature, and then the cable will open the valve. If the valve is broken, it's a fairly quick fix, but if the cable doesn't operate, you'll have a bigger issue, as the cable is either broken or the electronic controls are not operating. If you need help locating either the bleeder or the valve, send a couple pictures / a video and I'll try and point them out. I'm more familiar with the 1UZ-FE VVT engine setup, as that's what's in my car, so if you happen to have the same engine, I can be more clear

The upcoming Lotus Emira, McLaren 570S Spider, Mazda MX5, sparkling red wine, lobster ravioli, hot air balloon rides, helping kids to learn math and english......I could go on and on. Trevor, based upon the part of the world you live in, it doesn't surprise me that you like beer. (although probably not Guiness Stout, eh?) 😃 I do enjoy an occasional draft from one of many breweries in this area.

Life. Yeah it has its ups and downs but the trouble with being dead is it lasts so long. Food is cool too. So is lexus owners club.

The ls400 is a great car, I daily a 1997. That being said, the cars are getting pretty old at this point and are going to need some regular work that would be needed for any car that’s 20+ years old. If you can’t do the work yourself it’s probably not worth driving a car this old. If I didn’t do all my own work on my LS I would probably be close to 8k in the hole at this point between timing belt, water pump, trans and motor mounts, rack, little things, etc. I’ve spent about 1k on the car total for parts.

No manual release, Maybe this will help

other then a RX300, 89 Foxbody Mustang, 85 Foxbody LTD, a F250 and a 1999 Mercury Mountaineer

New lenses will always look better than a polishing job. However, you may want to research what is required to replace yours. Some swap efforts are not very easy. I used a Meguiar's headlight lens polishing kit. To me it had the right "ingredients".

The 4th of July is upon us once again. While most folks frolic about on the 4th doing the typical American thing……you know, drink beer, eat too much, get sun burned and watch fireworks, one of my coworkers has set out for New York. He is a young engineer from Afghanistan who helped the US forces rebuild stuff over there after things got destroyed after 911. At first he said it was not so bad. But at one point his life was threatened by hostile forces for siding with what he says they call "the great Satan". He said members of his family were brutally killed in order to teach him a lesson. The US government gave him the opportunity to bring his wife and kids to America. So this 4th of July he, his wife and children are going to travel to New York to witness the statue of Liberty. He told me that after being in America some 4 years his wife no longer fears running over explosive devices or being hit by sniper fire and wants to travel to "the big apple" he said in broken English. I will raise a toast of apple juice this year to him and folks like him who truely know life under tyranny. I hope everybody reading this enjoys the 4th this year now that the pesky virus seems to be largely under control. I'll stay home and help keep a labrador calm who gets nervous when the fireworks explode. He's 11 this year so he doesn't have that many more days left and I sure don't want him spending any of them in panic mode. I'll hook him up with a hot dog off the grill while we sit out back and watch a small bonfire. Happy 4th everybody.

Here's what I found about the one in Colorado https://www.ksedenvervenues.com/event-locations/ball-arena/club-lexus/ Looks like a cool spot to enjoy a nice meal with friends or colleagues. Welcome to the site.

I'm sure a lot of us have heard about Matt Farah's legendary million mile Lexus, but have you heard of the 1,400 Mile 2005 Lexus LS430? Well, it's in the Philippines, and probably one of the lowest mileage examples in the world. See it here on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/aDijYmBzzhI https://youtu.be/aDijYmBzzhI

Sure thing, Northwoodsperformance.com. The spacers are the same as the 01 to 07 Toyota highlander. Ask for Nathan the owner and he can give details. Much better quality than the Russian spacers. They have a kit that includes 4 spacers, front end links, and hardware. I am also going to lift my 2013 Toyota Highlander with their Gen 2 Highlander spacers. It has nearly the same suspension as the 04-09 Lexus RX series.

You're welcome. The speedometer needle in my '98 sticks (rarely) depending on the ambient temperature. I have read elsewhere that the problem is the instrument lube that's used in the gauge heads get sticky with age. The only real fix is to remove the cluster and have an instrument repair shop deal with it. There is a chance that he gauge cluster might have a bad connection at the circuit board ribbon cables, etc.

Several Toyota models (e.g. Highlander, Sienna) used the same brake system that the 2010-2015 Lexus RX used - rotors, pads, everything. I don't remember about the RX but I do remember there being a service campaign that addressed brake disc warping and vibration on the generation 3 Sienna. I have a 2014 Sienna but mine never developed the problems. I did modify components under the vehicle that directed brake cooling airflow per the service bulletin "just in case". I've wondered why I've never had the problems reported by many others especially since my Sienna Limited is heavier than any Highlander or RX and likely stresses the brakes more. One reason might be because I've paid extremely close attention to lug nut torque. Uneven and/or over torquing lug nuts is a known common cause of brake rotor warping. The correct lug nut torque on the RX, Highlander, Sienna and most other vehicles manufactured by Toyota is only 76 ft. lbs. An air wrench should never be used to tighten these lug nuts and they should always be tightened with a manual torque wrench. I've had both Lexus and Toyota dealers tighten lug nuts to over 200 ft. lbs. on too many occasions. One service manager swore that his mechanics never used air wrenches on lug nuts but I then watched as one of his mechanics had to use an air wrench to remove the lug nuts that one of his mechanics had just over-tightened. I've learned to always check lug nut torque with my own torque wrench after someone else messes with my wheels. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been able to change a flat tire on one trip. So ... my 2014 Sienna that has the same brake system as the 2012 RX and is on the original brake rotors and pads front and back at 94,xxx miles. Based on the wear rate, I'll have the original front and rear pads replaced at the same time and the original rotors turned at a little over 110,000 miles when the pads will by then be worn down to the 1 mm minimum specification. Yes, only 1 millimeter of pad thickness is the minimum specification for most Lexus and Toyota vehicles. 1 mm looks scary to the uninformed which is why so many people get scammed into premature brake work. On Lexus vehicles that have electronic brake pad were sensors, the low pad warning in the instrument cluster starts when a brake pad is worn down to about 1.5 mm. My recommendation is to buy a torque wrench if you don't already have one and check and re-torque lug nuts after each time someone removes and re-installs your wheels.

Fixed!! This is the Idler Pulley which is only attached to the front of the water pump. This water pump is driven by an internal idler pulley that operates from the timing belt. The Pulley was $80.00 at Lexus dealer, and I changed along with new serpentine belt. Took all of 10-15 minutes. Thanks for all who helped!!