Hanging In There

Andy,

Take it slow and don't take any drastic action like rebuilding the engine or replacing it. Try replacing the oil pressure sensor first, a comparatively inexpensive approach. A couple of cycles of cleaning and replacing the lubricant and filter should also be considered. Not having seen the patient (your car) I'll not try to diagnose it's apparent problem, Lexus is a great car with almost bullet proof engines, something simple may be just what the doctor ordered.

Tom

A past ASE certified Master Auto Technician

The brakes on my LS are very mushy and have been for years. I'd like to do new lines when I do the brakes next month but cannot seem to find a vendor for stainless steel on the second generation LS.

Any good vendors out there that anyone knows of? Seeing that they are hard to find I worry putting them on since there is not much a reputation for various brands.

If I cannot locate stainless lines I think new rubber ones will be in order.

I plan on doing all new rotors, sensors, pads, lines and a flush come October. A rotor is warped but the rotor is probably 6/7 years old so it has done a great job. I don't think I need front pads but with a warped rotor involved I might as well start everything new. I just hope to eliminate as much of the mushy pedal as possible.

Thanks in advance,

Mushy brakes can also be caused by bad flexible lines that attach steel lines to front wheels, I don't know for sure because I've never been under a Lex, but rear brakes also have a flex line somewhere in it's route from the front of the vehicle. If nothing else becomes apparent, change the flexible lines.

I was over at the local yunk yard and saw a good lookin LS 300 there. I'm wondering if I should try to

obtain it as a part car for a '92 LS 400 that I bought? Could I get my money back by parting some of it out?

Just an opinion here, my guess is that there are a limited number of peripheral parts that will fit an LS 400 but not many, the LS 400 and ES 300 are basically two different vehicles.

CTO

When I drive up to 70 MPH, the RPM pointer dangles between 2 and 3. Anybody out there know what is happening?

With such limited information it sounds like there's an issue with the tachometer or input to the tach from the ECM. Need more info.

2004 LS430

Well just clicked over 88500 miles so the dreaded 90k maintenance is coming near.

Planning to do the timing belt (TB) replacement myself. Done it before on other cars but never a Lexus. Was planning on buying the Schley 64300 Harmonic Damper Pulley Holder to make the removal of the crank bolt a bit easier. Have heard it can get really seized up. Anyone used this? Is there a better way?

Also apart from being a lot of disassembly to get to the TB is there anything special about the vvt related to changing the TB? Other than lining up the new belt marks with the proper spots on the cams and crankshaft is there any special procedure regarding the vvt mechanism?

I plan to install new idler pulleys and belt tensioner. Haven’t decided to change water pump while I’m in there or not.

Please, for your own sake, do the water pump while the engine is torn down, many have not changed the pump under the same conditions and have been sorry.

I wouldn't let a shop do a power flush on your car. If you aren't going to do it yourself just stick with a Toyota dealer. Stay far away from jiffy-lube type places with your LS, regardless of the age. They'll top off you power steering with power steering fluid, flush with Mercon fluid and put some trashy oil filter on it. Is your transmission causing you any problems? I'll suggest you something that's easier than an oil change if you do your own oil changes, which I highly recommend. Just drain your tranmission pan and refill during every oil change, which I do every 7,500 mi with synthetic oil. I don't recall the exact number of quarts but it's a few. It's better than nothing. It will at least give you piece of mind that you're getting some of the old ATF replaced with new. Make sure to use ONLY TOYOTA TYPE-IV FLUID.

Some people will swear not to flush ATF in older cars if the transmission is working fine because they think that flushing it removes metal particles that the trans is depending on for friction and will cause it to slip. I've flushed a 1996 Taurus with over 100k myself that had the original ATF in it and the trans felt better afterward. I didn't not do a power flush, however. I have flushed my 1996 with 200k by removing the line into the radiator and letting it fill up a bucket while pouring in new Type-IV to replace it. I had more piece of mind by doing that, the trans runs great, but it didn't give me any problems before.

If I was in your shoes somewhat unsure of what to do and wanted an easy and cheap way to get a little bit of piece of mind about your transmission I would just drain the pan every oil change for a while and refill with Type-IV and know that you're at least better off then you were before. That will at least get some new fluid in there with the full strength, new additives to keep the seals pliable and such.

-Kelly

My experience with a ford Taurus (1991) with 88,000 miles having a full T-Tech flush and refill was a disaster. In less than 2,000 miles the tranny seized and trashed itself out on the open road 60 miles from home. Cost me $2,300 to repair it and I traded the car just weeks later and got only $1,900 on trade in. I would have been better off to have had the car hauled to a salvage lot and sold for parts before having the tranny overhauled. I'm now an ASE Certified Master Auto Technician and my advice is to change tranny oil at the first 30,000 miles and then at 15,000 intervals thereafter. But on vehicles that have not had regular tranny oil changes..., do not change it, just take your chances. I intrinsically knew that I should not have changed the oil when I did but I rolled the dice and crapped out.

Hello Everyone,

I'm very excited about my next car purchase. I'm going to seal the deal on Monday.

It has 39,000 Miles and the price is 10,600.

It was listed on E-bay. I have to be frank...I know very little about the LS400s.

I owned a Volvo 850 before this and it was a mechanical nightmare money pit. I was VERY active on another Volvo forum...so I have a feeling this may be a great beginning!

Here is the ad for the LS400:

" 39K miles, I bought it from the original owner in Fl, that paid about 60K. She always took it to the same Lexus dealer for service, even bought new tires from them, crazy. I have all the records. She was 84, could no longer drive. I had the timing belt replaced @ 36K, due to it's age not mileage. Garage kept non smoker, smells like new. I have a car fax, clearly shows a FL car all its life.

The Receipts clearly prove the mileage on the car"

Here are all the photos he had in his ad :

Photos of the 98 Ls400

What do you folks think about this car? Am I paying too much? I spoke with the fellow selling the car he is a 60 year old gentleman.

I would very greatly appreciate all the insight and advice you may have.

Thanks so much!

It seems that the price is pretty close to correct. I recently paid 10K for a '96 LS400 with about 100K miles. Bought the car from a longtime friend who purchased it new in '96. Your new ride looks terrific and she'll give you long and trouble free miles. Congratulations and welcome to the LS 400 family.

Well I purchased my 93ls 4k miles ago it has 170k miles on it. I went and took the family to a amusement park yesterday that was 360 miles away round trip yesterday. The car seemed to run just fine on the way there but when I started the ls to leave it started misfiring badly. I needed to get some gas so I stopped in the local station and filled up. I then found out I only got 18 mpg versus the usual 22-25. I will list the symptoms below.

* Running very rough

* Does not have any power, I would compare it to when you start a car in to high of a gear when trying to take off

* It could not maintain speed up any sort of hill

* My tachometer was not consistent, it would bounce all over the place

* Since the first day I bought it the speedometer has been 20mph slow but earlier in the week it magically started working correctly.

* When I first opened the hood, I saw some smoke coming off the rear of the engine.

* No check engine light.

*10 mpg

If any of you know where to start I would greatly appreciate it. I haven't had time to go pull a plug and see what it looks like so start giving me an indication of what might be wrong. It was a tough drive on the way back but we made it safe and sound. thank for any help.

I agree that it may be running on one bank of cylinders but the symptoms could also point to the ECM operating in "Limp in Mode". I don't know for sure, just sayin'... keep us posted.

Hi everyone,

my LS400 stutters when I try to hold 45-50mph. I just push the gas lightly to hold that speed and the car stutters. I guess this is the right term. I have no problem at higher or lower speeds, and it does not do when I floor it.

I have a small leak at the back of the left side valve cover, can it cause this?

Thanks

A

A throttle valve cleaning might solve your problem. My vehicle had the same sounding issue that was corrected with a good cleaning of the throttle body.

There's something you can 'add'...common sense.

In short, these type of additives, mostly based on chlorinated paraffins, can harm your engine under high temps, despite what you see in adds. Therefore, responsible and leading engine oil manufacturers use safe and non-corrosive sulphur/phosphorus compounds.

For maximum protection, it's best to change oil every 3K miles or six months. Synthetics can last a bit longer, around 5K miles. Some reports state that changing to synthetics, after many years of regular oil use, may shrink the gaskets and cause oil leaks. True or not, I wouldn't bother using synthetic oil, if you keep up to the 3K or 6 months interval and some TLC.

Possibly there's some air in you PS pump. Use the 'search' feature on this site; lot's of topics re. PS pumps and how to solve their grunts...

I second this suggestion, there's just nothing better than good quality dino oil, there's some lubricants that are much more expensive but they're no better when it comes to lubricating your engine. Just keep up the three month/3000 mile change intervals and stay away from additives.

I was trying to replace my serpentine belt and broke the screw off in the tension pulley. The tension ring also came off...Just wondering if I can drive it to my mechanic without messing up the end the engine and etc....?

It's presumptuous of me to interject here but do you by chance have towing service with a cell phone? If so, a free tow is at hand, just call and they will arrange and pay for towing, in the case of Verizon, it's a no charge tow within your distance of a shop. I've had two tows during one "won't start" event at no cost.

The lower control arm has a very large cam bolt to adjust the front camber, it could have been adjusted or replaced and not reset. But as said, any competent alignment shop can handle it, your car isn't anything difficult or obscure to align.

thanks for the replies.im going to the alignment shop today

well came from the alignment shop and was told the spindle arm was bent how hard are those to bend?just curious.the person i got the car from told me it was wrecked before but could not find any show of damage.he said he hit a curb in it.

They're not easy to bend, it likely took a pretty good hit to bend it.

i bought a lexus ls400 1992 with 200 000 miles on it, i have all the repair records and the record of a previously deceased owner. Anyways the car was fine in the city under heavy braking but on the highway at above 60mph when i brake the wheel and pedal vibrate bad. The car has records of the rack and pinion being replaced and struts or something like that, the brake rotors were replaced at 12000 miles ago, are they warped again? it is to my knowledge the car was parked for 6-8 months prior to the previous owners death, is it possible there is build up from sitting? or do the bushings need to be replaced? Im also worried i wont pass the out of province vehicle inspection

A pulsating brake pedal is almost always caused by an issue with brake rotors/drums. With 80K miles on them it is reasonable to expect some rotor issues. If it were my vehicle I'd take it to a trusted repair shop and have the rotors resurfaced. If resurfacing would leave the rotors below factory specs, then new rotors are in order. Correctly done this should eliminate your pedal pulsing issue.

ive recenently purchased my first lexus,yes it is a bit old but i got it for a good price(free)

my question is the drivers side front wheel is inwards on the top side of the tire.does anyone now if theres

an adjustment i can do to bring it out or self align it?thanks

Your vehicle will need a four wheel alignment which will cost $100 or more at any quality alignment shop. In addition, However, something in the front suspension may be bent or a ball joint or some other component worn out and repairs will be needed to correct the problem. Have the vehicle inspected by a trusted alignment shop and see what really needs to be done.

Good luck.

'97LS w/ 180k, timing belt and major tuneup scheduled for next week.

The LS was parked outside at the airport for 4 days, temperature was low 40's at night and around 65 during the day. The last day was rainy. The normally flawless LS started fine but revved up to 20k rpm, then dropped to about 2k. It then proceeded to bounce around in a less than smooth fashion. It continued until the car was warmed up, then it seemed to run ok, maybe a little rich. It seemed to start ok when cold and ran fine today. The check engine light did not come on. Any ideas? I would like to figure out what it was before the major tune and timing belt. Thank you in advance.

Can't diagnose your engine issue but just add a bit of information on OBDII: A cold engine operates in "open circuit" which means that the engine's sensors are not providing information to the ECU to control the engine, hence the engine is operating on default settings stored in the ECU. When the O2 sensors, coolant temperature, etc.,reach operating temperature the ECU switches to closed circuit making it possible for the ECU to correct for issues not sensed during cold operation. In some cases components can fail to operate within design parameters and cause poor engine operation in open circuit operation but the issues go away after warmup. Not implying that this is your engine's issue, just sayin...

I don't know exactly what's wrong with your vehicle but I had the same issue with another vehicle some years ago and the problem turned out to be a bad power relay that dropped out when it got hot and would not re-engage until it cooled. Replaced the relay and viola', problem solved. Good luck!

Has anyone had any experiences with Autozone's Duralast remanufactured Denso alternator with lifetime warranty.

TIA, Mark

Yes, I have one that I installed about three years ago and it's working just fine.

My locking lug nut broke while I was struggling to remove it. Just a chip off the face that snipped off a tiny portion of the pattern. I resumed trying to loosen it, and it seems to make grinding noises that suggest the nut will completely break.

I attempted to loosen this nut first, so the remaining four are still tight. The car is in my carport; I was starting the process of replacing the lower ball joints.

Should I stop here and drive it to a dealer and let them remove it? I don't want to put another security nut in its place (that would mean replacing all four), so I will buy a stock nut and go without the security on this wheel… I have boring factory wheels anyway.

Is it risky to drive the three miles to the dealer if this nut is compromised?

If I understand your statement correctly, all five nuts are still in place and tight except that the security nut is chipped. If that's the case, then it will be completely safe to drive the vehicle the three miles to the dealer. If it makes you nervous, just drive slow.

I'm an ASE certified Master Auto Technician and I agree with above comments, don't waste time on looking at the belt because a look will not definitely confirm whether or not a timing belt has been replaced. I'm not a Lexus Tech but I understand that if the repair work was done by a Lexus dealer it can be confirmed by checking with a Lexus dealer.

I would be a bit troubled by the discrepancy in the mileage issue. It may be an innocent mistake but it sure sends up a RED flag.

hello everyone-

does everyone run 5w-30 in their 400LS all summer?

should i put in a different weight as the weather gets warmer?

thanks!

Using 5W-30 oil is a great idea all year around in an engine in average to good condition. An engine that is worn and inclined to "use" oil may require a heavier weight oil.

Hanging in there

I have researched the forum and found out that my problem is indeed that the power steering fluid is leaking into the intake manifold and causing all the smoke. Do i have to remove the pump or is there an easy way of doing this?

I had the same problem, but after some reading here:

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=62816

it took 5 minutes to fix it...

what i did, was, that i have looped together2 hoses coming out of the PS

and the top 2 holes i plugged with some rubber caps

smoke is gone :)

tomorrow will take some photos and attach them here

Hey Guys, is there a year model of the LS 400 where the PS pump leaking onto the alternator is corrected by a design change?? Please be kind, I'm a newbie here.

Thanks!