turboomni

No problem ,,,I appreciate your reply and thoughts. I agree I feel the ls400 has better looks too.

Thanks for the reply,,I am guessing its a typo ,,that you mean the 430 is a better car in every way compared to the ls 400 correct??

Thankyou so much Cliff for your thoughts. I do appreciate it. It seems I have to make a decsision whether to invest in the 400 or let her go. The 430 did seem very nice though.

I presently own a 1997 LS 400. She has about 200,000 miles and is showing symptoms of aging. I still love the car but it has an input shaft seal in the tranny I believe is leaking which is slow but there and an exhaust leak before the cat I believe that shows a code for the cats. Both I feel can be dealt with. I drove today a 2002 LS 430 with 75,000 miles on it and it was very nice . Just wondering if any of you have owned both the LS 400 and a 430 if you could comment. I always wished I could have bought a 99 or 2000 LS 400 for the small HP increase and the 5 speed auto. Any comments would be great.

Thx for the reply landar. I just needed to know how much to generally expect and I will measure as you said and replace.

I just did the Addco rear swaybar only on my 97 and it made a big difference.

Hey Guys. I had a service on my 1997 LS400 tranny with a filter change but no flush. Just dropped the pan. I would like to at every oil change pull the trans plug and drain the pan and and top it off. I read somewhere either in the owners manual or maybe read it on my CD of the factory manual how much fluid to expect to drain with this method ,,but I cant find it. The trans fluid is 11 dollars a quart so I would like to know how much to buy! Thanks

The car looks real nice and Billy you look great too!!!!

I own a 1997 ls400. It was quiet when I bought it and about 6 months later I heard a valve noise that would be noticeable at start up and then go away when warmed up. After awhile it took longer to go away. Then it was consistent in varying degrees which *BLEEP*ed me off. I researched valve adjustment and realised it is all done with shims and such which I would guess is very time consuming especially if you have 32 valves to check......I then made another discovery from this forum I believe. It could be the EGR pipe which is on the back of the block. I got my stethoscope [heater hose] and while running listened and the sound and when in the back of the block I heard it loud and clear the valve noise. Got a mirror and realised it [egr tube ] was cracked. I am not up to such a task of replacing this anymore and my starter went out. While the starter was replaced I had him replace the egr tube and the problem was/is gone. It also cured a vacume leak a rather big one but I really didnt notice a rough running engine,,,,but when I got it back it was as smoooth as silk and quiet. I hear this is a common [egr pipe] problem especially on high milage cars with worn engine mounts. I had the mounts replaced too. It may not be your problem but I would suggest checking the egr pipe before you dig in any further. It is also a real pain in the @ss to replace all 4 bolts. The manual states to remove the tranny to replace this tube....it can be done in other ways, much cheaper,,you need an inovative mechanic.

It could be swaybar bushings. Mine squeek after a car wash. Humid weather sometimes does it for me. Factory replacement bushings or Moog are rather cheap. Since yours are original you may want to change them anyway but why not when it is doing it shoot some WD40 on them real good and see if it goes away ,,that way you'll know it was them or not. I bought Energy suspension urathane bushings but havent installed them yet and they have grease fittings to boot.

Just to try it I removed the back mufflers [pretty easy to do] and drove it around awhile with the exhaust open in front of the rear axle. I liked the sound alot and even exiting unde the car it was not noisy inside the car. I went to a exhaust shop and asked them to make up some pipes to the rear. He installed it and then I got DRONE at around 1800 rpm's. The car was great at all other rpm's. I think it was because he went to 2 1/4 inch pipe...I'm not sure. I think if he stayed at 1 5/8 or so it may not have done this. It was bad enough for me to put the stock pipes back on. You get any drone on your setup>???

Did I say I was driving my daughter's Jeep grand Cherokee instead?? ,,Yup I did ..I hate it but it is better than my 400. 4.7 v8 ,,gas hog pig American car,,but it has 4 wheel drive. I went to a Lexus dealer and had it washed for free and parked it. It will hit the upper 40's in temp this week and maybe I will dig the beauty out!

I live in the North East USA and as of Jan 3 2011 my Lexus 1997 LS400 has been under snow and shall stay that way as far as I am concerned. I can't imagine driving this thing in this snow even with the stock type tires. I am driving now my daughter's Jeep Grand Cherokee which I hate but it does get me around!! I am looking forward to cruising around in my hopefully still rust free LS400 in the spring. Hang in there you guys!