Zoso

Is there anybody out there?

Anyone? Just want some confirmation or advice if Im wrong.

One other item I forgot. I have attached a tech spec on the 8" sub I am using. I think it is a free air sub, but that just shows how much I know about audio! If it sin't a free air I assume I would have to build an enclosure? Any comments appreciated Thanks! Thunder4000Ref.pdf

Hey everyone, you have a great forum here. I have alot of experience with the mechanics on my 1992 LS400 but very little audio/electrical! I would like your opinions on a system upgrade I want to do. I have researched alot in this forum and I want to maintain my original Pioneer radio head unit and CD changer but I want to upgrde my speakers. Here is what I am planning: 200W mono sub amp fed by orig sub speaker leads through LLC, powering a MTX thunder 4000 8" Sub ( No enclosure planned) 250W 4-channel Amp fed by orig speaker leads through 4-channel LLC powering Boson Acoustic SX50 5.25 Components (65W RMS) in front and Boston Acoustic S55 5.25 two way's (35W RMS) on the rear. I will modify the existing speaker enclosures with a dremel to take the 5.25 speakers. Does this system make any sense. Do I have the correct amp power? Should I not put a two-way speaker in the rear doors? I am not trying for the best sytem just an ujpgrade from the orignal system without losing my headunit and CD changer. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

You will probably want to do the tierod ends and the lower ball joints as well. I would also recommend doing the the upper shock cushions as well as the strut bar cushions and the steering rack cushions. I would also replace the two notor mounts and the rear motor/transmission mount while your in there. As far as the shocks go you can buy them very reasonably on Ebay..Tokico's for about $250 a set of four. I assume you do not ahve air leveling shocks? There are several sites with good parts for the Ls400. My big three are Parkplace Lexus they have an excellent internet parts ordering system at a bout a 30% discount with free shipping ( go to www.parkplacetexas.com and go to the Lexus page and then the Plano site and look in parts & accessories for the aprts catalog), I also ahve used Olympus (www.forparts) and Irontoad (www.Irontoad.cpm) alsot with good success. You can probably get everything you need frome three sites. I ahve just completed all of theis on my 1992 LS 400 with 175K miles on it. All of this work has been written up extensively in the forums here and it is out there if you look for it. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice guys.....I may rethink this wheel combo? Could be a set of 17's for sale soon.

Thanks! That is just what i was looking for. Now one more question....how much is the ride affected by going from a 60 series aspect ratio tire to a 50 series aspect ratio? I assume the ride is a little stiffer, but is it a major change?

I think they are 04's but I could be wrong. I do know they are 17X7.5's though.

Hey everyone, I just purchased a set of 2004 LS430 wheels for my 1st gen 1992 LS400 (17inch X 7.5 inch). I am trying to figure out what the correct tire size I need to match the wheel/tire combo diameter of my original 15inch wheels and standard tires for the 92 model? I would like to have the speedo stay as close to standard as possible. What tire size are you guys running on 17inch rims to keep the speedo in line? Any advice would be most helpful. Thanks!

Hey everyone, I just purchased a set of 2004 LS430 wheels for my 1st gen 1992 LS400 (17inch X 7.5 inch). I am trying to figure out what the correct tire size I need to match the wheel/tire combo diameter of my original 15inch wheels and standard tires for the 92 model? I would like to have the speedo stay as close to standard as possible. What tire size are you guys running on 17inch rims to keep the speedo in line? Any advice would be most helpful. Thanks!

I have purchased a complete leather seat kit from leatherseats.com and the materials look great. I have delayed having them installed for about a week while I replace the rear main seal on my 92 LS400. I have used a local custom auto interior shop here locally in Dallas and called them up to dicsuss installing the kit for me. tTey were well aware of leatherseats.com and katskins interiors and they had installed quite a few of them. My cost for the install is $300 and they say they can easily do it in a day. They advised that any good qaulity interior shop could do the install for you without any problem. Hope this helps!

Sorry about the delay in responding. I got the seat kit from www.leatherseats .com in OK City. I have delayed having them installed for a couple of weeks due to a required replacement of the rear main oil seal in my LS400 that I didn't expect. All of that is almost completed now and I am going to have a local custom auto intyerior shop do the install of the seat kit for me. The kit istself looks great with good materials. I chose the full leather interior and it ended up costing me about $825 with shipping. I will spend another $300 with the interior shop for the install. Having done a Honda leather interior install previously, I highly recommend using a professionsl. It will save you multitudes of headaches!

Thanks guys, I am not a real verbal person but I will share some things as I get them together over the next several days. Yes sapper-daddy the torsion bar links and the steering damper were definitly shot, you can tell just by looking at them. Both of these pieces were easy to change out. The torsion bar links have an allen wrench insert on the end of the nipple which allows you to get the nut tightend up enough to finish with a torque wrench. The Steering damper is outragously priced at about $130 and you can only get it from a Toyota/Lexus parts house, but it made a big difference. It is an easy direct bolt-on replacement. Some of these parts i replaced because I was in there Gumart1. If your car ahs over 100K miles on it the key items on the suspension are going to be the upper and lower front control are bushings, the two motor mounts, the transmission mount and the rear carrier arm bushings. These will take care of alot of bad suspension problems themselves. The biggest problem I ran into was the carrier arm bushings. I have access to a lathe and machined my own plugs to push the old bushings out and still had a tremedously disfficult time with it. I gave up and pushed the old rubber piece out with a socket head and then cut the old bushing sheath out with a jigsaw and a carbide metal blade. Once I decided to go that route the change out went quickly and smoothly. The new carrier arm bushings do not have a metal outer sleeve so they are much easier to install. If you are getting brake pulsations on a regular basis even after to have your rotors turned, you more than likely ahve bad rear carrier arm bushings. Once you do the replcement you will see whay this occurs. My upper control arm ball joints were shot so I purchased new upper control arms and did not try to change them out with the Daizen units which saved me considerable grief. I will post some of the direct lexus parts houses I used at a substatioal discount later, but they were able to sell me the individual bushings for the lower control arms for about $50/each. They will try to sell you the whole lower control arm for around $300, but will sell the indivual bushing when pressed. They replace the bushings all of the time at the dealerships. I pressed these in and out myself using a hydraulic press. If you don't have access to a hydraulic press there is a great new tutorial on the lexls website (www.lexls.com) which shows how do do this procedure with a large C-Clamp! My best advice though is to have lots of patience and purchase a complete repair manual from Lexus. They will sell you both manuals new for what you can buy used ones on ebay for. I will post all of the websites later. I know I'm forgetting things but will post them as I think of them. Good luck!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for keeping such a great LS400/430 Forum going. I have been a member for a couple of years but have just used the forum for gathering information to use for future work on my 1992 LS400. I have just completed a major overhaul of my vehicle and I used this forum almost exclusively to gather all of the infomrmation together to do the work. Your photos, part numbers, links to suppliers, tutorials, and extremely good advice were all invaluable. My car now drives like it was new, even though it has 175,000 miles on it. I have owned it for ten years and it has never driven this well. Thank you all for your help. I will try to post sometime in the near future with some of the problems and discoveries I made doing this work. It took me about 5 weeks of constantly working on the car to get it all completed. Here is a pretty complete list of my work: Replaced: Engine Mounts, Transmission Mount, Front and Rear Sway Bar Cushions, Tie Rod Ends, Front Ball Joints, Front Strut Rod Cusions, Both rear Carrier Arm Bushings,4 Tokico HP Shocks/Struts, Shock Bumpers front & rear, Steering Rack, Power Steering Pump,Power Steering HP Hose, Driveshaft Flexible Couplings, Transmission & Oil Pan gaskets, Fuel Filter, Timing Belt, Water Pump, No1&2 idler Pulley's, Timing Belt Tensioner, Drive Belt, Drive Belt Idler Pully, Drive Belt Tensioner, Front Crankshaft T-Oil seal, Camshaft Pully T-Oil Seals(2), Spark Plugs, SparkPlug Wire Set, Thermostat & Gasket, Distributor Caps (2), Distributor Rotors (2), Fuel Cap, Alternator, Auto Trans Filter (Screen), Front Upper Control Arms, Front Lower Control Arm Bushings, Throttle Body Gasket (removed and cleaned the TB), PCV Valve, Air Filter, Rear Brake Rotors & Pads, Steering Damper, and Front &b Rear Torsion bar links. I replaced all of this with original Toyota or Lexus parts except for the Steering Rack. I am having new leather seats installled on the car next week. Once again thank you all for your input and help. This was a very taxing but gratifying project that I could not have completed without the help of the forum! Thanks!

Hey guys I have a 1992 LS400 with the Pioneer system in it. The system still works great but the rear center deck speaker is not working. Does anyone know where I can get an oem replacement for it besides having to give up my first born child to my Lexus dealer!? I also have one torn speaker cover in the rear door. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement for it? Have you guys switched these components out? Do you have some suggestions? All comments appreciated. Thanks!