BentBrain

I agree that the brakes may be the issue. If not, I would look at the upper control arms for squeaking. The bushings sometimes squeak and I find it is a good idea to lube them. The other components prone to failure and associated with braking would be strut bar bushings and upper ball joint( part of upper control arm assembly).

Pretty sure Megan and Battle make rear camber arms for te 1st gen. I would email a vendor on club lexus or here and ask. Megan has bad info on the site sometimes like coils listing only for the ucf20 when they also fit and were prototyped on the ucf10.

Pull the air suspension fuse and re insert it a few seconds later. This should reset the air suspension computer and force the car to re level itself alson as everything is intact.

Odds are its the upper ball joint. Usually fail shortly after the lowers and they loosen up real quick. Jack the. We up and see if you can move the top of the wheel at all. Strut rod bushings are likely bad also but the shimmy under brake and clunking sounding loose is usually a ball joint.

I would love to know how landar knows your mechanic didn't turn the rotors and that he is wrong.

How short of a drive are we talking?? The wheels get hot while driving on every car. It's perfectly normal there is a lot of friction going on. Besides the front dealing with turning and rolling friction the front brakes take the bulk of the work.

Heave you ever leaned on the wheel after a similar drive in the past??

Just an FYI but the upper ball joints tend to fail so it may be a good idea to change the whole arm.

I have stock air and there wasn't enough room for the bolts to be removed with the shock in place so it needed to come out. It takes about 5 min of easy work to remove not a big deal at all.

I've heard of it done but never seen it. They all have seperated valves and if they are unplugged the computer will know that. I would search google and clublexus.

FYI I think partsgeek has the rear air shocks for like 650$ or so each lol.

Partsgeek & autohausaz or the dealer lol.

I'm not sure what condition yours are in but I looked at my sway bar bushings the other day and the front bushings are totally shot.

Found out that diazen makes polyurethane bushings for our cars and they are cheaper than OEM. I'll be getting a set shortly maybe it would be worth a look for you also

If you look on lexls.com he has detailed instructions with nice pictures.

The OPSU generally fails in that it starts to operate erraticly. Never had one fail on the LS but on other cars with pressure needles on the dash. The. Redoes would start to flop all over the place while the car was running. Sometimes they would read real low and than normal or high. Never seen one just fail outright like reading no pressure all the time.

I usually hammer on a socket that fits over the nut snugg and loosen them that way. I agree no one really steals rims all that much anymore, especially not stockies.

You could get coilovers and dial in the stiffness and preload to your liking. Or you could get springs with a higher spring rate and stiffer shocks like koni's if they make em for your application. Bigger sway bars front and back would help but I don't think anyone makes one for the LS. Other than that you can try weight reduction but I'm not sure what if anything could be removed.

Does the car have any CEL codes stored??

Could be a myriad of problems from vacuum leak to MAF to TPS to the *BLEEP* trunk harness.

Apparently there are even less tires available in the 225 60 r15 so that option isn't looking great.

I doubt any of my choises are really all that bad. I may have to just see which of them is available locally easier so I can take a look in person. Probably won't get em for a few weeks because I'm busy as hell right now but I will post my results.

Unill then, any experiences you may have had would be great to read!

Sorry, I made a "finger check". Our 98 Carmy has 15" wheels and I have 205/65-15" Michelin Primary MXV4 tires on it. In fact, our Camry's wheels are interchangeable with the 90-92 LS400 wheels - I once switched them to see if they would fit.

The diameter of 225/60-15 tires are almost identical to the diameter of your current 205/65-15 tires. Your OEM wheels are 6.5 inches wide. The minimum wheel width for 225/60-15 tires is 6" so you are well above the minimum with your OEM wheels. The sidewall height of 225/60-15 tires is virtually identical to 205/65-15 tires - that's why the common term for this type of size substitution is called "plus zero". "Zero" changes except better braking and handling but with a slightly harsher ride.

Since 225/60-15 tires will spin on average about four fewer revolutions per mile and all speedometers by federal regulation read slower than you are really going, 225/60-15 tires will actually give you a more accurante speedometer reading than 205/65-15.

I actually thought my 90 LS400 was borderline unsafe with its skinny tires and poor braking because of them ... might have been one reason 225/60-16 tires were used on the 93-up LS400.

Here is a comparison for the 1010 Tire website calculator.

Thanks for the education!

I will have to see if there is more available in that size.

the Bridgestone Potenza RE750 summer tires I used to have on my 2000 LS400 were the best handling tires I ever used on an LS but they were worn out by a little over 20,000 miles of total use. I use true winter tires on separate wheels in winter so using summer only tires wasn't a big deal. I would not recommend driving an LS400 in snow without snow tires. I drove a 1990 LS400 from new to 13 1/2 years and can tell you that it is not very good in snow even with snow tires and nothing like the 98-up LS400 with VSC, and more advanced ABS and traction control.

Part of your traction problem is the small contact patch of 205/65-15 tires which is also why it's braking distrance from speed is so horribly long.

Instead of the standard size tire, consider a "plus zero" setup - use your current wheels with 225/60-15 tires. I did this on my 90 LS 20 years ago and the car felt substantially more stable on the road. Braking was incredibly better with 225/60-15 tires although the ride was noticeably harsher - my wife complained and I went back to the standard size tires. Handling on the 90 LS was also substantially better with 225/60-15 tires but "breakaway" was more sudden - much less tire squeal before the tires lost contact with the pavement during very hard driving. You have to be more careful when driving an early LS hard - no VSC to save your !Removed! like the 98-up LS.

Review the customer ratings on http://www.tirerack.com before deciding on a tire to keep from buying a set of "stinkers". And plan on buying snow tires and maybe extra wheels for them if you plan on driving your 90 in winter. Or use your OEM 15" wheels for snows and maybe get some used 16"-7" OEM wheels from a later model year LS for the rest of the year. There's almost always used Lexus LS wheels on Craigslist where I live.

Thanks for the info but I don't want to run a lower profile tire or change the overall diameter of the wheel. Unless I'm misunderstanding you and the diameter woulld be the same. If i could run fatter tires with the same sidewall size I'd be interested but I'm sure it would be better to just run slightly wider rims instead. I would really like a tire with AA heat rating but they seem to be unavailable in my size.

Not worried about tread life at all. I'll happily trade traction for tread life. I plan on running dedicated snow tires if I even drive it in the snow at all. Those will probably go on some supper cheap steely's or another set of OEM rims if I come across some cheap. I want GRIP not the most popular tire (even if Chevy has a deal with Michelin and I have no taste for vette's. The huge contact patch the vettes have is what gives so much grip any tire in that size is going to be a grip monster)

Not looking for a *BLEEP*ing match but I'm not looking for standard tires at all. I have no problem having the rear break loose with the trac off and controlling it. I want somethig that will hold like glue in the heavy twisty hills I carve up. And something that doesn't fall on its face in the wet. The proxes I had on my AE92 were the same wet or dry. That car didn't weigh much and was fwd so it's a different ball game.

Michelin Pilot Sport AS - great tire in the dry or wet, excellent wearing. I'm getting another set soon for my GS. The only tire on your list I would consider is the Bridgestone, but for me it's still Michelin.

They do look like nice tires but they don't make them in my size or for any 15" rim if I'm not mistaken. I also never met a Michelin that handles like a performance tire. Maybe those are different.

If you have a suggestion that fits my rim (205 65 r15). I'm all ears.

What would be on your list??

Have you tried any of the tires on my list? I'd like to know what you didn't like about them.

Thanks!

FYI i currently have Starfire zs-t on the car, don't get them!

Had the falken's on my maxima and they weren't all that great so your not missing out on anything.(they weren't azenis but the ones below)

You can save like 300$ if you buy the doorman which is identical to the Toyota arm and has the same ball joint. I've only done the uppers but even with air shocks it only took about an hour each side. Mostly 14-19mm bolts and nuts if I remember correctly. Very easy DIY job IMO.

Hello all!

I bought my 90 LS with new tires already on it. "GREAT!" I thought until it rained and I gave it mild throttle at the end of an exit ramp. These tires suck big time in the wet and are not all that great in the dry. I figured I would just suffer through them for as long as the lasted but today I drove over a self tapping screw and it punctured my rear tire. I plugged it for the time being but it seems like a good enough excuse to buy some nice super stick tires!

I ran toyo proxes4 on all my smaller fwd cars and I loved em, super grippy and great in the wet. However the dont seem to make them in my size and Im not so sure how well they would handle the extra weight.

curently Im looking into(in no specific order):

- General Altimax HP

- Pirelli P4

- Kumho Ecsta LX (KU27) or ASX

- Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position

- Goodyear Eagle GT

- Toyo Versado LX II

- Yokohama Avid ENvigor

Anyone running these tires or have an other suggestion???

Im looking for a Maximum performance tire I could care less about wear and noise.

Something with lots of grip that can perform in the wet just as well.

Thanks I have read the threads from searching but seems like most are over a year old and figured more tires have been used since . Most were also looking for a quiet tire which is not something Im interested in (couldn't hurt but I really dont care).

THANKS!!!