PK_Lex

that picture looks scary :o

how do you check the valve clearances?

I don't like it :( Its taking away the look of a luxury sedan and making it look more like a sports car...like the way Acura did to RL this year.

I think to put it in short, TC has bit of an edge in terms of comfortable quiet ride, roominess, and nice interior, but lags behind in terms of quality compared to lexus.

If you don't want to compromise on ride quality then go with 17". The ride quality suffers especially if you go above 18. I would recommend you go with 17" ls430 wheels. I have michelen mxv4 tires on mine and the ride quality is very smooth and quiet. If you want a little sporty feel then michelin pilot series tires would be a good choice.

I've finally ordered spark plug wires from vitek which I should be getting in a week or so. I'm gonna get nkg IX iridium plugs to go with that. I'm thinking that the wires may be the culprit for all this off and on jerks. One thing interesting I noticed was that when it rains, it shuders and jerks a lot more not only when its idle, but also when I'm driving or accelerating. This dies down after the car has been driven for like 10-15 minutes or until it has warmed up. But even after that the off and on jerks continue when it is idle or maybe it is also happening while i'm driving and its just that they are not too noticable at that point. Very strange. I'm also gonna get the TB cleaned. With 230k miles, i'm thinking it must be pretty messed up right now. Thanks for your help and please keep the suggestions, tips etc coming. I'm a regular visitor here and learing a lot, but I don't post much cause i'm no expert and can't help much. But with all this learning over here i'm able to keep up with high end discussion with the mechanic and understand what he's saying. B)

I changed the belt and it took me about an hour. It felt so good after doing it especially since this was one of the first things I've done on a car. I'm looking forward to doing more things on my own now. Thanks for all your help and special thanks to Lexls's tutorial and the diagram that Econ provided which I used when doing this.

This is awesome. Thanks for all the tips. I will print this diagram for guidance.

Cool. Ok, so the tension pully is spring loadded. I guess after replacing, the pulley falls back into its place and tightens the belt back up.

One more thing....after replacing the belt with new one, how do I know if I have tightened it enough?

My car's drive belt is in bad shape and needs to be replaced. I've purchased the belt and I'm going to try replacing it myselft following the tutorial that lexls has put up. It seems pritty straightforward looking at those directions. But I'm wondering is it really as simple as it looks? On a scale of 1-10 how difficult you think is it? Are there any tips, warnings or any thing I should be cautious about when doing it? I have recently become a DIY guy and would like learn and do it myself instead of going to an independent mechanic. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Actually I already got the money from her insurance. But I was thinking of cashing it in rather than spending it all for such a small job ;)

As I was driving someone made an abrupt left turn and hit my car's driver side front door. Fortunately I was able to steer to the right enough to not have a major impact. There is just an indentation on the door's lower side molding which I would like to fix. The body shop wants to replace the whole molding which costs like a $1000, but I don't think that such a small job is worth that much. Is there any thing I can do myself to fix it. There is something like pop-a-dent in the market, but I don't know how well it will work on the molding since it's plastic. The dent is about 4" in diameter. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.

I thought that's the way it's supposed to be. The fan and heat kicks in only after the engine has warmed up.

I've taken it to couple of well known places in maryland, but I've never been satisfied with their service. It's more like they clean the car inside out instead of paying attention to details....which is what I want. OK I'll shoot you a pm to let me know who you would recommend. But have you seen his work to say that he does a good job? Thanks.

SW03ES - are there any good detailing shops in md/dc area that you would reccommend?

Thanks for the info. I know abc's of the engine, but didn't know exactly what the distributer cap and rotors look like so I can find them....thanks for clarifying it. So basically one end of wires connect to plugs and the other end goes to the cap....i can trace this. I think i know the vaccum tubes....there are quite a few of these going around and all of these seem to be of the same size....sort of small....maybe half inch thick. I think I've seen like 4 of these connecting to somthing in the engine and all of them in parallel to each other. I heard someone said in anothr thread to spray some wd40 on these to check for leaks. Maybe I'll try that too.

Keep checking this thread....I'll keep you all posted :)

According to lexls site, that's what he recommended so I'm going with Vitek and NKG. What are rotors and caps? Where do they go? Where are the vaccum tubes located to check for leak? How do I check if there is a leak? Thanks.

Thanks for the tip. Will I have to take it to the dealer to get the injectors cleaned or is it something I can do myself? Where are they located in the engine? I often use Chevron's FIC. Maybe before physically haiving them check or me taking them out... I'll put the BGE 44k in there and see if it makes a difference. I'm planning to change the PCV valve myself. The lexls site seems so good with all those tutorials in there that I'm getting passionate on doing things myself. I haven't done anything on cars before but have real interest in learning and doing. Thanks.

The plugs were changed @ ~125k miles. I'm planning to change plugs and wires soon. What do you think about going with Vitek wires & NKG iridium plugs? What are rotors? Do you think this is a probable cause of car shaking @ idle?

I have a 94 LS w/ ~230k miles. Recently I've noticed that it sometimes shudders (i.e. the engine shakes for a second or two) when I stop at a traffic light or when I start it and its sitting idle. Even after driving it for a while when I have to make a stop, it sometimes shudders. If you have any suggestions on what could be causing it and what to do, please let me know. Thanks.

Lovik - it looks really nice. Thanks for posting the pic

I put $1 at the back of title. Then I made a bill of sale and put $1 on it as well. You have to put your and her name, car model, year, odometer reading, VIN number on it as well. Then at the bottom you both need to sign it. Since I personally knew a guy who could notarize, my sister and I signed the bill of sale in advance and then took it to the guy to notorize it. You may have to go to a notory place like a bank or police station etc. and sign the bill of sale in front on them. My advice to my sister was to be confident when dealing with the MVA clerk. There is nothing wrong that we are doing so no need to be doubtful as to what they will say. Some clerks can give you hard time, but you can ask to speak to the supervisor and he'll probably let you take care of it. She went to the Laurel MVA. We've usually had good experiences there.