blake918

When I order extra keys from my dealer, all they need is the VIN, registration, and my driver's license. I have never used or know that little serial number for the keys. The VIN should be sufficient...at least I thought!

I wish...my mom has first dibs on the garage because she drives a convertible :( , and the other side is packed with junk. And to top it all off, her car's engine is blown so I can't even move it out if I want to pull my Lex in for service(our slanted driveway doesn't help much either!), detailing, etc. I want to throw all of that crap away in the second bay, so I can move my car inside out of the elements. :D I don't know how to type...our garage is bright yellow with red accents. Just not my taste, my room is beige(used to match my car!) :D . Thank goodness none of the rooms in our house are yellow!!!

Not a problem at Denny just follow the Agent's instructions if you want to do it again. Yall wouldn't want to see my garage because my parents have a few nuts and bolts lose upstairs , so they decided to paint the garage canary yellow and bright yellow. :o Yikes...I walk into the garage to wake up in the morning...lol!

JPI told me that the 95-97 is also a non-interference setup, but he said it's not a good thing at all to just let it pop ;) ...he said possible serious damage could occur.

Very nice Denny ;) ! This should make things easier.....

I was in your same situation a little while ago-searching for the right LS. I drove approx. 6 first gen cars and 1 second gen car(which I bought!). While the first gen cars are extremely nice, I like the second gen better for a few reasons. First and formost the seats...the seats are extremely springy in the first gens imo. The 96's seats only have a negligable amount of springyness(this was a suprise to me because the ES had no springyness at all!) to them. All of the gadgets inside are pretty much the same with the exception of the cd changer location-which was moved to a second glovebox in '95. The ride in the 95-96 is more controlled to me-I drove several first gens before picking a second gen car. And lastly, the exterior styling is just about the exact same. For the 95, the lines are much sharper which I like more and the tail lights are much more compact. Essentially, they took the 90-94 and made a great car even better for 95-00! The engines are the same. I'm sure they made minor revisions, but they both have the 1UZFE. I see you also have a '94 ES...the LS is in a completely different leauge. Most notable is the interior and exterior space and ride quality. The ride is awesome; it feels like a tank humming down the road with complete smoothness. Either gen you get, you'll be very happy with your purchase!

Expect to pay around $1k-$1500 for a good job to be done. Something like this happened to my mom's car a few months ago(F150 with trailer hitch backed into the front right fender. Needless to say the F150 was completely unharmed!). I'm sorry about the damage; I hope you find a good repair man.

No need to be modest Steve!...not a real suprise!! We all know this B) :D !

You think that's a good deal?? The leather really looks nice except for that one wrinkly section which I'm sure will come out. My car was a 1 owner car. My car came from an extremely wealthy house hold, so I'm sure they didn't know what Lexol is! I'm pretty sure it wasn't garage kept either because the paint is so-so, but that's not real high on my priority list at the moment(I'll save$, and let a body shop compound it or what ever it is that they do with 10 year old baked bugs)!

Welcome Sal! Do you have a Lexus? Or are you just here to learn and chat about them? Either way it's great to have you here! What kind of Caddy do you have? I'm not a real fan of Caddy as most here, but I do really love the current DeVille DTS...it's a great looking car, but the latest Caddy styling is a little much for my conservative taste: CTS, Escalade, and all of those _ _ _ named Caddy's...a little to edgy! You might want to introduce yourself in the LS section (or other model) because this section of the club isn't view much.

Wow Sal!!! I totally agree with your post 100%. Sure it's fun to take a sharp turn at 50-60, but who does this other than Motor Trend editors?? The smooth ride, excellent powertrain, and Lexus quality is a no brainer! The Bimmer will be fun to test drive, but after about a month and $5k in repairs, you'll be sorry you bought it ;).

90LS, my '95 does have 225k miles on the clock-and it can still run circles around my friends domestics despite a trashed seat. I brought her up to 115mph this weekend(on accident-truely! I floored it on the interstate and before I knew it I was at 115-120mph. After I realized it, I slowed to leagal speeds!), and the car was simply perfect! The seat...I guess it's just 10 years of La's brutal heat and the lack of Lexol. Steve, he's asking $350 for the driver's seat...that includes free shipping which has to be worth at least $70-$100! I don't want to put all new covers on for a number of reasons-mainly all of the other seats are perfect, so spending another $1k over what I really need is a little overkill. I'm just going to have an upholsterer do the console; he said it'll only be like $75 plus I'll know that it's new and blemish free! Thanks for all of the help everyone :D

Here ya go UCF3: http://www.ltbmotorsport.com/densoik165303.html ....the $11.25 Denso Iridium spark plug website. $20 per plug...ouch!!!! I hope we need the IK20's because that's what I bought!

You and me both!!! ;) UCF3, bookmark http://www.newlexusparts.com . OEM Lexus parts at rediculous prices. For the plugs, I just typed in Denso sprak plugs at yahoo, and I think they were the first store. Some of the more expensive places had them for $12-$13.50, but I found them for $11.25. New seat covers would be a lot more than I wanted to spend. I will probably get that seat for $300-$350; then, I'll sell the trashed seat for the motors or frame on ebay for $25 or $30 maybe??? Then, that'll put me down below $300 for expenses. I've looked at new seat covers before...it takes a good $1500 for the entire car...I can't ever find just 1 because the rear and passenger seats are pristene. Even if I could find a good deal on some covers, I really want the leather qualities to match. My upholsterer estimated a min. $500 to recover the driver's seat-he figured he could salvage 2 panels of leather. The previous owner did have kids. I think the previous owner and kids are the reasons for all of the terrible carpet stains. I used a Home Depot carpet cleaner this weekend. It helped a lot, but I still have some more work to do! I'm thinking hard about this seat, and I'll just spend another $75 to get the console recovered instead of having it all done at the upholstry guy's shop. I really believe the indentations will come out or minimize greatly. I'm a big guy(6'3" and 260lbs), so just by me driving will probably help iron out the indents. This salvage yard was really willing to deal with me. I asked the guy what shipping would be, and he said 60-70, but he'd take the expense. He's asking $350, but I'll call him back tomorrow, and offer him $300(I'd settle for $325!) if he takes shipping!

Console and better seat pics

All of the other seats get an A++ for their condition after almost 10 years and 225k...all of the other seats are fine. They have no wear marks, rips, or tears. They were dirty, but that dirt wasn't anything that my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser couldn't handle! They lightened up a few shades after I cleaned them. Once it gets closer to the typical 90s-100s down here, I'm going to buy some leatherique which will make the seats perfect. Ya see that jacket in the passenger seat? That's my seat hider for when the car is parked...the drivers seat makes the car look really, really bad as yall can see ! Wait, let me get a pic of the console too! That's even scaryer(sp?). That pic doesn't show the seat for all it is...let me get a better 1!

I ordered everything today from Park Place Lexus-wires, rotors, caps, wiper blades, antenna mast, gear shift indicator, oil filter, air filter, cabin filter($40..wow!!!), fuel filter, and the front parking light assembly...got all of this for $400...not too bad! I ordered the plugs from a different website...I want to say LBJ(???) Motorsports. I got all 8 Denso Plugs for $94 shipped to my door. Here's my old seat

The driver's seat in my car looks miserable, so I'm thinking I'm going to go with a seat out of a totaled car. Here's one that I found. The guy said that they had some trim pieces sitting on the seat that caused the leather to have those indentions. He said that they should go away in a few days. Is this true?? Other than that, this seat looks pretty good to me!

Yep, what sk said. Also, I hear that the lower ball joints are prone to go. I think the test is if the car drives well b/n 60mph-80mph; they're good. Newlexusparts.com has the hood struts for approx. $85 a piece.

Craig, can you take a picture of your gas pedal for us? It sounds interesting-I've never seen a LS like that bafore!

We're always glad to help a fellow Lexus owner ;). There's nothing like a burnt light to annoy the hell out of you. My LS has a burnt "ECT PWR" light on the dash. I never use that mode, but it just *BLEEP*es me off to know that there is a burnt bulb in the speedo.

We just had Pepboys resurface the rotors on our Suburban for $8 for the front 2 discs and $11 for the 2 rear drums. I'm very impressed with their work thus far! The brakes on the Suburban are huge(but it still takes forever to stop!), so the ES might be cheaper to have done.

Today, we pulled the engine apart...well a little-just to get to the spark plugs. We found some interseting things. First, all but 2 of the plugs were soaked. How you ask??? Some dumb a_s(me!) decided to hose out the engine compartment. We got the air compressor and blew all of the wires and plugs dry. Needless to say, the car is back to it's old self-which just so happens to run like a top with 225k on the clock...take care of your cars boys because they last a lifetime! We checked the resistance on the wires, and most were through the roof! One of them was in the 200's while the manual says it should be no more than 25!...WOW!!! We couldn't find any wires locally, so we'll order them from Plano Lexus (of Plano?). I've been watching ebay for the plugs too. VMF, you said the paint was gone on your wires and the rotors and caps were down to nothing??? Mine were still pale(!) black even with the manufactured year(?) 1995 stamped on there!! The wires said "Sumimoto(sp??) 1995." That mean they were from 1995? We took the distributer off a little to sand the contacts; they were pretty dirty, but not too bad. They still looked decent for their suspected age. The car needs plugs really, really bad! We checked the gaps just for fun, and they registered more than 2x the required .8mm gap(almost at 2mm)!!!! Plugs are a must really, really soon! But, probably best of all, we got a great look at the timing belt! That baby is in excellent shape. It's nice and tight with no cracks whatsoever! We'll put that project off until the summer(longer maybe!) when we have more time to take the car apart.

I ready it all the first day it came in . When's the test?? ;)

Also, make sure your headlights are on when you check it because the glove box light only comes on with the head lights. I replaced the bulb just like you only to find out that the bulb was fine. Give it a try and good luck ;)