blake918

I'm not sure which mods you contacted, but I never got any emails. The best way to contact us is PM, but unfortunately, you can't do that as a new member. I just saw your post here and on CL, so I PMed the owner/admin of the site to see what we can do. I (or an other mod) will let you know how to get back to your old user name. Blake

I had the same problem with my '99 LS, but it was the unlock button that worked only when it wanted to. I just bought a new remote key, and it cured the problem. I tried removing the dust and lent from the circuit board in the key and new batteries to no avail. I just chalked it up to old age and tossed the bad key in a drawer for a spare. If you decide to buy a new key, I have the transponder and remote programming instructions if you need them (and a discount code for Sewell).

I changed my transmission mount last weekend (the car has 171,000 miles). Wow, what a difference it made. I had a kind of shudder/vibration feeling (at that perfect frequency that really gets in your head and irritates you) at 40-60mph and a lesser vibration that felt like an out of balance tire when I'm at highway speeds. The transmission mount cured both of those problems. The shifts feel smoother too; I don't know if that's in my head or not. I bought this mount for my old '95 a long time ago, and it's nice to finally see it put to use! haha The old mount wasn't too badly cracked. It was, however, flattened like a pancake.

I'm in New Orleans this week, and gas prices are all over the place. Anywhere from $1.45 (Walmart and Racetrack) to $1.69 for regular. Shell is $1.51 (I add about $.25 on to that since I need premium.)...

Yeah, he lives up in Deerfield. After you move and get settled, you should meet up with him. I thought we were just going to meet for lunch and kick tires at his house, but we ended up chatting like a couple old ladies all afternoon. That would be awesome to meet up, wouldn't that be something to finally meet you in person after chatting on the forum for all these years!! The drive from LA is only a little more than 13 hours (my former '95 made the trip twice!). As a Mac lover, the Apple Store on Michigan Ave is one of my favorite places! I took an architectural boat tour of the Chicago river, and it was actually a really good time too.Having only lived in Texas and Louisiana all my life, I have no idea about fighting the snow! LOL

Congrats on your new position Robert! I LOVE Chicago, and I'm sure you will too! The last time I was up there I met up with Gumart1. It took us a while to decide which LS to take to lunch since he has 2 and I had mine there too. haha Sitting outside at Lou's in downtown Naperville is one of my favorite places for Chicago style pizza!

Happy Birthday!

That's typical of the repair manual; you have to use your own discretion when you read their procedures. You should see what they want you to do to change the shocks. From what everyone is saying on CL, you do just unscrew the old one and put the new one in. Someone said it takes about 15minutes to change this; I'd tend to believe that since this doesn't seem complicated. I checked the resistance the ECT sensor in my '95, and all I had to do was move some of the plug wires out of the way.Long life coolant at a good price...sounds like an oxymoron to me!

The light that mounts to the trunk from a '95 model will not fit. It's much shorter in length than the one on your '99. The section of the taillight that is on the quarter panel should fit although the shades of red are different.

Welcome to the club! They are very reliable, but by 150k miles, you might have to spend some money replacing some clunking suspension parts (and they're not cheap). The most common thing that will stop a 98-00 LS is the starter. Lexus buried it under the intake manifold, so changing it is time consuming. I hear it's quite capable with snow tires and VSC. I get at least 28mpg on the hwy with the cruise set at 78-80mph. These cars get surprisingly good fuel mileage. Everyone's "city" is different, but in my city, I get 13mpg. I haven't seen any programmers available for this car, so you'll probably have to find an expert somewhere if you want this done. Lexus claims a 0-60 time of 6.3 seconds with a top speed of 149mph for the 98-00 models (don't know what the 1/4 mile times are). Worn suspension, starter, timing belt ($1500 at the dealer if you don't DIY), bad hood support struts, and some have issues (there's a TSB) with the tilt/tele motors for the steering column that are quite expensive to fix (but, with $11k-$13k, you ought to be able to get a low mile '00 that has the steering TSB already done!).Good Luck and post some pics when you buy one!!

No problem! I bought my repair manuals off of ebay for something like $200 when I bought my '95 several years ago. If you don't want the paperbound version that I have, I hear that you can download these manuals online for $10. It looks like you torque the sensor to 14 ft-lbs...

They are the oil seals behind the cam and crank pulleys (sorry, no pics), and it's fairly common for them (especially the crank seal) to leak.

No problem! I'm doubtful that you fried the sensor when you cleaned your throttle body. I've cleaned my throttle body with the TPS on, and it was fine. It almost sounds like a bit of the 95/96 computer problem, but I don't believe that applies to the '97 MY. I think checking the TPS and IACV would be good places to start. I'm away from my repair manual right now, but I'd be glad to post those pages for you later if you want. This seems like a great write up for the time being:http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...ighlight=sensor

That doesn't seem too bad--for the dealer. The parts are probably $85 each at the dealer + $130 for the alignment leaves you with $250 in labor which is a little more than 2 hours worth at the dealer. Ball joints are extremely easy to change, so I'd never pay the dealer $250 for this job, but for the dealer, that is reasonable.

My Gilmour Foamaster II foam gun just came in today. It was $42 shipped from Amazon link. This thing is awesome; I love it!! It's fun to play with, and it really saves some time. I also hear that it's good for further reducing the risk of swirls and marring. I'm using DP Xtreme Foam Auto Shampoo (on sale 2 for 1 at AutoGeek), and it foams up very nicely! A video and pic...

Congrats, that's a beautiful car! B)

Having changed the belt on my '95, the DIY from Lexls is very similar to what you'll see when you take your '96 apart. I'd also change the cam and crank seals.

Wow, long time no see, thanks! I sold my '95 for $2600 with 315,000 miles, and I'd say overall good condition for the mileage. I think the biggest negative to the car was the paint on the hood and trunk--it didn't look so good up close, but looked just fine from 4' away.

Here's what I have from my '95 repair manual. It looks similar to what Carl has on his website. Also, I don't know if you found the answer to your questions about the IACV, so I'll attach those pages too. What problem do you have that you think the TPS might be causing?

This problem is probably not caused by the IACV.... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...&hl=jerking

I thought the manual transmission was only offered in the SC300?

Here we go, a video is worth a 1k words. I finally figured out how to shrink this video down in imovie. The 1.5 minutes is how long it takes; the only editing I did was shrinking the size in order to post it to youtube....

Happy Birthday Ray!

I've never heard of Xenon gas being dangerous, and even if it is, I changed my bulbs on a table so that if they fell they weren't going to go far. I pull the entire headlamp to change the light bulb; it takes me less than 5 minutes to remove both headlamps. To remove the headlamp, you remove the turn signal housing, then there are 3 bolts and 1 nut that hold each headlamp in. I didn't have much luck trying to change the bulbs by removing the battery and air cleaner. Maybe someone with smaller hands might have better success. I had no problems with my self leveling system after changing the bulbs. I was careful to not bang the leveling mechanism on the bottom of the headlamp on anything, and I was also careful with the wiring. No problems at all.

I have to agree. A timing belt or a ball joint, I'll surely go with Lexus, but not hood supports. I bought a pair of hood struts off of ebay for $50 (Sewell wanted $180 + shipping, and Carson was $150 + shipping.). The seller even had a picture of them installed in a '97 LS in the ad. $200 worth of hood supports for a 10 year old car, not for me. They open and close with next to no effort, and they are the exact same length as the OEM ones that were on the car, so the hood opens fully. There are 2 drains at the front of the sunroof that are probably clogged. I believe there might be pics posted on the forum.