Econ

I had a gigantic reply written up (longer than this one, sadly) that no one would have read. Suffice to say that while SW03ES is basically right - that degree is your ticket in. Your car should be a distant third on your list of priorities. However, everyone has to have fun, so I'm including a list of things that have kept me busy for the past couple of years while I wait to really do something incredible: 1) Almost everything is doable for next to nothing. Ebay is your friend (AND your enemy) and communities like LOC are your best resource. Look around to see what kind of mods/improvements are free/low cost. They can be as cheap as changing tranny fluid or as complex as wiring in new interior lighting. 2) If it's not in perfect stock running condition, you're never going to be able to tell whether your change was good or bad. So start there. Find the plugs you like (and trust me, they're not double platinum +4s) and the oil you like. Learn about your options. Maintaining your car should be 50-60% of the work you do. Everyone is going to tell you that you're overdoing it. Screw it. Changing the oil every 2 months instead of 3 isn't hurting anyone else if you're doing the work. 3) In reference to #1 - start compiling a list of things you want to do. When you add a drift kit, are you going to need to stiffen the springs so you don't drag on the ground? Can you get in your driveway if you change the car like that? How much torque can the transmission take? Is that turbo setup going to overpower your traction and cause more problems than it solves? I take a hell of a lot of pride going to car meets and having the best running car there. Everyone else has their wings and their boost and their custom exhaust. They also have mysterious rattles, rough idles and oil consumption problems they can't diagnose (and therefore, don't care about). 4) Take this list of things you want to do and work on it a bit at a time. I'm a big believer in DIY work. Others may disagree, but if you have to take it to a shop every time you want to change something, you're screwed. It is amazing the amount of money you can save, and every bolt you turn is a bit of experience that helps you do things better and faster the next time. I spend about 1/2 as much time under the hood of my sport compact as I do driving it and I love every second (ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get the point). Finally - I still ask my dad for advice all the time. Might be that you don't agree with the reasons your dad is giving you, but his experience is telling him that this probably isn't a great idea. It's the experience part that counts, not the reasons. If you trust him, then trust him. Modding is an addiction, I know, and once you see the potential, it's hard to let go. So just bide your time instead. In the end, you'll be more thoughtful about what you do end up doing, and your car will be the better for it.

$800.00 at the dealer incl. labor doesn't sound that bad. I paid $314 for a rebuilt rack from a place near me for my 1991 LS400 and then spent the following 8 hours cursing everything from Japan as a whole down to the specific plyability of the grommets they use to brace the rack. If I wasn't such a DIY junkie, I might have even thought about paying $800 to get the rack replace. Cripes - an alignment shop near me wanted over $1k for 2 ball joints and a control arm replacement. I say go for it. Anyone else think this is a decent price?

C'mon - real men? No offense, and I don't want to stoke any fires around here being a newbie and all, but "Real Men"? My $0.02 re: sponsorship - it's a lifestyle thing. It's like a job that you have on the side, but it takes up a lot more time than that. I'm sure you can find sponsors that are flexible about appearances and travelling, but they're probably offering stuff you wouldn't want to put on your car even if it were free. Shows are an all-consuming thing for some people, and those are the folks that enjoy sponsorships. Given that you're already committed to school -and- working, stick with it and forget the sponsorships. An edcuation is going to provide you the opportunity to afford this stuff on your own later on. You don't get to dabble as much as you would like in new products now, but you won't have to give up on anything later. My advice is to tinker with what you have. Find ways to make it look better or run better without dishing out money or hunting for a sponsorship. The experience from working with "what you got" pays huge dividends when you're working with "what you want".

If you have your car up on the jackstands, grab the top of the wheel (with tire attached) and pull it back and forth. There should be zero play. If you feel it shift (i.e., hear/feel a clunk when you pull it back/forth) your upper control arm (or A-arm) needs replacing. Then put a floor jack under the wheel and raise it up so that the suspension is in a neutral position (basically 1-2" up from full drop) and grab the bottom of the wheel and pull it back and forth. Same test, except for your lower ball joints. Again, clunking is a bad sign. Since you're probably pulling out the upper control arm as part of the strut replacement, take a look at the upper ball joint. See if it looks worn. Take the ball joint nut and put it back on the bolt, then use a torque wrench to spin the joint around (once the nut is snug). After 3 rotations (at a pace of 2-3 seconds per rotation), check the torque on the 4th and 5th rotations. If it's below 5-7 ft lbs. (on a 1991 LS 400, anyway) you might want to consider replacing the upper control arm. You can do this test on the lower ball joint too, but you have to take off the steering knuckle and suspend/secure it somehow (unless you want to unhook the speed sensor connection and take off the brake caliper) to get the ball joint disconnected. If you have the extra cash (lower ball joints cost me $80 per and the upper control arm was $300 - yikes) you can just replace them, no questions asked. You'll definitely notice an improvement in ride quality and steering fi they haven't been replaced before.

+1 on that. In regards to expense, it depends on which control arm is having the problem, but usually lower control arms squeak and upper control arms clunk (not always). Of course, cheap is relative as well - with lower control arms coming in at ~$200 and uppers ~$300 depending on your source. I haven't found anyplace that sells replacement bushings yet. Replacing only the bushings would require a machine shop to press out the old and press in the new.

This sounds like it might be the strut bushing (or radial arm bushing, I'm not sure) problem. Once the bushing is worn to a point, bumps in the road cause a clunking noise that comes from the passenger (and/or driver) wheel well. Is it a higher-frequency rattling noise, or is it more along the lines of a periodic "clunk"?

Steering wheel removal with an airbag -is- more complicated, but far from something that you can't do. The airbag circuit on the 1991 LS 400 has an in-line backup power source that maintains power to the airbag for a little under 30 seconds (in case of accidents where the circuit to the battery is cut but the airbag isn't yet triggered). So, unplug the negative cable and wait 90 seconds to ensure disabling. In addition, you have to remove the wheel pad before removal (4 screws and a wiring harness to disconnect) In all, you need a T30 torx wrench (common tool) and a steering wheel puller (easy to borrow from a Checker or Autozone). Installation is basically the reverse of installation, except for one alignment you have to do. New steering wheels are over a grand at the dealer, so new probably isn't a good idea. But a junkyard would probably have a decent replacement. If you'd like detailed instructions on the removal/installation, feel free to email me at 2456Depew@comcast.net Brandon

To relate my fuel pump experience: Most modern cars have that filter sock attached the fuel pump. The particulates that are stopped by that sock would damage the filter, but the sock won't strain out the same impurities that the filter will. In fact, the sock has to be fairly porous or it would cause resistance in the suction action, which will burn your fuel pump out faster than anything (pumps push way better than they vaccum). You'll find that cars built within the last couple of years probably have 2 ports with sock filters attached. This is the reason that my other car's fuel pump can't operate near max flow with less than 1/4 tank (per the guague, really < 1/8th by volume) - one port is oriented downward, and the other upward. The upper port never clogs, and the lower port simply sucks the deritus on the bottom of the tank into the sock. Once the tank gets low, the upper port is above the gas line. The correct orientation, of course, is horizontal vs. vertical (thanks, Ford). And here's a pirate.

I went through my maintennace handbook for a 96 Lexus and did not find any instance upto 150K service for replacing the fuel filter in the factory service recommendations. The pics do indicate the fuel filter is dirty. What I would like to know is whether you had a problem that replacing the fuel filter fixed? Like rough idling or lack of power during acceleration. From what I have read elsewhere, the Toyota EFI fuel system is designed so that the filter can last almost a million miles before clogging to the point that it needs to be replaced. I rather not muck with high pressure fuel lines if I don't have to. ← One thing that you'd have to understand about the fuel filter is that it's the first line of defense against the crud in the bottom of your fuel tank (and/or the crud in the bottom of a station's tank) for the fuel delivery system. So there's not really a way to design a fuel system that would prevent the fuel filter from getting dirty/clogged. It depends on the gasoline that you buy. That said, fuel filters (particularly of the size in my 1991 LS 400) can last a very long time before you notice a problem. My 2000 Cougar, however, needs a new filter every 30k or so because a) the filter element is much smaller, and B) the system is more restrictive, so small fluctuations in flow rates wreak havoc with fuel delivery. The proper procedure for replacing the fuel filter will remove latent pressure in the line, so you needn't worry about that. The hard part about it is that the fuel tank is located above the fuel filter, so gravity does it's job and lets fuel flow. I've had some luck with rubber corks that I purchased at my local hardware store, but nothing I did really -stopped- the flow outright, and you still have to uncork at some time to re-connect the line.

Holy mother - Alldata lists the ISC (Idle Speed Control) for 1991 LS 400 at $694 for parts and an hour of labor. Bad news is that the idle speed is controlled by the computer. Kind of a guess as to which is the culprit, but I would assume the ISC is sticking, which would account for the ups and downs. Just my uneducated guess. Good news is that the car shouldn't be affected while driving as the ISC just provides a bypass of your throttle body which would be closed when your foot isn't on the gas. I might not use the A/C, but you can try it and see what happens around home first. My sympathies, and good luck.

There's a filter in the bottom of the reservoir attached to the power steering pump. I'm not sure that you can get the reservoir off w/out taking off the pump, but you may be able to get to the filter while the reservoir is still attaached. It's iffy though. My understanding is that you should carefully bend back the tabs on the cover of the reservoir (not the cap, but the part the cap screws onto). The filter is in the bottom of the reservoir, designed to catch debris before it enters the pump itself.

Ugh - because you can't get the pump out on a '91 LS unless you pull the pulley off. The pump needs to be rotated 90 degrees aft before you can pull it forward and out. The valve covers are on the drivers side of the pump, and hoses (ABS lines as well?) block it in the passenger side. With the pulley on, it won't rotate far enough back.

Yes, sorry - I was talking about the rear sub. I visually inspected the door speakers and then consulted the wiring diagram for the stereo system to get an idea as to whether or not the sub was similar to the door speakers. Assumed incorrectly, it looks like.

Lexus400 - Really? You can just swap in with new connectors? Fantastic - I didn't think that it would work, given the that amp and speaker are paired (and are the in the same unit in the doors). My fiancee has complained about the stereo's low-end punch, I'll have to go pick up an open box special somewhere. Thanks!

+1 - I use Lexol on my leather surfaces often and haven't noticed any hardening or other problems, I really like the product (cleaner and conditioner). Is it possible that the application of the Lexol ended up shifting the dash which would then cause the popping? It's a reach, I know, but rubbing the Lexol on might cause some aggravation to pre-existing problems. But you'd have to be rubbing decently hard.

It would seem like you could pick up a used sub fairly inexpensively. Based on my experience trying to get a new system for my car, it might be hard to find an aftermarket replacement. I was told (and verified myself) that each of the speakers are individually amplified. To replace one buzzing speaker on the passenger door, I would need to replace/rewire the whole system and fabricate moulding for the new system. Of course, I have a 1991 LS 400, so it might be a different issue if you have a newer model. I don't know how they are set up.

Just swapped out my rack and p/s pump about 3 months ago, but I used a reman p/s pump and rack (didn't have access to the excellent part advice here, <sigh>). The rack was primed with a fluid, but the pump was not, and the p/s pump -did- squeal loud enough that I told my fiance to turn off the engine. In my case, you needed 2 people to bleed the line b/c the EVO component on the rack won't allow fluid to flow to the rack when the engine is off and the fluid will get sucked out of the reservior in a second or two when you're turning the wheels. When the fluid got low, the noise was horrendous. However, once I had bled the system and filled the reservior, the noise abated. I figured that the fins they rebuilt the pump with had excess material and were causing the noise. Once they were worn down to the size of the chamber, no problem. Of course, that last part is conjecture, so please don't assume that the noise will go away. Try priming the system with the car on the ground and with someone else behind the wheel. That way you can watch the level of fluid and avoid scaring the snot out of yourself. Econ

I noticed this sticky is geared towards tires - can we add retailers for parts as well, or would that need to be in another topic? Econ

Gracias to all - sorry about the general request Slivermate, I'm not a big fan of it myself but was running ragged with clever new ways to search for "control arm bushing". You are correct - Daizen was the maker I was looking for. I appreciate the ample and quick reply from everyone. It's nice community you have here, looking forward to talking with you all more. Econ

While searching through old posts, I came across a link to a company that manufactures polyurethane upper control arm bushings for my 1991 LS 400, but I can't seem to locate that post again. I saw that a local dealership (Kuni Lexus) here in town was a distributor, but strangely the parts guy there told me that he doesn't sell any aftermarket parts from his desk. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I might go to look for this type of bushing? Also, (and apologies for the basic nature of this request, I'm fairly new to the Lexus world) does anyone have a short list of online parts distributors (OEM and/or aftermarket, whatver) they wouldn't mind posting up? I'm having a lot of problems finding reputable-looking sources for parts, and I'd like to see what kind of aftermarket performance products are available. Thanks for your help on this, sorry to ask for so much as a newbie. Econ

I'm assuming that the car was still at the dealership when the theft/vandalism occurred. Correct?

Below are the specs from Alldata for the 1991 LS 400: Front/Rear Lug Nuts - 76 ft lbs Tie Rod End Locknut - 41 ft lbs Tie Rod End to Steering Knuckle - 43 ft lbs Lower Ball Joint to Lower Arm - 112 ft lbs Steering Knuckle to Lower Ball Joint - 83 ft lbs I didn't see torque specs for the Speed Sensor (ABS), just a bolt, but 69 in lbs sounds right for something like that. Hope this helps.