nc211

Here are some pictures... It's not one of the hoses, I checked all of them. The fluid is red, very red, like the tranny fluid. But why would there be tranny fluid coming out from the front part of the engine like this?? Is it possible the tranny fluid could leak from the front of the engine like that??? The coolant fluid is red as well, but about 2 years old. The tranny fluid is new.

well fellas, went to the store today, came back out, and a pond of coolant was dripping out of the car. So I came home, popped the hood because I thought it was the thermostat again. I did see the little bypass hoses had slipped back from it's seat a very slight bit, but it wasn't that wet up there. I did fixed that. Cleaned up the engine from any fluids, then let the car get to normal temp again. I sat, and sat, and sat looking for the leak. No leak....then I turn the car off, have it facing down hill, and look....and....coolant is coming out of the engine, right at the waterpump section of the engine. Question, when they do the 90k service, don't they replace the seal? Isn't it required? I assume it's the water pump, as it's the lowest pulley on the engine. Damn it damn it damn it damn it :chairshot: :chairshot: :chairshot: :chairshot: :chairshot:

yeah yeah yeah...heard that one before, i think this time last year if i recall...

Had 1st problem with the car "bad ECM unit". Found CL first, posted many questions....Bi-Col answered over there, and recommended I check out this site.....haven't turned back since. Do a search under NC211 on that site, and you'll see the time I left and came here. Bi-Col brought me here, and he was right!! SK, you guys rock!! I love this site!

Ark, are you talking to yourself again?? Man, I thought the medication was working! haha, just kidding.. I wish I could help in the measurement request, but I no longer have my uca anymore. Plus, I think they're a little different on the 95-00 to the 90-94 models. However, can I ask you this: Do you plan on keeping this car for a few years? If so, then in all honesty, I would just go with the oem. I do not think there is a way to get around the upper ball joint in the uca w/o having to purchase a new oem arm. I would doubt the uca are in that bad of shape too. My opinion is that I would focus on the lowers. The only three options I have found for those bushing for your model year is the daizens, vlamous and oem. I like the oem route myself because it's easier to replace. Just a couple bolts here and there. With the other way, you're torching out the old ones, and some other steps that I'm not familiar with. Of course I'm also a bit of a lazy sack of potatos though. I would try to pm lexls and see what he knows. He seems to be the suspension guru for your model series. well, he's also the guru for pretty much everything else relating to these cars in general. I'd love to ride in his car, probably rides nicer than a Roles Royce.

I've never driven on tires worse than the Bridgestone RE 92 or Firestone Firehawk GTA-02's personally.....anything other than dry conditions for either tire made for an adventure & the vast majority of owners who also had them on any vehicle agree with that statement. B) I agree about the Bridgestones...had them on my 01 Maxima as OEM. Horrible tire in the rain after about 8k miles on them. Dry roads? Like super-glue to the pavement though. Didn't last very long either, like 25k miles or so. But that is probably the driver's lead foot's fault.. :snoooorrrtttt:

Exactly...why would you want to mess with the "viscosity" properties with anything but what the engineeers designed the transmission to work with in the first place? To me, messing with those properties indicates your messing with wear and tear. Sweet, do as you please my friend, but the two guys here that have your exact same car, one with more miles & the other with A LOT more miles both use the OEM stuff, and both have no problems with their trannys that could be associated with the fluid itself.

I was wondering, since it is such a pain in the butt taking out those struts "compressing those springs is a !Removed! of a chore" to get to those upper bumper pieces of the strut, is it worth doing? I guess what I'm trying to figure out, is will replacing these little rubber parts produce a noticeable improvement like the motor mounts do? Mine are not broken or anything, but I do recall they were mushed pretty good, and hard. If they make a big improvement in the smoothness and quietness from road noise, then I'll do it. But if it's just a marginal improvement, then I might wait a while until it is required. I get a slight jarring noise when I hit a bump in the road, like going through and intersection and the pavement has a bump in it. It doesn't happen on dips, or smooth bumps when the suspension compresses, just when it is a quick shot to the suspension up front. I'm thinking it's those bumpers, or my ball joints "remember, I used that damn fork to seperate them, and mutilated the rubber housing". They've got about 10k miles on them now. I've been told by the mechanic that the mutulated rubber shouldn't affect the balljoint this quickly. Obviously it will speed up the processes of wear and tear, but not in 10k. So, think it's the upper bumpers? Damn, I wish I had replaced those last year when doing the control arms.. :chairshot:

ring...ring....hello? I'm not very familiar with the first generation models, but I think they're pretty close. The rear suspension setup is actually easier to do because you're not having to mess with the steering linkage. However, the struts are a pain to replace because you have to remove the back seat to get to the top brackets. The main bushing that seems to wear the most in the rear is the rear carrier bushing, located on the wheel hub itself. This is not an expensive part. Infact, my dealership here uses an aftermarket repair kit called the ASUS 302, about $35 bucks for both. This is the part of the rear suspension that receives the most torque when going forward. So it's also the first bushing to wear out. There are so many different ways a bushing can cause a problem, that I decided to just replace them all at one time, instead of fixing one, then another, then another. One thing that I can say you should do "that I fogot to do and am not happy with myself about" is that if you are going to go through the pain of this project, MAKE SURE you go ahead and replace the upper strut bumper! They're not expensive, but they are the most buried little piece of rubber in the car. I think these little bumpers make a big difference in ride. I'm actually going to start a thread about this issue. I have found that if you replace one part in the suspension area, it will usually reveal the weaknesses in the other connecting bushings as well. Not always the case, but it has happened. So you do run the risk of repeating your work if you do just one at a time.

Dang, I think we might have an honorary gold member here fella's! Now that's some good news! He shoots.....he scores!!

One part of my wobble problem was due to cheap rotors that would not center correctly. If you had that problem, you would know it exactly, and it really makes the car shake. It sounds like to me that you do have a stuck piston, which might have worn down the pad to the point of flipping on the brake pad warning light. I'm not very familiar with the 90-94 warning lights though. I'm not sure if your warning light is "anti lock problem" or the pad indicator of "(o)" ? But either case, to me anyways, it does sound like a sticking piston. SKPerformance would be a GREAT guy to PM the question to. He will probably end up putting Midas out of business one day. B)

With the transmission being so vital "and expensive" to the car, just follow the book and use the Toyota type IV. I've used other types in my older cars, and had problems. Trust me sweet, stick with the oem stuff on this one. The last thing you want to do is mess with the transmission. Not saying you will definetly have problems if you use other types of fluid, but not saying that you won't have problems because of it either. Since money isn't a problem on this one, just go with what the manufactorer says. Edit: I reread your posting. I am amazed the toyota dealership told you that! :o That is some very bad information and that employee should be "trained" to know better. I've found that some of these part department guys want to act like they're mechanics, when they're not. I also get the feeling sometimes that bad advice is being given with the intention of causing your car a big expensive problem, that would require their service$$$ later down the road. DEXIII and Type IV are completely different altogether. Tranny fluid expands and contracts with heat. A transmission is specifically made for a specific set of properties from the fluid. Screw with those properties, and you're !Removed! with the functionality of the transmission in general. If it makes you feel better, I always do a "drain and fill" with my oil changes. It drains out 2 quarts, I put in 2 quarts of toyota fluid. I've done this now 3 times. At first, the old stuff was black as mud. 3,000 miles later, the old stuff was maroon. 3,000 miles later, the old stuff was just about the same color as the new stuff going in. 1,000 miles from now, I'm betting the old stuff and the new stuff will look identical. My tranny shifted kind of rough when I began this. As I've done this, it's smoothed out quite a bit, to the point where you can't really feel it shifting, especially down shifting when coming to a stop light. I have zero leaks, no slips, no noises, no odd smells, no rough spots "dead zones", no nothing. I am just shy of 112,000 miles.

Don't you mean kHELLy tires.

You're not kidding!!! I was really get fed up with it! Now, well, glad I am someone who knows when talk, and when to listen....glad I didn't sell it.

Great point! Yeah, the Maxima is much more stiffer, and not as well built for insulating sounds...

Yes, it will be quite a bit harsher and louder. The lower the sidewall, the stiffer it is. You'll feel every imperfection in the road. Went through this with my old Maxima SE. Had 17 inch wheels, 55 profile...rode like crap. I bet Mad Max would agree as well. He has(d) a 2002 maxima.

Well, you know my answer from the tire thread a couple weeks ago. I had the MVX4's put on last tuesday, and it is a night and day difference from the continentials I put on "that tire rack RAVED about being so good" to the Michelins "tirerack gave a half-hum review". For me, my car has never driven, riden or sounded better than it does now with the michelins. My advice is this. It's pretty much agreed that the Michelins are a great choice for the LS400. I think we can all agree on that. But I also understand the desire to save a hundred or two on tires. So, if you are going to try anything but the michelins, then I would NOT buy them from tirerack, but rather a dealer in your area. I say this because whatever you save from tirerack will be spent on mounting and balancing, and if you're not happy with the tires, then the whole process repeats itself. Take for instance my continentials. I paid $395 for all four. Paid $40 for mounting and balancing "1st time". Balancing was horrible. Took it to a shop that has the Hunter 9700 machine, paid another $40 for balancing. Still didn't work. Took it to the dealer, paid $50 for balancing "and a handful of other nick nack fixes". Senior tech told me one tire was too far out of spec for roundness, tirerack sent a replacement for free "took 3 days". New tire got there, installed, and still rode like a ton of bricks. Decided to buy the Michelins from tirerack and refund the continetals. $590 for the Michelins. Tires got to the dealership and replaced plus rebalanced, for another $60 bucks. Car is at it's TOP performance now, no question about it. Using tirerack cost me an additional $130 in labor fees and hassles, for nothing. $520 total to come to the conclusion that the tires sucked. I'm not selling Michelin tires here, but I am saying that if you're not going to buy Michelins first, then don't use tirerack to experiement. If your choice turns out to be wrong, you'll be all over the place with tires coming, tires going, remountings, rebalancings. With a local shop lika a Just Tires or something, if the 1st choice stinks, just drive back and get a refund. If you use a local shop, also MAKE SURE they use the Hunter 9700 balancing machine....it...is...the....best on the market. You can find one in your area by doing a google search on the system.

Me too. My fingers keep shaking. I've been hitting the tv remote like a keyboard.

Got the Michelin's put on today...drove the car at speeds up to 95 mph....that lexus ride is BACK!

Chiks, one tiny piece of advice from my own personal experience. Just my 2 cents here. Before firing up the war machine, I would send a polite, but to the point, email to the dealership service center requesting that they put their top mechanic on the problem, as a last resort before filing an official complaint with Lexus Corporate. The dealership has a wide variety of talent in their service center, and what you want is the top dog to sign off on it being normal before you move up the ladder to corporate. This comes in handy later on if you have another problem with the car that requires their help. I've learned that you can catch more flies with honey, instead of vinager. Case in point, I've been battling a strange wobble vibration in my car for a very long time. I recently threw in the towel and sent a kind, but not a "kissass" email over to the dealership. Long story short, they took pity on me, put their top tech on it, and finally found the sources of the problem, as I had a few. Now, I'm happy to say that it appears all is well again, and all for $120 grand total from them. That included fixing a brake light, two coolant leaks, a twisted shock mount, sporatic power steering wheel, loose seats, 3 balancing jobs, two alignments, 3 washes and keys to a few cool loaner cars.....all for just $120 +/-. Just my 2 cents.

Well guys...I think it's finally over....finally been cured. Just drove the car with the new Michelin MVX4 Plus tires on it....smoooooth as a baby's butt at all speeds. Those Continental tires were just too hard, and the technician said "I've never understood why a tire company can't make a round tire?" I should have just listened to you guys and gone with the Michelin's in the first place. Long story short, this tire mess cost me an extra $180. Gotta love that southern-stubborn attitude sometimes. So anyway, I have no vibrations or wobbles to speak of now, at all speeds "5 - 95mph." Whew....god it's over. time to move on to the engine. The suspension is complete.

Java, that's the front rotor. The first picture you posted up was the rear. The rear is the one that looks like it needs replacing. Have a better picture of that rotor only? Is this picture better?

No, that is your emergency brake indicator. The pad indicator looks sort of like this: (O)

Is it me, or does it look like the pads have worn down about 2mm of that rotor? If so, then I'd say you're probably due for a new rotor. See what i'm talking about? It looks like the pad's wear portion of the rotor has worn down about 2mm of rotor. It's tough to say though, as SK says. Got a better picture?

Wow, you read this entire thread? Good lord, and you're still breathing! I would have figured reading up about Tort Law would be more interesting...hahaha. Question, does your girlfriend's LS have air suspension? It sounds like you might have worn out outer tie rods in your steering system. It could also be time for a rack replacement, especially if you're steering bigger wheel with rubber that requires more power to control. But, to me, it sounds like you've got a few worn parts. I'd check out your outter tie rods, and your lower ball joints on the front before thinking it's computer related. I don't think I've ever heard of the steering computer going out, in that fashion. Another possiblity is a dragging brake caliper piston. The piston will get dirty over the years, loose it's lubrication properties, and start to stick, which will hold the pad(s) against the rotor, which can create that tug of war feeling in the steering. I've been banned from the Flying Saucer by the fiance...due to getting SauceD and quoting all the funny qoutes on the wall. Drove her nuts for like 6 hours. I'm more a Sawmill Tap Room kind of guy, kick back, watch some Bball and have a stogie. Might end up in your neck of the woods this year though. Charlotte is the banking HQ of the southeast, and it's getting harder and harder to avoid that, when you're in the banking game. PS: I'd keep that part about having access to free oem parts to yourself, or you'll inherit this entire forum as family, Dad. ;-)