nc211

Steering pressure valve: #29 in picture. $502.43.

By the way, the rack is #7. I don't see the either/or connection between the two.

If you want to make him sweat, and keep him honest, print that picture off and tell him to identify which parts are bad in the picture. If it's not in that picture, it's not in your steering. Then let us know what parts he identifies and we'll go from there.

online place to get parts cheaper than dealership:

http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ind...983&catalogid=0

or trademotion.com and drill down to the lexus stuff.

My guys here at the dealership are VERY nice as well, but they want to change out everything. Ex; seal bad does not mean replace the seal...it means replace the seal and all the parts in the vacinity of the seal.

I don't know much about the powersteering "yet" on these cars, but I would think a good power fluid flush would help on this? I don't think I've heard of your specific problem on here before. If the valve is sticking, that makes me think the fluid is bad enough to prevent it from functioning correctly. But again, I have not had this break on my car yet...and i stress the word YET.

Typical Lexus Stealership damage report. It must be a policy to quote the owner that the WHOLE thing is shot and needs to be replaced, instead of just isolating the one main part. I've had this happen a few times myself before I got smart. It's almost criminal. I'm really looking forward to someone who just looses it and sues someone for it. I'll sign up as a character witness any day.

maybe a little power steering fluid dripped on the alternator while it sat for that length of time??? A little electrical charge hit the fluid and burned it off? I hear it's not that uncommon of a problem on the 1st generation models. Of course, to be honest, on a 13 year old car, nothing is that uncommon anymore. Hoses crack, seals leak.

with the dealership performing the 90k service, you're pretty much taken care of in regards to anything they might miss. Make 100% sure the 90k service does include the new timing belt and water pump! I've heard from my dealership that sometimes that isn't included automatically. But my dealership is somewhat shady. Other than that, you're good to go amigo! Hope you're well rested when you get it, because you'll be playing with it all weekend long! If you're married, you might as well pick up some flowers on your way home from picking up the car, because she'll be ticked when you're drooling over a car at 3:00am, instead of her! They don't tell you that part at the dealership.

Sorry and I'm not trying to offend anyone here, but WTF would make you want to put 20+ inch rims on your LS?????

As I was driving back into the office park on my way back to the office today I noticed a sweet 3rd gen LS400.  This car was completely pristine with a nice aftermarket dark green paint job, and nice tint.  The shine on the paint looked like there were 2 coats of clearcoat and wax on it and there was not a scratch, smear, smudge or mark on the car anywhere.  The car was really sweet except I thought that something looked a little wierd as I was approaching it.

When I got along side it I noticed some huge moon disc chrome rims (which I don't care for all that much in any size) with little rubber-band tires , BUT the rims were so big that they actually lifted the car off the groung and made the car ride at least 2" higher than normal (I'm guessing 22's).  WTF was this guy thinking?  Not only has he killed the ride quality, but it looks completely ridiculous lifted up like that.

Sorry for the rant but I had to get it out.

←

:D Hahaha. I like the 1989 Ford Escorts with 20 inch spinners! I mean if the only lien on your car "because it's so old and worth $500" is for your rims???? That just kills me every time!

Hmmmm....that sounds like a real possibility Sha. Thanks amigo! I'm going to do some work on it this weekend and will check the bearings. Will the wheel move in and out quite a bit? Or just a slight slight bit, like a mm or so?

Scott, yeah I've looked for the Hunter system, and the local lexus dealership has one. But I think the guy who used to do the alignemnt/balance for Johnson Lexus is no longer there and some new dude is. The last time I was there for this service, I had to go back because of poor workmanship. The weights fell off. I'm gonna give it one more try, and if a FULL alignment of all settings, not just toes, doesn't fix it, then I'm going to drive the car until whatever is causing the problem finally breaks and identifies itself. And you better believe I'm gonna run the snot out of it too! For this kind of money, I'm gonna get my kicks out of it.

bartkat, nice picture! Hahahaha. When we post up next to eachother, I'm sure it scares the hell out of some people! What part of 'bama are you in?

I am giong to pull out the full size spare this weekend and see what that does. also, does anybody know how to adjust the parking brake so it works, other than taking off the rear rotors again? I put on new rotors two weeks ago, and the parking brake doesn't work anymore. Go figure that one? Fix one problem to only create one more.

I just don't get it. All the suspension parts up front are less than 10 months old. The only things that aren't new, oem parts, up there are the inner tie rods, rack and brake rotors. The rotors were turned not but 2 months ago and I have no brake pedal vibration. Now, when I hit a certain dip in the road in the morning, I'm hearing a faint clunk noise in the front left....AGAIN. Not but 10k miles on the new parts, and I've got that noise again. The car has been aligned 3 times in the past 6 weeks, tires checked, rims checked, everything. I'm sick of this

You turn the car in a circle and it feels like the front outter tire is wobbling and will fold under the car. You start it up in the morning, drive up to speed on a slight incline, and the car hops, literally hops up and down. You get it out on the highway and you've got to pay close attention to keep it straight. Feels like I'm driving a grocery cart, not a Lexus LS400. I've spent too much money "$2,200+" on this car. If it's not a setting somewhere, or something simple and cheap, my days of LS400 ownership are through. period. I don't care how much I like this car, how nice it is, if it ain't going to do what it's designed to do with out sucking $500 out of my wallet every 6 weeks, then screw it.

Question: at what angle are the strut rods supposed to be attached in conjunction to the verticle line of the car? I remember doing the suspension work on the front, had everything off but the strut rods, and they were hanging at about a 20 degree down angle.

Can someone educate me on camber and caster settings on a 95 ls 400? Someone described my wobble feeling to a T' last week, like a front wheel on a bad shopping cart. They mentioned caster camber settings and that my front wheels are most likely too far forward?? I'm stumped on this one, even though it seems simple enough.

Thanks guys!

My 95 is the exact same setup as blakes. Only one fan.

Possibly the hood sensor for the car alarm? I looks like the rubber part is a spring loaded setting. Not sure if LS400's have this option that will set off the alarm if somone opens the hood with the alarm on?

SRK, nevermind on the camer adjustment locator. After a few minutes of banging my head on my desk , the light finally came on. It is the dial setting on the strut rod. I also read an old thread of mine that started this whole suspension replacement thing off in the first place "ride getting harsh". But I'm still a bit clueless on the inner tie rod inspection process. The steering wheel isn't indicating any loose play with the tires. I'm thinking my camber is off, too positive I think? I'm still confused if positive means forward, negative means backwards or viceversa. But this sure does sound like "caster wobble" to me. I just can't accept that after all of these repairs, the car still has problems in this area. It's got to be a setting somewhere that's off.

anywho, was curious from that old thread, anyone know what happened to ArmyofOne? He was a nice guy! Last I heard on here, he was going to be restationed somewhere, possibly in my area down at Ft. Bragg.

I'm digging up the dead on this one. I'm wondering if my camber is off as well, causing this wobble / wandering thing I've had for what seems like forever! SRK, can you tell me what part adjusts the camber / caster? Is it the strut rods? Also, how can I inspect the inner tie rods to see if they're ok, or worn out? Any simple tests to see?

Thanks amigo!

No problem at all, glad to help anytime. With this website, you'll master the car in no time. We're a dealership's worst nightmare, becuase we know what it "really" takes, and costs. Kewl is right, once you get the LS and have spent some time with it, go drive something else for kicks. You'll miss your LS like you can't believe. It's a great feeling getting behind the wheel of an LS400, ESPECIALLY when it's yours!

Nobody needs a car payment ever, but everyone should have a shinny silver with black interior ultra lux Lexus LS430! ;)

In the words of wise ole' hillbilly....get er' done! Oh, and can I have a ride to work? I'll ride in the back, listening to the stereo, eating some grey pupon, sipping on some bubblie and enjoying the massage. Don't worry, I won't make you wear the hat, James.

I agree with Monarch. Take a look at my signature below for what i've done on my 95. Although not all the suspension parts were needed, once one part fails and you replace it with new part, it can tend to show the flaws in the other older parts. I think I am now facing the dreaded steering rack problem :cries: . This car sure is lucky that I love it, otherwise I'd put it down like an old mule. Don't get me wrong, these are awesome cars! And can last longer than just about any other car ever made, but 100k+ miles is 100k+ miles no matter how you look at it. The car will get you around just fine, but you will not be satisfied with a shimmy, vibration, clank, clunk or whinning noise in these cars. That smooth, quiet ride is so damn addictive that you won't stand it if it's not running like it should.

that's about the same milage I get as well...um..when I keep my foot out of it. Now that's it's cooling off and the a/c isn't on as much, it's getting tougher and tougher not to rev up that v8 for kicks. But I average 20 in the city, about 27 on the highway. Same boat with you on the comparison to your Acura. My 10 year old LS gets better mileage than my former 2001 Maxima got, with a 3.0 24V V6. Also better than my also former 99' Subaru Outback "all-wheel-drive is a thirsty option." I believe the phone is analog, I've got it too in my car. It was working when I got it becuase the previous owner "corporate car" forgot to turn it off. A few free 1-900 calls took care of that problem. :whistles: I HATED getting calls from some dude looking for Bill Jackson. Told the dealer to inform the former owner of it, they did several times, and it was still on for about a 2 months. I've always been curious how the previous owner's wife reacted to the bill with "1-900-dial-a-ho'" on the bill. ;) Must admit though, it sure did make my commute home after work that much nicer!

Keep the air filter clean, and your foot out of it and you'll pull 20/27 mpg with no problems. Put your foot in it too much, and you'll be getting Christmas cards from Exxon.

Lexus400, I'm curious, what are the symptoms you're having that is making you replace the rack? I'm thinking my wobble situation might actually be in the steering. I've got 106k miles on my 95, with new outer tie rods only.

run a search on suspension issues, you'll find a lot of posts about this. It's a common problem relating to control arms, strut rods, shocks and bushings.

This is for a 95', not sure if there is any thing different though.

7.pdf

9.pdf

This one isn't more than a beefed up tropical storm. I doubt more than a couple of trees go down, probably on top of a single-wide. But you know the media, and the media should play in part of the blame for Katrina's victims, they'll all take the same picture of the same downed tree and play it up like it was Katrina #2. Went and pulled the boat out of the water last night, most people aren't even doing that for this storm. The reason why I partially blame the media for Katrina is because they always seem to put such a massive build up on these storms, only to find that it really wasn't that bad. You cry wolf enough times, people stop listening and stop taking things seriously. When one does come along that is the real deal, like Katrina was, people will tend to think of the "cry wolf" scenario yet again. Geraldo Rivera needs to be beaten within an inch of his pathetic little life! I think if I ever saw him in Wilmington covering one of these storms I'd throw another chair at him like back in the 80's. And glue that stupid mustache to his as ! National news has this as Katrina, the sequel...local news has it as a windy, rainy day. In fact my buddies down there are grilling out right now, as the eye wall is skirting over them. From what I understand, it's steak, eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast this morning.

edit: Of course, 6 hours after posting the original part of this, the storm is just sitting there with the eye about 6 miles off the coast. Leaving Wilm in the eye wall winds. So I could be wrong. :edit

90LS400Lexus, man if you haven't been back to Wilm since 94', boy are you in for a suprise! It's grown so much since then, you won't believe your eyes! Wilmington has been discovered, that's for sure. You can partially thank the show Dawson's Creek. Applications for UNC-W trippled when that show came out. In fact, it is now harder to get into UNC-W than it is to get into UNC-Chapel Hill. Go Seahawks baby! It's a great town! I'd love to return after my wedding next April.

I've got the autozone specials on my fronts...they don't squeek or anything, but they do throw a lot of dust at first. I've noticed a reduction lately though. For $25 for a set of 4, you can't really beat that. They stop fine too.

Stever, do yourself a favor before you do this. Go to your nearest auto parts store and buy a few cans of brake part cleaner spray. You'll want probably 2 cans per wheel. This will help you out big time! I learned this last weekend when replacing my rear rotors and pads....the whole assembly was FILTHY!! That stuff was wonderful to have on hand! Especially when pulling the shims and plate off of the old pads to use on the new pads. You'll also want a litte sandpaper to remove any rust you've built up on the rotor mounting plate. Make sure it's pretty clean before you put the new rotor back on "if you're messing with the rotors that is". This is a super easy process! Also, make sure you've got a good grip on the new pads when you put the cross V shaped spring wire on them. I was hunting around my driveway for 30 minutes looking for one that flung itself off when I was trying to put it all back together.