nc211

There sure were A LOT of rasberries on that cake big guy!

Have you tried the Seafoam, or Heet, or STP Fuel Cleaner, or anything that is made to address water in the tank yet? Man, you're about to spend hours chasing something that could be as simple as water in the tank, which is very common, especially at those miles! Again, before I would start taking anything apart, I would simply buy a $5 bottle of fuel conditioner, put it in your tank, fill it up about 3/4, and drive to see if it does anything to improve it. If it does, then there you go...buy another to make sure, and hit the road. If that's not it, then I'd start looking at the fuel filter first. Work from the cheapest part up until you fix it.

easy guys, this sort of stuff can get out of hand very quickly... Restor: I'm not very familiar with spinners, but if this is your 1st LS, then you've obviously realized how nice and smooth they are. Not trying to talk you out of spinners, but when they spin, are they perfectly balanced? I ask, because on the LS series, just the slightest manipulation of balance can usually be felt in the car's operation. This stuff has the history of driving LS owners nuts! Just becareful that you don't throw off that balance, or you might regret it. Furthermore, I see you're in PA. Out of curiousity, how well do spinners hold up in the winter months with the road salt and such? I've seen them around my town before where one appears to be stuck while the others spin. I must admit, they are pretty wild to see. It's freaky when you see a car going 60 mph, yet the rims seem to be still. It's definetly wild to see, and requires a second glance to make sure I'm not having an acid flashback from that Pearl Jam concert back in 91'.

I agree 110% with GDixon...don't get suckered into the fancy looking, fancy terminology of the latest and greatest clubs. I'm a beginner too, and I have a basic, slightly above starter, set of clubs. Cost about $300 for the whole set. When I travel and play at some of these clubs, I always rent a set of their clubs, which usually are close to the top of the line clubs..ie..graphite shafts, lite weight, super-smacker-aroozies....and I have a horrible time with them. I play with my basic, steel shaft, heavy headed clubs at home, and have a much better game. The trick, for me anyway, is in the weight of the club's head. Since my swing is an art of science "for ALL the wrong reasons", the heavier weighted club heads allows the club to swing itself, which allows me to just focus on the technique and not worry about the power. A good example would be to swing a stick that has a heavy rock on the end, versus swinging a plastic rod with a pebble on the end. My goal is to hit it straight. Once I've figured out how to do that consistantly, then I'll move up the ladder in club technology. Heavy headed, stiff shafted clubs are great for beginners. When I have to rent, I always ask for a "hybrid", which is a funky club that looks like a driver, but acts like an iron. I like it simply because it's usually the heaviest headed club they have. For me, the 7 iron is the most forgiving and easiest club to hit with. I always seem to hit my best shots with it. Lower down the scale, the more funky the shots become. Higher up the scale, the more acreage I seem to sling down the fairway. If all else fails, just remeber to roll your right hand over the top of the club's handle, and keep that arm pretty stiff "I'm right handed". For me, the more I roll my hand to the top of the club, the straighter the ball goes. And don't forget that magical little book! Dicks might have it. If not, as with every !Removed!'s Sporting Goods store in america, there is surely to be a Borders or Barnes & Noble bookstore near by. They tend to flock together. Below is the official website for the book... It's an amazing little gem! http://www.thegolfinstructor.ie/

Wouldn't this type of information be in the factory service manuals? Sure, assuming Wheel2 has them?? Another great question about the 430's....anyone downloaded one of those PdF from that Toyota Service site yet?

Rya, don't sweat it girl, I've been in the same boat for the past two years, and have learned a few tricks that gets me by "and re-invited back." It's a two-prong approach. 1) Attitude: Nobody likes playing with someone who doesn't have a sense of humor and gets all serious and mad at themselves for a bad shot. It completely ruins the game, the social environment, and the experiece. Don't be a Caddy Shack Jack, but don't be a John Macnroe either. Have fun, let everyone know you're not a golfer, but love playing it anyway. And you'll find those around you who do know how to play, will embrace you into their circle. People love to give advice, ESPECIALLY golfers! They see a willing student, and they'll fumble all over themselves to teach. A few good laughs at yourself will ease the tension, and you'll be having a lot of fun, as will they. My favorite line I use for my horrible shots is "Well, best call the boy scouts to trackdown that one." or "I hope this place has terrorism insurance, because my game is utter terror to watch". 2) Go to your local golf shop and pick up the HOLY BIBLE of golf cheat sheets. It's a little white book, about 2 inches by 2 inches in size, and has maybe 10 flip card pages. I believe it's called "The Golf Instructor". It's WONDERFUL! It tells you where to place your feet for each type of shot, where to shift your weight, and how to hit the ball. It's not a manual, it's just a little flip book of highlights. You put it in your pocket, and as you're coming up to your shot, just flip to the page "drive, iron, bunker, etc.." and look at the 3 or 4 pointers for the shot. It...is....AMAZING! And the best part, those Ego Maniacs who think they're all that and a bucket of chicken on the golf course, will be asking you if they can borrow it. Keep it close, as it will vanish if you don't. I bought 10 of them, and only have 3 left. In my industry "large commercial real estate finance", golf is a big part. My company has loans on over 80+ golf courses around the country, and in canada, including the biggest of the biggest... I'm the WORST golfer of the entire department, but I'm also one of the most liked golfers too, and get invited to come out and play quite a bit. Not because I'm good "far from it", but because of my attitude towards the game. If you stink, your saving grace is a good sense of humor. If all else fails....float the beverage cart girl a $20 to "keep an eye on you", and you'll have cold drinks in your hand all day long. It's amazing what a little "buzz" can do for your game! Seriously, it relaxes you... Just remember, it's much easier for guys to "relieve" themselves than the girls... So time your beverages to the potty-spots. Hit Dicks Sporting Goods for some good deals on attire. I've found them to have the best prices overall. For about $150 you can score some shorts, golf shirt, shoes, and glove.

If that happens, the entire world will be in a depression so great, that it'll make the Great Depression look like a ride at Disney Land, and WWIII would start as tanks would roll into the middle east to take over the oil fields. That'll never happen, not in today's electronic world. Governments will put "caps" on the price of gasoline, as was done in the 70's during that energy crunch. Granted, that means the price will always be at that cap and never come down until the cap is removed and time is given for the market to adjust, but you see the point. It's a free market, until free becomes too expensive, then it's a nationalized market..

I find this stuff interesting these days, as we're now at the point where the 430's are starting to show up with maintenance questions. I recommend "if reasonably possible" that the 400 and 430 series be seperated in the thread menu, if we come to find several differences between the two... Easy way to determine if your rotors should have the centering screws is to remove the rotor and look at the hub. If you see two threaded holes on the hub, then you should have those screws. The piston count on the caliper, I think, shouldn't have an effect on how the rotor sits on the hub, i think? If you see the screw holes, then you need them. If your rotors don't have them, then they're not OEM. However, I'm suprised that you're not feeling vibration from the front wheels without them, which makes me wonder if they did-away with the screws on the 430. What color is your LS? Is it white as well? If so, could that white stuff on the caliper bolts be overspray? If it's not white, then I guess possible white lithium grease to make them easier to remove. Obviously done by the previous owner. But my guess, if you see the holes on the hub, but not on the rotor, and you're already due for some new rotors, then you've probably got some cheapo's on there. Since you say they just fell off the hub once you removed the caliper, then you obvioulsy have different rotors on there then the originals. At 90k of use, the rotors aren't just sitting there, they're usually "stuck" on there, requiring a little bump n' force to free them. I won't go into my opinion on what rotors to use, as I'm sure you've already seen the threads "since you already know about the centering screws". Just pick as you wish! oem ;)

Thanks everyone for the kind words! It's an exciting time around my house these days. Baby is sleeping very well, so it's not too much of a strain on the ole' system. But, nevertheless, I'm exhausted! More exhausted than when i use to work on movies, and we would make those 2 hour USA movies in 18 days...also known as 18 day wonders...aka...wonder how in the heck it got made in 18 days..no sleep. Mentally, I'm ok, not tired, but physically, I'm whipped, but recovering. The strain is from only 6 hours of sleep over the weekend until I got everyone home last Monday. Mom and baby are doing great, and dad is doing great. Here are some more photos of the little guy! He's in perfect health, and at only 5 days old, has the strength to lift his own head already. He's a strong little man, I tell ya'. Changing his diaper "A LOT", requires both of us, because he locks his legs and they're tough to straighten out. He's not calicie (sp?), so he sleeps great. Here are a few photos....

HE'S HERE! I'm home now cleaning up a bit, getting the house ready for bringing him home tomorrow. I'll post more later, but all went increadibly well! We were cleaning windows yesterday, sat down to have pizza around 8:00 pm, two slices in, her water broke....and my son, weighing 8 pounds, 20 inches long, and perfectly healty, was born just 2 hours later! JUST TWO HOURS! When we got there at 9:00, the nurse checked her out, said "honey, you don't have a cervix, you're having this baby NOW!" No time for any medication, not even an i-v drip.... My wife, the southern belle she is, bit down on sheer grit, and delivered him the old fashion way. At 9:59 pm, Owen made his entrance into the world. And Father was right there the whole time, even cut the cord. There is a score they do at 1 minute and 5 minutes to determine health. 10 is the best, most score 6.5...he scored 8 at 1 minute, and 9 at the 5 minute! Dad had a VERY tough time keeping his tears out of his scrambled eggs this morning at the hospital cafateria, around 6:00 am, when the reality of what just happened, finally hit him! I'm one Blessed man, no question about it! HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!

I want people to take a little history lesson in the economics of this country. Review how we were around the time Carter-Regan, Bush-Clinton, Clinton-Bush. Guys, history repeats itself, and we being a fast-food society with the attention span to match, always seem to forget "oh, wait, haven't we been here before?" YES, and we will AGAIN. Everytime, the stage gets a little bigger, the players increase in size, but the same underlying fundamentals are always at work.....Temporary instability of the worlds super power...aka...who's gonna' be the next president and what are they going to do? AND everytime, every stinkin' time, it's got a different cover.... either dot.com, over supply of commercial real estate (92), ticked off middle easterns (80), blah blah blah.... I think supply and demand makes up maybe 10% of this mess. The rest....has the same smells of yesteryear financial players, exploiting the coming changes.

...besides, i'd save your money for the BIG honker around the corner, at 90k, which is the timing belt and water pump....That one, you do want to do. Edit: after seeing Eddie's schedule, I noticed the driveshaft stuff... I don't know much about that, but I do know my old 95' needed a new driveshaft around the 120k mark because of binding issues. I never noticed service intervals on it before... Maybe one of the other guys can post up some comments on it, but you might consider that service. I know when mine started to go, it had me on a wild-goose chase for vibration issues...

My opinion, if you're even a beginer DIY type, the 60k service is a waste of money. The air filter can be done yourself, with 3 bolts & 5 minutes, with a off-the-shelf filter from auto-world. Oil changes are, well, oil changes. That should not cost the $100 a lexus dealership charges. Furthermore, if they're not actually flushing the other fluids, but rather just looking at them...then don't mess with it.

ramnozack, I'm not being a smartass here, but in another thread you had mentioned that your dad use to add 1qt of tranny fluid to a full tank of gas sometimes to clean out the engine. I've never heard of this, but I'm not knocking it down either. Did you do this to your LS recently? I ask, and I'm only assuming, that when your dad use to this to his cars, that they might of been a bit older, without all the electronic stuff of current, and could handle it better. If you did do this recently, you might want to give it a little more time to flush through completely. But if not, then I would assume you're probably right and you've got a bad ring somewhere, allowing the oil to get into the chamber, which in my opinion, isn't THAT specialized of a repair on these engines. If you've got a mechanic that can't handle working on the 4.0 liter Toyota V8, then it's not your engine's fault, it's the mechanics, and you should try another one. I'd check the phone book for a lexus specialized repair shop, and start there. Going the dealer route, will cost so much money that it's probably not worth it, in terms of the value of the car in general. Might as well sell it, and try again with a different one, in my own person opinion.

Mine is going towards 1st class airfare to dcfish's house! Honestly though, mine is all in the money market savings account, to be nibbled on here and there when needed. Nothing I really want to buy these days, except diapers...if my son would EVER give up his free rent and make his grand entrance into this world! Already one week over due....wife's 4+ cm dilated, but no labor yet... He's already grounded for missing curfew.

I'm not sure I would want to mess with their "collections department." Those lunnies don't really follow the fair-credit regulations, if you know what I mean! I'd just wait to loot Tehran after it "magically" gets wacked by the rest of the world.

Yeah, just be careful and keep an eye on the news. I'm seeing more and more articles being written about "bubble-trouble" coming for oil, even from the Oily-bohunks in Saudi Arabia, and senate hearings. The fact that it's even being discussed is a flag of caution. You know the argument of (does art imatate life, or life imatate art). Once it becomes a discussion piece, it seems to wiggle it's way into the thinking and decision process. But, it's hard to ignore these rallys, that's for sure!

HAHAHA!!! Perfect timing! Just last night I took the 4runner down to the station to top it off, because prices are going through the roof now. $45 bucks for HALF a tank (11 gallons). I got back in, my wife said "how much". I said "we need to swing by CVS for some KY, because I feel like I just took it in the...). Thank god with her being a stay at home wife (VERY VERY soon mom), she only drives it about 400 miles a month, or just a tick over a tank.

Unfortunately, we don't have any Lexus dealers around here. The closest is Shreveport (60 miles) and Dallas (120 miles). Do you get the same info off of a carfax? Is that Sewell Lexus, in Dallas? If so, they're very nice folks "tell them we talk about them a lot on here". I bet if you butter them up, they'd be more than happy to print off the sevice history for you and fax it to you, or like VBDenny said, email it to you. When I bought mine from the local lexus dealership, they faxed it to me at the office. It was about 3 pages. If you do decide to purchase the car from the used car lot, I would recommend one of those 90 day - 3,000 mile warranties, that covers drivetrain - engine - exhaust. This can come in quite handy just in case of two very expensive "but highly unlikely" problems. If the cats are bad, you have an avenue out with the warranty. It's rare they would fail at that mileage "or within the next 100k miles". But they aren't cheap. The second, and my 90 day warranty saved me on this, is the engine computer. On some 95' and 96' models, the engine computer has a glitch that will make the car feel like it's "bucking" around the 45-50 mph range. When you drive it, cruise it up to 45 mph, and gently take your foot off the gas to let the car coast "be on flat pavement". If you feel the car lurch/buckle, then it is quite possible the car has one of the bad computers. The problem is called "off-throttle-shock", and is WELL KNOWN to lexus dealerships. What's happening is the computer is sending a faulty code to the injectors to reduce fuel supply too quickly. It's not slowly reducing fuel, but rather dropping it too fast, which causes the car to reverse-torque the driveshaft. It's more of an annoyance than anything else, but does bug some folks. Mine had this, and with some knowledge learned here, and nagging the dealership to honor their warranty for "engine and drivetrain" parts, they finally replaced the computer with an updated model, for free. It's been several years since then, but I think I recall the price being around $2,300 for the computer. If you have that warranty, and the problem shows itself, you will have an out. There is a TSB (Technical service bulletin) issued by Lexus/Toyota for the fix. Of all TSB's issued on the car, this is the only one "highly recommened" to be done. It's called "improved driveablitliy". If you search here for "off-throttle-shock", you should find a thread or two with the TSB attached. This mostly effected 95 models, but some 96's slipped through the cracks and got the old computer too. First step though, is butter up Sewell, get the service records, and if you see anything on there for "ECM", or "ECU" repair, then you're good to go! If that's been done, along with the timing belt and water pump, then I'd buy the car on the spot. Once you get it, we'll show you the best $200 to spend to bring it right back to brand new "plugs, fluids, simple tricks in the power steering system".... Chances are, you will face a mount/bushing replacement at those miles. But what car wouldn't? If you plan on keeping the car for a few years, you'll me more than THRILLED with it. You'll think you've discovered the best kept secret in the used car business....a well maintained Lexus LS400 for less than $10 grand... that rivals new cars costing 5 times as much! Stick around here, and you'll learn where to buy those mounts/bushings for about 30-40% retail, and how to replace them. Or, if you're not a DIY type, several of us have the repair manuals in PdF. format. Simply print off the proceedure, take it along with the part to your local favorite indi mechanic and have them do it. The LS400 is VERY EASY to repair. When I showed up here back in 04', I didn't know how to change oil. By the time I sold it back in November 07', I personally had replaced all of my suspension components, brakes, fluids, plugs, and some other random parts. If a three-thumbed bubba like me can do this stuff, anyone can. Trust me! I only sold mine because we needed a more family & home depot friendly vehicle. We stuck with Toyota, and I insisited on remaining with their V8 engine. Bought a 05' 4runner with 53k on the clock, and love it. It'll be in my garage for SEVERAL more years to come, only to be replaced if we need a different type of vehicle "minivan". Which, again, would only be the Sienna.

Someone else is going to have to confirm the lucas stuff for you, as I won't be using it. Granted, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about here, but as a senior member with several years of activity on here, I can say that 9 out of 10 transmission problems that have come up on here, all seem to share a similiar characteristic...something other than oem "or amsoil" fluid in the system. I'm sure it's good stuff, but I'm too chicken to mess with it in my cars.

Before buying anything part related, I would buy a can of Seafoam and run it through the gas. You very well might have water in the tank, causing it to miss. Springtime is a notorious time of year for condensation to build up over night on the inside of gas tanks, especially tanks that aren't full. It's worth $5 to see if that works.

Doug's original post was due to his ecm unit. He had the imfamous off-throttle-shock syndrome that several of the 95-96 years had, unfortunetly.

Yeah, if you've got the sticker on the engine's bulkhead, then I'm 99.9% sure a lexus dealership did the service, as it is normal procedure to put the sticker there after it was done "or mark the owner's manual in the 90k service page of it being done". Chances are, if the belt was done, then the waterpump was done too. But a quick run of the vin at a dealership will pull up the service history of the car, from day one to current, and you can easily see what and when it was done. If the price was in the $1,500-$2,000 range, then it's pretty certain the water pump was in there. If the car has a solid service history, especially from a dealership, then I'd have no worries about buying it. My 95 had about 40 pages of service history by the time I sold it, at 130k miles. Although it was 12 years old, the effective age was really about 3 years. A well maintained LS400, no matter the miles, is probably one of the best car values out there, if not the best value. Are you buying it from a Lexus dealership?

make sure the timing belt and water pump have been replaced. other than that, it's a great car. timing belt and water pump is the biggie service item that is to be done every 90k. if it hasn't been changed "and it's 12 years old", you're looking at a pretty steep service bill. some indi's can do it for under $1,000, most dealerships are $1,500+ for the whole service.

ramnozack, I'm not knocking your method of flushing the fluid. Lexls has this proceedure on his website as well. But, your car is 16 years old, with 16 years of mileage and age. Pilot's is only 5, with an annual average of only 7,200 miles. That's pretty gentle. I can't saying anything about Lucas though, I've never used it. I know a few members on here that have though, and really seem to like it! But, I would be suprised if Pilot would need it at this point. If he's having to use anything to "fix" the tranny of anything, then he's got bigger problems than just dirty fluid. Whatever path you choose Pilot, just make sure your end result is with genuine type vi toyota transmission fluid. That, I do know. It's pretty tough to screw up a LS, but messing around with aftermarket tranny fluids is a good way to, as it's been discussed several times. Although I do believe Amsoil full synthetic tranny fluid is ok, as a few members swear by the stuff and have had zero problems with it. Just ask mburnickas, he loves it! We've chewed on eachother's tails in the past about it, and I've always lost! ;)