nc211

Hamma gonna hurt 'em! Hahaha... Glad to see Jaws on Paws is still kickin'! We're going to do some deck work in the spring, which means I have finally found a use for the phnumatic air hammer!! Pretty sad really when you need a mortgage just to find an excuse to use one of your phnumatic tools. Hahahaa.... dens... yeah man, $35 a month for dues. But it does not include the front lawns, unfortunately. It takes care of all the common areas, curb appeals, pool, club house and park areas. It's a pretty big pool, that's for sure. But, we'll see what happens after I get on "infiltrate" the finance committee and see the budget. One thing I am already going to propose is for edging of grass along sidewalks. Some folks need to clean up a bit in that department. You know what they say; the nicer your neighbor's house looks, the more valuable your house becomes.

street, have you actually driven the car yet? The thing you need to be cautious of is the suspension settings on these cars. These cars are EXTREMELY smooth. But, that's not becuase of just good parts, it's also becuase of excellent, and very percise design. A design that could possibly of been altered by whatever caused that salvaged title to be issued. I would check the tires for abnormal wear patterns. If they happen to have brand new tires on them now "makes me think a possible cover", ask what kind of tires? If he put the expensive Michelin's on there, then I would feel better. But if he put the cheapo walmarts on there, just to sell it...well...i'd be a little cautious myself. Suspension parts on these cars aren't exactly cheap. Not too bad if you order them online and do the install yourself. But none the less. Any vehicle that was wrecked bad enough to be issued a salvage title, especially when the car was close to new anyway "higher market value = must have been one hell of a wreck to warrant the insurance company to total it out, instead of fix it" makes me nervous. Whatever value you save from buying a salvage LS400, could very easily be wiped out by repairs that most normal LS400's face at that mileage anyway. Sounds like to me the owner used the car for highway purposes...or was a realtor type and used it to shttle clients around. Or maybe just liked to drive..who knows...but, if you want my opinion...you're going to face repairs one way or the other at that mileage... I'd just like to know that when I make the repair, the car is that much closer to when it was new. Not closer to when it was totalled. What did carfax come back with? What did the owner say happened? I would drive it, have it inspected at a lexus dealership, have the vin # ran by the dealership to verify all repairs and maintence, and most importantly, if the carfax gives a police record number for the accident, see if you can get a copy of the report. But, that's just my opinion. If you love the car, and really want it, then buy it and we'll tackle the issues as they arise. And just one more thing, then I'll hop off the pulpit here: Whatever repairs you make, whatever you end up investing into the car, will most like not be returned to you if you turn around and sell it...because you'll be the 3rd owner of a salvaged vehicle. I'm the 2nd owner of a 1995, with 118k miles currently, and I've done a ton of repairs on mine. If I decided to sell it, and showed all the receipts of repairs to a buyer, I look like a maintence freak "which I am anyway" and I have restored the car back to new. For you though, it could look like you've been trying to fix a major problem with the car due to the wreck, and have given up and selling it to someone else. Just my $2 cents, nothing more...

Ahhhh, ok, that makes sense. I guess it hits the keywords... some smart stuff! I didn't think there was any, spybot has never caught any from this site, ever. Ok, good deal...don't need you guys spying on my Celion Dion and David Hasselhauff music! hahahaha...

Question: when inspecting the brakes, how far off of the rotor are the pads suppose to rest? Do they just gently sit on the rotors, or are they like 1 or 2 mm off the rotors? If they are by chance just slighly resting on the rotor, then is this due to caliper piston not pulling back, or are there suppose to be some sort of spring that pulls them back off the rotor. I know the rear ones have those crossed V shaped springs that pull them back, but what about the fronts?? Mine doesn't have anything like that on the fronts.

91 octane, usually from costco. -joey Have you tried a can of Seafoam in the gas tank and blown out the engine on a back road yet? Seafoam seems to work really well on these cars to clean out the fuel system. I've had good luck with it in my car. Might be worth the $5bucks to see if it cleans out some injector buildup? How old are your spark plugs? I would hate for you to pay all that money only to realize that you could of done the same thing with $50 bucks in new plugs and a can of Seafoam. Not saying that it would fix it, but maybe the knock sensor is working fine, and that it's just telling you that your engine needs new plugs and better flowing fuel through a couple of injectors?

Thanks fellas! I'm finding that I have to take an asprin at night to help me sleep, otherwise I end up counting the dots on the ceiling, thinking about what I want to do with the new house. Swo, I agree, got a great deal on the mortgage, and it was on stated income, none of that tax information and all of the paperwork was required, just the basic 1004 filled out over the phone. Took 10 minutes.. My buddy know's his stuff, that's for sure. There is soooo much money out there chasing around willing borrowers, it makes it a borrower's market for the most part. I haven't included the tax deduction yet on the interest payments, but you're right! And that will come in very handy now since I got a nice pay raise with the new job. Anything "legally" to help off-set the income taxes is a huge benefit. SK, I would love to install a hoist in the garage! But it's actually not tall enough inside, the bonus room is right above it with access via the upstairs hallway. But you can bet, it's going to have all the other creature comforts. I'm thinking about building a breathable box lined with some sound deadening material for my craftsman air compressor. That thing is loud as hell when it kicks on. I've attached two pictures of the house I'm in now. That's my old Maxima in the driveway. You can see the sloping driveway...some sketchy moments with the Lexus jacked up once or twice on that slope, that's for sure. Took these when I first looked at the house back in 2003. Landlord neglected this house pretty badly. I fixed it up for a cut on the rent. You guys out in California must get paid pretty darn well to afford the housing costs out there! Granted my employer's home office is in one of the top 3 most expensive places to live in the country "Newport Beach", but some of those prices out there are riduclous! Townhouses with 2,500 SqFt going for $1million+. Geezzz, that's some expensive real estate. I hear NYC goes for $750 a SqFt in general...now that's almost criminal. But their market is showing signs of stagnation, and apartments are sitting on the market for quite a while now. SWO, our statistics show the same happening in the N. Virginia area, outside of DC, showing signs of slowing down a bit too. RX, we're in APEX! We looked and looked and looked in that part of town for a few months. Hollysprings was just too far for either one of us to commute everyday. We nearly made an offer on one in Apex a few weeks ago, but I had a little voice in my head that said "I-540". Sure enough, I pulled the plans for the highway expansion, and found out it's planned to go right through the woods in the backyard! So we passed. We're north of US1 & 64, and just east of 55. We're basically right outside of Cary, on the back side. My commute is a hop across 55, down to Country Highway 751, and straight up around Jordon Lake into Chapel Hill. Total of 18 miles. We looked at a house out towards your way, off of Creedmore Road, north of 540. It was pretty nice, had over an acre of land with about 1,750 SqFt. House needed some repairs "water rot on siding, gutters, etc.." It was a bit too small, but had plenty of room to grow. But we missed it by a few hours. Someone else put in an offer and it was accepted. I love that area up there. Minus a few exceptions, all houses up there are required to have at least 1 acre +/- .01. That area feeds into the water table for the city, so they don't want mass development there. That's why there are plenty of $1mill+ estate homes built up there now.

I've noticed the ads that run on top of my screen, resemble my activity on the web, and things I've said on here. For example: I'm a big fan of Johnson Lexus of Raleigh, but haven't been to their site in a long time. Yet, I have the Johnson Lexus of Raleigh ad on my screen. Another example is that I was just on a house painting and repairing website, then came over here to check in....and there were a bunch of local ad's for home repair on my screen...... What gives? How are you guys doing that??

yeah...i re-read it and i agree... i'll take it out. i was just saying that they obvioulsy took their shoes off when entering the house. no scuf marks or worn sections in the carpet. house was spotless, beyond just a good cleaning... ;)

Joey, what kind of gas do you use?

Thanks fellas! We're super excited! I turn 33 in 2 weeks, so I figured it was about time to take the leap. I'm sure I'll be sweating bullets when it comes time to sign those papers, but none the less, it's time. The house is 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath with a large finished room over the garage. Went by it tonight on my way home to check out a couple spots on the wood trim...didn't want to leave. Drove around the neighborhood and must have waved back to at least a dozen people walking around. The owner is the original owner, and is building a new house on the other side of town. They're expecting their 1st baby any day now. He was so happy with this one, that he hired the same company to build his new one, which makes me feel really good. We looked, and looked, and looked, and looked. Around here, it's either way out in the country, or run down, or poorly built, or way too expensive. This one was on the market 2 days when we saw it. As we were looking at it, two other cars drove by and pulled fliers. We made the offer on the spot, for full price. Good thing too because three other offers came in the following morning for the same thing. To off-set the full price, I bumped up the contingency limit for damages handled by the seller. Which is why all the wood trim is being replaced by them. RX330, around here, the typical price ranges around $125-$145 per square foot. We got a sweet honey of a deal on this one. They had it priced too low. I was skeptical that something was wrong, but I had the house inspected from top to bottom, radon, hvac, roof, soil, foundation, materials, you name it...passed every inspection with flying colors! Not to stereotype anyone with my next comment at all, infact please take it as a compliment: The owners endorsed the oriental practice of taking off shoes when entering, and you can tell they took great pride in their home. It was spotless, and showed absolutly no wear and tear on the inside. Even the carpet looks and feels brand new. Very nice people too! Anyway, thanks for the nice comments amigos!! I can't remember the last time I was this excited about something. Feel like I'm 10 years old again on Christmas Eve.... Time can't fly by fast enough right now!

Well fella's, I've joined the ranks of the American dream come true, finally! The wife and I have purchased our 1st house; 1st house as a married couple, 1st house in general for either one of us. Been one hell of a summer, I gotta tell ya'. I've never had a more impactful 120 days in my entire life, and all for the good. Got married, circled globe, landed dream job which happened to be here in my home town, toured Southern California, finally killed the wobble issue, and now, bought a dream house. Time for ole' NC211 to sit his butt back down in the shade and let the dust settle for a bit. Anywho, off my soap box... Ricky Bobby done' got him a gerage! And Ralph, the Air Hammer is coming out!! The wife gets the house, I get the garage! 20' wide, 24' deep. Puppy's gonna have cable tv, mini fridge, custom workbench...and Tool Time Babe Calendar! Finally, do I not have to change my oil on a steep inclined driveway, outside for the whole world to see. No more getting rained on right in the middle of doing something, and no more snotty looks from the soccer moms driving by a Lexus on blocks, with brake parts streaming out all over the place.. Yes sir', I'm a home owner... Well, I will be officially on Oct. 10th @ 3:00pm. The mortgage paperwork is complete, closing package already ordered. Home inspection complete, minor wood rott on base of cornerboards, which owner is fixing. Nothing left to do but wait and dream about moving day. My best friend is a residential mortgage banker, and hoooooked me up! Got 6.125% fixed for 30 years, 0 points, 0 origination fees and 0 PMI on an 85% LTV. Just pay the inspector, appraiser and attorney..that's it. Funny thing is, owning this house costs about the same as renting the one I've been in for the past 3+ years. Which was built in 1973, and the owner hasn't done crap to maintain it. This new one was built in 1999, is 2,100 SqFt, fiber-cement siding "no vinyl, no rotting ever", big deck, large community pool, tennis courts and park, even has a whirlpool tub in master bedroom...for some relaxation time ;) . Sits on just a tick over a 1/4 acre. Large enough for some space, small enough to not take all day to mow. And the best part for me? My drive to work now is a 10 minute BLAST down a peaceful, scerene lake setting country road to Chapel Hill. No more traffic jams. The wife on the other hand...well..she's gonna quit her job soon anyway.. So, be prepared for many more questions from me that start like "Oh crap, how do I put this thing back together?" and "What the hell do these two extra screws go to?" Here's an older picture of the house from the county records, back in 1999 when it was built. Looks pretty much the same, just a tan color now, and with trees in the front yard. In the words of some rapper...."Oh , there goes the neighborhood!" Ricky Bobby has arrived.

The NHTSA doesn't have any recalls on file for the '91. I think the starter issues were for 95 or 96 or both. Fuses and relays are two different animals. ;) Well, glad I left myself that 1% margin of error....hahahaa... I stand corrected ;) Ok, back to the question at hand....so wait, you did your entire TB change yourself, with no manuals to guide you and stuff???

I can confirm, you are correct. It is the ASUS 583 bushing for that part. Just got off the phone with the tech at Johnson Lexus who works on my car, also know as "God" over there, and he double checked. They get theirs from a company in California called Armstrong. Says something when a true dealership uses these parts for repairs as well! Johnson Lexus of Raleigh...once again...comes through.. Let us know how difficult a job it is to install these, I might do the same in the future. Heck, at this point, why not?

I will email your picture and ask the question to my service tech buddy at the dealership. I know they use the ASUS bushing repair kit for the rear carriers, so they'll probably know for the control arm too....i'll post up the answer when I hear back....

You say you have the mechanical records for the past 7 years? Are these the records from the Lexus dealership?? If not, you need to have your vin # ran at the dealership for a report on ALL historical maintence items they have done on the car.... You are looking for only one line item: The only true "recall" ever issued on the LS400...is....the....STARTER!! I believe they corrected the problem starting in 96 or 97. The recall applied to all LS400's prior to the corrected year. Mine is a 1995, and my starter was replaced under the recall by the previous owner at around 40k miles. You need to find out if your starter was ever replaced under this recall before you move forward with everything else. It is my understanding, as explained to me from Lexus, that the previous starters were getting burned up by people trying to start the car, when not realizing the car was already running. Just took a few times doing that to start the cycle for starter failure.. Again, this is a Lexus issued recall, the only one they've ever issued, and I'm 99% sure it applies to your model year. Get the ENTIRE history from Lexus, not from anyone or anything else. Look for the recall service being performed... If not, then, you have a "possible" out for having your starter replaced for free. However, take into account the car is 14 years old, and you're not the original owner. You might need to plead your case to Lexus Corporate on this one. But no doubt, if your starter was never replaced under the recall, then this is most likely your problem. PS: I don't care what indi-shop says they're "Lexus Specialists"... if they're not the dealer, then they're not true "specialists", they're just experienced. Granted, some more than others, and most can handle most items, but some items require the specialist knowledge "aka, access to the corporate records for model lines." A true specialist, especially one charging you money for their knowledge, would have known this, and would have started here first. Good luck and let us know how it goes! PPS: "new terminals though one doesn't fit too great. No telling what else, getting late here. Had the entire electrical system checked piece by piece and everything was "perfect" except the fuel pump wouldn't pull any amps." Uh, the terminals need to fit perfectly.... I assume you've checked the fuses for the fuel pump? If they're blowing out, and your terminal is not properly secured, then you might be sending sporatic current through the system while in motion, which is tripping the fuse.

Opps, I missed this one... Start with the Hunter wheel balancing... I mean if you haven't had the Hunter balance the tires, then you're missing out in general. It's worth the $50 bucks.... A warped rotor will cause a vibration no matter what. It doesn't matter if you're applying the brakes or not. Those rotors spin so fast that any variance in design will show up as a vibration. My rotors are warped too, no brake pedal vibration when slowing down. But when you spin the wheel, you can hear the rotors brush against the pads at the spot of warpage. I would have them turned. My bet, is that you have a combination of problems, none too expensive and none that a hunter machine and a rotor lathe can't fix. Normal wear and tear stuff... These cars are so heavy, and sooo sensitive to wheel balancing imperfections, that it makes you scratch your head sometimes. If you have a vibration issue, always start with a balancing on the hunter machine...... WITH ROAD FORCE TESTING.

Dealerships are to be used as a last resort.... Example: www.lexuspartsonline.com has your power steering pump for $388 bucks, your fender splash guard for $71 bucks "#6 in picture". Estimate $50 for a complete oil change "synthetic oil prices" at worse case, and you're at $509 bucks. You're paying $841 bucks for labor alone. The fender splash guard is easy as pie, so is the oil change. The steering pump is probably a 2-3 hour job at $105 an hour. So that's $824 for all parts and labor for pump only. That leaves $526 for labor only for an oil change and a few simple screws for the splash guard...... Not to pee on your parade, but take this one as lesson learned....dealership is for last resort problems, usually associated with vibration issues requiring skilled tuning of master mechanic. Your best bet is to order your parts online from one of the vendors at www.parts.com "I use the one I mentioned above". Find an indi mechanic who will let you bring your own parts, and that you TRUST. AND, to save yourself a boatload of cash, get some tools and do some of these things yourself. The most expensive part about owning a lexus ls400 is not the parts....it's the LABOR. If the exact same car said "Ford" on it, it would cost probably 40% in labor charges. Just part of the burdon of owning a quote "Lexus"...

Maniek, the antenna movement is normal. My 95 does this as well. On certain stations it will lower itself a few inches, and on other stations, it will raise itself to try and catch the weaker signal. The signal weakness is also normal, unfortunately. For instance, north of town I cannot pull in some stations "especially around the airport", but south of town, I pull in stations that are 50+ miles away. It just depends on the signal strength. On rainy days, I pull in every station, sunny days, not soo many. It sounds to me that your radio is just fine.

I'm not sure how to check that w/o tearing it down again to check. It sounds like to me though that yes, you probably got taken for the heads. However, $1200 for the timing belt is in line with what a lexus dealership would charge you. He probably quoted you from their numbers for the timing belt. I would demand the mechanic prove to you the heads were the problem. Quiz him on how a non-interference engine could be damaged by the timing belt breaking??? I'd be interested to hear his response. Listen to SRK on this, he knows his stuff about these engines, that's for sure.

Blake, was it loose on the tie-rod end, or the wheel end??? Good thing you caught it now, before it caught you!

It sounds like it could be something in the ecu that expands and disconnects, Then cools down and reconnects like a crack in a circuit board or something on those lines. Just a guess, I had a car back in the 80's that did this and it reminds me of my few times going down the road then WHAM totally off, disconnected, shutdown. 5 min. later it would start and I never knew when it would happen again. I agree, it sounds like it's the ecu unit. I'm SUPRISED the lexus dealership didn't check that, but instead spent their time on the throttle body. You say it only happens with the A/C unit on??? I wonder if the alternator is bad. The a/c electrical pull could be too much for the alternator, which kills the car. Maybe the battery is strong enough to restart the car, but once the alternator gets loaded down, it kills it again....

In my opinion, buying an older used european car v. a used older japanesse car is like betting the pot when the house is showing 21 already. Especially when you're looking at the market offerings in the $7k price range. Kewl, unless you're 1) wealthy enough to spend the money at the mechanic, or 2) crafty enough to take on the european mechanical design yourself, I would stick with the japanesse cars.. You mentioned earlier that you don't have the patients to work on your own cars, so why gamble on an old, high mileage european car when we all know the likelyhood of problems is higher than with a japanesse car???? Not to say that you could get lucky, and end up with that perfect MB or BMW. But you have to ask yourself, if it's so perfect, then why is it on Bubba's used car lot? Which probably ended up there via auction, which means where ever it was traded in at, didn't think highly enough of the car to sell it on their lot. So they shipped it out to the auction. In my old job at the credit union, the consumer car guys would pool their repos to sell to used car lots, and auction guys with 1 good car, and 10 crappy cars. If they wanted the 1 good car, they had to buy the 10 crappy cars too. They would usually sell the 1 good car on their lot, then ship out the 10 crappy cars to auctions. I saw plenty of Audi's, MB's, BMW's, Volvo's and VW's head to auction. Sometimes for kicks, I would have the guys give me the keys of one of those cars, for a test drive to lunch. Drove a few Audi S4's, 5 series, 320e's, etc.... After each drive, I was always thankful I had a Japanesse car. Bad suspension, and warped rotors I can deal with. But funky electrical problems, and odd engine noise, no thank you... We even had a 2004 MB 500 SL AMG coupe, repo'd from a Minister "go figure that one??". The car had 10k miles on it. I drove that thing, and yes it was, no pun intended, God Speed quick! But it had to be jumped to get it started everytime. Also, the a/c wouldn't work, and you couldn't get the seat heater to turn off. They were short test drives, as my butt couldn't handle the heat for too long. Reason we had so many repos is because they purchased an underwriting software package that dealerships could use on site. It would approve the loan at the dealership, on our credit union rates. BUT, in typical "hire the cheapest" philosophy, nobody cared to read the manual, and therefore the parameters for approving these loans was unbelievable. I mean, if you couldn't qualify for a Blockbuster card, but could qualify for 125% of the purchase price of a $125k super coupe car....well....you do the math... doesn't take long to read the writting on the wall on that one.. Oh, and Volvo's......burn through light bulbs like a crack addict with a $50 bill.

Sears. I replaced mine with the one in my signature about a year ago, haven't had a single problem. I purchased the best one they had, and it cost about $75 bucks or so. It's a no-brainer changing them out, just take the opportunity to clean the connectors since they're unhooked, and you're good to go!

:whistles:

There is also a throttle cable adjustment you can make. If you take the engine cover off, you will see the throttle cables on the passenger side, towards the firewall. A slight loosening of the throttle anchor bolt to let a tiny bit of slack out, then tighten it back down, might help as well. Sometimes these cables get very snug in their linkage, which makes the transmission think your throttle is more open than it really is, causing it to shift faster into the next gear. This was the case with mine when I bought it from the dealership...smooth shifts w/o a/c on. A bit rough with it on, especially into 2nd and 3rd gear. They loosened the cable a little, and it smoothed it out. But, doing the drain and fill with toyota fluid will help a ton as well!! If your fluid is brown, you're very much ready for some new fluid. I purchased a case from the toyota dealer for like $30 bucks a few months ago. Every oil change, i do the drain and fill as well. The fluid is super clean now, and it shifts perfectly. Took maybe all of 3 drain and fills, over a 9,000 mile span to get it clean red again. Now I just do it becuase I can, and I'm super anal about my car. good advice on the bolt...take it easy on it, you don't want to strip the pan threads...