nc211

Hahaha, yeah, I have a feeling if I could make it to the show, I'd be giving rides to everyone on here, which would be fine by me. Unfortunetly, September is booked solid for me. Going back out to S. California for a few days, NE Oklahoma over Labor day to see my family, scheduled for some fishing with the Bubba's down at the beach "no wives allowed", and Cameron has something set up for my 33rd B'day. I'm pretty much booked solid :( . I'll be with you guys in spirit though! Each page of this thread probably cost me close to a grand each. :( I'm a freakin' idiot...but I hate to lose, and I was commited to winning this one. No way after hours crawling around under the car being eatin alive by bugs was I going to throw in the towel. My suggestion to all who have the 95 and 96 models that have suffered the dredded Off Throttle Shock syndrome from the bad ECM units.....If you replace the computer, have the center bearing section of the driveshaft inspected for damage as well.

www.parts.com drill down to lexus. you'll see quite a few places. I use lexuspartsonline myself. never had a problem, and save a ton of money. One thing you can try, is price it out on the internet including shipping, and then call your dealership and see if they'll match the price. Saves you time in waiting for the part to arrive.

One more time at killing this thread off with an official conclusion. This is the one though, I saw the damage and cause first hand. Got that car back from the dealership. As suspected, it was the driveshaft. The mechanic took me up to the shop to show me the old driveshaft. On the differential section of the shaft, right at the center bearing section, the U joint was binding quite badly. Transmission ______X______Differential. It was on the differential side of the X above. He showed me how the tranny side would move back and forth flawlessly, then he slid off the slipper-sleeve on the differential side, handed me a shop rag, and said "move this side around." There was no argument, it was binding up badly. Felt like as if there were ballbearings in there that were all grinded up. Just drove the car 400+ miles to the beach and back....It's fixed fella's. No doubt about it...it's completely fixed. The car has never been soo smooth and quiet as it is now. I've never driven it like this. Remember me asking and saying that I always had a low humming noise at around 80 and thought my exhaust was probably getting old "many many many threads ago"? Nope, it was the center bearing U section bindings vibrating, creating the huming noise. Now, there is no noise of the car's operation until about 90 mph, when I can start to hear the engine hum. It's quite spooky really. I can't judge my speed anymore by sounds of the car. 85 mph now feels like 45 mph. Total bill for the new driveshaft "including new flex-couplings", parts and labor was a cool $1,000. That hurt. It's pretty obvious now that I've thrown a bunch of money at this problem and it ended up being the last piece to the puzzle. I've pretty much got a brand new 95's LS400 in terms of suspension, brakes, mounts and driveshaft. Although now that the car operates as designed, those Napa Cheapo Rotors on the rear are really warped. But, got my $100 bucks worth out of them over the past 12 months. Probably have them turned and then replace them in a few months. So...drive on... Blake: it didn't fix the lurch though amigo. So your theory of it being in the differential is probably right. My theory was wrong. I won't be hunting for this problem anymore... The wobble is fixed. NC211...done. B)

I completely agree with Thread....100%. This is one of those times when the saying "if you want it done right, do it yourself" can come in handy. If done incorrectly, problems could definetly mount. All it takes is about a cup of seafoam poured into the warmed up old oil, and let the car IDLE for 10 mintues. Don't drive the car, don't rev the car, just let it idle at it's warmed up rev's. I wouldn't put the seafoam in if the car is at cold idle. I don't think seafoam at 1,300 rpms on a cold engine is a good idea, at all. And the threads on the oil pan.... strip the oil pan threads, and it's $600 for a new one. You could tap the thread, but the likelyhood of an oil leak is pretty high. Plus, the LAST thing you would ever want is for your oil pan plug to fall out, or wiggle itself loose when you're on the highway.... That would be the end of the engine. Plus, this is one of those repairs, in my opinion, you want a Lexus dealership to do. It's worth paying the premium in my mind, knowing if it was done incorrectly and results in engine failure, you've got the dealership on the hook, and not Bubba down at ACME Autoland.

Right now I just hope it makes him too drunk to speak in public. God knows back in the day, it did for me. Some say it's sad that I can receite the label word for word on demand. "This is the famouse Budweiser beer, we know of no other....." But, that's for a different thread. I've thought about some minor modifications here and there. But with my car and it's history, it probably can't handle it. I must say, the picture of your car with those wheels on it, has opened up my eyes to the SC400 as a second car, down the road. Sure would be nice to wake up in the morning and decide "sedan or coupe today?" And, knowing I'd have both, fully restored, for way less than the price of just one new one. But, got a house to buy first, then furniture....and possibly a trip to Europe next spring for our 1st anniversary.

'course Jibby, your experience with them could have something to do with the 9,000,000 HP you're running throught that beast!

It just depends on what the market is like at the end of the lease term, car's condition and owner's satisfaction. If you lease a nice car when interest rates were in the 10% range to have a more manageable personal cash flow, and you have a SET residual value of about half the sticker price at the end of the lease term, then when the time comes and IF interest rates have floored like they were 18 months ago....you like the car, you know the car's history, you know it's dependablility.....Then by all means go to the bank and get a 36 month loan and keep on going for about the same payment as the lease payment. I don't agree with your mistake #1 entirely.... it just depends on the market at the time of lease termination and the residual value. Would I ever buy an off-lease car that wasn't mine? No way. "As for the damage, I don't know why someone would pay all the money you pay to drive a luxury car, and NOT get damage fixed immediately anyways" Got kids?? Your car isn't everything to you? You're saving up for a big purchase at the time and would rather wait to fix the blemish? Don't mind a few blemishes because you know once you fix it, Murphy's Law will put it right back to previous? I agree that you'll pay for it in deminished value, but that value is also diluted by other factors that might not make that $ 1,500 repair worth it, especially if it means something else in your life needs the money that is more important. All I'm saying is with the lease option, you could be in one of those situations when it's time to turn the car back in when life is calling for those funds to go somewhere else. Steve, you and me are like Ying and Yang when this thread appears. I swear it, we agree on pretty much everything but this issue..... Of course, I'm right and you're wrong! :P That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Natsueo: Do yourself a favor, go find a rarely used one so you can avoid the depreciation, and finance the hell out of it and enjoy.... Hahahaha..

Mario, that's why you're here, and will probably be on here for a very long time....These guys know these cars better than the manufacturer does! I'll make a prediction here, from my own personal experience.... You'll suffer a bill from the dealership for something simple.....at which time you'll say to yourself "for that kind of money, I could have purchased all the tools required, and parts, spent 2 hours of time in the garage fixing it, and save myself a butt load of money." If you're on here, it's only a matter of time before you'll be at Sears buying tools. When I bought mine, I had a basic socket set. Now, I've got two lifts, air compressor, air tools "including a air hammer that nobody will let me use!" and a bunch of other tools...All this for less than the price of a dealership standard brake service. The thing about these cars, is that about 80% of the repairs needed are so simple and easy to do, that you can do them yourself.

did you do the whole turn left right thing with the front wheels in the air, and engine off? That can help too. But if it suddenly happened, then I bet you're on the right track to look at the tie rods and such first. Do you feel any binding spots in your steering, or it is just hard to steer now? If it's just hard to steer in general, then I would take Thread's advice and pull your solenoid and check the screen. You could have dislodged some gunk and it's stuck in the screen of the solenoid. But if you feel a binding, or notchiness at certain angles of your steering, then I bet it's something in the steering components. It doesn't take much to clog that little filter in the solenoid. The screen at the bottom of my power steering fluid container has a massive hole in it, basically making it useless. It was covered in a layer of black gunk, which ran through the whole system. I've had to clean the solenoid screen a few times, and will have to do it again soon. I need some advice myself on an inline steering fluid screen so I don't have to replace that resivour. Since you'll be snooping around down there anyway, might as well check the solenoid... Can't hurt to check, since you'll be there anyway.

what you've probably done is not necessarly flooded the engine, but probably have put too much fuel in the injectors by resetting the fuel pump so many times with flipping it on and off. Mine will do this as well sometimes too when I do that. The reason why older german cars need to be driven is because their fuel system would actually allow fuel to drip into the engine as it sat. Japoneese cars will actually pull the fuel back a little when you turn it off, to prevent this drip. But when you turn it on, the pump pushes the fuel back to the injector with the anticipation of iginition. If you don't do the ignition phase, and keep pulling and pushing the fuel, you can throw off the balance a little for that ignition. Nothing major, and might require a few extra cranks to ignite, but doesn't do anything harmful. Just retards the starting a bit.

That says to me that your slider pins are sticking as already mentioned. Your pad is dragging on disc enough to heat it up as you drive, and then eventually squeak due to the constant friction. I think you have your answer to your question. Your pad is dragging, probably due to dirty slider pins on the caliper housing. It's not a difficult proceedure to fix at all. Any shop can clean and grease them for you in no time at all.

For me it's all about the ride, the noise, and more importantly, the longevity of those two. I like a smooth, soft ride, but not floaty. I also hate rattles. My experience with fords over the years have been decent in those categories, but not Lexus quality. It's my opinion that Lexus has mastered the marriage of a smooth engine to a smooth transmission. No noises that sound like premature wear, no whinning noises or anything like that. Even when the service hasn't been good on the Lexus. The LS400 just seems to move effortlessly, and fords seem to labor a bit more.

Aside from the number crunching and deduction benefits "although when you lease in a business name, you are not supposed to be allowed to deduct depreciation", the main reason why I won't ever lease again is due to parking lot battle scars. When you lease, you're basically just renting the car. And if it gets damaged, you have to fix it before turning it back in. Perfect example is my previous 01 Maxima I leased for 3 years. A hurricane sent a medium size tree branch onto the roof of the car. It hit right where the roof and the rear pillar meet, which made it impossible to fix via a dent wizard. It was impossible to get behind the dent, and it damaged the actual weld behind the sheet metal. I was looking at a $1,500 fix. Luckily it didn't brake the paint, so the inspector KID missed it. But if someone scraps your bumper in a parking lot and you don't catch them, then it's on you. Plus, 15k a year mileage is actually a premium in todays terms. Most leases deals are at 12k miles a year. Also, read the fine print on how much money is required up front at lease signing. I've noticed it's been going up lately. Now if you really like the car, and plan on buying it after the lease, then the residual can come into play, but most auto makers these days have already hedged that number which makes it difficult if not impossible to negotiate when the time comes. I learned that lesson too with the Maxima. I negotiated a strong residual value at the initial lease signing, but who knew they were going to throw in a better engine, new headlights and body improvements the following year in 2002? So the depreciation just killed the value of the car, and I couldn't give the thing away, and they wouldn't negotiate at all "except give me a $500 credit towards another Nissan lease." I thought about that, but when the DMX Rapper, Mr. T wannabe looking salesman at Southern States Nissan here in Raleigh screamed out across the parking lot, and I quote word for word here, "hey whitey, you gonna come off that beater and gets hooked up on a bling model?"..... !Removed! boy here showed him my finger, handed the keys to the manager and went to Johnson Lexus and bought my current LS400, for cheaper. Long story short, the lower monthly payments of a lease could come out in a wash if you have penalties for other's mistakes down the road. Also, test drive the RX400h first. I'm currently driving one as a loaner and I find it loud and buzzy compared to the normal ones. Plus, mileage doesn't seem to be that much better if you ask me.

exactly why i have a new lower oil pan...thanks to walmart stripping the threads on the old one..... i change my own oil from then on.

You can find seafoam in most auto part stores, like pep-boys, autozone, etc.... It's in a medal can, you can't miss it. MAKE SURE you buy the regular seafoam though, not the one that is for transmissions. Just check the can, it's easy to tell. A mechanic might do this, or they might not. However, in all honesty man... It's super super super easy to do. Just pour in about a cup of seafoam into the oil slot on the engine. Start the car, let it idle. Then just take off the undercover "12 bolts maybe?" with a 14mm ratchet, undo the bolt on the drain pan and let it flow out into your container. Pour in 2 quarts of new oil, let that drain out into your container. Buy a filter cap attachment for your wrench, reach up and loosen the filter, let it drain into your bucket.... Put new filter on. Put plug back in the pan, and refill with 5.4 quarts. All done, and makes you feel good! Or, just go to the mechanic, pour in the seafoam, let it idle...then have them change the oil, but tell them to pour a quart or two through first to flush out the crud. Warning, do not put a ton of torque on the pan bolt when putting it back in. Just make sure it's tight, not super mega tight, so you don't strip the threads. I think it's 24lbs of torque.

Mr. Blake....Mr. Blake????? Can I have a hall pass to use the restroom? Hahaha!!! ;) Congrats Amigo! I'm a little late to the parade here, and just noticed this thread! So, you've been "made" now!

I tell ya' man, Johnson Lexus here in Raleigh has really taken good care of me. Even though I have the mechanic's phone number commited to memory, and it's been a frustrating and expensive process trying to fix a vibration problem with my car. They have done a lot of other fixes "on the house". Plus, they have some of the nicest loaners to use. They loan out the new IS, RX and ES models. And I think the GS and LS for new GS and LS owners. I really can't say enough good things about my experience with them over the past couple of years. They've kind of adopted my car and share the same determination as I have to try and fix the wobble problem. Don't care too much for their used car sales force though...A bit snobby at times. But their service department is top notch, across the board. And on a hot day, I stick to it like a cheap pleather fraternity couch. It breathes like Keith Richards running the Boston Marathon... But I love it. I dig the "creaks" in the winter. Kind of reminds me of an old mercedes.

Wanted to update this one. I've got the 400h again while my car is in the shop. I've had it for a few days. Although it does make me feel quite "green friendly" when sitting in a traffic jam, I have a hard time driving it smoothly. Maybe it's just that I'm not use to the electronic throttle on these, since my 95 LS doesn't have that feature. But I find when I want to accelerate a little, the electronic motors kick in with the engine, and it kicks. I stand by my opinion that it has too many things coming on and off, and power being switched back and forth. But, I'm use to the 4 speed V8 of the LS. Which hardly kicks down in gears unless you demand it to. The 400h however does have some serious get up and go power, especially on the freeway when you want to pass. That thing is like a turbo when those electric motors kick in to pass. 60 to 85 takes no time at all! It is pretty cool though when I pull into the parking garage at the office, and I'm in "stealth" mode. It's funny to see peoples reactions when they turn around, and BAM there I am, waiting for them to get out of my way. It freaks them out, because they didn't hear me. If they could just smooth out the transistions between the engine engagements, and maybe add a little more rubber to quiet it down, it would be perfect. However, I don't like the soft leather seats. I find that it grabs my pants too much, which make my boxers ride up :o . The fabric of my pants doesn't slide on the leather. Hit the brakes = you be a diggin' out your shorts.

I use the same, mobile 1, 5w30. I don't use up any oil, but I don't drive very hard either. During the last two oil changes, I've put in about a cup of seafoam in with the old oil, let the car idle for about 10 minutes, then pull the plug and let all that black as midnight oil drain out. Once it's drained out, I pour in about 2 quarts of new oil to push out any of the old oil still sitting in the bottom of the pan. Basically until the new oil is draining out of the plug. I've noticed a large difference in the idle, but more importantly, the noises at start up. I use to have the ticking noise too. But now, no ticking noise at all. Of course I also seafoamed the intake a few months back, and going to do it again when it cools down a bit. Point of the story, at 116k, I burn no oil at all, and since doing the 1 cup of seafoam, no ticking noises. Might be something to think about doing kewl. Don't rev the engine, just let it idle for about 10 to 15 minutes, drain out old oil, flush out with 2 quarts of new oil, and refill. Might help amigo? It worked for me, that's for sure.

Anyone have their front seats shift from left to right when turning, maybe 1.4 inch or so shift? My mechanic told me they use to be able to just buy the part, which are those little plastic wheels the seats travel on. But now he said you have to buy the entire assembly instead, which run like $350 bucks and require the entire seat to be dismantled. Anyone have a jiffy-on-the-spot fix for this problem? Or know what part he was talking about and what the number might be?

Enough that would require me to drive this car for another 10 years to get my money's worth! Way too much, but I look at it like this: I'm still under the $20k mark, and basically have a new LS400 "in the suspension and mechanical operations aspect". Will I ever get my money back? Hell no. Has it been worth all of the frustration and expense? Yeah, for the most part. Everytime I drive the car after driving anything else, I'm always amazed how smooth, quiet and comfortable it is. She's old enough to be considered a classic now, and you don't see too many out there of that model year anymore "in my area". Plus, I've learned A LOT about cars in general, which will pay off for many years down the road. Figure wise? Probably $3,500 to $4,000 in parts and labor. Paid $14,200 for the car over 2 years ago. What really saved me was having Lexus pay for the new engine computer, and the dealership paying for the 90k service when I purchased the car. The computer service was like $2,100 bucks, and the 90k service was like $1,250. Everything I've done has been an upgrade to the car. Alex, don't worry about your car having to go through all of this. I think it's safe to say that mine was one in a million. It wasn't wrecked, just driven like a realtor's car. And most of my parts have turned out to not be needed in the first place. A lot of my suspension parts were actually in pretty good shape. I just had the opportunity to get all of them at once for a rediculously low price, in comparison to normal prices. Plus, I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. Yes, I'm talking about the drive shaft assembly from the tranny to the differential. It connects in three places 1)tranny, 2) center connection 3) differential. Over time, as with everything on this car, the rubber connectors wear out. Mine suffered that shock problem, which advanced the wear and tear.

I'm back......... :chairshot: Well, after replacing the tires, and all the other crap involved over the past 200 pages of this thread, the wobble came back, but in a different manner. It was a very fast wobble, with a very low frequency hum. Long story short, as I have been saying all along in about a dozen other threads......The driveshaft is bad. It's not just the flexcouplings, but the whole damn thing, from the sleeve, to whatever else. So, the dealership cut me a deal "matched it to the online guys" for $680 for the whole entire shaft assemble, from flexcoupling to flexcoupling and all parts in between. This time there was no doubt it was the shaft. It was getting worse and worse too. I had to replace it, even if I wanted to sell the car, I couldn't hide it from a potential seller. Plus, it's not my style to screw over someone else like that. When I asked my mechanic if this was a common replacement, he said "when they were covered under the warranty, yes, we've replaced quite a few. Outside of warranty? Nope, too expensive for most people." This is no doubt a problem that stemmed from the off-throttle shock syndrome my car had for many many years. So.....it looks like it is finally over. He did tell me I have one of the nicestest 95-97 LS400's on the road. Should be, for all the new parts it has! Hahahaha. Blake, I will post up if this fixed the lurching too. There should be no slack in the shaft now at all. So we'll see... Should get the car back next week.

OmarG, welcome to the club amigo! What you are asking is probably one of the most common problems with these cars. You would be best served to run a "search" for "clunking noise". It is your control arms, and/or strut rods. Whatever part it is, 99% positive it is suspension related. Your ticking noise is your valves in the engine. Again, run a search for ticking. Don't know if your timing belt has been changed in the last 90k miles, but you might want your local lexus dealership to run your vin number for you to check the history. Sometimes using synthetic oil will reduce the ticking noise a bit. But if it's too badly out of shape, you might need to have the valve adjustment service done on the car. This is where they actually replace shims in the engine block for the valves. It's not cheap. But, nothing is on these cars, trust me, I know! ;) Welcome to the club. Now grap yourself a cold beer and search until you realize you've learned stuff about your car that you never thought you needed to know. Then come back to us and we'll calm you back down. B)

Mine is back at the dealership right now for this, again. Matt, welcome to the club amigo, you'll find everything you could ever possibly want to know, and a bunch of stuff that you probably don't want to know here as well. We're a group of jokers, but we know these cars inside and out. The only problem I have had with mine over the 2+ years I've owned it is due to vibration issues. The engine is perfect, except for a leaking thermostat seal. One of the biggest issues with the 95 and 96 model years was with the engine's computer. Some had a problem of stalling, others had a problem of a jerky feel around 40 mph when you take your foot of the gas. Other than that, it's pretty much normal wear and tear, which these cars handle better than most on the market. Mine had the jerky sensation in the gear box from the computer. It had it since day one I think, which has translated into a problem with the driveshaft area, which created a vibration problem, which started me down the path of trying to fix with new suspension components in my signature below. It is at the dealer right now, with a certified lexus specialist flown in to take a look. One thing you'll find with owning one of these cars, is that your dealer will not discriminate between the new owners and the used owners. They simply treat you like someone who just purchased a top of the line LS430. Dealer service has been the best in the game, as far as I'm concerned. They're not cheap, not even close. And sometimes they'll recommend replacing something when all it really needs is a good cleaning. But when they start a ticket to repair something, they'll stay on it until it's fixed. They send you on your way, and the problem comes back a few months later, take it back, and it's still on the original ticket. One suggestion: Respect it's age, and realize that it will have a creak here, squeek there. If you don't, you'll go insane!! Trust me...... just do a search for "Wobble" and NC211.... These guys know what I'm talking about...and it still is on going, although getting closer and closer to being resolved for good. Another suggestion: www.parts.com And another: If you can, buy true OEM Lexus parts from one of the vendors of parts.com. If you buy off the shelf parts from your local auto-world, you'll notice it in the car's operation. These cars are soooo well built, with top notch quality parts and design, that mixing parts can create headaches..... Read my thread about my brake experience with aftermarket rotors. It was a nightmare. I think I'm probably at the top of the list for "learn like an idiot" award on here. I've attempted to short cut so many different ways, and none of it has worked. And just one more: Have the dealership run the vin number. You're looking to see if the timing belt and water pump has been replaced around the 90k mark. It's the biggie service that you want done. You can buy these two parts from the vendors on parts.com and have an indi mechanic do it, saving yourself a butt load of cash. Mine is a 1995 Black LS400 with 116k miles. Purchased in April 2004 w/ 83k miles. Been up and down the east coast, never stranded, not one time.

Front rotors were replaced? How long ago, and did this vibration begin before or after the new rotors were installed? The reason I am asking is because Lexus rotors have two, small, brass set screws to perfectly center the rotor on the hub during installation. If the screws are not there, or you have aftermarket rotors that don't have these two centering holes....then my money is that your rotors are off balance. I put some cheapo Napa's on mine a few months ago that did not have these holes, any my car did the exact same thing as yours is doing now. Especially on the freeway, it would shake horribly.