nc211

I agree with Swo.... The RX would start in stealth mode often "Ready light". If you sat long enough with the components on, then the engine would kick on. I think the one I had with only 3.500 miles probably needed a new car adjustment in the operations. Either way, it still spoked me with all of that on/off/combo mumbo-jombo stuff...

A few hundred dollars for a stick on sticker on the door.....that's pretty much it.

Oh dear God...here it comes......

Kewl...stealer is dealer.

Mine is not aftermarket. The dealership replaced mine under the recall notice. I have the paperwork. Honestly Kewl, I wouldn't worry about it until it absolutly breaks down completly. I mean, replacing the starter is no small task, and probably costs close to what the market value of the car is now...it's simply not worth it. As long as the car starts, even if it takes a couple extra turns of the key, then I say "go with it". Our cars are so old, I think its' wise to save that money for a down-payment on a newer one when the bills rack up to the point of no return. I know I'm spewing the anti-lexi repair lingo here, but you've got to call a spade-a-spade sometimes. I'm pretty much done fixing mine except for a messed up drive shaft. After that...no more. I want a 430, and this 11 year old 400 is getting in my way...

Yep...got it now, always had it too. it's a thump sound when the engine engages. The starter only has about 40,000 miles on it too. I use to think it was a busted motor mount, but those are new and I still get it every now and then. I haven't had the other thing though with the engine not starting and going silent.

Sony, you can't receive them either. I get this error... "This message can not be sent because the recipient has their personal messenger disabled or their personal messenger inbox is full. This personal message has not been sent" May I ask...is that tech you use at Johnson a very tall man? I refer to him as God, because if it is him you use, you are in the hands of a LS400 God. You have to trust a tech who owns LS400's personally as well... His initials are D.M. Now is the time to send a polite email to the sevice center and request the senior tech go for a ride with you as well. Not to knock Lexus service centers, but they usually asign these types of problems to the "new guy" who 99% of the time thinks it the wheels. Go for the senior tech only at this point. Make friends with him, and tell him he can have the car for as long as he wants. They'll find the problem. Exactly. With my old car I purposefully chose the technician from Johnson Lexus who had been there for the longest time. He was more familiar with the car's issues than the other techs who were fresh out of training. nc211--What I meant was for you to PM me with your email address if possible, since I can receive yet not send. Scott

I think the M series Infiniti has, in general, is sweet! I'm a Nissan fan myself, have had two great cars from them over the years "92' Sentra SE-R and 01' Maxima SE". I love the get up and go they have. I would not have a problem buying a "slighly used" Nissan product at all. I agree the depreciation hit is too much to take on the new ones though. Honestly, I think the 02' and 03' Q45's will soon be excellent buys! It's tough to ignore a 340 HP V8 and all of those gadgets for the low $20K's w/ less than 50k miles. Hard to beat. I really like the first M45 series they put out a few years ago. You NEVER see them on the street! It's one of those designs that people either like or hate, no real middle ground. I like the wedge shape of the first ones. I would not be against buying one of those either. I have solid faith in Nissan. Don't particulary care for some of their design characteristics of recent, but have no questions about thier build quality holding up.

Now is the time to send a polite email to the sevice center and request the senior tech go for a ride with you as well. Not to knock Lexus service centers, but they usually asign these types of problems to the "new guy" who 99% of the time thinks it the wheels. Go for the senior tech only at this point. Make friends with him, and tell him he can have the car for as long as he wants. They'll find the problem.

Scott, I typically won't post up my email address in the general forums. Under my profile, do you see the option to "send email to member"? You should beable to do that function?? Or if you don't mind, create a junk email on yahoo or something like that, post it up, and I"ll respond from my email..

We have the same car and gremlins...just came back from the beach...mine has this too "still..damnit" and it is definetly in the driveline! I just had the car aligned and balanced at the dealership, so it's not the tires. Plus, all the time the dealership had mine over the wobble, I know the rims are ok too. But how I KNOW it's in the driveline is due to those flex-couplings I messed with a few weeks back.... If you recall, I bought some ebay ones, and had them put on. A few days later when I was finally able to hit the highway, I noticed a very fast vibration matched with a very low rumble noise from the rear of the car. I took the car back to the indi-shop and had the old ones put back on. Well, going against my last post in my thread about the flex-couplings, Now I'm not so sure the ebay ones are bad. Because my car is now doing that again, just not as badly. It's very noticable, it's in your seat bottom, and it's from the rear. Here is what I think is the problem: 1) My guess is the 6 bolts that match the shaft to the differential are torque spected. I think my indi-shop did not use correct torque specs when tightening the bolts "some at 20lb's, some at 25lb's." This would cause a misalignment probably... 2) There are 3 mounts for the rear differential. Two are on the rear and are rubber insulated...Mine are new. But the third is on the passenger side and mounts the differential up to the bottom of the car. I have a feeling they are rubber insulated as well....Mine is original. 3) When I turn the rear section of the driveshaft by hand, there is about a 1/2 inch play. When I turn the front section of the driveshaft, there is NO play. This makes me think it's somewhere in the spider bearing section of the shaft "the center section where they both meet." I am wondering if the indi-shop did not damage this when they replaced the flex-couplings to begin with. I bet they dropped the rear shaft, let it hang for a few minutes, then reattached it. This could have possible put so much weight on the center-bearing section that something was bent. Either way, Sweet, I stand behind you 110% on this one...It is in the shaft.... I will know more later. I am going to reinstall the ebay coupling on the rear of the car myself, and make sure the torque settings are perfect...will report back later...

I have a 95' w/ 114k+ on the clock. I have spent some time and money bringing her back to new riding status "previous owner was a corporation....many different drivers". Every penny I've spent, every minute I've invested in learning the car, has ALL been worth it! You're looking at a 8 year old car. Take it from a guy with an 11 year old car that doesn't have the updated toys the 98-00 models have...buy the car and pamper yourself! Especially knowing you paid less than 99% of all new and slightly used cars on the market today...and...yours is nicer! You'll love the car...Best car I've ever owned and refuse to get rid of it "because I can't find a better car out there, except maybe the LS430". I've looked at Infiniti, MB's, Acura's, etc... And some have nicer features, some have a sportier feel, but overall experience puts the LS400 on top. Everytime I drive another car "even other Lexus models", I am always smiling when I get back into mine. Just something about these cars.... Caution: 99% chance that once you own one of these cars, you'll be RUINED when it comes to all others. They wear onto you like your favorite baseball glove. This is truely the first car I have ever owned where the driving characteristics, comfort and overall INTERIOR experience outweights all other benefits. Just truely an amazing car. There is a reason why they're ranked the best used car money can buy, and why you see a lot of owners' of car lots driving them for themselves. Trust us, this is one automobile purchase that you will never regret doing. You'll have some pricey repair bills probably in the next 25,000 miles, but you'll still be giggling to yourself knowing that you drive a car that still feels like a $50,000 automobile, but only paid teen$ for.... LS400 = best kept secret in the used automobile world.

HAHAHA THAT'S THE ONE!!!

I would also advise to NOT turn it on anymore. If it's got so much load resistance on it now to stall the entire engine, then I can only imagine the amount of strain it's putting on all the other components...aka....drive belt and possibly the timing belt.

The engine on, off and/or working together with the batteries to run the car. Not saying it was bad, but just a little different for my tastes. There is a little read-out in the dash that indicates when power is on, engine on, and when battery is being recharged. You could feel the engine kicking on while in motion, and off, and on, and off again. Just sort of spooked me a bit. New technology fears I guess. I would want to see how they hold up over the years before I would consider buying one for myself. I popped the hood and was like "good lord, now that looks expensive". Shut the hood and went inside mumbling to myself "sears doesn't have tools for that sucker." One thing I did notice that I liked A LOT was the transmission. I believe it's one of those continous variable band drives, and not actual gears. It always felt like it was in the same gear, just different aspect ratios applied in conjunction to the gas pedal. That was very cool to me. On a scale of 1 -10....I'd say about a 7.5. The engine kicking on and off, matched with a very noticable shutter when doing so, would bother me tremendously. That and the fear of blowing a circuit or fuse that would cost thousands...

You know I won't say a thing about you being a Subby fan! I love those cars, especially the fully loaded turbo sedan. I've always found their design lines to be very clean and classy. And not to mention their ability to tackle any weather, at any speed. Great cars!! Just make sure you have Michelin's on them for the best performance...hahahaha!!! Right SWO??? Hahahaha....and it continues...

I had my 95' LS400 in the shop Saturday for a balance/alignment. They gave me a new RX 400h as the loaner. First hybrid I've ever driven, or been in for that matter. Interesting car to say the least. Although I was not really impressed with the overall operational smoothness of the car, Lexus is definetly on the right track. When the engine kicks in, there is a very very very noticable thump and vibration noise. It sounds like a gas-powered golf cart. Not bashing the 400h drivers on here at all, it was a very nice car, and is a very nice car. But I'm sure it just takes some getting use-to before total acceptance. I was not impressed with all the things coming on, going off, switching over and such. Just seems to be too many "things" going on and off to convince me the car will be as reliable as should be for a Lexus. But nonetheless, neat car! Makes you feel wierd when you're sitting at a light, and nothing is running, then press the gas and still, nothing running, then thug/stutter/shimmy/ the engine is on. I will say this....it freakin' hauls tail!! That is for sure! Very fast! Lexus is on the right track, and I bet in a couple of years, they'll have all the bugs worked out of it and they will definetly be far ahead of the competition in terms of operational smoothness... Question...I wonder how much money the battery cost to replace it??? I bet an arm, leg, kidney and 1st born naming rights... hahaha

Steve, getting this error when trying to upload pictures... "The requested file upload failed because suitable permissions have not been enabled on the 'uploads' directory. Please contact the board administrator and inform them of this error."

Being the son of a man would want's to put a trailor hitch on his coffin when the day comes, I can assure you a trailor hitch can be put on anything. But, I agree with Swo, anything with substantial weight probably shouldn't be towed with the LS. However, having said that, I present to you a picture our good buddy Blake sent to me a few months ago that put me in tears! B) CRAP: Error on uploading has occured "and NC211 internal error on spelling" Got this message "The requested file upload failed because suitable permissions have not been enabled on the 'uploads' directory. Please contact the board administrator and inform them of this error." Will try and post it later....it's a freakin' riot! Blake, you know the one I'm talking about....the boat!

I agree 95%. SK knows my past experience with this issue, and I would recommend listening to SK about the Brembo's. But if you don't want the ones he recommends, then by all means, pay the extra "from the online vendors, not your dealership" and buy true toyota oem rotors, especially for your fronts. The rears aren't as important "since most of the braking weight is on the front", but don't go too far from oem spec on those either. Either Brembo's or OEM, that's my recommendation. I have some Mountains on mine, and they're ok, but the driver's side front has a hot spot that can't seem to "turn out". 1st thing in the morning backing down the driveway, that brake screams! Have oem pads, new fitment kit, shim, toyota grease, the whole shebang. oh well, small complaint...

As you guys might know, I recently messed with the flex-couplings "ebay brand" and had problems with the knock-off brand. However, they did firm up the driveshaft quite a bit. But, I think the slack might be in the center spider connector, or known as the center bearings. Mine has a that characteristic too, and still did after the new ones where on. Not very bad, but it's there. I chalk it up to being rear wheel drive and probably designed into the thing to make the whole system last for so long. A little slack to give the system enough "free room" to engage everything properly when the system has aged and racked up the miles.

Hahahaha....I'm going to start my own organization called PETPA "People for the Excessive Treatment of People with Autophile disorders" and I shall be member #211....hahaha

Then everyone will whine about how HUMID it is outside due to all the automobiles "spewing" steam into the air! Hahahahaa..... Next thing you know, we're all riding in horse and buggies again. Now granted they'll be Lexus buggies with navigation, leather, and tickle your feathers seat massagers....hahahaa

Have you messed with your brake rotors at all? Replaced them with non-oem recently? If so, do they have the two centering screws? Or maybe one of the screws finally came loose "they're very soft metal". I know when I was going up the learning curve myself with brake rotors, a set I had that did not have those centering screws made the car shake badly too, at random times, sometimes not too badly, sometimes horribly, like driving with flat tires......

Final update for a few weeks......the vibration was the flex couplings.....in short...I retract my previous statement that you should buy the ebay ones and save yourself a ton of money, they're simply NO GOOD. It appears to be in the bolt sections. You will see in the pictures that there are raised sections on each side. The ebay ones are not to spec after all, which caused the drive shaft to be mis-aligned, and vibrated like crazy. I tried to "one-up" good ole Bicolini on this one, and learned my lesson...the student is not ready to take on the teacher! I shall take my seat in the back and put on my "dunce cap" now....