Reyi

Hello everyone, I haven't posted here in awhile but just as an update, I still love my 94 LS400. Anyway, I've searched the forums and from what I can tell, I need to replace my engine and tranny mounts. My symptoms are the car feels like it's misfiring sometimes. I can feel the car shaking at a stop, through my chair, the wheel, and shifter. I did the put it in park and accelerate slowly test, and I did notice an increase in shake as the RPMs approached 2300. Anyway, unless someone thinks it may be something different, I would appreciate an answer to this question. How safe is it to drive with worn mounts like this? I sort of need to know ASAP because I'm planning to drive a few hundred miles out of town tomorrow evening and I'd rather not do it in a vehicle that is going to have the engine fall out or explode. My understanding is that the mounts are still able to hold the engine, but the rubber, or bushings, or whatever is/are worn and that causes the unpleasant vibrations. I've been driving the car around town still (for a bit over a week), because I'm honestly just short on the money needed to have them all replaced. If it's unsafe for me to be driving at high speeds though, and especially at long distances, then i'll be forced to take my wife's van on this trip. That will suck. Someone please let me know what the ramifications are likely to be if I take my car on a 400 mile round trip going around 75-80mph the whole way. Also, if anyone thinks it could be something else, I'd certainly appreciate a heads up on that too. Thanks, Eric

Hello everyone, I haven't posted here in awhile but just as an update, I still love my 94 LS400. Anyway, I've searched the forums and from what I can tell, I need to replace my engine and tranny mounts. My symptoms are the car feels like it's misfiring sometimes. I can feel the car shaking at a stop, through my chair, the wheel, and shifter. I did the put it in park and accelerate slowly test, and I did notice an increase in shake as the RPMs approached 2300. Anyway, unless someone thinks it may be something different, I would appreciate an answer to this question. How safe is it to drive with worn mounts like this? I sort of need to know ASAP because I'm planning to drive a few hundred miles out of town tomorrow evening and I'd rather not do it in a vehicle that is going to have the engine fall out or explode. My understanding is that the mounts are still able to hold the engine, but the rubber, or bushings, or whatever is/are worn and that causes the unpleasant vibrations. I've been driving the car around town still (for a bit over a week), because I'm honestly just short on the money needed to have them all replaced. If it's unsafe for me to be driving at high speeds though, and especially at long distances, then i'll be forced to take my wife's van on this trip. That will suck. Someone please let me know what the ramifications are likely to be if I take my car on a 400 mile round trip going around 75-80mph the whole way. Also, if anyone thinks it could be something else, I'd certainly appreciate a heads up on that too. Thanks, Eric

You might want to consider the Firestone LH30s. They share technology with the Bridgestone Turanzas but they cost a hell of a lot less. I've only had them for about 10,000 miles now, but they've been great thusfar. The reviews at TireRack seem to be good as well.

I'm pretty sure the earlier poster was referring to using RainX BRAND wipers, not the fluid. I've used the RainX wipers on a few cars and thought they were great on everything except my current 94 LS400. The left wiper never seems to want to remain in its proper place. It slides down the arm very slowly over time, so that every month or so I have to pull it back into place (otherwise the bottom of the blade hits the bottom of the windshield and causes the blade to skip). Other than that, though, the RainX brand wipers are awesome, and used in conjunction with RainX brand windshield washer fluid (much easier to use than the regular hand-apply fluid) the visibility is phenomenal.

That IS pretty darn funny :P

I was a rather independant teen and purchased the vehicle myself, so they couldn't exactly take it away. Besides, now I'm 26, I drive a nice used Lexus (under 100mph), and I just graduated from law school. I suppose I turned out alright, so they couldn't have messed up too bad! B) ← ... but just for the record, they were really *BLEEP*ed (I didn't now you couldn't say p"i"s"s"e"d" on this forum... that's crazy!!! :chairshot:

I was a rather independant teen and purchased the vehicle myself, so they couldn't exactly take it away. Besides, now I'm 26, I drive a nice used Lexus (under 100mph), and I just graduated from law school. I suppose I turned out alright, so they couldn't have messed up too bad! B) ← ... but just for the record, they were really *BLEEP*ed :chairshot:

I was a rather independant teen and purchased the vehicle myself, so they couldn't exactly take it away. Besides, now I'm 26, I drive a nice used Lexus (under 100mph), and I just graduated from law school. I suppose I turned out alright, so they couldn't have messed up too bad! B)

I don't remember exactly how much I ended up paying (the ticket is in a box somewhere, maybe after I move I can tell you). The ticket required me to appear in court (I was not taken downtown though). When I got there I was charged a bunch of different fines and court costs. Apparently I lucked out though, the judge had me approach the bench and under his breath he actually said "126 huh? Is that all?" Then he told me that he drove a Corvette to work faster than that every day. So, he had me step back from the bench and went back on the record. At this point he proceeded to enter into the record that I'd been driving a new TRANS Am (as I said, it was actually a Grand Am), with racing wheels and new brakes (I had told him none of this, since it wasn't true) and therefore I wasn't guilty of "reckless driving" or "reckless endangerment", the two offenses that could have resulted in my license being supsended and me possibly spending a bit of time in jail (so I'm told). Also, my fines were nowhere near as high, I ended up just paying the maximum speeding ticket and the court costs. Again, I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty positive my total costs were around $600-700. Since I was 16 years old at the time that was a huge amount! Nowadays, after a few more stupid mistakes including getting my license suspended and driving anyway, such a small fine would have been a blessing. Of course, this is why 10 years later, I'm driving much slower and (thankfully) not getting pulled over.

All of these speeds were stupidly achieved on the interstate here in Illinois: 126mph in '87 Grand Am (with a wonderful ticket to prove) 124mph in '96 Civic 131mph in '95 LeBaron GTC 130mph in '96 Bonneville 155-160mph on Honda CBR (friend's bike, I can't remember the year or size) 98mph in '94 LS400 (yeah, I know, I'm a wuss these days. Don't worry, I'll get that bad-boy goin soon!)

Honestly... So did I.

This probably isn't your problem, but if it is, you'll be thankful because the fix is free. I have a 94LS400 and also use RainX wipers (they rule, huh?). Anyway, I recently noticed the top of the windshield wasn't being wiped and also that when the left wiper got to the bottom of its stroke (over the the right-bottom-center of the windshield) it would sort of skip and not wipe there either. Well, I stared at the wiper while it worked for a while and noticed that the bottom of the blade also seemed to be wiping lower than normal. That made me realize that it wasn't sitting as high up on the arm as it should be (or at least I hoped that was the problem). Well, that WAS the problem. All I had to do was basically yank up on the wiper and make sure it was all the way pulled up on the wiper arm. SHAZZAM!!! Good as new. Like I said, it sounds like your problem might be different, but I hope it's not.

Ordered the pair from olyonline this morning, be here next week! Thanks! I knew I saw that price somewhere! John ← Please be sure to return to this forum and let us know how the parts work out. I just bought a pair of lower ball joints for my 94 LS400 for $79 each (www.newlexusparts.com). I had heard of the $45 ball joints as well, but I couldn't find them when I was looking. My ball joints came from a Lexus dealer and they were packaged in "Genuine Toyota" packing. Also, the sight lists the part number as the OE number that most other sites list it as. When I went to olyonline.com, the part number wasn't the same. I hope they turn out to be OE parts, because I'll buy any parts I need in the future from them.

I think the most common cause of your problem (according to research on this forum when I had a similar problem) is that you need to have your throttle body cleaned, or your engine might not be getting enough air. If you do a search on this forum for "stutter" or "shudder" or "hesitate" or "hesitation" I am sure you'll be able to find a solution. (By the way, my problem was caused by the dealer power washing the engine, which messed it up somehow. After about 350 miles of driving the shudder went away. If you've just power sprayed your engine, that could be the cause)

I had the Akebono Ceramic brake pads from TireRack.com put on my car about 500 miles ago. They're awesome. They have great stopping power (although the slightly spongier feel of ceramic pads takes a bit to get used to), they are ultra silent, and they leave negligible amounts of brake dust. I don't try to drive my LS like a racecar, but there have been a few times where I've had to "emergency" stop and these new pads are great.