Kennyr

I agree with your mechanic. If your not willing to spend a grand or two a year to maintain this car maybe you should think about passing it on to someone willing to do so. Even if you do the work yourself the parts will cost you bucks. Its all about where you are going to put your dollars. A newer car or this one a nickel at a time. I've had my 91 a few years and spent a couple thou or more on parts. If I had to pay for labor I really dont think I would want to own this car even though I love it. I am impressed with your mechanic's honesty. Get out now or start paying up. It's all good either way.

This happened to me and I rigged it in 30 seconds. Just get a 1 to 2 inch piece of vaccum line or fuel line big enough to slip over the original hose and the bigger nub still left coming out of the valve. Simple fix. This has worked for years. It even looks good.

A drain and fill does almost nothing for a dirty trans. Just 2 quarts come out. Have it flushed and you will be clean and good to go for another 30,000 miles. I exchange all my fluid myself every 20k. Once its flushed you can start a drain and fill routine every oil change but thats a pain in the butt, I would just flush it every 30k. A clean tranny will last you forever. A dirty tranny will just eat itself up. Good for mechanics and parts people, bad for you.

Mine has done the same thing for years once every month or two. It clears itself every time by the time I get out of the driveway. There is an answer but nobody I know has it, I've asked some dealer mechanics.

I cant believe they cant get it apart, but if so you would need new lines. There is no such animal as a lifetime fuel filter.

I had a hard time putting a title on this one. Tonight I was gassing up my silver 91 and a silver 90 rolled in. A young bro with a booming stereo. His factory mags, cromed like mine were shining like new. We talked and looked each others cars over then he showed me his chrome polish he does his wheels with every week. He bought the car 2 years ago with 240k on it and has only put brakes and oil on and in it so far. I told him he was driving the nicest car in the world, shocker! he agreed.

Well thank you for getting back to us. One other person had this problem and we gave him the information. He never reported back to let us know if he performed the repair, or how much the dealer or whoever, charged him to replace the lock itself. Sometimes the feedback is just as useful to someone else as the answer is to you or me.

Go to the search at the bottom and put in Door Lock. Then go to the second page and read cant open door. This is your situation.

Daffy, Every summer its the same story. Monarch says R134 will destroy your system. I say just empty your system and fix the leaks. Replace the fitting on the low side, evacuate the system and charge with R134 with ester oil in the cans. You don't even have to replace the reciever dryer if you don't want to. I've been a mechanic for 30 years. I'm not talking about something I read in a manual. My system works great and all the systems I have retrofitted work great. Believe me the Lexus o-rings etc. arn't any more prone to R134 failure than any other cars. I will say this again this summer. Volvo told us to change all the o-rings at first back when R12 was banned and then a year later came back and told us it was not needed. They took the o-rings out of their retrofit kit. The ester oil makes the o-rings compatable. By the way if you get a leaking o-ring down the road guess what, it's an old o-ring that would have failed after 16 years with R12 anyway. Changing all the o-rings isn't a bad thing. I'm just not going to do it for fun.

It's Friday afternoon and I'm out of work, cruising home, thinking about going to the bar to have a few or more drinks and play pool. A couple blocks from my house I start loosing power, feels like the tranny is slipping or something. Then I came to the conclusion my charging system was down. I made it home and just drifted into the garage. My battery was at 7 volts and I had no charging at all. I charged up the battery and load tested it, its good. Alternator bad 90% of the time in this situation, but this one I put on from Checker Auto Parts ($150) 6 months ago !!Shocker!! I took it off and they bench tested it. Dead as I thought. Their getting me another one from the warehouse tomorrow. Just another case of me getting what I paid for. You pay for junk and you get junk. The rebuilt unit sure looks good all painted nice in a new box though. Dont get me wrong I will still buy the aftermarket stuff for cheaper, even though I get burned here and there. I guess I just like the pain.

No puddle. I need to know where the drain is so I can clear it.

Did you ask for a price to replace those items or did you just tell them to do it at any cost? This sounds fishy. Why would they not want to take more of your money? I think either the writer or the tech overlooked your request and now they are covering their butts by telling you this story hoping you will just go away. Make them put in writing that they will fix these things in the future when they fail if they dont want to do it now.

Can anyone tell me where the ac drain is located so I can clear it? It has got to be plugged as bad as my ac has been smelling even after repeatedly spraying my air intake with frigi fresh.

Ok when I did my T-belt, water pump, idlers, plugs, caps and rotors & serp belt I had all aftermarket parts lined up on my work bench. These parts were way cheaper than the dealer parts. A couple hundred dollars cheaper. The plugs & idlers were oem (even though not purchased from the dealer), but the others were all different. The water pump fit good but when I went to put the timing belt on it was too short, also the Bosch plug wires were a joke. They fit terrible and the car would not run no matter how many times I checked and rechecked the firing order. I had to run to the dealer to buy the correct t-belt to get the car running with the old plug wires. The dealer ordered new plug wires for me and a couple days later I installed them. Bottom line, I did save a hundred or two but you decide if it was worth the trouble. I think not. When you use aftermarket parts every once in a while your gonna get burned and doing an ugly job like this is not the time you want it to happen. 45,000 miles later everything is still working as expected.

I have a friend who drove a Jeep Cherokee 300k and he drained and filled the auto trans only once. When he donated the car the trans still ran fine. I flush my 91 every 30,000 miles with BG Synthetic Universal ATF. It shifts so much better than with Toyota brand fluid. Here's a tip, if your shifting is hard keep your level at the bottom of the full range. This along with the synthetic fluid will make a big change in hard upshifts.

I have found 0 ring leaks at the pipes at the left front of the vehicle under the battery. Also at the right firewall under the cruise control unit.

I saw the ones without the logos for $16 dollars each. Im not sure about them. At least I know they are new and will look as expected if I buy them. I should just go to discount tire and buy new 16" wheels and tires for my 91. Or better yet just buy the 01 I really want.

All 4 of my chromed center caps are peeling. No gold on the L please. Who sells these? I e-mailed Park Place Lexus so I will await a reply. Has anyone bought any recently?

Great post, I hope I never need it though. This is the reason I have never used the automatic function of my steering column since I bought my car. I just figured it would break sooner or later if it was running all the time. I guess if you have a big belly it helps you get in and out of the car. Not an issue for me yet though.

Mann777 sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but I must say my 01 shifts so much smoother with universal synthetic ATF than Toyota Type 4.

Just put new Lexus pads on. Don't take any material off your rotors if your brakes don't pulse. And if they do just replace the rotors with aftermarket ones.

I have seen many belts break over the years. Sure its a gamble, like most things in life. But this is a no brainer. This is a bad place to roll the dice. The odds are not good when the pistons can hit the valves. Gamble when you own a Gen 1, not 2 & 3.

When I was looking at a variety of used Ls's on my dealers lot (6 years ago) I asked the saleswoman what the major differences were. She said that 95's and up were interferance engines. That and the 8k more helped me decide and drive off in a 91.

You say you checked your thermostat. How did you do that? It's probably stuck open.