VBdenny

Uh actually I meant, as opposed to VMF with the water thing. sorry

Like VMF, I am opposed to putting water on my engine. I clean it by hand. What I do is get rags, cleaners, old paintbrushes, old toothbrushes, and elbow grease. Once it is clean, it is easy to keep clean. I noticed that the engines are pretty well shielded against splash debris. You should definitely visit the INSIDE/OUT DETAILING forum. There is a ton of great information on how to care for your car. I've learned a lot there. Denny

Good to hear from you Curt. If you need to drain R-12, you really should find a way to evacuate and recycle. Then you will need a vacuum pump to completely eveacuate the system. The most important thing is, to make sure your oil charge doesn't change. Too much or too little and you have a big problem. I ususally do my own as I have all the equipment accessible, not to mention that I have 30lbs. of R-12.

Cortesy of Agent 99 and Blake, here is how you post yur pictures. If my picture is included on this post, you'll know it works. Okay, here goes.... click on the "quote" button in the upper right (like we all do when directing a specific answer/question). Then look at the "original post to quote" section of your reply....you'll see the ......... stuff.... You click on the "IMG" code button. put in the location(paste), and click the "IMG" button again. YOur good to go!! Well I tried and it says something about not allowing an image extension or something. Anyway, I posted them all in the gallery. Page 2 Misc, avatars etc. pg 18, 19.

Several of us, Tansupplyman, Blake, Agent 99, 93LS, and I have been discussing garages. For those of us fortunate enough to have one, it is important to keep it a comfortable place to hang out. It is a place where we can work on, clean, and sometimes just look at our cars. There are lots of different views, and we all have lots of different cars. Here is an inside look and where we hang.

I'll start a new thread where we can show and tell about our garages. Mine in in progress, I've been out there every night for the past few weeks. Check out the new thread.

Although I don't know if the ES uses the same caliper as the LS, I'll bet they are similar. I have a PDF slideshow explaining how to replace the caliper. I bought a caliper for my LS for less than $100, the pads were $71 at the dealer. I did the work. Quite an easy job, easier than I expected.

Yeah Agent 99. I just talked to my brother about ordering another case of #486. I hate to get low. With any wax/sealant product it is extremely important to make your your paint is spotlessly clean, and polished, prior to putting on any Collinite (or other). If you seal in a bug, that bug will become part of your car. The reason I am an avid Collinite user is because I have cleaned, waxed and cared for cars for many years and I have tried about everything. Nothing gives you that just waxed look for so long. I did my mothers car almost a year ago and it still looks like I just waxed it (after I washed off all the Syracuse salt from the winter). Someone left a post about where to buy it by the bottle. You only need one bottle for many cars for years.

I'll have to agree with SWO on this one. AmourAll looks rather flat when it dries on tires. On dashboards, forget it, to much glare. I use Maguires leather cleaner on the dash. It leave a flat, clean look.

SWO Porter Cable stuff is the best. I have a couple PC tools and I know the buffer. No doubt that it works great. I'm not sure that Collinite is carnuba or not. I've used about everything made and I'll stick with the C for now. How much is the PC buffer?

Lucky you! Whenever my car goes to the dealer, they seem to find all kinds of other things.

I have read a couple people who said when your throttle body is clogged, your fuel consumption increases dramatically. I've noticed mine is falling off slightly, so I will probably do that job this summer. Might help.

One other thought. You need to consider that the power steering pump is only one component of the system. The steering rack also has the same fluid circulating. The racks are prone to problems as well as the pumps, but perhaps not on the same level. I think it would be a good idea to carefully inspect the rack for leaks. If it looks fine then you should be fine if you have the complete system flushed. Otherwise, all of the dirty fluid in your rack will circulate through your new $500 pump. Good luck with the project, you certainly sound competent to handle the job.

I think it's a great idea. Nothing like working on your car to give you the appreciation of how great it is. Curt Oberg did the PPT on that. I haven't seen him on lately, but I have a copy on file. It's probably what you have. As far as your plugs and wires go, I'd search around on the Internet, or make a new post asking where the best place to get them cheaper. Nobody like paying a lot of money for anything they can get cheaper. Good luck with it.

The next time you fill up (with premium I hope) dump in a bottle of Valoline Complete Fuel System Cleaner. It is available at every auto parts store for about $10. If you pay less, you have the wrong thing. You car will run better in a very short time. I would never consider putting regular gasoline in my Lexux. Some gas station guy in NJ pit it in once and it ran terrible and made noise. I wasn't happy seeing as how I ususally always put my own gas in, but no... NJ has decided that people there are incapable of fueling their own vehicles. Then the dude puts in regular.. Oh well, it didn't seem to hurt the car long term or anything like that.

Yeah but the "click" is what got my attention. In almost every circiumstance I have seen where you get a "click", it is usually due to low voltage not reaching the starter. The click means it works but doesn't have enough juice. Starters are strange things in that they usually go by getting nothing. Leave your headlights on when you crank it and see if they really dim a lot. Before you jump into starter replacement make absolutely certain that your battery isn't defective. I have seen batteries "test" fine, but they aren't. You must do a load test to see what the current draw does to it. Almost every auto parts store will do this for free, I know Advance does. Starters are no fun to replace as it is located under the intake manifold. You can see it by using a small flashlight and a mirror.

I asked the dealer about the high idle at start up on my 90 LS. They said it is normal and is not adjustable. Mine idles at 1600RPM until warmed up, then it drops to 600. I just have always felt that it really idled high.

A new 2003 BMW 7-Series has more problems than an 8-year-old Lexus LS sedan - 03/09/2004 Read the full-story about how European reliability has fallen below that of U.S. and Japanese automakers. I looked at the article and now... well Forget the 740iL, I'll stick with a Lex.

I have been using E-Z Pass for about a year and a half and think it is excellent. Without a doubt, it saves a great deal of time. I use it mainly in Delaware (Rt 1) Delaware Memorial Bridge, New Jersey Turnpike, GSP, and bridges and stuff around NYC. I also know they have it in Tulsa because I use to live there. In Virginia they use this stupid "Smart Tag" (which it isn't since no one else uses it) but I heard they got bought out by E-Z Pass. My one thought about the E-Z Passwhichconcerns me is this, I know they have speed limits on the toll booths and send tickets, but it seems very simple for them to look at where and what time I got on, and where and what time I got off and then figure out my average speed was well in excess of whatever "strickly enforced" limit they have? The only reason I can figure why the don't do this is this, who would use it if they did that? Not me. As I am watching the Sapranos, I notice Tony takes a ticket on the NJ Turnpike, and doesn't use E-Z Pass. I guess in certain lines of work using E-Z Pass could be a problem. What are your thoughts on E-Z Pass? Denny (from VB)

Bought it new huh? Shows excellent judgement in my book. I bought my 90 from a good friend of mine who bought it new in 1989. He bought a 99 LS 400 and reluctantly sold me the 90. His loss was my gain. By the way, welcome to LOC. I have learned quite a lot about the LS from this forum, and with you as a long term owner I'm sure you have many valuable experiences to share. Denny

Tan, than is what I need. Where did you get them, and do they have them in silver? Thanks Denny

I have pictures of my engine with the trim covers off that may offer some help. They are posted in the LS gallery. I also have them in very large jpegs (5.5M) I can shrink them just enough to get past your email max which is usually 5M, then you can really enlarge them to see all the details. I'm not sure if it will show what you need, but anything to help. send me your email if you want the large pix. Denny

Thats exactly what I want to do, all I need is a silver LS 400 emblem. Anybody have one?

I'll probably go buy them this summer when I have several Lexus projects planned. Sure hope you are enjoying your car. Denny

Beside, why use something that only lasts a few weeks or a month? I swear the stuff will last years although I am too hyper to ever go that long.