VBdenny

How is your battery? One of the first indications of failure is electrical glitches. Just a thought.

Rebuilt tranny? RED flag flying

I get around 17MPG around town the last time I checked but that is probably my fault. If I have a V-8, I'm using it. On the highway, I speed so I'll call around 24 good. I'm pretty sure that if I drove reasonably and didn't try to waste gas, I could up the highway to maybe 27 or 28 and the town to 20. Don't wait around waiting for a report on that though. Nobody buys a Lexus for gas milage.

There is no rust on my 1990 LS400. You boys must be salted up.

A 3 year old battery in Florida is all done, killed by the heat. Anything after then is a bonus.

Perhaps it isn't as much about which octane to buy but rather about which brand to use. I use only top tier fuels such as Shell, BP, Exxon, Sunoco, Mobil, etc. Cheap gasoline is exactly that. I figure if the car says to use Premium, they had a reason for it so I do. I'm sure it would run on regular but as the curious one said, to each their own.

I bought aftermarket wheels with snow tires from tire rack for my ES330 and they fit perfectly. I have bought a couple sets of rims/tires from them and everytime they have been perfect. They know what they are doing at tirerack.

You are going to find they are wrapped up pretty good and it is a pain in the butt to get all the tape off the wires. Once you have them repaired, it is my suggestion not to try to force them back up into the original channel. I did that the first time then they broke again. I have left them just loosely attached and they have worked fine for years. I always thought all the brake lights were on the same circuit so a wire somewhere is possibly broken and the trunk bundle is as good a place to start as any. Good luck with it.

Just an outside shot at something to consider. Restricted mufflers? Stranger things have happened but of course 90% of the time, problems are electrical.

I will have to take a look at them. Some of the higher tech tires are not available in my size.

I've been highway driving my 90 LS lately. Took it up to DC 2 weeks ago and up to Jersey last weekend. The brakes began acting weird while in NJ and on the trip back I started hearing noise. I made it back to Virginia Beach but by the time I arrived the noise was terrible. Next Day I disassembled the passenger side caliper and found the bottom pin was stuck. Way stuck and it took my 15 minutes to finally remove. It looked as if moisture had gotten into the pin and it was really stuck. I cleaned the pin up with fine sandpaper and lubed it with high temp bearing grease. I then did all the other pins and replace the pads as the inboard pad on the passenger side was into the metal on the stuck pin side. All is well now and the brakes now work better than ever. Still after all these years, this is the best car I have ever driven. I kind of save it for highway trips now and use a driver for work back and forth. As has often been suggested (and I ignored because they seemed fine), it is a good idea to lube these when you do pads. Peel back the boot and they slide out. The boot snaps back in place by itself on install.

I replaced mine with units from Autozone suggested on this website. I had to do minor fabrication but they were only $20 and have worked great for 8 years. Pretty easy job for anyone with any auto talent

Everyone has their own preferences on tires. I suggest you go on tirerack and read the stats and reviews for each tire. Very easy to make a determination. I would also upsize by 10mm as a standard practice.

Costco has the Red Tops and Yellow Tops for $140. I have one in my truck and they are great. At the first sign of a bad battery, put in a new one. As others said, the LS400 is an electrical hungrey car.

How much alcohol do they add to your gasoline?

There is a 91 LS400 in the PicknPull junkyard near Oceana in Virginia Beach. I was there last weekend and it still had most of the parts including the part you are looking for. http://www.picknpull.com/locations.aspx?View=Detail&ID=75

8mpg? then you do have a problem. I get around 17-18 in the city. Time to go to Autozone or Advance and use their OBDII

Classic symptoms for low coolant level. Top off and go. Loosen the thermostat?

That is exactly where my temperature gauge stays all the time. Since it has been like that for many, many years, I will assume it is normal. My car takes a long time to warm up so I expect that is typical as well. I don't think you have any problem.

Mine does that, especially when cold. Squirt some WD-40 in there and work them a little then they will work for awhile. Be aware that if you count of headlights going off automatically, they won't sometimes with this issue.

From my experience with many brands, reverse is the first gear not to work when the fluid is low.

Before you go with all that, check the battery. If that is older than 3 years, go get a new monster for your LS. I recommend an Optima Red Top from Costco for $140 but anything with good CCA's (850+) would work. Not sure why but early ls's (mine is also a 90) suck juice big time. A battery can look good, test good and still not have enough for your car. If all this is cool, then the trunk wires broken would be my next move. I have fixed mine twice and both times the "R" light came on and the transmission wouldn't shift. Hope this helps a little.

Have never heard of an SL 400

Clean all your ground contacts including where the negative battery cable is grounded. Dimming lights can often indicate a compromised ground.

I once bought a Mustang 289 with 59,000 miles. Obviously the oil had never been changed because the sludge in the engine looked just like this. Running dino oil for tens of thousands of miles just does them in. I also got the low oil pressure warning light coming on. I tried changing the oil and even dropped the pan and saw the oil pump screen was completely covered with the nasty stuff. Before long she started knocking and blew. I never use anything but synthetic oil now and I change it every 5,000 miles. A lot easier to prevent sludge than remove it.