VBdenny

If I'm not mistaken, the headlight operate off a circuit breaker and the rest of the lights are fused. It is not uncommon for headlights to work on a car while the rest fail to illuminate. This is the first time I have heard of this problem on a Lexus. I have had the same problem in the past on both a Buick and Cadillac and in both cases, it was a defective headlight switch. For what it is worth.

Very nice car and I'd have to say a good buy. The black looks great but you may only have to wait until pollen season before you say, hmmm. Black takes a little more work than other colors but the results are stunning. Enjoy, and try to keep it under 90.

I disconnected and plugged both of the vacuum lines off the power steering pump because it smoked like a bandit when I started it up with those line connected. Won't hurt a thing.

As far as I know, mine has the original bulb. I think I have only had a couple bulbs go out ever but the one that was the worst was the fog light bulb. $30 special order from dealer, nobody else had it.

You would think by 2002, Lexus would have figured out there hood struts are not up to snuff. I replaced mine with some from Autozone and they were cheap. I had to do some configuring to make them fit but it only took an hour total and I probably took a short break in the middle.

I'll second what 71 said. Once I had them replaced, I loved driving the car. I guess it is one of those parts that just wears out faster than we wished. I have heard around that you can buy the replacement bushings but can't find where. Kind of the same thing with the upper control arms. No, Lexus does not sell the bushings, only the entire unit. Every time I think about getting rid of this car, I drive it and spend what it takes to fix it. I only have 182,000 on it so it is good for years. Besides, I don't like car payments, nor do I need a new Malibu.

How I would approach finding the whine is to take an engine stethescope and check anything that turn, PS, alternator, AC, etc. and see if you can find the cause. They sell them at Sears for about $20 and the stethescope is a valuable tool to have anyway. Just be careful not to stick the probe in something that would grab it.

Try and find a Toyota dealer in your area that isn't affiliated with the Lexus dealer. They work on them and it is a lot cheaper. I am very happy my 90 has standard suspension because it works great.

When the struts on my car were worn, the car pulled to the right but I never noticed any shimmy. A few years later my car developed a slight vibration between 80-90 but tracking was perfect. Since the tires were about cooked, I replaced them and did not have an alignment. Since then, the car has been perfect

Check the switch that activates your interior lights on your drivers door. Mine sticks sometime and that causes the battery to go dead because the lights don't go off automatically. The alarm system is tied into this. I never had a problem with the alarm in fact I had the car for 3 years before I even knew it had one.

pinstripes are ugly and dated. I find it hard to believe that a dealer would put them on a Lexus.

Blocked off the other line, smoke is gone.

The best way I have found to determine a suspension problem is to take the car to an alignment place. If there is any suspension issues, they will find them (assuming they know what they are doing). Use care and ask people before selecting a facility to do the alignment. Some of these tire places don't know what in the hell they are doing so I might suggest a delaership. Honda, Nissan Toyota, doesn't matter. It will give you a good starting point and time to decide how best to approach repairs. If you wait until a state inspection, your time window is small and you might have to drive around with a big ole REJECTION sticker on your windshield. Most likely a ball joint. Even when they are bad on these cars, the car still drives great but you will hear the noises. All this is pure specuation on my part so go find out for sure.

the wires are under the small black grill looking plates. Very easy to remove.

A long time ago, I parked our 69 Barracuda on a side street in Brooklyn near where my wife lived. The next morning I saw my first empty parking space in Brooklyn. Bought a 70 Torino with a 351 Cleveland. A nice car but I noticed large clouds of blue smoke behind me upon rapid acceleration. Then I noticed how fast the rear tires wore out so I sold it and got a 225 Electra. Park at night... and you walk.

here is a quick link that may be helpful within the scope of this problem. Flushing the fluid can't hurt. http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/steering/psflush.html

killer answer killer. Yup, I missed that one and I knew there were two lines.

any suggestions on correcting this? I seem to have developed the same problem. I have the manifold intake from the PS pump disconnected and plugged yet am still getting smoke. Haven't had much time to look at it but it is on my list.

By the time you buy all the quality parts (which I agree are the only things you should use) you are already in very deep. The expense of repairing the A/C on my car far exceeds it's value. I sure wish it worked byt $2500+ to repair it just isn't a prudent move in my consideration. Considering that I bought this 1990 almost 8 years ago for $6000 and have put 80,000 miles on it, and I can still sell it for $3500, I'm happy. The only problem is that I just love this car so in all likelyhood, I will only drive it in the summer at night as I have done in the past.

Only on very rare occasions do you see any Lexus in junkyards around here. I usually go down there once a month or so just to look around. Finding one with low miles is so rare that most have twice the miles mine does. I didn't realize that the evaporator was accessible without a major tear out. Maybe if I ever have time...

If a headgasket had blown you would be seeing a lot of white smoke from the exhaust. I kind of doubt that is the problem and be glad if it isn't. In addition to problems mentioned by others is the fact that when a head gasket fails, anti-freeze/coolant often leaks into the motor oil. Coolant is highly corrosive and if it mixes with your oil, your engine is done. Maybe not right way but the damage to the bearing has been done and it just takes awhile for problems to manifest themselves. After watching several videos of people Seafoaming their engines on youtube, it seems most people really rev the engine hard while in Park which isn't that good for them. I would never even consider using Seafoam after watching that. Get a engine stethescope and do a little listening just be carefull not to get caught on a belt or anything. Spend some time and figure out where you can safely place the sensor.

My A/C is out and I took it to a Lexus Mechanic who now works at a Toyota dealership and he determined that since my compressor was bad, to replace it without doing the evaporator was a big mistake and what would most likely happen was what happened to you. Even giving me a break on price he said it would be around $2500 since it involved extensive removal of the dash which was very time consuming. I didn't fix it and just drive my truck when it is hot outside. These LS cars are very hot without A/C so I guess that it it for summer driving in this car.

I wouldn't pull off the plug wires to check and see if they fire rather use one of those laser thermal temperature detectors. In your case the very first thing I would check are the rotors. I used the NGK plugs with no problem and I did check the gap and all were exactly on right out of the box.

I have gotten as much as 26mpg with my 1990 LS400 although I usually average around 23-24mpg since I probably travel faster than most people. I figure that if I can get 24mpg going 75-85 mph with an occasional burst to 90-95, I am happy. Around town is another matter since I usually get aroun 17-18mpg. If it wasn't so much fun to "get on" this car, I could probably do 20mpg but since I couldn't care less about gas milage, I don't.