VBdenny

Too bad I didn't see this thread sooner but I have been driving a lot lately. I looked at a 1992 LS400 (silver) with 170,000 on it and it was prety nice. The guy was asking $4700 but indicated he would take less. It was a pretty nice car but I wanted something newer since I already have the vintage. I believe it is still for sale. It was in the autotrader for virginia beach still last time I checked. Another good place to find fine Lexus automobiles is on Craigslist. Mine is the Hampton Roads Virgina one which is where I originally saw the car.

PS IF I knew how to put pictures on here, I would post a few of my engine(s)

You would be crazy to spray water or steam or anything else on there. Just asking for trouble in my humble opinion. Use either an air compressor or a shop vac backwards and blow it off while using an old paintbrush to remove dust. After you get all that off, use an old rag and WD-40 to clean everything. Mine was fairly clean when I got it and I clean it at every oil change as part of my OCD ritual. Nothing beats elbow grease for engine cleaning. Dealers steam clean then and then spray everything with something to make it look shiny. I was just cleaning the engine of the ES330 I just bought and it had that spray stuff all over it. It had not been steam cleaned luckily since it only has 23,000 miles but they still sprayed it. Use Armorall or WD 40, get some beer and some tunes and go at it. Works for me. Hows that old 90 400 doing LS? Mine has developed PS issues which I will be addressing shortly.

Welcome. As DC said, you have the finest car made. I have a 90 LS400 and love it. Best car I have ever owned.

I swear I bought Nissan parts at irontoad. The parts came from a Nissan dealership in Pennsylvania and were about 1/2 list. Genuine Nissan parts. Irontoad has a seperate Nissan website, not sure why.

The worst car I ever owned (and I have owned a bunch) was a 1964 1/2 Mustang. It was a nice looking car and would really smoke the tires with a 289/2v but everything else broke. First the suspension was horrible. The tires squeeled going around a normal corner, it was all over the road, brakes were terrible, electrical system had issues and finally the oil pressure started dropping. It dies with about 78,000 miles on it after the body and fram rusted away. Junk for the junkyard. My next worst car was a 1970 Torino with mega-electrical issues which caused the car to just die while you were driving it. Jump it and it ran again great like it never had a problem until it did it again. Finally the transmission started not going in reverse, then I sold it. Best cars I have owned are my Lexus. I had a couple small issues but nothing major. Then, my 1977 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Drove that 310,000 miles until a idiot in a Maxima ran a red light and got me in the side. They loaded her in the meatwagon and carried her to the hospital. I could still drive the car but it racked the front end. SOld it for $300 after here insurance company gave me the bendover.

I had XM for a couple years and even when they offered my 50% off to renew, I said no. XM has crummy programing. I got Siruis while I still had 6 mos left on my XM and never used the XM again. Whatever Sirius charges, it is worth it. I think I pay $13 a month for the first account and $7 for each additional. Not sure if they have any deals, check their website. siriusradio.com

A couple of years ago I had my 90 up to a buck thirty on eye-eighty. The car was smooth as glass and would easily have done much more BUT A) I didn't want to get caught and B) the tires I had on the car at the time were "T" rated which is only good for <-119mph. I now have "V" tires again but haven't had the nerve or opportuntity again. I usually drive between 70 and 90 on Interstates depending on terrain and traffic.

Most likely it is not the transmission, my guess would be electronic. I haven't really ever heard of a Lexus transmission failure. Maybe put an OBD2 on it and see if anything has changed. Doesn't seem like the cats would cause this problem but a damaged or disconnected senosr wire might. Just a guess.

Check your charge again. After the experience with my A/C I suspect you have a leak. The Lexus dealer told me the compressor was bad because it was making noise and would cut off qucikly. No problem they said, only $2700 and they could fix it like new. Yeah right, I took it to a Honda dealer where they found both the freon (R-12) and the compressor oil were low. They fixed a bad O ring, converter the system to R-134a and charged it up. Ice cold now and only $350. They said there was nothing wrong with my compressor and that the low oil and freon was causing the noise. In your cae you might have a slight leak somewhere that didn't get caught when you changed out the compressor. I'd use dye or a freon detector if you find you have a low charge again. Something worth checking anyway.

After reading that my only hope is that my starter keeps working. Whew.

Hey, pretty good ball joint instructions. Doesn't seem like the same pain-in-the-butt as American cars where you have to press them out. One question, were the parts you got off ebay authetic Toyota parts or aftermarket?

Looks like a blast, sorry I can't make it since I will be in the Outer Banks that week. ANyway, I looked up the dragon on youtube and found a sample of what to expect. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG65w4aCMXE Have fun!

A good idea would be to change to the K&N cold air induction system. It requires a little more work than just the filter but makes a bigger difference in performance and economy. My K&N air filter really didn't seem to improve my fuel milage but that might be attributed to my heavy right foot enjoying the extra power.

Look under the hood at night with the engine running and look to see if there is a park arc on any of the plug wires. One misfiring cyliner will be apparent at low RPM's, but not at higher. Probably not the cause but worth checking as I have seen it happen.

Steel wool also works well for cleaning this stuff. The new paints are amazing and will do a great job IF you prep properly. I guess it is the Wisconsin winters that tear them up as my 90 wheels are still like new.

By the way, the Honda boys loved my 1990 LS400. Said it was beautiful. I had to agree.

After a Lexus dealer told me 3 years ago that my compressor was locking up and needed replacement then estimated the cost at $2600 I didn't fix it. Finally, I had had it with a hot car. As you all know these LS cars are fairly aerodynamic and the air flow through them is terrible. A friend of mine runs a Honda delaership so I brought it over and had their A/C people do a look-see. They evacuated the system, replaced the O-rings and converted the system to R-134, added oil and refrigerant and it works great. The Honda boys told me that the compressor was fine and that it had just lost the oil and R-12 due to a leak. It works great nd blows ICE cold. The cost? $350.

Look for the low pressure service valve. It is located up near the firewall on the passenger side. I think you will need R-12 which is in short supply and expensive.

Doesn't your insurance cover this?

Thanks everyone. Her friend is doing fine. My daughter said he looks much better and is in pretty good spirits. Blake, I can't thank you enough and nc, good to hear from you. You all be cool and watch Denny Hamlin win in Phonix this weekend. Blake, if you would kindly move this thread to General discussions now, I would appreciate it. I leave more messages there only anything I hear. Denny

Thanks for everything Blake.

I know this is not is the proper catagory but since most of my friends are on this one I thought I would everyone know that my daughter who is an engineering student at Virginia Tech is okay. She was in an adjacent building and was able to get safely off campus. The incident has her (and us) freaked out since one of here best friends was shot. Thank God for the swift medical care by the first responders and another student who save his life. The latest word is that he will fully recover, at least physically. We are very lucky people I would appreciate it if you would leave this thread here for a couple of days. Denny PS, the LS is running great.

Since brakes last so long anyway, I always use the brake pads made by the manufacturer. I have tried many aftermarket pads before and none were great and some were terrible.

Since I have never put anything but 93 in my car I do not know about how octane effects milage. I once had a Buick Electra 225 that dwindled down to 7 or 8 miles per gallon without explaination but that was only a small drop from the 12-14 it got anyway. I always found that the Lexus works better if you do accelerate a little harder off the line. I never cared for the slow-off-the-line performance.