VBdenny

Well I certainly wouldn't BUY a Cadillac over a Lexus. I do like the Cadillac styling better though.

There a a whole lot of kids that take their parents cars out all the time. Rich kids don't need to steal cars as they usally have a whole fleet at home with keys in them. My Aunt recently had an incident inher town, Skeanealtes NY, where some kid took his dad's Ferrari and wrecked it killing may him and a friend? Anyway good story. I use to live on a main road and there were wrecks all the time.

Try disconnecting the battery and letting it reset. Then reconnect it and pop the trunk with the inside trunk release. I'll bet you hate those new ONSTART commericials where you call them up and the unlock the car!

That clanking is probably from someone putting regular gas in the car. Did that by mistake ONCE and what a racket! Under harder acceleration, I still can hear a little detonation sometimes. Fun car huh?

Most of the all season tires I have put are cars are really noisy when the are new. My LS has Good Year Aquatred III and when they were knew I HATED them because of the noise. After about 5,000 miles the noise was nearly gone. Now with 20,000 they are glassy quiet. The tread must vibrate a whole lot more on new tires which would make sense.

Hey SWO Sounds like they are continuing to enhance the styling with that stealthy looking shape. Cadillac interiors aren't what they use to be. How about a Cadillac exterior will a LS430 interior? I must agree that the exterior styling is way ahead of the curve.

Some batteries are just junk. Not any specific brand, just some. My neighbor !Removed!, had his battery dies. He went to Costco and put it in. Still dead. I put a meter on it and it has about 3volts. Sucker was DOA. Took it back (and the meter this time) and got a replacement. Perfect. By the way, someone mentioned about jump starting a LS400. Let me tell you, these cars are WAY hard to jump start. My wife left a light on at the Newark airport for several days and it was dead. It took the towtruck about a half an hour to jump it, then it was fine. You have to leave it connected with out trying to start for about 5 minutes. I guess this builds it up enough to let it start.

I have a LS400 and a 99 Corolla. If you have a car for dependable transportation, either is great. If you are talking about economical transportation, the LS is not the car. Imagine paying 3 times as much each time you fill your tank and that is what the LS will cost you over the Corolla. If you are looking for a new hobby (like Lexus repairs), then the LS will make it a realiity. In my case. it is one of my favorite hobbies and I have very much enjoyed working on this car. Everything on the Lexus seems fairly logical and well engineered. You will learn quite a lot. Not to say the rolla isn't easy to work on, it just that nothing has broken on the car so I haven't done much except oil changes.

Try some stethoscopes. I bought one at Sear's for about ten bucks. It has a long metal probe and it is very sensitive. The get someone to turn the ignition off and on and track it down. They are pretty cool to use as you hear all kinds of weird noises. Probably a relay or cirsuit breaker for something. I think I had a feul pump one time that made the noise too/ Good luck Vh

Use the 5W-30 Almost all cars use it now. The only thing you will accomplish with 10W-30 is to devrease gas milage and increase engine wear at startup. Mobil 1 is awesome stuff and gives all the protection you need. Some new cars use 0(zero)W-30

The Lexus dealship here has always charged me a fortune for what I considered fairly routine service. My exectations were not met as they left parts off my car requiring me to go back and wait again. Luckiliy I noticed the under engine shield had not been replaced or they probably would have had me for a new alternator as well. While I do feel they are highly competent, I do feel they rip you off. Maybe free coffee and Internet service while waiting meets some peoples expections, I would rather has fast, correct, and reasonably priced service. Some friendly people would be a bonus.

I've never had the alarm go off using either the key or the remote? I really wasn't sure this car even had an alarm other than the blinking LED

I would forget it. I saw someone that put a manual 4 speed in a Lincoln Town Car once (although I have no idea WHY) Probably you could find a Ford Tranny to fit a Lincoln, but I doubt you would even be able to find a manual transmission that would come close to fitting a LS400. Then if you ever did get it in, the computer would probably deliver the knockout punch. Buy a car with a stick. Lot's of choices.

Sorry about that. It is speedtrap.com (not speedtraps). Loads a little slow on occasion but it has good information

Hey Ron, I don't care what anyone says. I think the seast in my 90 LS are just about the most uncomfortable seast ever. Luckily my wife loves them? ANyway, she drives the car and I drive my Caprice which has very comfortable seats (in my opinion). The Lexus is okay for awhile but then it gets hard without much side support. It's not you.

I think they should idle at about 600 RPM. My local Lexus dealer told me that the idle is computer controlled and can not be adjusted. I do know that they car has to be well warmed up to idle at 600 RPM. WHen cold they idle as high as 1800 RPM which seemed excessive which was why I asked the dealership.

Probably what you have is a bulb that works sometimes and not others. I went through the same thing. Most of the time the inidcator went off when I started the car, then would come on. One of the tailight bulbs was bad. The filament was broken but still touched sometimes. Replaced it, no further problems. I directions for bulb replacement for the early LS cars in the part that is in the fenders (not trunk).

Blake, I'm not sure. I think the new Cadillac's have is a very crisp 2000+ look. While the LS430 looks good, it just doesn't stand out to me as innovative styling. Rest assured that if I was buying one or the other, it would be the Lexus as I recognize which will be worht more in the future. I just think that Cadillac has come a long way. Look what Oldsmobile tried and how THAT worked out. Everybody has an opinion on cars, we just all care enough to actually discuss the styling. Thanks for the reply Denny

Blake man, gotta give it to you for that site. I bookmarked it.

I don't think my mother reads this forum so here goes. Man, she has had to have her mirror replaced at least a couple of times, Her garage door is 7' and she has a Camry. Scares me. I like agent 99's idea

Looked like England to me and they still use Pounds (that L looking symbol). I looked it up and here are relative rates against the swiss frank? anyway, here is how they stacked up. Looks like a dollar is worth about 53% of a GB pound. That would bring the cost up to maybe seven hundred bucks? USD 1.27 EUR 1.56 GBP 2.39 JAP 1.21 Anyway, what does it do thats worth that kind of money?

Is there an "L" stamped on the bolt? Don't they usually do that with Left nahd threads?

Good call there Maxwell. I completely forgot to mention that about the brake fluid.

Excellent perspective SWO. I must garee that I think the new Cadillac's have great styling. As the previous owner of a Cadillac (79 sedan de ville) I do feel they are pretty good cars. Sure a few things break than on my Lexus but parts are sure a lot cheaper. I also thing the Cadillac looks better than the GS Lexus. I think the new Sc's are great looking, the new Es looks fantastic, I don't care for the new LS430's especially. I mean they aren't bad, bu they really don't portray the same classic styling that Cadillac has (somehow) come up with. While I still believe that Lexus is a far superior vehicle in respect to future resale value, Cadillac certainly has the edge in styling. Thanks for your insight.

Dump a $10 bottle of Valvoline Complete Fuel Sytem Cleaner in the gas tank. This pronlem usually indicated a carbon buildup on the throttle body. You might need to clean it. If you do get in touch with Curt Oberg (Obergc), he made a presentaiuon on how to do the job. In fact have a copy, send me your email and I'll forward it to you if you want. I don't think you have any big problem, but it will get worse IF it is what I think. Sooner or later it won't idle at all.