1990LS400

If "complete luxury package" means that the car has the Ultra Luxury option with air suspension, reclining/massage rear seats, rear air conditioning and rear audio controls, then $33K sounds OK to me. According to the data I've seen, the Ultra Luxury option was fairly rare in the 2006 model year. All that matters is that the price seems good to you. When buying a used car in that price range, splitting hairs over even a few thousand dollars doesn't seem very important if the car is exactly what you want and you plan to drive it a long time.

Tail light lenses are glued to the housings. They aren't removable like tail light lenses on cars of decades past. If you want to remove the tail light housing ("rear combination lamp"), per the attached diagrams, it looks like they are held in by bolts inside the trunk -- it's not unusual to have to remove trunk trim panels in cars to get access to bolts/screws holding the lamp assemblies in place. I'd try using a telescoping magnet before I tried removing the lamp assemblies to shake the bulb out. I have one that looks like a small automobile radio antenna and collapses to the length of a writing pen ... even has a pocket clip like a pen -- cost about $4.

That's great! It could have been an honest mistake by the previous dealers you checked with. My 2000 LS400 is only two years older and I've found that one of the console parts (insert for the upper console tray) is no longer available individually but only as part of a much more expensive module containing parts I do not need. If you haven't used it, http://www.toyodiy.com is a great place to get individual parts numbers. You have to register to see the diagrams. Attached is their diagram for your 02 LS430 mirror. Only the LH mirror is shown in the diagram but part numbers for both RH and LH mirrors are listed.

A PDF that Jainla sent to me shows removing both the "center console shift bezel" and the "control switch panel" in an LS430 before prying up the console wood panel which is held in place by four clips. The removal procedure for the LS430 may be a little different from an LS400. The PDF is far to big to post here. The "control switch panel" appears to be the panel containing the heated seat switches and is held in place by a clip on each side. The "center console shift bezel" is the surround for the gated shifter and appears to have about six clips -- there is a warning about not scratching the bezel or damaging the clips. Jainla's PDF is phone related so it may not be necessary to remove the control switch panel. I'll post a couple of images from Janilas PDF. One of the images shows the location of the clips holding the console wood panel in place.

I don't know, Billy. It could be an onion ring. ;) Seriously, Billy's right. Hard to say what kind of junk is gumming up your cupholder.

You can read about the improvements generation by generation and year by year at http://www.lexls.com/info/lsgenerations.html On the following pages, you can read about the options offered on the 97 and 99 LS: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1997/1997LSspecs.pdf http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1999/1999LSspecs.pdf Make sure you buy an LS with the equipment you want -- it's not feasible to add options later .... e.g. if you want seat heaters, verify the car you are buying has them. By the way, the specs on lexus.com are incorrect in that rear seat heaters were never available on any LS400 sold in North America. The 98-00 LS400 gets better gas mileage than the 95-97 LS400 for various reasons including better aerodynamics and a 5-speed instead of 4-speed transmission. My 00 LS400 gets as low as 16 mpg in city driving and about 27 mpg in low wind conditions on midwestern highways at 70 mph. I've come close to 30 mph only once in over 80,000 miles of driving my 00 LS and that was with a 40+ mph tailwind on a trip from Tulsa to Kansas City.

Don't know what model year you have but this owners manual page shows how to reset the message for a 2006 LS430. If you have ventilated front and/or rear seats, there are filters in them too ... also filters in the side garnishes.

A company called "Nakamichi" exists but it is essentially a new company created under bankruptcy in 2002 and it doesn't support or make/supply parts for the products of the old, pre-bankruptcy Nakamichi company. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakamichi

I think most of the problems from cutting phone cables have been related to the audio system -- such as permanently grounding the mute wire so that no sound comes out of the speakers. Your problem could still be a coincidence -- maybe an intermittent problem not disclosed by the previous owner? A skilled auto electrician could probably track down the problem quickly -- one should have the knowledge and the diagrams needed.

If your strut rods haven't been replaced since you bought the car, I'd start there. My mechanic buys new strut rods with the bushings already pressed in -- they don't cost all that much more and buying the complete assemblies ensures that the bushings fit properly. Also, his labor to remove/press in new bushings in the old strut rods is more expensive than buying the entire new assemblies. It's possible that the shocks could be worn but they can last far longer than 180K miles. I've never heard of standard springs on an LS wearing out. My strut rod bushings were completely worn out when I had the strut rod assemblies replaced at 86,000 miles -- I had serious front end vibrations and some front end "clunks". At least on my 00 LS, replacing the strut rod assemblies made the car ride like new. I'll probably replace them again when they've got about 65,000 miles on them. I don't know how long ball joints last on a 98-00 LS400 -- my 00 LS400 is at 120,000 miles. I think I had all the ball joints on my 90 LS400 replaced between 120,000 and 160,000 miles but I suspect the ones on my 00 LS will last longer.

If you disassembled the console and unplugged the phone cradle, it could be a coincidence. Bad things have happened to a few who have cut phone system cables -- cutting a phone cable has apparently caused the cores of multiple incompatible wires to touch and short out a non-phone component. The attached diagram for your 97 LX shows a theft deterent relay. 1997_LX450_Starter_circuit_diagram.pdf

I put photos for my 2000 LS400 in this thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...c=25937&hl= Should be the same for the 99 LS.

The 1993 LS400 was a very significant upgrade from the 90-92 LS400 and addressed most of dislikes I had about the 90 LS I had back then. Here is a summary of what changed -- it was huge! http://www.lexls.com/info/lsgenerations.html Don't know if the 92 Pioneer and 93 Nakamichi are interchangable -- doubt it. Attached are wiring diagrams from the ARRC website for what they say are the 92 LS400 Pioneer and the 93 LS400 Nakamichi -- I'm not absolutely sure they are properly labeled on ARRC. Regardless, Nakamichi is long out of business and no one seems to repair them anymore. Air suspension on older the LS400 is very prone to trouble, nosebleed expensive to repair -- many people replace the air suspension with steel springs rather than repair it. 1992_LS400_Pioneer_diagram.pdf 1993_LS400_Nakamichi_diagram.pdf

Maybe you have to remove the rear seat -- I know that is required to remove the package shelf the subwoofer is in. Removing the rear seat is about a 10 minute operation -- I've done it. Pop the front edge of the rear seat cushion up and carefully maneuver the the seat cushion out of the car. This will expose bolts at the bottom of the seat back which is also held in by (if I remember) bolts behind velco flaps behind the armrest and headrests. After you remove all the bolts slide the entire seat back upward to get it off the lip it is hanging on. I think screws or bolts holding the package shelf in place will be exposed after the rear seat back is removed ... I don't really remember so there are no guarantees.

G Man, I think it's OK to disagree -- especially in the Club Lounge area where there is often more B.S. than on a cattle ranch. I don't know if I could be called a "fan" of either Lexus or Toyota. I'll abandon both in a heartbeat if they stop fulfulling my needs or their quality slips just like I abandoned Volvo and Mercedes after owning three of each. Brand loyalty doesn't mean much to me. I'm a scientist and I can not not make rational choices. The biggest problem with both Audi and BMW is that, while their reliability has risen to be acceptable during the first three or four years, their reliably has been documented to get progressively far worse than cars from many other manufacturers as they age further. I don't think a friend's BMW 740iL was more than five or six years old when its heater core sprung a leak -- he dumped the car rather than pay for the diassembly of the dash to replace the core. I wish his was an exceptional experience but it doesn't seem to be. I love the way all the Audis and BMWs I've driven handle. Driving a BMW 5-series at Kansas City International Raceway in the BMW Challenge was the most fun I've ever had in a car -- except maybe for some teenage backseat experiences I won't discuss. :D I truly hope the reliability of both Audi and BMW improves to the point where I'm willing to buy one. I'm a big fan of what people used to call "station wagons" and it sure doesn't look like Toyota is going to sell wagons in the U.S. You're absolutely right -- a Lexus LS of any model year could hardly be called "fun" to drive. Two weeks ago, I drove a rental Toyota Camry LE 4-cylinder sedan on California Highway 1 -- the famous coastal 2-lane road with a hairpin curve every few hundred yards -- the 100+ miles between Monterey and Cambria. I didn't try to keep up the supper exotic cars (Maserati, Ferrari) or the lessor ones (Porsche Carrera-4) that passed me but I have to say that the Camry was actually sort of fun to drive on that road. My LS on Highway 1 would have been scary and not fun at all. Speaking of Monterey, the coolest car I saw on the road near there was a BMW 2002 from about 1971-73 that looked like it had just rolled off the showroom floor. A car like that would have been completely eaten by salt here in the snow belt.

No, already got a 60+ year old wife. One is more than enough. ;) Billy, I didn't have my reading glasses on when I read your latest post and I swear I thought you were telling us that your sister-in-law is a 60+ year old hooker.

Well at least the congressional hearings might take people's minds off the economy. And many people get into what the Germans call Schadenfreude. I'm not so sure Toyota screwed up that much ... don't know how they could control whether or not people stack multiple floor mats on top of each other. Toyota will likely come out much better than Audi did in the 1980s in its "unintended accelleration" issue -- that just about drove a stake through Audi's heart causing their sales to plummet and leading them to change the model name of the 5000 to the 100 and 200 to try to get people to forget. Remember too that Audi sold only two models, with variations, in the U.S. All their eggs were mostly in the Audi 5000 basket. And after all the research and tests, no one ever proved that there really was an unintended accelleration problem in the Audis. Reminds me of a recent conversation with a family member who told me her 1 or 2 year old Toyota Camry gas pedal was sticking and that she was afraid to drive the car. The same woman told me only a few minutes earlier that her diabetic condition was making her feet so numb that she had almost no feeling left in them. I held my tongue. There has been a lot of speculation in the news that NHTSA will be expanded due to their having no engineers that understand the software used in modern cars -- new employment opportunities! I doubt if many people will dump their Toyotas -- except those who usually panic and do "knee jerk" reactions. I love those people -- they benefit the rest of us.

Does your Lexus have a POI "Carwash" category or do you have a portable GPS that has one? Our Garmin Nuvi shows every automatic and manual carwash in our area so I'm guessing you could do the same thing where you live.

Do you happen to have access to reliability ratings for recent model years such as those from Consumer Union? If you look at them as I just did, you will find that Audi comes up far short of all Japanese manufacturers in reliability and that VW does even worse. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the way both older and current Audi's and BMWs drive and handle. I'd love to buy an Audi but all of them have reliability that is substantially below my minimum standards -- and, yes, I have very high standards. I especially like the Audi A6 wagon but I could never buy one. I've already been completely screwed by VW with a car that was undrivable when only two years old and which they couldn't fix -- the VW zone representative actually told me to "f#ck off" and that VW realized they were going to alienate a lot of customers. Watching my business assoicate "Dan" deal with endless problems with his wife's fairly new Audi A4 sure hasn't improved my opinion of Audi. I require a primary, "every day" vehicle to have rock solid reliability (e.g. like an appliance) -- that's why I no longer buy Mercedes and Volvos -- they have declined to a level below what I am willing to tolerate. If others have lower standards that me, then fine -- let them buy what they want. It's sort of a Darwinian excercise afterall. G Man, do some research and tell me about the parts shared between the Avalon and LS460/600 and between the VW Phaeton and Audi A8. Maybe you will be surprised?

It doesn't ... you can do your own comparison on part number websites or ask someone in the auto business you trust. Do you also think VW and Porsche are totally separate? If you do, check the ownership data. Porsches have always shared many parts with VW's including obvious parts like interior hardware and switches. The car sold in the U.S. as the Porsche 914 was sold in other countries as a VW. The Porsche 924 was originally going to be a VW until Porsche took it back and sold it under the Porsche brand. What's your point? It might be helping that the Audi A6 is sold in China in a long wheelbase version known as the A6L which has even more rear seat legroom that the long wheelbase BMW 5-series. Massive rear seating area is "big" (is that a pun?) in China -- you'd think everyone was the height of Yao Ming. ;) I've never thought the short wheelbase BMW 5-series were practical for a car used as a primary vehicle due to it's cramped rear seating. The far larger rear passenger area of the standard wheelbase Audi A6 is much more reasonable. The current short wheelbase 5-series has about the same pathetic rear legroom as the BMW 735 I considered just before I bought my first LS400 in 1990. Well there have certainly been a lot of Audi's owned by a section of my family that I sometimes call the "loser branch". If the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. " then the family member that bought four Audis in a row with each having major transmission problems has to be completely loonie or maybe just not so bright. Even I once bought a VW -- the only worse car I've had was a Triumph Spitfire when I was a kid. Have you ever had a car start to collapse in the middle by 35,000 miles, had the seat vinyl fall apart within two years, or a manual transmission fail at about 50,000 miles? It all happened to my VW and what I mentioned was just the tip of the iceberg. Why do you think VW closed down its U.S. manufacturing plant and almost "did a Fiat" and withdraw from the U.S. market? Why do you think the model name of the Audi 100 was changed to the "5000" back to the "100" and then to the "A6"? Do some research. See how many parts are shared between the top Toyota sedan, the Avalon, and the top Lexus Sedan, the LS460/600. Then compare how many parts are shared between the top VW sedan, the Phaeton, and the top Audi sedan, the A8. When you are done doing that, report back with your findings! <_< I'll wait here. P.S. I sure don't mind Lexus being called glorified Toyotas -- I'm a TMC shareholder even. Heres a photo of the license plate frame I put on the LS I bought 20 year ago and have on my current LS.

Maybe some reading about Audi history is needed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi I was in Germany, courtesy of the U.S. Army, not all that long after VW revived the Audi brand and before they launched the Audi brand in the U.S. in about 1973. Audi's and VW's share a huge number of parts from the bottom to the top of both lines and have many of the same quality problems. IMO, an Audi is just a VW pig with lipstick. It would be cool if BMW sold the long wheel base Chinese market version of the 5-series in the U.S.? 5 1/2 more inches of rear seat legroom -- they probably wouldn't sell nearly as many 7-series here if they did that. Look at the attached photo of the backseat area of the 530Li.

It could be because whatever company is really behind "Lexus Financial Services" requires your car to be sold at a competitive auction to get the highest price. That was what happened with my 2000 LS400 when it came off lease in 2003 -- the leasing company required the car to be sold at auction.

The "black base" my OXO containers are in are the cupholders that eject from under the console -- the 95-00 LS cupholders are different than the 90-94 LS cup holders in the way they deploy but they are about the same size and hold cups/water bottles about the same. I owned a 90 LS and 00 LS concurrently and didn't see much difference in how well their cupholders worked. The 95-00 LS cupholders are simpler in design and don't hide behind a little door like the ones in the 90-94 LS when retracted -- maybe the 95-00 LS cupholders were cheaper to manufacture. I appreciate the "ice cubes dont slosh out of my wine glass" comment -- just got back from a week in the area just north of you ... did the San Simeon/Hearst Castle tourist thing, had dinner in Cambria, stayed two nights in the Paso Robles Holiday Inn and bought a few way-to-expensive bottles of wine at local wineries before we headed north to Monterey and Santa Cruz. As I said above, the Camry we rented during our stay had substantially better cupholders that any in an LS400. Our trip included a tour of the Blackhawk auto museum near Fremont -- really cool ... even the wife and sister-in-law liked it. Sitting outside on a patio near the Blackhawk having a beer was perhaps the best part -- can't do that here in Kansas where we've been having ice storms. Nobody should live where palm trees can't grow!

Vehicle Stability Control is what keeps geezers like you and me from sliding off the road in bad weather: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/206114/689691

$650 must include a new ECU. Programming a new master or valet key in a 98-00 LS takes about one minute each for someone who does it a lot -- I watched a Lexus dealer service writer program four keys (2 masters and 2 valets) for free but I did spend a few hundred $$$ buying the keys at the dealership.