1990LS400

The maintenance booklet for my 00 LS says that the 105,000 maintenance is just an engine oil and filter change, a tire rotation, an A/C filter change, a road test, and checking the belts and all the other fluids. It's good to check the brake pads at each tire rotation. Rear pads could be getting close to being worn out by 105,000 miles. The original rear pads on my 00 LS look like they are going to make it to the 120K service. My A/C filter doesn't need replacing every 15,000 miles like the book says. I remove it every few months and knock the debris out of it and replace it every 30,000 miles.

From this drawing, it looks like the rear seats remove similar to my 2000 LS400: http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_U_2000_LEXU...EAQFA_7102.html Pry up the rear seat cushion by forcing your fingertips under the leading edge down by the carpeting. It can take some force to lift the seat cushion up and out. Once you get the seat cushion out, you will probably see most of the bolts holding the seat back in. If it's like my LS, some bolts could be hidden behind leather flaps held in place by velcro in the area of the headrests or behind the armrest. After you have removed the bolts, lift pull/push the entire seat back upward without rotating it -- it may hang from hardware along the front of the package shelf. I suspect you will find some existing holes -- at least my LS had a few and I pushed a wire to the trunk through one. If your GS doen't have an existing hole, maybe you will have to drill one. A diagram on the above website makes it look like the gas tank is below the rear seat instead of behind the rear seat back like in my LS. If you have to drill be sure you verify where the gas tank and other components are located so you don't have a disaster on your hands. Good luck.

Oh Ok. Pleases me to be the first to ask! Would be nice if it did tho. I guess it would be nice if the caller wants to hear "feedback" from all the speakers through the microphone in the interior overhead light cluster.

The odd aspect of your situation is that most insurance companies would have "totaled" your car, paid you its estimated cash value and sold the car for salvage. By my calculations, the $11,400 spent so substantially exceeds 80% of what your car is worth if it had been in "Excellent" condition before the incident. If that "$1500" Lexus windshield had been used, the repair cost would have substantially exceeded 90% of the car's value. I'm not sure you should blame the body shop for using a non-Lexus windshield. The insurance adjuster should have approved the parts used to repair your car and he may have approved and even specified the use of the afftermarket windshield. It sounds like it is not going to be possible to repair your car to your satisfaction. Talk with your insurance company -- maybe they will still take it off your hands and give you the cash value rather than keep pumping money into more repairs.

Only one speaker has been used for the phone systems since the LS was introduced over 20 years ago. I don't remember anyone else ever asking about this on a Lexus forum.

Here is one of many threads about fixing this problem which can be founding by doing a search: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...+steering+wheel

For sure, check with your local Lexus dealer and Lexus Canada before you do this to be clear on warranty coverage on a new U.S. spec Lexus and on parts supply to repair options not available on Canadian spec cars. U.S. residents have warranty coverage when we take our cars to Canada and the Lexus U.S. website implies that Canadian Lexus dealers have access to the U.S. parts catalog. Odd because my local U.S. Lexus dealer has always been adamant that he can't order parts from the catalogs for other countries including from the Canadian catalog. It's certainly not difficult to import a U.S. spec car into Canada if you are willing to pay the 7% GST and all the other fees. One of my Ontario cousins did it last year but the car he bought from the U.S. was several years old and I suspect it was pretty cheap. cduluk said that Canadian dealers can convert instruments on U.S. cars to metric. Since when? In past threads, I've provided the name and website of a Toronto company that can convert instruments to metric on some older Lexus vehicles.

B.B., you don't live in the U.S. As I said before, the U.S. is a far bigger market than Canada and development costs for new cars for U.S. market can be spread across far, far more units here than in the small Canadian market. I think you need to looking at how Toyota/Lexus prices cars around the world. I was in the U.K. in 1990 during the introduction of the LS400 there. I had just purchased a new LS400 in the U.S. and my car had a list price of just over US$36,000. When the LS400 went on sale in the U.K., the base price there was the equivelant of US$70,000. You think people in the U.K. were happy about the price? As far as the ways cars are equipped, I was pretty unhappy that my first LS400 didn't have have headlight washers and DRL like the early 1990 LS400 in Canada had. But I didn't go crying about it. A friend bought an early LS400 in the U.K. and his had some really great standard features not available in the U.S. -- dash adjustable beam headlights, really great headlights with additional high beams, rear foglights, heated rear seats, rear seat cupholders. So what? I'm a little p1ssed that my 2000 LS400 didn't have the rear seat audio and A/C controls that all 2000 LS400s sold in Australia had. So what? Or that I couldn't even get a freaking set of mudflaps from a U.S. Lexus dealer for my 2000 LS -- I had to get them from a Lexus dealer in B.C. The cars that Toyota/Lexus sells and the prices they sell them at are different around the world. Get over it.

I know this situation isn't funny but I have to say that the "blue blob" fix looks pretty comical. If you have documentation showing that you always took your car to this place for oil changes, could you ask that they fund a proper repair, if needed, or at least go 50-50? Just curious, was the shop who did this deed a gas station, Walmart or "Iffy-Lube" type place? I've seen sooo much grief caused by quick oil change businesses. Like last year when my niece had the oil in her nearly new Honda SUV changed at a quick oil change business and a large puddle of oil was on her garage floor within an hour after she returned. I know eveyone isn't in a position to do it, but, IMO, the number one way to prevent damage to a car is to, as much as possible, keep it away from others working on it -- especially to keep it away from the the quick oil change places and Walmart type places. I'll never forget when a friend got a quick oil change in his Porsche in Columbia, Missouri and then jumped on I-70 to drive to Kansas City. I don't remember if he had warnings from dash lights and gauges but he made it only a few miles before the engine seized from lack of oil caused by the drain plug falling out.

It means you need glasses. ;) Country code "G" isn't used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Identification_Number

Great rant! Option and trim packages and relative prices of Canadian spec Lexus vehicles have often/usually been different -- sometimes completely different -- than on US spec cars. What you experienced is nothing new. I've spent quite a bit of time "up there" due to my mother's family fleeing Ontario some years back and I've spent some time in Canadian Lexus dealerships. Canada is a quite a small car market compared to the U.S. having barely 1/10th the population. Cars sold in Canada are unique to Canada -- Canada spec cars are not like cars sold anywhere else since Canada, like the U.S., has its own requirements. If standard accounting practices are followed, costs of developing cars specifically for a small market like Canada are going to be built into the retail prices of of cars sold in Canada. Toyota isn't going to charge people in other countries for the cost of developing cars for a unique small market like Canada. You can solve your problem. All you have to do is to persuade your fellow citizens and elected representatives to adopt all the automotive standards of the USA. While you are at it, you will have to eliminate your use of the metric system for speed limits, road signs and maps. Good luck with all that.

The "Duel" botton must have been only on cars sold in Mississippi -- I assume weapons have to be selected after pressing it. ;) Sorry, I couldn't resist. Here is a link to instructions on how to replace the HVAC control module bulbs in an older LS without the "Dual" button: http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/lighting/cl...cklighting.html I don't know if the procedure is the same in the later LS400 with dual climate controls. Also, at the top of the LS400 forum is a "pinned" thread that has addresses and phone numbers of companies that repair the HVAC control LCD and replace the bulbs. Here is a link to it: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=83 Also, I've seen used HVAC control modules with the dual function on eBay for around $100. You will have to remove the center air vents and console trim to remove the HVAC/radio assembly which is held in by four 10 mm bolts. Links to instructions have been posted here many times.

Before I had similar issues last Spring, I also thought the pedal position sensor (PPS) must be in the interior near the gas pedal. But it isn't -- at least on my 2000 LS400. Both the PPS and TPS (throttle position sensor) are in the engine compartment under the removable cover on top of the engine. Also there is the throttle control motor which is what really does the dirty work. I'd advise against mucking with this system unless you know what you are doing and have the tools and instructions to test the components of the throttle system. The components aren't all that expensive but I don't think it is good idea to just start replacing stuff. All the components can be tested -- the instructions and specs are in the repair manuals for my 00 LS althought they may be different for your car. The TPS on my car failed almost completely last Spring -- very erratic -- shutting off and restarting the engine allowed me to drive the car home and then to the repair shop the next day. The TPS tested out as being bad and I also had the PPS replaced since it tested as being marginal. The total cost of replacing the TPS and PPS on my car, including diagnosis, was right at $670 excluding tax.

Yeah, Steve, it's all your fault! OK, as I've admitted before, I'm an over-the-top safety nut. I'll have to ask my now 86 year old father if he remembers how I hounded him in the 1950's until he had seat belts installed in our family car and then hounded both my parents to always use seat belts. It really is wonderful how the per-miles-driven death rate from auto accidents has plummeted over the years. Airbags have been only one of many factors that have reduced the death rate. Back in the 1950's and 1960's it seemed like we were always going to the funerals of people we knew and loved who had been killed in car crashes -- it didn't help that we lived on a seven mile stretch of Highway 24 that was documented as being the most dangerous section of highway in Missouri. Although not as frequent as in the past, we are still going to too many crash related funerals -- here is an article about the most recent one ... the 14 year old son of a co-worker: http://www.basehorinfo.com/news/2008/may/0...g_basehor_life/ IMO, dying in a vehicle crash is a particularly pointless way to go.

Actually for many years hikers and climbers have sometimes but not always been billed for rescue costs. I do not know what the criteria is when deciding when or when not to bill for a rescue.

jpourcy, we actually agree on some points. Especially that it is ultimately a motorcyclists responsiblity for his exposing himself to danger. Unfortunately, many motorcyclists who survive crashes with serious injuries are younger riders without health insurance -- guys in their late teens and 20's who haven't yet figured out that they aren't bulletproof. Who pays for their care and upkeep? We do through our taxes. We aren't a society that throws people in the trash bin just because they don't take care of themselves -- at least we aren't yet. The more recent driver side airbags (from about 1997 onward) deploy with substantially less force than the earlier ones. They deploy and deflate so quickly that many drivers don't remember the deployment. The reason for the rapid deflation is precisely to allow the car to be steered after the initial impact. Do some "googling" and you can find the design criteria and videos showing the incredibly rapid deployment and deflation. Pre-1998 airbags are another matter. They are usually larger and deploy with far greater force. They are the ones that have done the most damage including killing a number of children and a few small adults -- even killing children during extremely low speed minor crashes. That's a shame. NHTSA received warnings from European manufacturers, most notably Daimler-Benz, that the early U.S. specification airbags were dangerous to small adults and children but the warnings were ignored. Nearly 20 years later, the U.S. essentially adopted the European airbag standard -- quite similar to what the U.S. finally did with headlights after going its own way for decades. I don't remember the first year the switches were available, but Lexus has long offered switches to turn off the front airbags. Let's not compare skydiving and mountain climbing to riding motorcycles. As one who has jumped out of perfectly good helicopters and fixed wing aircraft and climbed ice/snow covered mountains with ice axes and ropes and ladders to bridge seemingly bottomless crevasses, I'll take those "safe" activities any day compared to motorcycles. It will be interesting to see what happens with Enterprise Rent-a-Car and other car rental companies that bought rental cars without the standard side airbags. Some companies have already put Enterprise on "blacklists" and their employees no longer rent from them. Enterprise also sold some of its former rental cars to individuals without disclosing that the airbag option had been deleted -- more lawsuits.

Killer, I owned a motorcycle when I was your age. If I had known what I know now I wouldn't have done that. I have known people who have been killed and permanently maimed in motorcycle accidents and a couple of people who have hit and killed motorcyclists with their cars. Oddly enough, the head salesman of our motorcycle insurance division hit and killed a motorcyclist on Antioch Road in north Kansas City a few years back. I recently had lunch with a retired friend of mine who spent several months in the hospital after crashing his motorcycle a couple of years ago. His wife, who was riding on the back, was in the hospital over six months and, now in constant pain and held together by pieces of steel, will never be the same. And on the airbag issue, I hope anyone who removes their airbags has one hell of a megamillion dollar personal umbrella insurance policy -- otherwise he ain't going to have any assets after an accident where someone is killed or injured in his airbag-less car. A major rental car company is about to lose many millions of dollars just because it special ordered new cars without the normally standard side airbags and rented the cars without disclosing the fact. It never fails to amaze me what some people will do.

I am not following your logic. Removing air bags doesn't effect just the person taking that action. It affects anyone driving or riding in the car -- perhaps not knowing that the airbags have been removed -- and can affect people in other cars when a driver without an airbag loses control after the initial impact. The main function of air bags is to get the driver and passengers through the first and usually most severe impact, and to allow the driver to be conscious enough to be able to control his car, if necessary, to avoid additional impacts. I spent 31 years around the private passenger insurance industry before retiring including 10 years in motorcycle insurance so I may have some additional insight. Knowing what I know, I would never for a moment consider riding a motorcycle -- a Darwinian method of "culling the herd". So what if our government allows motorcycles with or without a helmet. I or any family member of mine isn't going to be riding one. Besides, it is rare for a motorcycle impacting a car to kill or even severely injure the occupant of a car. So what if the motorcyclist dies -- he made the choice to ride.

The 93-up LS400 has cabin filters. Instructions on how to replace the filters on a 93-94 LS400 are at the bottom of this thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...l=cabin++filter It looks like this diagram shows the filters: http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_U_1994_LEXU...EPGKA_8714.html The cabin filters on a 95-up LS400 are in a different place. When to replace it? I think the maintenance schedule for my 00 LS says to replace the cabin filter every 30K miles although sometimes I just remove it and knock the dirt and junk out of it. Does the maintenance schedule for your 93 LS have a replacement schedule? I think the instructions for my car say something about blowing the dirt out with compressed air. Some people have cut up furnace filters to use as replacement filters -- don't know if that would work for a 93-94.

RDM, take a pill! Sure your comments are welcomed -- strange as they may be -- but don't expect people to necessarily agree with them. Removing airbags from a car certainly seems odd to me. I suggest having anyone who rides in the front passenger seats of your cars sign a release acknowledging that they understand that the airbag has been removed.

Doubtful. A laptop computer isn't going to have a handsfree profile. I've tried to link non-phone Bluetooth devices to car Bluetooth systems for amusement and, although they sometimes connected, nothing could be transferred. Some Bluetooth phones can sync their phone books with software on a PC -- Outlook, Lotus Notes, CSV files -- which could eliminate the manual entry. A USB Bluetooth dongle for a PC is cheap -- I paid less than $10 for one over a year ago.

If I had a dollar for every time this has been asked ... There is limited compatibility between the iPhone and older Lexus Bluetooth systems: http://lexusbluetooth.letstalk.com/brands/...mp;passedPaIds= I could be wrong but I think I've read that the latest Lexus Bluetooth systems have been altered specifically to better handle the iPhone. Some iPhone users have purchased inexpensive compatible Bluetooth phones (e.g. from eBay) for the sole purpose of uploading their phone books to the Lexus Bluetooth system. If you do this, you might want to find a Bluetooth phone that can import your phone book so you wouldn't have to manually enter it.

Anyone else what? It's a silly and expensive idea. Why bother when a fairly low mileage 04 LS430 can be had for less than the price of a well equipped new Corolla. Besides, I like the styling of the 01-03 LS430 more than the 04-06.

So the dealer would rather take a shotgun approach instead of diagnosing the problem? Ridiculous. A proficient automotive electrician should be able to quickly diagnose the problem using the electrical diagrams for your car, the diagnostic instructions in the shop manuals, and by verifying voltage, continuity and resistance starting at the audio and A/C systems and working backwards along the harness. The problem could be caused by something as as simple as corrosion in a fuse block. Do you know the car's history ... e.g. it isn't one of the "Katrina cars" that has "flooded" the market?

Here is a link to a diagram showing antenna parts on an 01 SC430: http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_U_2001_LEXU...KAQKA_8604.html You might want to look at the diagram for your car's model year in case it is different. I've seen a thread on this forum on how to replace just the antenna shaft but it would take some searching to find it. I'm not familiar with the SC430 but I assume that trim panels in the trunk have to be removed to access its antenna similar to other models.