1990LS400

Per a member request via personal message, attached is a TSIB showing the settings that can be customized on an RX300. CBES.pdf

The last time I checked, a scan tool kit and program card from Toyota was well over $1,000 ... don't know if the off-brand OBDII scanners will work. I had an independent Toyota/Lexus repair shop customize a few of the settings on my 00 LS400 -- only took them a few minutes and the cost was nominal. Edit: I checked the invoice and found that the cost was actually zero. They were doing a front brake job on my car and didn't charge me for changing the CBES/LPS settings.

Great photo, Alan! Your photo reminds me why I consider the 95-97 LS the best LS exterior design of all. Your post also reminds me of driving down Skyline Drive in Virginia a few years ago in a rental Ford Five Hundred Limited that had some sort of 18 inch wheel/tire package -- great fun screaming through the corners while watching for the all too common deer on the road. Incredible number of "bikes" on Skyline - both motorcycles and bicycles. I'll never forget one of my friends buying one of the first Porsche 944's to hit the U.S. It was such an incredible car compared to anything else within $20K of its price. The LS may not be a car for windy roads like the "Dragon" but it sure is a wonderful boulevard crusier.

Really! I drove my 13 year old 90 LS400 into the Lexus dealer in 2003 and test drove a low mileage off-lease CPO 2000 LS400 and a new 2003 LS430 back-to-back. It was surprising how little the 2000 LS400 felt like the 90 LS and how it felt much more like the LS430. The coolest thing about buying a 2000 LS400 in the same color combination as my 90 LS400 - at least to me - was that few people realized I was driving a different car. I sometimes alternated driving the two -- the 90 LS one day and the 00 LS the next. It was fun to watch people slowly figure it out after they rode in the 00 LS ... I remember my mother saying something like "Wait a minute! Is this a different car?"

jaybe, you might be interested in knowing that, when I filled the gas tank of my 2000 LS400 over the weekend, the trip computer said that the tank average was 16.7 mpg during the previous 170 miles driven. Most of the driving during that 170 miles was on 25-45 mph streets with perhaps 10 to 20 miles on 60-65 mph highways. Having driven in the Seattle area A LOT (many relatives there), I would expect your gas mileage would be lower than mine due to (what I think is) the Seattle area's substantially higher level of traffic congestion.

It can be done by a Lexus dealer or repair shop with the appropriate handheld tester and program card: http://www.lexus.com/pdf/service/GX470_LPS.pdf I've always thought it seemed kind of dangerous to have all any of the doors unlock automatically when the car is put into park.

What part of the car is the "send receive remote unit"?

Really? Do you think the IS transmission is poorly made? The U.S. specification IS250 is a fairly heavy car (3,400+ pounds) and has about the same power-to-weight ratio as the first Lexus LS I bought 19+ years ago and used to pull a utility trailer hundreds of times with no ill effects. That old 1990 LS400 is still doing fine with its current owner at over 275,000 miles. I've had a trailer hitch on almost every car I've owned since the 1960s and have never had a mechanical issue caused by towing a trailer. Oddly, outside North America, the Toyota Motor Company thinks that the Lexus IS is completely suitable for towing. Here is a screen image from the Lexus U.K. website that describes the towing capabilities of IS220d (Diesel) and IS250 (gasoline) cars sold in the U.K.: There is nothing different about the IS sold in other countries that makes it more acceptable for towing. A bonus of having a hitch is that it allows using a receiver mounted bike rack -- unlike with a car top bike rack, with a receiver bike rack there is no wind noise, little/no risk of damaging the car, easy for a short person to load a bike, it provides a stand for for working on bikes and you don't have to worry about forgetting that your bikes are on your car top and crunching them on an overhead structure.

The repair manuals for my similar 2000 LS400 show only two clips or bolts behind the seat back holding the package shelf in place the car is a Canadian model or has had the three child seat tether anchors added that bolt through the package shelf behind the headrests. The repair manuals do not contain specific instructions for removing the shelf. This diagram does not show the two bolts or clips I mentioned: http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_U_1998_LEXU...EAGKA_6403.html Don't know if you have to but I posted here how to remove the hight mounted stop light: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...c=25937&hl=

Have you tracked your mileage in your 2000 LS over a number of tankfuls and are you driving it like your 93 LS? When I say track your mileage I mean calculate your milege exactly -- divide miles traveled by gallons used ... don't do "s.w.a.g." estimates. Have you had your 00 LS long? I know I probably "stick my foot into the thottle" more with my 00 LS than I did with my 90 LS -- just for the sheer fun of it. Certainly doesn't help my gas mileage. Do you find yourself "enjoying" the much greater power of your 00 LS? I remember commenting to my wife last weekend that the trip computer on the 00 LS said that the tank mpg was 16.something mpg when the tank was probably less than half full. If I'm driving mainly on surface 35-45 mph streets the gas mileage on my 00 LS often descends into the 16 mpg range. The 5th transmission gear doesn't help gas mileage much in low speed city driving.

The Japanese home market LS400 rear seat did not "fold" although there was a power slide rear seat option similar to that in the U.S. spec LS430 Ultra Luxury: http://www.cars-directory.net/specs/toyota...or/2000_8/5797/

If you have to have both, there's the VAIS "SoundLinQ SLx" that allows for control of an XM turner through the nav screen and has aux input for a manually controlled iPod or other MP3 player.

Yep. But if you use the search box at the bottom of the individual forum rather than the global search link at the top you can still use the old search form. Shazam! Thanks! Yep, just as you said, the old search form can still be invoked from the bottom of a forum.

I've gotten a lot of flack for putting mudflaps on my LS400s. I drive on gravel roads too but not in the Kansas City metro area where I also live. I suspect you would be happier with OEM mudflaps on your RX. I've checked out aftermarket mudflaps for Lexus sedans and there was nothing close to the quality of Toyota/Lexus mudflaps. The Lexus mudflaps are molded to perfectly fit the car body and attach very securely -- just about impossible to knock off. Installation is fairly simple but it took a little drilling on both my current and previous LS -- don't know about the RX. Irontoad has a set of four OEM mudflaps for only $88.80: http://www.irontoad.com/Merchant2/merchant...;Store_Code=LSC The price sure seems low since the ones I bought in England and Canada for my two LS400's cost almost that much for EACH mudflap in the set. You can find RX mudflaps for slightly less by googling the part number "08414-48820". Irontoad is a known quantity though and has a good reputation on Lexus forums.

Ah ... the Bosch "Lamda Sond" ... brings back memories ... invented in 1976 and first used on 1977 Volvos. The Volvo 242 that I purchased in 1978 even had a Lamda Sond emblem on the front grill -- guess "Lamda Sond" sounded more impressive than "Oxygen Sensor". You can see the Lamda Sond badge on the Volvo's grill in the attached photo -- my 78 242 looked the same ... even the same color which I called ... "Baby Poo".

NicLX470, do the "7440 LED" bulbs you bought require cutting your wiring harness to add load resisters or to use an electronic turn signal flasher module? Some LED bulb sellers do a poor job of disclosing the additional work (i.e. hacking) necessary to use LED bulbs for exterior lights. The taillights with LED turn signals that CrunchySkippy saw on an IS may have been aftermarket. There are lots of aftermarket LED taillights for the ISx50 on eBay and even LED taillights with LED turn signals and brake lights for my nine year old LS400. I would hope that the aftermarket LED tail lights would be plug and play and have addressed the load resister issue but I really don't know. Tell us how it goes with the LED bulbs you bought.

If we had the old search feature of this forum back (hint, hint), I could find the most recent thread (by jainla, I think) that had the VSC reset procedure for newer Lexus cars. It was easier on my 00 LS400 -- I think I remember that on later cars it takes a short jumper wire to temporarily bridge two pins on a connector or junction box. I think the procedure jainla posted was for an LS430 but it might be the same on the SC430. You might find it by searching. I haven't been able to.

I may be wrong but aren't the foglight housings from the 1994 SC400 interchangable with the cornering light housings from the 1993 SC400? The foglight housings from the 94 SC uses an H3 Halogen bulb. Whether HID bulbs would work well in the 94 SC foglight housings is another story. Also, you would have to have a fog light switch in your car's interior to switch the fog lights and and off -- you shouldn't go driving around all the time with fog lights on. Does your 93 SC already have a foglight switch on the headlight stalk? HID's in the foglights could blind other drivers too although 8000K HID bulbs aren't going to put out as much light as lower K bulbs. Putting HID bulbs in light housings not made for them can throw light all over the place and put little light on the road ... I've seen some really pathetic HID kit installs that only blind other drivers. Good HID kits -- if there is any such thing as a good HID kit -- power the ballasts directly from the battery ... i.e. there is probably a terminal on your underhood fuse box the power wire from the ballasts could be attached to. A relay is used to connect the HID kit to the wire running to the foglight switch in the car interior so that the lights can be turned on and off. Have you looked on the forums to see if anyone has put HID bulbs in a 94-up SC foglight housing. You might be wasting your time and money doing it.

Something to verify is whether or not your car was one of the 13,000 2004 LS430s subject to the transmission recall and, if so, whether or not the transmission has been replaced. See the attached document. Otherwise, you should find that your LS is a fairly low maintenance car. If you plan to keep it a long time, visit your local Toyota dealer and buy a 10-pack of oil filters and oil plug gasket rings. Price is usually much less than at a Lexus dealers and has run about me about $40. 2004_LS430_transmission_recall.pdf

California sure has some odd tint laws -- 70% on the front side windows and anything you want on the rear sides and back window: http://www.tintcenter.com/laws/CA/ I've got Llumar 35% on the sides and back of my 00 LS -- the Kansas limit -- and they don't seem very dark from the inside of the car: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...=si&img=815 I sure would like a little darker tint -- maybe 20%. I'd say go for 20% on the rear side windows and back window and the maximim 70% on the front side windows. I'm usually all for obeying state laws but I'd think about fudging a little and seeing if you get flack from the authorities for 50% or even 35% on the front side windows -- it's easy enough to have the tint steamed off and replaced with something legal if you have to. 70% is so little that it's hardly worth bothering with.

Lenore, my take is that the diatribe you posted was written by a hate and fear mongering nut case. My family and the people I know are definitely living in completely different reality than this Geller character.

Divine intervention! Seriously, have you taken the seat cushion and seat back out to take a look? The seat cushion pops right out but the seat back is bolted in pretty good. Are you good at fabricating hinges and locks with machine tools? If you need to occasionally haul things in the rear seat area, just pop the seat cushion out and store it. People used to kid me about my gen 1 "LS400 SUV". I removed the rear seat cushion a number of times to carry coolers and camping gear for canoe trips down the White River in Southern Missouri. Didn't seem to hurt anything -- interior looked like new when I sold the car after 13+ years.

Here is a recent Clublexus thread about an 02 SC430 owner successfully installing a Parrot MKi9100 using an $85 interface harness so that his iPod plays through all his car speakers: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-430/441...-for-02-sc.html Sounds like he is happy with it.

I was told that same thing at a Lexus dealership a couple of years ago when they tried to balance my Dunlop Sport 4000 tires attempting to eliminate a severe vibration at 60-65 mph. They said that one of the Dunlop tires was defective and that it had a heavy spot that was so severe that the tires could not be road force balanced. Funny, I then replaced the Dunlop 4000 all season tires with new Bridgestone directional summer tires but the vibration was still there after they were installed and balanced by the same Lexus dealership. The Lexus dealership then determined that the problem causing the vibration was really worn strut rod bushings. After the two strut rods and bushings were finally replaced (at 86,000 miles), the vibration vanished and the car drove far better. My favorite Lexus dealer tire guy told me his opinion that road force balancing is overrated and rarely needed. He told me that he rarely road force balances tires unless a customer requests it. I tend to believe him. My snow tires / wheels can be only statically balanced due to the aftermarket wheel design and they don't have even a hint of vibration at highway speeds.

If the thread you are referring to was by "Blake918", he did not connect his Parrot MKi9100 to his 99 LS400 audio system so that the Parrot's iPod/aux/USB function could be used to play music through the car's speakers -- only through the single mono Parrot speaker. I think he was mainly looking for the the Bluetooth function of the Parrot since it works well with iPhone. I think he hardwired the Parrot's power, ground and mute wires to his 99 LS similar to how he installed the Nokia CARK-91H phone kit he had on his 95-97 LS had and I still have in our cars. (Thanks again, Blake, for sending me all those CARK-91 parts! -- wife's still using the replacement cradle you sent.) Maybe you could find a Parrot dealer/installer who could tell you if the Parrot MKi9000 can interface with the ES nav screen -- I'd be surprised (no, amazed) if it did. There are some cool Youtube videos showing how people installed Parrot Bluetooth kits into their mostly European (mainly VW) cars using interface harnesses that allowed the use of existing steering wheel controls and the car's information display. One of the Youtube videos noted that the Parrot MKi9100 can not connect to a Bluetooth phone while a USB memory device is plugged into the Parrot. Usually, where there is a will, there is way.