1990LS400

From the financial analysis in the news about the CIT situation, I tend to agree with the federal regulators and most of the analysts who think that CIT is likely not in the "too big to fail" category and that it should not get a second multibillion dollar bailout since it didn't make any progress after the first one. Other financial companies will fill the void left by CIT. It's nice to see that the Federal checkbook is not open to everyone.

Yes, from the very first version, the Lexus LS has been documented to be hard on batteries. My 2000 LS400's in-service date was July 31, 2000 and its already on its 4th battery. There is a school of thought that LS water pumps have become so reliable that it is no longer necessary to replace them every 90,000 miles. The local Toyota dealer doesn't replace the water pump on Toyota branded cars during the timing belt service for the same reason. I'm a coward and had my water pump replaced at 90,000 miles. The water pump on my first LS (a 1990) failed at around 75,000 miles and took the timing belt out.

A Google search shows an amp integration harness for an 93 ES: http://cgi.ebay.com/Stereo-Harness-LEXUS-E...6QQcmdZViewItem Don't know if it really works.

Tex, I think you are missing my point. reyoasian lives in Canada. The "Intuitive Parking Assist" option available in the U.S. is NOT listed as an option on Canadian specification IS cars. If reyoasian wants a park assist system, he has two options: 1) Import a U.S. specification IS into Canada. 2) Buy a Canadian spec IS and have a park assist system installed. Importing a U.S. car is certainly possible but it's a hassle -- one of my Ontario cousins did it just last year. If reyoasian is going to install a park assist system, he could consider one that carries the Lexus brand, is a Lexus dealer installed option in other countries, and which comes with very detailed instructions specifically for the gen 2 IS. I saw a couple of gen 2 IS cars yesterday and neither of them had a park assist system. I wonder how these drivers are able to park their cars without one?

I certainly wouldn't lump the official dealer installed Lexus Parking Aid in with aftermarket parking sensor systems. The Lexus Parking Aid systems have been dealer installed options on other Lexus models -- not just the IS. I would expect the Lexus Parking Aid systems to be just as high quality as other Lexus sanctioned and branded accessory products and look like it was factory installed. I've bought a number of Lexus accessory products from Lexus dealers in the U.S., Canada and Europe over the past 19 years and have always found the products to be of very high quality.

Maybe a previous owner of the IS250 in the photo installed or had the parking sensors installed. Plenty of people have installed parking sensors and I don't think it's possible to tell if they originally came on a car. If you can't find your dream IS250 with parking sensors, maybe you could add the Lexus dealer installed parking sensor option that was available for the IS250 outside North America. It is called the "LEXUS PARKING AID 400" and the part number is PZ464-80421-00. The installation instruction PDF is too big to upload to this forum but it can be viewed in the "Accessory Installation Manual" section at http://www.lexus-tech.eu Attached is a "snagged" portion of the install instructions cover page.

The radio security code is not recorded in the owners manual -- only if you or a previous owner wrote it there which is unlikely. I once set the security code on the radio in my 90 LS and I sure didn't write it in the owners manual where someone stealing the car or radio could find it. A Lexus dealer can not look up the radio security code based on the radio's serial number. The radios that have the security code feature came from the factory unset and the owner, if he decided to use the feature, picked the security code. $76 sounds like a reasonable price to address the issue.

If I got the correct part numbers for a 93 LS from http://www.toyodiy.com/parts , all the switches are available from http://www.parts.com/lexus/1993-lexus-ls-400-parts.cfm at a significant discount. Passenger door switches (part number 84810-50010): $63.42 Driver door master switch (part number 84820-50010): $331.99 Amazingly few parts are interchangable between an Lexus LS and a Toyota.

Sure, the 02 LS430 is a great car and has a huge number of improvements over the 00 LS400 including more interior space and especially rear seat legroom and a far larger trunk. Attached are the specs for the Canadian 02 LS430. 2002_Canadian_LS430_brochure.pdf

Well, maybe my opinion is valid because Kansas City, Missouri was recently rated as having some of the most poorly maintained streets in the U.S. and having the highest average damage to vehicles due to rough roads. Heck, a car fell into a huge hole in a downtown Kansas City, Missouri street last year -- only then did the city put barriers around the hole to keep others from driving into it. Funny how everyone likes to think that their city/state/province has the worst drivers. OK, maybe Quebec is in the running. At least now every Quebec farmer doesn't seem to be crawling along on a main road in a barely running Skoda like back the 1980s. Yes, the LS requires premium fuel -- I think most (all?) Lexus vehicles do. Attached are specs for the Canadian 2000 LS400 -- no mention of the Millenium Edition. Canadian_spec_2000_LS400_french.pdf

Fuel economy on my 00 LS is highly variable depending on the mix of city and highway driving and how heavily the car is loaded. On the last five fill-ups, the trip computer has given the following "MILES SINCE REFUEL / TANK MPG" figures: 226 miles/20.2 mpg; 274 miles/23.0 mpg; 226 miles/25.2 mpg; 274 miles / 20.6 mpg; 181 miles / 25.6 mpg. I will leave it to you to convert to L/100 km! I doubt if your results would be much different than mine unless you have more of a "lead foot" than I do -- and I sometimes really "nail" the throttle. I've driven in Montreal and the traffic volume and congestion level there did not seem noticeably different that here in the Kansas City area where we have a similar boulevard street system.

chef, Lexus VSC goes far beyond GM's Posi-traction. VSC intervenes when a skid is detected and takes over the electronic "drive by wire" throttle and selectively applies the brake at each wheel independently. I once tried to lose control and make the car to into a spin by driving in a circle as fast as I could in an empty snow covered parking lot -- VSC made it impossible to spin the car or lose control. I doubt if many people where I live appreciate what VSC can do in snow because we don't get all that much snow and few people buy and use snow tires. VSC can't work its "magic" in snow unless a car has snow tires.

Chef, the 2000 LS400 you are considering appears to be a Millenium Edition since it has the same wheels that were standard on the 2001-2 LS430. The Canadian Millenium Edition is similar to the U.S. 2000 LS400 Platinum Series. I'm assuming the car you are looking at has the textured leather and maple wood ... and hopefully seat heaters! There were three versions of the U.S. Platinum Series 00 LS: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/2000/2000LSspecs.pdf A Montreal Lexus dealer "should" be able to tell you if there was more than one version of the Millenium Edition and the content of each. The 00 LS Platinum Series is fairly rare in the U.S. -- I've had mine almost six years and have seen only a few others. Which audio system does that Millenium LS have? If Nakamichi, you should know that repair part supply is drying up down here in the U.S. I know lots of people like the RX but it ain't no 00 LS. I've driven RX330 loaner cars provided by the Lexus dealer several time and it has always been a huge relief to get back into my 00 LS. Drive an RX and that 00 LS back-to-back and see what I mean. The 98-00 LS400 is a great snow car as long as you have four real (mountain/snowflake logo on the sidewall) snow tires. The "snow mode" transmission setting and VSC make the car actually fun to drive in snow. A friend of mine doesn't use snow tires on his 99 LS and can barely get around in it in winter snow -- but he also has an RX400h.

If the 93 LS keyless entry system is like the one on the 90 LS I had for many years, there is a ROM chip in the receiver on the driver's side of the trunk behind the trim that can vibrate loose. Try removing and reseating the ROM chip. The ROM chip in my 90 LS vibrated lose causing the keyless entry to work intermittently for a number of years -- probably related to the dealer replacing the ROM chip and all the keys under warranty trying to find a frequency that didn't conflict with security systems in shopping centers near where I lived. When I sold the car in 2003, the new owner reseated the ROM chip which fixed the problem. Here is a thread where he (Toby / ylekiot1) explained how to do it: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...&hl=keyless

The navigation manuals must not be all that expensive. For some reason Sewell Lexus in Texas ( http://www.sewellpartsonline.com ) doesn't show the navigation manual for the 2003 LS430 but they have one for the 2002 LS430 at $17.10. You could submit a parts inquiry or send an email and ask for a price for a 2003 LS navigation manual. How much does your nearest Lexus dealer want for one?

Have you turned the brightness control rheostat knob for the dash lights? I'm assuming that it works like every other Toyota product I've seen.

Unless it changed from the previous model year, the timing belt replacement interval is 90,000 miles or 6 years from the car's in-service date -- whichever comes first. It would appear that your timing belt is overdue for replacement. An HID bulb that cycles on and off may be defective. Or it could be the ballast. I'd suggest first replacing both HID bulbs (to ensure a color match) since, even if it's not a bulb problem, the bulbs are likely near the end of the life. You can find OEM Phillips bulbs on eBay for less than $125 for a 2-pack. Be sure the bulbs are new ... some bulbs on eBay are used. Verify that your garage door openers are compatible with Homelink. Programming the opener buttons in a Lexus often requires pressing a button on the garage door opener motor housing. Check the manual for your garage door opener.

Even an ordinary video DVD player designed for the U.S. market will not play DVD's meant for Europe and vice versa. The region codes are different. I wouldn't expect it to be different for a DVD based navigation system although the nav software could be different too. Not long ago, my bro-in-law told me about a time he was in Europe demonstating a very expensive military-grade GPS navigation product that his employer - a U.S. defense contractor - was hoping to sell to the military of a particular European country. During a break, one of the officers went out to his car, retrieved his portable Garmin nav and proceded to demonstrate that his Garmin was more accurate than the megabucks military GPS that bro-in-law was trying to sell them. OK ... the military GPS nav was more than a wee bit sturdier. If you buy a Garmin, you might as well get one that comes with both European and North American maps so you can use it when you return home without having to install more maps.

Do you happen to have a low or zero deductible on comprehensive insurance coverage? If you do, professional replacement of your emblems might be covered at a low or no cost. I lost countless Mercedes hood ornaments in the 70s and 80s -- I once even caught an about 10 year old kid trying to break the star off the hood during daylight hours in my own driveway. All of those hood ornaments were replaced by my insurer at no cost to me.

Based on a number of similar questions that have been asked on this forum, it would appear that European navigation disks are not compatible with the North American specification navigation system. You might try searching this forum for relevant past threads. You could try contacting Lexus customer service. When I asked about taking a U.S. spec LS400 to Switzerland during a work assignment in the early 1990s, Lexus customer service told me that there would be no warranty support for my U.S. spec car while in Europe. Perhaps it has changed, but in the 1990s there were an amazing number of differences between U.S. spec and European spec Lexus cars and particularly with German spec cars that had lighting requirements different from the rest of Europe. It must not be all that big a deal to take a U.S. spec vehicle to Europe and bring it up to local standards. My Swiss coworkers took all sorts of vehicles back home with them -- one of the last Honda Accord wagons, a Harley motorcycle and, most recently, a Ford Expedition SUV. I mainly remember the guys having to add a rear fog light.

I don't see a "cold for disk" error message described in the 30 page navigation diagnosis section in my 2000 LS400 repair manual set. I hope I am correct in my assumption that the navigation system is essentially the same in both the 98-00 LS400 and GSx00. Did the hard disk appear to seat securely you plugged into the navigation ECU slot? I might not hurt to re-seat it. Do you know that the navigation hard drive was working in the car in which it was previously installed? I don't know if you can put your navigation system into diagnosis mode with your current problem but here is the procedure described for a 00 LS -- likely is the same for your GS: "While pressing "CLIMATE" and "AUDIO" switches simultaneously, by turning the light control switch to OFF, TAIL, OFF, TAIL and OFF the system is started-up." It takes approxmilately 30 seconds to inspect the screen." OK, the English in the above instruction is a little odd but that is what it says in the manual. I can't even begin to scan all the pages that show all the diagnostic screens. If you don't have any success and really want to get it to work, consider taking your car to a Lexus dealer or at least ask the dealer what the error message means.

Did a maintenance manual come with your car? It should be in the same package as the owners manual. If you didn't get one, you can get a replacement from a Lexus dealer. The maintenance manual for your car lists the worked recommended for each service. Some of the recommended tasks are overkill unless you are operating your car under unusually harsh conditions which are also spelled out in the maintenance manual.

From my experience with having timing belts on Lexus LS cars replaced three times, a sticker showing the mileage at which the timing belt was replaced has usually been placed in the engine compartment. The timing belt replacement interval is 90,000 miles or 6 years - which ever comes first. If yours is a 96, it should be on its third timing belt.

It is not an exact science. The timing belt could probably make it a lot more than another 10,000 miles but I wouldn't recommend stretching it out too far. FYI, the timing belt replacement interval for the RX in Europe is 150,000 km -- that's 93,000 miles. Are there any independent repair shops in Memphis that specialize in Lexus and Toyota? I've used mainly independent Lexus repair shops where I live and the service and prices has been substantially better than the local Lexus dealer. Ask around. Ask other Lexus owners when you see them at the gas station and in parking lots. A few other parts besides the water pump are normally replaced with the timing belt -- e.g. idler and tensioner. Personally, I wouldn't use NAPA parts -- the cost savings would be minimal. Most of the cost is labor. If you choose to use a mechanic that does not normally work on Lexus vehicles, I suggest that you ask him how many timing belts he's changed on an RX, ES or Toyota V6 engine.

Twisted? Moi? I'm thinking that Billy Mays would be the first person to appreciate an OxiCasket joke. If we're lucky (or unlucky, LOL), Ron "But Wait!" Popeil will be pitching them on TV before we know it. Or maybe Costco could add the OxiCasket to its fine line of caskets. Seriously folks, Costco really does sell caskets.