1990LS400

Larger diameter, heavier wheels and tires like you have sometimes amplify the effect of worn suspension components. How many miles do you have on your car? At about 80,000 mies, my 2000 LS400 developed a shimmy at highway speeds which was substantially more pronounced when using the heavier OEM wheels and summer tires than when using my lighter weight aftermarket wheels and snow tires. Both sets of wheels and tires were balanced and technicians confirmed that all the wheels in both sets were "true". It turned out that the strut bar bushings were shot -- they lasted even fewer miles than on my 90 LS. Replacing the strut bars and bushings completely eliminated the shimmy. I'd suggest taking your car in for alignment -- worn suspension components are often obvious to an alignment tech. And where the heck are you driving over 130 km in the Toronto area? I was in the Toronto area during Canada Day week and I'd like to avoid being near where you drive the next time we come up there! :) Although there was an exceptional amount of police radar in use during Canada Day week, I was still impressed at how Ontario well drivers behaved and how closely speed limits were followed -- much better than here in the U.S. midwest.

The "big deal" is that the 98-00 GPS system has a 20 megabyte hard drive -- that's only 2% of the capacity of the rather small capacity postage stamp size one gigabyte SD cards I have in my aftermarket GPS and my camera. I assume that some of the 98-00 Lexus nav 20 megabyte hard drive is dedicated to the navigation software and that substantially less than 20 megabytes is available to store the navigation data. DVDs have a far larger data capacity than the 20 megabyte hard drive. A single layer DVD holds 4.7 gigabytes of data; a double layer DVD holds 8.5 gigabytes. Do the math. It is not like Lexus can just transfer the data from the current GPS DVD to the tiny 98-00 type hard drive. It would be like trying to stuff an elephant into a glove compartment. You may have noticed that some car manufacturers have reverted back to using hard drives for their navigation systems. Maybe part of the reason is that hard drives now commonly hold far more information than a DVD can hold. Hard drives that can hold one terabyte of data now cost as little as $150 and the price is dropping like a stone. Technology-wise, the 98-00 Lexus navigation system has been left in the dust. I feel fortunate that I didn't buy a new LS400 in 2000 to replace the one I bought in 1990. If I had bought a 2000 LS400 then, I might have bought the navigation option. By the time I bought a used 2000 LS400 in 2003, the 2000 Lexus navigation system was already seen by most people to be obsolete and I excluded cars with nav from my search for a 2000 LS. One more thing ... the technology in the portable GPS I bought only two years ago is already way behind what is currently available. I like to get my money's worth out of products I purchase but I'd love to have some of the features available in the new Garmins. I'll be dumping my two year old portable GPS soon.

I suppose that it is possible that the overhead control unit was thoroughly redesigned on the 01 LS430 but on my 00 LS400, the Homelink module, and the sunroof tilt and open/close switches can be reused when replacing the overhead control unit. I wouldn't know this if the passenger side map light had not recently failed on my 00 LS400. I'm having the overhead control unit replaced next Wednesday at my favorite indie repair shop at a cost of $161 (parts and labor). The overhead control unit itself, without the above mentioned switches, is $132 -- both the repair shop service writer and I were surprised at the low cost. Except for the sunglass holder, which the 00 LS400 doesn't have, the overhead control unit on your 01 LS430 looks very similar to the one on my 00 LS400. If your car had Lexus Link and a dealer installed Lexus phone, their microphones would also be in the overhead control unit -- behind the little slots on either side of the Homelink buttons. You might try asking Sewell Lexus for a price quote on the part and ask how much of the electrical components from the old unit can be reused on a new one. Before you go further, consider removing the overhead control unit yourself and taking a look to see if you can find the problem with the sunglass door. If it's like the one on my 00 LS400, the unit is removed by popping off the light lens and removing four screws. Since yours has the sunglass holder, you might see additional screws when you flip down the sunglass holder. It should be possible to unplug the connectors from the module so you can take it to your workbench and play with it. Maybe an LS430 owner on this forum can help? Guys? Good luck!

You'd probably have to go to Nigeria to try to pick the car up!

WOW! We buy only white cars so this means I can turn any car into a white car! But I think we will continue to buy cars that really are white.

Some FYI .... Before the 190E was introduced in the U.S., German spec 190E 1.8 liter engine cars were sold in the U.S. by gray market importers. Gray market 190E's seemed especially common in the Kansas City metro area and could be easily identified by their "tacked on" side marker lights. The U.S. dollar was particularly strong against the Deutchmark in the early 1980s so importing Euro spec cars was especially attractive. (I seriously considered buying a new gray market S-class sedan in 1983 but that's another story.) 157K miles is impressive for a four cylinder Mercedes diesel engine if the engine is original - I suspect that it was driven at relatively low speeds and engine rpms. I bought a new 240D diesel in late 1979 when I moved much further from work. By 140,000 miles, the engine was shot with very low compression and the car could hardly make it up steep hills. I had babied the 240D with 2,000 mile oil changes and proper maintenance and was surprised that the engine didn't last longer. The 240D was my 3rd Mercedes but the first that wasn't an "S-class". When I asked a local Mercedes dealer if my car was typical, I was shown documentation from Mercedes that the expected life of a 240 diesel engine before needing rebuild was approximately 200,000 km -- about 124,000 miles. To say the least, I was surprised since I had heard so many Mercedes diesel "legends". Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised since the engine in my 73 450SEL was blowing through a remarkable amount of oil when it departed us in 1979 at about 150,000 miles. Because the U.S. dollar was so strong, it was relatively inexpensive to buy a factory rebuilt 240 diesel engine and have it installed by the dealer. My rebuilt engine arrived from Germany fully assembled mounted in a steel cage. Mercedes did not sell factory rebuilt gas engines -- only diesels. Unfortunately, the newly installed factory rebuilt diesel engine failed with low compression after about one year and 25,000 miles - I was putting a lot of highway miles on the car driving to and from work. After initially refusing, Mercedes paid to have a another factory rebuilt engine installed under the one year warranty. This third diesel engine did relatively well until I sold the car at around 200,000 miles and 10 1/2 years. Coincidentally, I test drove the very first U.S. spec 190E 2.3 that was delivered to the Mercedes dealer where I bought my 240D. The main thing I remember about the test drive experience is that the plastic underdash hood opener lever broke when I tried to pop the hood to look at the engine. Although a huge number of 190E's were sold here, I rarely see them on the road today. There are plenty of 1980s vintage S-class Mercedes around - until last year there were two early 80s Mercedes S-class sedans in my culdasac - a 300SD and a 420SEL. The elderly couple that owned the 420SEL now has two S500 sedans - a late 90s "panzerwagen" and a 2006 4-Matic. Regarding the 190E's retail price .... When I exchanged my Merc 240D for a new LS400 in early 1990, the sticker price of my new LS400 was lower than a new 190E 2.6 (6-cylinder) sedan I had just seen at the Mercedes dealer. Getting a new LS400 for less than a new Mercedes 190E made the LS400 seem like an especially good bargain.

It may be different for your 92 LS but my 00 LS400 repair manual indicates that the headlight cleaner system is on the same circuit as the windshield wipers. An illustration in my manual shows a headlight cleaner relay and motor on the front of the fluid reservoir next to the windshield cleaner motor. There is a three page diagnostic procedure for the headlight cleaner system in my manual to test continuities and voltages to find which component is the problem -- looks pretty involved. If you can access the headlight cleaner motor, perhaps you can use a simple unpowered test light to see if it is getting power when the dash switch is pressed.

Here Here. Last Friday night at Johnnys bar in Overland Park, Kansas, I ran into "Toby", the current owner of the 1990 LS400 I owned for 13 1/2 years from new until 183,000+ miles, and I verified that it still has all the original brake rotors -- the current mileage is 265,000 miles! The rotors have been resurfaced several times which has apparently not "shortened the rotor's life significantly".

You will find answers to some of your questions by looking at the "stickys" at the top of the LS400 forum or by doing some searches. How to fix the seat back has been documented, with pictures, several times. How to replace hood struts will be completely obvious -- it takes about five minutes per side. I've done it at least twice on LS400s. There has been a lot of grief reported from those who have used aftermarket hood struts -- things like bent hoods, hoods that don't open fully and hoods that are very difficult to close. Either be sure that the aftermarket hood struts conform exactly to OEM specs or stick with OEM hood struts. Yes, OEM hood struts might cost a bit more but they will work properly. You can sometimes find OEM hood struts on ebay but I have bought the last two sets at Sewell Lexus.

I'm curious about how many miles are on your rear pads. If I remember correctly, I got over 125,000 miles of wear from the rear pads on my first LS (a 1990) and the rear pads on my 2000 LS400 look like they are going to go even longer that that. The 1990 LS was still on its original brake rotors when I sold it at 183,000 miles and the rotors were still within the acceptable thickness range. I suggest that you pull the rear wheels and visually check the pad thickness for yourself. The indie shop I take my LS to told me that I would need rear pads "soon" at the 90,000 mile service -- but when I did a visual check myself, all four rear pads looked great and looked like would go at least another 30,000 miles and perhaps a lot longer than that. I suspect that repair shops have a hard time coping with the concept of the rear pads on an LS lasting 120,000 to 150,000 miles. I check the pad thickness at all four wheels each time I rotate tires -- every 5,000 miles. It takes only a minute or two at each wheel and brake pad replacement never sneaks up on me. The indie shop I take our Lexus and Toyota cars to always use OEM brake pads and resurface the rotors. In March 2006 at 71,000 miles, I paid right at $205 (not including tax) for a front brake job on the 00 LS which included rotor resurfacing, OEM pads and labor. I waited until the brake pad warning displayed in the trip computer before having the front pads replaced; the front pad wear sensor that sensed the worn pad could not be salvaged/reused and was replaced a few days later for an additional $55 parts and labor. If the Lexus brake components didn't last so long, I would probably do the work myself. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s I replaced the brake pads on our Mercedes cars myself -- the pads rarely lasted more than 25,000 miles and the rotors wore out by 100,000 miles.

Although this issue has been talked to death on this and other Lexus forums, I'll throw my two cents in. I spend a bit of time in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids areas visiting family in the winter and wouldn't dream of driving our LS without real winter tires -- the type with the snow flake / mountain logo on the side walls. A couple of Christmases ago, only two of many family vehicles made it up the hill to my sister-in-law's house in Des Moines -- a Honda 4WD SUV and our Lexus with Blizzak snow tires; everyone else had to park at the bottom of the hill and slog about 1/8 mile up the hill to the house. 16" or 17" wheels and tires would be fine and would provide more comfort driving on potholed roads during the winter than 18" wheels and tires. The original tire size on the 01-02 LS430 was 225/60-16 and that would still be a good size for winter tires on your 05 LS.

I don't have a GS300 but I just checked and saw that my 60,000 mile service on my 2000 LS400 cost right at $370 before tax in summer 2005. I had the service done at an indie shop that specializes in Lexus and which has former Lexus dealer mechanics. I've been using them for over ten years and the service has always been better and less expensive than the Lexus dealer. The $370 included everything called for in the regular 60,000 mile schedule plus a couple of severe service items that probably weren't needed - transmission and differential fluid change. The 60,000 mile service on my 00 LS does not include spark plugs -- they are replaced at 120,000 mile intervals. You might check what the dealer wants to do and make sure he is not suggesting anything needless like spark plugs unless plug replacement on your GS300 is really required at 60,000 mile intervals.

I have seen threads on other forums about this problem on the LS430. Here is one with photos on ClubLexus (you may have to register if this link does not work): http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...highlight=glass

I just now searched for "LS400 billet" on ebay motors and found a chrome billet grill for the 98-00 LS400 for $179.

Whether your car is CPO or not, you have a right to expect the Lexus dealer to fix your bumpers. It sounds like the person who painted your bumpers may have left out the additive that allows the paint to flex. It is standard procedure for Lexus and other dealers to repaint the front and rear bumpers on most used cars they sell. Probably 95+% of CPO cars have their bumpers repainted before resale. I know a guy who made a darned good living repainting bumpers for Lexus and other higher end car dealers -- his company is even named "Picasso's". I have had him touch up the bumpers on our cars in our driveway serveral times. Yes, most of the bumper painting is done in dealer parking lots so it is not unusual to have some dust particles showing. Yes, it may be cheaper for the dealer to replace the bumper cover. Shortly after I bought my first LS400 over 18 years ago, the front bumper paint was ruined by lawn service chemicals in the company parking lot. The lawn service owner had the Lexus dealer - where I had just bought the car - repaint the bumper but the paint would not stick to the areas damaged by the chemicals. The bumper cover had to be replaced. Funny thing was that this led the lawn service owner to immediately buy two new Lexus cars -- an LS400 and an SC400 -- both black. When I bought a used 2000 LS400 in 2003, it was obvious that the bumpers had recently been repainted by the dealer -- they were flawless. Like I said, it's standard operating procedure.

I don't know what the problem is but I have found that an automotive stethoscope can be useful for pinpointing the source of noises and rattles. There is a photo of one here: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_0...20070921x00003a Be careful when using a stethoscope around moving engine parts! My favorite usage of an auto stethoscope was to find a loud ticking sound in my first LS400 shortly after I bought it in 1990 -- it turned out to be something silly like my ticking wrist watch or a loose setting in my ring. LOL

From all the grief I've seen with aftermarket hood struts, I tend to think OEM is the best way to go. You can find OEM hood struts on eBay or from an online Lexus dealer parts facility such as Sewell Lexus where I bought my last set at a substantial discount. Replacement is simple and takes about five minutes per side. If your car has done well during 16 years on regular dino oil, why bother to change? But if you do change, any synthetic oil should do fine. Yep, the Laramie area is one freaking cold place. I froze my !Removed! off at a little nearby ski area called Medicine Bow a bunch of times in the 70s and early 80s.

and the 'detailing' section is where? The detailing section is on the main forum page. Here is a direct link: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=122

After waiting several months for the new 3G iPhone and new applications from the new app store, I was stunned this week after spending an hour at an Apple store with their highest level techs that the 3G iPhone falls far short of being suitable for business use. I love the iPhone for its Safari web browser that can render even the most complex web pages accurately and for its ease of use in displaying photos and playing videos. And of course, it is great for playing music. But there is still no way that the iPhone can efficiently sync up business documents (MS Excel, Access, Word) from a PC or local server without going through a complex and time consuming process of putting the documents on an Apple Internet server -- not something one is going to do with confidential business documents. And that is only the tip of the iceberg -- there are so many other shortcomings for business users. As a "toy" for personal use, the 3G iPhone is great! But for serious business use, it's sort of a joke. I do appreciate the effort the folks at the Apple store expended this week trying to make it work as well as even the crappiest Windows Mobile or Blackberry device. They became as frustrated as me. As much as I like the "gee wiz" aspect of the iPhone, I've just got to have basic functionality for business use.

As I have noted in numerous previous threads, I have had this same problem happen about every three to five years over the eighteen plus years I have been driving LS400s - first a 1990 and now a 2000. Each time it has been a bad battery - a broken electrical connection between battery cells that randomly separates and then reconnects.. I no longer bother to have the battery tested but head immediately to a store to buy a new one -- a new battery has always fixed the problem on my cars. But, of course, this is not the only thing that can cause an LS400 engine to die.

I assume you are following instructions such as these for the 90-94 LS: http://carstereohelp.com/stereoremovalLexusLS400str.htm Maybe you need to pull harder. I removed the radio in the 90 LS I used to have numerous times and don't remember it being difficult to remove the ashtray. If I remember correctly (and I may not!), I think it just snaps into place.

Although you are asking a GS question on an LS forum, the front suspensions probably are not all that different. I had a similar vibration on my 2000 LS400 that started at about 80,000 miles at over 60 mph. By 85,000 the vibration got very bad. Similar to your car, the vibration lessened at about 70 mph. In my case, replacing the front strut bars solved the problem. You might consider having your wheels aligned -- the person doing the alignment will likely find if the strut bar bushings or other front end components are worn out. Some people buy only the strut bar bushings and press them in to the existing strut bars. The indie shop that works on my car said it was cheaper to install the whole strut bar assemblies rather than do the labor to press new bushings into the existing strut bars. It probably depends on the labor rate. A friend of mine bought only the bushings and found someone who works out of his house to install them into his existing strut bars. But it could be something else. The TRAC light coming on makes no sense to me - maybe it will to someone else. Does the TRAC light come on at exactly the moment the car starts shaking and go off when the shaking stops?

I checked the usual install kit websites including Metra and didn't see install kits for any year of the LS430. I'd bet some high end car audio shop in New York could do a custom job but it might get rather expensive If your main need is nav and you can tolerate the look of a portable one, consider hanging a nice Garmin Nuvi or similar portable nav on a bracket or console. There are all sorts of install solutions from Pro.Fit http://www.pro-fit-intl.com/ , Kuda http://www.kudausa.com/ and other manufacturers. I have my Magellan GPS mounted on a Pro.Fit Legend swivel mount bracket -- same bracket that fits the LS430. I see that Kuda has an adapter for the Nuvi that fits the standard AMPS hole pattern of the Legend bracket and I have seen similar AMPS Nuvi adapters elsewhere too. If you want to leave your Nuvi in the LS430 most of the time, buy an extra power cord and hide it behind the center stack trim. You can buy a piggyback fuse adapter at an auto parts store to tap into the under dash fuse box. All you would need then is a cheap 12V extension cable from a discount store so you could plug your GPS power cable into it so you wouldn't have to chop off the end to hard wire it. The only cable you would cut would be the end from the 12V extension cable so you could attach that cable to the piggyback fuse adapter. All this sounds way more complicated that it is. PM me or ask in the topic if you are interested in this sort of solution and I will provide more details. I saw a Garmin Nuvi on a similar bracket in a new Honda Accord yesterday so it looks like people are catching on to this type of solution.

This company in Florida recently repaired the Nak in my 00 LS -- great service and price: http://carstereohelp.com/

No Lexus dealer should refuse to deactivate DRL if it is a customizable feature on your car -- no U.S. federal or state law requires DRL. Politely explain this to the dealer. I think DRL's are a wonderful safety feature but I've decided that I don't mind if others turn them off. The same people who don't like DRLs probably won't wear seat belts or put their children in car seats and are more likely to hold a cell phone to their ear while driving. Darwin called it "natural selection". It's time to "thin the herd" and stop protecting people from themselves. I suspect DRL's will be a moot point when all cars have automatic headlights that turn on in low visibility conditions -- a proposed federal safety standard that some will likely complain about - and try to defeat - if implemented. As I said in past threads, I've been driving with headlights on or DRL's every single day since the 1960's after several near head-on collisions when people didn't see my little silver Mercedes 2-seater and tried to pass oncoming cars on 2-lane highways -- and after I read about the early DRL studies in northern Europe. Turning my headlights on seemed to eliminate the near misses but maybe that was a coincidence. I"ve never personally known anyone who wanted to turn their DRLs off. But most of the people I know are unusually smart and educated people. I was surprised that the U.S. spec Toyota Sienna I rented from Hertz in Detroit last week and drove 800 miles around southern Ontario didn't have DRL -- I checked when I got home and saw that DRL is an option on the U.S. spec Sienna. So I drove with the Sienna's headlights on during the day ...