1990LS400

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 ...

How much you will be nickeled and dimed will depend on how well the car had been maintained by previous owners. Normally front suspension parts wear out gradually between 75,000 and 150,000 miles -- hopefully the previous owners did at least some of this normal upkeep. The strut bar bushings are often the first front suspension componet to go -- the ones on my 00 LS were replaced at 85,000 miles. You will be coming up on a timing belt replacement at 180,000 miles -- was it replaced at 90,000 miles? There may be a sticker on the engine if it was replaced. (Normally the water pump and miscellaneous parts are also replaced when the belt is replaced.) You don't have to worry about breakage if you don't mind calling a tow truck if it ever breaks -- that's the great thing about a gen 1 LS400 - it is not an interference engine. I'm one of few that has had a timing belt break on a gen 1 LS and one normally just coasts to a stop when it breaks -- but that could be "unhandy" if you are straddling a railroad track, LOL. Two things to check out are the power steering pump and the steering rack - both are prone to leak. Consider making a shield for the alternator so that fluid from the power steering pump doesn't leak on it and short it out -- a cut-up medium size plastic bottle makes a good shield. If you shield the alternator, one can often put up with the inevitable PS pump leaks for a long time until it gets bad enough to have it rebuilt -- topping up the reservoir is pretty cheap unless it is leaking badly. If you can't tell, I loved my 90 LS400! I would be driving it today if I had better eyesight and didn't need better headlights.

Gosh, I was all over the place looking for information about Eagle Eyes lighting products. I found very favorable comments on a BMW forum about the Eaglle Eyes headlights for a BMW -- I think this is the thread: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?p=8190405 But on a Mercedes forum, one user complained that he went through two sets of Eagle Eyes taillights before he got a set decent enough to use. I think this is the thread: http://mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=225922 I noticed that the Eagle Eyes website shows headlight modules for the 98-00 LS400 like I have. Unlike their headlights for the gen 1 LS, the ones for the 98-00 LS look more like OEM to me.

Thanks Steve!!! Now that you mention it, I remember now that the tint shop owner recommended that only non-metalicized tint be installed on the rear window to prevent interference with the radio and phone antennas. The non-metalicized Llumar gray tint he installed on the rear window is a slightly different color shade than the side windows but one has to look very closely to tell. The tint shop owner told me that he had received several complaints about reduced radio reception when he had installed metalicized tint on rear windows with imprinted radio antennas. Although the less expensive non-metal rear window tint had a shorter manufacturer's warranty, the tint shop owner gave me the same lifetime warranty as for the other windows. Of course, he has been tinting our cars for a lot of years and knows I properly take care of tint. Off topic, but the phone antenna imprinted on the rear window of my 00 LS continues to provide a significant signal boost to my Nokia phone kit even though AMPS and TDMA has been discontinued by my service provider. I didn't think the imprinted phone antenna would work with a GSM phone but it sure does.

HID headlights are not necessarily better than well designed halogen headlights. Some of the headlights with the highest ratings by consumer magazines have been halogen lights on some pretty inexpensive cars -- for example, the halogen headlights on the Mazda 3 of a few years back had extremely high ratings and better than most new cars with HID headlights. A lot of HID headlights on new cars have gotten low ratings for their short range. The factory HID headlights on my 2000 LS400 are decent but not nearly as good as the European code H4 halogen headlights on the Mercedes 240 and Honda CRX I drove in the 80s. I looked at a few more non-Lexus forums in the past few days and found that forum users were finding that the quality of products from Eagle Eyes - particularly their tail lights - varied quite a bit. Sometimes the quality was great and sometimes poor. The Eagle Eye headlights for the gen 1 LS are certainly very inexpensive. It would be hard for them to be worse than the horrible OEM headlights on the gen 1 LS.

My advice is to have a professional shop use a high quality name brand tint and do not exceed the legal limit: http://www.tintcenter.com/laws/NC/ If you are not familiar with tint shops in your area, you could consult your Lexus dealer or even have them do the work for you - most dealers subcontract the work out. IMO, 35% tint makes a car far more comfortable - reduces interior heat and glare and reduces the fading of interior materials. I've got a lot of sun damage on my left arm and the beginning of cataracts -- window tint is especially important to me since it sharply reduces UV exposure. Window tint has to properly cared for. You can't go cleaning it with Windex and paper towels. Special cleaning fluid and a soft non-scratching cloth are usually required. The installer should provide details on how to care for it. Window tint warranties on quality tint are usually very long. The Llumar tint on our cars have a 10 year warranty but some installers, like the one who does our cars, provide a lifetime warranty. Unless you go with some exotic ceramic tint, I would expect you to pay from $175 to $250 for the installation of a high quality metalicized tint that is laser cut to perfectly fit your five car windows. If you park outside during the day, don't forget your windshield. A windshield sunscreen will keep your dash and the leather on your steering wheel from fading. You can buy a very nice folding custom windshield sunscreen that fits your car perfectly for about $50.

Axles? All sorts of worn front suspension parts can cause "popping" and "clunking" sounds on an LS400 but this is the first time I've heard of the axles causing such a problem. By "axles", I assume you mean the rear axles? There are no axles per se at the front of the car since this is a rear wheel drive car. It is normal for the entire front suspension of an LS400 to have to be entirely rebuilt by 170,000 miles. By the time I sold my 1990 LS400 in 2003 after 13 1/2 years and 183,000 miles, about every front suspension component had been replaced. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever heard of the axles needing to replaced. I'm pretty certain that the current owner of 1990 LS has not had to replace the axles and the car is at well over 250,000 miles.

Here is a rear view of the Eagle Eyes headlight module for the gen 1 LS400. Rather than take a photo of the right side module, they simply flipped the photo of the left headlight module to make the lower photo. You can see that the headlight bulbs are H4 so one would have to splice in the appropriate connector to use these on a 90-92 LS400. I almost think I can see a second bulb in the headlight portion of the unit -- if there is a second bulb, maybe it is for the small "city light" bulb like my 00 LS has.

I just checked eBay and it looks to me that these lights are currently available for a "buy it now" price of $290 including shipping -- and that is for both sides! These headlights are made by "Eagle Eyes" and I have read positive comments about their products on BMW forums. I had no idea that they made replacement headlights for the gen 1 LS400. I don't see them on the Eagle Eyes corporate website though - http://www.eagleeyes.com.tw/ I wonder if they are discontinued. If I still had my gen 1 LS400, I would definitely give the Eagle Eyes headlights a try -- they would have to be better than the horrible OEM headlights.

No, 2004 was the first model year for BlueTooth. It is easy enough to install an aftermarket BlueTooth kit but an aftermarket Bluetooth kit will not interface with the Lexus nav system.

Just make sure that any existing issues are fixed under the existing 4 yr /50K warranty before it expires in a few days. Look for any little issue - no matter how small - and require that it be fixed. For example, there was a tiny amount of debri behind a climate control window of the 2000 LS400 I bought in 2003 and a new climate control module was installed under the basic warranty. Also, make sure that all outstanding TISB's have been applied. Most Lexus dealers will gladly show you the list and tell you which ones have been applied to your car since doing TISB work provides them with significant revenue. I've been driving Lexus LS cars for over 18 years and have never regretted not buying an extended warranty. Unless you are buying a car with known issues that would be covered by an extended warranty, put the money you would have spent on an extended warranty into a reserve fund for normal maintenance and repairs. I recently retired from a large insurance company that sells extended service warranties through auto dealers. Although I did not work in the warranty business unit, I have to say that working for a company that sells a product of such questionable value made me uncomfortable. I suspect that the extended service warranty market will continue to decline as consumers become more informed on how little value extended warranties provide.

It would help if you would include the model year of your car in the "car model" field in your profile. Not knowing which model year your car is, here are diagrams for my 2000 LS400 which show which fuse is which. It may be different for different model years and particularly among the different series of LS400 - 90-94, 95-97, 98-00. 2000_LS400_Power_Distribution_Wiring_Diagram_1.pdf 2000_LS400_Power_Distribution_Wiring_Diagram_2.pdf

The specs on the Lexus website are wrong in that HID was not available on U.S. spec models -- maybe they were available elsewhere. I noticed that sometimes the LS400 specs on the Lexus website show options (e.g. rear heated seats) that were available only outside the U.S.

The tilt/telescope can be disabled with a hand held tester with the appropriate program card installed in it. All Lexus dealers and many independent shops can do it. The long list of list of customizable features has been posted a number of times in the past on this forum.

Here is a link to the 1997 LS400 specs with information about the features of the Coach Edition: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1997/1997LSspecs.pdf

Now that you mention the phone ECU, I understand what happened. Yes, when the dealer installed Lexus phone is in use, the blower motor automatically goes to low speed to make it easier to hear the call when in handsfree mode. But I do not remember anybody reporting this as a problem when they unplugged the phone ECU. To resolve the problem, try connecting the two large connectors together after you unplug them from the phone ECU in the trunk. In cars without the dealer installed Lexus phone, the two large phone harness connectors are attached to the bottom of the tool box housing. You might as well remove the phone ECU as it isn't going to be of use. You might want to unplug the handset from the connector under the vents you see when you raise the center armrest - doing this requires some minor disassembly of the center console. If you want to remove the handset cradle, carefully pry the insert from the upper console tray to get access to the hardware under the insert -- use a trim removal tool or a stiff well taped putty knife and be gentle but firm since the insert is not available separately as a replacement part. One forum member used a portion of a mouse pad to recover the upper console tray and hide the holes left from removing the handset cradle. It does not seem to matter if you leave the command module for the phone on the steering wheel although you might be able to get a plastic blank from a salvage yard or a Lexus dealer if you want to remove it and cover the hole. If you want to install a modern phone kit such as a Bluetooth kit, an audio system mute is the front center pin on the six pin phone connector on the driver's side under the vents you see when the center console is raised. To attach a phone kit's mute wire, strip about a quarter inch of insulation from it, plunge it in to the front center hole of the driver's side connector and secure it with a wire plastic wire tie. Doing this will automatically mute your audio system when you receive or place a call with your new phone kit; this will not, however, turn down the fan speed like the dealer installed Lexus phone does. I've posted a link to a Word document in the past that shows what the various phone connectors look like. Do an advanced search on my user name and "phone" and you can probably find them.

Would you have preferred to have endless speculation about the cause of your problem from people who don't know? I hate it when that happens. If it makes you feel better, I have been using Lexus forums for right at five years and I do not remember anyone having a problem like you reported. It would be helpful if you would tell us what caused the problem and how it was fixed.

I suspect getting your windshield replaced for free might be a tough one. Are you familiar with what the CPO warrenty covers? It looks to me that glass is excluded under the CPO program: http://www.lexus.com/cpo/overview/warranty.html If only you had noticed the windshield crack and either refused delivery or negotiated its replacement in the purchase contract -- oh well, it's too late for that. You could ask the dealer to share in the replacement cost or at least to provide the windshield replacement at dealer cost. Or if the crack really is hard to see, ask the dealer have the crack "fixed" with epoxy. Who knows ... the crack may never spread after it is repaired.

The U.S. specification 90-92 LS400 has two metal tabs - one on each side - where the lower leading edge of the seat cushion meets the carpet. Pulling the tabs allow the front of the seat cushion to be popped up and the seat cushion pulled forward and removed. On a U.S. model, it is then obvisious how to remove the hardware that holds the rear seat back in place. Your Celsior may be different - especially if it has a rear power seat where the lower seat back is connected to the seat cushion. If it does you might try sliding the seat all the way forward, lean down and try to see how the seat cushion is connected to the tracks the cushion slides forward on. I've only seen your question asked once on one of the U.S. Lexus forums and the person who asked it did not re-post to tell if he was successful in removing the rear seat or, if so, how he did it. You might try posing your question on a NZ/Australia or UK forum where there are a lot more Celsior owners or just ask someone locally in Japan.

The percentage of Lexus vehicles having their bumpers repainted before being sold under the CPO program is approximately 100%. It is standard operating procedure. Older vehicles also often have their bumpers repainted too before they are offered for sale. I could tell the bumpers on my 00 LS400 I bought in 2003 had been repainted by the dealer because they were flawless. It shouldn't be a big deal to ask the dealer to repaint your bumpers. Dealers often use independent contractors to do touchup. I'd bet this is not the first time a problem like this has occurred. If you go over your car carefully I suspect you will find other areas where the paint was touched up. Many of these touchup guys with their airbrushes are artists - some do incredible work which is virtually undetectable. I occasionally have the same guy that does touchup for the local Lexus dealer to touch up our cars. He does it in my driveway and the results have been great.

Perhaps you could make your IS "manly" by hanging a set of these from the rear. ;)