1990LS400

Well, for sure you should get an owners manual. Try doing an advanced search of this forum for "homelink". The instructions have been posted countless times including by me.

Towing a little 400 pound boat on a light weight trailer is not going to require changing the maintenance schedule. With that said, I have always changed the transmission and rear diff fluid in LS cars every 30,000 miles. Probably overkill but it is cheap insurance.

A trailer designed to carry a 400 pound sailboat likely weighs only between 120 and 150 pounds - there are a variety of places like http://www.directboats.com/sabotr.html that sell them. The total weight is going to be very low unless one fills the boat with a bunch of other stuff. Because of its shape, a boat causes less aerodynamic drag that towing a box shaped trailer. Make sure the boat is well secured to the trailer.

You will have no problem at all if your transmission is in decent operating condition. I've seen lots of people on these forums say that towing a trailer is terribly hard on an LS400. But I have noticed that just about none of them have much or any experience towing a trailer behind an LS. I've towed a 2000 pound sail boat behind a 60 HP Mercedes diesel sedan so towing 600 or so pounds (boat and trailer) behind a 240 HP LS400 is rediculously easy. It will be so easy that you find yourself checking your rear view mirror to verify that the trailer is still attached. I had a class II receiver hitch on the 90 LS400 I drove from new until 2003 and I towed a fully loaded utility trailer behind it countless times - several times with 1,500 pounds of paving bricks in it. That car is still going strong today with its current owner at over 250,000 miles. I currently have a class II hitch on my 00 LS400. I bought it at "etrailer" which seems to have only a class I hitch available for a 90 LS400: http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-1990_Lexus_LS400.htm It appears that the supply of class II hitches (3500 lb max) for the early LS400 has dried up but a class I hitch has plenty of capacity for your needs.

You might be surprised at how many people pay cash for new and used cars - even fairly expensive ones. If you price your RX well, you should have no trouble selling it.

I know this was a common problem on the 90-94 LS400, but is this also happening on the 95 and up LS? I'm not saying it is not, but I don't remember seeing a thread about this problem occurring after 1994. It is certainly worth checking out. I had a similar false warning light for several years on a 90 LS400. The problem turned out to be a loose connector on an aftermarket trailer wire harness. If you have not changed all the rear bulbs, I suggest you do. You might be surprised how blackened some of the bulbs will be and it is possible that there is a loose filiment in one of the bulbs. Also, check the ground connections for the rear lights -- see if they are tight and if there is any corrosion. It could be the rather expensive module that senses that a bulb is out but failure of that seems to be quite rare. It's probably something simple.

The OEM size was 215/60-16 was standard on your car so 235/55-16 tires would fit perfectly on the OEM 16"x7.5" wheels and keep the speedometer almost perfectly accurate. There is a pretty good selection of 235/55-16 tires available at fairly low prices - check http://www.tirerack.com You can play with tire sizes on this calculator: http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp You can view the OEM tires specs for your car here: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1996/1996GSspecs.pdf

I doubt if you are going to find a used trailer hitch. etrailer.com where I bought my hitch has quite a selection for a 2007 RX -- pretty inexpensive ... http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2007_Lexus_RX350.htm

Prof, there was certainly no miracle involved in getting your cargo net installed. If the dealer did the job correctly, he merely acquired the correct cargo net hooks and screwed them into place. This is literally a two minute job which I have done three times -- on two Lexus and one Toyota brand vehicles.

I doubt that you can just "reprogram" your steering wheel volume controls. The steering wheel controls were "hijacked" for use with the phone when the dealer installed the phone system. I would hope that this would be an easy question for a Lexus dealer. It might be as simple as unplugging the cable for the steering wheel control from the phone system harness and plugging it back into the audio system. Or it might require removing phone system components. Lots of people have removed the phone systems from older Lexus vehicles and it is normally not all that difficult. If you don't want to talk to the dealer you might try https://techinfo.toyota.com if you are willing to do a short term subscription. You should verify it yourself, but I just checked and saw that techinfo has (or is supposed to have) accessory installation instructions for all Lexus vehicles back to 1990.

I have not done business with this company but their price is currently $215.85 for each headlight assembly: http://www.lexuspartstore.com/catalog/?N=9...us&md=LS400

Is it that low brake fluid indicator that is on? If so and the fluid is not low, sometimes the little float in the reservoir can stick or the switch attached to the float can fail.

intellivised, There have been many threads about the awful gen 1 LS lights. They were the main reason I moved on to my current LS as I got older and it got more difficult for me to see at night. I think auxilliary lights are your best bet since there is nothing you can do to improve the light pattern of your headlights. As for bulbs, a 2-pack of Sylvania Xtravision bulbs cost less than $15 where I live. Xtravision bulbs are sold as Silverstars in Europe and the capsules are clear and not tinted like the American Silverstars. Xtravisions put out a bit more light than the standard bulbs and the light is whiter. Unfortunately, according to the chart on the Sylvania website, Xtravision bulbs have the same short expected short life as the American Silverstars. But at the cheap price, you can more easily afford to replace them once or twice a year. Laramie? I used to ski at a tiny ski area called Medicine Bow near Laramie way back in the 1970s - it had one ski lift and a couple of rope tows but was a fun place.

RX in NC, Based on your post, it's as if we are twins that were separated at birth -- except for the options trading part! Some of my friends and coworkers can seem envious of our lifestyle and that we never worry about money. I just tell them that the reason we can afford to pay cash for everything is that we pay cash for everything. Most people just don't understand that when you never pay anyone else to use their money, then you have a lot more money to spend and especially to invest. Maybe we can start a "movement".

You have to remember that, depending on model and equipment, the list prices of Lexus vehicles range from about $30,000 to over $100,000. Like many brands, the majority of Lexus vehicle sold are towards the lower end of the list price range. The $145,000 figure seems consistent with, but a little lower than, other information I have seen. The average income of buyers tends to increase up the model range as car prices increases. The average income of new IS250 buyers is probably far less than $145,000 since most IS250 buyers are relatively young. The medium income (a better measure than "average/mean" income) of LS600hL buyers is more likely well above $400,000. I've had several Lexus and Mercedes salesman tell me that most sales of their most expensive models were cash deals. People are more likely to finance cars at the lower end of the price spectrum but pay cash at the upper end.

Professor, The plugs do not unscrew but are simply pushed into place, held by friction and can be removed with a trim removal tool. I suggest that you remove the entire plastic sill (see the arrow in the attached photo) so you can see exactly where the hooks should be installed. There are a variety of trim removal tools that you could use to pop the plugs out. The one I use looks a little like the garden tool I have for popping dandelions out. A trim removal tool works a lot better than a screwdriver but you could use a screwdriver if you are gentle. When removing the plastic sill, I suggest that you insert the trim removal tool behind the sill material and not try to insert the removal tool between the head of the plug and the face of the plastic sill. This will keep you from scratching the exposed side of the sill. The plastic sill is very easy to remove and reinstall. I've done it many times.

This Sewell Lexus webpage says that "anchors" should already be on either side of your trunk on an 02 LS430: http://www.lexus-parts.com/parts_detail.asp?id=87788 Does "anchors" mean "hooks"? Maybe someone removed the hooks and replaced them with clips? When a body shop threw away the cargo net hooks on my 90 LS in 1999, they had a replacement set for me the next day after I complained. Maybe the dealer can get the hooks separately. I suspect the hooks are the same for all model years of the LS -- at least the ones I installed on my 2000 LS look the same as the ones I installed on my previous 90 LS and the same as the ones in your photo. The cargo net hooks on our Toyota Camry are different than the Lexus hooks - different size bolt -- even though the hooks install on either side of the trunk opening like on an LS.

Mera, does your 98 LS have super high miles or been driven mostly on rough roads? I often notice how cushy the ride is in my 00 LS is after driving a rental car for a few weeks. Depending on the rental car I've had, my LS can either seem like a boat or very pleasant. Whats your "daily driver"? A Porsche? ;)

I checked my repair manual set for my 00 LS and was surprised that, except for the self leveling feature, there are no detailed diagnostic procedures for the HID headlights in my car - only charts with voltage and continuity values for various connectors and at the underhood fuse block. Has a Lexus dealer given you an estimate of $1,000 to fix this problem? Surely it wouldn't cost all that much to get a diagnosis at a Lexus dealership or an indie Lexus repair shop. The problem could be as simple as a corroded connection. If you are good at diagnosing automobile electrics, you could do a short subscription to https://techinfo.toyota.com to see if you can find information about your problem. The main thing I recommend is to find a good indie repair shop that specializes in Lexus. Try asking around.

I owned three Mercedes cars over a 21 year period from 1969 to 1990 when I bought my first LS400. Personally, I don't have a need to convince "dedicated Benz owners" that Lexus cars are better. Why bother? I live in a culdesac where there are five S-class Mercedes cars owned by other households. It is as if my Mercedes owning neighbors are living in the same Mercedes fantasy I once lived in. I don't say anything bad about Mercedes to my neighbors or to my best friend who bought a new Mercedes and has had a bizarre string of crippling problems with it. I let them all have their fantacies. I do, however, vent my opinions about Mercedes on this forum.

Mera, are you sure your shock absorbers are worn out? Shocks on the LS400 and lots of other Toyota products can last the life of the car - sometimes several hundred thousand miles. The ones on my 90 LS were fine when I sold it at 183,000 miles and I am pretty sure that the current owner would have told me if he had changed them - the 90 now has over 250,000 miles on it.

When to give up and move on is a very personal decision. I'll tell you why I moved on when I sold my 1990 LS400 after driving it from new for 13 1/2 years and 183,000 miles. Due to issues partially related to aging and more related to unusual vision isses, I needed better headlights. The headlights on my 90 LS were absolutely horrible and made driving at night scary. My wife expressed concern that there was no passenger side air bag for her and that my 90 LS didn't have the side air bags her 98 Camry had. We also concerned about what would happen to her if she ever got into a serious accident while driving the 90 LS. She's a little thing and has to sit very close to the steering wheel. The 90 LS had the old style high powered driver side air bag of the type that had been known to maim and kill smaller people. If not for the above issues, we would be likely be driving the 90 LS today. The old 90 LS seems to be doing quite well with its new owner at over 250,000 miles and the owner tells me every few weeks that he plans to keep it forever. If I had fully appreciated other newer technologies, I might have moved on to a newer car sooner. The VSC and snow mode of my newer LS sure makes winter driving a lot easier. It is possible to "spend through" periods of repairs like you are experiencing. It is starting to fade from my memory but I think I was averaging about $1,000 in repairs each year during my last four years of ownership of the 90. But that was still pretty cheap compared to replacing it with a much newer car. When I finally replaced the 90, instead of buying another new one, I replaced it with a like-new 2000 LS that had just come off a 3 year/36,000 mile lease. It was easy to pay cash since I had been socking away money for a new car during the 13 1/2 years I had the 90. I don't know the tax laws of Canada but here in the U.S. a personal (non-business) auto lease, my C.P.A. wife tells me, is an absolute financial disaster. The way we look at it, owning is good; owing is bad. Pretty simple.

OK ... creative ways.. Have you paired down the number of pause commands to the absolute minimum? For example, if you are using consecutive pauses (e.g. pppp), you might try cutting down the pauses to the absolute minimum number of pauses that the target phone system will accept most of the time. I used to have to have eight pauses to navigate to my corporate voice mail -- don't know why but now I can get by with only three. Does your Lexus phone system (and phone) allow using a "wait" command instead of a pause? Probably not but you might check. Any chance you can use a shorter password on the target phone system? Might there be some "fast path" tricks that would allow you to by skip a menu option or two on the target phone system? When all else fails, I've found that govelling to my corporate phone system adminstrators sometimes works wonders.

I don't think we can call what happened a "Rip Off". The chrome wheel option list price has hardly budged in over a decade and was $1,700 for for chrome wheels (without a chrome spare) the first year it ws an official option on the GS in 1996: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1996/1996GSspecs.pdf The 5-wheel chrome option on the LS in 2000 on the LS - the first year (I think) a chrome spare was an official option - was $2,125. The official chrome wheel option is thought by some to be of higher quality and more resistant to rust. Are you going to be using your chrome wheels on roads where salt is used? Dealers have always been known for making a lot of extra money by adding all sorts of accessories and F&I products to the deal during the delivery process when customers are most excited and tend to let down their guards.

Customizing door lock settings requires a handheld tester and the exact correct program card. Attached is a complete list of what can be customized on an 01 LS430. Personally, I would NOT want to have all my doors unlock when shifting into Park. It's a personal safety (robbery and car jacking) issue. 2001_LS430_LPS.pdf