1990LS400

There were several $1,000 increases in the list price in the first year or two and then the new "luxury tax" kicked in and made the price really zoom upward. The original $35,000 base list price was seen as quite a bargain which is why more LS400's were sold in 1990 than any other year. U.S. automakers accused Lexus of "dumping" (selling below manufacturing cost) which also contriubuted to the rapid price increase. Lexus jokes were a staple of Jay Leno on the tonight show in late 1989 - mostly about the melting high mounted brake light. A lot of people made fun of my LS when I first bought it - it was rather entertaining. I still have and just looked at the 1989 Automobile mag article that compared the LS to a BMW 535, Infinity Q45 and Mercedes 300E and which many thought was responsible for kickstarting Lexus sales. The article essentially said that BMW and Mercedes was doomed by the introduction of Lexus.

Looks like the vote is getting a bit messed up unless someone really did purchase a brand new 90 - 96 LS for under $20K. The lowest dealer cost for a basic 90 LS with no options was right at $29,000. My total sticker price when I bought my LS brand new in early 90 was about $36,500 (I paid far less than that) and the only options it had were a $900 sunroof, keyless entry, and floor mats. A completely loaded 90 LS with the options I got plus leather, Nakamichi, air suspension, traction control, chrome wheels and Lexus phone could be had for way less than $50,000.

Recent Lexus/Toyota Nav DVD's are sometimes for sale on eBay - I saw one today with a disclaimer that it is not compatible with older Lexus/Toyota DVD-based Nav systems. You could buy one of these DVD's and take a look. And remove your Nav hard drive and see if there is any way to hook it to a PC. I would be surprised if the data were not embedded in the software on both the hard drive and DVD systems and incompatible with each other. I wonder what percentage of 98-00 LS400's sold in the U.S. had Nav. Of probably 20 98-00 LS400's I've seen since just before I bought my 00 in 2003, only one had Nav. I think SW03ES said that Nav equipped LS400's are a lot more common on the east coast. Probably not that many people here in the central U.S. need Nav to find their way from pasture to pasture.

Our V6 Camry came with the same wheel and tire size that the ES had in the same model year and we got more than 60,000 miles from its OEM Dunlop SP4000's. The OEM SP4000's on our 00 LS lasted over 40,000 miles. The tires on your 17" wheels will likely last far longer than 20,000 miles. Use a digital tire gauge, check the pressure weekly, keep them close to the recommended pressure, and don't drive (all the time) like a bat-out-a-hell. Don't worry and just enjoy your ES and those 17" wheels! That 20,000 miles disclaimer could be related to the class action suit in the early 90's where Lexus reimbursed 100,000+ LS400 owners, me included, for the premature wearing (more like a melt-down) of OEM Goodyear Eagle GA's.

A lot of people seem to use these guys: http://carstereohelp.com/lexus.htm They even have a "Do it yourself repair" section for repairing the most common amp problems.

Interesting question, but I can't think of two cars that are so different. Have you driven both? The 190E 2.6 brings back memories since I was a "Mercedes nut" for 20+ years. I bought my first LS in 1990 shortly after a trip to a Mercedes dealer where I went to see what they had to replace my 11 year old Mercedes. In 1990, a 190E 2.6 cost almost exactly what I paid for an LS400. The closest thing Mercedes had to the LS400 was the 420SEL which was at least $25,000 more than an LS400. The SC300 is my other favorite Lexus and I might have bought one instead of the LS if they had been available in 1990. Early SC300s could be had with a cloth interior which I really liked in my first LS. I regularly run into people who bought SC300's in 92-93 and are still driving them.

A drawing of the Nav system component locations in my 00 LS repair manual shows a trunk mounted (under the removable floor panel on the right side) Navigation ECU and "NACHMICHI made" amplifier. The Nav ECU/amplifier mounts on the three closely spaced stud bolts to the rear of where the phone unit mounts on the two widely spaced stud bolts. The only prewiring I have noticed in the right side of my trunk is for the phone. If the head unit includes everything (GPS antenna, cables and trunk mounted stuff), then it all could work. Maybe someone with a 98-00 with Nav could post a picture of the trunk mounted components if you decide to go further with this. Sounds like an interesting project... I saw a 98-00 LS a few days ago that had what appeared to be a Garmin StreetPilot mounted on the dash above the center air vent - looked surprisingly good - color even closely matched the dash. Unlike that old LS Nav on eBay, updates for the Garmin and other aftermarket Nav's are still available.

If Tire Rack said that 17's will fit your ES then I would trust them. I've bought a lot of tires and wheels from them over many years and have found that they offer solid advice on what sizes will fit. According to the calculator at http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp the 17's will not affect your speedometer reading at all. That means that the 17's with 215/50-17 are almost exactly the same diameter as your OEM 205/65-15 tires. Try it yourself. Tire Rack lists 17x7 wheels, and even 18x8 wheels for a 98 ES. But I don't know about the 50 mm offset. Tire Rack may be willing to tell you even if you are not purchasing wheels from them. I assume you will not mind having the rougher ride that 17's will provide. 15 to 17 inch is quite a jump. Going from a 65 to a 50 series tire is a big decrease in sidewall height. Tires act as shock absorbers and you are going to have a lot less sidewall height to absorb bumps. The increased width is also going to add some harshness. I'm sure it will look great but it might be a bit painful.

Although I used a radar detector for a lot of years and in a few very fast cars, I decided about 10 years ago (yes, a highway patrolman was involved) that it is better to just drive the speed limit and enjoy the journey. Pop in a CD or listen to your iPod or Sat radio. You are not going to get anywhere much sooner by speeding and your speeding is just going to cause stress and danger for others. I've had a lot more fun driving the past 10 years without a radar detector and within the speed limit. I think I saw my box of radar detectors in the basement a few months ago...must be a few thousand dollars worth of junk in there.

The upsweeping beam pattern on both right hand drive and left hand drive cars are designed to illuminate road signs on the front passenger side of the road. If you use headlights designed for right hand drive cars (which drive on the left side of the road, e.g. Japan, U.K.) in a left hand drive car (which drive on the right side of the road, e.g. U.S., Europe), then the upsweeping beam pattern will tend to blind oncoming drivers and not illuminate road signs on the side of the road. People on the U.K. LOC forum could probably tell you more about the headlight issues of driving a RHD car in LHD Europe and putting up with Europeans driving their LHD cars in the U.K. I don't know about the JDM lights, but I do know that the H4 headlights on early U.K. and Europe market LS400's were far superior to those on U.S. cars. The U.K./Europe headlights were 2-piece like in the U.S. but with high beams where we had our foglights. I thought about importing a set of Euro-code LS400 lights in the early 90's but the cost was going to be very high and I would have had to deal with the dashboard beam adjustment switch issue and relocating the foglights to below the bumper or doing without them.

I posted photos of early JDM headlights on this topic: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...opic=18182&st=0 They would not be of much use in the U.S. since the beam is set up for driving on the left side of the road.

You are asking some very subjective questions. I too sometimes hear a little windnoise in my 00 LS if it is particularly windy and also feel a few bumps if the road is rough. Our LS400's are not immune from any of this. A little smoke from the tailpipe is normal when it is cold outside. Regarding the ride, my recommendation would be to keep the tire inflation near the manufacturer's recommendation which is only 29 psi. I increase the pressure only enough to allow for daily temperature fluctuations. Your tire pressure will go up and down on its own by about 1 psi for each 10 degrees of temperature change. For example, in the winter I pump my tires to about 32 psi in my 55 degree garage so that the pressure will still be at least 29 psi when I drive outside into the 25 degree temperatures. These are "highway/boulevard cruisers" afterall. IMO, higher inflation pressures - and especially larger wheels - provide more discomfort than better handling. I probably check my tires more than most people - about once a week with a digital gauge and with an electric pump that fits perfectly in the spare tire well. The cigarette lighter sockets in the rear doors are handy places to plug the pump in. Your car sounds like it is doing just fine.

Those eBay fog lights look like the projector foglights standard on the previous generation ES sold in the U.S. A coworker of mine has a '94 that has them. Here is a pic from the gallery: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/ES/Eze

Some repair shops quote "fairly low" costs for repairing Lexus CD changes - here is one: http://carstereohelp.com/lexus.htm

If you don't get an answer here you could try the tech support link on the Gargoyle webage: http://www.crimestopper.com/ I had been wondering what had happened to you but I figured it would be a few more years until electricity made it all the way from Belton to Raymore so you could turn your PC on. ;) Jim in Lenexa

The parking lights use a low wattage wedge bulb - a 168 on U.S. spec models. Any auto parts store or Toyota/Lexus dealer will have them. I think I told you wrong on how the light units are held it. If you look at the front view photo I attached, you will see one place on the lower "inboard" side where a bolt holds the unit in place. On the outboard side you can see two places where the light is secured to the car body. You can see an upper nut and and a hole where the lower bolt holds the unit in place. The hole about a third of the way up on the outboard side is where a metal shaft on the corner parking light plugs in. This will all be obvious once you remove the corner parking light. Once you extract the headlight unit, it will be obvious how to replace the bulbs. From my experience standard wattage halogen/Xenon mixture clear capsule bulbs provide a lot better lighting than the blue coated bulbs that try to look like HID's. You need an owners manual! Even if you have a JDM Celsior, you should be able to buy an English language owners manual for a few bucks on eBay or from a Lexus/Toyota dealer. It may not be completely accurate but it will help a lot. Heck, the Aussie dollar is way strong right now compared to ours so a manual should be cheap for you. I just bought four bottles of Aussie Barossa Valley Shiraz tonight and got "killed" on the price. Ouch!

Here is a view of the back of the one piece LS400 headlight assembly... JDM_LS_headlight_back.bmp

Here is a photo of the one piece headlights that were used in some areas in your part of the world on the early LS400. It this is what you have, it uses an H4 bulb in the headlight and H3 in the fog. Notice the sharp beam cutoff in the lens - likely provides a far better light pattern than the "blob" of light provided by the awful headlights on the early U.S. spec LS. JDM_LS_headlight.bmp

Wilfred, do you have an owners manual for your LS? The owners manuals for U.S. and European LS400's up throught at least 1993 contained information on how to replace bulbs and which bulbs were required. Don't know about the Aussie versions. Was your LS made for your market or is it a converted Celsior? Your headlights may be completely different than those sold in the U.S. and Europe and not have a separate foglight and headlight module held in place within a metal frame like those sold in the U.S. Your headlight and foglight could be in a single unit and share a single lens like those in the Japanese market LS400. Got photos? In U.S. spec LS400's, it is not necessary to separate the fog light from the headlight to replace bulbs. You simply remove the whole foglight/headlight assembly by removing three bolts - one bolt behind the corner marker light and two bolts on the inner side by the radiator - one at the top and one at the bottom. Be careful not to move the aiming screws or you may have to re-aim your lights. If you do not have an owners manual, a parts supplier should be able to provide a correct bulb once he sees your current one. Lexus cars sold in the U.S. are often very different that those sold in many other countries. You may have better luck on an Aussie Lexus forum. Sounds like you are having quite a time...

The situation sounds very dangerous! I recommend not driving your LS until a repair shop takes a look. Thanks for letting us know about this potential problem. I love VSC but didn't realize that something like this could happen. It was hard to learn to "trust" VSC but, now that I have, I never want to drive another car without it. Now I wonder if I should trust it so much.

Cool While I was doing all that typing, pachocco1 posts pages from the repair manual!

I think I remember that there were one or more bolts at the rear of the console holding it down. Raise the center armrest and then pop off the little air vent cover under it. After you pop off the air vent cover, I think you will see small screws holding the rear of the console box in place. You also have to remove the screws at the bottom of the console box which are hidden under the sheet of fuzzy removable trim. Seems like I had to remove the cupholder module too. The plastic console box can be pryed out with a well taped stiff putty knife blade - probably the hardest part of the whole job - be gentle but firm when doing the prying. The connectors you will see under the rear of the console are for the optional Lexus phone and you may need to remove brackets that hold them to the console. Sorry, it has been a few years since I popped the console out of the 90 I had but it seemed fairly straight forward at the time. Also, I think I remember that the entire center console assembly sort of "plugs in" to the forward part of the console by the radio. I also remember that it was not necessary to use much force to remove the console - once the screws and bolts are removed, it lifts out easily.

Wilfred is in Australia so his headlight units might be different from those in the early LS sold in North America. For example, the early RHD LS cars sold in the U.K. used H4 bulbs in the headlights, had a sharp beam cutoff and even had a beam adjustment switch on the dash - just like the beam switch in the current U.S. Toyota Sienna XLE Limited minivan. Wilfred, does your LS headlights use H4 bulbs? Does Phillips still sell H4 bulbs in Australia called "plus 30 Xenon" - they are supposed to contain a mix of halogen and Xenon gas. They are a bit whiter than standard lights - we bought them from a specialty importer and use them in our Camry.

I drove a 90 LS through 13 winters (to 183,000 miles) and 17 mpg sounds quite good for winter/city driving. The later LS400's with 5-speed automatic transmissions get a bit better mileage. I think the best highway mpg I ever got on my 4-speed 90 was about 24.5. On my 5-speed 00 LS, tank mpg has exceeded 29 mpg more than once although this was done by setting the cruise on 65 mph and driving very conservatively.

Do you have the "contact synchronization software" accessory that is mentioned in the owners manual for your phone? My assumption is that it works like the software that is available for my non-Bluetooth LG phone in that it allows one to maintain and backup the phonebook with a PC. I don't have the synch software for my LG phone (mine requires a USB cable) but use similar Nokia software to maintain the phone books on my and my wife's Nokia phones. The Nokia sotware works with either an infrared or Bluetooth connection. Software of this type may allow direct update of the phone's phone book, synch with MS Outlook and sometimes with other products such as Lotus Notes. I think LG and carriers provide the LG synch software for a fee. A USB Bluetooth module for a PC cost as little as $15 - about the same as an infrared adaptor although most laptop PC's come with infrared. Using PC software and a keyboard to maintain a phone book is far easier than trying to key in names and phone numbers on a phone's keypad.