1990LS400

I never cared for having my phone mounted on a metal bracket to the right of the radio on either my 90 or 00 LS. It made it difficult for the front seat passenger to access some radio and HVAC controls and it could have been caused injury in the event of a crash. A "Kuda Phonebase" seems like a far better solution for my phone and one might also be a good mounting point for MP3 players and PDA based navigation systems. I was not expecting much for my approximately $70 (including shipping) but was pleasantly surprised with the design, quality, fit and that the Kuda's ivory leather almost perfectly matched the upholstery of my 00 LS. Kuda has mounts for many Lexus models and model years and in various colors. This thread is not meant to be a promotion for Kuda's products - I am just very happy with how well this product works. Kuda is at: http://www.kuda-phonebase.com/home.htm About installation... The installation instructions are fairly sketchy. It is very important that the metal tab on the mount be very pressed very firmly into place between the radio and trim panel while the mounting screw is screwed into place. I suggest making this a two person job -- one person presses (hard!) the mount in place and the other installs the retaining screw. Mounting requires that a screw be screwed into the vinyl trim on the transmission tunnel and it is important to drive the screw exactly straight into the transmission tunnel trim and not to drive the screw at an angle. The resulting hole is small and could be easily patched should the Kuda mount ever be removed. Rather that use the self tapping screw that came with the mount, to ensure a rock solid fit, I chose to drill a small hole and use a similar size small screw bolt and nut. There is a semi hidden slot at the bottom of the mount through which wires for the phone or other electronic devices can be routed. On my 00 LS400, the wires could be routed into the console and hidden behind the Kuda mount by sliding the wires between the lower and upper center console panels - just to the right of the CD button. Tolerances are tight. The glovebox and CD doors have about 1/8 inch clearance with the Kuda mount so be sure to "test open and close" these two doors before driving the mounting screw! Forward travel of the front passenger seat is not impeded. Please note that, as of today, the photo of the LS400 phonebase mount on the Kuda website is not accurate. It is not necessary to remove the radio and HVAC controls although it is likely that the wood console cover will have to be popped off to install most electronic devices in the LS400. Here is the first of three photos of the installation.

Are you having an issue with fumes or something that leads you to believe that you need a replaceable filter in the HVAC system? We drove our 90 LS for 13 1/2 in a large city without an HVAC replaceable filter. LS's with replaceable HVAC filters sense contaminants in the air and automatically switch the air intake between outside air and inside air depending on outside air quality. Since our 90 LS did not have this system, it did not have a compartment for a replaceable filter behind the glovebox like our 00 LS does. I remember that this system was a several thousand dollar option outside the U.S. in the early 90's and I was surprised when it was made standard on the LS in (I think) the 93 model year without the list price of the car rising all that much. It is kind of entertaining to sit in a traffic jam and watch the system automatically switch between outside and inside air. The system is even programable and one can choose how bad the outside air has to get before the system switches to inside air.

Wagner BriteLite Xenon bulbs seemed to last a lot more than a year on my 90 LS. Whether they have any Xenon gas in the bulb is a matter of debate. I can, however, tell you that these uncoated bulbs produce much whiter light than standard bulbs. I think they draw the standard wattage which might be why they last longer. They seem to sell for about $10 each both locally and on-line like from this seller: http://www.brandsport.com/w9003.html Aiming your lights higher than spec is really bad for us old folks who have enough problems with glare from on-coming car's headlights.

First of all I absolutely love the way the late 90's BMW 5-series handles having participated in the BMW challenge at Kansas City International Raceway some years ago. The 5-er handled like a race car on the short course. But I know a few BMW owners and the repairs they have to deal with on low mileage cars seem bizarre to me. I thought heater cores had been perfected many years ago but I know an owner of a previous gen BMW 740IL who is putting off having his replaced because of the incredible high price. Except for a water pump (which also took out the timing belt), almost nothing failed on my first LS (1990, first year of production) during the first 125,000 miles. The 2000 LS400 I bought in 2003 at 38000 miles is now at about 55,000 miles - nothing has broken and I expect to drive it past the mileage (183,000) that I sold my previous LS. Our 2000 LS400 was the first used car we had purchased since the 70's and I doubt if we will purchase other used cars other than Toyota/Lexus products. While I don't particularly like the styling of the LS430, the LS430 has a bit more head room and rear seat leg room and a few nice improvements. And if you want to go all out, nothing in the Lexus 2000 model year can compare to the LS430 Utra Luxury. Is a 2001 LS430 worth the big premium? It depends on what you want.

Here is a thread on Club Lexus with information on the head unit pin for the ML radio mute and which also contains a comment under my CL userid about the mute connection in my 00 LS400: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...&highlight=mute But if your 01 LS430 has a phone connector under the center console like my 00 LS400 has, I tend to think it would be easier (and safer) to connect your phone car kit's mute wire (and power wire) there than to remove your radio/Nav unit and T-tap into its wiring. Coincidentally, I just finished reinstalling the radio head unit / HVAC controls in my LS this afternoon having removed it so I could remove the metal bracket holding the handset holder. I moved the handset holder to a "Kuda phonebase". FYI, the ivory leather of the Kuda phonebase is almost identical to the leather in my LS. Kuda makes them for LS430s and most other Lexus models. Removal/reinstallation of the head unit / HVAC control unit is fairly simple if you have instructions. You could always buzz by your local Lexus dealer and ask to talk to a person who installed phones back in 2001. Maybe he would remember (or have documentation) if the 01 LS has phone connectors under the console. Phone kits are not all that difficult to install. Really. I can do it and about the only other thing I do on cars is change oil. But I do it because the last few experiences with phone installers (or the kids that pass as phone installers) were bad - interior damage, components installed in silly locations - one mounted a phone speaker that obstructed brake pedal movement. If you have not done so already, do a search on this forum and Club Lexus for words like Parrot, CK3000, mute, Treo, etc. I've posted the link to the doc on the phone kit install in my LS way too many times but here it is again: http://home.kc.rr.com/colchester/phone/Nok...H%20install.doc And when you get all this to work on your 01 LS, please, please tell us how it went and how well it works. Photos would be nice!

Toyota and its Lexus division seem to have taken quite a firm stand on not fixing front suspension noise problems for owners who drive few miles per year and whose basic warranties have expired. We got a similar response on a front suspension noise problem on my wife's 98 Camry when we asked Toyota to apply a similar TSB for free shortly after the basic warranty expired. I was told by the local dealer that Toyota had fixed the problem on thousands of 98 Camry's at no cost to owners when the problem was reported during the basic warranty period. Because my wife drives very few miles per year, the problem became really bad after the warranty expired although we had noticed a little noise during the warranty period. Although it doesn't seem fair I guess manufacturers have to draw the line somewhere. But even the dealer seem surprised that Toyota refused to fix the problem for free. Still, we are talking about Toyota - the most successful car manufacturer in the world and a company famous for quality. I was a surprised and disappointed at their harsh stance.

I occasionally order parts from Sewell ( http://www.lexus-parts.com/ )and have been very happy with their service and the bit they knock off retail prices. They once sent the wrong obscure accessory part to me. When I called them up they seemed to fall all over themselves to get the correct part to me quickly while keeping me informed of the status. Nice to hear that they are still providing great service.

Wow, what a concept. I am so sensitive to noise that, in my first LS, I could hear the wind noise whine from both the radio antenna on the left rear quarter panel and (even worse) the cell phone antenna top center on the rear window. One of my favorite features of my current LS is that there are no external antennas at all - radio and cell phone antennas are both imprinted on the rear window. Even if I was adding Sat. radio I would consider putting its antenna inside the high mounted stop light housing, inside the car, like some installers have been doing on LS430's. (I'm on the VAIS Tech wait list like a lot of you.)

The color of the maple on my Platinum Series looks red to me. Whether you like it is a matter of personal preference. It may sound odd, but my wife and I have chosen the furniture in different rooms in our home. "My rooms" are furnished with red maple or Scandinavian teak furniture. "Her rooms" are furnished with dark Ethan Allen furniture. "My furniture" is more the color of the maple wood in the Platinum Series. "Her furniture" is more the color as the standard LS400 walnut wood. So I guess I was particularly happy to see the maple in the Platinum Series since it matches my tastes. The Platinum Series wheels (same as 2001 LS430 wheels) are not particularly important to me either. It was more important that they were "brand new in the box" (replaced under warranty) and chromed at that. I was not looking for chrome wheels but I have to admit they were an attractive bonus. I like the black badges of the Platinum mainly because it it is hard to see the "L" on the front grill - makes it kind of a "stealth Lexus" from the front. Plus, all these differences make it easier to tell which car is mine since there are usually two 99 LS400's, same color as mine, parked within a few feet of mine in our company parking lot. Tell me if I am wrong, but I think there were only two LS400 model years where you can identify the model year by the car's exterior appearance: The 1997 Coach Edition and the 2000 Platinum Series. Is the Platinum Series worth more? It might not be to others but it certainly was to me.

If I don't count the cars driven primarily by my wife, prior to the two LS400's, I had, in no particular order, three Mercedes, three Volvos, a VW, a Honda and a few English 2-seaters and 50's/60's American cars. My best friend probably bought his Mercedes E320 because he thought I was happy about my last Mercedes. I sure wish he had asked me what I really thought about my Mercedes experiences. At one time I was locked into the "dream" of Mercedes cars. Unfortuately, the Mercedes dream does not agree with reality of trying to keep them working and paying the rediculous cost of owning and repairing them. All I lost when I switched from Mercedes to Lexus was a whole lot of pain. There are four S-class Mercedes spread among three households in my culdesac. Frankly, I feal very sorry for all these people have to put up with.

Duh, here is a more complete list. I suppose there may be markets where Toyota might call them something else. IS = Altezza ES = Windom GS = Aristo SC = Soarer LS = Celsior LX = Land Cruiser GX = Land Cruiser GX - here is a photo: http://www.dinside.no/php/art.php?id=85106

ES = Windom GS = Aristo SC = Soarer LS = Celsior LX = Land Cruiser GX = also a "Land Cruiser" but I don't remember the name of the variation.

Here is an example of an external speaker that would probably work - it is comes with several Nokia kit models: http://wirelessgadgetguy.zoovy.com/product/HFS12 This speaker normally comes with a plastic U-shaped bracket that attaches to the sides of the speaker with curled knob bolts.

In my part of the country, optical sensors are required on all newly installed garage door openers although they are not required on opener installations before sometime in the 1990's. Unfortunately, optical sensors are required only to protect a person laying on the floor -- the sensor beam must be between four and six inches above the floor surface. Check to see if there are sensors installed near the floor which unfortunately would not protect car bumpers. I installed an additional set of optical sensors at bumper level on each of our garage doors to prevent this kind of problem. Additional sets of sensors are quite inexpensive - probably less than $30 including the mounting brackets - and are easy to hook up. If you own a condo then you almost certainly own a fractional interest in everything else including the parking garage and those garage doors. Even if the door already has sensors near ground level, you might suggest that additional sensors be installed to protect cars and the garage doors from damage. If the management company, without notifying you, installed a near opener or changed the opener in a way that no longer protects your property, then they or your condominium association may be liable for paying for the repair of the damage to your car. Unfortunately, this may be easier to get resolved if you are an owner and not a renter. I'm in my second term on my association board and I am really looking forward to my term ending at the end of this year!

The wiring harness for the Parrot has ISO connectors commonly used on European car radios; Lexus headunits do not have ISO connectons. I can believe that no installer wants to get involved. I had zero luck either in trying to get a "professional" phone installer to help me - I tried every one in Kansas City. They were all afraid of frying my Nak so I had to do a lot of research to figure it out. You might be able to obtain the headunit pinouts from http://techinfo.lexus.com/ with a $10 one day subscription - I don't know though if it goes into this kind of detail. Using an external speaker would prevent any chance of frying your radio. Here is a thread on the Expansys phone forum on how to connect wires in the Parrot kit to attach to an external speaker: http://www.expansys.com.au/forumthread.asp...&thread=286 Here is a thread on Clublexus where a GX470 owner also used an external speaker with his Parrot CK3000: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...ighlight=CK3000 I would think that a local phone installer would sell you a 8 ohm speaker from another brand car kit for a few bucks or just give you a used one. They are pretty cheap. This document on the Parrot website discusses which wires are for the power and which are for mute:http://www.driveblue.com/(mnjodnrsdajjzo45doizwc45)/download/notices/notice_en_ck3000.pdf According to the above doc, the yellow wire on the Parrot kit is for mute - same as our Nokia kits. Like I said before, if your LX has a connector for the Lexus Portable Plus phone under the center console, it likely has a mute terminal just like my LS. In my LS, this same connector has power - I think there were separate pins for switched and unswitched power and ground but I don't remember - my power wires for my phone kit are attached at the ignition switch and the ground wire to a bolt on the firewall. The mute wire on virtually all phone kits - Bluetooth and hardwired - grounds when a call is in progress - same principle used on the Lexus OEM phone system and most other cars with a built in mute point. Here is a a link to another thread that has a PDF showing how I installed my phone. It contains a photo of the connector under the console of my LS and how I attached the mute wire to it: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...?showtopic=7791 Keep at it. You will be successful!

The timing belt on my 1st LS (a 90) failed at 84,000 miles when the water pump failed on a cold winter day. The indie shop owner (former Lexus service manager) who replaced it told me at the time that the only belts he had seen break were cause by problems other than the belt wearing out. I had the belt replaced a 2nd time at 180,000 miles just prior to selling the car. If you smell coolant, check the water pump for leaking!

Again though, that depends on whether or not the dealership services a lot of Lexuses, they don't all have those manuals. ← Do Lexus and Toyota dealer service departments still use hardcopy manuals? The owner of the independent repair shop to which I take my car told me that he subscribes to http://techinfo.toyota.com/ -- the same website from which a Lexus dealer employee printed a portion of a wiring diagram for me last year. I'm not certain but it looks to me like a subscription to techinfo gets you access to all on-line manuals for all Toyota, Lexus and Scion models since 1990. I will someday do a $10 one day or $50 one month subscription and download information that is not in the hardcopy 2-volume repair manual.

This link to a photo of what is supposedly the next LS was posted recently on the U.K. LOC LS forum: http://motoring.asia1.com.sg/cgi-bin/motor...c;f=16;t=000254

I have seen several photos of cars that were represented as being of the next generation LS. The photos could be a hoax. Here is a link to one that is on the German language LOC Europe web site: http://www.autospies.com/images/1-27/Lexus-LS/1.JPG I suspect that it wouldn't be too hard to find a prototype of the next gen LS running around Toyota/Lexus facilities in Japan. I saw unusual looking cars being driven around the Mercedes headquarters in Stuttgart in 1971 -- several years passed before these new models hit the auto magazines or went on sale in the U.S.

Whether I "have to" buy a car should my current LS get severely crashed or if I am successful in making my current LS last until its planned retirement date in 2014, the answer is the same: my next car will be the same as my current car -- "an LS that has just come off a 3 year/36,000 mile lease" -- what a huge "bang for the buck". So, if my car gets "totaled" tomorrow, the next one will be a 2002 LS430 Ultra -- I'm really starting to like the gadgets in the Ultra although I still don't care for the look of the LS430 and dislike the look of the next gen LS even more.

Having been a Mercedes owner during much of the 60's, 70's and 80's, my understanding is that the debadging trend started primarily in the 1970's (1972 specifically) when European owners of Mercedes with engines over three litres removed the model badges to hide the tax status of their cars. In several European countries, cars with engines over three litres (such as Mercedes 350/450 V8 sedans) were taxed at substantially higher rates that similar cars with engines under three litres (such as 6 cylinder 280 sedans). Debadging also became of symbol of modesty and perhaps even false modesty. You really didn't want your neighbor to know that your Mercedes cost twice what his similar looking one cost. Soon, not just owners of expensive Mercedes V8 cars were removing badges - owners of inexpensive Mercedes cars started doing it too perhaps trying to make people think that their relatively inexpensive 6-cylinder carburated Mercedes 280's were really expensive fuel injected 350/450 V8's. Soon, Mercedes made model badges a "delete option". I owned a Mercedes 450SEL in the 70's and have always wondered if it was the car that Toyota was trying to emulate when it conceived the idea of the LS in the early 80's. The 450SEL was Car and Driver magazine's "Best Car in the World" in 1979. I guess I followed the trend and had a mid-size Mercedes sedan debadged in the early 80's when it was in the body shop for collision damage to the rear - but mainly to prevent corrosion around the badges that was typical of the era. And, if I had thought about it, I would have had my 90 LS debadged when it was in the shop for a $10,000 rear collision damage repair in 2000. Heck, I completely debadged one of the first Honda CRX-si's sold in the the U.S. in 1984 -- what a hot rod and way faster than my first LS! Personally, I think it is tacky for manufacturers to put all these logos and symbols on their cars. The black chrome rear logos on my current LS would be in the trash by now if there weren't holes in the bodywork under them. I've always thought it was funny when people seem "impressed" that my car is a Lexus. My previous and current LS have always worn a Toyota license plate frame on the back - they are just nice Toyotas after all.

I don't know, Steve. The buyer of the 90 LS I owned for 13 1/2 years told me that his neighbors thought it was brand new. And I didn't use clay, orbital polishers or multi-step processes to keep it looking great. All I did was to keep the car clean and garaged and wax it with cleaner wax a few times each year.

My current personal favorite cleaner/wax is Zymol which is available at stores like Advance Auto for about $10. If I remember correctly, it was top rated in the last Consumer Reports Magazine evaluation of car waxes. A big plus of Zymol is that it causes fewer fine marks than most other cleaner waxes. It is particularly easy to apply. The application instructions say to apply it only with a back and forth motion - never with a circular action. I apply Zymol with a damp soft cotton towel which I have rinsed in clean water and rung out. The instructions say you can use a wax applicator too. Waxing our LS takes only about 30 minutes and seems to last about three months - it would last longer but it didn't sit outside on weekdays.

I would be quite surprised if you found adapters to integrate the Parrot or any other aftermarket phone kit with the head unit of your LX. A European company named Connects2 has integration kits for a few Euro car models that display phone call information on the radio's display but it would be a long shot to expect one to fit a U.S. spec Lexus. It is also "possible" that the "45MUTETOYOTA" harness from Dashmount U.K. might work (with an additional adaptor for the Parrot) since it is listed as applicable for mid-90's Toyota Landcruisers - but it is a long shot. Mute leads like the ones from Dashmount generally just supply power to the phone kit, mute the audio system when a call is in progress and play the call through the front door speaker. Using an external speaker (comes with most phone kits) with your Parrot and hiding it under the driver's footwell should provide good sound quality. Your LX was probably prewired for one or more Lexus phone models which likely means that you can find a mute point without getting near your head unit. I found a mute point in a 6-pin connector (two rows of three pins) under the center console in my 00 LS that was apparently meant for use with the Lexus "Portable Plus" phone - the mute pin was the middle front pin. A 2nd mute point was in an OEM phone harness connector in the trunk. Phone kits are generally straight forward to install although quite a bit of interior trim removal can be necessary to route all the wiring. PM me if you want to discuss...or I will try to watch this thread.

At one time there were pre-production photos on clublexus.com which showed these unused lens housings being the front side marker lights. One story is that the lenses were slightly below the minimum DOT height requirement so Toyota quickly came up with the surface mount lenses. Also on clublexus is a tutorial on how to convert these lens housings to additional marker lights.