1990LS400

The only chime-like sound in my similar 2000 LS that I can think of right now is the "seat belt unfastened" chime. Does the "seat belt unfastened" chime sound when you start the car without fastening your seat belt? You might try checking the electrical connectors for the driver's seat belt receiver to see if there is a loose connection. The act of plugging the belt buckle into the receiver must depress a switch (and open or close a circuit) in order to make the chime sound. The problem with my theory is that there is also a dash light which I would think would be flashing if there is a problem with this circuit. What ever it is, it must be something pretty darn loose to make the chime sound on a bump or a curve.

Raymore, Missouri Grandpa? Heck, no one down there has a Lexus... ;) I thought O'Reilly's interview of Michael Moore was absolutely hilarious. O'Reilly looked like an idiot and appeared panicked and overwelmed by Moore's intellectual superiority. I think O'Reilly shouldn't have given up his gig on that syndicated entertainment show he used to be on. What a lightweight...

If it works at all it might be useful if you ever have to call 911 in an emergency - no activation is needed to call 911. It is probably analog only and not worth messing with. If it was an integrated Lexus phone it might be worth trying to activate it but this can't be done everywhere - some people have been able to have an analog phone activated if there already have service on a more modern cell phone.

Your question has been asked many times on this and other Lexus forums and the answer seems to be "no". Here is a link to a recent thread that includes a reply I made: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...topic=10064&hl= I see that you have a 98 LS and a Nokia phone although you didn't mention the phone model. If a car kit is available for your model Nokia, it is fairly easy to install and attach it to the phone antenna imprinted on inside of the rear window and to a connector under the armrest to mute the radio on a call. There is probably an antenna coax cable that you could use under the console/armrest like in my 2000 LS. Nokia kits can be purchased directly from Nokia on their website and, if I remember correctly, most are less than $175. If you have a standard Pioneer or Navigation audio system, it is possible that one of the "mute lead" wire harnesses from a U.K. or European company would work to interface a Nokia car kit so that it plays the call through the radio speakers, mutes the audio system on a call and picks up power and ground for the car kit from the amplifier located under the front passenger seat. At least it looks like it would based on comparing the mute cable connector to the diagram of the Pioneer/Nav amplifier in my repair manual. I've got a Dashmount U.K. mute lead in the basement - found out that it would not plug into my Nakamichi amp (same number of wires but different plug format than the Pioneer/Nav). I might be willing to part with it for what I paid if you want to try it. Or you could call Dashmount in the U.K. and order it like I did. I prepared a reference manual on how I installed my Nokia kit in my 00 LS. It is a rather large Word document with photos and is at: http://home.kc.rr.com/colchester/phone/Nok...H%20install.doc How well a car kit works depends on what features your phone has. The "give-away" Nokia phones have relatively few features but ones that are a bit nicer like my 6340i have an incredible list of features - even more when used with a car kit. Feel free to ask here or PM me if you want more information.

Happy Birthday, Craig! Next time I'm in Victoria I'll show you what "old" is! Hmmm, I used to make it to Vancouver Is. fairly often but the older I get the less time I seem to have. When young, time seems to drag by but when older, time flies and there is never enough of it.

Sounds very strange. A coworker has been looking for a 98-00 LS and has been frequently asking advice the past few days. The only 99's he's finding near your price have very high mileages or a questionable history. A funny one today (no offense meant to those with limited English skills) was that the sellor of an LS he was looking at could barely speak English and could not answer questions about the car. If you can verify mileage and service history, either through Lexus or receipts, and car does not have a salvage title or has been in serious wreaks, mayble it's for real. I don't know the situation but sometimes bargains are for real. I bought a nice used Mercedes 450SEL in 1979 for $4,500. The V8 450 sedan was often called the best sedan of the 70's. The sellor had just bought a new toy (Porsche 928) and just didn't care what he sold the 450 for.

The only fairly common problem I've heard about on the 2000's is that the "Miles since Refuel" on the trip computer sometimes resets to zero. It only happened once on mine and apparently can be caused by parking on a steep hill. The Lexus TIB for the 2000 LS says the solution is to replace the gauge cluster but I and most others I have spoken to about the problem have chosen not to have this done. Some who have had it done said that it did not fix the problem. Otherwise there have been no problems since I bought the car at 38,000 miles about 9-months ago. I had the climate control module replaced because of a tiny bit of debri in the display but I wouldn't have bothered had the car been out of warranty. The 4-year basic warranty on mine expires next Saturday so I've been going over it with a fine tooth comb looking for issues.

Strangely, the door speakers in the Nak get fewer watts of power than the door speakers of the std Pioneer but the Nak speaker in the back window gets about 90 watts more than the one with the Pioneer. Personally I wish my car didn't have the Nak. I bought a telephone interface harness from Dashmount in the UK but found out it only works on the std Pioneer and Nav audio systems. If I had the Pioneer or Nav, I could completely interface my Nokia car kit - mute the radio on a phone call, play the call through the door speakers, even power the phone kit from the amplifier under the front passenger seat - its "plug and play". I should sell the interface cable on "Buy and Sell" - somebody might like to use it.

Yes, there are a few car models with HID that have neither manual or automatic leveling HID lights and unfortuately I find it painfully easy to identify them. The DOT is considering changing the U.S requirements for HID and solicited information in a recent survey in which I participated. I have noticed for some years now that HID's without leveling are often blinding but those car models with HID with leveling cause me absolutely no problem. And this is very noticable for me since I, like many people in the 50's, am developing the beginning of cataracts. The reason the DOT gave for doing its survey was the very high number of complaints about HID - particularly from older drivers. I just hope HID is not outlawed in the U.S. I sure love the ones in my LS but would never consider buying a car with HID that does not have manual or automatic beam leveling. I made a point of participating in the DOT survey not only hoping that properly designed HID will continue to be available in the U.S., but also with the hope that poorly designed HID without leveling will no longer be allowed.

Blake nailed it. The phone hardware in your car is probably worthless and you could remove it and have the vinyl patched. Dogboy seems to have dropped out of the forum early this year. He used to live a few miles from me and now lives near Seattle - I spoke to him by phone earlier this year. A handsfree car kit for a handheld phone is nice but it has been quite well proven that a person talking on the phone while driving - handsfree or not - has an accident rate approaching that of a drunk driver. I'm probably even more biased since the last of several people who rear ended my previous LS was talking on the phone and in "la-la" land until the moment of impact. But a handsfree kit is still nice to have to accept brief incoming calls, is often cheap (less than $150), easy to install (if you know how to do a bit of interior disassembly) and can often provide more features than OEM and dealer installed phone systems. Here is a pointer to a MS Word document on how I installed a Nokia car kit and hooked it up to mute to audio system in my current LS: http://home.kc.rr.com/colchester/phone/Nok...H%20install.doc

You've got a brand new RX330 w/o HID and now decided you want HID lights? My suggestion is to cut your losses, sell your RX and buy a RX330 with the optional HID's which, by the way, include automatically leveling - an important safety feature and which is also entertaining to watch go through its initialization routine each time you start the car. Aftermarket HID's are just not the same as the OEM ones - do any of them have a leveling control? With lights mounted as high as on the RX, aftermarket HID's without automatic or manual leveling will likely really *BLEEP* off other drivers and be a safety hazard.

Automatic closing doors are not all that unusual and were available even on the higher trim level 2-door Acura (Honda) Legend sold in the early 90's. Odd that Toyota waited so long to provide this feature in the U.S. market on Lexus branded cars since features like this and reclining rear seats, rear seat A/C and audio controls, etc., were available in Asia on the corresponding Toyota branded models (e.g. Celsior) since the beginning. Even the late 1960's long wheel base 6-cylinder Mercedes 300SEL sold outside the U.S. had optional reclining rear seats. We don't necessarily get "the best" in terms of equipment levels from foreign car manufacturers here in the U.S. - they appear to be struggling just to keep their prices down. The situation hasn't been helped by the weakness of the dollar over the past 20+ years. When I checked a couple of days ago, the "Euro" was at 1.23 and the Japenese Yen was at 109! Not all that long ago one Euro cost less than one U.S. Dollar and the Yen was over 145 per U.S. dollar. Scary...

17" inch wheels will fit on your 99 LS. Although 16" wheels and 225/60-16 tires were standard on the 2001 LS430, 17" wheels and 225/55-17 tires were offered as an option. But here is an interesting disclaimer from www.lexus.com for the 2001 LS430: "Optional 17 x 7.5-in wheels with 225/55HR17 tires are expected to experience greater tire wear than the standard equipment tires, 225/60HR16. Tire life may be substantially less than 15,000 miles, depending on driving conditions. Your riding comfort may decrease and road noise may increase during driving. Please consider all this when selecting an LS 430 equipped with this option." Although 17" wheels were made standard on the LS430 in 2003, it is probably that suspension changes were made so that the ride quality would not deteriorate and the tires would last a reasonable mileage. Your 99 LS is a really nice riding car and the standard tire size will last at least 40,000 miles if you watch inflation, alignment and pressure. And the handling is pretty darn good too with the standard wheels. Is the slightly better handling that larger wheels might provide worth the extra cost and loss of ride comfort? That is a choice only you can make. I've "been there, done that". My wife was not happy with the harsher ride (and I really wasn't either) so I went back to the OEM size. But if you really, really want to go to 17" wheels, maybe 2003 LS430 wheels would work for you. I would assume this would prevent the offset and other issues that have been reported on this forum.

The 2000 LS Platinum Series came with the same 16 inch wheels that were standard on the 2001 LS430. In fact, when mine were replaced under warranty recently, the invoice listed the new wheels as for an LS430. The dealer may be talking about the 17 or 18 inch wheels used on later LS430's which would introduce speedometer inaccuracy unless a lower profile tire was used to compensate. There is a pic of a 2000 Platinum with its standard (2001 LS430) wheels):

Perhaps GM will come up with a digital phone or satelite based version of On Star / Lexus Link and not just let it die. Retired relatives of mine who travel a lot certainly use it frequently and seem to really like it. Here is a link to the Lexus corporate website containing information - pay attention to the footnotes - about Lexus Link: http://www.lexus.com/lexuslink/

On a previous LS which did not have HID, Wagner "BriteLite Xenon" bulbs provided a lot of improvement. They are available in several sizes including H4/9003. They do have the fake purple HID look but they do provide a much whiter light which seems to fill in the light pattern. They are relatively inexpensive, lasted longer (years!) and did not seem to irritate other drivers like the high wattage bulbs I tried. They are available in stores and on the internet. Here is one seller: http://www.brandsport.com/wagl-9003bl.html

My understanding is that Security + openers are of the "rolling code" type. If you don't have an owners manual, which includes programming instructions, you can view an owners manual on-line by registering at www.lexus.com Or you can find some fairly detailed instructions by searching for "homelink" on this forum. A lot of people find it a bit confusing to program the Lexus remote control to work with a rolling code opener - probably because the instructions are not exact - different garage door opener models require slightly different programming techniques. Most importantly, there are two separate sets of instructions to follow. The first set of instructions involves using an existing handheld remote control to program your Lexus remote control The second set of instructions does not use the handheld remote control and involves pushing a programming button located on the garage door motor housing. And after a power failure, the Lexus garage door opener will not work until after the garage doors are first opened once with the hardwired garage door opener buttons in the garage.

Whoops, I posted the wrong link to the web page that says that the Portable Plus phone was available in the SC beginning in '93. Now I can't find the link. Sorry! Regarding connecting the power wires. On my 90 LS the phone car kit installer connected both the switched and constantly hot wires to the fuse box under the dash with spade connectors designed for that purpose and which he just jammed them into the fuse box . I had an audio shop connect the power wires to the ignition switch on my 00 LS. If I had known about the 6-pin male portable plus connector at the time I installed the car kit in the 00 LS, I would have connected the switched and unswitch power wires of the kit to two of the pins on the 6-pin connector.

I noticed when searching for a hitch for my 00 LS that hitches were not available for LS430's although they are available in other countries and the LS430 is rated to tow trailers as heavy as 4,400 pounds. A decent hitch shop should be able to fabicate a hitch for your LS430 although it will likely cost a lot more than an off the shelf hitch. A larger issue may be the trailer light wiring harness. Although the LS is a great tow car, IMOH it would be a lot more fun to drive from NJ to AZ without worrying about a trailer. I drove from Kansas City to Phoenix (1500 miles) in a Chrysler van two weeks ago and I didn't consider it to be a fun drive. It was way more fun flying to Phoenix last weekend! By the way, U-Haul sells hitches made by other companies and simply puts the U-Haul label on them. I had a Reese hitch on my first LS (same as sold by U-Haul) for 14 years and it worked great.

Marty, According to http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...&highlight=mute the Lexus Portable Plus phone was available in the SC400 beginning in 1993. If you have a six pin male connector for the Portable Plus phone under your center console like I have on my LS, the installation of your car kit may be relatively simple. In my 00 LS, the mute wire is the front center pin in the the six pin male Portable Plus connector under the console. In my 00 LS, constantly hot and ignition-switched pins are also available in the same six pin connector. Use a simple 12 volt test light to find the correct pins in the connector. A coax cable for the Portable Plus phone was also under the console and could be activatedd by connecting two coax cables in the trunk. To find the mute wire, probe the connecter with a grounded 12 volt test light until the radio mutes. On my 00 LS, all I had to do was jam the phone kit's mute wire (after stripping off 1/4 inch of insulation) into the center front terminal of the Portable Plus connector and secure it with a wire tie. If you do not have or can't find a Portable Plus male connector under the console, you can probably find a simlar mute point in the wiring harness that would connect the phone transceiver in the trunk - in my LS the mute wire was "gray with green stripe" but the wire color may be different on your SC. Although we did not install digital antennas on either our 90 LS or 98 Camry, the signal strength meters on our dual mode and tri-mode phones indicated that they worked very well regardless of antenna type. I thought the same co-ax cable type was used for both digital and analog antennas but I am not familiar with the technology. The antenna imprinted on the rear window of our 00 LS works great with my GSM/TDMA/AMPS tri-mode phone. Consider buying an electrical manual or printing relevent pages from Toyota/Lexus TIS on-line = last time I checked a one day subscripion was $10. It would probably be relatively easy to hook up a phone car kit to play though the radio speakers and lower the ventilation fan speed like the factory phone does but I didn't think it was worth the trouble so I didn't bother.

Not that your LX470 will be the same, but here is a pointer to a clublexus post where someone connected the mute wire on his phone car kit to his LS430 Mark Levinson audio system: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...&highlight=mute

A few people have said in this and other Lexus forums that they have had success in getting their analog Lexus phones "piggy-backed" onto a digital phone plan that they already had. Some call forward their handheld digital phone to their old Lexus analog phone when they step into their cars. Your phone company may say there is no analog but it is possible that they just don't want to talk about it. My tri-mode GSM/TDMA/Analog phone seems to spend quite a bit of time in analog mode - especially in rural areas and smaller midwest cities. But analog will likely go away within the next five years as the GSM network continues to expand. I think I read that phone companies have permission to drop analog in 2007. At least one person in the forums said they knew how to convert the Lexus phone system to digital but I have not seen anyone come through with information on how to do it. I was hoping to get my steering wheel phone "command module" to work with my Nokia car kit and recently obtained the pin information for the Nokia car kit from European sites. While I still plan to pin the command module, I doubt that I am going to be successful due to the complex voltages required control functions on the Nokia phone. European companies like Connect2 make adapters to allow steering wheel phone controls to work with the very common Nokia CARK-91H kit like I have but they make the adapters mainly for BMW's and a few other European makes.

Here is an old thread that contains instructions: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...601&hl=homelink

The most obvious reason that you see more posts on the Gen I LS is that they are now 10 - 14 year old cars. While LS cars are very well made and reliable, no cars are bulletproof and there are more issues with Gen I cars now because they are older and usually have higher mileages. Electrical components are subject to corrosion and problems are more age-related than mileage-related. I kept my first LS for almost 14 years but found that few repair shops wanted to spend time tracing the occasional electrical problem. This forum was a great help in solving some of these electrical glitches. If we keep our 98-00's long enough (my CPA wife tells me that I'm keeping mine until 2014!) and this forum continues to exist, you will see plenty of posts on these model years sometime in the future.

The earlier LS400's did not have the model name on the trunk lid - I think the first year with the model badge was 1995. Some people add the LS400 badge added to the early models. I meant to have the "LEXUS" badge deleted (leaving only the "L" in the center) on the new trunk lid when my 90 LS was rear-ended ($11,000 damage) in 2000 but I forgot (and hurt too much) to tell the body shop. Personally I think the "LEXUS" and model name badges on the trunk lid are tacky. Heck, Lexus are just nice Toyotas and that is why I have "TOYOTA" license plate frames on our LS and Camry.