1990LS400

Sitting here in my home office a couple of miles from the supposedly "global headquarters" of "the Bluetooth SIG in Overland Park, Kansas, USA" (information from the Bluetooth.org website) I can't help but wonder if Bluetooth phones are working well in many - or any - vehicles. All I seem to hear is complaints. Almost all the complaints I am hearing (can't dial while driving, can't enter extension numbers, problems with voice dialing, limited speed dialing) are features that are handled by basic hard wired car kits - some of which also are compatible with Bluetooth phones. I was amazed when no one at the local Lexus dealership could could provide any information on the Bluetooth interface last November when I looked at LS430's. It was if they expected me to buy a Bluetooth enabled LS430 on faith that its Bluetooth interface would fulfill my needs? Is anyone out there really having success with the Lexus Bluetooth interface? I would appreciate hearing some success stories.

Because the insurance company had the wrong VIN, they may have been trying to sell you some form of "stated value" insurance which was why they needed to know the new price of your car. If this is the case, your premium may drop although it will probably still be very high since you are 17 years old. The insurance company should of course be insuring your car based on its replacement value which, depending on condition and mileage, would probably fall in a wide range between about $6,000 and $13,000. Yes, it is amazing how much cars fall in value from their original price due to the incredible oversupply of new and used cars. And prices of new cars have gotten much cheaper adjusted for inflation. It seems like the base retail price of an LS has been around $55,000 "forever" although the content has increased dramatically over the years.

There nothing wrong in offering the dealer $4,000 for an LS with lots of scratches and dings. Just make your offer and walk away if the dealer doesn't accept it. Keep looking and you might find a nicer LS at a similar price - perhaps from an individual. Be aware that these can be very expensive cars to maintain. My 90 LS looked new (no dings, no scratches) when I sold it for $4,500 last year but I had spent almost that much on service and repairs in the previous two years.

My recommendation is to pass on the service warranty unless you are really nervous about the condition of your IS. And if you are that nervous about your IS, I recommend that you sell it ASAP. Companies selling warranties are just trying to make money - fairly hard to do when about half of that $2,000 premium is commission (pure profit) for the auto dealer. Also remember that you already have a 6 yr./72,000 warranty on the powertrain and that an extended warranty on powertrain components kicks in only after the standard powertrain warranty expires. And extended service warranties often have hefty deductibles - read the contract closely. Toyota/Lexus products are statistically the most reliable cars made and are the least likely to require an extended warranty. Same goes for CPO which includes a very expensive extended warranty. For example, a local Lexus dealer wanted nearly $9,000 more for a CPO LS than what I paid for a similar but better equipted LS that a small independent dealer bought for me at the auction. Both cars had about 36K miles, were serviced at the same dealer and were like new. Most large companies and many individuals "self insure" to a large degree by buying only "disaster" insurance and then self insuring for the small stuff. To self insure, just place that $2,000 in an index fund instead of a service warranty and it is more than likely that you will come out far ahead.

If you need to leave your phone connected to a DC charger all day, it sounds like either your phone or its battery has a problem or that your phone is of an older design. Most modern cell phone batteries charge very quickly. 10 minutes in our car kit cradles to and from work each day is far more than is needed to keep our phones fully charged. Although phone car kits used to commonly be connected to an ignition switched hot wire, many installers now connect them to a non-switched source - probably because they draw so little current compared to the old phones. Using a car kit makes it easier to keep your phone charged and, with many phones, means that you do not have to move your hands from the steering wheel (or your eyes from the road!) to answer and end a call. Granted, car kits are a lot more popular in the U.K. and Europe where talking on a handheld phone while driving can draw $1,000+ fines. A good sources of information on the use of handheld phones in cars is the website for U.K. company SIO Communications.

Apparently the ES has the same 9-pin data port on the head unit as on many other 98-04 Toyota products including our 98 Camry. I do not know if the GS radio has this port - maybe someone else will chime in. The connectors on your head unit and amplifier may be shown in the factory shop manuals - they are in the manual for my 00 LS. There are lots of options for Toyotas with the 9-pin port including Soundgate cable systems that allow up to three devices including a CD changer to run through the data port. You could always jerk out the head unit and take a look. Instructions are at http://carstereohelp.com/strlexus.htm

Being a bit visually impaired, these mirror turn signals sounded like a good idea so I stopped by Autozone today and took a look at them. What they are is two approximately six inch strips of bendable clear plastic lens which can be bent to conform to the curve of a mirror housing. They appeared to be about 1 inch wide about 1/4 inch thick and, after they are bent, stick to the mirror with double sided tape. The installation instructions show the wires being routed along the bottom of the mirror edge and through the mirror housing into the car interior. Each lens has about five or six LED's - I do not know if they produce an effective amount of light to be useful in the daytime. The lights do not appear to be of particularly high quality and I would be surprised if they did not fall off on a hot day. The wire from the mirror into the car would probably look a little obvious. But if you squint hard, I guess they do "kind of" look like the mirror turn signals on a Mercedes. After I almost flunked the DMV vision test in the early 90's and had a few close calls, I bought a set of OEM side turn signals from a UK Lexus dealer and had them installed on my 90 LS by a body shop. If you want or need side turn signals, I think that OEM is a better way to go than these cheap stick-on ones. I found the effect of side mounted turn signals on other drivers to be quite interesting, particularly in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. Other than really being able to see that you need to change lanes, it becomes obvious to you when other drivers have seen your signal - they have a hard time pretending they have not.

I sold my 90 LS last November. As I was cleaning it up to ready it for sale, a guy painting the house next door wanted to buy it. When he couldn't come up with the money, I put an ad in the Kansas City Star, a flyer in a book of cars for sale at my favorite repair shop, and placed flyers in all 14 break rooms where I work. I got lots of calls from the newspaper ad but sold the car the 1st day through one of the breakroom ads. As people who knew me found out my car had been for sale, lots of other people asked if they could buy it but of course it was already sold. My point is, if your LS is in good condition and looks nice, it should be very easy to sell quickly. But be realistic about price. There is a glut of used cars out there. Also in November I bought a very well equipted, low (38K) miles 2000 LS for about the price of a new Camry XLE. Used cars are really cheap now.

To correct my previous post, "Steve" on the U.K. Lexus owners club website was complaining that the Lexus dealer wanted 1,000 to install a complete towing package, including an oil cooler and larger radiator, on his GS300 - not a LS430 as I reported. I do not know if a U.K. spec. LS430 requires such modification to tow its 4,410 pound rated capacity. Not to slam the GS300 but it is not as robust as an LS. Towing a 1,000 to 2,000 pound trailer is quite trivial for a car like an LS so I certainly would not think that any modification, other than the hitch and wiring, would be required.

Hi Linda. I'm glad that the dealership came through for you. But even if they had not, Lexus corporate would have required them to replace the leather had you called them. Please do not think that the dealer is doing a favor for you. Do not let them tie your coming in for frequent service to their honoring the warranty on your leather seats. These are two completely separate matters. As long as you document that you properly maintain your car while it is under warranty, you are free to use independent repair shops for maintenance service. Although I took my LS to the Lexus dealer for warranty work last week, tomorrow I am taking it to my favorite independent repair shop (owned by a former Lexus service writer with former Lexus dealer mechanics) for routine service. The service and prices are far better at this independent shop. Linda, it would be helpful if, instead of starting a new topic to report your success, you would have made the report under the original topic. It makes it easier for us to track your issue. Not to be critical - I know you are new at this and I welcome and enjoy your participation. Best regards, Jim

Lexus-parts.com (in Texas) made two parts deliveries to me in the past two weeks and I have ordered from them before too. It is very strange that they did not respond to you. Irontoad did not answer my one request for a price quote so I never tried them again. I've also had good luck with Metro Toyota-Lexus in Victoria BC.

Here is a link to the official U.K. Lexus website which documents that a 2004 LS430 is rated to tow 2000 kg. - a whopping 4,410 pounds! --> http://www.lexus.co.uk/specification.php?m...a=specification The U.S. LS is rated at towing only 2000 pounds without additional accessories like a transmission cooler. All three of my LS owners manuals (90, 94, 00) and our Camry manual contain identical disclaimers about how towing can increase wear, effect fuel mileage, etc. Similar disclaimers are in the owners manuals of many if not most cars and SUV's sold in the U.S. My 2000 LS manual has 2 1/2 pages devoted to the subject of trailer towing. My 94 LS U.K./Euro spec manual goes so far as to provide extensive instructions on how to tow a trailer safely, how to calculate tongue weight, etc. Maybe I have a different perspective because I have traveled extensively outside the U.S., am employed by a European (auto industry) company and know co-workers in other countries that drive Lexus LS cars. I also have 38 years of towing experience and for 11 years towed a 4 x 8 foot utiltity trailer and even a 2000 pound sailboat behind a 65 horsepower Mercedes diesel sedan without any problems. Last time I checked, that old '79 Mercedes diesel was still going strong at over 300,000 miles with its new owner - towing must not have hurt it much. Take a look at this discussion of towbars on the UK Lexusownersclub website where you can find complaints that U.K. dealers are charging up to a 1,000 pounds to install a towing package on an LS430 --> http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...13765&hl=towbar

A few weeks ago I was shocked when my local dealer sold me a part at its normal suggested retail price. When I bought our first LS in early 1990, I found that the local dealer doubled (or more) the prices on common parts needed for maintenance. When I complained to the Toyota/Lexus organization, the local dealer was required by them to sell parts to me during the warranty period for no more than retail. But I was able to document that I made the purchase decision based on maintenance parts prices published in magazines during the first weeks that Lexus was in existance in the U.S. There seems to be quite a few dealers in the U.S. and Canada that will sell at or slightly below retail. And the Internet has been a wonderful influence on keeping prices in check. I suspect that the local Lexus dealer could substantially increase his parts and service volume if prices on parts were no more than suggested retail.

RDS stands for "radio data system" and has been in use in Europe since at least the early 1990's. Kind of hard to believe that it took so long to arrive in the U.S. RDS catagorizes radio stations and allows you to search and listen to FM stations in your favorate catagories, see the station name, and sometimes other information about what is playing. I had an RX330 loaner car last week when our LS was in for service and could not get the RDS in it to work in the 60 seconds I spent trying. Here is a U.K. site that describes how RDS works. Since we listen mainly to NPR while traveling, I wish our LS had it so we could easily find the stations. Infortunately, from my experience in rental cars that have RDS, many (maybe most) stations do not (yet) broadcast RDS information. http://www.radio-now.co.uk/faq1.htm

Consumer Reports magazine has made a few Camry-to-ES and Highlander-to-RX comparison observations over the years. You might get hold of some back issues and do some reading. I was provided both a loaner ES330 and RX330 in the past few weeks while my LS was in for minor warranty repairs and found that my observations on the two cars closely matched that of Consumer Reports.

ayan, From what I have read in this and other forums, there is no after-market CD changer that can be controlled by the Pioneer head unit. You might try searching this and the other Lexus forums to see if anyone has come up with a solution. My understanding is that only the Pioneer or Nakamichi head unit that has a CD button and controls can control a CD player and that this CD player would have to be from Lexus. More recent Toyota head units having a CD button seem to have quite a few options for adding a non-OEM CD player or changer.

An LS's robust design and construction makes it an excellent and comforable car for towing trailers. Much better than doing it with a Mercedes like I used to do. For those interested, Brink is one of the largest suppliers of towbars (hitches) and their products are sold in much of the rest of the world. You can find a towbar for the LS430 on http://www.brinkweb.com/ but of course it is not compatible with the trailer tongues used in the Americas. Towbars for Lexus including LS430's are often discussed on various non-U.S. (and sometimes non-English language) websites. For those who speak and/or read only English, Google's translation tool can be used to translate many non-English language web pages although the translations can be a bit off.

I've had a lot of experience towing small trailers with my 90 LS and know others who done the same. The Kansas City Lexus dealer used to sell hitches for the LS. But Toyota has recently gone so far as to limit the number of hitches that are sold on Lexus SUV's to meet fuel mileage and/or emissions regulations. My 90 LS was completely "hitch ready" with pre-drilled and threaded holes in the bumper structure for attaching a hitch and holes for passing the wiring into the trunk. My 90 LS made a great tow car but I had to keep looking in the rear view mirror to verify that the trailer was still there. The car's power made towing effortless. A neat thing about the early LS was that the installed hitch was virtually invisible - it fit completely behind the bumper and the under-bumper plastic trim and one had to look closely to see the receiver when the tow bar wasn't attached. I plan to install a class 2 Draw-tite hitch on my 00 LS before summer (less than $100) mainly to haul our bicycles on a rack that plugs into a receiver. But it looks like U.S. hitch companies are not offering hitches for LS430's so you may be faced with getting a custom hitch made. I would assume that it would attach to the same bolts as the exhaust system like on the LS400. Hitches are sold for the LS430 in other markets - take a look at U.K., Australian and South African websites where you can at least read about them in English. Unfortunately the hitch design used in most of the rest of the world is not compatible with the trailer tongues used in the U.S. As SUV's have become more popular and Toyota has endevoured to move the LS430 further up-market, I can see why the availability of hitches has decreased in the U.S.

What a bummer. Sorry to hear about the crash. Based on your description of the damage and my exerience in 2000 when my 90 LS was hit in the right rear, I would guess that your damage is two to four times the book value of your LS. Back then my car barely avoided being totaled by the insurance company - the total repair cost was over $10K. The adjustor did not see the sticker on the door jam that documented that the odometer had been replaced and that the car really had about 150K on the clock. And additional hidden damage was discovered as the car was being repaired and the price when up and up. Even the wood panel on the console was cracked by the force of the impact. I don't know how your insurance company will handle this claim. If the car is not totaled, the check may be make out to you and the body shop that fixes it. There is no "frame" on these cars. Good bodyshops have equipment that can perfectly straighten the structure of a car. My 90 LS drove just as great after it was repaired as before although I later discovered a small crack in the opposite side wheel well that might evenually have lead to rust. The worst part of my experience was that the bodyshop apparently threw away many of the clips that held trim and insulation in place - I guess they did not think that anyone would notice. These are such great cars. It is always sad to see their lives end prematurely.

Yes I am a certified packrat but right now I'm holding in my hand the old odometer for my 90 LS and the box the new one came in. The part number on the "Toyota Genuine Parts" box is 83121-50010. I think it cost around $50 just for the part but that was perhaps six or seven years ago - all my receipts went with the 90 LS when I sold it. It is not a very complex part. Who knows - you might be able to get one at a Toyota dealership. A parts Toyota department employee I do business with seems to get quite a kick whenever he can supply a part for our LS. Or you could try Sewell Lexus at http://www.lexus-parts.com/ and enter a parts request. I have been satisfied with their service and prices.

You might try PMing jefftodd to see if he was able deactivate them. Here is his previous post and my response at that time. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...wtopic=8461&hl=

The phone number to order printed copies of manuals is 1-800-622-2033. Ordering information is on http://techinfo.lexus.com/

Are you sure it is not the odometer making the noise? Does your 92 LS have a mechanical odometer or is it an LCD display? The mechanical odometer on the 90 LS I had for 14 years made quite a bit of noise before it failed at 125,000 miles. I don't remember the odometer being particularly expenisive to replace although I did not do it myself. I continued to drive the car to about 185,000 miles and the speedometer itself never caused a problem.

I spoke to "Dogboy" today by phone and wished him success in bringing his new product to market. It should be really cool. I have done quite a lot of research and Dogboy is the only one I have found who has been successful in integrating a handheld cell phone with both the Lexus audio system and steering wheel phone command module. It is not particularly difficult to install a handsfree car kit in a Lexus. Motorola and Nokia (and probably others) have a variety of nice car kits for $120 to $180. Many allow voice and speed dialing, dialing from the address book, mute your radio on an incoming or outgoing call, auto answer and hang up, and charge your phone's battery. Some have a Bluetooth interface. And these car kits don't require the use of a headset or earbud. If you want to use a car kit, even a Bluetooth, carefully shop for a handset that is compatible with the type of car kit you want to use. Phone technology changes rapidly. If you must have the latest wiz-bang picture phone, PDA phone, or whatever new technology comes up, you will end up changing car kits every time you change phones and spend a lot more money. Car kits may never be available for specialized phones produced in low volumes. But some phone manufacturers like Nokia protect your car kit investment by continuing to introduce new phones that are compatible with their "work horse" car kits introduced back in the 90's.

I recently bought the 2-volume set for my 2000 LS from Sewell Lexus for about $240. I paid about $150 for the 2-volume set in 1990 for my first LS. Regardless of what you pay for manuals, it is the best investment you will ever make. Or you can subscribe to Toyota's TIS: http://techinfo.lexus.com/ As I reported in previous posts, another Lexus owner said that he downloaded all of the content of the manuals with a $10 one day subscription to TIS. Doing this takes a broadband connection and a lot of dedication to get it done. Or I think it is $50/month or $350/year. I was disappointed that Irontoad did not answer my request for a price quote on a part I needed. I sent the same request for a quote to Sewell Lexus http://www.lexus-parts.com/ the quote was provided within 24 hours. I ordered the part from Sewell the same day and it was shipped within 24 hours. This is the 2nd time I have ordered from Sewell and their service has been fast and their prices (relatively) low.