1990LS400

According to the local Lexus dealer parts department manager, who has been in this position since the beginning in 1989, the retractable shade was dropped from the Lexus accessory catalog in the early 90's. I thought was a really nice addition and a lot of people who rode in my old LS said they appreciated in on hot summer days. "Foor door" tried all over the place to find one recently. This issue was discussed in one or two topics last year - the most recent one has a photo I took of the shade ... http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...&hl=retractable

I ran the tank down until the light came on quite a few times in the early years on my first LS and I think the fuel gauge needle was right on the empty mark when the low fuel light finally came on. I thought the fuel gauge was fairly pessimistic and estimated that I could probably have driven another 50 - 75 miles after the low fuel light came on - at least in my car. I suppose this could vary from car to car. How much fuel do you have to add to fill up the tank when the needle is near empty? Just fill the tank and then subtract the total gallons added from the tank capacity. That will tell you how many gallons you have left when the gauge is near empty. Or just take along a gas can and drive until either the light comes on or the car runs out of gas. I doubt that the low fuel light would be burned out since it probably comes on a few times over the life of most cars. And I doubt that there is not a separate fuse for just this one bulb.

George, Thanks for straightening me out about using a voltmeter instead of a test light. I'm mostly clueless about electricity - a sorry situation for the son of an electrical utility company superintendant. I will put your caution in my documentation. Thanks! Jim

Rather than continue the multipage "Integrated Phone" topic of the past, I thought it better to start another topic. No, I still do not know how to make the steering wheel phone control work for a non-Lexus phone or how to play the audio for the phone call through the Lexus audio system without using a mute lead from one of the U.K. or European companies that sell them. However, I am very happy to report success in connecting the mute wire of my Nokia CARK-91H car phone kit to the Lexus phone wiring harness on my 2000 LS so that the radio/CD/Cassette automatically mutes when a call is placed or received. Accomplishing this task is quite a relief because I have missed important incoming calls after switching to a Nokia 6340i phone with a lower ring volume. After spending so much time and energy learning about phones and car wiring, it is ironic that connecting the Nokia mute wire to the LS400 phone harness required no wire splicing, no relays, and no new hardware. I simply ran the Nokia yellow mute wire to the male phone connector on the driver's side below the vent cover at the rear of the console, stripped 1/4 inch of insullation from the wire, and jammed the wire into the center front terminal of the connector. I then secured the wire with a wire tie. Before inserting the wire, I verified that this terminal muted the audio system by probing it with a grounded automotive test light. On the 2000 LS, there is an additional mute point in the male connector attached to the bottom of the tool box housing in the trunk - the wire color is "grey with green stripe" - I verified its function by probing with a grounded test light to mute the audio system. Unfortunately, it seems that Lexus changes wire colors and locations on a seemingly random basis. Although not an electrician, I've been told that it is unlikely that one will do damage by probing connector terminals with a grounded test light - as long as one does not bridge multiple terminals with the probe. So, if you have or plan to get a phone car kit with a mute connection, you may well be able to find a mute point on an LS400 or other model Lexus of a different year. I do know that the mute wire for a 2001 RX300 is the purple wire in the telephone connector in the trunk. I've ran into a couple of people who have connected their phone's car kit mute wire to the Lexus Link mute point on LS430's. Attached is an impromptu "how-to" manual with photos of the mute wire connection. Please respond PM me if you have comments, suggestions or want me to try to help. Jim Nokia_CARK_91H_install.pdf

1-owner, maintenance records, and relatively low miles on a Southern California car are certainly very good signs. My next door neighbor and I both sold our 1-owner, very clean, always garaged 90 LS's recently. I sold mine (about 183K miles) for $4,500 in Nov. and he sold his (about 150K miles) for $6,000 last summer. You might check to see if the A/C has been converted to R134a and if the compressor has been replaced. Was the timing belt and water pump changed at 90K? Is the maintenance up to date? And check for issues: failing speedo needle, odometer noise, climate control display darkening, steering rack and pump leakage, brake disk thickness, audio system function. It was fun when I did a Mapquest on the zip code and saw that it is close to where my aunt lived for 50 years on Baseline Road - a long way from Kansas.

lexusonthelake, I absolutely agree with you. When I recommended following the normal service schedule, I really didn't mean never changing the transmission fluid like the maintenence manual indicates for later Toyota products. Maybe it never really needs to be changed for a car used in normal service but somehow I can't bring myself to let the transmission and diff fluid go unchanged for more than 30K. But of course the dealer wants to do it every 15K and that seems wasteful to me. thanks!

U.S. spec. 1990 - 2000 LS400's were electronically limited to about 149 mph (240 km/h) due to the V speed rated tires. The November 1989 Automobile Magazine I'm holding in my hands list the top speed of a 1990 LS as 150 mph. The U.K. Lexus website used to have top speeds posted for all years of LS. The 1990 - 2000 U.K. spec models (and Euro spec mdels) were electronically limited to about 155 mph (250 km/h) as are the U.K. / Euro spec spec LS430 in accordance with a voluntary agreement among manufacturers for maximum allowed speed for sedans. LS maximum speeds for various countries can be reviewed via http://www.lexus.com/home/international_links.html I doubt that a dealer or repair shop would defeat the speed limiter due to liability issues.

I'd recommend following the normal service schedule. A lot of dealers push the severe service schedule (revenue enhancement?) but I regard doing so as a waste of money unless you really are using your car as a delivery vehicle or taxi. The current owner of the 90 LS that I purchased new tells me that it is still going strong at almost 190K - it had only the minimal maintenance of the normal service schedule. On a 98, the timing belt is scheduled for changing at 90K and really should be done at that mileage since it is an interference engine. Normally the water pump is changed when the timing belt is changed. My understanding is that valve adjustments are done only if there is an obvious valve noise.

The steps that you posted are the second set of steps in programming a Homelink button. Did you perform the 1st set of four steps using one of your existing garage door remote controls: 1. Decide which Homelink button to program and press and hold it down for about 20 secondes until the indicator light flashes. While continuing to hold this button, perform steps 2 & 3. 2. Bring the handheld garage door opener within about 1 inch of the button being programming and push the button on the hand held garage door opener. The signal from the hand held garage door opener is set to the vehicles opener. 3. When the frequency and code is registered, the indicator light flashes rapidly. At this point you can release both buttons. 4. To program the remaining buttons, repeat steps 1 through 3. After you perform the above steps, then perform the steps that you originally posted. This should all the in your owners manual. If you do not have an owners manual, you can register on www.lexus.com and either request a new one or view it on-line.

Hey Thunderriver, I recommend purchasing four snow tires before next winter - not all season tires but real snow tires (such as Bridgestone Blizzaks) with the "mountain/snowflake" emblem on the sidewall. With snow tires, the LS does really well in fairly deep snow.

Is your CD cartridge and the little plastic CD holder trays in good shape? Are they all inserted correctly? Do you have another cartridge you can try? I think I got an Err a couple of times when I mistakenly put one CD in upside down. (I'm really "reaching" here.)

I think that skperformance is talking about the common early LS problem of a broken wire - the "white with black stripe" one - in the left trunk hinge that causes the transmission to shift eratically and also the reverse indicator light in the gauge cluster to come on when the break pedal is depressed. It is easily fixed by splicing in a piece of wire. Although I doubt it, I suppose that this could be a factor here. It is kind of strange that this problem is happening after you have owned your LS all these years. Maybe the speaker has gone bad or one of the connecting wires in the phone car kit has shorted out. This underdash speaker is not part of a Lexus phone system since the dealer installed Lexus phones played the call through the door speaker. Again, I suggest that you see if that aftermarket car phone kit is connected to the car's electrical system (fuse box, ignition switch, etc.) and, if so, that you disconnect it.

Metro Lexus Toyota in Victoria, BC, Canada http://www.discountlexusparts.com/ advertises that they ship worldwide and their prices are lower than my local Lexus dealer. I have been very happy with their service. I think Canadacraig said that he takes his car there.

Yep, that speaker is quite similar to the one for my Nokia car kit. My only concern about cutting the wires is that the buzzing might indicate that there is current flowing through the speaker cable. If you cut the cable to the speaker, you might want to separate the positive and negative wires on the harness side and tape the wire ends with electrical tape. I would bet that there are other remnants of the phone kit - maybe under the dash, under the front armrest and/or behind the front ash tray. Still, it would be interesting to trace the speaker wire and see what it is connected to and where the other components are hidden. But that is your call.

One more thought. Could this speaker be for the wireless lock/unlock confirmation noise?

The speaker left of the brake pedal may be part of a phone car kit. The speaker for my Nokia phone's car kit is attached to the firewall just left of the brake pedal arm. If that is what it is, there may still be a connection from the phone's car kit to the ignition system or fuse box and there may be a few other components hidden in the console or dash. If there is a wire coming out of the speaker, you might try tracing it in order to locate other related components. There may be a junction box than ties all of the components (handset cradle, microphone, speaker, external antenna) together.

tominyous, My 2000 Platinum LS is has a two tone color scheme - white body with silver lower plastic cladding - same as on the LS I purchased in early 1990. I really don't know which upper body colors, other than black, were available with the matching lower body cladding. I do know that by around 1993, the darker color cars were available with lower plastic cladding that matched the metalwork color. I remember that the owner of the lawn service that sprayed chemicals on my LS bumper ruining the paint in 1993 spend so much time at the Lexus dealer having my car fixed that he purchased an all black LS and also an all black SC400!

Here is a link to similar info on the Lexus site on the 98 LS: http://www.lexus.com/cpo/model_detail/ls/400/1998.html When I first looked at this particular LS series in 98, I think HID was available separately as a $500 option as well as being a part of one or more packages. I doubt if you can tell if an LS has HID just by looking - maybe someone else can answer that. And I doubt that you will find many LS's sold after early 98 that do not have HID. All LS (all Lexus cars?) come with prewiring for phones. If you have been following the "Integrated phone" thread, you probably are getting a good idea of the issues of hooking up a non-Lexus phone. I'm still hoping to get my Nokia car kit interfaced with my Nakamichi audio at least to the extent that the radio mutes when a call comes in. I have run into several Lexus owners who have had phone installers or audio specialists connect their non-Lexus car phone car kit's mute wire to the Lexus audio system - but none could provide details of how it was accomplished. An owner of a 2001 RX300 on the Club Lexus forum said that he accomplished it by connecting the Nokia mute wire to the purple wire of his RX300's phone connector in the cargo area to the right of the jack. I was hoping that my 00 LS would have the same phone connector and wire colors but it does not. Jim

We are getting off the original subject of this topic, but as one who used to have a 2000 LS and 1990 LS parked side by side in the garage and who has torn apart the interior and trunk trim of both when installing phones, I have to concur that the 1990 was in many ways superior to the 2000 LS. There was an interesting story on the news last night - I think it was on the PBS News Hour - about how Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota, began removing "unnecessary content" from their cars beginning in the mid 90's to contain manufacturing costs. The news story focused on how Japanese car manufacturers, following the lead of U.S. car manufacturers, learned that they could move hidden content that the customer would not notice. An example was given of how Toyota stopped painting the insides of bumpers. I remember when Toyota Camry purchasers complained loudly in 1997 when the triple door seals (just like the ones the LS has) of the previous Camry were discontinued. One only has to compare the engine compartment of an old LS to a newer one to see some of this. The engine compartment in an old LS looks like a work of art with all the polished surfaces and the display of the mechanicals. In the newer LS, all you see is a big black bland engine cover. Actually, the larger tolerances and trim gaps in the 2000 LS made it much easier to install my hand held phone car kit and to route all the cables. The older and newer LS's are both great automobiles - they are just very, very different.

Assuming that the headlights on a 94 LS are similar enough to the 90 LS I used to have (they look the same but are a bit different), my 90 LS owners manual recommended removing the entire headlight/foglight light unit assembly in order to replace bulbs. Sounds hard but it is easy - less than five minutes once you know how. With the hood open, remove the parking light next to the headlight by removing the one screw holding it in place at the top. With your fingertips, pry the parking light out - it will pop out and slide forward. Then remove the nut holding the headlight assembly in place on the outboard side. There are two more bolts holding the headlight unit in place on the inboard side - one at the top and one at the bottom. Be careful not to tamper with the aiming screws. The headlight / foglight unit should come right out although you might have to do a bit of jockeying. It is usually possible to reinstall the headlight/foglight units without re-aiming the lights. If you don't have an owners manual, registering on the Lexus web site might get you one. Unfortunately at some point the instructions for replacing bulbs were removed from the owners manual - I don't know if they are in the 94 manual. Good luck!

From Autotrader.com, here is the content of the three different Platinum Series packages (SE, SF, SG) offered on the LS in 2000. Mine is an "SF". Platinum Series (SE) Appliques, Bird's Eye Maple Wood Wheels, 16-inch Custom Alloy Moonroof, Power Badging, Black Pearl Exterior Floor Mats, Platinum Signature Embroidered Headlights, High-Intensity Discharge Leather Trim, Textured Royale Compact Disc Changer, In-Dash Platinum Series (SF) Appliques, Bird's Eye Maple Wood Seats, Heated Wheels, 16-inch Custom Alloy Radio, Nakamichi Premium AM/FM ETR Stereo with Cassette Badging, Black Pearl Exterior Headlights, High-Intensity Discharge Leather Trim, Textured Royale Moonroof, Power Floor Mats, Platinum Signature Embroidered Platinum Series (SG) Appliques, Bird's Eye Maple Wood Leather Trim, Textured Royale Wheels, 16-inch Custom Alloy Navigation System Package Floor Mats, Platinum Signature Embroidered Badging, Black Pearl Exterior

Welcome! My understanding is that the audio system that came with the navigation system in the 2000 LS is not compatible with the Nakamichi system and that it might have to be a complete swap. According to the repair manual, the same amplifier is used with the standard audio system whether or not it has the navigation system. The only reason I know this is that I recently tried to hook up an interface harness that I bought from a U.K. company for my Nokia phone car kit to my 2000 LS Nakamichi amp. It was supposed to plug into the "A" and "B" connectors. According to drawings in the repair manual the phone interface harness appears to be compatible with the A and B connectors on the standard audio system's amp (with or without Nav) but not the Nakamichi amp. There are five connectors on the amp of the Pioneer amp but only four on the Nakamichi amp - only one connector is the same on both system's amps. The rest of the connectors are a different shape although the total number of pins on the amps of the two systems is the same. So apparently the cables between the head units and the amps are also different between the standard audio (with and without Nav) and the Nakamichi. Given enough time and money, I'd bet that the Nav system could be retofited. In hindsight I probably should not have excluded cars with Nav from my search. I still do not know how well the Nav systems in the 90-00 LS work and only avoided them because of nav system update issues of other cars of that era. I've seen photos of aftermarket Nav systems that have been placed on a "Pro-fit style" bracket by the radio where I have my phone - they looked nice. Garmin of course is probably the most well known maker of aftermarket Nav's. Attached is a photo of where my phone is which is where I've seen a Nav unit mounted. Sounds like an interesting project! Jim

Although I have never used them, http://carstereohelp.com/lexus.htm advertises: "Lexus / Nakamichi / Pioneer - Audio Amplifier - One of many different models seen in shop for repair. Trunk and under passenger seat locations. No output or distorted output. Weak output on one side or both, repair includes modifications and updates, $275. Turn around time on this unit is 1-4 weeks with a 90 day warranty." I would guess that the amp would be fairly easy to remove to send in. My Nakamichi has only four connectors to unplug and it looks fairly easy to remove. There seem to be a lot of companies advertising on the Internet that they repair Lexus Nakamichi - maybe someone who has used one will PM you. Can anyone else help?

A few things I would add to that excellent list from Wandawoods ... Records and receipts: Most car crazies I know can show you the receipt for every service and part that was ever purchased. OK, I'm "over the top", but I've always documented gas fillups (to track mileage trends), tire pressure checks, when I last waxed the car, etc., etc. Number of owners: The fewer owners, the more certain you are of getting accurate and complete information. Both my next door neighbor and I bought our 90 LS's new and parted with them in the past few months. There are lots of early LS's that have had only one or two owners. A straight body: Keeping a car free of dings and scratches over 10 - 14 years can take a lot of dedicated "defensive parking". People that go this extra mile are probably more likely to take care of the whole picture. Information from the owner's mechanic: Has the owner had a particular mechanic who has cared for the car over the years and can you speak with him in private? Best of luck on your purchase!

Hey 99! I do not know the details of why that trunk hinge wire affects drivability so severely. Maybe the transmission falsely senses that the brake is on when the hinge wire breaks. When mine broke on a Saturday afternoon last summer, the car bucked so badly I had it towed from a parking lot at 119th & Metcalf. I thought the transmission was fried. I finally got it home, searched the Internet and found this forum. I was amazed when I found the answer to the problem on this forum in a couple of minutes and had the problem fixed within an hour. It is unfortunate that so much forum history was lost when the server crashed last year -- there was so much valuable information that could be searched. Always great to see your posts! See you sometime soon. Jim