1990LS400

There are no audio system security codes for Lexus LS cars sold in North America after the 1994 model year. The first thing I would do is to make sure that the battery terminals and cable clamps are absolutely spotlessly clean - bright and shiny. Use a battery terminal/cable clamp cleaning tool, baking soda and water. I think my clamp/terminal cleaning tools was less than $5 at an auto parts store. Yes, check to see if the battery needs water and fill it to the guide marks only with distilled water - assuming it is not one of those supposedly maintenance free batteries. Batteries sometimes fail prematurely but it's unusual. I've had a battery (Interstate brand) last less than one year. Many auto parts stores and maybe a Walmart will test a battery for you. An inexpensive specific gravity battery tester and/or a trickle charger can also often show the condition of a battery. And sometimes connections between battery cells corrode/break and reconnect randomly but usually only when a battery is at least several years old. And of course the problem could be caused by something more serious - such as a failed starter which any competent repair shop can test by seeing how many amps it's drawing.

Just buy a battery at a local store after doing appropriate research. I wait until a battery is in its death throes and I've never been stranded (yet) in 47 years of driving. It's odd that the local Toyota and Lexus dealer used to sell exactly the same batteries at similar prices until a separate Lexus branded battery was created. The batteries are still the same but now the Lexus branded battery costs twice as much - around $250 here. I would have bought the Toyota branded battery but there is no warranty unless used in a Toyota or Scion brand car. I now buy car batteries at Costco and enjoy that rebate at the end of the year.

You can buy the roof rack removal kit and download/view the instructions at http://lexus.sewellparts.com/accessories-catalog/viewall/RX350-2014/4608.html Be sure to register with your forum member name to get a discount - currently $US68.92. I'm pretty sure Sewell ships to Canada and to other countries but you might be able to get it for a similar price or less in BC. I've bought a lot of stuff from Metro Toyota/Lexus in Victoria but not lately - excellent service from their parts department. The RX roof rack looks like it could be handy. Toyota/Lexus dealers in many countries sell a number of accessories for them including aerodynamic ski and cargo boxes.

Do what you like. It's not like the few people in the U.S. who know what a Soarer is are going to think it is one unless your SC300 is right hand drive. Funny ... the first thing commonly done in Australia after buying a Japanese market Soarer is to remove the Soarer and Toyota emblems and replace them with Lexus emblems. I've removed identifying badges from two cars: One to prevent rust from reoccurring after paint work (1979 Mercedes 240 Diesel) and the other to get cheaper insurance rates (1985 Honda Civic CRX Si).

There are instructions in the following thread on how to turn off the message in an LS430 - may be similar for your GX: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/45258-lexus-link-removal/?hl=link#entry290560

The price of a master key for your ES300 from Sewell in Texas where I have bought parts is about $177 with a forum member discount: http://lexus.sewellparts.com/accessories-catalog/Keys/ES300-2002/2807.html They require proof of ownership. Sewell shows a retail price of about $211 which is close to what I paid Superior Lexus for a master key for my LS in 2003. I suggest you check with Superior or maybe with Exact Performance in Mission, Kansas: http://www.exactauto.com/ Ben, the owner of Exact, was formerly with Superior and has maintained our Lexus and Toyota cars since he opened in 1998.

My advice would be to do what I did when I bought my 2000 LS400 from an independent dealer/broker on a Friday evening in 2003. I went to the local Kansas City Lexus dealer the very next business day and bought an extra key set - it wasn't that expensive. The other keys eventually turned up from the auto auction but it is still comforting to have that third set of keys stashed away. If I already had a spare key, I might have taken my time and found a cheaper source.

Stores like Batteries Plus where I live change the key batteries at no charge when I buy new ones and have the correct tiny screwdrivers to do it.

An update usually doesn't change the way the navigation works except for minor improvements like automating the "I Agree" in one update. You might be interested in the following website: http://www.lexusnavigation.com/why_update.php Nav updates are pretty cheap - $169 retail and you can probably update it yourself.

The LS460 was the first LS to have a timing chain. According to the maintenance schedule, it requires no periodic inspection so I assume it is good for the "life" of the car. Timing chains are not always trouble free. Back in the 1980's, the single roller timing chain on the 3.8 liter Mercedes V8 engine was prone to breaking and required replacement at regular and short intervals.

Let us all focus on making this a friendly Lexus oriented forum where all are welcomed.

Use an automotive stethoscope to find the source of the noise.

You would have as much success getting the information straight from Steve Jobs which I understand is pretty difficult to do these days. Maybe a future update of iPhone iOS or Lexus Enform will resolve your problem. I have to wonder about the future of Toyota Entune and Lexus Enform due to the gradual "tanking" of Blackberry - formerly know as Research in Motion and the parent of QNX Software which was/is Toyota's partner in developing Entune/Enform: http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_4459_1.html?lang=de You might check on the availability of updates for your Enform. Toyota Entune is so new that our local dealer has no idea how it is updated - whether it will be over-the-air, via USB, etc. Last month Toyota announced that Entune will no longer be a subscription service and will now be free. The annual fee for Lexus Enform was to be a lot higher than that for Entune so you might want to watch to see if Enform is also going to made subscription-free. Entune provides so little value in its current form that we were definitely going to drop it when our subscription was up. Entune in 2014 Toyota brand vehicles will have Yelp and Facebook places like Lexus Enform currently does. I assume current owners of Toyota vehicles with Entune will get an update to add these new applications. A lot of Toyota owners including me will be perturbed if Toyota doesn't do this since Toyota made such a big deal in the Entune literature about how it was going to update Entune with additional apps in the future.

Steve, the DHP (Dynamic Handling Pack) was an option in the U.K. and nowhere else. Heated seats were standard in the U.K. but optional on the LS400 in the U.S. in all model years.

Bummer. Where in Missouri was this inferno? You should be able to figure out what equipment your car has with these specs for the 1998 LS400: http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/1998/1998LSspecs.pdf It looks like you have a fairly basic 98 LS400 and that a prior owner made some modifications. Your LS has a wood wheel but a leather gearshift knob - both a wood wheel and gear shift knob were in the same option package so something's going on with that. It's got the standard Pioneer radio so that automatically excludes some other options. A lot of 1998 LS400's did not had the optional HID headlights. If you have HID, the headlight lens will have D2R on them; Halogen have something like HB2 inscribed on the lenses. The headlight lenses look quite foggy - they can be restored to absolutely clear and like new using one of a number of headlight lens restoration products. I see your car has or had a dealer installed Lexus phone system. If it is all still installed and your radio works OK then don't worry. A failing phone ECU in the trunk can cause the radio to go into permanent telephone mute mode. Unplugging the two large phone connectors from the ECU under the false floor on the right side of the trunk and plugging the connectors together usually fixes that problem. Otherwise, have fun with it. These are very reliable cars although things can go wrong and are sometimes fairly expensive to fix. I owned my first LS400 (a 1990) from new to 183,000 miles and my current 2000 LS400 from 38,000 miles to its current 170,000 miles and both were relative trouble free and far less expensive to maintain than any Mercedes I've owned.

Like I said, I've seen large bumper mounted carriers like this only on full size vehicles -- like the kind shown in all the demonstration photos on your Amazon link. There won't be a dog in that cage, will there? That would be like in National Lampoon's "Vacation": Time to go shopping for a larger vehicle? A vehicle top shell carrier isn't all that bad if your belongings are in soft luggage. One would add some noise but would require less adjustment in driving style than a hitch carrier or trailer. You might have to watch out for overhead objects although I doubt that it would be nearly as much of an issue as it would be if you were carrying bicycles on the roof. If it was me - and I'm in the Social Security "geezer zone" - I would choose a streamlined roof carrier if I needed extra space. Toyota dealers in Europe even sell a roof cargo box for our Prius Hybrid wagon as an official Toyota accessory - see attached photo from the Toyota Europe website: http://www.toyota-europe.com If you go with that hitch carrier be sure to get the light kit and remember that you won't be doing any parallel parking and probably won't be raising your tailgate when it's loaded.

Have you considered roof mounted cargo box like one of these?: http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Roof_Cargo_Carrier-sf-Roof_Box.aspx

That hitch mounted carrier looks like something made for a real SUV like a Chevy Suburban or a Ford Excursion - not for a passenger car disguised as an SUV which is what an RX really is. What is the maximum trailer tongue weight for your RX? That is the limit you can safely carry with a hitch mounted carrier regardless of its 500 lb. maximum weight rating. Exceeding the recommended tongue weight when using a hitch mounted carrier can cause dangerous instability. According to the specs, your RX has 38.3 cu. ft. of cargo space with the rear seats up and 84.7 cu. ft. of cargo space with the rear seats folded. The trunk capacity of my 00 LS400 is only 13.9 cu. ft. and it has easily held all the luggage four adults have needed for an entire week - and, yes, we wear clean clothes each day. Any chance that you can take less stuff with you? Or if you really need to carry a significant amount of crap, considering buying your own light-weight utility trailer instead of renting a heavy U-Haul trailer - check out the sub-$300 trailers at Northern Tool and Equipment for example. I bought my 4x8' utility trailer over 30 years ago and have towed it behind most of the vehicles we have owned since then - mainly to carry garden supplies or construction materials - never to carry luggage.

There are commercially available adapters that have slots that accommodate the body edges/seams underneath on either side of the vehicle -- they are shown in my OEM Lexus repair manuals. I've always been able to find a "frame rail" under Lexus vehicles to use as a jack point - even though what looks like a "frame rail" is really a part of the uni-body structure and is not really part of a separate frame.

I think your best course of action is to take your car to a Lexus dealer for evaluation. Components under a car are largely tucked up into and protected by the underbody of the car so there may not be any real damage .... but there could be.

Or just add an aux-in, forget your CD player and go digital. The CD changer in my LS400 still works perfectly but I have used it only once in the nine months since I added a 3.5mm aux-in port and copied the music from my CD's to my phone. I am picky about sound quality but I can't tell any difference between the same music playing from my phone and from an original CD in the changer. There are a number of options from VAIS and other suppliers: http://www.vaistech.com/

If you have only one key, my suggestion is to be at the nearest Lexus dealer when they open tomorrow to get what you need. If you lose that one key, you are up $hit Creek. Yes, you might be able to do it cheaper elsewhere or on the Internet but why take the risk with that one key. I've "been there" and that's what I did.

When you look at the part numbers for each ES300 model year, http://www.toyodiy.com shows "MASTER SWITCH ASSY, POWER WINDOW REGULATOR" (part number 84820-33120) being used on the 1999 through 2001 ES300. DO NOT rely on the part number cross reference feature of toyodiy.com -- it erroneously shows the same master switch being used on the 97-98 ES. Sewell ( http://lexus.sewellparts.com ) also shows part number 84820-33120 only for model years 1999 through 2001. So ... it looks like the "safe" choice is a switch from a 99-01 ES. But who knows - maybe the 97-98 switch (part number 84820-33080) would work too even if the part number isn't the same. There are cases where Toyota has redesigned the guts of a component and given it a new part number. As a general rule, "Backward compatibility" of redesigned components is more common than "forward compatibility". I would shoot for a 99-01 model year switch unless someone who has experience speaks up.

Look for a plastic cover to the right of the gas pedal held in place by two fasteners of some sort. It may not be easy to see and maybe covered or partially coverage by carpet. Supposedly the filters slide out. There may be photos in a prior thread on this forum but I could not find them. The diagram at the following link shows the filters (part number 88880-33020): http://lexus.sewellparts.com/oem-catalog/8714870391-Electrical-ES300-1998.html The price from Sewell is $35.53 if you register with your forum member name. If you have the maintenance schedule, check to see if the filters are a normally replaceable item and at what intervals. You might be able to clean them with compressed air.

Well I hope the PS pump is still above the alternator since the repair shop I use told me a couple of years that the PS pump on my 2000 LS400 was just starting to leak fluid on to the alternator. I then had the PS pump replaced. At least it took over 11 years for it to start leaking. I went though countless PS pumps on my 90 LS400 over the 13+ years I had it.