1990LS400

I think the eBay sat radio kits come with decent instructions. Do you have any friends (you trust!) who like to tear car interiors apart and have a set of interior trim removal tools? I think it is mainly a matter of pulling the head unit, plugging the sat radio unit into the back of it and running the sat radio antenna to mount somewhere acceptable. The antenna is usually supposed to be mounted on the exterior (e.g. the trunk lid) but some mount the antennas in the interior -- commonly on the rear package shelf and some hide them in high mounted rear stop light housings. A common route to run wires from the front to the rear of a car is under the door sill thresholds - they usually pop off easily. I'm guessing that a "professional" could install a sat radio kit in about one hour. I'm obsessive and might spend several hours doing it to get everything perfect. Probably a car audio shop could do it but they might also want to sell you the kit and make some profit. Some of the audio shop "professionals" I've seen do not have a very high skill level so be careful if you go that route.

Plug and play sat radio kits are available on eBay for most if not all "recent" (2001-up) Lexus vehicles. If I remember correctly, they run around $250. They are easy to install if you know how and don't mind doing the needed and fairly substantial interior disassembly.

http://lexus.sewellparts.com sells the rear vanity mirror assembly for $227.23 if you register with an auto forum member name. You can also view the part numbers at http://www.toyodiy.com I suppose you could first take the mirror assembly off and see if you can rig a fix without buying a new one. I'm not familiar with this particular part but I'm guessing that the light lens can be pryed off to expose the screws holding the assembly to the roof -- that's the way overhead light assemblies are usually removed in vehicles made by Toyota.

A loose or defective gas cap is one of many issues that can cause a Check VSC warning. It's as if the Check VSC warning comes on just to get our attention when darned near anything goes wrong. I've had a Check VSC message on my 00 LS when the PPS/TPS started to fail, when a battery has begun to fail and even when battery posts needed cleaning. If the battery condition is good, you might as well take it to somebody who can see if there are any stored problem codes. Guessing can get expensive.

You are just full of questions today! I don't remember the cassette aux-in hack being documented on this forum but I know it has on ClubLexus. The best solution I've seen is by ebay seller "Factoryradios" in California. That may not be the exact seller name but I think I supplied it on this forum in the past and uploaded a photo of his work I stole from eBay. The guy also sells used Lexus and other radios on eBay. He will add the aux-in port either to the front of the radio face or as a cable coming out the back of the radio so that the aux-in port can be installed where you want. His method does not involve hacking into either the cassette or CD. The only reviews I have seen have been positive. I don't remember the price but it was substantially less that $100 not including shipping.

Assuming that BFG has many different tire models, your question seems awfully general. The current most popular all season tire for the LS400/430 on Lexus forums seems to be the Michelin Primacy MXV4. That's what I have on my 00 LS since and I recently bought a set for our Camry. I've been driving Lexus LS cars for 21+ years and wouldn't dream of driving one in Midwest winters without snow tires. My current winter tires for my LS are Bridgestone Blizzack WS70 mounted on a set of aftermarket wheels.

Update your Lexus GPS and see if it works better. $200 is a "nit". Keep in mind that your 01 Lexus GPS is 10+ year old technology. Be glad that you don't have the crude OEM GPS that was in the 2000 GS and LS. A current model bottom of the line Garmin Nuvi will likely out-perform just about any current OEM automotive GPS - Lexus or otherwise ... that's just the way it is.

No. There have been many previous threads about this. The gen 1 LS400 headlight beam is controlled by the lens which is why light output is so poor. The U.S. DOT began allowing a Euro-style headlight beam pattern for the 1994 model year but the 1995 model year was the first year a Euro-style beam pattern with a focused pattern and sharp cutoff was used on the LS400. Blue coated bulbs will only give less light. The Eagle Eyes headlights work find on a 90-92 LS400 even if they are designed for a 93-94 LS4r00 - all you have to do is splice in connectors for H4 bulbs.

A pretty cheap mod would be to install aftermarket headlights so you can see where you are going on those twisty Colorado mountain roads. The OEM ones on especially the 90-92 LS400 are crap and the ones on the 93-94 were not much better. The poor headlights on my 90 LS was the main reason I sold it in 2003. Get on ebay motors and look for the ones in the attached image. You would have to put new plugs on your wiring harness to attach to the H4 bulbs in the Eagle Eyes units but that's easy. You can buy the plugs with wire pig tails at an auto parts store and you could splice them in without cutting off the original plugs if you don't want to.

It's normal and more noticable in cool and especially cold weather. I forgot the reason ... maybe to ensure that the transmission parts are well lubricated as soon as possible when the fluid is cold. Did you buy the car recently? It should have been doing this since new.

It's better to see if there are any stored error codes than speculating. Too many issues can activate the CEL. Many people have reported that stores like Autozone will read the codes for you at little or no charge. If you have one of the more recent Garmin portable GPS units with Bluetooth, Garmin has their compatible "EcoRoute HD" ($100 retail) product that plugs into the ODBC port under your dash and turns a Garmin GPS into a code reader as well as providing lots of other engine performance information.

Using the final drive ratio value from http://www.lexus.com/contact/pdf/2004/2004GSspecs.pdf , the 5th gear ratio value for the A650E transmission from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_transmission and the tire circumference or radius of your tires from a website like http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp , and the appropriate formula or a website calculator like the one at http://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_speed_rpm.htm , you should be able to calculate what the engine RPM should be at any vehicle speed. If I filled in all the fields correctly on the RPM/speed calculation form, I get 2,312 RPM at 60 mph but I'm not sure that the 1010 website gives the "loaded" tire radius. The calculated RPM is still likely close. I used to do these calculations when I was a kid to compare the differences between the many transmission and final drive ratios that used to be optional in cars. My childhood favorite car - the 55-57 Mercedes 300 SL "gull wing" and it successor, the 300 SL roadster, could be ordered with four different final drive ratios providing top speeds ranging from 134 mph to 155 mph.

Or try Sylvania Xtravision which are half the price, last longer and some think put out a better light pattern. We've used Xtravision bulbs in our Camry headlights for many years. The light from Xtravisions is definitely whiter than from regular halogen bulbs and they don't have a blue coating that cuts down light output. Here is a dicussion on another forum about Silverstar vs. Xtravision: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?192711-Sylvania-Silverstars-or-Xtra-vision-for-car-lights Regular halogen bulbs are preferable in fog lights since yellowish light cuts through rain, fog and especially blowing snow better.

Ask your Lexus dealer and insurance company for recommendations. Lexus dealers have body work done on lots of cars. Just this year I've had about $6,000 in body work done on my LS in two trips to a body shop owned by the same corporation (Hendrick) that owns both Lexus dealerships in town. Speak with your insurance agent about whether or not turning in a claim will affect your rates. Also, some insurance companies designate some body shops as preferred providers. Using a preferred provider body shop means, like in my cases this year, it was not necessary to get bids.

You could pull the HVAC blower motor and see if the rock falls out. If it does not, reach up and to the left into the main HVAC unit and feel around. If you have access to a borescope, you could try shoving its tube down the vent and taking a lookaround before you start tearing things apart. I've got a 36 inch one like the one pictured at http://www.voscope.com/page11.html

Steve, was not the key blade heater only on LS400's with the optional electrically heated hub caps? Seriously, I drove a 1990 LS400 from new to 183,500 miles for 13 1/2 years and my ignition key blade never got hot.

Surely you haven't stooped to trusting Tom and Ray! (I also heard them this morning and rarely miss their show.) Could your car have the rare ignition key warmer option? :whistles: Speaking of "Car Talk" a reasonable answer to this question is from BustedKnuckles on the Car Talk forum: http://community.cartalk.com/discussion/118613/hot-key-ignition/p1

Measure the bar with a measuring caliper. If you don't have one, you can likely get a cheap one at a hardware store or hobby shop for less than $10. I bought my little brass measuring caliper in the 1970's -- one of the most important and most used tools I've ever bought.

Before you start pulling the instrument cluster and if you have not yet done so, you might try replacing all exterior bulbs (except the headlight bulbs) including the bulbs in the high mounted stop light. The problem you are having can be caused by something as simple as a loose bulb filament or a corroded bulb base. If the rear bulbs have never been replaced, the glass globes of the bulbs are likely blackened beyond belief. I recently replaced all the rear bulbs in our 98 Camry when one failed. We have owned the car since new and I am pretty sure that I had never replaced any of the rear bulbs before. All the rear bulbs looked awful even though, except for the one that had failed completely, they were still putting out light.

Ed, have you verified that your power steering pump is leaking fluid? The reason I ask is that the PS pumps on the 98-00 LS400 are "bullet proof" comparied to the ones on the early LS.

I suspect that the easiest way is to have an remote starting system installed. Then when the engine starts and if the headlight switch is in the Auto position, the headlights should turn on.

I can't see the photos you posted but maybe this diagram or the website it came from will help.

According to your phone app, you filled your tank 6 times in 424 miles and 16 days. Why are you doing that? Try calculating fuel mileage over full tanks of fuel. Fill up and don't buy gas again until your gauge falls below 1/4 tank. There is too much variablility when a tank is topped up every 50 to 75 miles to accurately calcuate fuel mileage. Even then, don't calculate you mileage by individual tank fulls. Calculate your mileage over four or five tank fulls. Contrary to popular wisdom, I suggest occasionally running your tank down until the low fuel light comes on. Some say that can cause problems from debris clogging fuel filters but I've been doing that for decades with never a problem. In some of the European cars, I've often let the main tank go dry and let the engine start missfiring before activating the fuel reserve switch. IMO, doing that gets rid of the crud and water and keeps it from building up and floating on top of the gas in the tank.

You seem to still be talking in generalities rather that specifics. Keep detailed track of your fuel mileage over a number of tank fulls and then report back. Trying to determine what gas mileage you are getting in city driving vs. what you are getting in highway driving is very difficult. If your father consistently gets 26 mpg in highway driving in his 95 4-speed transmission LS400, I'd call it a miracle. The very rare times I've exceeded 26 mph in my 2000 5-speed LS400 have been on long (e.g. 700+ mile football weekend) trips mostly on cruise control where I did viturally no low speed driving other than to pull off the interstate, fill up the tank, and continue on down the interstate at speeds within the speed limit, in low/no wind conditions, in a lightly loaded car carrying only two people and a couple of small suitcases. Even a little low speed stop and go driving or a head wind makes my overall average fuel mileage plummet. Disregard your iPhone app, buy a small booklet and record every fuel purchase, date and and odometer reading for the next 1,000 miles. I've done this for about 700,000 miles of driving and can attest that doing this eliminates guessing.

Per Randy's lame comment, the condition of suspension components has virtually nothing to do with fuel economy - unless your car is bouncing all over the road. I'm a scientist and I'm not seeing much good data here. Fuel economy can be accurately calulated only over a substantial number of miles and tank fulls. And 23 mpg on the highway is right at the EPA revised estimate. Those with 98-up LS cars have the advantage of having an instant mileage readout which can show how horrible fuel mileage can be for these cars. I watch my fuel mileage range between about 5 mpg and 15 mpg when in stop and go traffic but that's normal. I'd be more interested in what your gas mileage is over 1,000 miles. If it is in the 18-19 mpg range, that is normal.