sahtt

8500 is a steal. I'd pay close to 10.

Well another $120 down the drain. I had a mobile mechanic that specializes in this come work on the car from 9-12am this morning. As usual, I knew about as much as he did, if not more. I should have just bought a multi-meter and an all-data membership and at seafood instead of wasting the 120. It wasn't totally the guys fault, because the car kept starting, and made it basically impossible to diagnose. We got the car warm and let it sit for 15 mins, then it wouldn't start. We checked for spark on cylinder #1 and he says he saw some then didn't, I didn't see any at all. However, this is in broad daylight and I didn't have my face 6 inches away so I'm not sure how visible it is. Never the less, when we put the plug back in it started right up. My theory is while we were doing it the car cooled down enough to make whatever issue doesn't let it start warm go away. Still doesn't explain why 2 nights ago it wouldn't start when it was 65 degrees outside. We double checked a few things including the fuel pump relay and a few connections. All checked out, but during this time the car was able to start so why wouldn't it anyways. Most of the time we were just trying to get the car not to start so we could daignose better. Once it does start, turning it off and then turning it right back on is instant, no excess cranking, just like a brand new car. He double checked the crank sensor wiring and that stuff, all checked out. It's a crude balance between getting a decent price for the car, not ripping anyone off, and not throwing more money into it [aka down the drain]. I'm double majoring in Economics and Chinese, NOT automotive I DON'T have anymore time for this!!

Depending on your area and the actual condition of the car [brakes/tires/AC/etc.], the clean title price would be around 17-19 thousand. With the salvage title, I would not waste my time with anything over 15k, and it would have to have religious maint. records to even look at it for 15k. If I was personally selling that car, I'd hope for 15k, and be satisified with 13k.

I found AustinGT's posts, I didnt' realize there were 2 pages. AustinGT, are you in Austin by chance? I go to UT. I wish I could pay someone to come check all the relays, I basically figured out the entire TB job by myself, but when people start talking about relays etc. I can't physically picture it and its function and can't put the pieces together. I seriously do not want to shell out $100 for a service manual for a car I'm immediately selling. I have not checked the Harmonic balancer, but I'm assuming the car would not run perfectly after being started if this had failure? It has never stalled out, never even hesitated. Thanks again for the help, a few encouraging words go a long way when you are at the breaking point.

I had the VIN ran when I first got the car, didn't notice anything about a starter recall, nor was I aware that one existed for this particular application. The starter is not the issue based on the symptoms, as a busted starter just clicks and dies, but considering how much I have cranked the car I'd feel better knowing I had a new one. As far as I know it's the original starter. The positive terminal was old and warped to the point it wouldn't tighten. I ordered a new one from Sea Well Lexus but you have to rewire it to the new terminal, so I bought an Autozone one and rigged it up. I just have to tighten it every once in a while. Obviously I already checked that sort of stuff. The fuel pump fuses were ok when the car was last checked on two weeks ago. I don't know off hand where they are. Thanks for you guys' help so far.

Well I could but I dropped a screw replacing the dist. rotor so I have to wait a week on it from Honda. Not sure what you mean by half cars, but I'm an economics major and am very good with $$ most of the time. It's not easy to own 2 cars, a bike, and be a junior in an expensive college with no debt. By buying a 'whole' car I guess you mean a new one or near new one? I can't afford a decent new car nor do I want to lose 2-3 thousand in depreciation. I wouldn't have two cars if I could just sell the damn Lexus. Every automobile BUT this lexus I have actually made a profit on, including tires, taxes, maint. items, etc. by buying it cheap, using it for a year, and doing all work myself. This includes old sports cars, supposedly much less reliable than this lexus. I'm hopeful someone will give me some clues, any help is appreciated. AustinGT is not present in that thread. I'll search later when I get some free time.

Ever since I bought this car 6-9 months ago, it has had a slight starting problem that has progressively got worse. During this entire time, I have put less than 1,200 miles on it because of it. This includes two round trips from houston/austin, which is 1/2 of the miles alone. It started as only a warm start issue. It's been in 3 different shops over 5 times, all lexus specialists, and recieved many different treatments, and lots of money and TONS of my own time down the drain. All seem to work temporarily, but within a couple days its back to its old self. I've studied these issues intensely and still haven't figured it out. It has completely ruined my experience with this car. I'm a financially independent undergrad student and thank God my motorcycle has kept trucking with 30k miles now. It is not fun driving an hour and a half to work in full leathers in 100+ degree heat in Houston, much rather be in my Lexus but I can't afford to have it towed so it mainly sits. I couldn't be morally sound and dump this car on someone else knowing it may leave them stranded, nor can I sell it at 1/2 what it is worth by being totally honest about it. Condition: Wouldn't start warm, sometimes up to 2-3 hours. It just cranks and cranks but won't start. Randomly wouldn't start, even when cold, usually after sitting a couple days. Runs like butter once it starts, and otherwise has 0 issues besides normal wear/tear. What I've done, some directly for this, some just hoping to catch something a little off, some just for maint. since the car isn't moving anyways-> Full timing belt job, water pump, cam seals, crank seal, idler pullies, the works Fuel/air filter Replaced fuel pump twice. That's right, an aftermarket brand, supposedly still the problem, so I put an OEM in there. Redid some wiring around the crank position sensor as well as 'reorganize' the rest of any exposed wiring [done by shop]. New battery, new terminals though one doesn't fit too great. No telling what else, getting late here. Had the entire electrical system checked piece by piece and everything was "perfect" except the fuel pump wouldn't pull any amps. Replaced with aftermarket. Ran a whole two times then back to the shop. Wouldn't pull amps again, replaced with OEM. Drove it back to college, won't start now. I did all the above myself with minimal tools [no power], no garage, no training, just out of desperation and determination. I have spent an easy 150 man hours on this car and a weeks worth of nights working DEEP into the night on this car with almost 0 return. Several days covered in gas. Hours bent over getting in my apartment complex getting an unwanted sun tan. I just bought an acura integra, 1 owner, checked out by a reputable shop, and it started running on 3 cylinders the day after I bought it. I can only handle so much. The acura I can deal with, but I need to get this Lexus fixed and sold before I set it on fire or blow up a blood vessel in my brain. My problem is I don't know who to trust in order to take care of this issue. It's hard to show them and I bet they'll just try to find something* wrong to fix and charge me. I have a sick feeling in my stomach it is on the brink of unfixable and undiagnosible. One of the shop's owner personally worked on my car and was sure it was the fuel pump, which obviously isn't the case. I have much more confidence in him then the often slightly moronic techs at the dealership. My only hope there is that they've experienced a problem like this before. I completely realize it's just a machine and spark/air/fuel, but it isn't that simple when you actually start tearing things apart. Anything I can do myself? Tow it to the dealer [i've already had nearly 200 in tow charges, an unbelieveable waste of money to someone paying for his own school and working for 10.00 an hour 65 hours/week during the summer] and see what's the most expensive thing they can find somewhat broken to fix? Crash it into a pole [jk I have liability nor do I suggest insurance fraud]? Sell as is for a massive loss and be miserable for 2-3 years? I'm only asking 5400 for the car [theoretically fixed 100%] and would take 5k. It has 134k miles, great body, interior, all maint/fluids done, high end mich's in good shape, and thorough maint. records for the last 7 years. Argh!

Have the trunk gutted but searching doesn't give me enough confidence it its exact location to start cutting anything. Is it by the antenna or the unit bolted against the back of the seats? I have the instructions for cutting which wire and so on but need a little help pinpointing where to do so, TIA.

If you want to put any R134 in your system, the R12 must be vacuumed from it. The two will not work well together. Technically you could vent it into the atmosphere, but it's illegal. FYI, doing this will probably slowly destroy your ac system.

Come on guys I went to the effort of putting pics, someone help me out here!

Can't find a post regarding it specifically enough, probably because I am an idiot. Which one is where I start thrashing to bypass the fuel pump ECU?? which is literally behind the seat or which is bolted to the driver's side rear quarter panel. Much in that pic is to mov e the antenna. If anyone wants to point out exactly which connect and which side I'm going to wrecklessly cut, please do. Thanks in advance, Steve

Did so, that's how he diagnosed the fuel pump. He couldn't get any signs from the return line to suggest the fuel pressure regulator. It's difficult to do because it seems to only have its worst problems when I'M driving it. He checked the fuel pressure after the pump and got almost 0 until the pump had plenty of time to cool off, as in over an hour.

Had the best shop I know of in Houston, C&C Northside Automotive try to diagnose my car and Kurt said it was DEFINETELY fuel and probably the fuel pump. I changed the pump, no difference. It is either the fuel pressure regulator, which I'm having a VERY difficult time finding discounted, or one of the sensors. Anyone have a recource I would use to check which sensors it is and what Ohm reading each should be in? Anyone know of a better place to get a fuel pressure regulator for a 91 LS400 for less than 166.xx$?

I was pleasently surprised in how easy it is to change the pump. Easy DIY job as long as you avoid blowing the car up due to gas fumes. I found an OEM quality pump for 100.00 and a TRE pump exactly like OEM for 60 shipped. I can get the pump cheaper than the regulator.

The suspension bushings wear like any other car. It is an unavoidable part of the modern suspension, unless you drive a ferrari F50 which has a bushingless suspension that feels like a rock. The instrument cluster lighting is a major issue on the older models. I have a 91 and the panels still work fine, but the needles are only lit about 2/3 the proper amount. If you know who to look for it can be fixed for 300-500$. Realize yours is most likely improved, so it should last another 9 years worst case scenario. Crank and cam seals only leak when they aren't changed when they are supposed to. They can only be changed with the timing belt off. People tend to prolong this service and the belt may last forever, but the seals are not special and WILL leak. Mine probably started leaking slightly around 125k and significantly at 130k. The rubber material also degrades over time, 15 years of it in my case. I'm 99.99% sure they are interference engines. That is how they raised the power from the previous models on the otherwise same engine. I do believe this was the time they removed the distributor system, long overdue may I add. My 91 300zx turbo was distributorless. The engine is perhaps the most reliable and durable engine ever produced. This is no small statement. I am not biased towards the ls400 drivetrain, as I have owned many, many different cars. The ls400 transmission is also quite possibly the most robust automatic every produced [in a mass produced car of course]. It is not going to be more problem free than a civic or accord though [i've owned both]. It will be much more problem free compared to a benz or bmw [owned both]. As per earlier posts, I think you missed my point. I whole-heartedly agree that in most* cases, you can run the car to 120k miles, probably even more, without the TB breaking. Mine was 15 years old with 131k miles, I can attest to the possibility! However, like all things in life it is a cost-benefit relationship. The cost for doing the service earlier by a year or two max is far, far less of the potential cost of the belt breaking. If you put 150k on the car, you still have do the timing belt sometime. Might as well do it when you are supposed to. Now if you have a 97- engine, odds are the belt breaking won't do anything. In that case, if you don't mind the inconvenience and tow charge, put 200k on the belt if you want.

13k is a very good deal here in tx. A 2000 ls400 is my fav year, yours is pretty much the same. 290/300 really makes that car move. The starter is a real issue. It's expensive and random. Expect it and it won't be a big deal. Doesn't really matter what starter honestly, the part that wears isn't the internals of the starter but the contact zones that can be replaced with 10 dollars of material if you know what you are doing. I just replaced the TB/WP etc. on my 91 ls400 with 131k miles. I had just bought the car and the service had never been done. The TB/WP were fine but the cam and crank seals leaked. Even so, realize the risk you take by not changing the belt, the 98+ engine is an interference design and the internals crash into each other if the belt slips or breaks at a cost of 5-8 grand EASY. Go ask lexus if they will pay for a new engine if you don't change it at 90k. The one word response will speak volumes about their true belief towards the matter. Also, no one, no lexus tech, no religious leader, can tell the condition of a belt by looking at it. You can tell if it IS worn, but you can't tell if it ISN'T. Before you condone lexus for the interference design [break belts=problems], don't. The interference design allows more compression and more power. The older 250hp pre 98 engines were NOT interference therefore could break without too much trouble, but at the cost of 40hp. Do not assume there is a flaw in this engine design, it is SUPERIOR to a non-interference design and you'll see that almost ALL sportscars with potent engines are interference design. It is common for people to criticize this ignorantly, when in fact they should be thanking the engineers. jc is right about the navigation, lexus was dumb there, I don't care so it doesn't bother me. Seats are a personal matter, I think they are fine for a luxury car you don't drive too robustly.

My post regarding my warm start problem is a few threads below. Low and behold, C&C Northside Automotive down in Houston went well out of their way to try to help my problem; tested everything I told them too, and found it was the fuel pump. They kept the car an extra day just to try to recreate the problem. After testing the regulator and a bunch of other stuff, they are very confident it is the fuel pump. He said failures aren't as rare as people think, as all it takes is run the car often with less than a 1/4 tank and it will overheat and start to degrade. I ran the car for almost a month with 1/4-1/8 tank because I primarily use motorcycles to get around and gas is killer. I'm going to pick the car back up from him and decide what to do with it. Kurt, who I believe runs the place, also gave me a very fair price on the labor since I'm a college student. The main point of this post is to warn others-our fuel pumps are not invincible. Keep 1/3 a tank of gas in your car if all you do is short trips as it is used to cool the fuel pump. The money I already paid for less competent shops to look at the car could pay for the fuel pump, unfortuantely it doesn't work that way.

My car had the exact same problem 5 years ago when the P.O. owned it. Shop charged 104.xx labor and 0 for parts. They said the key cylinder switch was knocked off due to a slim jim probably. I have the door apart, and don't know what to do. Thanks.

I would appreciate it. I want to narrow it down as much as possible and am far from afraid of working on the car. I'm going to try to locate which tools I need besides a fuel pressure tester if anything as well as the procedures for testing it correctly. I believe you just put it where a fuel line is, but don't know where this is on this particular car, yet anyhow. On my 300zx turbo it was easy because the fuel filter and some other fuel lines were easily accessible in the engine bay. I'm not taking that damn fuel filter off the ls400 for less than a grand unless the tank is empty. Thanks guys, Steve

No, I'll search and try to locate it. Otherwise, some general details regarding its location would be appreciated.

After owning my 91 ls with 132k for a month or so, it started taking a long time to turn over when the motor was still warm. Ran perfect once it started. It would just crank and crank like bad battery terminals etc. Replaced those and then some. Did the 90k in totality a couple weeks after this started, hoping to alleviate the problem indirectly, didn't happen. I exhausted all my recources trying to figure it out, and eventually took it to Bearden Automotive for a diagnosis, a lexus shop in Austin, TX when the car totally failed to start when it was still hot. They said some wiring was done incorrectly, and 166.00 later, the problem was/is EXACTLY the same. Thanks a lot Bearden... The battery, alt., etc. have all been tested. Cold start injector replaced 2k miles ago. I don't think it is a fuel issue as the car runs perfect after being started. The plugs/dist/rotors are all in good condition. Even if they weren't.. it wouldn't run perfect. As it gets hottor in the TX summer, the problem is worsening. I don't think it is the starter, but I know all this unnecessary cranking will soon destory it. So far, it has always started when the motor has been cold [not ran in last 3-4 hours], but when it is very hot outside it might crank for 3-4 seconds [feels like a long time] before finally turning over. Yesterday was the final straw, I was embarrased at a local shop after criticizing a tech's poor diagnosis on my brother's 4runner [ripping him off] when he came over and I had to tell him I didn't even know what MY problem was. After giving a few suggestions, it was very apparent he didn't either. A knowledgable owner told me it may be related to my crank position sensor. As far as I can tell, it is routed correctly, and Bearden checked that. Can anyone else help me or throw out some fresh ideas? Does the positive cable ever erode or something? It has stumped a lexus technician and the best, arguably, lexus shop in the Austin area. I'm making an emergency trip to Austin tonight from Houston where I am currently living to pick up my motorcycle so I will have something reliable to take to some interviews with my new boss[es] tomorrow. I've spent 50-75 hours of book labor on this car [don't want to fathom what actual hours would be, 120+?], digging all the way to the bare motor myself, and I refuse to let this ruin my virgin lexus experience. Best, Steve

I know a lot of you guys have had your starters replaced. If these problems/symptoms relate or differ from yours, please speak up. Situation: The car usually starts up within 1.5-2 seconds of cranking. It turns over and runs like a watch. Just had the timing belt, WP, all seals, etc. replaced [by yours truly]. One out of 10 starts, so far only whenever the car is not completely cold or has been driven in the last 2 or 3 hours, will either crank for 8-10 seconds [slowly increasing in speed towards actually starting] and then start, or just keep cranking until I stop trying. Today it didn't start after cranking it for 10 seconds 3 times. Right before I called the two truck I tried one last time for sh**ts and giggles and it started immediately. The car is a 91 LS with 133k, battery cables are ok, cold fuel injector replaced a couple years back, no other issues. Before I rip open my only car, could this be a fuel/fuel pressure regulator issue? I cannot find information on it nor where it is even located. I am mechanically inclined, but only have basic tools, such as the ones need for the TB/WP job, no torch or anything powered. I guess I'd have to go by the factory service manual, there goes another 100 bucks. If I were to replace the starter/starter contacts and still have this issue, I would probably get very, very, very angry. Thanks for any help and or suggestions, this is a major decision for me.

I was able to finally get it off, although the pulley was not slipping; it wasn't secure enough to let the torque do its magic.

WW is marketed towards racers and or people with performance oriented cars, and for several reasons. Many people will not find WW useful because it does not have antifreeze properties like coolant. If you don't live where it is going to freeze [muchless only a month or two a year], this is not an issue. If you have a camper or don't want to change your coolant [in the generic sense] twice a year, it is not going to work too good for your application. Shouldn't be a surprise. I run straight distilled water in all my vehicles, and add about 1 quart of coolant for the winter months, because that is what is most efficient. The road racers I know usually do run WW, and if there was anything else they'd rather use, they would, money is no object to most of them most of the time.

I know a lot of you guys have had your starters replaced. If these problems/symptoms relate or differ from yours, please speak up. Situation: The car usually starts up within 1.5-2 seconds of cranking. It turns over and runs like a watch. Just had the timing belt, WP, all seals, etc. replaced [by yours truly ]. One out of 10 starts, so far only whenever the car is not completely cold or has been driven in the last 2 or 3 hours, will either crank for 8-10 seconds [slowly increasing in speed towards actually starting] and then start, or just keep cranking until I stop trying. Today it didn't start after cranking it for 10 seconds 3 times. Right before I called the two truck I tried one last time for sh**ts and giggles and it started immediately. The car is a 91 LS with 133k, battery cables are ok, cold fuel injector replaced a couple years back, no other issues. Before I rip open my only car, could this be a fuel/fuel pressure regulator issue? I cannot find information on it nor where it is even located. I am mechanically inclined, but only have basic tools, such as the ones need for the TB/WP job, no torch or anything powered. I guess I'd have to go by the factory service manual, there goes another 100 bucks. If I were to replace the starter/starter contacts and still have this issue, I would probably get very, very, very angry Thanks for any help and or suggestions, this is a major decision for me