ebridges

Where exactly is the single transmission mount located? I've located both the motor mounts and the differential mounts visually. Can't find either a pic from the manual or the ol' eyeball on the tranny however. Irontoad quoted me tranny mount for $54.33 - and $88.12 each for the motor mounts. Lexus dealer is asking $84.89 just for the single tranny mount. Gotta try Carson Toyota. Local Atlanta Toyota dealers seem to be charging full Lexus prices for Lexus part numbers. In any case, sounds like a very good investment Thanks great info.

That may be just what I need on my 92, cause I cannot seem to get a really good tire balance. How many tranny mounts are there? Do you know the part numbers ? Thanks

LexusFreak, Thanks for your input. I am really happy with the Toyo's. Just fustrated with balancing attempts, on the chrome OEM rims. Might have to break down and go to the dealer. I was trying to take advantage of the "free lifetime balancing" which came with the tires at a local tire dealer. They actually tried 4 times (four different techs) - I watched everything each time. Then went to another tire place supposedly the best in town. They attempt balancing them twice. The second tech there, did manage to get the weights to stay on, but it definitely not a smooth ride, not like my 96 LS400. The place where I bought the tires, even tried stick on weights, but did not use the dynamic balancing. Lexus wants $69, and Toyota wants $39. Another very specialist chain wants "$35 per corner" for on car balancing :cries:

FYI, in my ignorance, I never changed the fuel filter until reading about it on this forum. Never did see it in the manual. However, at 180,000 mi got it changed, but saw no difference on my 96 LS400, purchased new. Anyway, still average about 23 mpg, mostly, but not all, highway miles. I loved the 96LS so much, I bought a 91 LS400 with 72,000 miles to replace my Accord which died at 230,000 due to a bad radiator :( I try to use premium, name brand gasoline, to keep down problems with water and injectors however. Ebridges

Two LS400's, I changed from Michlein's to Toyo TPTs for the weather handling qualities. My wife hates hydro planing ( I think its kind of exciting) Unable to get them (the Toyo's balanced. Been to 3 different shops. The first, tried 4 different times and the weights flew off my chrome wheels. Now I finally got the weights to stay on, but at 80 mph, big vibrations... still. Discussing this with several long time tire balancing friends, they ALL agreed, that the Michleins use far less weights for balancing. There you go Ebridges 96 LS 190,000 bought new and still using Michleins 91 LS 92,000 with new Toyo's bumping down the road with TPTs

"Moms" should have a good solid car. Much better in an accident :-). That's my opinion after having driven Honda's for many many years (p.s. no accidents personally since age 16), but as a 63 yr old, my wife loves our 96 LS and wouldn't be comfortable in anything else. About 9 months ago, I replaced my 225,000 mi Accord which overheated, with a 91 LS. It was time. Fabulous cars. Treat your mom to the best :-). Earl B.

FYI, the dealer changed my PS Pump @ 99,000 on my 96 LS while doing the timing belt. After reading these posts, I too, decided to clean the solonoid. It had already been "chiseled", by the dealer. No one else had ever touched this car. Bought it new. So, the procedure is done by at least one dealer :-).

Could very well be the rear rotors. Have them checked and/or replaced.

Good for you. How did you identify needing the new lower ball joint??? Is it easy to check? Thanks. Earl

tansupplyman, I now a "been there, done that" as well. The weights "did" start coming off. I then tried, yesterday, "counterbalancing beads" which are pretty good with truck tires, but they definitely did NOT work on my 91 LS with OEM chrome wheels. Tomorrow, will get that stuff out and try a real balancing shop, I pay too, who does use FNS Lexus specific hammer on weights. Last resort is to go to the high performance shop which charges only $140 to spin on car any speed I need. Yuk. I seriously considered purchasing the FNS Lexus weights, as you did. How's your current balance job working out??? EB

Continuing saga of the wheel balancing dilemma. OKAY so far. The dealer was willing to try 4 new Toyo TPT tires and had them ready for me this AM. They decided to give the "problem" to their most experience tech, who had been with them for 5 yrs. He thought I would have a 50/50 chance of getting an improvement with the new tires. So, he decided try one more time "his way" and to do away with the sticky weights, to try the hammer on kind. He had to slightly modify them and couldn't guarantee that they would remain on. But, the tires are now balanced. The weights are still on the first 70 miles. The tech's recommendation was to get "Toyota" weights, which apparently of a different shape, but are supposed to work on the Toyota/Lexus chrome wheels. If/when these weights "fly off", guess I'll have to get Toyota type weights at the dealer. Or maybe just get new wheels, or maybe go to a high performance shop. Any suggestions ??? Hopin' they'll stick...

tansupplyman, I have chrome OE wheels on my 91 LS. They did use the stick on weights which I requested. (had Firestone balance them before and in one week, I had a single quarter oz weight remaining... period. 3 wheels had no weights at all. They decided to use the stick on weights and finally got it fairly good.) But alas, those were old Michelein H rated tires which came with the car when I purchased it last Sept. Has anyone found a good shop that can do a decent job? Looking like a speciality shop might be the next step, if the new tires don't fix the original new ones (TPT). The local shop is "suggesting" I may only be happy with new Micheleins... Lot's more money, and they still need a good balance. My 96 LS (wife's actually), has Sears Micheleins MXV4 Vrated, but when they were installed, they REALLY felt like a bronco ride. Finally found a person who could balance them at Sears. In fact, after the initial installation, went immediately to NTB and they eventually got them pretty good, after indexing them, and riding with the manager twice. What a pain. I've learned that there is quite a variety of balancing machines. Guess the Lexus, being the choosy lady she is, just won't be satisfied with anything but "the best".

Update on my new Toyo TPT's. STILL not balanced properly. Really vibrates. The company, Kauffman, has rebalanced them, indexed them, put them on their "best" machines, but still not balanced. Going to change a few tires tomorrow. Not confidence building. BTW, the guy who did the balancing and indexing, (spent over 1 hour on my four tires), recommended Bridgestone's Turanza's, when I asked him for his recommendation.

Lexie, Sorry for the confusion. I replaced the PS Pump - AZ # 5175 which was listed as "with reservoir" but came without. Price was $104.99. It did NOT include the "air control valve" - the plastic part with the two vacuum lines.

Removed and cleaned solenoids on both my 96 and 91 LS - Identical. The dealer had done the 96 during my ps pump change - "discovered leak at 99,000 Timing belt change occasion). It was hard to get off, probably because the dealer had reinstalled it with a BIG hammer. Two days ago, did the 91 and it came of with just a little tap. Never off before. It was quite dirty with 91,000 miles and nearly 14 yrs of use. Replaced the original leaking one with an autozone model. Working okay now. The 96 solenoid was very clean, after 85,000 miles since dealer changed the pump. Good luck, it helps to have/borrow a lift.

Same price $104.99 w/ $40. core charge

It appears that they changed vendors but did not change the description. I definitely asked for the part # 061141-5175 which is the same one as the one at autozone online. Thanks EB

I just went to and then started calling 5 local Autozones. Every store had one ATSCO With Reservoir "in stock". BUT when we looked at it, it did NOT have a Reservoir with it. After calling the other stores, got them to visually check theirs in the box, and NONE had a reservoir. Was planning on replacing mine tomorrow. EB

99 Kaufmann, a chain primarily in the SE and TX, I think. Should be competative however. Toyo offers a 500 mile total money back guarantee and the price above included a $50 rebate BTW, just finished doing the PS pump flush, solenoid filter cleaning and used ATF from Amsoil. Really appreciated your pics and help. I decided to disconnect the PS reservoir return line (rubber tube) at the other end. Saved a couple of fittings. Just hooked the plastic clear tube to the solid metal line, after disconnecting the rubber return line and rotating it upward. Good to go. And, when the dealer changed the PS pump at 99,000, they DID clean the solenoid filter, evidenced by the chisel marks. Hybrid JT - What specifically went wrong with your Toyo TPT's requiring 4 warrenty claims??? I understand they were rated very high by Consumer Reports. EB

I just put on Toyo TPT V rated on my 91 LS yesterday. Although the balancing isn't up to parr yet, the ride is completely different, much better than the H rated Michelins which came on it. FINALLY it steers like my 96 LS :-). Think I'm sold on the Toyo Proxes TPT. Might be the V rating makes some difference. Price was a total of $403.36 including lifetime balancing & rotations, road hazard, stems, etc. Can't wait for some big rain puddles. EB

Mapman, I am sorry for your loss too. Very, very sad thing to happen, for you and your family. Your decision is most thoughtful and compassionate. We'll remember you posts. Thank you. Vaya con Dios. ebridges

None as far as I can tell yet. As I mentioned, the oil looked suprisingly light colored and felt extremely smooth to my layman's senses. Plus the oil analysis was very good. Without that, I definitely wouldn't "trust" my senses. I may be biased from my experience operating jet engines which only use synthetic oil, basically since day one of jets. They operate from 20,000 to 40,000 rpm with extremely hot temps. Oil analysis were a "given". I definitely believe in regular oil changes or at least a good analysis. But must have a really good product. The bypass filter makes a lot of sense too. But for a car, seems a bit expensive for low mileage driving. As 99lsguy mentioned, Lexus recommended 7500 mile dino oil changes, which I did for the first 60,000, at the dealer for our 96 LS. Now have 190,000 on it, with no problems except as noted in previous post. Both 91 and 96 are running GREAT. Note: Even Amsoil recommends oil filter changes every 6 months. There's a reason for that too. Even without use, there's a major corrosion problem. (evidenced by me trying to buy "old" unused aircraft which hadn't been run/flown, but didn't have new oil either. Big time problems.) It seems weird to me that we're sticking to 3000 mile oil change recommendation by manufacturers, which was the same as I had heard with my first cars - several 1930 vintages ones I KNOW some progress has been made, since every 10,000 or less, we needed both new tires AND new spark plugs, etc. Nobody reached 100,000 miles, unless they faithfully changed that oil, probably had the head off, and had a great deal of luck besides. ebridges

You might also check out: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com Also you might get "The Motor Oil Bible" by Mike Kaufman (if you have a lot of time :D ) After reviewing the above info (over a several year period), I am now using Amsoil, currently on about mile 18,000 on this change from dino on my 91 LS, which I bought in Sept 03 and changed then. Also had been using Mobile 1 in wife's 96 LS for past 90,000, which now has about 188,000 mi. (orig owners). Switched to Amsoil but changed it at about 10,000 (six months of use) due to slight oil pan gasket leak. The Lexus "glue" just gave up apparantly. I don't believe it was related to the oil however, just useage. Did an oil analysis on the 91 LS after using the Amsoil for about 12,000 miles. Results came out "Keep on using it", but it did reflect a higher than normal viscosity. Will do another oil analysis at about 24,000 and definitely change it then. It was rather amazing that the oil looked and "felt", better than any oil changes I was accustomed to, - last 40 + yrs ;) Also am using Amsoil in tranny and diffy too. As you can tell, we do put a lot of miles on the cars, and I really got tired of all the oil changes (DIY). No, I am NOT a distributor Maybe a bit gullible. The Amsoil deal is cheaper in the long run for me, compared to Mobile 1, which is cheaper than dino (unless you change both kinds every 3,000). Just my opinion. I am planning on reaching 400,000 on both cars, which will probably outlast me, but maybe not EB

Be sure to check Toyota dealer too, I looked at a couple at a local Napa dealer, but thought the price was too high, nearly $30 - and one light had been "opened". Turned out the Toyota dealer was a couple of bucks less. Still very expensive.

Anybody try a hot glue gun? I used it inside the trunk lid to hold the clips in place, about 3 months ago. Worked fine. Gotta do the wood trim too, now.