RDM

What is the point of doing a "plus five" 20 inch wheel setup on a 90-92 gen 1 LS400 designed for 15 inch wheels? Are you trying to set some sort of record? It was not many years ago that a "plus three" 18 inch setup on a 90-92 LS400 was considered to be completely extreme and "over the top." But a "plus five"? Suggestions? Get reasonable size wheels and tires. But, it looks so cool. :P Seriously, 20" wheels on an LS400 look like pure !Removed!, especially when done the typical way of just bolting them on without any changes as it raises to car to near 4x4 status. Not to mention the rolling diameter effectively changes the gearing and the added weight makes the car a !Removed! to drive. A properly lowered car on correct size wheels (18" is fine) looks light years better, rides better, and can still accurately display the speed it's really going. I'll never understand the desire to make a car look like a Tonka toy.

Your mechanic could have also damaged the spiral cable. It's not designed to be turned past a certain point, it's possible in fiddling with the steering system he disconnected the steering shaft, that would allow the wheel turn freely past it's maximum point and break the cable. I've seen lesser skilled people do that before, it's always a good idea to lock the wheel before removing the shaft from the steering rack. Once you reset the light you'll know for certain. As mentioned, it could have been as simple as the airbag being unplugged with the key on, he may have tried to remove the wheel to center it, you never know what all went on. Again, just speculation, you won't know until you pull up an actual code.

Ditto. Easiest, cheapest most reliable fix. Good luck finding a 3UZFE FOR $2k! Made one phone call, found one in Wisconsin for $2200 shipped. Sure there are plenty going for double that, you do actually have to research it a little, they don't fall out of the sky at that price. Even at $3500 it's cheaper than a top end rebuild.

Exactly. Most all vehicles that run a timing belt drive the water pump off said belt, all Toyota vehicles do, Kia, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Chrysler, and many others. Water pumps rarely seize up if it's an OEM part, the worst thing that happens is they begin to leak a little. But with enough miles on it or if it's a cheap Taiwan made part it's possible the bearing can overheat, you have to realize the load on one versus a wheel bearing. A water pump spins faster and has way less airflow across it, plus it's constantly cycling corrosive fluids across the back of it. The degradation from that breaks down the bearing. On Chrysler engines they do indeed design the timing belt to 'strip' if the pump seizes, but since most all their V6s are interference engines that $20 timing belt will yield an entire rebuild of both cylinder heads.

It's very similar, I've removed my own '92 model and then a '97 for a customer, I don't recall any major differences.

The fusebox unbolts and flips downward, the fog relay is on the back side. You can rewire it easily once it's out to any fused source.

What is a "break peddle"?

The serpentine belt has nothing to do with the water pump. Nothing. The serpentine belt drives the alternator, PS pump, A/C, and the clutch fan. The water pump is driven directly by the timing belt. Why would creating a 'weaker' serpentine belt do anything? That's like saying they should create a weaker tire so when the shock blows out, the tire gives way. Two completely unrelated things. As for the water pump seizing, it's very common on lower quality pieces, the bearing overheats and locks up, even with OEM parts it can happen but if it was some Chinese made part there's no telling how long it would last. My water pump seized at 174k miles ( I didn't know the car's history so it could have been replaced previously), though it was obvious to me when it did and I shut the car off before the timing belt could heat up and break. When it breaks, there's contact between the pistons and valves on an interference engine. I'd say the teardown and possible rebuilding/replacing the heads is easily a $4k job with the timing belt/water pump included. My choice would be to locate a lower mileage engine, do the service while it's out (it's simple when it's on a stand), then swap it in. You can usually find a complete engine/harness for no more than $2k from a respectable salvage yard, the swap is a day's work with the appropriate knowledge.

The upper ball joint is not available, period. No one makes a replacement unit, and removing a good one from another damaged or bent arm would more than likely damage the ball joint. Hence the need to replace the entire arm. The old arms you remove are therefore useless unless you have a buyer who has bent or broken theirs and just needs a cheap fix.

You have not dignified a response to anything else I asked, figured you wouldn't. Hiding behind that screen must make you feel invincible. This comment above though required a reply. How is anyone going to be injured or killed in a 1992 LS400 that is not factory fitted with any other airbag besides the driver side? Are you now to say that even when a car isn't fitted with a passenger side airbag, the passenger is somehow protected by the driver side bag? Since it's my car and I'm the only one who drives it, why would I worry about a megamillion dollar personal umbrella insurance policy if occupants of my car aren't sitting in my seat with me? The only person in danger of anything is the driver, and like commented already I'm not going to steer the car away from anything once a bag has blown up in my face and knocked the wind out of me. If you honestly think an airbag is a gentle, soft tool that still gives the driver full control and visibility after going off, you really are talking out of your !Removed!. It's a chemical explosion that fills the car with debris for a few seconds at minimum, but in your World I guess your reaction time is far faster than anyone else on Earth and you could continue driving like nothing ever happened. You must be an amazing driver to be able to do that. Just how many airbag inflations have you been through? A dozen? More? Your points are just sad attempts to cover your ignorance on this topic. Go out, drive your car head on into a brick wall, then come back with your 'expertise'. Until then you're only grasping at ideas you know nothing about.

Perhaps its evolution at work... +1 Can you REALLY think that by removing air bags you're IMPROVING safety?? I find it really sad I am even bothering with a reply, but here goes. To begin with, all three of you are assuming that airbags only save lives. So what happened before airbags were implemented, did everyone in an accident die? No. Not that I know of anyway, if you have 'proof' of this, I'd love to see it. Secondly, why do auto manufacturers have switchable airbags for the passenger side of the car in some vehicles? For kids and smaller riders. So you're saying that by turning the airbag off, they're immediately doomed to die as well? What about suicidal people, should they not ride in the passenger seat, as they plan on dying by turning the airbag off? Have airbags always been so life saving, and if so can you explain the number of fatalities that still have occurred in cars equipped with airbags? Some people still drive cars old enough to not have airbags, I guess they're all destined to die as well? So your blanket statement should be "anyone in an accident with an airbag will live, while those without one will die." If you're going to me pompous about it, by all means do it with dignity. Moving on. I don't know what experience any of you three have with cars. I can only assume based on your answers that you're at best shadetree mechanics but more likely are just fact checkers who surf the web and read a lot of nonsense. Good for you. I am a 22 yr veteran of working solely on automobiles, ASE certified and trained. I also ran a business for over half a decade buying salvage cars and either rebuilding and reselling them or parting them out. I worked the auction yards weekly and have seen and inspected thousands of wrecked cars during that time, buying over a hundred of them for my own work. I have seen every kind of accident imaginable firsthand, not read about them from behind a computer screen. I can safely say I know a lot more about airbag and SRS systems that any of you three. In my own experiences in buying cars I also have been able to buy from friends, associates, other people closer to me who have had accidents and sold me their car for parts or such, and have seen their injuries and issues firsthand as well. Several of these people have sustained injuries from airbags, two even have permanent damage from the bag, so again it's not with a 'guess' that I say any of this about airbags. What's more, this thread was about a low speed impact from the very beginning, no one can argue that a car showing no visible signs of damage should be totaled due to $2500 airbags. If you go back and read the original post, you'll see that. Furthermore, I have only expressed my opinion, something you three still fail to realize, based on my experiences. If your wealth of knowledge about traffic accidents and restraint systems is far better than mine, by all means share it. Stating your opinion based on what you read and see in the news is a weak effort. More importantly though, even after expressing just my opinion, and not resorting to any factual backup or trying to push that opinion on anyone, all three of you jokingly suggest that because of my opinion, I should die. So, where is the line here? It's obvious you're only expressing an opinion too, but should your opinion be malicious and disrespectful to another person? Just because you don't agree with them? Where does it end that because of you what you assume, you should force your opinion on someone and openly call them out as someone who deserves to die? How can THAT be right?

How did I know someone (or two) would chime in with their ego driven, better than thou attitude? Not surprised at all. But suggesting I should actually die based on that opinion, you guys have hit a new low. Hinting that anyone should hopefully die and that their death is a good thing, one to learn from, is really sad. Neither of you know me at all. I merely expressed my opinion about airbags, which is my right, but I never expressed a complete lack of respect for another person, especially one I don't know. You both are sick, sad individuals. But enough about that, on to the actual topic. I never said anywhere that a 45MPH impact would serve airbags to be useless. Nowhere in this thread has high speed impacts even been discussed. You both pulled that out of your !Removed!. Nice guess work. Low speed, light impacts can trigger airbags, doing extensive damage to the dashboard and costing a ton of money to replace those parts. I've bought cars with less than $600 in damage that were totaled due to the added cost of the airbags, so again in my opinion that's a waste. At high speeds, anything is possible but again as this thread has shown, no one was talking about that. In fact, as quoted : A few weeks ago our 1998 suffered an unfortunate frontal collision with the car ahead (heavy traffic, less than 10 mph, totally my fault as driver) When does 10MPH become 45MPH in your minds? I'm going to leave this post up for a few days so that other forum members can view your comments, but then I will delete it and other posts I've made as it's clear an opinion of any kind is not allowed here on this site. Apologies to those who are offended by someone else's ideas.

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Dashboard removal is not that hard at all, I haven't done a '98-'00 but I've had my '92 out four times, as well as a couple SC400s and numerous other Toyota products. The service manual is your best bet if you're unsure where to begin, but it's basically a process of removing screws/bolts as you find them, I've always worked on cars so the majority of the work I do I figure as I go without needing assistance. Everything is typically laid out straightforward though in a Japanese built car anyway. I would add though if it was my car, I would put it back stock without the airbags at all. In the numerous salvage cars I've bought in the past and seeing friends and other people have collisions, the airbag always does more harm than good. Bruises, powder burns, not to mention the need to replace several thousand dollars worth of parts. If you don't plan on selling it there's no need to put the time and money into it unless *you* feel safer with them installed. In my own opinion I do not feel safe with airbags and remove them from every car I've owned since their introduction. Again though this is strictly my opinion based on my experiences. I'm sure someone will jump down my throat since this board is good for doing that, but it is an opinion only. There is no factual data behind that, just speaking my mind. Salvage yards have free reign to choose prices, but a lot of them don't get the call for interior as much so they don't go for broke on what they charge. You may find prices anywhere from $100-500 for the dashboard, it's a process of tracking down leads and more importantly, going to the yard in person. No one is going to be willing to pull a dash for some joker over the phone, but if you show up in person, cash in hand, the motivation is there. I buy from salvage yards weekly in my line of work and knowing what you're buying and what it's worth to them is the key, no one wants to have their time wasted over trivial parts. Another thing to consider is buying through numerous yards, the one that will sell you everything you need will charge more as they know you need all of it, so it's all or nothing.

There's a constant lead behind the radio. Tag it.

I've replaced mine twice and didn't remove the pulley either time until it was out of the car. Weird that you guys say it's required, mine came out easily with it still fitted.

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www.car-part.com is a great source to begin with for salvage yards. After that you can usually find specialty yards too, like Sports and Imports here in GA that only salvage Lexus and Benz cars. Sure they're pricier, but they're guaranteed to have most any Lexus part you can think of. They also have a large warehouse so the majority of stock is stored inside, away from the elements.

Any hose under your hood will dry out, the heat put out under the hood cooks everything. Fuel hoses are high pressure and therefore hold up better, but coolant lines are your next thing to look at. The cooling system on the 1UZ is actually stupid, there's a port on the back side of the engine on either side that runs coolant through the EGR valve, idle air valve, and throttle body, and each joint from hose to line is suspect. When you replace your starter you'll break a few of them. I deleted the throttle body cooling and the EGR system completely on mine, allowing for just a single hose from each side. The less joints, the less likely a leak.

If not OEM, at least go with a Mahle filter. They're better than the Purolator, Fram, and other OTC stuff.

I've found some of the aftermarket timing belts don't have alignment marks on them, not cool. The OE belt does and makes the belt install a snap. As for water pumps, most any pump you buy is a new part, the majority of them are made in one place and sold out to dozens of suppliers. Only issue I've ever had was a pump that wasn't cut the same as OE, so on a SC400 I did there's a small piece of plastic that fits behind it to seal up the timing cover. The piece wouldn't fit and had to be trimmed.

It's the end link, sway bars rarely ever just break on anything, they're a single piece of steel.