new2mud

Thanks! I will look into that.

I did go to the local Toyota/Lexus dealer today for some fluid upon someones recommendation, but the parts counter guy told me that basic PS fluid was fine on this car and did not recommend Toyota transmission fluid.... ??

I just topped it off with Prestone PS fluid. BTW - I did not see any bubbles in the fluid in the tank.

The 1LS requires Dextron II/III, which is an ATF, not PS fluid. I'm not sure why your dealer would tell you to put in PS fluid.

What you'll find is that just about every LS owner seems to have something different causing the initial "clunk", but the good news is that it can be isolated to a very few components:

As Landar said, it could be the strut rod cushions...however this is usually associated with clunking upon braking, since they support fore/aft movement isolation.

The usual culprit first is the lower tie rod, followed by upper control arm bushing/tie rod. Sometimes these can be isolated by checking for any play in the tie rods, or on the UCA bushings.

The UCA bushings can be checked by giving a good heave (side to side in relation to the centerline of the car; or straight ahead of you if you're sitting in the wheel well facing the disc rotor)--if there is any play whatsoever, or any noise indicating play, then the UCA is a culprit.

Ouch. Mechanic said the hose was like 7' long and leaking in three places. Said the pump was ok which is good. All labor on the bill though. I had no idea it was that bad to fix.

It was leaking like crazy this weekend. I had it at a buddies and pulling into his drive I heard it moaning and noticed spots everywhere I parked after that. It wasnt a constant thing but that day got up to ~60 so that is probably why. It needs brakes too. I think those we'll DIY

IIRC, the high-pressure line for the PS pump is around $300.

Yes! I do have that little smoke on SOME startups, but it goes away. I know its not oil smoke, because I do not lose ANY oil between changes, so I know its not burning oil. How do I fix that problem? I thought I read somewhere once that if it was doing that then it could be coming through the intake manifold? Then someone said if it did that then it needed an idle control valve???????? I am beginning to wonder if I should just trade/sell this car.

Thanks.

An internal leak (where the PS fluid is getting injected into the intake) will manifest itself as the infamous white smoke on startup--are you getting the smoke?

The white smoke on startup (which goes away after just a few seconds) is easy to solve...do a quick search--you just have to cap off the PS pump with a bolt and then cap off a couple of vacuum lines.

We also have a '92 in the "family" and I plan to try another hi-lo set there soon. IMMHO it was the early LS that really had POOR headlight pattern coverage. You could adjust the beam upward and have good low beam coverage and have the high beam illuminate the night sky or...

Yup--the 1LS has a dreadful headlight pattern, which I believe was significantly improved with the 95.

Keep us posted on how the HID conversion on your 92 turns out!

Wait--WWEST if your 95 does not use separate 9003/9005 bulbs for high/low, what bulb are your running for the combo high/low?

Nope, I have never seen any drips under this car- even when I leave it parked in the same spot for a week. I looked under too... nothing.

Sometimes an exterior leak only shows inside the underbelly pan and not on the ground...would be worth taking a few screws off and taking a peak in there on the PS side just behind the front wheel.

An internal leak (where the PS fluid is getting injected into the intake) will manifest itself as the infamous white smoke on startup--are you getting the smoke?

1LS specs are to use Dextron for the PS system.

Hi-lo HID pics.

This just may be the ticket to fixing the horrible 1LS lights without blinding oncoming traffic.

WWEST--could you get us a picture of the light pattern against a wall--especially the Low beam cutoff pattern?

I'm thinkin' about wheels from Wald. But I can't seem to find a place to buy WALD! The only place i've found is L-tuned parts. Do you know if there's any other websites?

9,5" wide? is that possible without spacers?

It's the offset that will determine whether you need spacers. I can run 19x10 in the rear without spacers.

I also have a 04 ultra 18" with air-suspension. I have quite a bit understeer. Are you saying this mod will improve my situation?

Stiffer rear sway bar will result in reduced understeer.

IIRC, the Silverstar Ultras tend to have longer life than the standard Silverstars.

I've had Ultras over 1 year so far with no burnout.

I had expensive PIAAs in an H4 housing on another car burn out <6 months with very limited use and I'll never overpay for the PIAA brand again.

Just installed aftermarket 4300K bi-xenons in my '95 LS400.

Pretty nice even on low beam, a tremendous improvement in night vision, especially so on high beam.

The LS is of canadian purchase origin so while it uses the traditional hi/lo filament halogen bulb it also has an extra high beam bulb each side that is also used as DRL at low voltage, in series, 6 volts each.

I doubt if it is really needed for HB, probably only there since the canadians require DRLs.

The HID bulbs/lamps use a solenoid to move the arc back and forth to/from low beam and high beam position.

Bulb assemblies also came with their own metal shading for sharp upper pattern low beam cutoff.

Impressive.

So do the high beam settings retain the same cutoff as low beam due to the fixed metal shade, or does the arc shift down, resulting in higher cutoff?

Yes, hopefully my wife won't back into any more trees.:chairshot:

Sorry to hear that...perhaps you can place 35W HIDs in there if the halogen fix doesn't remedy the tree thing?

Tires like that (The Nokian All Weather Plus comes to mind) are great......except, be prepared to listen to quite a bit of road noise from those tread designs in the summer months.....fuel economy will drop too.

Not necessarily. Traditional snow tires will provide unacceptable (to me) noise and tire "squirm" in transitions. However, the Nokian AWP tires, while slightly noisier than most all-seasons, are well below the noise levels of other snow tires I've had in summer months. Also, fuel economy was not adversely affected to any noticeable degree. They do have a little more squirm in transitional maneuvers than all-seasons, though not nearly as bad as dedicated snow tires.

They are still a slight compromise from running dedicated summer and dedicated winter tires, but from what I've experienced, they are the most acceptable compromise currently on the market.

Well I am going to start driving ZX-6R when it warms up so the Lexus will be sitting most of the time.. I was thinking of doing some mild work on it while it is parked. I am picking up a set of Tanabe Springs, a Celsior Grill/badges.. And Well I also found an Pontiac GTP Supercharger that is priced reasonably..

I have an SAFC2 at my disposal and was wondering if anyone has tuned the engine using an safc2 on this car?

I may try to fab up the Supercharger and patch in an SAFC..... Regardless of the Supercharger I still would like to add the SAFC2 if it will benefit the performance..

Well I will open up for comments/experiences

I think you'll find very little performance enhancement with the SAFC alone.

In fact, if you add that M90 blower from the Pontiac, you'll find that the stock ECU can typically handle up to 6psi of boost, whereupon the stock fuel system is maxed out. Piggyback ECUs really come into play when you're running over 6psi of boost on the 1UZ engine.

Not that I recommend it, but there are several 1st Gen LS400s that have gone over 200k miles on the original timing belt, so there is plenty of "overhead" in that 90k mile recommendation.

As a for instance it is my opinion that the FE of the Acura RDX's I4 with twin turboes could likely be improved substantually if the turbo wastegates were left open, no boost, unless the driver depresses the gas pedal unusually rapidly and/or beyond the 2/3's point.

In other words an automatic switch to "power" mode.

Leaving wastegates open may produce a little more efficiency due to reduced exhaust backpressure, but would result in turbo lag at an unacceptable level for an Acura-branded vehicle (or most modern turbo vehicles, for that matter).

Every engine has a range where it gets optimum fuel efficiency just as peak horsepower and torque have their power bands.

An engine operates most efficiently (meaning power output per gas consumption, not fuel efficiency) at its torque peak. However, for maximizing real-world fuel economy, it is a function of drag, frictional losses, engine RPM, and gearing. This is why you will likely experience the greatest fuel efficiency at the lowest RPM in the highest gear regardless of what car you're driving.

Look at the rears on this car.. Are they just rolled or are those add on?

"rolling" fenders does not accomplish this look--rolling refers to the inside lips so that the tire can tuck inside the fender, not expand the fender.

Another option is to mount some of the newer all-weather tires that have the heavy duty winter "mountain & snowflake" rating--this way you can have true snow tires yet run them in summer without the typical adverse wear effects of running them on dry pavement. This is a good option if you don't want to keep 2 sets of wheels and don't want to swap out tires twice a year.

i was thinkin about headers but they cost too much.

The 1st gen LS has very efficient exhaust manifolds--the SC had more restrictive manifolds where headers provided greater benefit.

Adding an X-pipe and free-flowing rear mufflers (like you did) should take care of most of the major restrictions on the LS.

$3100 is a decent price, but factor in maintenance history--as you know, it is NOT cheap to have major maintenance done on the LS.

But no title? :whistles:

The passenger side was sticking. Nothing wrong with the driver side that I know of, other than the fact that the rotor had that wear line (or lack thereof) in the middle. I picked up the replacement calipers today - time to go get everything installed.

Thanks for the help guys! I'll see if I have some anti-sieze compound in the garage. If not, any reason why I shouldn't use the synthetic grease that I know that I do have?

If there is no risk of grease slinging, I'd say no worries, esp if it is high-temp synth grease.

Curious--did you go with new OEM caliper or reman?

The main reason for this is just an experiment, I mostly want to see what its going to do to a stock motor, if it does anything at all. Perhaps itll run smoother or blow up, you never know. But mostly its a time killer.

You're not going to blow up the 1UZ by running 10% toluene in it. In fact, compared to 92 or 93 octane, you doubt you'll notice anything at all. The 1UZ fuel and timing maps are programmed to run for optimum power at 92-93 octane...it doesn't have a map to support advanced timing beyond that. If you could remap it to advance the timing, then you're talking some potential power gains.

If you've only got 91 octane in your area, and you add toluene to boost the octane in your tank, then you may notice some minor power improvements. It's the boosted engines that really benefit from the octane boosters.

Spend your time boosting the 1UZ, THEN add toluene and lets talk!

Just be sure and keep those tire chains handy....I do.

Here I wholeheartedly agree with WWEST: if you're going to run summer tires and only see occasional snow, then keep those chains handy. And know how to use them. (WWEST, I'll bet you'd be appalled at how many of today's driver's would take over 30 minutes to put on chains). But once those roads get dry, take those chains off immediately!