wandawoods

well, u may have to call dealer to explain your situation: NO KEY whatsoever! I hope I am wrong, but I recall u will need at least ONE working key with transponder embedded in order to program extra 'master key'. so, it's possible that u may have to change ECU in order to get working keys. VIN matching only gets u a key to open doors/trunk, but it won't give u or dealer the code to program the transponder which is required to start the engine. I don't believe they keep the code record per VIN. but, again I hope I am wrong.....

timing belt & water pump replacement should be part of the 90K service for 1st Gen LS400. it's $1200 job right there!

there are holes behind every single emblem on my 96 SC4.

if u put the head light switch to 'auto', the dome thing will sense the amount of daylight to automatically turn head lights on/off accrodingly!

hi guys, for my 96 SC4 /169k, some light vibration has developed about a month ago. I usually don't really warm up car at my driveway, I just startup, wait about 15~20 seconds then go. however, recently when step on gas, even lightly, I can feel some vibration till engine warm up to normal range (slightly below mid point at temp gauge). as soon as it warms up, the vibration will be gone. this happens at low speed as well as high speed, and it's very hard to determine where it comes from. engine oil is Mobile1 full-syc 10w-30 (for high-milleage) and recently changed. brakes, struts are all new. I don't think is tire (under 3K-miles new!) balancing or alignment problems because the vibration goes off at any speed once engine warms up. could it be motor/tranny mount? but that won't explain why vibration is gone after reaching operating temp!? TB/water pump was replaced at 125K, drive belt & couple of pulleys was just changed few weeks ago. cound it be tranny itself? just done the pan drain-n-fill with type T-IV, but have not done the full flush. will that help? any comments is welcome and appreciated!

unlike engine oil filter, u don't really have to change tranny oil filter (it's really a cleanable metal-screen strainer) every time u drain-n-fill the 2 qt. in fact, changing tranny oil filter is a major job, at least u need to deal with the 18 or 19 bolts to drop the oil pan, then u need to put on new pan gasket when re-install.

I don't really worry about my LS4 w/98K, but I do worry about the 169K SC4. the porblem to do drain-n-fill is that we drive SC4 so little (3.5K in last 10 months). we need to do at least 10 times the 2qt refill in order to change out the whole 16qt, that will take us at least 5~7 years to drive 30K at current rate. even we do it at every 1.5K, that will still take 2-3 years.

well, my service rep at dealer told me that lexus does recommend complete tranny fluid flush at 10500 miles for my 97 LS4.

the funny thing is that the stock 'lexus premium sound' (Pioneer?) stereo in my 97 LS4 sounds much better, richer with wider bass range than the Nakamichi in my 96 SC4. go figure!

how could mobile 1 engine oil get into your tranny!? if it did, u r in big no-no alright! so, I would guess whatever tranny leaking problems you are having should not be anything to do with Mobile1....

following on the other thread: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...howtopic=10615& did it happen right after jiffy lube's machine flush?

correct, unless u do that at least close to 10 times to change out all 16qt. keep in mind that the 2qt new after drain-n-refill is adding to the old fluid, so the math is NOT 16/2=8. can some1 figure out the math for us? however, with the potential disaster of blown seal while doing full flush by machine in mind, drain-n-refill 10 times may be safer for high-milleage tranny. vyhanh, have u figured out the leak issue was actually caused by machine flush or not? I need to do something about my 168K 96 SC4 soon....

just to be clear, pan drain-n-refill is little bit over 2qt, but entire tranny oil flush is 16qt which mostly is trapped inside tranny when engine is off.

torgue for drain plug should be 29 ft-lb. specify that on work order next time. I am surprised about the 7qt. according to shop repair maunal: oil capcity is: 5.4qt with filter change 5.1qt without filter change 6.7qt dry fill so, did they do a 'dry fill'? why? I do recall the last few oil change I had were 5.5qt...hmmmm!

total coolant capacity is 11.4qt (2.85 galon), so with 1:1 mixture with dis-stilled water, u would need about 1.4 galon of pure toyota red coolant, two 1-galon bottles that is. the heat core traps about 50% of old coolant, and they must be flushed out for complete change-over job.

too bad! both firestone and jiffy lub guys told me the samething: complete tranny flush by machine can damage seals for high-milleage tranny, and they would disclaim reponsibity if that happened. did your jiffy guy warn u about this!? so, I would rather spend $225 to get it done at dealer who will take responsibility if tranny seal breaks or leaks.

not sure about SC3, but for 1UZFE in SC4, the thermostat housing is in between 2 CAM shafts which house distributor rotors. u will have to disassemble a lot to get to it. corret me if wrong, I don't believe faulty thermostat will cause engine temp to go up. do the complete coolant flush with toyota red coolant first, then see what happens.

was it a complete 16qt tranny flush? if yes, that's what I worry about for my SC4 w/168K: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...howtopic=10228& if just drain-&-refill, did u change the pan gasket? the old gasket usually doesn't re-seal very well after u remove it.

I've been to atlanta dealer twice recently, got my 97 LS4 inspected right after I bought it got the new key with transponder programmed despite that they were not really true 'services', I received free car wash both time. regarding syn. oil: http://www.mobil1.com/why/myths.jsp it should be safe to go back and forth between syn. and conventional

for 1UZFE in LS4 and SC4, dealer recommends TB/water pump replacement at 90K upto 96 model years. from 97 model year and on, lexus' recommendation changes to 120K or 7-year. 1UZFE up to 97 model year is non-interferrence. from 98 model year all changed to VVTi engine which is interferrence engine, a big no-no if TB broke!

soarer emblem: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...sspagename=WDVW cool looking griffin emblem: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=2482377093

CW please! (not wanda like a gal) ;) .. even u want to take it to dealer, u still can bring mobile1 full-syn (one the best stuff out there!) with u. dealer won't have problem to put in ur own oil, they will just charge u reasonable labor plus free car wash and free coffee :D ....

may I suggest buying mobile1 10w-30 full-synthetic by the galon (sold in Sam's club), and mobile1 oil filter? just bring them to any auto service shop for oil change with ur own oil. it shouldn't be over $20. my mechanic charges me just $10 for the job. full-synt. oil lasts longer than regular oil. 5K/5-mon frequency is the average suggestion heard on LOC. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...howtopic=10448& for high-millege LS4, 10w instead of 5w has been recommended quiet a few times on LOC, TN is not too cold for 10w in the winter, isn't it?

must agree with marty witt that it's impossible to remove old emblem without breaking them. I've done replacing all 4 emblems yesterday. fishing line works great to cut thru the sticky-back, but the 'pins' are impossibe to be released from exterior because of the locking mechanism. u can neither release them from inside the bumper/trunk panels because they are locked on the outter panel and completely blocked by inner panel. so, I ended up just breaking the old plastic (yes! it's plastic costed with gold chrome) emblems sectionby section at a time. in fact, most of the time was spent on removing the remains of the old adhesive and cleaning up the panel surface for the new emblem. for those suggested or thinking about bringing the old emblems to a chrome shop to be re-plated, FORGET IT, it's impossible!

well, I hope my old post helped u. if u had the circuit boards out, as a preventive measure, u might want to replace the C212 (16v/10uf) on the smaller PCB board. C212 is related to the infamous issue of 'light-out' or 'dark-out' of entire instrument panel when weather is cold on LS400 Gen I (90~94).