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On the 92 LS400 there is a hot water heater flow control valve inside the engine compartment at the top center of the firewall. It is operated by a push/pull cable connected to the reheat/remix blend door servomotor inside the A/C plenum. In max heat the cable should move the water valve to full open and in max cool to full close. If your LS has the same valve that would be an easy place to start checking for no heat.

It takes 16 qts to FLUSH the transaxle, only 5 qts to fill to capacity. Consider yourself lucky that the coolant system can be flushed with just plain old tap water.

Since Lexus doesn't allow you to use the fog lights without the low beams being on, it really doesn't matter. Well, then again, it does. With the fog lights on the "close in" lighting they provide affects your distance vision adversely so it probably a good idea to never turn them on at all. Unless it's the oncoming drivers you intend to "impress" with your "bling".

For an AWD the rear PTO is mounted directly to the transaxle diff'l case. The diff'l runs in ATF and the PTO in gear oil. For AWD RXes prior to 04 the PTO also contained a viscous clutch or coupling in which the viscous fluid would be HEATED on adverse roadbed conditions to cause it to couple some level of engine torque to the rear driveline. It is entirely possible or probable that repetitive heating of the VC fluid results in heating of the ATF and it often becoming burned. Does any one know how HOT this fluid must become to couple 25% of 200HP to the rear drive line??

The OAT, Outside Air Temperature, sensor may be open, or the IAT, interior air temperature, sensor may be open. But if you go to max cooling you should always get cool airflow because it then ignores the sensors. I would say the blend door is stuck in the max heat position but that wouldn't account for the blower also being high.

I have a 78 911 Targa that insofar as the VW or Corvair handling dynamics is very much their equal. But it never gets to go out and play in the snow.

"power out of a skid..." Since when do FWD cars skid? They are prone to "plow" not skid. And yes, there are exceptions to the above "rule". "virtually unstopable..." Exactly, especially while maintaining directional control. And finally... ABS is NOT there to help you stop, or reduce your stopping distance! Exactly the opposite, it typically elongates your stopping distance by preventing some level of braking in favor of maintaining lateral control of the vehicle. If you don't chose to believe me on this then read the section on ABS in any current owners manual.

I would more willingly trust a RWD car, or an AWD or 4WD with DEFINITE rear torque bias, on a slippery roadbed surface than ANY FWD or front torque biased AWD. The new 4runner automatically REMOVES engine torque, leading or lagging, from the front during stearing. The new GS & IS AWD vehicles use the VSC's yaw sensor signal to automatically divert most engine torque to the rear if lateral traction becomes more desireable than front "drive" traction. Get the "message"..??

It actually will help a lot if you turn the Trac system off and learn to "feather" the throttle yourself when on the slippery stuff.

Check that both high beams are working. DRLs use the two high beam filaments in series and if one is burned out....

Most modern day idle air bypass systems use a PWM signal to "linearly" control a solenoid. The engine ECU my need to be reset so disconnect the battery for 10 or 15 minutes and then drive the car a few miles.

Just don't use "stick on" labels.

Replace the alternator's $3.00 slip ring brushes first, just in case.

Water pump "life". The most common cause of water pump failure results from the seal failure between the pump impeller and the shaft bearing. Once the seal fails the bearing will be exposed to excess coolant leakage and then it will fail shortly thereafter. There is always a "seep" opening in front (away from the engine) of the bearing so that slight seal leakage, which cannot be prevented, doesn't build up over time and result in bearing failure. I have never encountered a "total" water pump failure since the odor of anti-freeze always forewarns me of an impending failure.

Teflon can only be "bonded" to an etched surface, as in acid etch. Sort of like one side of "velcro".

Take a good look at the timing belt they take out and then ask yourself if this whole 90k thing isn't one HUGE scam! When timing belts first started being used instead of timing chains no one could be sure of the lifetime. After 15 years, and with continuous product improvements to boot, it has become pretty obvious that they are likely longer lasting than timing chains. But your dealer will be the absolute last to advise you of that fact, nice high profit revenue stream.

Bridgestone Turanzas, summer, are without question the quietest, smoothest riding tire available.

It will take you about thirty years minimum to collect all the tools and sizes you need. Bought a really complete craftsman set in 1963 and I still make "fetch" trips every so often. Don't forget a Torx set.

Get 1.5" wheel spacers from RH wheels.

The really bright LED bulbs are available from Ledtronics.com but are quite expensive. If you haven't checked the superbrightleds.com site they do seem to have some newer, brighter bulbs.

You can probably get LED replacements at superbrightleds.com Look silver until lit but you may need to add resisters in parrallel to get the blinker to work and/or fool the ECU diagnostic which might otherwise indicate an open bulb filament.

I put ~1.5" (30mm?) on my newly purchased 2001 AWD RX300 so I could upgrade to 17x8 wheels and safely use snow chains at the rear instead of the patently unsafe method required otherwise. Now at ~50,000 miles and no bearing problems and used chains at the rear only a few times.

It doesn't seem likely that the LSD at the rear diff'l could result in a transaxle failure. Besides which it wasn't available as of the 2001 model when Trac took over that responsibility.

The line pressure is currently control by an electric solenoid. The engine/transaxle ECU drives the solenoid with a PWM, pulse width modulated, signal with a duty cycle used to "linearly" control the solenoid plunger position and thus the line pressure. Did it, has it, occurred to you to disconnect the battery for a short period just in cause the ECU has decided the transaxle isn't useable...?? Meanwhile some of us are VERY interested in hearing what you find wrong inside that transaxle.

The viscous clutch/coupling is mounted in the PTO section of the transaxle. The VC is hermetically sealed and contains a specially formulated viscous fluid. It is the viscous fluid that I suspect is congealing. The only fix would be to replace the VC, viscous clutch itself.