David Culberson

You mean driver's front or driver's rear?

I do still have them but am out of time to ship big things. I'm closing on a new house soon and have to do a total remodel so can't ship this door. If you or someone you knew could pick it up or if there's a service I could drop it off at, you could have the door for really cheap. Let me know.

I parted out a 1998 GS400 and have the door shells and rear bumper cover available. They're metallic red in color (Red Pearl, 3N1 paint code I believe).

Located in Columbus OH. Local pickup preferred but shipping is available at your cost.

Link to album with a ton of pics of the parts with details of any marks, ect: http://imgur.com/a/QRxcz

Driver front: Includes woofer, wiring, exterior handle, door check, weather stripping. No interior panel, no glass, no MPX computer, no latch, etc. Some damage to bottom rubber trim. $100






Passenger front: Includes speakers, wiring, door check, weather stripping. No handle, no interior panel, no glass, no latch, no MPX computer, etc. Some damage to bottom rubber trim. A few blemishes in the door. See album for detail pics. $100




Driver rear: COMPLETE door, includes all trim, handles, speakers, everything. Just bolt on and go. Some wear as indicated in detail pics in the album - that is, dirt on the door panel (can probably clean off), a couple small dents on the outside and one touched up chip. It's a 100k mile door in passable condition - not pristine but not terrible. $200








Passenger rear: Includes glass, regulator, speaker, wiring, weather stripping. No handle, no door panel, no MPX computer, etc. Scrape along the length of it. Small crease at trailing edge. $100






Rear bumper cover: Some blemishes but all told not a bad bumper. Look at album for details of blemishes. Pick up only, UPS quoted me $300 to ship this thing! $120



All prices negotiable especially if you pick it up! Package deals available.

I meant to add: These will not stick around long, they're cluttering up my garage. If you are interested, reply fast!!

Do you have the radio head unit? If it's the base model I just need the volume knob. I would buy the whole head unit if you won't sell just the knob, assuming the price is right. Alternatively, if it's got the Mark Levinson sound I could use the center channel speaker with grille.

Since I'm driving a GS430 nowadays and sold the 1995 LS400 I won't be using these wheels and tires.

The wheels are in good shape but could use a thorough cleaning. There is minor curb damage in a couple spots but the wheels are straight and look good when clean. They are 16" diameter x 7" wide and are chrome and do include the center caps. They do not include lug nuts.

The tires are Michelin Energy MX-4v+ tires in 225/60-16 size and they have a decent amount of tread left. But one tire has a bubble in the side wall and loses a bit of air from the bead near it. Look at the pictures for details of the bubble and where the air is leaking - I put some soapy water on it so you can see the soap bubbles at the leak. It's a somewhat slow leak - you need to add air about once a week - so you can drive on it but I would replace it at some point.

Asking $200. They're located in Columbus, Ohio and probably don't make sense to ship; shipping would be around $125 or so.

Pics attached.

Gone to scrap. I kept the cam position sensors and vvti actuator with cam gear so if anyone needs either of those drop me a line.

This is the old pair of cylinder heads off my GS430. So they're from a 2001 3uz-fe engine with around 225,000 miles. They have three bent valves. You should plan on a full reman with magnaflux, valve job, etc. It includes all four camshafts which had no problems with them. All the cam bearing caps and screws are here. The car ran, just poorly with the three stuck (bent) exhaust valves.

Assume they're good as cores, probably rebuildable. I just want to see if anyone can use them, keep them out of the scrap heap. How about $100 plus shipping for the whole shebang?





These aren't going to stick around long. If you have any interest let me know right away. I'll give it a week or so before they get sold as scrap.

Do you mean the 80amp main and 120amp alternator fuses? They both look okay, and the car is running okay and charging the battery, so they seem to be working right. The only thing not working is the instrument illumination. The trouble lights work okay, and the gauges themselves work okay.

Okay, this is a weird one. This is *not* the typical 1st gen dash light problem so it's really hard to search on. I had my alternator go out recently. I replaced that, then once it got cold my battery bit the dust. I think the battery was stressed from having been run down to flat too many times. I made the mistake of driving somewhere even after noticing that the car was a bit slow to crank over. I found a good samaritan to give me a jump, and I was having some trouble getting the car to have enough juice to turn the starter. I made the mistake of adjusting the jumper cables when the ignition cylinder was in the "run" position, and my dash lights (the gauge lights only, not the trouble lights, etc) burnt out. I replaced the battery, and so now the car starts and runs fine. EVERYTHING else works well, only the instrument (gauge) lights are still out. The fuse is okay, and the rheostat works to dim the climate control light and clock.

I was looking over the factory service manual and the diagnostic procedure. For my situation, where the tail lights work, it says the fuse or the wiring harness is bad. But in the block diagram it shows the "Body ECU" as being involved in illumination. Is it possible that I burned out the body ECU? Or is there a ballast somewhere, like in the cluster, that could be burnt out?

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong / burnt out?

Thanks!!

amcdonal86's right. I believe you have a wear indicator on all four pads, and they're wear parts - once the light comes on you have to replace whatever wear indicator was worn, in addition to the brake pads. On the '95 and up they just have two wear indicators; one front and one rear, both on the passenger side. Pre-'95 has one on each pad, I think.

I bought the Trico Innovision blades from Amazon for super cheap (over 50% off) and put them on a couple weeks ago. So far, I love them. They left some un-cleared spots on the windshield at first, but they bedded in or something and they clear the whole windshield now. Cleanly, quickly, and quietly. I will report back on longevity in a few months.

I must have missed it in this long thread about maintenance costs. How long ago did the timing belt, water pump, and tensioners get changed in your 97 Coach Edition with 91k miles?

The sticker indicates that the timing belt and water pump were changed at 60k miles in February 2003, so it's probably due soon because of the time that has lapsed. I will probably wait at least until the summer, though.

I bought my wife's LS400 in early 2008(I think? Time flies.) with a broken timing belt; it was the original from 1991 and it and the water pump had 240k miles on it. The call is obviously yours, but I wouldn't worry about changing that belt after just 5 years and 30k-40k miles!

Some careful shopping at local junkyards might net you a door in the right color for very cheap. $1500 seems like too much to me!! I've bought complete doors for less than $200 in good shape for luxury cars. You can also sell the regulator, window glass, and other stuff off your old door later to get some money back. (Assuming those parts are good on the replacement door!)

See if you have a pick-a-part or pull-a-part type yard in town, give 'em a call, and see if they have any LS400s in your year range. Also check car-part.com which is a junkyard search engine. (NOTE: only some yards are indexed here!) Worst case, getting just the door repainted shouldn't cost too much if you can't match the color.

Good luck.

I will probably do all minor maintenance myself (spark plugs/wires, brakes, etc.) myself, but I'll probably have a mechanic do some other things. :)

By the way, I just sold the Miata today. I got $3275 for my '94 Miata with 162k miles on it! I should be a used car salesman!

You should be fine on repairs, cost-wise, then. Your car has so many fewer miles on it than mine that I bet it'll be very reliable.

My Miata was awesome!! We bought it for $9700 when it was just three years old or so, drove it for over 3.5 years and sold it for $7500! The only repairs I made was the brakes and shocks (upgraded to adjustable shocks). That was a good deal.

you should have asked on the forum before you went and purchased a new seat belt. you can replace the motor and keep the original.

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/electrical/fcourtesy.html

this is the Url for the tutorial for removing the front courtesy switch but in replacing that you have to remove the motor and there are step by step instructions. just replace the motor and all should be fine

I think that the motor you mention is for adjusting the seat belt height, not for the retraction. Retraction is part of the spool assembly that the seatbelt is wrapped around.

Sounds similar to my wife's 1992. It died at a few lights shortly after I resurrected it from the dead (bought it with a broken timing belt) then it decided that it wanted to run just fine after all. Much later we had all sorts of weird stuff happen and it turned out to be the trunk lid wiring. (Two wires were broken.) I don't know if it was related but it's entirely possible. It's easy to check, so check it, and let us know!

Before patching the broken wires, the car would only go into 1st gear with the headlights on, but all gears with them off. It would down shift whenever I hit the brakes. The reverse light would light up whenever I hit the brakes. All that behavior is gone after patching the wires.

The symptoms vary wildly, though, based on which wires are broken. So don't assume since your symptoms aren't identical that it's not the same problem. But if you don't see any broken wires, then you're probably facing something else wrong.

Great car, that thing is in excellent condition! Especially for the price!! I'm in the same boat having come from a '99 Miata. I still miss it occasionally, and might buy another one soon. But the LS has been everything I wanted when I bought it: comfortable, reliable, and safe. My Miata had absolutely no maintenance issues, of course I sold it with only about 50k miles on it.

Do you do any of your own maintenance and repairs? If so, your $1200/year will be way more than enough. I've had my '95 LS400 for close to 2 years now and have only spent, other than tires, about $1000 on it. Tires were an extra $500 or so; it's not cheap to get good touring tires with the right speed rating. Mine needed the infamous '95 starter replaced (common failure on my year), a good tune-up with plugs/wires/rotors, and all new brake rotors and pads. Since I did all the work myself, it was a lot cheaper than having a shop do it. Mine has a lot more miles on it than yours, at about 152k miles. Still has an amazing ride and will go faster than I'm comfortable with. (Feels stable at 100+)

As far as parts prices go, they're not cheap but also not that bad. Having priced parts for a lot of vehicles lately, I can tell you you're not getting OEM shocks for much less than $125 on *anything* these days. Hell, my mother in law's Saturn needs rear springs and the local dealership quoted $147 EACH! I managed to find them online for $80 but still a Saturn LS is nowhere near the quality of a Lexus LS.

Good luck with the car, and enjoy!

-David

It might also be your neutral safety switch; definitely don't just replace the ignition switch. (That would be a stab in the dark and might not work.)

I know it's a different car, but when I had a Honda, I was running Valvoline MaxLife in it. It seemed okay. When I needed to change the fluid, I put in Honda brand fluid and it was like installing a new transmission - crisp shifts and nice performance. It didn't harm the transmission to run MaxLife, as it's still working well in a friend's hands. But it definitely worked better with the Honda brand fluid.

My point is, it isn't out of the realm of reason to think that the Toyota fluid would work better than the MaxLife.

Sorry, I was referring to Bosch Icons.

Ahh, thanks; I know to avoid them then! They're expensive, too, so it's too bad they don't last longer.

here are the blades i have on both my cars, gen 1 Ls and a camry

http://www.tricoproducts.com/brochure.cfm?...;location_id=65

also lexus does not make their own blade, im sure trico makes them

Ahh! Those look good, too; how long have you had them and have they held up? Any squeaking / chattering when the windshield is only slightly wet? Thanks!

-David

I'm talking about the Bosch Icon wipers that Branshew tried, definitely not the Bosch Microedge which is what I have on there. (And it's terrible.) The Bosch Icon is actually more expensive than the Lexus blades, and they're not refillable.

So does anyone have long-term experience with the Bosch Icons?

Hey, how did the Bosch Icon blades hold up?? I need new blades and was going to buy the Lexus set until I saw this. I found a review on Amazon raving about them but then he updated to say they became streaky and noisy 60 days later. I like the idea but definitely want them to stay quiet for more than 60 days! I hate squeaky, chattering wipers.

So spill it! Did they end up suckin' or are they still good, two years later? ;-)

Well, given they had the transmission out of the car, it seems like a no-brainer that the noise could have been from the accident or the repair process.

I did the TB and WP on my 1997 LS in January, including cam and crank seals. It took about 10 minutes max on each one and required no special handling. There were no additional parts to remove to get to the old seals and replace them, except to pull the cam drive wheels (which the belt engages), and I was replacing both of them, anyway.

The '98 heads are completely different from the '97; the 1998 model year is when they added VVTi. So for '97, the job is easy once you are at the front of the cam, for '97, it's much more difficult.

If you surface again, I could use the lower garnish (outside of the car) on the passenger side. I can send a picture of it.