eatingupblacktop

I tell ya, I had no idea this thread would turn out to be such a gold mine. I could spend the next 5 years with whatever vacation time I can find checking out all these fabulous tours. Thanks for all these tips and keep'm comin'. Some pics would be nice as well. I've got some of trips I took out east. I'll post some when I get some time to find them. Hey, LOC could publish a travel guide with all this info?

Buddy.........who's got too much free time on his hands

Kimosabi

Well oil is ok. If the starter wiring checks out, next on my list would be the cold start injector. Also check the power going to the injector. Like Flanker was suggesting, until you get that checked out, save the wear on your new starter by cranking for 1 sec then release until you hear the fuel pump stop. Then turn it off and try starting again. Should shorten your cranking time.

Jcrome, don't get too bummed out about it. Look at it this way, it's like starting over. You'll get to know her all over again, and the bonus.........the mech's picking up the tab!

Best served HOT!

perfect

What grade of oil are you running? Also, since you've replaced the starter, check the ground connection to make sure it's clean and secure. A dirty connection is going to provide greater resistance especially in colder weather with reduced cranking power from the battery.

When you say "Temp is at Max and it will go away after driving again after a few minutes" are you refering to the climate control setting or your temp gauge? If you're getting normal heat when driving as you describe and no heat when idling, I would check your thermostat and test the coolant mix as scott has mentioned. If you've got old coolant and didn't use distilled water when last mixed, you might have deposit buildup partially blocking your thermostat or elsewhere in the system, including your heater core and pump. An air pocket is also a possibility.

If I was still doing mods I'd get a Supra as well. Otherwise I like the looks of the new Bimmer X6.

Time to replace!

being lucky enouph to live in Florida, I have driven that a few times. Very nice!! And what is also nice to do is drive to New Smyrna Beach and go out on the pier and watch the sun rise, then walk the beach and and eat breakfast on the boardwalk, drive 17 to Cape Coral and Naples area, eat dinner and watch the sun set all in the same day.A Wonderful time!!! Been to Florida a few times. Daytona for the race, Orlando and Ft Lauderdale. Each time I wanted to hit the Keys. Regret that I didn't go for it. Next time for sure!

NC you crack me up. But I know about Murphy's Law. I was coming out of a grocery store when spotted a wayward shopping cart speeding towards my car. It was really windy that day and someone left the cart out in the middle of the lot. It wasn't there when I parked, and I parked half way across the lot. Got there just in time. But Murphy's Law still got me. Had to go back and pick up my groceries. When the wife wants to go shopping (always during the busiest time), I drop her off then come back to pick her up. When I go on my own, I do like the everyone else here, park as far away as I can find and I try to do it off hours when the lot's almost empty.

I think you'll like this one. There was a group of us standing outside of Ryerson U in Toronto at lunchtime one summer, so the sidewalk was full of students. This older lady got into her Deville that was boxed in by a Beetle and a Civic. She spent about ten minutes cranking her wheels (you could hear the pump working overtime) inching her way forwards and backwards, getting nowhere. By this time, there was a crowd around her with some of them trying to guide her. Finally she loses it. She hit the gas, smashed into the Civic, moving it forward about 2 feet. Put it in reverse, smashed into the Beetle, caving in the hood and moving it back about 2 feet, then hit the gas, and peeled out of there with the crowd cheering as she smoked the tires and lay down a strip about 8 feet long. Couldn't believe that I saw this happen right in front of me. I guess sooner or later ya just gotta do what ya gotta do!

Nice lookin ride! If you don't mind me asking, how much did you put into it? Some pics from the rear and interior would be nice. As for the CF, it's a large hood in ratio to the rest of the front. You're definitely making a statement. Can't tell without seeing the whole car how visually balanced it is without doing something with the rear as well. There's something to be said for having a sleeper and blowing off any pretenders. But it's like lex and raym said, if you like it, who cares what anyone else thinks. I remember one time this girl showing up at the track in a turbo'd pink supra. All the guys had smirks on their faces until she blew them off by posting the fastest quarter of the day. I'm sure she had the best smile of the day too.

Just maintain the clear coat that's on there already and save your money. Besides by detailing it yourself, you get to find and fix all the stone chips early.

I don't think there's much point to continue with this debate. So I will summarize my perspective. I don't have the figures on the terms of the majority of leases. You might not buy a car that's older than 5 years but many do including a lot of members to this forum. Nevertheless, the original question was "how long will an LS400 last?" My point in essence is that it depends on how it's been maintained and cared for. Period.

Actually no, I completely disagree with that statement. If you're talking about looking at 2-3 year old cars, I think you probably have better luck finding a lease return because most of them will be lease returns. I'm not limiting them to 2-3 years. A lot of lease go up to 5 years.

If seafoam doesn't work and heavier viscosity oil doesn't make it quieter, then it probably needs a valve adjustment.

Point taken, and I agree, in order to maintain the warranty and get fair value at the end of the lease you have to do the scheduled service. That's not what I meant to say. I'm talking about a lessee who leaves the sunroof/window cracked when it's raining, or uses cheap/low octane fuel, constant hard driving... Lease, imo, often equates to a utilitarian disposable commodity much like a rental where as long as you don't ding it you don't have any responsiblity or motivation for babying the car. I'd rather buy a car from the original owner with documentation than pick up one that's just been turned in at the end of a lease no matter how well it's been serviced. As someone who leases luxury cars himself, as someone who'se father leased luxury cars for 30 years, and as someone who knows a LOT of people who lease luxury cars (almost everyone in my profession leases) I disagree. Most people, even when they lease, see it as a significant use of financial resources and treat the vehicle accordingly. I mean, leasing an LS costs around $1k a month, thats not a insignificant amount of money to anyone. I agree with you that on the whole owners are going to take care of the car better than lessees. However, if you're looking at a 2-3 year old car theres not going to be a significant difference in the quality of the car whether it was owned or leased. If it was owned and then traded in 2-3 years it shows that the owner didn't have a long term plan with the car and that they aren't concerned with significant financial loss. How is this different then how you're categorizing people who lease cars? I would have absolutely no fear buying a pre-owned car of this caliber that had come off a 2-3 year lease. Who cares if they never vaccumed it, washed it, or conditioned the leather. Those are things you can see when you examine the car, and since the car is so new those are things you can remedy and it won't have any lasting effect on the quality of the car. As for hard driving, you can see evedince of that in terms of curb rashing, suspension wear, rattling and looseness, etc. I'm not saying that all leased vehicles could be problematic. My 91LS was a return for a lease on a new LS. It was meticulously documented down to the last bulb including warranty disputes with the dealership and Lexus Canada (previous owner was a doctor). This after looking for over 6 months (lease returns and private sales) and seeing some sad examples of "luxury cars". Same goes for all the makes. Actually, in my search, bimmers and benzes were the worst of the lot, and they are more expensive than lexus. So your argument that "a significant use of financial resources and treat the vehicle accordingly" didn't apply in my experience. Don't forget, that an equal or greater amount of resources go into purchasing the vehicle as compared with leasing it. As for potential problems revealing themselves early, (not everything shows up by the time the car is traded in) this is true if you are familiar with the car and know where and what to look for. Unfortunately, a lot of buyers fall in love with the shine and the ride and the smooth sales pitch that they fail to use their common sense and have the car checked out. We have an organization in Canada, the APA: http://www.apa.ca/ who upon request will refer an interested buyer to an inspection shop that does only inspections and no repairs and will give you an complete report on every part of the car for about $125. Money well spent. I will use them for my next purchase. BTW, I was one of the buyers who fell in love with the shine and ride of my current LS, perhaps because of all the dogs I had seen before finding this one. I did however check it out before buying. Most of the people I know in my business also lease their cars new. My point, and I think you've agreed, was that your chances of finding a used car (luxury or otherwise) that has not been abused are better with a purchased car than with one that's been leased or subleased. And then there's a whole other category of cars to watch out for - repossessed

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! Even though, as I posted elsewhere, it's been a "dense head" day for me today, I will have to admit that WW's position on chains can't be beat. If ya got heavy snow, chains is the way to go! So WW, now that we agree on something, when are we going for a beer?

Just remembered something else I once did. I was balancing a wheel on one of my Sciroccos I used to own; didn't like the fat weight the Tech put on one of my nice wheels, so we broke the seal and first rotated the tire 180 degrees, then 90 degrees on the same wheel. Sealed it, balanced it with a weight that was 1/10 th of the original. Now in my case, the first balancing would have worked, I just didn't like looking at all that lead on my rim. In your case it might be worth trying to see if you can get a problem tire/wheel balanced correctly.

It's been a "dense head" day for me today, but I think I'm beginning to understand. "The gentleman at the dealership told me it's from constantly overfilling the tank, thinking about that I remember kind of smelling a gas smell after filling my tank a couple of times but nothing too dramatic. However I had ZERO problems until this guy messed with my tank, then replaced my fuel filter." Now fill me in, exactly how do you "overfill" your tank? Do you mean topping it off? If so, I think most everyone does that. I squeeze in as much as I can everytime I'm at the pumps, especially if they've dropped the price. Does this mean I've got to check out my canister in case the same thing happens to me? I've never smelled gas except at the nozzle at the pump. Does anyone else top off their tanks?

So let me make sure I've got this right. Your tank was nearly empty when it started leaking?

Since you like to experiment, ever run avgas in anything?