landar

The engineering and quality is just amazing. I have owned mine for 1 1/2 years and put 20k miles on her. I still pinch myself to see I am dreaming. When I do have to perform maintanence, I am awed by the design and quality of whatever it is I am working on. Totally astounding cars. Detroit does NOT need $25B for a rescue bailout. Just $20k for a used LS400/430 to tear down and copy.

ryan, lets back up a moment and go through some troubleshooting 101. So, coolant in, coolant "disappears". Its has to be going somewhere, right? I would put some newspapers, cloth, tarp, whatever under the car after you have added coolant and then run the engine up to temp. If the coolant is ending up on the ground, then you will have an external leak which should be fairly easy to find. If you do NOT have coolant on the ground but it is still disappearing.(...are you a praying person? :) ) then you will have to look for an internal leak. And if it is internal, you had better find it w/o driving much cause it can destroy your engine quickly. I would keep a vigilant eye on the oil and level. So where could it be going internally? Well, in some cars (but not a Lexus per se') coolant can get into the combustion chamber via blown gaskets, like the head gasket that you mentioned. But it can also get into the engine by a leaky intake manifold gasket (that would lead to contaminated oil). Now another place that coolant can go (again on some cars but NOT at all likely on an LS) is into the transmission via the radiator. You can check the tranny dipstick just for sanity. The "white" smoke that you mentioned could be power steering fluid getting sucked into the engine. From what I understand, it is somewhat common on the LS. On the other hand it COULD be a head gasket BUT as jcrome pointed out, NOT likely (lets hope its not that). You could run a compression test on all cylinders just as a base line. Might show something. And look carefully at all the plugs if you pull them out. Burning coolant in one of the cylinders will usually discolor the white insulator more so than on other cylinders. Besides white exhaust, there is usually an unmistakable smell of antifreeze at the rear of the car. I dont even want to suggest cracked head or block, so I wont ;) Look for an external leak first. That is most probable.

SRK, FWIW I thought your response was firm but appropriate. I loved the "change mechanics, not the pump"! Good advise. Unfortunately, low oil pressure is usually a sign of sloppy main bearings. But that's on a "regular" car. Not a Lex.....hopefully. But thats getting ahead of the issue. md, when idling, an engine's oil pressure can go as low as ~10 psi and at 2k-3k rpm be around 40-60 psi. These are just ballpark figures. Why did you even suspect an issue in the first place?

Well Silver, this is a rather wide-open question. If it ran properly before you performed the work, I would carefully go over all of your timing again. Check your cam and distributor timing and any sensors that were disturbed. The good thing about the 91 valve clearance is that a misaligned cam wont trash the engine. Misfire and start an engine fire maybe...but what are the odds? :o

Actually, one of my dilemas at the moment concerns buying an extra set of wheels. I have OEM chrome wheels but they are blistering and won't seal worth a darn. Its a bother to keep pumping them up every few weeks. So, I thought I would buy a set of aftermarket wheels and put the blizzaks on them(or perhaps Nokians) Then, maybe have the originals rechromed if not price prohibitive (despite owning a Lexus, I am a cheapskate :P ).

Thanks Jim. You are a voice of reasoning. I know there is really no reason for a 4WD, its just the boy in me that wants to play. I think I will go see about those Blizzaks. That is, if they have not all been shipped to Quebec.

Ok guys. I drove my Lex all last winter and it did pretty well in the snow with just all-seasons. I kinda like the looks of the Jeep Grand Cherokees, used ones seem plentiful and fairly inexpensive and I wouldn't mind having a 4WD in the winter and just park the Lex. Keeps my baby Lex out of the salt as a bonus. However, I just finished reading Jeep forums and it dont look good. People griping right and left. The smarter side of me thinks I should just forget the "Yeep". Do I hear any "amens" brother? Any experience with same? Maybe an RX300 instead? I guess I am just hankerin' for a good 4WD in the snow. Like the Cowardly Lion said: "Talk me out of it, fellas"! :D

When it comes to a critical component like a timing belt, I would really (I mean REALLY) recommend a Lexus OEM belt. Especially if the engine is the interference type. If the belt should break, hello new engine (or rebuilt). Cha-ching. True story. A friend of mine recently had the T belt of his 2000 Ford Escort SR2 replaced at 80k miles (recommended every 60k). The shop that did the work used an Autozone belt. At 120k, the belt broke and trashed the engine. I know, thats a Ford not a Lexus, (so dont flame me). The point is that a lot of replacement parts are inferior (and possibly made in China?...naw). Replacing the belt with just any brand does not get you out of the woods, so to speak. Use only Lexus/Toyota timing belts.

For a new Lexus owner, you sure are ambitious. ;) The timing is very critical and must be lined up precisely. See the link below for a tutorial on changing the timing belt. Step 34 shows how to properly align the belt. http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html

"New legislation making winter tires mandatory in Quebec is expected to lead to a shortage in the Maritimes" http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-isl...ge.html?ref=rss

Just got back from my local tire dealer because I was inquiring about snow tires. He said that I had better hurry because Canada just mandated snows on all cars from November to March and that demand was depleting tires from the states. I am not sure if he meant all of Canada or just certain areas. Wonder if he was just giving me a "snow" job? ;)

Up high? The strut rods actually connect to the lower end of the strut assembly on one end and to the front frame on the forward end. Take a look at this tutorial to see strut rods. http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/Fj9WH6CM

Mine was doing something similar and it turned out to be the strut rod bushings. I lifted each side of the car and examined each bushing. When the wheel is hanging in the air, it puts pressure on the bushing and you can check for cracks. Mine had dry rot and "spider" cracks. Nothing terrible. But thats enough for the clunk.

Rf, I know you dont want to throw money and time away. And neither would I. However, I also own a 98 LS400 and lets face it, after 10 years, there are a lot of tired components up front. I replaced my strut rods last year to get rid of a low speed clunk. But yours sounds to me to be somewhere in the shock/strut area. Even though mine still rides very nice and no noises, I am going to replace the shocks all the way around. Maybe its wasted money/time but after 10 years, I am inclined to believe that these parts are very worn. And they have lasted longer than I would have ever imagined them to last. Every time I tear into my Lex, I am totally amazed at how well it is designed and built . That after owning and working on many lesser cars. If you do the work yourself, go ahead and start replacing the wear items such as the struts/shocks and related parts. Better for you to pick the time and place of repair than to have the offending parts force you into a quick and sudden breakdown situation.

Yeah hundy, I think sweden hit the nail on the head...by going to 20's you essentially changed your rearend gearing. Makes the acceleration stink(its not an impression, its real) and throws your speedo off (reads lower speed than actual). So, lets say you going 50 mph but your speedo says 45 mph. Your gas economy would appear to suffer but that is really not the case. Just the computer being fooled by the lower registered speed. Its pretty simple really. You mess with the original design and strange things begin to happen. There is a price to pay for cool. B)

Here is what the Autozone.com repair site says for location of flasher relay for 1992 LS400: "Front seating area, driver side, under dash, driver side of steering column, mounted in convenience center "

jerm, was the engine overheating at all? Seems strange that the system would not pull in new coolant from the reservoir..perhaps a line is plugged? A closed system should pull from just one source when low on coolant and it should be the reservoir but perhaps the system is sucking air back in through the leak point therefore bypassing the reservoir. I would also be tempted to get a new cap to make sure the system is properly pressurized. Let's hope Python is right about the culprit. Sounds very plausible. Please keep us posted on the outcome.

Ok, I already have a cream puff 98 LS which I absolutely love. After owning the Lexus, I just cant bring myself to buy anything but a Lexus. Now I am looking for another used LS400 and hoping to get something for around $6k. I recently looked at a 91 with 118k miles for $4500 but decided to pass(too rusty). For $6k, I am limited to the early years and thats OK. I just cant stand rust. So, any advice on where to get a nice, well-maintained, rust-free LS in this price range? or impossible? And for early years, which one is the best? Ebay is interesting but I will not buy a car sight unseen (pictures dont work...too easily to hide defects).

Normally I like to perform maintenance myself. However, if the fluid is black, I think I would let the dealer handle this one, this time. Complete change of fluid, filter and any adjustments that need to be made. After that, you can do the 2 quart driveway changes and not let the fluid get to the filthy state.

Clean it up as best you can and continue to monitor it for leakage.

I will admit to never having to rebuild a Lexus p/s pump. However, since no one replied, heres my 2 cents...I do like to rebuild the original unit if an OEM replacement unit is not available. For instance, if the OEM p/s pump is available thru Lexus for a reasonable price, I will go that route. If the price is pretty steep, I will try a rebuild (if possible). My absolute last ditch is to install a non-Toyota unit or part. I would get pricing on rebuild parts and on the entire unit. If the price difference is large (only you can determine) go for the rebuild. If you discover that it is beyond repair, you buy the entire OEM unit or possibly a junkyard unit. Keep in mind that the rebuild price is not limited to the price of parts...your labor, skinned knuckles and hours of swearing are part of the total cost :whistles: Best wishes and let us know how it goes.

Cool beans, 1990ls400! Never knew such a device existed. And when not working on the car its good for a colonoscopy :D

Wow, what an interesting problem to have! Ok, I have several things to mention then you can dismiss my remarks as bogus ;) You mention that the engine will run normal on just one cam sensor. If that is so, just leave the one disconnected and drive it! Life is too short to wonder why it wont run as engineered. sorry, couldnt resist And if it runs on one, does it matter which one? If you can isolate the sensor causing the erroneous timing then you can concentrate on that side. I am also wondering if something is loose such as the sensor or mount(I admit to not knowing much about how it is mounted). A dynamic shift of the sensor while starting might cause erratic timing behaviour. How is the cam timing mark on each camshaft WRT the mark on the crankshaft? Is it possible that there is a factory mismarking of the timing mark on one of the cams? Could the camshaft itself be flexing enough to cause a problem? (defective camshaft). Is the correct camshaft in the car? Fire away!

Although the symptoms appear to indicate a fuel delivery problem, have you checked the ignition? A simple test would be to remove the air filter and spray some starter fluid into the intake as it begins to die. If it keeps running then you indeed have a fuel issue. If not, then ignition.

I have not had this problem but it sure sounds like an intermittent power steering pump problem. Have you checked the fluid level and does the PS pump leak?