pishta

I am a telephone man in Long Beach, CA and I see boatloads of beaten 1st Gen Ls400's. They are everywhere. They are tanks and seem to be highly prized by African-American and Cambodians. Dont know why, but those 2 ethnic groups are always driving the worst looking 400's. They all sound great though. I saw an unlocked, windows down abandoned one for 2 months behind an apartment building and was very close to grabbing the clear climate control unit, but didnt want to lose a good job for a $100 piece. A week later it was gone.

I do think that the people on this forum are only concerned with getting the best performance possible from these fabulous cars....and again thanks for all the great info, and discussion, everyone. :D I have heard that the difference in the green (ethelyn glycol)and the GM orange/red (propolyn glycol) is it (dex-cool)is non silicated, is non- poisonous and can go 5/150k miles between change out. It also had a tendency to foul the plastic intake gaskets and create a crystalization/ sedimentary sludge that gunked up smaller passages. I went to green in my 98 Suburban after my plastic/aluminum composite heater nipple disintegrated. It is also glycol based. Funny thing about Dex-cool coolant, you need to keep the level of coolant to the hot mark, even if it is a cold motor. That means overfilling the reservoir per a GM TSB. You see as air and heat become involved (a boil over and the resulting loss of coolant, replaced by air) funny things start to happen: " Propylene Glycol oxidizes when exposed to air and heat. When this occurs, organic acids are formed viz. Glycolic acid, Glyoxalic acid, Formic acid, Carbonic acid & Oxalic acid. If not properly inhibited, this fluid can be very corrosive. Protodin is added to Propylene Glycol to act as a buffer, preventing low pH attack on the system metals. It forms a protective skin inside the tank and pipelines which helps to prevent acid attack that cause corrosion. Beside cooling system breakdown, biological fouling also occurs. Once bacterial slime starts the corrosion rate of the system increases. In system where a glycol solution is maintained on a continuous basis, regular monitoring of freeze protection, pH, specific gravity, inhibitor level, color and biological contamination should be checked on routine basis. Propylene glycol should be replaced when it turns reddish in color." funny how it turns red when it is bad, when it comes dyed red from the factory...Use Toyota red, or green but flush it every 2 years. I use Green in my classic Mopar but have noticed pitting in a brand new aluminum intake water passage only a year after installing.

Sorry if this has been covered, but I have an off idle stumble that is slightly annoying. If I just ease onto the gas, painfully slow, I can get a uniform acceleration, runs like a top. But if I drive it like a normal person here in So. Cal, I get a slight hesitation right off idle, lik ethe car is downshifting or something. If you could graph the RPM's, it would be a steady rise with a flat spot at around 1300 for about 1/4 second. As if the trans is doing something. It runs fine besides that. Any idea? Maybe a slack throttle cable, or out of adjustment? I can press the accelerator down about 1/2 inch without any response. Just hit 100K Miles.

[ 12/24/2002 74,032 Toyota of Winter Haven Winter Haven, FL 863-956-1123 www.toyotaofwinterhaven.com ww.toyotaofwinterha ven.com Vehicle serviced Manufacturer's recommended maintenance performed 03/07/2003 76,288 Toyota of Winter Haven Winter Haven, FL 863-956-1123 www.toyotaofwinterhaven.com ww.toyotaofwinterha ven.com Vehicle serviced 05/12/2003 Florida Motor Vehicle Dept. Davenport, FL Title #0067349142 Registration issued or renewed Registered as personal vehicle Loan or lien reported Vehicle color noted as White 12/08/2003 87,314 Toyota of Winter Haven Winter Haven, FL 863-956-1123 www.toyotaofwinterhaven.com ww.toyotaofwinterha ven.com Vehicle serviced Brakes checked You owe m a beer The service was performed at 74k, whats the timing belt at, 90k or 60K?

Wait up, ALL bushings and ball joints for 200 or 200 in labor plus parts? Some of those bushings are 70 bucks a piece! I would like to know exactly what they replaced, as everyone else and where they got the parts. Mine is due...just turned 100K miles.

Wait up, the "engineer" pounded the carrier with a hammer to remove the ball joints? YIKES! I would rather have seen him use the ball joint puller at about 30 seconds a piece to remove the ball joint studs from the mounts. Wonder if he hammers off the balancer after removing the crank nut? On a lighter note, how much was all the bushings replaced? Mine is about due, a little shimmy at speed and a light clunk over big bumps from the front end.

Looks great up front, it was just a little "warped" from shipping or something. They guys were very cool about the return visit, I believe they will take care of me if needed in the future, I actually walked away with a pretty good feeling about the whole thing.

Well, it was their insurance that was billed so I am not out any money, just time away from the car. ill get them to look at it today. Well, they warrant their work, and the parts they use for life, so that is good news. The manager there worked at Toyota until 94 so he knows these cars well. He admitted that the hood did have the creases but he also said that they were not stress caused. They would show up in other areas as well. I told him that I was concerned about the strength of the hood with the hood supports, and he noted that the hood supports on there were not stock (I put them on, unknown to him) and they were way too stiff for that hood. He backed his warranty and said if the hood ever starts to buckle, just bring it back and they would make good on the warranty. They also blocked the hood to make it flush with the fender. Im OK with their work so Ill "let it ride" for now. I am going to go with his recommendation and disconnect my adapted hood supports for now, as they were made for a 200 lb hatchback anyway and I have heard of a hood start to buckle from using them on another site. Ill put them back on when I sell it if I ever do, but for now, ill just use a prop stick. FYI, these lifts were pretty stiff. You could pull the hood down about an inch before you would start compressing the cylinders, that was the amount of hood flex on the original hood.

Well, it was their insurance that was billed so I am not out any money, just time away from the car. ill get them to look at it today.

I just got my 91 LS400 back from the body shop, they replaced the hood and repainted the front end after a minor hood buckling impact. My "new" hood (its not, its obviously from a recycler) has 2 1 inch creases outboard of each hood strut (see pics) I dont know if they are factory or if they are actually creased from out of spec hood supports. Can anyone look under their OEM hood and see if it is perfectly smooth outboard of the hood supports or is there a small crease there? My hood sits a little high (1-2mm) see pic on driver side compared to good pass side, on one side but is lined up at the corners, like it is bowed a little. I can only tell because the other side sits perfectly flush with the fender lines. I dont want to push down on it as I think it is the body shops duty to get this correct after >$3000 of work. Thanks.

Is that not the cold start assist? Does it (did it) go to a servo looking thing by the coil? If it starts OK, I would disregard but at least put a nice pipe plug in it.

Oh well, at least she fessed up to it and not hassling us about the claim. Yikes, first 2 quotes...1900 and 3600. High one is a new hood at $600, new light pod @ $440 and a $440 recon bumper skin plus alot of paint, low one is fixing hood and buffing bumper skin and aligning headlight, both quoted 5 days. 40 hours labor and lots in paint! I would almost request the hood be straightened rather than new one repainted as it would look better then the rest of the car, but I do want a new bumper skin ;-)

I dont think the wimpy horn had anything to do with this air head driver, this was in a church parking lot! not alot of ambient sound around this orderly procession of cars. The lady was driving a company truck, insured (cha ching!) and is going to write us a check for the damages under the insurance radar. Had an ex insurance adjuster friend glance at it and quickly said 1500...jeez. Ill take the money and get a Lexus dismantler hood and bend out the light support myself. bumper didnt get hit, just the top was "wiped" with the plastic bumper trim. I have not tried to open the hood yet, Ill let the body shop estimator do that. Is there anyhting that close to the grill that may be damaged? I JUST replaced my pass fender with a dismantler piece and it matched perfectly, I kinda want to do the same with the hood as the factory paint is so nice on these cars. I have seen body shop sprayed paint that looks like wallpaper. I would like to get the bumper skin replaces as it is slightly marred here and the pass corner from the last owners collision with a wall. Oh well, at least she fessed up to it and not hassling us about the claim.

Looks like it ran right up the pole guide line. Those are very strong and are buried 9 feet deep and have a 1.5 square foot anchor on the end.

Oh man! My wife was in a parking lot picking up the kid and a new Siverado P/U backed up right into her. Lady was in R and thought she was in P, bent over to do something and the truck backed right into me newly repaired 92. Never hit the brakes until she hit my car! Wife was laying on the horn but couldnt back up because there was someone behind her. Lady heard the horn but didnt "put it together" that she may be moving...dumb...anyway. Buckled the hood and pushed the driver light assy in a little and scraped the top of the bumper. There should be a law on bumper heights....Check out the damage... What do you think, new hood (or straightened) fixed light support and maybe a painted bumper cover? I dont know what insurance fixes or replaces now days but a new painted hood is going to look a little different than a 14 year old paint job, eh?

Just get a harness made for a year correct Lexus, it connects to your Lexus harness and has labeled wires that will attach to the DVD unit. Just use solder to connect the 2 harness'.

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/lighting/h3conversion.html http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Xenon-Bulbs...sspagenameZWDVW

As long as the fluid level is between the hot and cold marks on the stick, you're OK, provided the fluid is at operating temperature. When checking the fluid level immediately after refilling the transmission and before you drive off, it's a good idea to step on the brake and shift the transmission into each gear for a short moment. This is to make sure that all the fluid passageways are filled with fluid that may have partially emptied when the pan was drained. When refilling any automatic transmission, my SOP is to refill the transmission until the fluid is at the low level. I then take it for a test drive (5-10 miles of in town driving) to get the fluid up to operationg temperature. I then check and refill to the correct level. BTW, long periods of freeway driving can heat the fluid enough to where it will read higher than normal (due to fluid expansion). I may add that the transmission at rest, motor turned off, will drain the torque convertor and back fill the pan to a higher level than when it is running. that is when the pump fills the torque convertor and the measurable level drops to cold or warm levels. Take the advise and replace whatever you drained and then check after a few minutes.That'll fill the TQ and drain the dipstick walls of any clinging trans fluid that can hamper a good indication of where the level really is.

Check it when it is cold and running, the torque convertor drains and backfills the pan when it is not running and that is when the level seems too high. running fills the TQ, lowering the level in the pan to operating level. check it then in P and only after you cycle the trans from P to L/1 back to park, pausing about 3 seconds at every gear, that fills the passages up, making the measurement more accurate.

Sounds like the lock up clutch in the torque converter. A flush and fill with type T 4 transmission fluid will help out loads. Probably needs a filter change while they are in there. Lexus doesn't fix these, they just install a rebuilt one from Lexus according to some posts. If you go independent on this job, insist that they use the type T 4 fluid, no Dextron or other fluid will do, bring it with you if in doubt.

How about the visor vanity mirror power supply or even the rear view mirror? I dont know if the voltage is correct but worth try.

I did a down and dirty toe in alignment with a piece of smooth rope. I know the front and rear track are identical, so I tied off the rope to the rear sway bar and wrapped the rope around the rear of the tire tread, 1/2 way up. I then ran the tight rope through the front tire outside edge, 1/2 way up and noted the alignment of the front tires. Mine were off about 1/8 toe in on one side and almost straight on the other. I made sure the steering wheel was straight and went at the tie rods. I was able to get the wheel straight and the toe in back to 0 after a few adjustments and then pushing the car forward a few feet and then back to get the tires to adjust to the tie rod changes. Seeing the toe in is .09 +- .09, I will live with 0. My wheel has a very slight left turn correction but I blame that on the crowned roads here. A proper alignment at a shop can factor this phenom in and get it straight up. I tried laser levels and chalk lines, etc, but in a KISS moment (keep it simple, stupid) I remembered the rope trick and it has even removed a slight vibration I had at highway speed, most likely a tire scrub vibe.

Is the fan operated off the belt (car is not here for me to check) look at the fan support bracket and maybe a out of balance fan,missing a blade or something similar

3 G's for a 118k LS400..If it had the timing belt and water pump changed out already, I would consider it. A/C not working is probably just lack of freon (R12 in this car) The Dent in the hood is cosmetic, but looks horrible on a car of this caliber, the headlight is very pricey, you need to shop it at a yard as they are about 250 a piece. If you are looking for a reliable car that is relatively inexpensive to maintain, then this may not be for you. I would consider a 4WD Subaru in your neck of the woods.

You know, I dont like any of them. IMHO, This car just does not float my boat with the wagon wheels and the ground effects. I like the 95 16 inch OEM 5 hole brushed rims, but that is about it.