pishta

You can check plug wires the really old fashioned way by just using an ohmeter, specs are in the DIY plug section. Before you start checking plugs, I would take the covers off and start the car in a completely dark garage and check for any arcing from the plug wires, then air out and pull each plug wire and Ohm it out. Mine were all within specs after 96k and 15 years. Platinum plugs were OEM with a gap of .044, never gap a platinum plug.

Coil...Buy one and swap either out until you get satisfaction. I dont think ANY of those symptoms can cause a missfire, only a lack of high voltage to the plug, ie. coil, wires, rotor, cap, plug in that order.

QUICKQUICKQUICK!!! I just did a check and found 1 set available with them now, they must keep a low stock for "marketing reasons" http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-Lower-Bal...54321QQtcZphoto Hope you get them! They are still there, get 'em while they are HOT! Best Suspension Ball joints Yeah, I am sure they have a HUGE stock but say they only have 1 or 2 in at a time to encourage the emotional "it might be sold to someone else soon" purchase. I doubt it, Someone in here called and they were OUT. They will sell all day at 55 a pair. they should start stocking the poly bushings and UCA's

Cant beat these guys, I got my lowers from them dirt cheap. Best Suspension What did the symptoms act like for the tie rod ends? I get a lot of road feedback when I go over a rut in the road in a turn, like the steering wheel kinda jerks. Any idea what that could tell me? Tie rod ends seemes OK when I did the lower BJ's as far as I remember.

QUICKQUICKQUICK!!! I just did a check and found 1 set available with them now, they must keep a low stock for "marketing reasons" http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-Lower-Bal...54321QQtcZphoto Hope you get them! They are still there, get 'em while they are HOT! Best Suspension Ball joints

Cant beat these guys, I got my lowers from them dirt cheap. Best Suspension

Like they sais 200 bucks for the uppers and about 60-100 for the lower BJ's. Lowers are about 1 hours work, pretty easy, 4 bolts. Uppers need to remove the strut and that is a pain. Have not attempted yet, but it looks time consuming.

the parts are under 200 total and require about 2 hours of work under the car. rear and pass side are easy, driverside needs to drop steering rack and install. could save alot of money by going around Lexus either way.

Search for the thread here and DIY, will save you a lot. two hours work, done. just change the pump not the reservior. rebuild the soft parts for 10 bucks plus shipping, craigslist in NY somewhere. Probably a hard cracked internal O ring seal that is on the pressure side. directions online here.

If your motor is getting oily dirty, something is leaking. If you are getting a black soot around any A/C fittings, they are leaking, if you are getting a spatter from the fan, your fan clutch is leaking. I always try to keep a motor clean. Dust can be hosed off, but any petroleum based stain has to be addressed. If you HAVE to clean a motor, I would recommend using the degreaser setting (green foam stuff) on the local DIY car wash and I would do it on a running motor. If you hit something that makes your car stall, you know exactly what needs to be dried off. I would rinse the green off with the low pressure spot free rinse. It is at a low pressure that would not compromise the weatherproof boots or fittings and it dries without spotting. A dirty motor is concealing any leaks that it may be starting. I did this procedure on my 98 Suburban and never stalled it or had an ignition problem related to the washing and the motor was always clean for me to spot any potential problems.

The bad news is that I cannot find a replacement. I downloaded catalogs from major U-Joint suppliers like Neapco, Rockford and GMB. No one lists the size required. I did find that it is a very special U-Joint as is the entire drive shaft. Its a design similar to the Mercedes, circa 1990. The Mercedes U-Joint came the closest. Right length, wrong cap diameter. Unless I have a breakthrough tonight in finding one, I'll order a rebuilt driveshaft. (to mwc0610) I wish I could find a correct U-Joint to install. Lexus is great but I can't understand why they didn't make this driveshaft more serviceable. At least the new driveshaft will have a new center bearing and be balanced. The center bearing is available on-line at Parts.com for the 1990 thru 1994. I am not familiar with the 1995 LS400 but I assume it has a center bearing too. I didn't see a 1995 listed at Parts.com. Its a little rare but you can probably find it. So many things can cause vibration its hard to pin down, especially if its a driveshaft. My car fooled some real experts that I ddeal with all the time. I couldn't be sure until I had mine apart. But as others have said, try the simpler and cheaper things first. Looks like you did that already though. For the forum: Any recommendation on a good drive shaft supplier? Elvis So the MB piece is close but the wrong cap diameter? Can a wiz on a lathe make some adapters thatll make the caps fit, are they too small or big. How about some or dimensions? Im a manufacturing process major and a firm believer that anything can be adapted to work as OEM. I also know that a driveshaft shop can make ANYTHING work, ie. hacking both ends and grafting a real Generic spicer U joint girdle to each side!

The bad news is that I cannot find a replacement. I downloaded catalogs from major U-Joint suppliers like Neapco, Rockford and GMB. No one lists the size required. I did find that it is a very special U-Joint as is the entire drive shaft. Its a design similar to the Mercedes, circa 1990. The Mercedes U-Joint came the closest. Right length, wrong cap diameter. Unless I have a breakthrough tonight in finding one, I'll order a rebuilt driveshaft. (to mwc0610) I wish I could find a correct U-Joint to install. Lexus is great but I can't understand why they didn't make this driveshaft more serviceable. At least the new driveshaft will have a new center bearing and be balanced. The center bearing is available on-line at Parts.com for the 1990 thru 1994. I am not familiar with the 1995 LS400 but I assume it has a center bearing too. I didn't see a 1995 listed at Parts.com. Its a little rare but you can probably find it. So many things can cause vibration its hard to pin down, especially if its a driveshaft. My car fooled some real experts that I ddeal with all the time. I couldn't be sure until I had mine apart. But as others have said, try the simpler and cheaper things first. Looks like you did that already though. For the forum: Any recommendation on a good drive shaft supplier? Elvis So the MB piece is close but the wrong cap diameter? Can a wiz on a lathe make some adapters thatll make the caps fit, are they too small or big. How about some or dimensions? Im a manufacturing process major and a firm believer that anything can be adapted to work as OEM. I also know that a driveshaft shop can make ANYTHING work, ie. hacking both ends and grafting a real Generic spicer U joint girdle to each side!

I would consider hosing down a modern motor, maybe hitting it with some foamy cleaner and then a hose, but I would strongly discourage a pressure wash. Many sensors and sockets have weatherproof boots and so on but they dont fare well under 1800 PSI pressure. Friend did a Northstar motor with a pressure washer, couldnt start it for 4 days! If you insist on a pressure washer, dont pressure wash the intake or valve covers, just direct the stream toward the side of the block only.

There was a thread earlier about wind noise that was tracked down to a bad hood seal under the trailing edge of the hood under the wiper area, maybe something simple like that. I think it was even a TSB.

You live at lower ambient air pressure at altitude, I wonder if the sensor is so sensetive that it detects the lower ambient air pressure as a leak? I would get a call into a Denver Lexus dealership and try and talk to a master tech there, see if he has ever heard of that problem.

Not quite correct. If you own a 1st Gen LS, you are out of luck on the online owners manual. Not available on the website.

I have only seen that happen withc ars that have air suspension. Basically it has air bags for shocks in the back. Helps smooth out the ride a LOT more. I'm just not sure and a bit surprised that you might actually have that on your car. I'm sure there is someone here that has had more personal experience with your kinda car. Does your car have ginormous shocks? Do they have an air line going into them from the engine compartment? Lots of LS's had the air suspension that leaks down over time, when you start it up, the onboard air compressor pumps the shocks back up and your ride height is returned. You can attempt to repair the bad seal with "slime" (green goo that is used to repair punctured tires) or but reman units from Arnett for about 1-200 a piece. I dont know where you are located but there was a complete coil change over kit on craigslist for under 200 bucks.

Dads 91 SC400 135k. I hear a cyclic noise coming from the ABS control unit, or whatever the ABS thing is to the left of the radiator, sounds like power steering pump. comes and goes usually for about 4-5 seconds at a time minutes or hours apart. while stopped or driveing. Was told not to worry about it by the old ownerr, but any random noise sparks my interest in an otherwise silent car. Car is showroom maintained. thanks

Buy the bushings and swing by my house over a sat and Ill do 'em for you for 60 bucks. That is less than Lexus rates by about 90% PM me if in OC, So. Cal. ---------Melon, check your PM.

95-96 and newer used the OBD2 diagnostic computer that shows codes via scan tool, its a generic coupler across the board so codes can be read by any OBD2 scan tool. Before these were proprietary interfaces and the computer would either show codes on its own proprietary reader or flash codes after a jumper is inserted into 2 sockets of the plug. 91 LS400 will flash codes when jumped by flashing the CEL in a morse code type fashion, counted flashes, a pause and then a second set of counted flashes, like 123...1234........123...1234....that would tell you you had a code 34 stored or active, then you look up code 34 in this forum and itll say something like "downstream 02 r side malfunction" or whatever.

Looked for a few minutes on the internet for track width specs to see if my toe out was screwed up, found this handy table. Now to get my steering wheel straightened out!

Your owners manual will direct you on what to do to reset it. How about just telling us? Many are used car buyers that dont have the manual in front of us or have it anywhere for that matter. Answers like this are frustrating!

Could you splice an Ipod out into the pink/blue and violet/lt. green input of the head unit? Would that give you an "in" into the stock amp?

Try to search. There are a LOT of threads here about that. IAC valve is on PS pump, bottom side. You are not supposed to clean it. You are supposed to clean PS rack solenoid. Its on the PS rack with 2 wires sticking out... The IAC, Idle Air Control, provides the method whereby airflow bypasses the CLOSED throttle valve to supply enough airflow for keeping the engine at idle RPM. So the functional parts are likely to be mounted very nearby the throttle valve. I would venture to say the the IAC valve is the device coming out of the front of the intake air horn. It is a stepper motor attached to a conical valve that allows a controlled amount of air to bypass around the closed butterfly valve. When cleaning it, you generally take the stepper motor out and that pulls the valve out. Clean the valve so the sealing surface is carbon free and smooth, shoot the rest of the cleaner into the orifice that the valve goes into and that usually takes care of any idle problems barring any vacuum leaks or other malfunctions.

Have your fan belt checked. You can replace it yourself if needed, it's pretty straight forward. Does it whine or howl? A howl is the classic "turn your wheels and the wolves start singing". That is a loose belt. A whine in my experience is low fluid, cavitating right above the impeller, top it off and you should be OK. There is a pump and rack rebuild kit on craigslist for 10 bucks plus shipping! All the soft parts you need, looks like a bunch of O-rings. Couldnt hurt.