TA in KC

The compressor could be low on refrigerant. If there is not enough it will not come on.

If the car still has the original water pump with 278K on it, you should probably go ahead and change it. I think that is pretty unlikely though. The one in there now is probably newer than that and works fine. The mechanic who changes the belt should be able to tell you what kind of condition the WP is in. Again, if the cooling system maintenace was done on time, you shouldn't need to replace it.

1st of all you need to replace timeing belt. If it breaks, you will be in trouble. When changing TB, you need to change belt, water pump and tenstioner because they are all in the same place and replacing them is expensive. o once you take it apart you might as well change every thing otherwise after a while you water pump goes bad and you have to the same amount. It had a mechanic changed mine at my house for $250.00 . I bought the parts.ofcourse after market ones. Water pump $60.00, belt $25.00 (italian made) I did not change tensioner then now after a year it has started making noise. Water pump from dealer s $130.00 tensioner around $170.00 . belt aroun $65.00. for a car that old buy after -market parts. try rockauto.com good luck No, you do not need to replace the belt, and if it breaks you will not be in trouble. ESs did not have interference engines until 1999. If the belt breaks on your car, it will not do any damage. You will just be stranded. That doesn't sound like that would be a problem for you since you don't take the car long distances. If you do decide to change the belt, you shouldn't have to change the water pump unless you or the previous owners did not keep up with the cooling system maintenance. Even on a car this age, it is still a good idea to use Toyota-genuine parts. The price difference between them and aftermarket ones is insignificant. It is good peace of mind knowing your car still has the same kind of timing belt/water pump it did when it left the factory.

Have you looked into a 1996-97 LX450? They have the same great looks as the early Land Cruiser, and, although more expensive, I would think one of those would be a very easy transition from your LS. I do not care for the way large SUVs drive, but if I had to have one, the LX would probably be my top pick for that reason. I would stay away from that 1998 Accord though. Actually, I would run away. That vintage of Accord is notorious for transmission failures. Some family members of mine who were, and still are, loyal Honda owners, had a 2001 Accord with the same drivetrain as that 1998. Last year, the car was rear-ended and totalled. At that time, it was on it's 3rd transmission.

Update- Chrome wheels are gone. I will have another set coming soon, not sure what style they are, but if you are interested, contact directly. Thanks, Thomas

Did the car actually run rough before the accident? I can't tell you much about the transmission, but I think it is certainly worth your time to get the other small problems fixed, if nothing else. It sounds like they would bother me more than they bother you. But, when the time comes that you finally sell the car, those small problems could change somebody's mind about whether the collision repair was excellent, or just a half-a$$ job.

I have a family member whose situation was sort of like yours. He drove a 2001 Ford Crown Victoria LX. Used to driving front-wheel drive cars most of his life. This car was rear-wheel drive. He was driving around rural Nebraska in the winter, and the car slipped on black ice, spun around, and the entire right side hit a concrete culvert. $15,000 in damage. Since the accident was away from home here in Kansas City, he could not have the car repaired at the excellent body shop here that he would have preferred. The place in Nebraska that did the repair did a good job matching the paint, but the car still had little mechanical and electrical issues similar to the ones you are describing with your LS. The paint on the bumper also started to flake off less than 3 days after he brought the car back home. He kept the car for about 2 weeks after the accident before selling it and purchasing a different car. I would think the body shop that did the work on your car would give some kind of warranty to cover things like you are describing. You would think they would stand behind their work. The car is obviously not in the same condition it was before the accident. Have you contacted the shop and let them know about the problems?

A headgasket failure is extremely uncommon on this car, pretty much unheard of. There are 3 different drains for the antifreeze, and the location of one of them corresponds with where you are seeing the coolant leak. Have you checked to make sure they are all closed? If you need to know where they are, lexls.com has instructions for flushing the coolant, and they tell you how to find them.

Parting out a white 1993 LS400, no hood, bumper, or headlights. Most everything else is there, but I will be using some small stuff for my car. Has chrome 16" wheels. If you are interested in anything, please contact me directly instead of replying to this thread. Thank you, Thomas Ahart Kansas City area (913) 563-6797 thomas.ahart(at)gmail.com

Remember that your particular year of SC400 has a non-interference engine. Meaning that if the belt breaks, no damage will be done to the engine. If you do not go out of town much, and it would not be a huge problem if the belt did break, you could wait a little while longer. Chances are it will not break for quite a long time though, unless the water pump failed.

There is a wire harness that is attached to the left hinge of the trunk. Over time, repeated opening/closing of the trunk lid can cause those wires to break. It can cause a variety of different things, your issue being one of them. Open the harness up and you will probably find a broken wire. Once that is fixed, the light should go out.

Compressed air ;) I would be careful with compressed air. You do not want to knock one of the tubes loose with the pressure. You may try one of those round, soft wire brushes used to get into small spaces, like under a refrigerator.

You can get them off techinfo.toyota.com as PDF files and burn them onto a CD yourself. It costs $10 for one day's worth of access. During that time you can download all the files you want.

I do not drive a GS, but if I recall correctly, they have the same key/remote style as the LS of that vintage. If you buy a used remote, make sure the FCC IDs match up to your original key, and you should be fine. Programming instructions are all over this forum. Do a search and you should be able to find them. There are 2 different procedures you need to do, one to program the key, and the other to program the remote.

Sounds like a great price. For that much, you could fix the problems and still get a great deal. Wouldn't worry too much about the miles...these cars will run for a long time, much longer than that, if properly maintained.

Thanks, I will give it a try! I went ahead and just used Zaino in the mean time. It smells good, but not the same. I know the parts manager at my local Lexus dealer, so she gave me some of the Lexus leather cleaner to try. It works well and does not make the seats sticky like many of the others, but doesn't really have any smell. Thanks for the suggestion.

Oh my gosh, a house in Overland Park that actually looks unique!!! I use to live there, from 1989 to 1995, graduated from BVN, two years at KU, and on one horribly cold February morning in 1995 at KU, walked up the hill to be greeted by sub zero winds coming from the western side, turned around, walked back down the hill to my apartment on Tenn. street, called my folks to tell them "I'm done, transferring to Carolina in the fall", then called my cheating girlfriend and told her "we're done, I'm tranferring to Carolina in the fall, !Removed!", then called admissions and withdrew from all classes, and haven't looked back since. Admissions lady asked me why, and I said "two years of freezing my butt off, for a 2.9 gpa, just sucks. I'd have a 3.5 if I didn't skip so many classes due to this bitter cold." Granted, I'm from Alabama, so you can imagine the shock. I knew we had made a mistake when we moved there in December of 89' from B'ham. Left 65 degree weather, to be greated with -65 degree windchills. Yes, we have the extremes of hot and cold weather here in KC, but I have learned to live with it. Aside from that, I think life here is perfect and I don't think I will ever leave the area. When you say BVN, I assume you are referring to Blue Valley North High School? My neighborhood is directly east of there. Small world! My brother still lives there, and seems to like it. I like to visit, but after a week or two, i get an itch to come back to NC. If for anything, to stop being starred at due to my acent. Although, I must admit, it sure does play well with the ladies, or at least it did in my 20's. Hahha... Yep, BVN..Blue Valley North. We use to live down along 119th and Switzer, in Nottingham. Then moved to Leawood after I left home for school. Man, has that placed ever grown! I use to make it down 119th from Switzer to school in about 10 minutes, with just a couple stop lights.... now, well, you know the story. Is KenTacoHut still there at 119th & Metcalf? That was the hangout spot for us in highschool. "KenTacoHut" is still there, although the last time I was in there was about 10 years ago. There has been tons of new residential and commercial development here in O.P. the past few years, most of it is south of 135th Street. There are 2 or 3 of those KenTacoHuts near here now. I think I remember reading somewhere that 119th and Metcalf is now the one of the busiest intersections in the Kansas City area. I guess most of the traffic comes from Sprint's world headquaters, which they probably weren't quite finished building when you left KC. I live in Dover Estates, right across from BVN's football field, and just south of Sprint. Luckily there are plenty of trees to cover up the view of those ugly buildings that make up the Sprint campus. Nottingham...know right where that is. Play golf over near there sometimes at Overland Park Golf Course.

My LS still has its original windshield. The glass on Lexus vehicles is made by PPG. I believe I remember reading a post somewhere that getting a new PPG windshield in someone's LS cost around $250. That figure does not usually include seals around the windshield though. A lot of places mess those up when they replace it. So it is important that you have the work done at a place where you are confident of their abilities. Don't know if this is of any value to you, but I know the replacement cow-panel (the seal where the windshield wipers are) costs about $90 for my Camry.

I can always recall that great smell my car's interior had when I first bought it, and just about every other LS I've ever been in. It is very unique and a good leather smell, not like the ones in other cars. It seems to have gone away in my car. Figured I had just gotten used to it, but then I sat in a friend's LS like mine the other day and noticed how much stronger it was in his. His seats are in much worse condition than mine are though. I do not think they have ever been conditioned. I used Blue Magic leather conditioner for about a year until they stopped selling it at my local auto parts store. I have a bottle of Zaino but that does not quite smell the same as my car used to, and I'm not sure I care for its smell. Do you think the Lexus-branded leather conditioner will bring back that unique smell without it being too overpowering?

Has anyone on this site or know anybody that has a 95 that broke a timing belt? Did it damage the engine? Always wondered and have never saw any posts about this I mean real experiences? Also what exactly was done in 95 to change the engine? Thanks very much for replies. There was a huge debate about this earlier, do a search and you will probably find the original thread. In the end, based on several people's experiences, it was determined that the 95-and-up LS has what we call a "quasi-interference" engine. The way the valvetrain and pistons are designed in the updated engine, there is about a 50/50 change of damage when the belt breaks. That is not a chance I would be willing to take. I would only wait for the belt to break on an engine that I knew for sure would not be damaged in any way if that happened.

Oh my gosh, a house in Overland Park that actually looks unique!!! I use to live there, from 1989 to 1995, graduated from BVN, two years at KU, and on one horribly cold February morning in 1995 at KU, walked up the hill to be greeted by sub zero winds coming from the western side, turned around, walked back down the hill to my apartment on Tenn. street, called my folks to tell them "I'm done, transferring to Carolina in the fall", then called my cheating girlfriend and told her "we're done, I'm tranferring to Carolina in the fall, !Removed!", then called admissions and withdrew from all classes, and haven't looked back since. Admissions lady asked me why, and I said "two years of freezing my butt off, for a 2.9 gpa, just sucks. I'd have a 3.5 if I didn't skip so many classes due to this bitter cold." Granted, I'm from Alabama, so you can imagine the shock. I knew we had made a mistake when we moved there in December of 89' from B'ham. Left 65 degree weather, to be greated with -65 degree windchills. Yes, we have the extremes of hot and cold weather here in KC, but I have learned to live with it. Aside from that, I think life here is perfect and I don't think I will ever leave the area. When you say BVN, I assume you are referring to Blue Valley North High School? My neighborhood is directly east of there. Small world!

Remember that the 1990-1994 engines were non-interference, and starting in 1995 they were interference.

The fuse panel is below the driver's side kick panel to the left of the brake pedal. Does that answer your question? I am not exactly sure what you are asking about the fuses. If you register the car with the Lexus service site, you can request for them to send you a new owner's manual. It does not cost anything. If you are looking for the service/repair manual, you can download them with a $10 subscription to techinfo.toyota.com. It is a lot of clicking and saving, but it is much cheaper than buying a paper manual.

Looks good! :)

That has got to be one of the best-looking aftermarket installations I have ever seen. Nice work! ;)