IS400

You do not have to take off the distributors to do this repair, just what you see on my garage floor. You just take off the timing belt tensioner cylinder to get the access you need. Not the pulley that touches the belt, just the cylinder below it that keeps it against the belt. Take a soft mallet and tap the pulley toward the passengers side of the car to give you enough slack to get the belt off of the crank sprocket. When you re-install make sure to have all your slack in the belt on the same side as the tensioner or else when you tighten things up the cams will move and give you some serious stress! I scored a mark on the distributor with the edge of a screwdriver that matched the cam mark so that if things jumped I knew where to put the cam to get it back to top dead center. All in all I'd rather be back on the cruise ship again. I swear the car is punishing me for taking a vacation and bringing the Miata out of storage for the spring!

Here are the rest of the pictures

Here is what you are up against doing a front crank seal. The seal itself turned in the race and the rubber was so hard it broke when I used the drill and screw method to get it out. The hardest part is keeping the cams in the proper position while you put the timing belt back in place. I used FIPG sealant on the outside and synthetic axle grease on the inside and along the sprocket when I replaced it. No scoring on the crank, though I did clean it up a bit with some 1000 grit paper. My puller did not have long enough metric bolts to do the sprocket and had to make a puller plate with hardware store bolts to get it far enough along on the snout to use the store bought puller. I'll add more commentary later. BTW my shirt says, "I got out of bed for this?" I think it is funny for such a pain in the butt repair...

Thanks guys! I agree on the black sealant. I have used permatex before and have half a tube left, is that FIPG sealant? Also all the DIY sites show other cars having a one piece seal you hammer in with a socket, with no mention of a gasket. What parts should I be ordering if it is just a simple swap out of the bad seal? Is it simple to remove the old one or do I need to rent a tool. I have the hand held seal puller, kind of looks like a small misshapen tomahawk. BTW, just got the car in the garage and the radiator is out. It would be nice if I could just get to the seal without taking everything apart, but it seems there just is no other way.

Oil fipg? Is that a typo?

I just changed the timing belt a year and a half ago. At least I know how to get to it. Time to take some vacation time again for the car. At least it did not happen on a long trip. You are right that must be where the quart of oil every six months was going. Drip, drip... ...I won't ignore them again!

Noticed drops of oil on driveway. Looked under car. Huge puddle of liquid under the engine. Started the car and left it running. Looked under car and oil was streaming from the area of the oil pan. After cleaning up the area and watching with a flashlight while running, confirmed it is originating not from the area of the oil pan gasket, but from under a small plastic cover with 1/4 inch square cut out of it, just behind the harmoninc balancer and in front of the oil pan. Has anyone had this happen before? My guess is the seal for the harmonic balancer. Picture is with engine off. Auto focus does not work properly because it keeps trying to get the sway arm or balancer instead of the leak area. Out of two dozen tries this is the best one I could get Thanks for any advice that might apply to this before I tear down more than I might have to. BTW engine still runs smooth and there is no overheating or anything else that is abnormal.

You may get lucky and have both sides work out for you, but I could only get one side by going through the spring coils. The other side was completely blocked no matter how high or low the wheel was jacked. Taking out the shock is not that hard as long as you soak everything over night with a liquid wrench type product. Good luck!

I'm a girl and don't have the strength of the men on here, so I have to use my brain instead. What I have found is that these Lexus cars are 99% metric. So when you go buy your tool set, mine was from Lowes and was about $100, I made sure to get the metric and not the inch or whatever set. Get Jack stands, you will need at least four. I have six. When you are not sure the car is supported, add another where it will fit. Support the suspension, whatever and the frame when you can. Look for the little notches under the doors where the factory jack fits. That is a good place to put your jack stands. The best place to put the jack in the front is the cross member that goes across the oil pan. It is oddly shaped and you will have to look for a place that the 'claws' of the jack will sit without slipping. In the back, put the jack on the differential. It is the basketball shaped do-hickey that looks like a pumkin and has the gears that transmit power to the rear wheels. Just watch carefully as you raise the car. Things will move and shift around, but as long as the car looks balanced over the jack, you are golden. FYI. Keep the jack in place even when the jack stands are used. I slack the jack and let the car rest on the stands, but unless the jack is in the way I NEVER remove it. Free insurance from being squashed IMO. As far as a hydraulic jack, I bought one from a name brand parts store a few years back and have not had any problems. The ones at harbor freight look just as good to me. Harbor freight is a GREAT place to get special tools. If I am going to bleed my brakes once or twice in the life of the car, I'd rather pay 1/4 the cost of sears IMO. The best thing to get is a set of little tools. Needle nose pliers, small crescent wrench, multiple standard and phillips screwdrivers, anti-seize lube to put on bolts that you remove from the car and don't want frozen on you the next time. Above all, get on here and ask. As long as you are polite, we will give you the keys to the castle! If you don't need it, don't buy it. TOOLS ARE ADDICTIVE!

I once had weird dash light issues and surging and low idle when a guy washed my engine bay for me. After I drove the few miles to his place to complain (he had dropped it off at the house for me) it got better and better and then when I brought him out to see it after leaving it idling in the lot, it was perfect again. Water in the sensors is my only guess. I wash the engine bay myself from now on.

You can flush it youself using the transmission cooler line that connects to the radiator. I did it and it was messy, but EASY. The gurus on here will be able to tell you where to find it on the site, but I think it is hosted on another guys page though. Good luck!

I agree that the mechanic screwed up somewhere. I had a mechanic replace my brake light switch on my Mach 1 Mustang while in college, and he forgot to put the pin back in that connects the pedal to the brakes! I was scared to death as I careened down a hill with the pedal doing nothing and a t-junction coming up! Rolled through it and up onto a hillside lawn. Got out looked on the floor board and there was the pin! Put it back in and drove to the mechanic. "Well as long as nothing happened, what do you want me to do about it?" One of the many events that made me start reading about car repairs and watch the DIY shows. God you could have been killed so easy! Talk to a lawyer ASAP!

Your mechanic needs a house payment it seems! My water pump leaked for nearly a year before I fixed it myself. It is a very labor intensive repair and needs to be combined with a timing belt replacement at the same time. Unless your timing belt is due to be replaced I'd tell him that you are on the LOC forum. He may change his tune then! If you are not adding coolant every week, the moisture is probably just condensation or a lie.

I'm just a girl, but it sounds like the expansion valve doing something weird. It releases liquid refrigerant into the evaporator and as it flashes to a gas inside that little radiator looking device it removes the heat from the cabin. I am thinking you have a bad valve or poorly assembled connection to the liquid line. Who knows, but it is a place to start.

Mine are from a first generation IS300. 17" and fit perfect in the back and needed only a thin fender washer sized shim for the front. Neat thing is that they are factory lexus and keep you from looking like a 'pimp my ride' winner.

My guess would be a fuse. Take a look in your owner's manual and see if one is listed that operates the functions that failed.

Ryan, Good choice of car. These engines are basically over built. 500,000 miles is not uncommon. If you hear ticking when the engine is idling and the hood is up it is just the valves are slightly out of adjustment. Some say fix them others say leave them the way they are, it is a four valve Over Head Cam Engine. State of the Art in design when they came out. Aluminum blocks just like a Formula One race engine and in fact the same design as the one that powers the last generation of Supras. The orange car in the first fast and furious movie btw. As for your trunk issue. Do a search on here for 'trunk wiring'. It will amaze you how many people have had your same issue. There is a black wire that gets pinched by the drivers side trunk hinge and basically immobilizes the trunk release switch. When mine failed, luckily I had taken out my sub-woofer (Under the rear brake light speaker cover) and was able to snake my arm in there and wiggle the harness a lot while someone else triggered the switch over and over again from the front seat. After a couple of minutes it finally popped and we found the wire had completely broken in half after removing all the yards of black tape and wire looming. Short of a locksmith I do not know how to get around it unless you too have the sub-woofer out. The power steering issue is straight forward and again do a search on here 'power steering leak' to track down what is going on with yours. BTW that leak is what most likely killed your alternator. The parking brake light may be that your rear shoes are not retracting all the way. I NEVER use my parking brake after they locked on me one time. With an automatic it is really unnecessary unless you live in an area as hilly as San Fran. or something. Not a problem in Texas to leave the P. Brake alone from now on. To adjust the parking brake is actually kind of fun, but be careful! Spray the parking brake cable really well with brake free or liquid wrench where it goes into the back of the wheel and around the brake adjustors at the bottom of the back of the wheel. The next day find an empty parking lot and go backward at around 20-25 mph and do a panic stop. I mean really try to stop the car FAST. Like a kid jumped out in front of you or something. Do this twice and I bet the light goes off. This is also a good fix for those that have that annoying slow speed 'grinding' noise from the back off the car. It is just the rear internal brake shoes dragging. External main brakes are discs that you can see and the emergency brake is internal shoes that you cannot see. There are no shoes on the front brakes BTW. Good luck on the car and post some pics when you can.

1. 'Spoiled boy' as a screen name is not going to give you much credibility here. It sounds like you are bragging. 2. This section of the lexus forum is mostly UK, USA and Canadian members that like to fix their own cars. 3. If you truly are spoiled and probably pay the mechanic to put on your wiper blades, it is the wrong site for you. 4. Good luck with your english, at least you are trying and that deserves respect. B) 5. Do not start PM'ing me after you read my profile. MY BF is a 6'3" 220 lb GI JOE.

I had a similar thing happen once while driving a black 1973 Mach 1 Mustang (college car I had to repair nearly ever day!) Going around a soft 180 degree corner and when the car hit the ice it just starting sliding sideways to the other side of the road, into two lanes of traffic! It was like God had reached out and just started pushing me into traffic. The terrible, "Ohh crap this is going to hurt!", feeling fell over me. Turned the wheel with zero response. Tapped the brakes, zero response. Then the car reached the center turn lane between the four lanes of opposing traffic and caught dry pavement. I braked and slowed, turned back into a lane and drove home like a little old lady, while experiencing the whizzy, leg shaking after effects of that much adrenalin. After that near tragic event, I ceased to be the wild driving, wheel standing, terrorize the rice hondas, "Mustang Sally" of the neighborhood. I bought the LS and started driving safe.

The strut bar looks like a long bar of steel that runs horizontally from the frame of the car in the front to each front wheel. There is a left one and a right one. You have to get on the ground on your back to see them. If you look real close you can see the bush on the frame side as a black lump of rubber in a round hole. The wishbone thing is the upper control arm and at least two feet away from the strut bars. Don't look on top of the tire, look at the front of the tire where it meets the ground and crawl under and look around with a flashlight. Be careful and used jack stands if you are raising the nose of the car with a jack though.

Not from my experience. They will make noise when the car is not moving and you move the wheel left to right a little. You can also feel play in the tire when you try to move it side to side when the car is up on a lift or up on a jack with both wheels off the the ground. Your steering will also wander if they are worn enough to make noise. Track along grooves in the road and such. My money is on the strut bars.

I got two new strut rods since, as the others say, the labor to assemble the new bushes to the old rods with be more than buying the rods complete. They are pretty straightforward to replace. If you can do a 4 wheel brake job, you can do these too. Just spray all the bolts the night before so you don't get !Removed! knuckles!

I would bet that the sway bar bushes are not the problem, and to lube them took about 30 seconds a side. They got neurosurgeon rates from you and I'd still report them to the BBB. Yes that was the name, Lindsay had the showroom in one location and the shop down the street a half mile or so. I guess they do not want the used Lexus types mixing with the LS460 buyers... Anyway, my suspension noise was solved by installing new strut bars, the horizontal pieces that connect the frame to the front wheel spindle and a pair of arnott industries upper control arms. The UCA's were cluncking like mad over speed bumps when I got the car, but I knew how to fix the prob., the strut bar noise only happened once in a while and took me some time to feel it was worth taking care of. The car is quiet now and the new sway bar bushes I bought before figuring out the strut bar was the noise I was hearing, are still sitting un-used in a garage drawer.

I was in the Alexandria, VA area last summer and their Lexus Dealer tried to rip me off for $3,900 to fix my AC when it was only an o-ring behind the battery.

I agree with everyone else. That price is lowwwwww. I would expect $2,270 from a dealer for the job, not $270. Is this just the parts? The whole day is going to be spent doing this job and at standard labor rates the price you were given is not making sense to me or anyone else it seems.