wucantstop

Now I'm getting that IPS error when I try to access any member gallery in the registry section. I'm resurrecting an old post, but it's the same problem it seems like.

wwest, you mentioned the blend door... what's that and where?

Thanks for the help. I haven't looked for it yet, but can you guys tell exactly where the IAT is located and what it looks like? I've never notice it. Thanks.

I just noticed this year when it got cold that my climate control was acting funny. I used the air conditioning all summer and it worked fine, but when the weather cooled down and it came time to use the heat, there was a problem. When I turn climate control on, it blows hot air, which is what it's supposed to do, but the problem is that it always blows on high and at full temperature, even when I have it set to low and 65 degrees. If I have it set to Auto, no matter what temperature I set it blows really hot and at full fan speed. If I put it to the low setting manually, it still blows extremely hot air regardless of the temperature I set. This is too annoying because it's getting cold here in NY now and when I turn the heat on, it heats up quickly and stays very hot - too hot for comfort, so then I have to turn it off or turn it all the way down to max 'cold' to compensate for the extreme heat. Then it gets cold in the car again after a while and...you know the routine. I really want to get this fixed. Does anyone have any ideas? Heater control valve? Some sort of temperature sensor? I have no idea so any help is appreciated.

Tone, it's been a really long time since I've been in the forums, but if I remember correctly, the power steering pump is a common problem on those 1st gen ls's. I had to replace mine a couple years back on my 94. I don't think there's any quick fixes, but it is really important to replace the pump asap because it is positioned right above the alternator and the leaking fluid will kill your alternator quickly. You might not notice at first, but it'll go soon if you let the ps pump keep leaking.

Flanker, was that you that asked me a question on my eBay radio?

So it's the Pioneer deck with no CD changer controls. That means it'll fit 90-94 LSs that weren't Nakamichi equipped? And if there's a CD changer, it won't be able to be connected?

I pulled the radio out of my 94 ls a few months ago and I'm now trying to sell it on ebay. My question is whether or not it will fit in all 90-94 ls400s or only in specific ones like 93-94 or something like that. It's not the Nakamichi, it just says Lexus Premium Sound System. What cars will it fit? I need to tell some potential bidders that would like to know. Thanks for your help!

I had a similar problem while installing lights. Still haven't solved it, but figure it was also a short. The shifter stopped shifting and some of my lights died (all the button backlights on the climate control) and all that, BUT I could still start the car fine. I never completely solved the short. I just used the emergency shifter release to let it free.

Hey all, Can someone tell me where the a/c filter is in my '94 and how I go about checking it? Also, while I'm at it, I recently noticed a gasoline smell in the car on occasions when my driving is heavy on the acceleration. It's very faint, not the scary smell that would make me think it was a leak. I kind of think it's the charcoal filter or whatever it is that neutralizes the gas fumes. Does anyone know what I'm talking about and would you please let me know?

OK, so I feel stupid asking about this, but here goes anyways... Last time I got my oil changed (Indie shop, Mobile 1 synthetic oil), the guy told me I should flush the tranny fluid very soon. My questions are what type of fluid should I use, can I do it myself and how, and is their any danger in doing this on a ten-plus-year-old LS, as I remember reading on the forum somewhere that it could be harmful. Also, what will old tranny fluid do to the car and it's performance? Thanks for putting up with dumb questions, guys.

bicol, I may need new bushings as well. I replaced the rear sway bar bushings and links a few months ago, but have yet to do anything on the front, and my car is beginning to feel the worse for it. Could you tell me exactly where you got the bushings, how to replace them and if they fit perfectly, and also what sort of symptoms worn bushings would cause. My car recently has felt extremely loose in the front and I suspect I might need to do more than just bushings or ball joints. An indie car guy I went to last week said my vibration and rough ride seemed to be caused by worn ball joints, but I'm not positive that that's all that's wrong. I feel a heavy vibration when braking, all throughout the car and in the wheel and pedal. When I hit bumps, it feels very loose and the car responds poorly. Often, on grooved pavement or bumpy roads, there is a considerable amount of shimmy, and the car is feeling less and less stable at high speeds. While I was at the shop with this guy, we put my car on the lift and tried to move the wheels around, and the ball joints are definitely shot, but there didn't seem to be too much give in the bushings. Is there another way to tell what's going on or should I just replace the ball joints and go from there? Would the ball joints be causing all of these problems or does it sound like more is prbably wrong? And, last but not least, do any of you know a good source for the joints or should I just get them from the dealer? They're not insanely overpriced at $117 each, but I know the labor's going to be up there, so any savings I can get would be helpful. Thanks anyone that can help.

GS, it shouldn't be too hard. You could do a couple of things. The easiest would be to find a set of the connector plugs that fit into those sockets and then cut the wires (power and ground) and wire them to whichever accessories you would like them to control. The power wire must go to a power source (could be spliced in behind the radio), and the ground to a ground, with the lights or accessory hooked up in between the switch and the actual power. The other way would be to directly solder you two wires into the switch. In order to find in which direction the current runs (unless your wiring LEDs or some other thing that works regardless of polarity), you probably need one of those volt-meters or circuit continuity testers. Just make sure the button is pressed in and the close the circuit (once it's wired to the power, but before you install the actual accessory. If it works, wire up your stuff and it should be good to go.

I heard from the dealership around the tie I did the brake job that on my car (a '94), there were actually four sensores. Is that wrong?

That is part of what is so confusing. The lights, as with a bunch of lights I installed months ago, are wired directly into a power switch, which I spliced into the power wire that goes to my radio. I didn't cut any factory wires or splice into them. Instead, I ran the power off the power wire that feeds my aftermarket radio, and all the aftermarket lights I connected are all wired through the switch box.

Like lexls said, don't even wire the factory sub. Not only is it crappy, but I put a pair of 12" Audiobahn subs in my car and they were causing the factory sub to move just from the air they were pushing, making a kind of popping noise as the sub topped out. This is without the sub even wired in, just sitting there, so I can imagine a tone of other problems if it was also hooked up. When I removed the sub and added dampening around the hole it used to fill and around the edges of the factory sub grill, the bass was much improved with a lot less discernible distortion.

I have heard a lot of talk about the brake wear sensors and even about how easy they are to break if you don't know what you're doing while changing brakes. I looked at lexls' tutorial on lexls.com and he makes no mention of the sensors. Where are they? How do you replace them? Does just one of them break when your brakes wear down, or all of them? I hope somebody can clarify my understanding of theses sensors.

I have a two-way alarm with pager like VMF, but I, like VMF, also live in Brooklyn, which gives me more of an incentive to keep my car secure. Like he said, I wouldn't go chasing a car thief so I could get shot, but this way, at least I know if someone's in my car, opened the hood, etc., and can call the police quickly. I also have the un-brake-able autolock that lexusfreak mentioned. It comes with a $5000 guarantee against theft, which wouldn't be much in the price of a new 430, but takes care of most of my concerns about having my car stolen. Also, just wanted to emphasize that where you park is the main concern. I used to have a Ford Explorer with an alarm, living in the same place in Brooklyn that I do now. I parked on the street at that point in time. I had an expensive audio system in there with some subs and a TV & PS2, and somebody smashed my window at 2 in the afternoon and grabbed everything. I heard the alarm and ran outside only to see three guys fighting over my equipment. When they saw me, they ran. Needless to say, the first investment in my Lex's security when I got it was to rent a secure parking spot with a camera above it.

Hey all, I have been working on my car all summer and a couple weeks ago decided to install more accent lights to the interior of my car. Though I have often done stereo/lighting work in the car, something was wrong with me this time and I forgot to disconnect the battery before starting. Everything went well as I installed blue LEDs all throughout the car until I got in behind the radio. I took the radio out, and started connecting a couple LEDs which I had run through to all the vents (so they would glow blue from inside the air vents when turned on). All of my lights run through a master switch panel which I had previously mounted under the ignition and wired into the radio power source wire. While doing these last LEDs, I must have accidentally crossed the wires and caused a short. The climate control and radio had stopped working at all. As I expected, I found that the radio fuse in the kick-panel fuse box had blown and I replaced it. When I checked again, everything was working perfectly, including the lights I had just installed, and needless to say, I was relieved. This was in the daytime however, and when night came, I got in my car to drive around and see how the new lights looked at night, and none of my night-time illumination was working! Though the backlighting behing the climate control and clock LCDs are working, and all the green indicator lights on my buttons are working, the backlights behind the buttons themselves have stopped, so I can no longer see the button labels at night. My ashtray light also stopped working at the same time, and perhaps strangest of all, so has my headlights indicator. Though my headlights definitely turn on and function properly, the dash indicator does not tell me they are on. All the other indicator lights work fine, as far as I can see. The traction control light works, and my brake light indicator, which has been on for a long time (due to my use of LED bulbs), is still on. Even using the dimmer control gets no response from these lights. The other part of this that doesn't really make sense is that though all of these lights have stopped working, as well as my headlight indicator, the AUTO headlight function still works. My lights turn on at night or when I go into a tunnel, but there is still no light for them on the dash. Is it possible that I burnt out all of those bulbs, if they were somehow wired in series separately from the ones behind the LCDs? If not, what did I do to my car? What did I short? Please help!

I've had a summer-long hiatus from the boards, but now I'm back with some questions for you guys. I've been having some similar problems as Travieso. In the spring, I put new drilled (no slots) Brembo rotors and brake pads on my LS. They screeched immediately and I suspected the people that put them on hadn't lubricated them properly, but they are still squeaking, more than 4 months later. In addition to that, I have noticed that recently, the car shudders when I am braking at high speeds. I drive mostly in the city, and it's not too noticeable, but when I get on the highway and step on the brakes, I can feel a pretty heavy shudder throughout the entire car, pedal, shifter, and steering wheel. My brakes, however, do not squeak anymore unless I am braking at a slow speed, like pulling up to a red light. Axecheerful mentioned the sensors as a potential cause of squeaking. I do know that when I had the brakes put on, the guys probably didn't know about the sensors (I didn't at that point), and I didn't replace any of them and they were potentially damaged in the process. At $90 each, I decided to just drive with the dash warning light on until I can afford to replace them all, but could they be causing the screeching. My other question is whether the shuddering I am getting is due to worn bushings, because someone mentioned those as a possible culprit for the vibrations. If so, which bushings should I look into, lower or upper control arm bushings, both, or something else? My handling and ride quality have definitely been on the decline, but how can I tell if I need new struts, new bushings, or all of the above? Do I need to wait till I can get to a lift to put my car in the air?

Well, a couple people have asked me for pics of my painted emblems, and I've been lazy, but here they are finally. I even like how the black on black grill emblem looks, but I'm really witing to get my grill chromed, and then the black emblem will contrast great. I have a place ready to do it, but they aren't open on weekends, so I need to wait until I can get a day off from work to make the drive. Other than that, I think they look good, and when I get arouns to tinting the taillights, they'll be even better. Well, here they are. Tell me what you think. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0559_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0560_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0561_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0562_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0563_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0564_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0565_IMG http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/105_0567_IMG

OK, well I feel stupid asking something like this, but I recently repainted all my emblems a sparkly black color, and I need to paint the antenna nut to match. The only problem is that I can't figure out how to remove it. If anyone can help, please do. I know a bunch of you have replaced your emblems, so that would entail replacing the nut too. Thanks

1UZF, you were right again! I disassembled my entire front dash last night to change the bulbs in the climate control to blue LEDs (which are cool, by the way, and I'm trying to find blue bulbs for the heated seat and TRAC buttons, which are burnt out and should be blue to match the rest) and lo and behold, the wire was completely unplugged from the 'TRAC Off' button. So, now the fix was FREE and the TRAC is back on track. Sorry for the corny pun, but I figured we needed some from the younger members. Anyways, thanks for your help all and now I'm gonna go drive around with my TRAC off just for fun and let the wheels spin all over the place.

I already sent GSSoldier a pm about this, but for all of you that might need help installing an aftermarket deck, there's a guy that has a great website at www.lexls.com with many helpful tutorials on our cars, from installing the radio to changing the brakes to changing the color of the ignition ring and climate control lighting (which, by the way, I did last night in about an hour, and looks great). There are a lot of pictures and detailed instructions for each tutorial, and I went over the radio tutorial and it seems to describe exactly the steps I took when I put mine in. The only difference is that I found a different dash kit (but it looks exactly the same) and wiring harness. The neons were really easy when I installed them, especially if you're doing the radio at the same time, since the radio's power wires will be easily accesible. Any neon tubes you buy in a store (Lappen's, Autozone, etc.) will have the switches connected to them, and if they have the 'pulsate to the music' feature, it will also be built-in and switchable. It isn't necessary to make any direct connections to the radio. The neons I got (I forget the name of the brand) included the pulsating feature and were wired to a regular 12V cigarette lighter plug. Since I installed four tubes, I cut off all the plugs and stripped about a half inch to an inch at the end of each wire. Perhaps the hardest part is hiding the wires where they won't be visible. Before !Removed! the tubes into place behind the seats and under the dash, I just let them sit in place in the general area where they would be mounted and ran the wires, to make sure they were long enough and working before I made any final touches. For the tubes in the backseat, I made sure the side of the tube where the wires came out faced the center of the car, and sort of wedged the wires into the gap of the center console (the crack where the plastic of the console meets the carpeting). I used a small flathead screwdriver to push the wires in completely. Very easy, nothing serious required. From the console, I ran the wires up through a couple holes in the dash and out behind the radio, which I would recommend removing while you do this, unless you are planning on using another power source (any constant power and ground wires in your car should work, since these neons don't use a lot of power at all). For the tubes that I mounted under the dash, I just pulled the wires up through a dash-hole and out behind the radio. Now, at this point, you can just connect the neon wires (power and ground) to the power and ground of your radio. I'm not sure what colors these wires are on the LS factory radios, but they're usually red (power) and black (ground) on aftermarkets. If you wire them like this, the neons will have power whenever you turn the car on. Some have built-in switches and some don't, but even so, if you have more than one neon, you're going to have to go to each tube separately to switch it on or off. That's why I wired a switch, which was incredibly easy. I got a flat-mount touchpad switch from Autozone for about 20 bucks. It connects to it's control box via a ribbon-type connector, which I pulled through the gap directly below the steering column and above the lower dash covering and mounted by my right knee, below the ignition (but barely visible from a normal seated position. This one had four switches, so I made the most of them, but it is easy enough to have all the neons connected to the same switch. In this case, you just wire everything the same way I described, but instead of connecting the neons to the radio wires, connect them to the switch. Then wire the switches master controls (They vary depending on the switch, but there should be instruction, or else it should be self-explanatory) to the radio power wires or whatever source you've decided to use. This is simple, but people were asking, so I hope it helps. If there's any more questions, go ahead and ask, because usually I'm the one asking and it's great to be able to give some advice.

Thanks for all of your input. I haven't had the TRAC Off button functional since winter so I forgot that it didn't remain depressed the way the heated seat buttons do. The hopeful thing about my problem, which I forgot to mention before, is that all the diagnostic lights are normal when I turn my car on. The TRAC and TRAC OFF lights illuminate momentarily, with the rest of the dash lights, and then go off. Also, I'm positive the TRAC is working normally, because when I try to peel out, I'll feel the wheels stop spinning and the TRAC light will come on. Since it seems like all's normal with system, doesn't it seem like I should just be able to get a new switch or something?