99svtvenom

Hey guys I have been doing alot of reading and finding alot of information about bad tranny mounts on the ls400's. I've got a 98 ls400 with about 80k on it and was curious to see if a bad transmission mount could cause a grinding sound under acceleration and its really bad going up any type of hill. It sounds like its coming from right underneath the seats and sometimes is worse than other times. Any ideas?

Just trying to figure out if i should drop the pan and filter and replace the fluid and filter. It is a 98 ls400 with 70,000 miles and the transmission when cold will give a slight harsh shift from 1 to 2 and then once the fluid expands and its hot its really smooth shifting. Should I go ahead and flush everything out and change the filter? some cars I hear dont do it past like 50k then others i hear dont do it past 80 or 90 and some people say it doesnt really matter as long as your tranny is shifting good. I assume it has never been changed.

On my way back home from michigan to kentucky my girlfriend and I got about 26-28 mpg on the highway. Around town stop and go she usually gets about 15-18 mpg.

Your friend must have been reading this forum or else he's the kind of friend we all would like to have. My guess like Lenore's is the solenoid contacts are worn. As has been mentioned, a lot of labor involved....so lucky is right. Some tips you'll find in other threads: Be carefull removing all hoses and electrical connectors. Apply some grease to the starter gears. Make sure not to overtorque the manifold bolts. Use new gaskets and clean all gasket surfaces. Oh, and keep a set of lucky horseshoes in the trunk. ;) yeah he is a good friend I called him up and told him what it was doing and he said bring it on back and I will take care of it. Lately the car has been starting everytime with no problems. If the starter is bad would it click alot and then work again then clcik then work again back and forth? i thought when starters crapped out it was kind of an all or nothing kinda thing.

well i will be getting lucky on this one. the friend i bought it from said he would take the car back and get the clicking fixed the brakes fixed and anything else i could think of that needed fixed!!!! i will post updates when i get the car back of what was wrong.

well i have an update on the situation. the problem has gotten worse over the last half day. it was just doing this once every other day or so and now its doing it almost two or three times a day. i pulled the battery terminals off and cleaned them and no difference. i unbolted the fuse panel under the hood and moved it around and it started but it may have just been a coincedence. when the starters on these cars go bad to they just flat out go bad and not work anymore or can they give this issue of clicking and then starting? also we parked the car in the driveway and turned it off then on about 15 times without the incidence occuring then when she went out in the morning it did it again. PLEASE HELP WE JUST GOT THE CAR AND WE ARE ABOUT TO SAY HELL WITH IT!!!

I will try and keep your username in mind as if I clean all these grounds off and it works i will let you know. as if you find out the problem try and let me know too! :) Anyone else out there have this problem and get it fixed!?

yeah i cant see it being the starter even though anything is possible, i would be really P'd Off if it was as we bought one with low miles to try and avoid problems. I will trace all these ground wires and clean them off. I will try and post pics up like i did with my brake noise post. Also if this helps it only does it once in awhile and seems to do it more so after it has been sitting for awhile.

Well I have a couple of problems to address but I will save the next one for another topic. Sometimes our 98 ls400 will just click when you go to start it. It has a new battery and the battery has plenty of power. when you turn the key you will here a click. I stuck my head under the hood and listended and you could here 3 things clicking 1. the starter 2. the fuse box (a relay maybe) and 3. something else possibly by the starter. Is there any common problems with these cars clicking when starting or anything you guys might know of!!??? Sometimes it starts right up and sometimes it will just click it is an inconsistent problem. we have had the car for 2 weeks and we are already fixing fixing fixing with only 70,000 miles! If the starter was bad would it sometimes start and sometimes not? I hav read about this dreaded click but this our problem will click a few times then start!!

yeah there were not any v-shaped spring retainers. I just cant figure out how the hot spots are 180 degrees apart and no where else. That inside edge I pointed out in the first pick is the root of the problem. It has grinding evidence all over it so I think once I get a new rotor she should be good to go. But now we are having another issue with the car just clicking when we go to start it and then you turn the key again and it will keep clicking or it will decide to start. I will start another thread up with this issue as all the battery connections are tight and it is a bran new battery I have started looking into this issue and I might know the cause but am not sure we will cross this bridge when we come to it :).

Well fellas as I said I would put the pictures up, here they are. If you guys have any questions, comments or tips put them up.

When you removed the rotor, were there two small screws you had to remove to get the rotor off? If not, they're absolutely 110% NOT Lexus oem. If there were several holes that could be used for the two screws, they're not Lexus oem "although I believe there are two other holes, with black rubber caps?". Just two holes for the screws = Lexus OEM rotors. Since you've got the rotor off, and if you wish to keep using them, then I'd run it up to your local Midas with a $20 bill and have them throw it on the lathe. im not sure whether to just buy a new one or machine this one for $20 it just worries me with the 2 hot spots i just dont want it to crack or warp but i will have to weigh those options out.

well fellas i have an update. I tore the rear brakes all apart inspecting them and checking everything out, and here is what i found. The passenger side rear rotor has a flaw on the drum part of the disc. there is a piece of metal that looks like it was not machined right when the rotor was made and you can see the evidence of it grinding. there are also 2 hot spots about 2 inches in length 180 degrees apart where the regular disc part mates to the drum part. I have pictures and I am going to post them up later so you guys can take a look and hopefully this may help someone in the future.

the ebrake is kind of hard to push and has to go down kind of far to engage. im not quite sure what is the norm for these cars as we have never owned one. if someone can give me a spec of how far it has to travel in inches i will go measure it.

the brake job was done at my buddies shop in michigan (very good shop for body and mechanical repair) and i saw the box for the pads sitting there on the rack when i checked the car out and they were federated auto parts which didnt really bother me because i had used those before on a few of my old cars and had no problems. i will try taking apart the rears and just redoing the brake job that has already been done and see if i can find anything out of the ordinary and grease all the pins and check the rubber boots. thanks again for your help and i will write up on here as soon as i get done doing it to give you an update!

Awesome info man thank you!!! another piece of info that i can include is that the brakes feel like they are dragging when this happens. the only time the problem will occur is in reverse but when you go forward after the problem occurs it feels like the brakes are hanging up for about 40 feet then free up and will not occur again while going forward, it almost feels that a caliper is not releasing the rotor properly. the weirdest thing to me was how the humming noise from under the car still occured while not moving and lasted until i released my foot off of the brake pedal. again though man great info you gave me there. let me know if you have any more possibilities thanks again nc!!

Hey guys my girlfriend just purchased a really nice 1998 lexus 400 and it runs and drives great, but has what hopefully is a small problem. The brakes make no noise in forward motion whatsoever, but in reverse when you have some speed built up and press the brake firmly it sounds like a bad grind very similar as to when your pads go bad. The guy who had it before us said the car had been sitting through the winter and he just put a new battery, new tires, and new pads with re-surfaced rotors on less than a week ago. The confusing thing to me is that if it were just the grind it would seem like an easy diagnosis, but here is the strange part. When you get the grinding noise and keep your foot firmly on the brake I hear a humming or low drone coming from what sounds like under the center console or under the vehicle towards the middle even when the vehicle is completely stopped. You can hear it from the inside really well but the outside I can not hear it. Please guys any help would be greatly appreciated just want to get this really nice car running error free!