bowrider

Regarding the piece I am missing from my louver I ordered a mold kit (Plastex) from ebay. I will let the forum know if it works.I did not mean anything untoward regarding Igor, only that it was funny that his name was Igor and he was a caretaker of a cemetary. Your geneology story sounds interesting. I am presently looking into our family tree on my dads side.In fact I am taking him down to his home town easter weekend and will be sitting down with my aunt who has done a whole lot of work on it. Cheers

Factory Car Stereo Repair in Florida fixed my Nakamichi in early 2008. I got wonderful service from them ... "Bob" called me multiple times to give me a status report. The problem with my Nakamichi was the balance control -- the right channel intermitently cut out until they resoldered the connections to it. I've been told that replacement parts for Nakamichi have become unavailable in just the past two years -- maybe that's why you didn't get the service you expected from Factory Car Stereo ... the lack of parts is out of their control and I don't think they want to even look at Nakamichis if they can't get the parts needed to repair them. The local Kansas City Lexus dealer parts guy told me recently that replacement Nakamichi components are no longer available either new or refurbished on an exchange basis. He said that Lexus was required to supply replacements for seven years after the car's original sale date. Yep, the strut bars/rods are usually the first suspension components to go on a gen 2 LS400. I replaced mine at 85,000 miles and should have done it much sooner. The new strut bars eliminated all the vibrations and made the car drive like new. A few years ago, the caretaker of a nearby cemetery helped me find several family graves. The caretaker's name was "Igor" (really!) and he told me that he was originally from Romania ... I suspect Transylvania! That is what I was surprised about. I read a lot of good reviews about FCSR in a lot of forums. Perhaps I got them on a bad day. They seemed to be good on the phone but did not respond to any emails. Perhaps I should have called more. The one thing that I realized after my last email was that you were the only person that actually said in the forums what the technician did to fix it (balance) and I thank you for that. I did call them before I sent it and they told me had started to successfully repair them so I don't know what happened. Anyways, as usual, when I got it back I reinstalled it and it is working fine...for now. I might ask my tech. guy just to bypass the balance control as this is one feature I don't use. I don't know if that can be done but I will have him look at it either way. How did you find out it was the head unit and not the amp? I tried to make that piece I was talking about....spent 3 hours on it and it just did not fit right...the piece has to be exact. Do you know anyone who is parting out a 2nd gen? As far as Igor, the caretaker at the cementary goes, that is just to funny....I have this picture in my head of you doing a double take when he tells you his name and then you drive away laughing your !Removed! off.

Making a replacement for the missing piece sounds very doable -- should be possible to use one of the other three as a template. I know exactly which piece you are talking about ... I'm pretty sure one of the four verticle pieces is what I dropped. I like the 2000 LS a lot -- had it for almost seven years and planning to drive it until about 2015. The only reason I might want a newer one is that it is easy to interface an iPod in a 2001-up LS. Young Frankenstein is definitely my favorite Mel Brooks film ... Put the cancle BACK! I've driven the newer ones...I am really having difficulty finding as good quality than the 2nd generation and for some reason I like the look of the 2nd gen better. On another subject, I assume your LS came with the Nakamichi...have you ever had an intermittent problem with losing a channel? I have spent hours searching the forums however no one really identified the problem. I even went as far to ship it to Factory Car Stereo Repair in Florida at a huge cost for shipping and insurance and had terrible service there. They sent it back with little or no explanation. I really do not think they even opened it up. I finally found an car stereo place here and they had an electrical tech. go through each and every circuit to no avail. The forums have helped greatly though. I was experiencing quite a thud in the front end on bumps and a lot of members recommended replacing the strut rod bushings. I did this and wow, what a ride! Just wish I could troubleshoot the stereo though.......btw.....the hump is on yIgor's other shoulder now....or is that egor?

The gen 2, version III (95-97) LS400 center vent assembly is different than than the gen 2, version IV (98-00) LS400 center vent assembly -- see the attached photos. Parts.com sells the 98-00 center vent assembly for more than twice the price of the 95-97 center vent assembly -- maybe the wood trim of the 98-00 is the reason. Attached is a graphic from parts.com for the 98-00 center vent but they are incorrectly using a drawing of the 95-95 center vent. Thanks for the feed back here. I will narrow my search. The piece that I am missing is the smallest vertical plastic piece that the louvers sit in. I am considering making one. How do you like the 2000 LS? Also I think I've watched Young Frankenstein 30 times.

Thanks but I nearly took the car apart looking for that little piece....the model year is 1999 and I believe all 2nd gen without nav. are the same

Took apart my center vent louver and lost one of those little black louver brackets.......any help on this?

Before anyone sends their Nakamichi head or amp unit away for repair, just take the time to check the connections on the amp. On my 1999 LS400 the right side speakers cut in and out with no pattern whatsoever. I played with the balance and volume controls endlessly to no avail. I disconnected the battery and reconnected it a few minutes later to no avail. You do not even need to remove the seat. All you have to do is leave the system on......move the seat as far to the front and as high as possible.......remove the plastic cover over the amp (which is located under the seat on the 99 LS400). Note that there are 2 -.5"x.5" square plastic doors that must be removed prior to the removal of the 2 screws that hold down the plastic cover. Once I removed the plastic cover I started by unplugging and plugging the connection furthest to the right and voila the right channel kicked in. I haven't absolutley nailed down which pin it is but at least it appears quite convincingly that it is the connection rather than the head or amp. I hope this works for you. Cheers

Did you resolve this issue? I have a 1999 LS400 with the right side speakers not working. Cheers