Ford

I did a partial/incremental fluid change on my daughter's 93 LS400 power steering fluid a few days ago (removed contents of reservoir, filled with new ATF, ran engine, repeated process several times). I wasn't happy with the result, so I went ahead and followed the procedure at http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/steering/psflush.html last night. Everything went great, except I'm unable to re-attach the fluid return hose snugly on the reservoir. That is, I have it re-attached, and there's no leak, but I'd feel more comfortable if it was snug up against the reservoir (like it was originally) instead of an inch shy. It was about 20F last night, so I got the engine nice and warm in the hopes it'd make the hose a bit more pliable, but I still can't get the hose to budge. Is there anyone whose done this that has any tips they'd like to share? Short of doing a lot of dis-assembly, I'm just not seeing any way to create enough space so that I can get a good grip on the hose and try to pull it through that last inch. I'm willing to go the dis-assembly route just for my peace of mind, but I'm hoping there's an easier solution I'm overlooking. Thanks, TF

We've got two keys for our daughters 1993 LS400 (I'm currently replacing all the burned out backlights -- thanks to all for the helpful information here). Both keys and remotes work fine, except one of the keys is missing the little plastic button that locks/unlocks the doors. If you've seen inside the plastic shell on one of these, you know the actual button sits inside the plastic, and there's a little spring-type mechanism and a hard plastic button that sticks out of the remote. The spring and the hard plastic button are missing, making it difficult to use the remote to lock or unlock the doors. It's not a big deal, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I haven't been able to rig up a solution that satisfies me. The simple solution would seem to be getting an old key and removing those parts, but I haven't found a reasonable source for the parts. The cheapest keys I've found on Ebay are upwards of $40, and I can't stomach spending that much for the two little pieces I need. I had no luck trying to source those parts from the local Lexus dealer, and of course their price for the entire key is much worse than Ebay. Does anybody know of a source for just those parts, or does anybody have a junky old key from which they'd like to sell those parts? Thanks, TF

Hi folks, I've had a '99 GS400 for several years and have found LOC an invaluable resource during that ownership. I very recently was given a '93 LS400 for my daughter's first car. It's low miles, looks good, and seems pretty solid mechanically. The only thing that seems like a problem right now is the traction control system. I notice when I turn the key neither the Trac Off nor Trac service reminder indicators light up. I also believe that the Trac Off switch is supposed to be illuminated, but there's no light there. I checked the fuse in the driver side kick panel, and even though it looked fine, I tried swapping it. No dice. I took a quick test drive and tried to induce some wheel spin to see if I could feel the traction control engaging -- I didn't. So, I don't really want my teen driving a RWD car without traction control. I came here hoping I'd get some direction, but my search didn't turn up anybody having previously reported this problem. Any suggestions for simply diagnosing this problem, or do I need to break down and take it to a mechanic? Thanks, TF