91LS400pilot

I need help please, my 1999 LS400 has delvoped a driver seat problem. Randomly on warm days and sometimes at night, the seat reclines and drops as i am driving. This happens usually in rush hour traffic when i'm on the expressway and seems to be getting worse as time goes on. The crazy part is how random this occurs and while i have both hands on the steering wheel. Any advice would be appreciated. earlyx

I am not an expert but check the harness in the trunk-driver's side.

A lot of strange things are happening due to wear and tear in the trunk wires.

Just a thought. :huh:

Best

Chris

Always nice to see another vintage LS well taken care of!

Yours is equally nice. :) :) :)

I would still consider a small inline fuse at the battery terminal end of the red wire. A maintainer or "float charger" will only deliver a small current so a 5 or 10A fuse will not be a problem for the maintainer but will protect you if the wire gets inadvertently shorted to ground. Better to blow a fuse than melt a wire and a potential fire hazard.

It’s just a safety precaution. It’s easy to get fooled that because cars are low voltage (12VDC) they are inherently “safe”. Car batteries store an enormous amount of energy and will melt wires and cause fires quite easily.

Thank you for your important input. I do have the same set up in Phoenix for my other car.

The problem is I do not know how to do it.

Any DIY suggestions?

Best

Chris

I checked the installed charger/maintainer and it is only 1.5A. I do not think I need an inline fuse.

Thank you anyway.

Best

Chris

Did you purchase the stickon wood trim kit for that? If so, is that the ebay one? I always thought about it but figured it would cover my stereo scontrol wording so I knew what the buttons did on my radio. It looks awesome and I would love to get that for my 91.

Let me know, thanks.

Yes this is the stick on wood trim but I didn't buy from eBay. I have done this back in 1999 and I do not remember the company's name. It was advertised in Car&Driver magazine.

Best

Chris

I would still consider a small inline fuse at the battery terminal end of the red wire. A maintainer or "float charger" will only deliver a small current so a 5 or 10A fuse will not be a problem for the maintainer but will protect you if the wire gets inadvertently shorted to ground. Better to blow a fuse than melt a wire and a potential fire hazard.

It’s just a safety precaution. It’s easy to get fooled that because cars are low voltage (12VDC) they are inherently “safe”. Car batteries store an enormous amount of energy and will melt wires and cause fires quite easily.

Thank you for your important input. I do have the same set up in Phoenix for my other car.

The problem is I do not know how to do it.

Any DIY suggestions?

Best

Chris

any auto parts store will have an in-line fuse kit that already includes the fuse. instructions are simple to follow - the crimp kind are the easiest to me.

Thank you

I would still consider a small inline fuse at the battery terminal end of the red wire. A maintainer or "float charger" will only deliver a small current so a 5 or 10A fuse will not be a problem for the maintainer but will protect you if the wire gets inadvertently shorted to ground. Better to blow a fuse than melt a wire and a potential fire hazard.

It’s just a safety precaution. It’s easy to get fooled that because cars are low voltage (12VDC) they are inherently “safe”. Car batteries store an enormous amount of energy and will melt wires and cause fires quite easily.

Thank you for your important input. I do have the same set up in Phoenix for my other car.

The problem is I do not know how to do it.

Any DIY suggestions?

Best

Chris

What is the single red wire to the +positive post of the battery? It doesn't looked fused at the battery end which means a cable fault (insulation gets cut or pinched and you have a potential dead short to the battery. The wire will light up like a Christmas tree. Might want to put an in-line fuse at battery end and cover bare wire with flexible jacket for added protection.

Beautifully kept car. Looks cleaner than my ’04.

The red wire snakes around behind that lid.

And She sure is a beaut Sir! ;)

I have a battery charger/maintainer connected since every year from Oct-May we are going to Phoenix.

Chris

What is the single red wire to the +positive post of the battery? It doesn't looked fused at the battery end which means a cable fault (insulation gets cut or pinched and you have a potential dead short to the battery. The wire will light up like a Christmas tree. Might want to put an in-line fuse at battery end and cover bare wire with flexible jacket for added protection.

Beautifully kept car. Looks cleaner than my ’04.

I have a battery charger/maintainer connected since every year from Oct-May we are going to Phoenix.

Chris

Take a look at my avitar and see what she'd look like with some IS300 wheels...

Very nice & sharp pics. :)

Sure is a beauty... wish my '91 looked that nice. :)

Thanks

I want to introduce my LS which I own for the past thirteen years. In original condition and ALL systems working.

Here some pics.

Thanks for looking.

Best,

Chris

Valued at over $700 too!

Wow, really expensive. I was wondering if anybody has changed this part.

Nitrogen gas under high pressure!!! :o :o :o

What is it and what it does?

Thanks

Thank you all for your input.

This is going to be fun.

I will keep you posted.

I know the filter is around $25 and the stealer quoted $220. I have seen other threads talking how easy to remove/replace it but not for the 91 LS400. Can you please tell me how? The last change was made by the dealer in 1999 for $145. Please do not blame me for taking so long to change but the car is rarely driven.

Thanks

i wouldnt blame the wear on the tire manufacturer, the written warranty also states that any abnormal wear would void the warranty. if you have an out of alignment suspension that wore the tires down then you're accountable for it, not Dunlop....

Just to let you know after a complete inspection of struts et al by the tire dealer I got a 35% credit towards my next tires. Eventually, I was not accountable as per your suggestion, but I do appreciate your time to respond as well as everybody else's who responded.

Best

Chris

So I'm the contrarian here. The tires worn to the wear bars quite evenly actually, and the edge wear is very probably normal cornering wear, or feathering. For sure a good alignment would be an idea, but there is no indication that the shock absorbers are worn. The tires are just worn out is all.

You can over think this easily. Buy good tires and be happy.

Thank you, you are not the contrarian, I agree with you.

When I went back to the place where I bought the tires after inspection they showed me a display with a good strut and how the tire looks, and one with a bad strut and a destroyed tire. Very convincing for the masses. Sell struts and tires!!

It may be struts, but I'm betting it's just old tires that are separating. My mother's car had weird wear patterns on the tires and vibration that felt like a warped rotor or bent wheels. I discovered this when I inherited her Buick LeSabre (of course) after she died. Turned out her tires were 6 or 7 years old and were separating. Even though she drove just about every day, it was a combination of simple age and ozone that destroyed them. Buy a new set of tires (and check the build date to make sure they are actually new) and have a 4-wheel alignment before you go about changing the struts or any other part of the suspension.

Thank you, I agree with you and this is what I have decided to do.

Best,

Chris

kind of hard to tell from those pictures since i can't see the inside and outside (head on shot of the tread would be GREAT, and please make sure the tires are dry :)) but it seems to be a problem with the Toe or Camber settings.

The tires are dry but spayed few days back with black magic wet foam.

Here is the pic, I hope it helps:

Have them check your suspension, but what it looks like is bad aligment, and struts. Check in the strut area for leaks after the car is sitting overnight, if you find pudles of clear hydrolic fluid you probably have bad struts. The passenger side is prone for this wear since the roads tend to be worst in the gutter side plus the parking is more to that side. Like other members said it is about time to check the whole suspension, since is mostly made out of rubber the heat and cold temperatures tend to wear it out. If you can find poly replacements for that rubber even as the ride will become stiffer they will last longer. If you go with the OEM parts you will have a new car again. When you do finish this whole enterprise, remember to do tire rotations, they seem very necessary on this car because of the heavy weight in the front versus the lighter weight by comparison on the rear wheels. Even as the manual states 7,500 miles for my year you could probably get away with 10,000, if yo do not see bad areas forming and keep up with the tire pressure. I you do find that only the driver side strut is bad and want to save a penny you can replace only that one, thats why is called independant suspencion, but the best thing would be to replace both. CPR

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I am always checking for leaks on my garage floor but I have not noticed any since the car stays not driven for a long time some times. In addition, today I put the car on stands, took all wheels out and there is no leak from any strut or elsewhere. I forgot to mention that this car is JUST for fun. We do not drive it on a daily basis (two other cars for doing that), and we live six months in Arizona therefore it is garaged for six months. I have always taken good care of it since I am a convert from MB to Lexus and I love it. Most likely, it needs alignment and brand new tires-never Dunlop again though.

Best,

Chris

tell us what kind of wear was found exactly and perhaps someone can tell you what part's going out on the suspension.

I cannot describe the wear but I am attaching few pics-(a pic is 1K words). I have a 50K miles written warranty!

Thanks all for responding. Your input is appreciated.

Best,

Chris

I have replaced the original tires-P205/60 R51 Goodwear INVICTA GA-91 LS400-

with Dunlop Sport A2, P215/60 R15 M&S, Tread wear 420, Traction AA, Temp.A. Warranty 50,000 miles.

I have done only 21,000 miles in the past seven years and the car is like driving on rocks noise wise.

I took the car to NTB(the place I bought them) and the guy after examining the tires he told me there is uneven wear

due to bad struts and he said even if I buy new ones I will have the same problem again. BTW he quoted $330 just for the rear Monroe pair of struts installed.

When I changed the tires I had 107,000 miles in 12/2002 and now 128,000 miles .

Can be this the real cause or...?

What do you suggest shall I do?

Thanks--

Hi guys,

Just replaced all ignition wires, she runs like a charm.

Best

Chris

Hi friends,

I am lurking for some time and this my first post. I learned a lot and thank you all for your valuable contributions

so we can all avoid the heavy fees from the Lexus stealers.

Welcome to the club! About time you joined the mix!

Background:

I bought my 91LS400 (second owner) with 62K miles in 03/1996 from the company I was working for. It was the company's president's car.

Nice Scoop!

Can somebody tell me what is the connector's name what is connecting if it can be replaced by DIY and where it can be bought?

Thank you all in advance.

Best

Chris

Looks llike your arrow is pointing to the L bank coil connection to the distributor. Take off the tb cover and trace it yourself. I would say you could use a new ignition wire set. Stick with oem for both wires and plugs. Shop around for best price.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Yes, after examining it better it is the L bank coil connection to the distributor. I called Advanced Auto and they have the ignition wires for $118.29 (Professional series). Autozone's Duralast is for $62.99. I will call tomorrow the Lexus Parts-I was wondering....

Any suggestions?

Chris

Spark plug wire

Thank you all for the prompt responses.

Since, my non-Lexus mechanic changed the spark plugs two weeks ago I have to change the wires myself. Any suggestions for the spark plug wires brand?

Thank you so much..

Chris