jpourcy

Hi KF, It wont hurt to drive around with a sanded trunk as long as you did not break though to bare metal. If you did, prime the bare spots. And as Alan said, Bondo will stick to Bondo. (I haven't used Bondo brand in over 20 years) JP

Hi 1990LS400, You said, The main function of air bags is to get the driver and passengers through the first and usually most severe impact, and to allow the driver to be conscious enough to be able to control his car, if necessary, to avoid additional impacts. That's not going to happen. The air bags are designed to go off in a sudden stop impact and when they do go off, they go off with such a force you will not be holding on to the steering wheel nor will you be able to control your car. Have you ever tried to steer a car with a blown airbag? I have to do it all the time and I usually cut them out first. But you missed my point. If someone wants to drive a motorcycle without a helmet or drive in a car without airbags what is the difference? If they do not care about their safety why does it matter? It's like people that smoke, they do not care about their health but the government won't ban the sell of cigarettes. Why should the government force people to have air bags in their car? It doesn't make sense. Scenario: A man buys a new Mercedes with airbags everywhere in it and wears his seat belt all the time. When the weekend comes around he goes skydiving or mountain climbing or bungie jumping or cliff diving and then comes home and snorts cocaine and uses illegal drugs, smokes cigarettes and abuses alcohol. His car is safe but his lifestyle isn't. Why have a car with airbags if your lifestyle allows your life to be taken at any minute? Like I said, it doesn't make sense. Now if you are concerned about your life and staying alive as long as possible then airbags, seatbelts, proper diet, not using illegal drugs, not abusing alcohol, not having dangerous hobbies makes perfect sense. If the government was really concerned about saving lives on our highways then they would not allow motorcycles on the road. Even cars without airbags and seat belts are safer than motorcycles, but yet they allow motorcycles to be driven on public highways. Motorcycles are a death trap. Like I said, it doesn't make sense. I just wrecked my 1990 Toyota. It did not have air bags and I was perfectly comfortable with that. There are many older cars on the road now that do not have airbags and it is not illegal to drive them on the road. Like I said, it doesn't make sense. I got stopped one time by an officer and I got out of my 1977 Chevy van and I asked him what was the problem. He said I did not have my shoulder harness on and I told him it did not come with one. It wasn't illegal. Nor does my van have airbags. It is not illegal. If someone doesn't want airbags in their car that is their business not mine. Driving a car without an airbag is not a crime. Even so, if I had a car with airbags (which I do) personally I would not take them out. If someone wants to ride a motorcycle back and forth to work why should I care? If that same person wants to drive a car without airbags why should I care? If they want to go skydiving why should I care? I have two people that ride their motorcycles to church and they do not have airbags or seat belts. I do not think it is safe but I do not condemn them for doing so. Neither will I condemn someone that wants to drive around in a car without airbags nor will I recommend it either. It is strictly their business not mine. JP

Just adding a professional opinion. I have 33 years as a professional collision repair technician and I have seen more wrecks than all of you combined. Air bags can be good or bad but for the most part I believe they are a good safety device. I have personally worked on cars and truck hit so hard the frame looks like a pretzel and the air bags did not go off and I have seen the slightest hit and pop the bags. My son-in law left my house and hit a dog and his airbags went off in his Honda Accord. No damage to the car except slight front bumper cover damage. Most of the time they work as engineered but that is not always the case. One time an insurance appraiser was doing an estimate on a car that the air bags did not go off and he put his head through the drivers window and grabbed the steering wheel and the airbag went off and hurt him very badly. But all this is moot to me. They allow motorcycles on the road which are very dangerous and some of you complain about someone taking airbags out of their car? Doesn't make sense. The safety laws made by our government don't make sense. If you are in a car you have to wear a seatbelt or you can get a ticket but you can drive a motorcycle without a helmet and it's OK. Doesn't make a bit of sense. I say, to each his own. If you want to install a roll cage in your car and wear a helmet, fire suit and neck brace I say go for it. If you want to take the airbags out of your car, go for it. It's your car. If you want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, go for it. It's your skull, you can do with it whatever you want. JP

Hi KF, There is some type of chemical I have seen that turns rust into some type of black primer looking stuff, but I would not recommend it for cars. I do not even know what it is called or where it can be purchased, I just saw one of my fellow employees use it on some big piece of metal. Do not sand the deck lid down to bare metal. That is not necessary and you do not want to remove the factory primer unless you have to. Simply wet sand the deck lid with 400 grit and apply base coat on top. If it has any chips be sure to sand those out and prime and sand smooth before you basecoat. If you wish, you can prime the whole deck lid and sand it before you paint it since your car color is a lighter color than your used deck lid. Do not put plastic filler (bondo) on top of paint. It will not stick very well. Grind the paint off to bare metal with a 24 grit or 36 grit abrasive. This will rough up the metal enough for the filler to stick. Polyester putty can go on top of paint and they will stick, but be sure to rough up the paint with 80 grit or 180 grit first. The polyester putty is used to blend the filler into the paint and fill in any pinholes you might have in the filler. I use Evercoat Metal Glaze for my finishing putty. It spreads real smooth and fills in any pinholes very nicely. After you apply the filler, sand with 36 grit or 40 grit to shape the filler then finish it out with 80 grit. After you get the filler smooth then featheredge the paint edge with 80 or 180 and apply the finishing putty. Sand the finishing putty with 80 grit and finish with 180. You can prime it like this or use 240 grit first then prime. Just scuff up the bumper with 400 grit and it should be good to go unless it has paint chips and cracks then you need to sand it first then prime and re-sand before you apply paint. If I were you, just do the body work and let a professional painter do the paintwork. Paint materials are very expensive and if you mess up you will have to do it over again and it will cost you twice as much. There are many painters that do work on the side. Just go down to you local auto paint supply store and tell them you are looking for a painter that does work on the side and they will fix you up. A professional painter will paint it in a paint booth and you will get a minimal amount of trash in the paint which can be easily buffed out. JP

Hi KF, Yep, I knew the floor and rail was crunched. But considering all things, your man did a decent job of getting the cosmetic stuff on the car pretty straight. The body lines look pretty decent and the 1/4 is definitely repairable now. If all you have in the repair is $1300.00, you doing pretty good so far. I noticed the used deck lid emblems had the gold trim package. My 91 has it also but you don't see it that often. tip: Where the car was clamped on the pinch welds under the rocker panel, be sure to spray a little undercoating on it to keep it from rusting. Sometimes when you clamp a car down it breaks the paint off the pinch welds. JP

If you are getting vibration along with the engine noise, check the transmission mount. If it is worn flat and the metal on the mount is hitting the crossmember, the engine noise will be amplified through the cabin. Just get under the car and lift up the transmission right where the driveshaft goes into it. If it goes up and down and makes a thump like metal on metal then the mount is worn. If not, then it is something else. Jerry

Try this: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=42998 It sounds like the same problem that was on some 95-96 models. Off Throttle Shock. When you changed your ECU was it brand new or used or rebuilt? Jerry

I would like to add to what Bill said about OEM parts. We purchase OEM parts on a regular basis and most parts are made by different suppliers and not the car manufacturer. You would think that GM cars sold in America use American made parts. Think again. We get OEM parts in that were made all over the world, Canada, Mexico, China, you name it. They are OEM parts but GM did not make them. The factories where cars are made are just assembly plants. They just assemble the parts together here and paint them. Most of the parts are shipped in from suppliers. The same goes with almost every car manufacturer. I was working on a Nissan Altima yesterday and on the engine it was stamped, "Made In Mexico". There is no telling where the car manufacturers get their parts from. It's not like it used to be. I used to be a GM person. Loved Chevrolet. Wanted to support American people by buying American products. Well, that's out the window. Now I just go for reliability regardless of where the car is made or where the parts come from. Japanese, German and American cars are made in the United States with parts coming in from all over the world. When it comes to cars, it is very difficult to try to support American people by buying American products. Regardless of what brand of vehicle you buy, the parts are being made all across the globe. If you can find the supplier that supplies the manufacturer, then I don't see any problem buying that part regardless of what the label says. I purchased aftermarket motor mounts and a transmission mount several weeks ago and they had the OEM part number stamped into them which tells me that this company supplies the manufacturer with the OEM part. Lexus did not make the motor mounts. They paid a supplier to make the motor mounts for them to their specifications. This same supplier sells to aftermarket companies. Same product, different label. The same goes for many appliance manufacturers. Even though many brands of manufacturers sell a standalone ice maker, only Whirlpool actually builds them. When I built my house I bought a Kitchen Aid ice maker, but it was built by Whirlpool just like all the rest of them. So who makes the best ice maker? They are all the same, made by Whirlpool, just different labels. So buying OEM/aftermarket parts can be an iffy proposition. You can actually by OEM parts under a different label but made by the same manufacturer that supplied the car manufacturer. BUT by buying the parts from the dealer, you can be absolutely sure that the part was made to OEM specs. You might pay more, but this way you can be absolutely sure without the guesswork. Jerry

I wouldn't worry about getting on people's nerves. As in any forum, they should just ignore people that get under their skin. That's what I do. JP

Here is something I had to do. After I changed my motor mounts for some reason the shift lever was really tough to go into park. Put you car in park, climb under the car and loosen the bolt that adjusts the linkage. I believe it was 12mm. My linkage was in a slight bind and after I loosened the bolt it went back into it's eased position then I tightened it back up. This fixed my binding shift linkage. This might help you and on the other hand it might not. Does your shifter feel like it is in a bind when you throw it in park? JP

Here's a start: http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html In order to change the crank seal you have to take off the timing belt so this tutorial will get you almost there. Jerry

You are wasting your time and money filing a lawsuit with this guy. You did not buy it from a dealer and it did not come with a warranty. If it even makes it to court, the judge will slam his hammer down and say, "Buyer Beware", and he will throw it out of court. You have a good car and instead of paying $4100.00 for it you paid $4800.00 for it and you said yourself it was worth $5500.00 or so. Save your attorney fees. Chill out. Don't worry, be happy. :D JP

Hi Robert, I'm not sure about a 93, but a 91 has it on the passenger side right behind the rear of the front wheel. Just look from behind the wheel and look past the right frame rail. That open hose hanging down is it. Yours might be the same. JP

Hi KF, Don't forget to take pictures before he pulls on it. JP

Talking about bad cars I will give you a bad one. My mom bought a brand new 1992 Ford Explorer. After about 8-10 months she started having problems with the transmission. Warranty took care of it the first time and maybe the second. She had to replace the transmission at her own cost at least once maybe twice. My brother ended up with the vehicle and I do not know if he had to do transmission work on it. After him, my son ended up with it. He put 2 or 3 transmissions in it. After the last time he gave up on it. I had lent my son some money and I told him to just give me the vehicle and I would cancel his debt. He was more than happy to do so. So I ended up with the vehicle and I sent it straight to the transmission shop. We had the transmission repaired and about two days later it would not go into reverse. Back to the shop. Got it back and about a week later it went out again. The transmission shop fought with that thing for about a month. It was a good shop, I had used them before on my Toyota Corolla, no problems. I finally got it back. I think they ended up changing the whole transmission housing. Then the steering gearbox started leaking and the A/C hose busted. I called it quits and took a loss and sold it. Now that was a POS. The first Generation LS might have power steering problems after 100,000 miles or so but there are many vehicles that have problems from the very beginning such as a 1992 Ford Explorer. The transmission was not heavy duty enough for the vehicle. I'll take the PS problems on an LS over transmission problems on a Ford Explorer any day. Jerry

Yes, I fixed many of those rusted out GM back windows. It took them about ten years to figure out if it holds water it's going to rust. I think it was 1977 when they finally came out with the new Impala that water from the back glass drains down the trunk channels. Vinyl roofs were another rust problem. Very seldom if ever do you see new cars with vinyl roofs anymore. It seems to me that engineering cars is a lot of trial and error. There are some things you do not think about until the car starts to age. The chevy VEGA was probably one of the wort cars GM ever built. Very seldom do you ever see a chevy Vega anymore. They have all rusted away. Though they did make a good place for fish to spawn if you threw them in a lake. But the absolutely worst car ever was a YUGO. These cars were terrible. I was working at a dealership that sold them and these cars were junk. You would roll up the window and the handle would break off in your hand. They paid their factory workers about a dollar an hour to build them but warranty at the time was about $35.00-$50.00 an hour. YUGO went broke fixing their cars under warranty. It was so bad, I heard a dealer in Houston had about 20-25 units left and he put them into a warehouse and refused to sell them because he was getting such a bad reputation from the troubles they were having. JP

When the idle up valve goes out, it has an internal leak and the vacuum sucks the fluid into the intake, but also the pressure from the pump could force the fluid into the intake. But I do not see why it could not also have an external leak. There is a lot of pressure coming from the pump, if the vacuum hoses are not tight, (mine weren't) the fluid could leak from the vacuum hoses giving you an external leak. The valve itself could have a crack in it causing an external leak. Who knows? Just get it changed or blocked and go from there. Of course, there could also be more than one leak. I was fortunate, mine was just internal, (engine smoking). After I changed the valve everything is fine. JP

Anything can be fixed given enough time, money, parts and labor. It's up to the one dishing out the money to decide whether it is worth it or not. I have fixed cars in much worse shape than KF's LS. Back in late 1984 I had to repair a brand new 1985 Audi 5000 that was T-Boned in the side. It was the biggest job I ever had with 160 labors hours just for bodywork. Not painting also, just bodywork. The paint was probably another 25-30 hours labor. When I set the car up on the Blackhawk Bench alignment system there were 21-24 alignment points for this car. Only 3 of them fit. This car was a mess. I worked on this car a solid 2 weeks. This car was so new they weren't even making some of the replacement parts yet. We ordered the Lt RR door inner trim panel and they said they would not be making them until February of 1985. So when the car was finished, the man left with his old broken trim panel. About mid-February we got the part in and it was stamped "Feb 3, 1985" on the back of the trim panel. One time I even had to change a firewall on a BMW. When brand new expensive cars get hit hard, they just don't total out. One time I had a brand new Honda Accord hit hard in the rear. I had everything cut off of the rear of the car except the Lt RR frame rail which I repaired. The rear panel was gone, both 1/4's were gone, the rt inner and outer wheel housings were gone, the packing shelf was gone, even the floor was gone all the way up to the back of the front seats. I was holding up the roof with a pole. The customer came in to look at her car and she just broke down and cried. :( JP

Hi KF, When you get the deck lid open I would like to see some pictures of the floor and right frame rail, top and bottom if you can. I want to see what your bodyman friend has ahead of him. If he fixes it, I want to see after pictures also. I know it's hurt, just curious. There is no way I would let some high school kids try to fix this. This is professional stuff only. Jerry

By the way, your LS is not a POS. It is a car that requires maintenance like any other car. The longer you delay to do maintenance the more problems build up. Cars get old, they require maintenance, that is just the way it is. The 1st Generation LS400 was a very reliable trouble free car, but ANY car, Rolls Royce, Mercedes, BMW all require maintenance. Just because you do not want to do the maintenance does not mean your car is a POS. ANY car nearing the 200k mark is going to need some maintenance. You have a good car. I have a 91 and I am looking for another one. In the last year I have changed: distributor coil brake rotors lower ball joints outer tie rods air control valve transmission mount engine mount plugs wires rotors and caps climate control LCD repaired speaker It still needs the upper control arm bushings replaced, the rear control arm bushings replaced, a paint job, timing belt, crank and cam seals and numerous other things and I do not feel my car is a POS. The Lexus LS 400 is a very comfortable, smooth driving, dependable car. You can't get much more dependable than a Toyota or Lexus. Jerry

The item circled in red is the idle up valve. It was sending PS fluid to your intake manifold. It also looks like it has an external leak. Here is what I posted earlier about changing the valve: I suppose you mean the under engine cover or the splash shield. Yes, it needs to come off and then the valve can be reached from the bottom. You will need a 17mm open end wrench. You might need a short (stubby) wrench, a long one might not be able to access it. I used both. It was too tight to break loose with the stubby and I was just barely able to get the long one in there to break it loose and then used the stubby the rest of the way. When you take the valve out, the fluid will pour out of the hole so be sure to cover your alternator with a piece of plastic and be sure to put a catch bucket underneath. I have never blocked one before so I do not know if you need some type of special bolt or just one that fits the hole. If the fluid is actually leaking from your valve, then this might fix your problem. But I recommend putting it back like factory if at all possible. It is not that difficult to do. You do not need to pull anything else loose. When you get it out, match the threads with a bolt of the same size and plug up the hole. I have never blocked one before but it should work. Jerry

Hi Unc, It's probably not your drain tubes. I have a 91 and I also have a leak, saw a 92 it has a leak, saw a 94 and it has a leak and they all leak in the same place, at the left front of the sunroof and it messes up the headliner. I bet yours is doing the same in the exact same place. I cleaned my drain tubes and that was not the problem. In order to get to where it is leaking, I'm going to have to take the headliner down to see what the problem is. In the meantime, to save my headliner and other stuff from getting wet, I took a tube of black silicone and sealed the top of the sunroof shut until I get a chance to drop the headliner. To save your headliner, you should do the same. I'm planning on painting my car soon and when I do I will be taking many parts off the car and I will be dropping the headliner to fix the leak. When I figure out what it takes, I will post a fix on this forum. You won't be able to open your sunroof, but it will save your headliner until a fix can be posted. Jerry

The fuel door switch does not lock. Jerry

Hi KF, Well I looked at the pictures and came to a conclusion about your car. Take the fuzzy dice hanging from your mirror and install them in another vehicle. Your car has massive damage, this is not a do-it yourself. To be frank, you do not have the specialized equipment or the know how it is going to take to fix your car. Without opening the deck lid or looking underneath I can see that it has serious frame and floor damage. You will need to change the: 1/4 panel rear panel rt floor extension deck lid bumper cover reinforcement mounting brackets rt muffler and exhaust. and so forth. Possibly a new rt rr frame rail and floor. I haven't seen it yet. Chances are that the spare tire well is smashed and you cannot get your spare tire out. If you had the factory CD player it is probably history. The car needs to go up on a frame alignment machine such as a Car-O-Liner or similar product. You will need a MIG welder and many other specialized pieces of equipment. Don't even think about trying to fix it yourself. You will be super frustrated and wished you never started the project. It's a hard hit. The only way you would want to keep this car is if it has sentimental value, because it is going to cost you a lot to get it fixed. More than it is worth. It's definitely a total. There is no sense in getting an estimate unless you are determined to hang on to this particular car. Just the body labor will be between 60 and 70 hours which will run about 3,000.00+ depending upon the labor rate in your area and that is not counting painting, materials and parts. I have been looking for another 1st Generation LS and I do body and frame repair for a living and I don't know if even I would buy your car from you. It's that bad. I would have to buy the car cheap and the parts cheap before I would even want to mess with it. Extremely large amount of work. Time to sing: Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good-bye! :( Jerry

Here's a thought: You bought the car a month ago and put the car in the shop to have the gasket changed and also the oil changed. This tells me that this is probably the first time that you had the oil changed. Now I do not know how fast stop leak works or how long it lasts, but there is a possibility of the original owner having stop leak in the car when you bought it, which could have made it leak slow and when you had the oil changed and took the stop leak out and put fresh oil in the leak became faster. He also might have been using a heavier oil than recommended. This would be my guess, if this was the first time that you changed the oil. Jerry