obergc

Charles, There has recently been a few posts regarding the white smoke issue that quite a few Lexus owners are experiencing. From what I have garnered from the posts is that if you are not loosing engine coolant, it is not considered a major problem.

The paint codes are located on the data tag located on the drivers side door pillar.

here is a link showing a shield for your alternator that one US member has fabricated. Curt http://us.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/LS/Alt2

Alternator failure caused by leaking power steering fluid is a VERY common problem. If you look in the picture gallery you will find a picture of a clever shield designed to keep the leaking fluid from getting inside the alternator. Leaking power steering fluid is best taken care of sooner rather than later. Curt

Many people claim to have repaired a slow or erratic fuel gage by replacing a couple of electrolytic capacitors on the power supply board in the instrument cluster. One gent said that he replaced capacitors C142 and C147 on the larger of the two circuit boards in the instrument cluster and it completely cured the problems that he was having with his fuel gage. Word of warning, if you remove your instrument cluster for repair, make sure you disconnect the battery before removing the cluster or you will have a constant airbag warning light when you reconnect the instrument cluster. Curt

What year is your LS? I have the procedures for resetting the airbag warning light for a 93 LS400. No special tools required other then two wires. If your airbag light came on after servicing the instrument cluster it means that they removed the instrument cluster without first disconnecting the battery, this will cause the light to come on and stay on until it is reset. They definitely did not follow procedures in the Shop Manual and any reasonable Lexus dealership would reset it without any complaint. If you want the procedures for the 93, send me your email address to obergc@cox.net and I can email the procedure to you. Curt

The procedure is posted at lextreme.com Curt O http://www.lextreme.com/timing.htm

Send me your email address and I will send you the procedures for resetting the airbag warning light. It comes on any time that you remove the instrument cluster with the battery still connected. Send you email addy to : obergc@cox.net

Don't know if you gentlemen have access to an Autozone store in the UK or not, but if you do, you can buy struts that will fit the LS400 very cheap that come with a lifetime warranty. You have to do a little work to remove the fittings off your worn out struts but it is an easy job. Instructions can be found here. http://www.cureline.net/lex/howtos/howto_h...hood_shocks.htm

You can purchase just the mast from Lexus for around $60 and change just the mast yourself. Usually it is just the mast that goes bad, the internal nylon toothed cord breaks. Easy job to do if you have the shop manuals. Curt

Isaac, your problem may be more common then you think. I also have a 93 with 100K that just started doing the same thing. I am going to be looking at it this coming weekend and will let you know what I find. I am going to start by looking at the condition of the throttle body plate. My idle is a little unstable with a slight stumbling and a hesitation when taking off from a stop, it seems to run fine at highway speeds. Curt

Yes, a loaded caliper is complete with brake pads and all hardware while the unloaded caliber is nothing but the caliper. Curt

You have a jewel of a mechanic. Curt

On your antenna not retracting problem, I recently bought a 93 LS 400 and it had that same problem. The antenna mast was "kinked" near the bottom under the chrome bezel so you couldn't see it at first. The antenna is raised and lowered by a flexible nylon "toothed" rod that goes up and down inside the antenna mast. The nylon toothed rod is coiled up inside a round gearbox on the antenna base in the trunk. I purchased a new mast from Lexus of St. Louis, Mo for about $60 and repaired the antenna myself. On my antenna, when it tried to retract, it bound up because of the kink and the retract motor snapped the flexible nylon rod, leaving most of it coiled up inside the round plastic gearbox. I had to remove and disassemble the antenna gearbox to remove the bottom part of the nylon rod that was coiled up inside. Once that was done, it was just a matter of feeding the new antenna mast into the antenna base with the retract motor running in the retract direction. The Lexus repair manuals go into some detail on how to do this. Good luck. Curt

Having owned 3 vehicles in my lifetime of 65 years that had these roofs on them, I have promised myself that I will NEVER, NEVER, EVER own another vehicle that has a roof like that. Curt