Buying An Ls400 For £2k Or Less

[Shaft]

Hi,

I want a car that I can use everyday and count on to get me up and down the motorway as well as around town on occasion. I do about 25k a year and have had a newer lexus in the past but now want to keep my costs on the floor for a year or two.

I think the LS400 is a great car for the money and at £1500 ish if there is a major problem you'd buy another for the same money if it was going to cost more than 700 to repair.... I'm hoping to have running costs (servicing and maintenance) of less than £1000 a year. tyres, brakes, service items. belts possibly. I understand spark plugs used to £700 to replace in the old days but are makedly cheaper now!

So what can you tell me to watch out for on these early 90's cars?

Suspension?

Gearbox? (can't imagine this is a weak spot)

Head Gaskets? (Surely not, but tell me if they should be a concern)

Steering Rack?

Engine ? (hope not, this is ther area of greatest reliability I'm hoping)

Cooling system? (water pump??)

Any other costly business?

All help appreciated at this time.

Thanks.

[T7RY B]

Hi and welcome to LOC.

I had a 94 LS for 18 months. It had 87K on it. I covered 32K

Two services, brake pads to the front and a puncture. In the time I owned it.

Totally reliable car that still felt brand new when I sold it.

Just make sure that you have a lot of history with the car before you buy.

Terry

[Shaft]

Thanks Terry. I will. I see you timed your ownership to avoid the dreaded cambelt change... A wise move I guess...

I'm looking forward to getting out of a £15k Luxury used coupe and back in to a Japanese bargain for ten percent of the price.... What was I thinking???

[maneesh]

Good Luck is all I can say! You will need it! When you speak to most people running very old LS400s, they aren't spending anywhere near the money needed to keep them in tip top condition (and they do NEED a lot of cash compared to your average corolla). Stamps in a service book mean zilch, make sure you see plenty of bills to back them up.

Oh, and anything with a mileage of 100k+ should have had an entire suspension overhaul if looked after properly (ask people like me or mr Skelton how much we spent on suspensions!). If the control arms haven't been changed, you are looking at one sloppy waterbed on wheels.

p/s pump can leak onto alternator, causing alternator to pack up.

engine/gearbox is strong. oxygen sensors will probably be on last legs.

all depends how it's been driven, just like any car.

[Shaft]

Sounds like you didn't really enjoy your LS ownership, Maneesh?

I'm buying cheap, expectations are low to middling on the whole, "will it be trouble free" but I expect the thing to run and run and run. "incidentals" are to be expected. The whole point being. it IS a £50k car and is built to out last its german counterparts. Its the landcruiser of its day. chosen by those who know the difference.

I hope...

[maneesh]

I did enjoy ownership of a world class car, and loved every minute of driving it but it cost a fortune to keep in tiptop condition since it was rather highish mileage, and abused by previous owner..and I think it's a flawed design where if the bush wears out on the control arm, you have to replace the entire control arm, as the bush isn't sold separately..

[jamesholden]

My dad's got a 98 MKIV LS400 with 157k on it, no trouble so far.

I would say the things above are pretty accurate, but things like engine, gearbox, exhaust etc on big cars prefer long smooth motorway journeys to town-pottering so don't get one thats too lower mileage because you'll probably end up replacing more parts overall.

[chips229]

Hi,

My first bit of advice is read up on these cars on this under the LS400 section and on the US site under the same section,theres more info on the US as theres more owners/cars in the USA.

Print up the stuff to Look Out for and get it really checked over my the AA or RAC or someone who knows there way around them :winky:

There are Good Old LS400s out there forsale but like everyones said its the price of the parts that will break the bank...

I owned a mk1 LS400 for over a year Great Car!!! But mine gave me little trouble...

I went for a mechanically sound one,my car had paintwork damage,marks here and there but how i looked at was it would a couple of grand for a respray..would cost alot more if alot of mechanical parts needed to be replaced :)

Bought my car from its second owner who owned it for over Ten years and it was kept it up together mechanically...Go for a Honest looking car.

Took me over 6 months to sale it last year,seems everyone wants nice paintwork so if you can buy it cheap dont worry about the odd bodywork flaw :winky:

If youve got the space buy another for spares :)

There cheap as chips to buy....dont be afraid to haggle with the seller either..

If you buy a bad one it will be a money pit.

Cheers chips

[Shaft]

Thanks CHips.

I think that is all good advice and I will be looking for a good honest cars. Liike you, I would take ugly over incompentent. A good mechanical car is what I need. that is a main reason for going Lexus again. been let down by smaller engines too so I now subscribe to the "there is no replacement for discplacement" school of thought.

Happy days just around the corner...

looked at a 211k car yesterday and it drove like a dream. had a TV bolted to the roof lining though...

[JCEv39]

Shaft,

I was in a similar position to you and ended up buying a circa 100k mile car for significantly less than your £2k target, knowing that it needed the front suspension looking at but everything else seemed in top condition. I can highly recommend TM Engineering in the US for supplying Daizen bushes (they came in under a week for a total of around £85) but I haven't got around to fitting them yet and I intend to get new shocks and springs in the near future but they're going to cost almost exactly the same as Ford pattern ones! I don't necessarily think you have to spend a fortune maintaining an early LS400 as a little research can save you a LOT of money.

At the end of the day I think Lexus dealers should be a last resort for parts (particularly in this country) and you should be prepared to buy parts from abroad and do the work yourself / use a non-franchised dealer you know to be competent (which in my experience is a difficult thing to find but no more so than finding a competent franchised one!!)

My experience thus far (about 9 months of ownership) is that it costs me about the same to maintain as my fiancees Fiesta cost her (even when I did a lot of the work for her) as, although the parts are expensive, you need them significantly less frequently.

To sum up, if you are confident with the internet and spanners then an LS400 can be run for little more than any other car of a similar age but if you insist on having Lexus badged monkeys work on your car then you're better off with a Corolla!

Hope this helps

John

[simontaylor]

John, I completly agree. I replaced the EGR pipe, just 6 hours work, but Lexus quoted me £700, just for the labour.

For me, it's a gentle giant, pretty simple too for most mechanical things.

I'm getting all my cambelt/waterpump bits from Sewell-Lexus in Texas, oil filters are just £2, a saving of £7 , so I'm going to get a box of 10. I am curious about shipping charges, but we will see.

So, is anyone going to the USA, could they bring me back a set of front indicator lights?

[Shaft]

...So it seems the answer is to double your budget, add a bit more, and get a minter then!

I think in the end I'll be happier with my chosen steed.

Thanks for all your help.