ambermarine

HiIt should also be written into the first page of your service book.

Hi. The debate regarding engine oil will rage on as the manufacturers keep updating their specs.I have used Castrol magnatec in my LS400 for 17 years originallly the oil was 15/40 but the castrol marketing boffins dropped that spec two years ago and now I use the 10/40 .What also as to be kept in mind is the frequency and time lapse concerning oil change .My car being a 90 as the 6000 miles or twelve month and I strictly adhere to that regardless of mileage when the twelve month gap comes up. It rarely looks anything other than yellow on the dipstick even when upto the 6000 miles which is rare these days but the engine still sounds like a swiss watch with 180k on it. I would not use a supermarket oil in a Lexus regardless to what it said on the tin. The ls400 engine was specifically developed as a international engine to be run in all types of climates and environments and the engineers at Toyota used 17 prototypes of the engine before they settled on what sits under the bonnet today. They will have run the engines non stop to destruction under all types of conditions using different oils that they concluded was the best specification. Those specs in the handbook are not plucked from thin air they are the result of the foregoing .

I would expect any good fab shop could make those up ,unlikely to be able to purchase from anywhere as a shop packaged item in this country but I will check out the auto stores in the states on my Fl trip next winter.Having now inspected mine the drivers side as corroded to the extent that the steel make up of the cat and the exhaust pipe are showing this makes it easier to fill in with brazing and should the bolts which are really bad fail, the pipe and cat will stay together if the brazing is done properly.The issue over the clamp repair is a bit complicated by the oygen sensor furniture on the exhaust pipe and at first glance looks like it would impede the placing of the repair flange.Also problematic is the size of the clamp ,Autozone in the states only displays one size on their website , will it fit on the LS400, I doubt it.The other issue concerning brazing together the cat and pipe, should the cat fail it will be the end of my car as I would not go to the trouble of having everything cut up to put in a new cat.

HiNot a good idea presenting your registration to every crook and car thief online.Cloning your number could lead to all kinds of aggro for you.

HiDid this earlier this year the main difficulty is the 17 mm bolts holding the caliper bracket you will need a breaker bar if these have not been off in the lifetime of the car.I would replace the emergency brake shoes as they tend to go thin on setting off with the brake on. I would look carefully at the tutorial for fitting them , if it not done as per workshop manual sequence it is impossible to refit them. The cables also stretch over time and I had to adjust the single cable in the mid section coupling as it had become an advisory on the Mot.for too much down travel on the pedal,this was even after fitting new shoes, even after 22 years of being under the car unprotected it was a touch of wd and a turn of the locking nut to adjust, testimony to the quality build of these cars.

It sounds like the suspension bushings on either the trailing arms, hub knuckle or both the way to check is take all the weight off the suspension by jacking up the car and supporting on stands under the subframe to body mountings.If the wheel will move in and out accross the 3 to 9 axis the hub knuckle bush is suspect as is the hub side trailing arm mounting but that mounting will also move up and down if worn .if these two bushes are worn it accentuates the vibration problem. when we had this vibration problem we suspected the prop shaft but it was sound and I think yours probably is. If your car as done in excess of a 100K the bushes are in the frame.Check out the LS400 rear suspension bushing replacement topic and pictorial in the workshop tips ,we did this work and the car now runs perfect.

HiDo not remove the cap or any pipes.The expansion tank is see through just look to the base and the coolant will come up through the bottom pipe, the reason the surge occurs is that the thermostat will be in the closed position and no coolant will pass through the radiator and is by-passed through the engine and into the expansion tank,increasing the flow pressure which escapes into the expansion tank .If there is no pump operation no flow pressure will occur.

HiI hate to sound pessemistic but these are all the symptoms of a failed water pump and as I said in a earlier post the engine will run for a while until the pump seizes and then strips the cambelt,you will then have a seriously damaged engine. At the moment the engine will cool down through thermic flow, through the radiator and as the fan will act on the heated viscous clutch that will also help to keep the coolant at a temprature that seems ok.You have already noticed how the temprature rises when you rev up as the coolant is not being pumped fast enough round the cooling system. You need to ascertain quickly if the pump as failed mine only lasted about a hundred miles before it siezed after the first expulsion of coolant through the expansion tank. A way of checking if the pump is working is to fill up with the coolant reccomended wait for the engine to cool down to below operating tempature so leave a few hours ,start the engine and observe weather there is coolant surging into the bottom of the expansion chamber from the engine, if ther is'nt then the pump as probably failed.

Hi Sounds like the water pump as gone the engine may may run but eventually the timing belt will give up and you will lose the valves on anything beyond 92 .Happened to me 8 yrs ago and because mine is a 90 the engine was saved . If this is the problem it requires new water pump tensioners and idler and while your at it a new cambelt. If Lexus do it ,well eight years ago £800 so you need to shop around.

Hi Jim The A/C uses more revs than idle it requires approx twice as much which will be around 1200/1350/rpm it will go up and down as the compressor clutch engages and disengages for different periods of time depending on how long it takes the temprature to adjust to your setting in the cabin. When the car is in normal drive mode the change in engine revs will not be as noticable,as for the braking ,that could be the anything but would have nothing to do with the A/C.

Hi MikeGet the suspension bushes checked front and rear .This will cause the symtoms you describe if there is wear in the hub to lower arm bush and will only occur at certain speeds and load. It will get worse as time and mileage increases The suspension bushes on the rear suspension can start to cause this symptom as early as a 100k miles I have a nagging feeling you are right about this ambermarine. Am I right in thinking that Lexus charge an arm and a leg for this but that the bits aren't too costly and can be changed by any reasonable motormechanic? Mike Hi Mike I did the rear suspension bushes on my Ls400 Mark 1 which as a pictorial tutorial in workshop tips. The suspension as been changed over the years to the model you have but the basic principles are the same.Wether you can replace the bushes as I did I can't say ,but there may be someone on the LexusLS site that as done so.another way to find out if replacement aftermarket bushes are available is to check out ebay both here and in the states. The way to check if the bushes are worn is to jack up the car in the area where the subframe connects to the body taking any tension off the hub, axle, bottom, top arms , and trailing arm if there is any play in the bushes the hub will move in a oscillating motion similar to a worn wheel bearing but with most of the play being in the 9 o clock to 3 o clock line, in and out. It wont be a job that a good Mech can't handle regardless of the fault its just if you will have to source the parts through Lexus that will make the difference in cost. Hi Mike Having done some more research I have located a tutorial and source for the bushings on www.clublexus.com type; diy-Rear axle carrier (Knuckle)bushing replacement. in the search box. It seems the suspension on the 430 goes through to the 600 and the bushing although not the same is similar to the ls400 in its removal and replacement. There are plenty of suppliers according to the site forum but you will probably have to get them from the states I did when I did the 400 and they were excellent and still are.

Hi MikeGet the suspension bushes checked front and rear .This will cause the symtoms you describe if there is wear in the hub to lower arm bush and will only occur at certain speeds and load. It will get worse as time and mileage increases The suspension bushes on the rear suspension can start to cause this symptom as early as a 100k miles I have a nagging feeling you are right about this ambermarine. Am I right in thinking that Lexus charge an arm and a leg for this but that the bits aren't too costly and can be changed by any reasonable motormechanic? Mike Hi Mike I did the rear suspension bushes on my Ls400 Mark 1 which as a pictorial tutorial in workshop tips. The suspension as been changed over the years to the model you have but the basic principles are the same.Wether you can replace the bushes as I did I can't say ,but there may be someone on the LexusLS site that as done so.another way to find out if replacement aftermarket bushes are available is to check out ebay both here and in the states. The way to check if the bushes are worn is to jack up the car in the area where the subframe connects to the body taking any tension off the hub, axle, bottom, top arms , and trailing arm if there is any play in the bushes the hub will move in a oscillating motion similar to a worn wheel bearing but with most of the play being in the 9 o clock to 3 o clock line, in and out. It wont be a job that a good Mech can't handle regardless of the fault its just if you will have to source the parts through Lexus that will make the difference in cost.

Hi MikeGet the suspension bushes checked front and rear .This will cause the symtoms you describe if there is wear in the hub to lower arm bush and will only occur at certain speeds and load. It will get worse as time and mileage increases The suspension bushes on the rear suspension can start to cause this symptom as early as a 100k miles

Hi Royt Checked out the toyodiy parts reference and the series 1 part number for the door sub assembly which is the carcase that will carry everything else and must fit is part number 67002-50021 Left hand passenger front. The part number for the series 2 model 92-94 is different.It is a fact that they did change the suspension after the series 1, weather that changed the body profile enough to require changing the monocoque construction is not something that would be apparent until as you say things are asked to fit. I suppose the only people who would really know are Lexus .

Hi You exemplyfy with your comments why I keep my 1990 Ls400 going,I contemplated changing up to a Ls430 when the the range was introduced now I would'nt even consider the idea.There is a saying that relates to all brands and products of engineering, if it is perfect don't change it. Now I am not saying that time and research does'nt improve things but one has to remember the history and development of the Ls400 and the brief to produce it."go out and regardless of cost build the best car in the world" thats why I am driving around in a twenty three year old car that feels and drives like it was built yesterday , I would like to say thank you to those people that conceived the Lexus Ls400 for all the pleasure their expertise and foresight has given me in the last seventeen years.

Hi Steve, it looks like a capacitor as died on the invertor circuit and will be fixable with the right engineer but that is likely to be someone working out of a small shop in Japan were these things are fixed quite often .Good luck in finding a board.

Hi SteveLooking at the board and the area that is damaged this seems to be a circuit layer between the two that are on each side of the board it is in actual fact a sandwich pcb and the short as occured between curcuit running elsewhere on the board. Without the circuit diagram and some very sophisticated equipment you are unlikely to resolve this problem and are more likely to make it worse ,we are not talking simple electric curcuits here we are talking complicated electronics. As someone as already suggested ;a replacement board is probably the best solution

Hi Decal I also have a 90 lex but saw the day coming seven years ago when parts would be hard to get so I bought a 91 insurance write off( under carraige) for £800 it was the same colour as mine and had done 50k less in miles.I bought it for two reasons one for the spares and one as a tutorial for dismantling the parts from the Lexus Ls400 so I did'nt damage parts when repairing mine. My bonnet had been dinged in a falling object garage roofspace incident so that was the first changover ,the front wings were next followed by the boot I could go on all day sufficient to say when I had finished it looked like a banger from grass track racing all parts that could be stripped are in storage apart from the engine and gearbox which at that time were a bit rarer with 80k on so I got £600 for the rolling chassis minus seats door cards all ecu's lights electrics even the front discs which were new. After selling a few of the bits I already had as spares the whole deal cost me £50. I hasten to add that none of the spares are for sale apart from the fact they are hard to get I know they are all OK. Just a rider to this story; When the car was up on blocks in the process of being stripped I took her up to 150mph in gear with the back wheels turning my mate said if it had come off the blocks the car would have become airborne ,needless to say there was'nt a tremor.

I only know from my own experience that the drain holes at the corners very often bung up and a simple feeding through of a delicate wire or whatever to poke them through worked for me ! Don't let the wire snap tho' ! Good luck. Malc As malc says there are four drain holes one to each corner of the sump that sits under your roof and is there to catch the ingress of water through the sunroof which is not designed to be water tight.the drainholes are not accessable from the sunroof area and can only be accessed from the roof side by removing the roof liner and all of the garnishes .Do not attempt this without a workshop manual. you will end up in tears.The front drain holes are positioned adjacent to the windscreen pillars and connect to a drain tube that exits inside the front wing virtually inaccessable unless you remove the front wing.The rear drain pipes exit down the rear windscreen pillars and emerge in the wheel wells at each side of the boot floor they are black plastic tubes and connect to the copper drains inside the wing. These are the ones to wire clear and even if the front ones are blocked if you park the car with the inclination to the rear your problem will dissapear.

Yes Steve I agree the world as gone mad .The inheritor as got carried away with the low mileage and thinks that makes the car worth a fortune.To be frank it raises all kinds of demons ,the wheels are badly corroded which suggests the car as been subject to damp and unventilated conditions there are a million parts on the Lexus ls400 that will suffer corrosion under these conditions including the inside of the engine and all of its ancillaries,the cosmetic damage is repairable but not cheap if done properly and it looks like the drivers door damage is the result of a break in.I would not entertain this car even at a quarter of the asking price as it as not been used and therefore not been loved .

Hi Philipthe revs for idle are 600/650 rpm . try this check Put the Air conditioning to lowest setting this will send the compressor into full application, check if there are any changes in symptoms the revs will go up to 1100rpm and the clutch for the compressor will engage. another possibility is the fastenings on the engine covers both under and over and the protection cover to the oil filter.

Hi When you say the power steering belt that leaves a lot of area as it runs round the air conditioner crankshaft alternator and power steering pulleys and is known as the serpentine belt. The fact that it rattles both in gear and in neutral could illinminate transmission and there fore leaves you with two likely candidates the power steering pump and the a/c compressor.With the engine running at rattle speed get a high powered torch and look closely at the fastenings of all components related to the serpintine belt .if nothing shows check the radiator fastenings and the viscous coupling fastenings on the fan.After the engine as cooled down check all areas at the front of the engine for loose fastenings of any discription. If you are no nearer to finding the rattle then you will have to start illiminating the items by degree initially using steve's removal of the serpentine belt this can be time consuming but nessacary as any rattles in the engine bay of a lexus ls400 are alien to the speices.

Yes, but I cannot get it to paste so the only way on to the topic. Goto clublexus.com LS400 forum, type in the search box," softer gear changes" ,this will bring up a discussion on the subject but on the 2nd page , revert to page one and the topic starts at the top. These damn computers what would we do without them.

Hi fellow Lexuns I have just sorted out a problem that may occur in the future to all of you ,so I will pass on the info . Earlier this year I started to experience a thud at the moment drive was engaged both in forward and reverse and there was more torque than usual when engaged as if the revs were twice as high as tickover.The mystifying part of this scenario was that there was no problem when the transmission was cold.I studied the forums both here and in the USA and all trails led to the no 4 Solenoid (Shift Smoother) being at fault.What further complicated the diagnosis was the codes for a fault on the solenoid only show if it as failed and not if it is sticking. I had determined this was the fault and had sourced a Solenoid at £180 but not purchased and arranged a lift so we could get under the car and replace it. I then took another look at Club lexus at a topic showing how to adjust the harshness /softness of gear changes. This is pictorial and involved adjusting the cable linkage from the gearbox that is connected to the accelerator, cruise control and throttle on the top of the engine under the black plastic plate next to the Throttle body. When I removed the plate after warming up the transmission I immediatly noticed the cable that controls the valve in the gearbox was stuck in the out position. This would increase the flow of fluid through the accumulater valve resulting in the thud I had been experiencing .I pushed the cable back in to its normal position and the thud disappeared.The cause of the cable sticking was dried out cable inner and sheath a quick burst of silicone spray and problem was solved. As a general rule there would be no need to remove this plate and after 22 years the factory lubrication had dried out and there is oxidisation of the alloy bracket taking place which produces dust that had collected on the cable inner. It is the removal of two 10mm captive bolts and one black non captive domed fastener on the plate to check this potential problem that could save you a lot of time and money.

Hi You can get replacement rubbers for the Lexus blades at Lexus dealerships The ebay units are not up to the job as I found out a few years ago and reverted to Lexus parts.