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

I made copies of my favorite CD's that I burnt by first making an image using Alfcohol 120% and then burnt the copies using the image. I found that my CD player is somewhat sensitive to the brand of CD's that I made. At first, 3 of the 6 wouldn't play and I found that the three that wouldn't play were all one brand. When I made another copy using a different brand (a no name brand), they all worked fine. Curt

Jason, From the research I have done you cannot just charge a R12 a/c system with R134A gas, for one thing the R12 system uses a mineral oil for compressor lubricant which is cycled with the gas and the R134a system uses a synthetic PAK oil and I hear the two oils are NOT compatible. I would contact the folks at Pace Compressors to see if they would ship international for you, shipping charges shouldn't be toooooo bad. If I had to do my repair over again I would just install a rebuilt compressor, a new receiver/drier and I would install a filter in the suction line. Total cost of parts should be approximately $375 plus shipping. Total parts needed is compressor ($299) + receiver/drier ($26), filter ($25) and one can of PAK oil ($8). For a conversion, I would also remove the condenser and have it flushed to get all the R12 oil out of it. After replacing these parts, install the filter in the suction line and I can send you instructions and a picture of my filter installation, run the system for about 1/2 hour and then replace the filter element. Rechage the system with R134 and you should be good to go. I will warn you that removal of the condensor requires removing the front bumper which is a bit intimidating at first which actually wasn't too bad with the information in the Lexus shop manual. Good luck Jason and don't give up too soon, this is a great car and mine is shaping up fast. I realized that I was going to have to put some money in the car but I was fortunate in that the previous owner had just put a new power steering pump and alternator and just replaced the brake pads. Curt

For Jim Walker, Jim, I believe that by now, there are few NEW problems that are surfacing with the 90-94 LS400s and I applaud your efforts to repair the electronic components at the most economical cost. I also do not appreciate the need to replace an expensive electronic unit that can be repaired by replacing a failed component. I do not have a bad LCD display on my climate control yet but I have had some problems with LCD displays that were damaged by exposure to the sun. I believe that it is reasonable to assume that down the road that I will probably have the same problems that you have found and I would be very interested in acquiring one of the LCD displays that you are talking about. I plan of keeping this 93 LS400 for the long haul and I want to keep everything in working order. Please let me know how much the LCD display will cost. Now that I have my a/c working, I will next tackle the problem of the intermittent operation of my tach and speedometer needles, I will probably be talking to you about this also. Curt

Jason, I too bought a fairly high milage 93 LS400 and I am having fun clearing up the problems one by one. My air conditioner failed on the drive home after purchase, about 3 hours into the trip and I too hoped that a recharge would cure the problem. No such luck, my problem first showed up as a blinking a/c light on the climate control console, later found out this was a sign that the a/c compressor was locked up. Sure enough, when I got home and checked under the hood, the a/c compressor clutch would engage but the compressor did not rotate, got a momentary screech from the serpentine belt when it tried to drive the frozen compressor and then the a/c system disengaged the compressor clutch. My 93 Lexus a/c system used R134a gas and I believe that your 92 will use R12 gas which complicates the repair. I found a rebuilt compressor from these folks http://www.auto-air-compressor.com for $299 and I must say that the guys at Pace Compressors in Tampa, Fl were very pleasant to work with. They specialize on rebuilding the NipponDenso compressors that are used on many of the Asian autos. The folks at Pace said that usually when a compressor fails, it shreds itself and pumps the a/c system full of metal filings. The beauty of the Lexus a/c system is that it has a frozen compressor sensor and it shuts the compressor off instead of allowing it to shred itself. I replaced the compressor as well as the condensor and expansion valve but I did NOT find any filings anywhere inside of any of the a/c system components, they were all surgically clean. Not sure if you can even purchase R12 gas anywhere and I have heard of some horror stories regarding converting R12 systems to R134a but that my be your only option. BTW, the guys at Pace have developed a servicable a/c filter that you can install in the suction line of your system to filter out any metal filings that may remain after you purge the system. They sell the filter very cheap for $25 dollars and a replacement filter element is only $2. The filter protects the replacement compressor from damage that will occur if metal filings are ingested by the compressor that will be circulated with the gas and oil. I don't know if Pace will ship internationally but if they do, I highly recommend them. First thing I did when I purchased my Lexus was to buy the two book set of Lexus Shop Manuals, they have detailed information on how do do most everything on the car and I feel that they were well worth the $144 that they cost. You can buy manuals on a CD much cheaper on EBay also but I do not know if they are the same as the Lexus manuals. I replaced all of the a/c components myself (compressor, receiver/drier, condenser, and expansion valve, all of which Pace shipped to me for a total cost of $835, delivered to my home in Fort Walton Beach, Fl. While I think I could have gotten by by replacing just the compressor and installing one of their filters, I basically have a new a/c system for under $1000 and it is pumping COLD air once again. Good luck in getting your a/c fixed. Curt

I just purchased a 93 LS400 with 99K miles and it had a power steering pump and alternator replaced at 85K miles (surprise, surprise). The airconditioning compressor seized up on the trip home after purchase, about 3 hours into the drive of 600 miles. I purchased a reconditioned compressor from www.auto-air-compressor.com for $300 and after purging and servicing the system with R134a it is working great. The only issue that I have with the car now is with the speedometer and tach needles, they are illuminated ok but they frequently read zero for the first few miles of driving, going to work on that problem next. The car needed tires when I bought it, put on a set of Michelins, V rated tires for $700 including mounting and balancing. Car is a delight to drive, quietest car I have ever owned.

Thanks for the reply Jim, I will certainly keep you in mind. I just recently purchased this car and I have a few over issues to work out before I tackle removing the display. I just received a set of maintenance manuals today so I can start to work on them. It definitely seems to be an internal display problem, the trip odometer keeps running up, even when the speedometer is reading zero. The tach has been working normally for the last two days. Definitely something intermittent going on here. I will let you know, BTW, what is your normal charge for this work? Thanks again. Curt

Quite often when I start my 93 LS400, the tach and speedometer needles are illuminated but rest on zero. Independently, they usually start to work after a short time. Sometimes just revving the engine makes the tach work. Any suggestions and is this a common problem with the 93. Curt

I am not an experienced Lexus owner, I just purchased a used 99K mile 93 LS400 and I found that the previous owner had replaced the power steering pump (yes it has a pump) and the alternator. Are you sure the power steering fluid resevoir is full, the noise you describe is typical of a power steering pump that is pumping a lot of air. If you change a power steering hose you get air in the system and the pump will squall like a banshee until you get the air bled out. It appears that the power steering pump may be a common problem with this vintage car. Curt

I am going through the same problem with a locked up compressor on a 93 LS400. I am ordering parts through this company (http://www.auto-air-compressor.com/pace/). They have the compressor for $299. They will also convince you that you need to replace the condensor because when the compressor seizes it pumps metal filings throughout your a/c system that you cannot flush out. I am ordering a refurbished compressor, a new condensor, a receiver/drier and a filter to capture any remaining metal filings that will cause a new compressor to fail. These guys are located in Tampa Florida. It will still be quite expensive doing the work myself but it probably would cost you more then 1500 if your repairman replaced all these parts. Hope this helps you.. Curt