Mikaelse

Yup I have tried both methods. Another thing I discovered was that is you lift up the front for a while and wait. (Do not know for how long. Mine were up for weeks for winter sevice) You get much more out 3+ liters or so . I just get 1.6 l or so If I drain on flat ground fast. At 140k and dark oil I would try to get mostly new oil in without much delay.

Years or miles , climate . Hard to say which is worst for sure. Depends I guess I agree with you. No issues expected. Mine where 90kmiles when I did the belst and decided not to exchange the seals. No leaking seen. f it has started to sweat oil I would change it though. Easy and cheap it seems. Last LS400 I did the belt on was recently on a 1998.

Looks good Howplum. No steering fluid on the alternator it seems . Thats good. Looks like some scraping is needed for the waterpump. Are you going to change the crank seal. I did not. mine was bonedry. Looks like some oil around yours perhaps. ? I changed my rotors and caps for BOSCH brand. 40$ total in 2017. Looked OK but a bit cheaper made compared to the original I removed. leads , I choose DENSO.

Sorry that the drilling did not work for you Howplum . One of those few occasions where high quality. ( of the 46 mm wrench ) material may be indesirebale. The 46 mm wrench is probably hard. There is a good chance that you can lower the hardness a bit with heat and time. You could try to heat anneal the area you want to drill and see if that helps. Do not drill when hot though. One of those heat guns that can go to dark red glow should have a chance. A propane torch would be quicker. I would recommend a brand name drill bit . Those you buy two at the time at the tool supply shop. Often better than the cheap bundles.

Not to worry . I have done it twice. Take it slowly and read markups with images while you do it. Be careful with possibly old and brittle sensor cables and connectors Do remove the radiator. I only managed to get one of the water valves open on the engine block . left side . It seems all of it came out though. Much smarter than letting coolant out all over everything. The AC pump. you need to loosen the bolts to block and put it to the side just a bit. The alternator . same same you need to loosen it and put it to the side a bit. remove the Servo pump pulley. It is easy and it helped on my 1998 at least. Do not remember doing it on the 1995. I bought the AISIN kit. Waterpump came with a very serious metal backed rubber sealed gasket. IF the surface is good that probably works fine bonedry. I chickened out and put a thin layer of high temp sealant on the gasket on both sides. It was sealant only original as far as I remember on my 1995 . A lot of careful scraping. I did not perform any advanced torqueing for the water pump with seating loosely and tightening after a while as is sometimes described. Just torqued it reasonably quickly. Be sure to check the trans belt idlers and tensioner. Likely to need new bearings. Mine did. Bleeding air. Read the official instructions . Was a bit tricky to get the last liter in . Definitely change plugs , plugwires and distributor and rotor if you are going to at the same time. I did that a few years later and that was a lot of double work.

Hi There HowPlum This is what mine looks like. See image. 8 mm holes are 66 mm apart. A 14 mm thickness on the jaws . 55 cm long . I should have placed the holes slightly further out to allow for 1-2 mm more space for the socket. Had to grind off slightly in The U to clear. Check ! Mike

I made such a tool with a cheap 46 mm open wrench . paid 10£ for it. Drilled two holes for the 8 mm bolts to hold the crank pulley. The U shape d wrench allowed for the socket to fit the crank bolt. Used the tool on two LS400 now. It works well. Was no problem drilling the two holes. Hard material but not too hard.

250£ laobour is great. Do not forget to check and change also the idlers for the drive belt, These were on last leg on the two LS400 I have done. They hissed when spun and Grease inside looked like black paste I second the Rockauto kit with AISIN parts. Used both times seemed good to me.

I own a LS400 with and one without the air suspension . No significant ride difference in my opinion. The load leveling and high position is a good thing to have but not important to me.

Scrapping seems not needed. Those cars are worth saving. Find a good mechanic that can swap in a used transmission. You are in luck probably. Since the transmssions are good quality and long lived generally . Typically a good used one can be sourced at fair cost. Here in Sweden ( small country . Not many LS 400 ) there are 7 offered right now for LS400 on a major used parts trade site. One year 2000 with only 70K miles on it. 500£ . Probably you can find a good one easy in UK too.

Hi All. I have done cambelt , idelrs, pump etc twice as DIY on my LS400. The AISIN kit with tensioner. On One 1995 and one 1998. It is not very difficult but a lot to do. IF you are an expererienced mechanic well equipped and you read the manual AND have done it at least once it should be fine. I would no let a mechanic that as not done it before do it. Some risk for misstakes and breaking old connector etc. I have heard horror stories of people taking off the AC-compressor , etc. You should definitely change the serpentine idler bearings at same time. Mine had very dry grease and sounded so so. Not far left on those. Can be fixed for 20$ in parts.

Do a little research on the bearings. type seems to vary. Mine were standard ones readily available of many known brands cheap for my 1995. Note that the bearings are a press fit and then bearings with sligtly larger play shall be fitted and is. Those are on standard bearings generically marked 2RS for rubber lip seal and C3 for the slightly larger bearing play. I bougth standard bearing first and had to redo it when I felt that the bearing was a bit tight after assembly. I bougth a cheap 9 £ idler with bearing for another LS. That bearing felt soso with a unknown brand bearing and lots of play. I will check that one after 1 year. Not happy with that.

Good idea Howplum . Mine are also a bit battered and coming loose at the edges.

Do you have a sunroof? . I have heard that the drain tubes from the sunroof that drain to outside can become clogged and the water that comes in at the seal in the roof may end up in the boot.

Many parts can be sold off if there is a practical way to handle it. Fenders, mirrors , engine , transmission, rear axle. Radio. Some parts are expensive and hard to find.

Thats a good price. A pair of working ok shape side mirrors can be sold for that.

If it lasts for seemingly for ever like most things in My 1995 LS400 daily driver does so be it. If is new , expensive and breaks and can not be repaired easily, spare me. My much newer german tech car wants new electric BOSCH stuff quite often.

These bushing are a bit strange. They clonk even though they do not look real bad. Changed them and clonk gone. Twice. Both cars at about 100.000 miles. Seems most sensitive rubber bushings in the suspension. I bought genuine OEM toyota made for reason mentioned. For first LS400 in 2015 from US. Have heard they may be difficult to get now. Bought last year from AMAYAMA. ( Japan ) also OEM. They stil stocked them a few months ago.. Was then less then 30 US$ each.

No . They were not.

The door mirror glass you can get new on EBAY . Not difficult to fix but a instruction is recommended so you know where to pry to get the thing apart. I reused the old heater element. Attached the glass with high temp silicone. Worked well.

Yup. I can hear the scratchy noise too on your video. Changes pitch with revs. My best guess is one or more of the sealed ballbearings inside the stuff on the motor front that has persihed. I have done cambelt and auxiliary belt, water pump and idler bearings on two LS400 age 20 and 22 years . Some of the auxiliary belt bearings were stil working ok but made some "whirring" noise and grease inside more resembled black cheese then oil. If this is the case with your car the noise would have come gradually over some time. 20 Years is a descent life on those sealed bearings I think. If it is due , Do the full Cambelt, water pump, All idlers bearing change. My alternator bearings, freewheeling bearings in AC-compressor, and Fan bearings I did not change . Those where smooth running, tight and seemed fine still.

Hi If you check the link I gave they give details info for both Left and Right hand cars. Go in there and check your exact car details . Parts sometimes differ also for which market the car is intended. USA , Europe , Japan etc. There are other sources where you can go in with your exact VIN number and get the info without knowing much . Try https://www.toyodiy.com/parts/q.html For part number checks there... example. https://www.toyodiy.com/parts/xref?s=8430650180&mE=on IF you put in the partnumber above it seems it is intended for LH and RH drive but for 2003 onwards only?. Seems this needs some more checking. You can ask the AMAYAMA guys for example if it is the right one for your 2001.

I use brand name brake stuff bought from third party supplier that compete hard. BREMBO or BOSCH or the like. Prices are about 1/2 or less. 5 years now on those. Works perfectly. Why overpay? The markup on oem stuff is huge. Why pay that if you do not have too ?

Concerning AC -service . On my LS400 1998 the AC stil works after 22 years. I have all the service/repair records it seems and no work or service seem to have taken place on the AC over the years. On my 1995 LS 400 the AC gave up gradually over two years recently. I would never let anyone "service" the AC as long as it works well. Changing belt and air filter of course I do regularly. Could anyone explain what "servicing AC" Is good for really. ?

A quick look found this. Check that the car matches your spec. https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/8430650180 This is a good place to find such stuff. Seems to be available from AMAYAMA. I bought a simillar thing for my 1995 LS400 from them . Worked well. Easy to exchange but since it will break if mounted wrong and you need to handle the airbag. Follow the service manual ! Common sense is not enough for this work.