Newbie Alert!
07-22-13, 09:34 AM
#1
Newbie Alert!
Howdy, I'm Justin. I hail from Eastern, NC. I have been creepin' on this site for a week now so I figured I'd join. I've been in the market for a brand newish car for a few years now. Had my eye on the 350z, G35, Q45, M45, and a few others over that time period. Thought I'd give Lexus a try and test drove a POS 98 GS400 which almost pushed me away from the GS name. Drove out to Raleigh the following week and test drove a newer GS300, and GS430. The 430 was beat up and had high miles but still pulled strong. Jumped into the 300 and took it for a spin. The 300 was taken better care of than the other two but was slow as the dickens. My thought was if I get the 300 I could install the GTE engine and get it back up to par power wise, so I bought it.
Picked her up last Saturday with 133k on the ODO. She doesn't look worn out like the others though. She did come with a few problems. 3/4 door acuators were bad (dealer is replacing them for me free of charge), and the mode servo sounds like a pencil pressed against a fan blade and the air is stuck on foot and face all the time. This guy will be replaced within the month also. First thing I did was drive to Advance and buy a cabin filter because it smelled like a *****s closet when I picked it up. 10 minutes of driving and the **** scent disapated.Finallllllyyyyyy... we can get to the pics!
Dealer had the wheels refinished
Picked her up last Saturday with 133k on the ODO. She doesn't look worn out like the others though. She did come with a few problems. 3/4 door acuators were bad (dealer is replacing them for me free of charge), and the mode servo sounds like a pencil pressed against a fan blade and the air is stuck on foot and face all the time. This guy will be replaced within the month also. First thing I did was drive to Advance and buy a cabin filter because it smelled like a *****s closet when I picked it up. 10 minutes of driving and the **** scent disapated.Finallllllyyyyyy... we can get to the pics!
Dealer had the wheels refinished
Last edited by Mrmartin; 07-23-13 at 09:10 AM.
07-22-13, 12:47 PM
#2
Welcome.... car looks nice and stock. Hopefully not for long. That engine bay is spotless. Looks like you can eat off of the engine cover. Lol. Nigel is great to deal with and order parts from. Great communication, ships fast, cheaper than most vendors I've seen for parts. Some items will arrive in 4-5 days as he has them in stock, some will take a couple weeks because he needs to order them from japan.
07-22-13, 01:07 PM
#3
People wil rush on here and starting yelling the Unicorn statement (yuck lol!) because you have the rare white with black seats. The 300 is a great choice. If you are not trying to race it at red lights, it's a great commuter car. This is essentially the same motor from 1998, so 225HP for an I6 was decent back then, even though the car is very heavy for that motor. As far as your first question, I think that you already know the answer to that if you really searched, searched, searched. People have posted for years what they immediately do with ANY YEAR model GS after purchase along with brand options of lbj's to go with. If you want to roll the dice, go ahead. Once you see the price to fix the fender along with the ripped ABS cord, the lbj's will be small cost compared to the damage that will be done. If I were you, I would change them out ASAP. Moog makes a great brand. For more info, click on the sticky in the suspension thread. It looks like you TB has been changed due to the sticker on the TB box. I would register the car at lexusdrivers.com so you can see all of the work that's been done on your car at the stealership. It's a great resource and you're able to see how well the PO took care of the car.
I see you have the factory yellow fogs. So either your car is the rare 300 with HID's since this was a buyer's option or someone switched out the clear fogs with yellow. That's what I did with my car. I don't have HID's, I installed HIR's. As a matter of face, I've never seen any 300 model with factory HID's. I"ve only seen the obvious...400 and 430s.
I see you have the factory yellow fogs. So either your car is the rare 300 with HID's since this was a buyer's option or someone switched out the clear fogs with yellow. That's what I did with my car. I don't have HID's, I installed HIR's. As a matter of face, I've never seen any 300 model with factory HID's. I"ve only seen the obvious...400 and 430s.
Last edited by SaiyanGS3; 07-22-13 at 01:21 PM.
07-22-13, 02:10 PM
#5
I see you have the factory yellow fogs. So either your car is the rare 300 with HID's since this was a buyer's option or someone switched out the clear fogs with yellow. That's what I did with my car. I don't have HID's, I installed HIR's. As a matter of face, I've never seen any 300 model with factory HID's. I"ve only seen the obvious...400 and 430s.
Trending Topics
07-22-13, 04:57 PM
#9
Signed up on lexus drivers and this was the only history I could find. Not sure what the headlight, turn signal was because I checked the car fax before I bought it and there was no front end collision.
Does it make it any more rare being parchment crystal?
Does it make it any more rare being parchment crystal?
Last edited by Mrmartin; 07-22-13 at 05:03 PM.
07-22-13, 06:27 PM
#11
^^^^ dang that sucks. My PO had 5 pages of detailed information when I bought my car at 78k. I was well taken care of....even car wash done at dealer lol. I'm the 2nd owner so I will keep it running good until until its done. Ill overhaul the suspension/major tune at 150k
07-23-13, 08:58 AM
#13
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: CT
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Beautiful car, welcome!
For the LEDs you are looking for, I used v-leds.com They have everything you will need. Below I have attached a link that will let you know which bulbs you will need as well.
https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/appli...l=1011&make=54
For the LEDs you are looking for, I used v-leds.com They have everything you will need. Below I have attached a link that will let you know which bulbs you will need as well.
https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/appli...l=1011&make=54
08-19-13, 06:45 AM
#14
This car has been great besides the lack of power. Had to drop it off at the dealer last week because of the door acuators going bad. 3 were bad when I bought it and the 4th went out last week. The dealer is replacing them free of charge with all new acuators from Lexus so I'm sure that saved me hundreds of dollars. It smelled musty the day I bought it so I drove straight to Advance Auto and bought/intstalled the in-cabin filter, so the stank is fixed. Also, the blend door acuator for the HVAC makes a horrible noise. The dealer is going to buy the part and I'll install it.
I did read about the noisey telescopic wheel when mine had a sweak when returning to home position. Removed and cleaned the motors so that's another thing off of the list. LOL, I did get stranded 4 hours from home because of a corroded negitive battery terminal. Some vice grips got the car started then made a quick trip to O'riley's. Four dollars later I was back on the road. After posting the problems is does sound like a lemon lol. The dealership gave me a 2000 Jaguar S-type 4.0 rental car with 65k miles... car is horrible, but has great power. Had it since friday and the list of problems so far is:
Shakes bad at higher speeds
Check engine light came on 20 miles after picking the car up
Jaguar head fell off the ashtray while closing
Wood trim fell off of pass side door when closing
A/C compressor starting to lock up, when driving you can feel it buck lol. Have to turn A/C off in traffic
Sun roof only opens half way
Other misc pieces of the interor is falling off
Premium radio sounds like a base model option for a 31 ford
leather is cracking
cloth is falling off of A pillars
Outside of the car looks flawless. Car doesn't look abused but not holding up at all. Can't wait to be back in the GS!
I did read about the noisey telescopic wheel when mine had a sweak when returning to home position. Removed and cleaned the motors so that's another thing off of the list. LOL, I did get stranded 4 hours from home because of a corroded negitive battery terminal. Some vice grips got the car started then made a quick trip to O'riley's. Four dollars later I was back on the road. After posting the problems is does sound like a lemon lol. The dealership gave me a 2000 Jaguar S-type 4.0 rental car with 65k miles... car is horrible, but has great power. Had it since friday and the list of problems so far is:
Shakes bad at higher speeds
Check engine light came on 20 miles after picking the car up
Jaguar head fell off the ashtray while closing
Wood trim fell off of pass side door when closing
A/C compressor starting to lock up, when driving you can feel it buck lol. Have to turn A/C off in traffic
Sun roof only opens half way
Other misc pieces of the interor is falling off
Premium radio sounds like a base model option for a 31 ford
leather is cracking
cloth is falling off of A pillars
Outside of the car looks flawless. Car doesn't look abused but not holding up at all. Can't wait to be back in the GS!
