New here, "Passed down" 97 LS
05-25-11, 05:06 AM
#1
Intermediate
Thread Starter
New here, "Passed down" 97 LS
Parents bought this car new in '97. My sister bought it from them in 2001 with 59k miles. She drove it to 155k and sold it to me yesterday for $2000. It is silver with grey interior. Paint is starting to fade on the upper surfaces and it has what looks like a golf ball dent on the hood, a few door dings and minor scratches. The interior is amazing, no cracks or tears, looks almost new! Everything works, only the radio display is bad. It needs two tires, hood struts, T-belt (95k on this one) brakes, plugs, coolant and trans fluids changes and a good clean/detail. My sister had the ps pump and rack replaced at the dealer in Oct. '10, $1760 ouch! Drove it home yesterday, 330 miles no problems. What a great road car! It got 27.55 mpg at 70-75 mph with a 20-30 mph headwind most of the way! I have no plans to mod the car, proper upkeep is expensive enough for me. I will get an emissions inspection today (fingers crossed). I am a grease monkey at a tire and auto service shop so I can't wait to lift it up, pull the wheels and undercover. Our shop foreman has lots of Lexus experience so I will be having fun over the next few days! I'll post more on what I find today.
05-27-11, 01:51 PM
#4
Driver School Candidate
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Indiana
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Congrats! I just recently was able to pry the keys from my Dad's 98 LS400. He was the second owner and bought it CPO in 2003. I love driving it! I get to go to the bmv tomorrow. We definately need to see some pics. I really like looking thrugh the forums here...you find alot of useful information and people are pretty cool. :-)
05-27-11, 09:01 PM
#6
Intermediate
Thread Starter
Well, finally got to lift it today. Brakes turned out to be very good. Changed the differential fluid, drain and fill on the coolant, thorough flush on the brake fluid, and a drain & fill on the trans. There is slight oil seepage from the left valve cover and lower oil pan, not enough to form a drop (yet). My sister is sending all the service records. I'll check them before doing any BIG service. Turns out it has really bad front lower ball joints and the front strut bar bushings are disintegrating.. Will be ordering those parts Tuesday. These cars have such an easy to work on suspension! Sorry, no pics. I'm a bit of an old technophobe. One of my favorite things about this car is its relative simplicity. The "hi-tech" on these cars is mainly in design, materials and production engineering.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
1995LS400
LS - 1st and 2nd Gen (1990-2000)
18
02-04-08 05:22 PM