j2b4o

I picked up a nice 90 ls with 120k for 2600$ today! Has all options like air suspension and nacamichi (sp?) stereo. The only trouble the car has is it clunks over bumps sometimes not sure what the culprit is yet. He has receipts for new controll arms so it shouldnt be them. The steering felt a little funny at certain moments but overall I drives great and runs quiet and strong. I know the steering can be troublesome on these so any advice on what I should replace first? The pump or the rack?? Edit : sorry just saw the stickie on the steering I will clean the filters first.
Im happy with the car it would just be nice to hear from the experts about what to look out for and what to change before it goes.. Thanks !!

mikes7ke

iTrader: (1)

Big thing to check is the idle air control valve or whatever it's called, coming out of the power steering pump. If that goes, your engine will suck atf from the pump.

I think the strut rod bushings are usually the culprit for clanking over bumps.

I'm not a fan of the air suspension so I haven't read up much on it. From the little bits and pieces I gathered if something goes wrong your best bet is aftermarket.

billydpowe

iTrader: (1)

start out right and read the stickies

j2b4o

I am an avid stickie reader so don't worry. However I am bound to mis something and I figured an introduction post couldn't hurt.

One thing I didn't see stickies was: is there a less stressfull position for the air shocks ? In other words is it easier on them in the lifted or normal position? Figured normal would have less pressure but lifted would have more travel but more pressure?? Any thoughts ??

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

welcome

normal is fine.

j2b4o

I actually am having a tough time locating a stickie dealing with the first gen air suspension. Since the dealer wants 1100.00$ each for the fronts and the rears seem to be around the 4-500$ range each, anyone have an suggestions for maintaining them? should I be lubing something or anything like that?
I could always get the conversion kit if I cant come up with the cash and it fails. I inspected it thoroughly and all the visible rubber looks real good. Im hoping that having it garaged for the better part of 20 years has been good to it..

Im sure you guys like pics like ever other forum so Ill post some tomorrow!
(this thing even still has the lexus first aid kit in the trunk lol)

j2b4o

Been looking over things and it needs the stupid idle controll valve on the pump changed (cant find anywhere but dealer so any info would be great). It was only serviced at Lexus untill 50k so I have little to no chance on really knowing the history with that. Previous owner said he is digging out anything he can find for me as far as receipts but I doubt I'll ever find out when or if the T-belt was done so I'm thinking about tackling that soon (read the lexls DIY).

When do most of you do the t-belt? The manual says 60k but I've always done em on 4bangers at 80k so I'm just wondering incase the previous owner pulls out a reciept for it at 60k should I do it again at 120k (now)??

Anyone else wonder why they didn't just use a chain being that the motor runs forever??

Vauxin

Welcome! http://lexus.sewellparts.com/ is a great place to get oem parts, you also get a discount for being a Club Lexus member. I think they have the part your looking for if its the one off of the power steering pump for $69 iirc.

Kansas

The timing belt change interval for all model years of the LS400 is 90,000 miles or 72 months / 6 years - whichever comes first.

No damage is done on a 90 LS or other generation 1 (90-94) LS400 when a tiring belt "breaks". The belts rarely break due to wear and are usually trashed whan a tensioner or the water pump fails.

The timing belt on the 90 LS I drove more many years "failed" at about 75-80K miles when the water pump seized. I smelled coolant about 30 seconds before it happened and then bang! Well, it wasn't really a bang ... the car just coasted to a stop ... I was lucky to coast into a parking slot in front of a convenience store.

If you do replace the timing belt, replace the idlers, tensioner, water pump and the other related parts.

j2b4o

thanks for the info Kansas!!
here are some pics of the car
I know it needs a good detail job!
(the wet spots are from the beast in front of it. not the LS)

j2b4o

Decided to just cap the vac lines and the valve for the steering and it seems fine. There was a bit of fluid in the vac line but not much so I think I cought it early. I'm thinking the caps should be fine because the intake should be sucking and the valve shouldn't be doing much of anything without vac pressure (right?).

I went to pull the wheel today and noticed a huge amount of play in the upper ball joint so I ordered the
beck/arnley from rockauto 156$ shipped(wasnt sure how good quality would be on the doorman). Looks fairly straightfoward and I read the DIY's anyway so I'm not worried about that. I'll replace the other one in a few weeks when I have the extra bread just for good measure.

Anyone have a diagram for the nak system in the 90?? I have a intermittent sub problem so it's gotta be a wiring/ground issue and it would be easier if I wasn't tracing wires I didn't have to.

Thanks!

j2b4o

Replaced the control arm today (got here in 2 days from TN!) and all went well. The only thing I didn read in the DIY was that if you pull the abs sensor you have to reset the trac computer. No biggie just pulled to fuse for 30sec. Cleaned the MAF which resulted in a cel so I reset the ecu and everything came back just fine.
It took a minute for the air shock to start to re fill once the system was back on so if yo do this yourself give it a min and all will be well. (I was worried I messed up something when it didn't come right back up immediately like in my ford with air. Took like 1.5 hrs but I took my time could probably be done in 45min-1hr if you hustle.


On a side note, the b/a arm I got did not impress me at all. It looked cheap and had a small bit of rust already on the back I the ball joint. (like a marker heads worth but still) so next time maybe I'll just get the 2fer on eBay and sell the other to a CL member in need for whatever I end up paying (saw em for like 200$ for both).

fc3s

iTrader: (1)

nice LS!!!

mikes7ke

iTrader: (1)

Yeah you'll be fine with the ACV removed. As long as everything else with the steering is fine you'll hardly notice a difference.

lextout

This is the model that really set the bench mark for lexus. I had a one before and i liked it very much, this is the model that raised the bar REALLY high, and bmw, benz got really irritated when they seen there sells drop once these hit the show room.