Kingsoup

I really like the GS cars, sportier then the LS, but the Celsior for me was way lower K's and half the price of a GS400 LHD.

Lots of gains to be made in the exhaust, but its tricky you see, the LS was made to be quiet and soft and coddle you and be wonderful in traffic, loud exhaust might make that an unhappy prospect. Its plenty quick enough stock, keep it a nice reliable good looking Daily and get your 2nd car to be the driven hard mobile!

dveneman

LSpho wrote "I have preference to white or black with black interior but those are almost impossible. So I'm actually open to many color options but the silver/gray I'll possibly look at soon isn't offending at all."

Is this color offensive?
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4361692444.html
It looks like a decent prospect to me.

Or perhaps a soothing mint green.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/4345481776.html

dashan

I have two cars now. A 1999 Accord 5pd, and a 1996 LS400.
I fund that I picked the accord more often to go around than I picked the LS.
When I went for some 2,000 mile trip, I picked LS.
LS is much more expensive to maintain than the Accord.

Shmee

iTrader: (3)

These cars are actually really cheap to maintain if you can do your own work and do not have the ****-retentive need to source only OEM parts.
Comparably speaking, the brakes cost about the same as an accord/civic/Camry/focus/etc... Same with things like the timing belt kit, and most other basic maintenance parts.... Obvious you have to adjust the extra 2-4 cylinders where applicable. there are obvious exceptions but the general maintenance on these cars is actually very reasonable away rom the dealer.

Compared to other cars in the same class, it's friggin redonkulously cheap!
You'd pay 2-4x the price to maintain the German equivalents, with infinitely better reliability!

Doc Yota

You can't go wrong. I switched years back. Still have my 93 Legend, 99 LS400, 02 LS430, and I keep a civic in the garage at all times(93 Del Sol Si to be exact). I still pick my 99 LS everyday. Its the perfect combination of comfortable and capable and will destroy that TL in high speed transport. One of my best friends has the very same model TL. On a road trip to Houston a couple years back we got loose and around 140 my 99 LS400 started walking away from him and he is a very aggressive driver. We have raced side by side a couple times on back roads and it was about even. The 99's acceleration is impressive to my wife who owned a twin turbo stealth for years. The 99 is a lot faster than the 1st generation you test drove. By the way, this is my second 98-00 LS and never had any major problems during the total 10 years I have driven this model. The TL is a good vehicle, but the LS is....well.....as supreme as the overseas name implies.

LSpho

Thanks for all the responses, got the LS400 before I even got to read anything
LOL great news to post on thread I suppose
I just copped the Silver/gray LS4 with 952xx Mi after I saw the ad, I think impulsive behavior and lack of patients really won here but I have no regrets
Couldn't not pick it up after the test drive.
It had all the maintenance papers and checklist from a Lexus dealership up to current miles.
It seemed to have gotten the 90k major service done at 75k. Some things changed written were "strut bar bushings" but the car doesn't have a strut bar unless they mean sway bar but not quite sure a dealer writer would have written the wrong item. New transmission mount.
Exterior: ~3 dings the size of 30 grains of high quality sand put together each. 4 very small scruffs across the front left corner light and right corner area of front bumper, both rear quarters look like someone scruffed it instead of previous owner causing it of the car. Looks like scruffs from scrubbing garbage cans, other cars, walls, poles, or w/e ls400s want to rub their bodies on. I so far drove the car and parked it as if I still were driving the TL. I'm glad I didn't scrub anything because at one point I had to medicate and this car is longer than the TL by a good bit.
Interior: Very clean, some strange smell I seem to have smelt in other cars before but I'll be giving the car a full detail work and steam the carpets, not sure if I can leave a steam cleaner in there going and steam the whole interior? anyone have experience with that let me know.
The view from the inside has a good feel to it, I can't quite put it in words at this time but it felt like some sort of aggressive coffin cloud bunker and it has awesome front view.

Some things could use some refreshings, I'm going to go over the car with a full detail. Was raining hard at one point on my drive and the water barely slides off the paint or windshield, full clay bar is going to be necessary . The orientation of the way the wipers function is really neat I think, that seem to really stand out to me in terms of most cars I've been in. The rain did allow me to check some things out without causing excessive wear of course nothing crazy, I just wot randomly when in L or D from full stop and scared some people unintentionally with some spinnage. VCA on launched well and grabbed the wet pavement with even with these bulbous wollowy 225/60/16 kumhos. OFF allowed it to keep spinning after that the wheel hopping thunk stopped as long as pressure was applied to throttle. I'd imagine wheel hop would be *** in the dry for this car?


Some things to ask other LS400 owners and misc irritations of the car, I could be nitpicking perhaps
- Ashtray lags and gets stuck sometimes. Anyone else getting it? No problem at all but it somehow irritates me.
-Going from a having HID with OEM projectors to halogen with reflectors felt kinda assy. These halogens suck *** or maybe I just need to change them out. High beams look great though. Should I get plug n play hid kit or just stick with changing with strong halogens every so often, I'm well aware it's on halogen reflectors, no projectors of any sort.
- Mine didn't come with heated seats, bleh I lost that too. Oh well not much of a loss, whole car gets total warmth pretty fast
- Any secret stuff to know about this car? Similar to how the s2000 has their so called "secret storage space" not written in the manual or of that nature.
- Rear interior lights don't seem to turn on with the front ones with DOOR or ON is this normal? All cars I've owned the master light switch turns on all of them. homelink might not be working but it does show flashing lights
- How to treat the wood finishes? Would lexol vinyl work?

Some things I noticed coming from the TL, not all the buttons and stuff are illuminated, no heated seats in mine (doesn't really matter not used often) steering is ULTRA light can spin that **** 1 handed phast. The gauge cluster lights are so soothing it kind of just blends in with everything including the outside during the night and I just lose myself in the car, castle of solitude on wheels all i hear is the noise of the crosswinds outside at higher speeds

The chassis stays firmly planted as I suspected, but the susp and the tires were wollowy.I can definitely feel those balloon *** tires want to roll side wall on side wall and flop itself under. Not tires for consecutive turns and they somewhat feel disconnected on straight and turning road surfaces.

From this point I may need to check on all the fluids, I'm not sure if the rear differential fluid ever got changed so that should be a must I think. I'll recheck everything tomorrow, been a long day went far to get it and also had to get some stuff done during the day to really pay more attention to the car. Overall experience is extremely positive, even though some people may probably want to give me shi7 for going from "luxury car" to Luxury car or manual to an auto or similar power output; especially some people I know irl. What I really miss is shifting up or shifting down with great precision and accuracy. Miss rev matching, in most circumstances I can drive manual much better than auto and downshift smoother than an auto thanks to almost master of double clutch rev matching and heeltoe braking but this LS400 is a major relief and a breathe of fresh air with lack of better or descriptive words. Just gotta get use to the somewhat laggy auto when WOT or higher throttle positions. So far so good I think I can see that I'll roll or have this car for a very long time. Quickest thing I need to do is change the hood dampers, they don't hold hood up. Rear license plate bulb has gone out so I'll just change them both and swap the scruffed up front left corner light. Do led rear tail lights/brakes look good or will they give off a weird looking pattern on the LS4


Thanks, I ended up picking up the LS4 silver/gray I didn't get a chance to test drive any of your cute turtle GS's at all sadly or any SC for that matter. So far I'm very pleased with this LS400 as it seems to be quick still and burn some rubber at will lol. After becoming an Lexus owner, I've all of a sudden became just a little more fond of your cute turtles hehe the LS is pleasing to look all around but not outstanding at any angle. i'm sure there are people that also think that other angles look off. I like the LS rears and rear quarter views. very robotic tail lamps like if that makes any sense. Where's your favorite part /angle of your turtle lol

I can definitely agree GS sportier than the LS but I think the way it is and its potential probably somehow in my mind fits me most at this current point. I sure hope a lot of the gains to be made in the exhaust =0, the system looks like a busty maze for the exhaust pulses and the header is very --> <-- I heard PPE is now doing the LS400 headers (correct me if i'm wrong, still learning and reading) and I'll definitely be dropping a ton of weight with a single multi muffled exhaust even if I don't gain power. I don't plan to have it too loud, but definitely has to be audible and rip ears (maybe not really?) but quiet and tranquil whenever I want it to. In the meantime I'll enjoy it's coffin bunker quietness. I won't have that 2nd smasher anytime soon sadly, I gotta do what I can within reason with the ls400 =p

Yea, this car came first with the good history, low miles, great interior and exterior with minimal dings and blemishes. There is some scrubbing on some of the corners of the car, I suspect car is just too phat and previous owner rubbed its shiz


Thanks for looking out, but I've seen those ones during my search. The miles didn't really attract me, I did consider them though still. Not really considered the tan interior after a while, but I am open to the gray. That tan one is offending, it screams OLD

I know what you mean, if I could keep the TL and the LS400 I'd drive the TL if <10milesand LS400 for anything over that. I think I'll get use to it. Small price to pay for V8 even with some small time WOTing, my driving style so far got me 24 mixed mpg right now. A little busty coming from inline4s to a Vsic and now to a VeeATE but I can definitely respect that mileage coming from a v8. My 2nd car will be the city car and smasher but won't be coming for a good while at this point. This LS4 will be my ride or die for it all for the mean time, I feel wasteful when doing drives around 5 miles or less give or take but it's cool

Well said, it'll be cheaper to maintain with a trusted mechanic if you know any as well. Most parts have good alternatives ie) brakes. I'm assuming the brakes should be like most other cars, in that case i'll see if Stoptech has brakepad application for the LS400. There should definitely be good blanks or slotted slot/drilled from reputable manufacturers for good prices. Calipers can be changed later if necessary or when I want to.
According to Lexus dealership write up, the 90k major maintenance was ~1500 not bad for what is needed considering it is stealership. 2-4 cylinders when applicable of course well said with that one , small price to pay for a v8

I'd love to have a EF9 to pair with the LS right now. Well depending on dig or even roll the TL will take it shortly but the LS will pass eventually I agree, overall speed all around is very well utilizable with the LS4 so that is definitely awesome. mildly high revving quad cam v8 can smash good That "supreme" is why I thought about and bought the LS400, it's made with such purpose and toyota put so much behind it that I should definitely buy it's purposeful nature and put it to work. Do you mash in your LS often? I'm sure it'll last long as hell driven "regularly" but how about mashing it up, how do these LS400s hold up in particular to differential, drivetrain, etc when taking some proper runs

dveneman

Congrats and welcome to the land of "land barges". Sounds like you got a nice one. Nuetral colors are a good choice.
Photos (or it didn't happen) please.
You will find out what LS strut bushings are.

BTW
What does the trans fluid color look like? Mine supposedly had a 90k service and the trans fluid looked like coffee. I drained and refilled twice (about 6 qts) and now its red.
Not too red for an old transmission I hope.

mccrimmon

iTrader: (2)

OP has a '98+ so lucky for him the strut bar cushions/bushings aren't that bad. 94+ they're $38 from Sewell. 90 - 93... a mere $145 each. I found mine on ebay for $209 for two + free shipping. It had to be done so...

LSpho

Thanks, team old men/women land yacht. Pic of the barge coming up in less than a few minutes of this post =p

That'll be good to know too, though usually they're red to indicate newer.

Shiet, is this strut thing a notorious issue?


Here comes the quick pics, bad garage shoot but I'm definitely capable of proper shoot if anyone wants to see a BONE STOCK LS4 lol...

You forum people and your PICS OR LIE stuff =p




another quick question to add to my list of questions from above postings, I only have 1 side mirror tilt down when I put in reverse? Also side to side the mirrors stutter but up and down is super smooth. hmmm

dveneman

Any clunks, knocks, or oil can clicking coming from your front end?

I am not an engineer, but it seems a big heavy V8 front end combined with light, nimble, elegant suspension pieces demands maintenance sooner or later . Add 16 years or so and this is more true.

LSpho

Not that I can tell, it does seem to have a lumpy V8 OEM idle @ front and rear. Man you make it seem fragile lol, I was doing some peel outs in the rain last night too. Hopefully longevity wasn't compromised.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

strut bushings going bad is pretty common but more so on older cars. it will eventually wear (the LS has all soft bushings to get that nice plush ride) but most likely you can just wait. for example, i have a 97 with 150k and i have never replaced it...yet.

welcome, and there is nothing wrong doing a photoshoot of a stock car!

LSpho

Thanks, feels weird to me to shoot a stock car though haha. That's good that your deteriorating pieces still lasting without replacement, hopefully it'll last way longer than you'd expect and for I as well.

Would swaping to ENERGY SUSPENSION bushings be ok to those bushing pieces when they go out? I came from harsh rides so shouldn't be much of a problem. The LS400 is so cloud like and somewhat disconnected due to the overall softness, even my rubber peeling in the rain felt "elegant and smooth" lol

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

you can swap to polyurethane but you will def loose the ride quality. if you go that route, be sure to grease the ba-jesus out of them, or you'll get annoying squeaks!

mccrimmon

iTrader: (2)

Mine is a 1990, so the added age is why mine needed replaced. 24 years isn't bad for rubber! OEM bushings/suspension parts, especially @ Sewell Lexus with the clublexus discount, are pretty reasonable and you can find them on Amazon or Ebay for even cheaper.