Majin

Hi everyone first off thank you for having me , yesterday I bought my first Lexus. It's a 1994 LS400 and might I add she is so beautiful. Now I got it for 1500 and mechanically the thing is really sound. It drives nice etc but I do have some issues that I need advice about. The Cluster Panel is all black and I can't see the fuel or odometer or none of that important stuff. I've heard replace capacitors and I've heard buy a new board, which do I do? Also the A/C doesn't blow at all. Like the temperature is there but there's no blowing of air. What part would I want to replace to fix this? Last issue is I have a 7 month old daughter and she has a carseat that sits on a base that has these hook things that usually latch onto these metal hinge things that are usually in the back seat. However I can't for the life of me find them in my vehicle. It then dawned on me maybe back in the day they didn't have those, would I be correct in assuming this?

Thank you very much for your time.

Legender

Back in the day... they did not have those...even in the Lexus.
Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you on this one... at that price you should have known and been prepared to do quit a bit of maintenance / repair work to get her up to speed.
This forum has tons of information on it and the search engine at the top..or even google is your friend.
We can give you some options but in the end how you do the repair and how much you spend is up to you...
I just did this type of thing on my 98... some of the work I did as I was competent and capable...and some of it I left to my independent Lexus mechanic...and in the end, I'm happy with the result and driving the car/color and enjoying the smooth power ride that I wanted.

Your ability to analyze the problems and do some trouble shooting will be key in saving some money..otherwise be prepared to let someone else do that and you can just pay them.

You can remove the cluster and ship it off to have it repaired...there are sites that to that.

Good luck with your purchase and your tasks of bringing it up to speed. Welcome to the forum.

AandSC

How many miles on your car? At $1,500 it's unlikely you are going to buy any car that has zero issues. You should probably look at the capacitors on your ECU in order to either eliminate or fix that issue.

Majin

167,000+

Is changing the ECU capacitors hard? Also that ECU is located on the passenger side right?

dicer

It will take some soldering skills, and you need to take electrostatic discharge precautions. I say study up on both topics.
And yes its under the glove box.

Majin

Also I understood there was going to be issues. However it's a Lexus and dear god does this thing ride smooth. Not to mention all the little options this one had are great

Majin

Ok understood. Thank you.

700bones

Hey speaking of the ECU, is that part still available even? I'm just curious, I'm kind in the same boat as this guy, but I mean it still isn't THAT bad. My issues that might be ECU:
-Throttle very mushy sometimes, then ok most of the time
-slips from 2 to 3rd gear, but most of the time oK
- Speedometer does not work for the first few minutes, then operates normally.
- fuel gauge out completely. Always on E, heh

I'm not afraid of soldering if it comes to that (used to solder professionally)

Anwyay, I paid $700 for this thing because the mechanic for the old lady that had it said the rack and pinion needed to be replaced (quoted her $1400!!!). The first time I started it up after I got it a month ago, I got the same problem the lady had -- steering was VERY hard at idle. She stated that steering would be normal for a few minutes, then get HARDER as she drove. So I added some PS fluid (ATF) recently, and thought I'd drive it around (since i just got plates). Low and behold, the issue of heavy PS is gone. I drove it for 20 minutes, trying to replicate it, nothing. I've gone out three or four more times for 20 minutes to try to replicate it, nothing. I do think it has a slow PS leak somewhere (she might have just been running it dry --- CRINGE).

Anyway the good:
---paint looks pretty damn good for a 22 year old car!
-- interior is OK, ( just aged, and blue is not my thing) not tore up from teh floor up
-- LCD WORKS!
-- no Trac OFF/on light problem!
-- power windows/locks all work!
-- working Nakamichi stereo!
-- suspension good! (needs shocks, but no balljoints messed up,etc)


I guess I'll hose off the undercarriage and dump some UV dye in the PS fluid reservoir to see where the leak is....