jaaa

Okay, brand new problem. The brakes work great on first application. If you get off them and then back on, they all of a sudden seems hard with very little braking force. I hadn't noticed this before because I had always continued the brakes on first application. I was having my wife check out the rear brake lights when I noticed this as I was pumping the brakes to get the rear lights to work. Any insight from anyone would be helpful. The brake pads appear new, but the rotors have some uneven wear.

dicer

$26 for the hood struts, where did you get them? They aren't too stiff are they, some in the past were and would bend the hood. The brakes could be caused by the master cylinder. I'd first take out the abs fuse and see what happens.

cobalt91

Check that you have good vacuum to the brake booster.

jaaa

Here is where I bought them, they work great:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291435894694


BTW- my brake problem was self induced. I was busy replacing lots of hoses as I tore the car apart to get to the starter. I managed to get fuel line hose for one of the brake booster hoses. Live and learn, replaced it with a better hose and all is well.

bwonder381

I have 198,000 on mine and it drives smooth...

jaaa

Just a hint for those who have just bought their Lexus and have the brake light warning. There are three brake lights on both sides of the car! I had a burned out bulb on the middle light on one side and the warning light stayed on after I fixed it. Came to find out the bottom brake lights on both sides were out too. Took me a while to figure that out.


I've managed to bring this car back from the dead. It runs great with all new fluids. Only missing an inside door handle bezel. Lexus only makes replacements in black and I just plain flat out refuse to pay $40 for the wrong color one. No more leaks and my door replacement is close enough in color for me to live with. I'm doing rust mitigation now which should take another week or so. Only question in my mind is the loudness of the muffler system. Since I've never driven one before, I'm not sure how loud it should be. Maybe I can find one in a parking lot and listen up.

Been a couple weeks since I wrote the above.
I've had the car for a while now and have discovered that the EGR pipe that runs from the back of the coolant bridge to the exhaust is bad. When I took the coolant bridge off to remove the starter, I just noticed the pipe coming off the back of it and thought it must be a blind mate as it just came off with the coolant bridge. Of course with lots of reading I found out the egr pipe breaking is a common occurrence. So it is the source of my exhaust noise and smelly exhaust. I didn't really want to replace it because I knew I would have to take the intakes off again. I finally gave in today and was looking online to order one when I ran into this link=


http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...from-egr-pipe/


After reading that link it hit me like a ton of bricks that I could just remove the bottom of the egr pipe from the exhaust and then plug it up. My smallest box end wrench was able to remove the two 12MM nuts in a few minutes. Only took a few more minutes to cut up a thin aluminum plate to shove between the gasket. The gasket will open slightly and you can insert a "plate" in-between the gasket blocking any return gasses from leaking into the engine compartment. I put back the gasket and pipe and it drives like a kitty cat(just purrs). No more noise or smelly exhaust. Sorry if this is a common fix for this car, but us new guys have to find out all these problems the hard way.

jaaa

Changed out my spark plugs recently and found the driver side second spark plug from the car front had an caked oil deposit about a half inch up the shank. The plug firing gap looked good and dry, but the outside was wet with oil.
Do I?:
Replace the driver side valve cover gasket?
Replace both sides valve cover gaskets?
Run with it as is?


If I do replace the gaskets:
Use oem only?
Use any gaskets?


There was some oil leaking down the outside of the valve covers, but not bad considering it has 218k miles. BTW- the engine has been running fine the whole time.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

You have to replace the spark plug tube seals and you might as well change the valve cover gasket since you have to take the valve cover off anyway.

jaaa

Just another thing for me to look into. The steering telescopic motion is no longer working. It moves just a little in any one direction and then stops. I have taken the part where the screw drive is- and it looks okay. I can see the worm drive move a little then stop. The gear isn't stripped or in the wrong position like I have seen in some video's. I am now looking into 89227-50010. Is this a likely problem area? Any help would be kindly appreciated.

jaaa

Since I've had no response, I thought I would respond with what I've found out. Both my tilt and in/out motors are acting the same way. When you first turn on the car, they move a little. They respond to the controls for a second or two then just stop working. From what I've read, the motors themselves are what's wrong. Since I have 218k miles and the motors move each and every time you turn the car on- it makes sense. Problem is new ones cost an arm and a leg and most donor cars aren't going to be much better than mine. I googled the part numbers but don't see much in the way of supply out there. Part numbers are 89231-50030 and 89232-50020. Anyone have a better source?

AandSC

Here's one for your consideration.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/95-96-97-LEXUS-LS400-POWER-STEERING-COLUMN-OEM-1995-1996-1997-/151816468112?hash=item2358f77690&vxp=mtr
Or this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/95-96-97-LEXUS-LS400-steering-tilt-motor-OEM-/151337460120?rmvSB=true&ul_ref=http%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F711-53200-19255-0%252F1%253Fcampid%253D5335806956%2526customid%253D1321779%253B151337460120%253Bmore%253B1%253Blistings%253Blexus%252Btilt%252Bmotor%253Bwww.google.com.bh%2526toolid%253D10001%2526mpre%253Dhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.ebay.com%25252Fitm%25252F95-96-97-LEXUS-LS400-steering-tilt-motor-OEM-%25252F151337460120%2526srcrot%253D711-53200-19255-0%2526rvr_id%253D897157974006

jaaa

Thanks, never thought to look for the whole column.

jaaa

Here is a brand new problem and it is a head scratcher. I found a 1997 donor car nearby that had perfect seats. So I spent a day removing them and today I installed them in my 96. All went well till I got to the drivers seat installation. My donor car had two connectors coming out from beneath the seat and mine only had one. I connected the one and everything worked except the driver 1/2 position. The weird thing is that both cars had the position 1/2 option. The yellow connector from the old auto was a solid red wire and another red/white stripped one. Only two wires going to that connector. So did they make a change to the driver seat from 1996 to 1997.
The seat will move to any position- just no memory.




And BTW- I took both steering motors from the donor car- and now it works better. Works much longer before it Peters out.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

'97 had side impact air bags built into the seats.

jaaa

Thanks for the info. I found out the reason it wasn't moving to either POS1/POS2 was because it must have dropped that info in the seats as I moved them from one car to the other. As soon as I entered new seat positions and "set" them, the seats properly started working again. So once again it was operator error. The missing connector is what threw me.