Stereorob

well its a new year and our cars just got a year older..
the 1990 model is now 26 years old and the early production ones are close t 27. that's pretty old for any car.. ive heard whispers around here that as time goes on the UCF10s are no longer a great choice for reliability due to age. think there is any truth to this? even well maintained, nice examples are no longer trustworthy cause they are so old? I don't think I buy this rumor but it would kind of make sense, however I still see a heck of a lot of them on the road, but there numbers are dwindling a bit.

case and point. a friend of mine buys a really nice 91 that was well kept that didn't have a crazy amount of miles on it. he drove it for three days and it blew up, however he was driving it like a race car. is spirited driving no longer a good idea due to age? how bout just normal driving? ive had a bunch of there cars over the years but I haven't had a early ucf10 as a DD for almost ten years. a lot can happen to a car in 26 years no matter how well kept it is or how reliable they were for so many years.. thoughts?

Mugen_1

Mine's not AS old (a '97 model), and I've made several modifications to it, but I absolutely trust that car to get me anywhere without fault. It's got 223,xxx on it, and later this year my '14 Genesis Coupe with 8,700 miles on it will sit at home while I drive my LS on my annual "media tour" of the Midwest and beyond. It's as solid as ever and continues to be the standard by which I judge every other car.

Come to think of it, the only time my LS has ever left me stranded was when I suffered from the common power steering fluid leaking on the alternator and killing it problem. But I've done all the other maintenance at the required intervals using OEM parts, regular oil changes, etc, and I 'm aiming to see at least 300,000 on the odometer.

Stereorob

yep rock solid!! my 95 has never let me down either. closest thing to that was when my 5 year old battery went on me, which I should have changed anyway. and even then I was able to jump it and get to the parts store 10 miles away.

SW17LS

I think people just have to have realistic expectations when it comes to reliability. Yes they're old, and older cars in general are less reliable than newer cars. Everything has a lifespan, and if you're going to buy a 20 year old LS with low miles and all of a sudden start driving it 2,000 miles a month as a daily...you're going to have component failures.

I think one mistake people make is buying these cars expecting them to be just as reliable as a cheap new car, or a much newer also used economy car. Thats not going to be the case.

UNCNOR

iTrader: (1)

I never think twice about reliability with both of my LS400's.In fact the only pre-trip maintenance I did was to have the oil changed and then left for a 6,600 mile trip to the Pacific Northwest.The 99LS performed flawlessly.My 97LS is in the process of being restored and when It's finished I will take it on my next extended trip.

Stereorob

97 and 99 are still kind of "new". im talking about the really old ones from the early 90s.

dicer

Its like any older car or truck, things are going to fail on them and all the electronics doesn't help. You can't expect the million miles on a 26 year old car that has even 100,000 on it now. Why? because wires, seals, rubber, get old and crusty with age, I'm surprised the window weather strip is as good as it is on the older Ls's they used some good stuff.

Stereorob

I know. ive never seen an Ls400 with bad weather stripping. or hazy tail lamps. idk what the hell they used but youd think anything that's been outside almost 30 years is going to be bad. its like rust. ive seen a little surface rust here and there but never serious cancer on one of these cars ( holes in floor pans, swiss cheese trunk floors etc. im sure that very rusty Ls400s exist someplace but ive never seen one.

Rdrcr

After I'm done reconditioning my '94 LS, I plan on using it as my long-distance vehicle. I don't expect to have any unforeseen issues as longs as I continue to be vigilant with inspections and maintenance.

Mike

peterls

Mine is a '90, and was relatively well maintained. However, I did have some nagging issues in the beginning, which prompted me to do a complete coolant flush with one of those Prestone flush/cleaners. The one I bought was less than $3.00 and it is the type that you leave in your cooling system (mixed with nothing but distilled water!) for about two-three days (100 miles IIRC). Then I flushed that and replaced it with 100% pure concentrated Toyota coolant (50-50 mix with distilled water).

Since then, the engine and the car has been purring like new, even when pushed hard. However, prior to that, the engine did not like to be pushed at all, and there were all kinds of weird little problems. I have noticed that MANY LS's have this issue of a previous owner running some other coolant under false assumption that "they are all the same"... they are not, and sludge build-up in the cooling system will be the result. Our cars have some narrow passages in the cooling system, so the cooling system and coolant have to be in tip-top shape at all times.

In short, I don't think that your friend's car was well maintained. It takes only one stupid mistake, such as wrong choice of coolant to ruin this car.

As for reliability, I travel all over California all the time, and my car is still rock solid. Bought in april 1990, so it will be 26 yrs old in three months. Haven't done anything on it in more than a year. (I did upgrade the brakes though, almost two years ago)

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Age is age. Many of us have already experienced a plastic part that has broken in our hands when working on these cars. That one aspect that will become irritating as these plastic-rubber bits become brittle and break. The insulators on the wiring and the connectors as well. My current list of fixes is a door lock actuator. A variety of O-rings and other rubber parts that need to be swapped out. Not big $ at this stage but I know others are coming due along the way.

Stereorob

I only use Toyota red in mine. I know its a bad idea to mix red and green coolant. never had an overheating problem thank god, considering my temp gauge doesn't work..

brybo86

Check out your "temp sender". On my car the wire had simply broken of the sender , I soldered it on for free.. works great.

omarg

well all of my ls400's have been reliable. The only times me or my wife have ever been close to stranded happened twice. first was in my rusty trusty 93 ls400. Was in 2007 with about 245k on it. The fan bracket began to knock, but i was far 30 miles from home. I pulled over and saw the fan was wobbling a bit. so being young, poor, and dumb, i thought i would try to make it home. Well, 10 miles from home the bracket seizes, killing my drive belt. Well i made it home with no power steering or alternator. Second time happened to my wife in her 2000 about two years ago. It was winter and a pretty cold day. She drove to the bookstore only about 2 miles away. She was listening to an NPR show for about 15 min. went in bought some books, came back, car was dead. battery was gone. gauges didn't even turn on. All she needed was a fresh battery.

LS400's seem to be tough on batteries. I rarely have one last for more than two years. Alternators have always checked out too.

The way I see it, if a well kept 85 cressida is still reliable then a newer higher quality flagship will age even better.

Rdrcr

I'm just hoping for an increase in parts support from Lexus/Toyota and other reputable sources in the future as these cars continue to age and interior and exterior plastics become worn and/or brittle.

Mike