VVTi

I recently purchased a 1996 Lexus LS400 coming from an Odyssey and I have to say I fell in love immediately. Unfortunately I was blinded by love and purchased the LS400 with some pretty substantial oil leaks which did not arise until I had gotten it home (I drove 3 hours to meet the kid to find we were meeting at a raging house party in the dark full of drunk frat boys, long frustrating story). The car was a one-owner vehicle until 2015 when it was sold to the kid's father and up until then had been serviced by Lexus. So I'm missing service records and proof of any repairs between 2015 and now. Anyway I have ordered a new timing belt, water pump and valve cover gaskets which should fix the leaks as well as assure me that there's a new timing belt because I don't know when or if it's been replaced with 250k miles. There are no codes throwing and everything else works like a dream. This is my first Lexus but I have previously owned a 1992 Toyota Paseo (Cynos) which was obviously as far on the opposite end of the scale as you can get from the LS400 during the 90s. Despite how primitive and low budget the Paseo was I was extremely impressed with how well it performed considering it had failing parts left and right but never once in its wannabe ricer existence did it break down on me. I finally did it in by shifting wrong and dropped the trans at about 350k miles so I am really optimistic about Lexus' quality. Is there anything important as far as common issues with the LS400 that I should know about? I noticed there is a "premium only" warning on the dash, my mother works for the Kroger financial union and we get 35 gallons of gas for less than a dollar once a month, but we cannot switch between premium or regular without canceling the discount. Will this hurt the engine? I had a 95 DeVille with the warning as well but I only used regular maybe once a year so I don't know much about the side effects. Thanks in advance!

phohunned

Congrats on your new LS, what year did you get?
A problem that I had on my previous 1997 LS was a power steering leak. I never fixed it, I had to top it off every so often with lucas power steering stop leak.
I usually use premium grade 91 or 94 fuel, however I think somewhere on this forum should have driver experiences on regular and premium fuel.

Also new to the forum!
Peace

2000 Lexus LS400 silver on black

VVTi

It's a 96, thanks for reminding me to add that lol. I specifically asked the kid I bought it from if it had any leaks of any kind but he said no. Obviously he was lying, hence the gasket repairs but I haven't noticed any steering loss or any other fluid coming out thankfully. I haven't driven it much due to the leaking but hopefully it stays good and tight.

Banshee365

Funny, I still have a 92 Paseo as a run around beater car. Perfect for that. 278k miles. I'm about to change the timing belt and a bunch of seals once I get the trans out back in my 96 LS400.

Be sure to change the crank seal and check the cam seals when doing the timing belt. If you are doing the timing belt job yourself be sure to follow my DIY tutorial on your exact year car for guidance and feel free to post any questions on the thread. The link is located in the FAQ thread that is sticky'd or look at the threads created by me. If you really need a link I'll get it and post it.

VVTi

Haha that's awesome. Mine had a lot of beating done to it because I moved from Orlando to north AL and my family is from NJ so it's been through a whooole lot of road trips.

I will inform my mechanic to do that if he isn't already going to. I know my way around an engine but unfortunately due to physical size and strength issues it's difficult for me to do much heavy maintenance myself lol. Plus with something like a timing belt I'd rather have someone do it who is certified and obligated to reimburse me if something goes wrong.

lexslexus

Hi there, I also recently bought a 96 LS 400 that I love with 2 leaks that I discovered weren't as bad as I thought thanks to knowledge of people on this forum.

You can find all the services performed on your car at the Lexus dealership by visiting the Lexus Driver's website (www.drivers.lexus.com). Just sign up, go to service, then click on service history, and the rest is pretty self-explanatory. You might have to wait a day for the system to load all the service records on your car.

Concerning known problems, as phohunned said, a leaky power steering pump is one. For our model year, low idle could pop up. The main thing is making sure you get the timing belt and water pump done, which you are doing already. I'm pretty new to this so I'd suggest browsing through the message board for more information on potential problems.

Can't say I'm too familiar with running regular gas when it only calls for premium. I'm a by the book kind of person so premium is the only gas I use.

VVTi

Yeh, I have all the Lexus records as well as the CarFax reports but I'm missing the repairs between 2015 and today when it was no longer taken to Lexus. What worries me is that they never took it in for any service at all or they did it themselves which can be good or bad. But it seems to run perfect aside from the known issues and like I said it isn't throwing any codes so hopefully nothing even needed to be repaired during that time frame. As far as the low idle thing goes, I noticed that as well but I was reassured that it was normal after prolonged idling. It doesn't stall out or anything but after 5 minutes of idle sometimes it will die down a bit.

lexslexus

My bad, must have read that wrong. That would worry me too but I wouldn't be too worried if it's running perfect. From everything that I've read on here, even if the car hasn't been taken care of it can be perfectly fine again with a little TLC. Glad to hear the low idle isn't an issue for you.