1uzae86

Not sure if I overlooked a thread for introductions, if so I apologize and any mods please feel free to move this new thread to the appropriate area
My name is Jeramy I live in Portland, Oregon I am currently sadly unemployed, I previously worked as a lot attendant /lube tech for a Toyota dealership in/near downtown Portland. My hobbies include working on cars, everything electronic, playing video games (console and PC) I want to go back to school to work towards becoming a certified welder and also to get experience in custom fabrication.
Now the good stuff! just bought my LS400 on 5/7/14 with a dead battery and a mostly dead alternator. I offered the seller $800 due to the costs to replace the battery and alternator, which he took not a bad deal me thinks almost everything I played with works on the car, so far the only things that don't seem to work or just don't work are the electronic tilting for the steering wheel cigarette lighter (found a couple valve stem caps in there wtf and clock? It does have some body damage which I am not concerned about. The best part of the deal was the gems I found in the glove box I found the ORIGINAL owners manual(s), accessory brochure and a couple other pamphlets.
Check the build thread section later on, I will be posting some pictures of the car there since I do plan on doing a mild build.

Cheers!

UNCNOR

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to Club Lexus.Native Oregonian here.Go Trail Blazers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Legender

Congrats on the 'treasure' find and good luck with the build as well as your life direction. Good to have a plan. Now you've got a ride too.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to the club and good luck on the repairs. All are easily fixable money permitting.

IBGREEZY

Agree to disagree.....ahem (says starter while coughing, similar to Lloyd Christmas' Petey).

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

He did not say he was fixing his starter and even though that job looks really intimidating guys/gals on here change them without too much drama.

1uzae86

Ive been warned about replacing the starter, easy task for me just time consuming.

I believe I've narrowed the non-op tilting function down to a bad switch, i made a jumper to the tilt motor (after removing the blue gear) and it worked so for the time being i've left the access panel off in case i want to adjust the tilt. I did however pull up some error codes after researching why my air suspension "norm" light keeps blinking, i got error codes 31 and 35 from the height control light on the dash and a 41 from the cel. Anyone here ever deal with. 31 and 35? So far i haven't found anything on it except in regards to front wheel speed sensors. I do have an intermittent tcs and cel light come on though so i don't know why a speed sensor code would be pulled from the suspension light?

EDIT: I should also add that I did switch the on/off switch for height control to ON then unplugged my battery for a couple minutes then plugged in back in and tried the height control switch by the shifter, nothing happened that's when I pulled the first 2 codes from the height control light on the dash.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

What year is your LS? The air ride might be about ready to give up if it's old enough. I don't have any knowledge of the system other than what I read in here. The code 41 has something to do with the TPS ( Throttle Position Sensor ) though.

1uzae86

Its a 91, i knew the 41 code as i found out what it meant through here. Im still searching about the other 2 though

IBGREEZY

???? My response was to you. I know he never mentioned starter. I was merely pointing out that for some folks the location of the starter is frustrating, an easy job nonetheless but indeed time consuming and frustrating.
I guess my attempt at humor failed big time [insert Price Is Right losing horns here].

1uzae86

So my local lexus dealee seems unwilling to help me with the 2 error codes i got from the height control system. Only thing i could find in the 31/35 erro codes are for the front left/right speed sensors malfunctioning, could those affect my air suspension and possibly keep it from working?

I've switched the height control switch in the tool space to "on" disconnected my negative battery cable for 2+mins then connected it again and nothibg still! Even my radio pre-sets were still intact... am i missing a step?

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Oh ok no problem. OP I searched for like an hour on the web but could not find any solution to your problem other than what you already know. I'm in the middle of a TB job as well as seals and gaskets that has been giving me a couple of fits today so I have not been able to try to help more.

IBGREEZY

I am also in the middle of a timing belt, water pump, cam/crank seals etc....except on my car everything is covered with an inch of grease/oil/dirt everywhere. It looks like the previous owner didn't care about not being able to see anything in the engine compartment. FML!!!! Replacing the timing belt is easy, the hard part is cleaning everything before re-assembly............end rant

FrankReynoldsCPA

Welcome to CL. I have some potentially bad news. Your failed alternator may be related to a power steering problem. Make sure that your PS pump isn't leaking, as it sits right above the alternator. They're notorious for going bad and leaking on these cars. You don't want it taking out your new alternator.

As for the air suspension. It's probably blinking because it's gone. The air suspension is notorious for going bad ...it's like Lexus and Lincoln were having a contest . Often, because of the cost and reliability issues surrounding air suspension, it just ends up being replaced with traditional shocks. Such was the case with my LS. Check and see if you have traditional shocks.

1uzae86

Ya ps pump is bad it'll work for like a day and a half if i limit my driving, but it leaks like a ***** so im done putting fluis in it to find the leak. Im just gonna get a new one when i have the money. As for the suspension, the car still has the air shocks. None of the corners have sunk since i bought it a few days ago, so im hesitant to just replace them with traditional suspension right now, id like to find out if the speed sensors are tied into the air suspension ecm and will cause it to malfunction as thats the codes i pulled from the height control light on the dash was a 31 and 35 which i found to be for malfunctioning speed sensors on the front left and right wheels. I wish i knew someone local to me with functional factory air suspension that i could test my switch and suspension ecm on.
Either way im ready to pull the air suspension once i get the traditional suspension from the junk yard, as my local one has 2 90 ls400s there. I'll be looking at around $130ish including cores and enviromental fees for all the corners