Installed 17mm RCAs today in anticipation of a future LS400 brake upgrade. I ordered these after one popped up in the junkyard last week but by the time I got there someone had already pulled the calipers off it. But anyway, it's nice to see the wheel gap even out a bit.

 

 

 

The day has finally come!!! I ended up taking a cutting wheel to the flanges and using exhaust reducer sleeves and T-bolt clamps to mount them up. It was NOT fun trying to align the exhaust hanger brackets with my hitch receiver while these were balancing on a jack. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a mid-pipe made or not so I figured I'd try this first just to hear them. They sound nice...more growl than stock but still quiet enough that you can't really hear them in the cabin with the windows down and it sounds totally stock with the windows up. I'll drive with them for awhile before deciding to get a mid-pipe or just have these properly welded in lieu of the temp mounting setup.

 

yaaaassssss suhhhh!

 

I pulled the struts and springs out yet again but I think my suspension is finally at its final form.

So even going back to the stock springs, I wasn't 100% thrilled with the Bilsteins. They're great like 90% of the time but I still found them too harsh over smaller, sharp hits. One of the streets I have to drive over almost everyday has a short mix of cracking concrete and blacktop that they patched it with and I was just over being jostled on those bumps. I was also kind of regretting raising it back to the stock height.

I went with RSR springs...the ones that provide a super mild .5-1" drop and are only about 10% firmer than stock. Then, I found out Tein makes struts for our cars: EnduraPro and EnduraPro plus, the latter of which have 16 clicks of adjustable damping so I went with those. It felt like a gamble because I couldn't find much info on them. It's mostly the Tesla guys that seem to be posting about them and they rave about them so I went for it.

Also, my front right fender liner was torn up from the PO so I've had new replicas waiting to go in.



And in replacing those I continued down the sound deadening path not knowing if it would make a difference since I'm probably well into the point of diminishing returns with it. First up was using the last of the CLD tiles



Then covered with Parts Express sound barrier. It didn't stay stuck down over the sharper curves but mounting it up helped smush it into place.



I don't know why they had to overlap the body trim and sideskirt with the liner because this was a real pain in the ***.

Dirt I blasted myself in the face with popping the body trim off



And of course pulling them meant more broken plastic so I've had new retainers ready to go.



Mounted up looking fresh with the new struts





Fitment isn't 100% but I did manage to fix that front section after taking this pic




I only have the front done but, on the softest setting, the front end feels like our 06 ES330 that I just put KYBs on. Of course that's too floaty so I have them dialed in 6 clicks and it's feeling good so far. I'll have to play with the adjustment more once the rears are done and the car is aligned. Will report back once that's done.

The deadening also made more of a difference than I was expecting, Tire noise is noticeably decreased.

 

Sounds good!

 

Thanks!

Rears are in and I've got the struts at 7 clicks from full firm all the way around. It's riding really nice...much more compliant but still with minimal body roll. I also adjusted the fender liners slightly to get them to fit a little better. The wheel gap is much better now as well.

I also went to clear side markers in the bumper. I wasn't feeling the smoked ones as much but I don't know if these are a little too clear and bright now. The car is filthy though so maybe they'll look better once it's washed and in the sun.

 

I completed a tour of the local junkyards this morning. One got an LS400 in earlier in the week and the other got an LS430 yesterday morning.

I went for the 430 first looking to grab the 5 spokes and headlight projectors. I pulled into the parking lot and instantly knew there was going to be beef over it



But I didn't see our friend around although someone already pulled the headlights. The same person might have started to unload the wheels because the spare was already pulled out of the trunk but with nobody in sight and an impact in hand I wasted no time!



Then I hit the other yard on the way home and yoinked the front calipers off the 400. A pretty good score today all things considered. The spare rim is mint like it's never been mounted and the tire is older but untouched. The other tires were worn enough that I had them removed...the two front wheels are already flaking and the rears are decent but I think I'll have them all refinished together before putting tires on:

 

Always liked the look of the LS wheels. Nice size 5 star wheel

 

Same here. I've always been fond of simple 5 spokes.

Worked on putting some finishing touches on the audio this weekend. Finally redid the driver's door sound deadening to match the passenger





And redid the tweeters using Valicar pods. I wanted to put them in the A-pillar but I couldn't get the proper angles with the way they're designed to pivot around the base. Still gotta play with the EQ a bit but the sound stage is quite improved.






I also picked up some new B and C pillar trim pieces. The ones I had previously had a few cracked tabs so now the entirety of the interior trim has 100% intact mounting tabs. Naturally I replaced the OEM sound deadening but used recycled denim this time. It's very similar to the OEM stuff but thicker. I also pulled the rear deck panel to shave down some of the foam I applied to the underside to help it fit a bit better. Both that and the passenger lower B pillar panel were creaking a bit over larger bumps but now that's gone. I also stuck a little foam under the rear of the head liner to try and quite down a rattle. All in all I think this finally worked out the last few little creaks and rattles in the interior.

 

First oil change since installing the TRD bar and I realized the filler cap doesn't clear it so I found a shorter billet neck:



And while cruising Youtube I came across a video about the intake scoop and how it's tuned to reduce intake noise. All of the time I've had it off and I never bothered to look at the underside of it. In addition to the holes it has a little resonator I never noticed. Those are blocked off now so I'll see if I get a little growl out of the intake now (haven't driven it yet). I also figured I'd replace the OEM gaskets as well since they were crumbling apart. If it does sound better, I'll remove the tape and plastic-weld some plugs...

 

Haven't had time to work on the car in awhile but I did pick up the LS430 rims from the refinisher today. They came out great!

 

I trimmed the pics from the quote so my post isn't a tedious scroll. Love this. I've been doing this exact thing with the fender liner since yesterday. I probably wouldn't have learned anything new from your post before I started, but I see you had the same experience with the layering order of the body trim, side skirt, and liner. The condition of your old liner was certainly something else. I'm able to reuse mine and am installing ResoNix CLD and 1/2" Fiber Mat. I hope that the hype around their products is real considering how the CLD was independently tested to be much better than everyone else's.

This is the first sound deadening treatment I'm doing in this car with the doors to come later, so I hope this will do a lot for road and tire noise. Ever since I changed from Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 to General G-Max AS-05 tires in 2018, I feel like high-speed road noise has gone up drastically, especially on concrete and older asphalt. I'm also planning on new tires later this year and I'll be going back to either Continental ExtremeContact or Bridgestone Potenza, both of which I've ran in the past. I literally hear where the General G-Max falls short of the premium ultra high performance all-season class after trying to save some money on tires last time. At least, that's what I'm telling myself. I also can't forget that was the same time that I went from 17" to 18" wheels which plays a factor as well.

Glad to hear the results from the fender liner sound deadening are very noticeable. I'm trying to chase the cabin noise experience I had in a Mercedes S580 which is a guaranteed way to set myself up for failure, but I need to at least be leaps and bounds better than a Ford Escape.

 

I hope it turns out well! CLD probably could have been ommitted from the fender liners since the purpose is to reduce resonation of body panels but I hate wasting stuff and wanted to use up the list bit that I had. Even then, it certainly won't hurt to use it. That fiber mat should work well though! I found the difference to be even more noticable after a rain when the roads are super wet. I could hear the slight sound of water splashing against the rear wheel well but none in the front.

Minor update on the car: I want to get everything totally finalized with the suspension before putting tires on the LS400 rims. I put Figs endlinks in over the weekend to get the swaybars properly leveled and minimize preload due to having stock links on a lowered car. Coincidentally, a soft creaking recently appeared when turning at low speeds but it seems to be gone now. I didn't think it was related to the endlinks so here's hoping it stays gone. Next step is to try and get the alignment improved. It was pretty close after the last one but caster was in the red, both left side tires have about 1.5 degree of negative camber, and the rear left toe is slightly out. I'm not sure if I need to add additional adjustability or to find another shop that can do a better job. I didn't think the RSR springs would drop it enough to exceed the range of OEM adjustment but I guess we'll see.




And in other news:

An OEM seal kit was ordered for the LS400 calipers. I've never had to rebuild a caliper before so I'm looking forward to digging into them. I also ordered caliper painting kit from POR15 to get them looking nice. I still need to get stainless brake lines though.

My oil leaks are still just as bad if not worse after the recent cold weather I thought the upper oil pan was one of the larger sources of the leak but apparently not. Something is leaking up higher which I think must be the cam seals since the valve cover gaskets are still fine. Plus, the rear main is definitely dripping too. To be continued...