So im gonna start with that im not the most active here. But these forums are the only forums that i have any interest in participating in, so thank yall for being a great community! Its part of the reason i wanted an LS400.


Me, my sister, and old roommate have a tradition of naming our cars. My sister named her 2019 Nissan Altima "Cleo". My roommate named his 1998 ES300 "Lucy". And after my 1996 Camry that i named "Candice", I decided to give my LS "Lana".



My 2000 LS400
3rd Owner
225k Miles
4800$

Now ive only ever driven 2 other cars before this one, but it is hands down the best car ive ever had. After owning my 96 camry for about 3 years, i started browsing FB marketplace here n there out of curiosity. I wanted a 4runner originally but after watching a video about the making of the LS, i tried looking for some around the tampa area. I found an ad for this one listed for 5800$, marked down from 7000$ originally. I thought about it for the whole day at work before making plans to go see it. I was hyping myself up for it hardcore, even though my camry was still in great condition (It had 125k when i sold it).
I got with my mechanic buddy and he drove me to go see it.

This car was in damn good condition for its age! The interior was black leather and the only wear was on the edge of the driver seat and a few lil scratches here n there. Everything else was pristine! The engine ran smooth and drove nice though i only got to test at neighborhood speeds. I checked ALMOST all fluids and ill get back to the one i didnt and it looked fine. I talked the guy down to 4800$ over some body damage and a rough dent in the driver rear quarter panel that he tried to knock out. He didnt do the best job at it and needs proper work to fix it. I drove it an hour and a half back to my home and what a great first drive.




SOOO... Heres the thing about that one fluid:

I didnt check the coolant.

It slipped my mind at the time and i partially regret it. After driving to work the next day, i noticed the coolant temp gauge going up more than i thought it should. I live 5 mins from my work roughly so it wasnt a long drive but once i got there, the gauge was up around the 3 quarter mark. Now at the time, i brushed it off since i wasnt familiar with the car yet and maybe it just goes that high? But i would check it when i got home.

There was hardly any coolant!

Barely any in the reservoir. Barely any in the block. And it had copper-looking specks in whatever coolant was there. I assumed this was head gasket sealer and that i got screwed
So me and my roommate thats a mechanic started looking over it. As far as we could tell, the head gaskets were fine. But when we tried to add water, it started falling out the front of the engine where the timing belt was. The guy used head gasket sealer to patch whatever was leaking there...

Basically it was coming from the water pump. Ill make another post after this that goes over my first ever timing belt and pump replacement and the BS i had to go through along the way. But after my first week with the car and fixing the water pump, this has become my absolute favorite car to drive.






Ive known about the 1UZ for a long time since high school. Ive always wanted to swap one into a 1970s Celica. It is by far my favorite JDM Engine. I never looked into the car it was made for though. I remember watching an old Donut Media video on the LS400 and i was in love. For a fat luxury boat of a car, the gas mileage is very solid. I get to take my trips across florida in comfort (maybe too much comfort. i get real tired when i drive at night in this thing). And its just a reliable, fantastic car with enough modern tech in it that it makes a great daily driver.

So thats my project. I want to keep this car for as long as im able to and use it too. Ive put 20k Miles on it since i bought it a year and a half ago with some issues starting to pop up here n there recently. If i remember to, Ill post updates to this thread of what ive done and ill make posts of what ive already done as well. I hope yall enjoy!


Current Issues:

Cosmetics - The outside of this car looks great at night time lol. The front bumper has some chipping paint and rough damage on the lower parts. it needs a bit of work. The grille is loose. just need a new clip for it maybe. The rear quarter panel definitely needs proper dent removal. but over all the body is in good shape.

Suspension - Luckily i have conventional suspension and not air. She drives a lil loose. it was much better when i first bought it but i think alot of the bushings front and back are ready for replacement. Theres also an annoying clunking sound that appears on offroad bumps (I drive a ways on a field to get to my house) and appears on certain bumps on the road. Still havent narrowed down what specific part is doing it.

Power Steering - Yeah this was probably obvious. I have to top off the reservoir every three to four weeks it seems.

Engine - Not too much with the drivetrain. The 1UZ lives up to its reputation. I do add a good bit of lucas oil everytime i change the oil. 5k miles in between changes along with some seafoam in the crankcase for 100 miles before the change. It does leak oil probably from the valve covers. i smell slight burning oil after 10 mins of driving with an occasional wisp of smoke. i lose a quart about every 3-4k miles.

Transmission - This one is a bit rough right now. Shifts pretty fine once warmed up/5 mins of driving. But the time it takes to shift into drive on cold starts is getting ridiculous. sometimes 5 seconds. sometimes 30 secs. if its below 50F, it can be even longer and do weird things while i wait for it to warm up into drive with the parking brake on. The transmission fluid is overfilled right now from the previous owner which might be responsible for these issues.

Misc stuff - Driver side dimming mirror is spotty with its dimming but no big deal for now. One of the speakers is clipping i think. i plan on installing a good carplay radio system if i can find a good adapter for the car. if yall know any good adapters, feel free to send them to me. Some interior scratches should be fixable but they arent big enough to bother me. Plus i dont have to worry so much about more scratches on a daily driver car. Also i love the rims but they need more than just a buff.



I want to use this car. If i can get to 300k and beyond, That would be amazing.


I hope yall enjoy this cars next story! Ill throw in some more pictures of her here n there and try my best to update here!

 

So first things first: We need coolant

This was so disappointing to deal with when i first got the car. But im determined to get it fixed. The thing was i was a bit broke after buying the car so it had to wait a week for parts from rock auto (I got an Aisin timing belt and water pump) after i diagnosed the issue. I didnt have a spare ride, so i would drive it the short distance to work and trying to be very careful about overheating. The gauge would never max out on my trips to work but it got close, the reservoir pressure relief would whistle on some days if i drove it longer. This was so nerve-wracking as i constantly feared that i might warp the block or heads and need to fix all that. I lucked out with that though.

I actually took the car to a lexus dealership to see if they could pinpoint where the coolant leak was. I was thinking water pump but i wanted to make sure so i asked for a diagnosis. I regret doing this cause it cost me 300$ and they did everything but look at the problem i told them about. They did give me a free rental for the time, but it was still disappointing.

Anyways...









This took me 11 HOURS


I consider myself to be decent at working on my own cars if they aint too new. I never did a timing belt replacement in my life though. I had help and tools from one of my friends though and just chugged through until we buttoned the engine back up by 10 pm. I was very careful with matching the timing marks back up and remembering everything. I bought the official service manuals off of ebay to make sure i did it right.

This was so worth it in the end (even if i busted my thumb open in the first 15 mins of the job). And i still feel like i didnt pay too much for the car in the end after this was done. Though i do wish the seller was more honest with me. One major service done...

 

I need to do a timing belt on my own '98 and your post has given me hope.

 

Go for it man if you feel comfortable with doing it. didnt need too many specialty tools to do the job. i probably spent 30 mins just making absolute sure it was timed right. It wasnt too bad to do either, it just took me 11 hours cause of learning how to do it and goofing off here n there.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/14322503199...BlBMUJCcv4axZw

If you plan on doing service yourself and wanna keep the car long term, i got the dealership service manuals off of ebay for 150$. Its a bit pricey and my set came with 4 volumes, but i consider them worth it since i want to fix the car myself and do it right. Timing belt section helped out here n there and they contain so much detail with everything. lots of diagnosing info too.

(btw i love your LS too. though i like black interiors better too)

 

Right on. I'm going to tackle it soon. I bought all the parts from Rock Auto and they are just sitting here mocking me!

 

so glad it was just a WP and not something worse! yeah sad the PO was not honest about it, but you were able to fix it for relatively cheap and the engine didn't suffer long term! the 1UZ is very stout and i have only seen 1 other instance of a blown head gasket which is super duper rare!

i would caution about keeping an eye on your coolant temps post-WP replacement. bleeding the coolant is not overly difficult but i found some air trapped in my lines and had to do further bleeding to really get it all out. one sign there is still air in the system is a low or no-heat condition, plus some slight overheating. the needle should be a little under half and never move higher than that!

i found that bleeding with the nose of the car high while keeping the revs up really works the bubbles out.