Granite88

Today I changed the transmission filter. On my car it took a while because of a couple complications...

Going to start off by saying I HATE FORMED IN PLACE GASKETS. Holy crap this took forever to scrape clean and brush over and over....

Yes, I cleaned the pan after scraping the formed gasket off making a mess. I spent a lot of time making sure everything was very clean before putting it back together.

My pan was pretty clean minus what I got in it scraping the old gasket off. The 3 magnets had accumulated some grey-ish colored VERY fine particles. Wasn't a ton, but I was expecting some of course. No sludge or anything... I'm rather bummed. I could have gotten away with simply draining & refilling my pan...


My old filter was... with what I could see of the screen inside- very clean. The cork gaskets had became hard and brittle on the filter though.

My setbacks that cost me a good bit of time-
1- Had to unbolt the top of the dipstick tube, the bottom was NOT coming free from the top half. I couldn't even get it out with 2 vice grips trying to make it turn while the pan was off the car totally. Thats welded together for good now... That bolt holding the top of the tube in place also is a pain in the *** to get to slightly. Ugh.
2- Bracket that goes between the lower cats/resonators? gets in the way. A LOT. I couldn't simply unbolt it because the bolts that go to the cats were roasted away of course. Luckily the bracket is a bit flexible. Managed to bend the slight lip down that was getting in the way.
2- I didn't think I would need some Hi-Tack. BOY WAS I WRONG. Stopped halfway through the job to get some. Its 100% necessary if your not working on the car with a lift!
3- Reassembly wasn't totally smooth. I had one transmission bolt that REFUSED to go in straight. It would go in halfway and start to cross thread. I decided to put a very thick washer on it that stopped it from cross threading too far in and totally ruining all the threads.The rest went in okay for the most part.

That aside the job is done. It took me 3.75 quarts of OEM Toyota T-IV to get it the trans pan filled back up to the full mark on the dipstick while hot in idle on a level surface.
Glad I ordered 4 quarts. A simple drain and fill would have been about 2 quarts. Its much more when you change the filter. Especially when it takes you as long as it took me and the transmission slowly keeps gravity dripping while your working.

Granite88

Next maintenance order in progress- I just ordered new Bosch caps & rotors.

Have no idea the condition of my current ones, but guessing by the VERY old spark plug wires that were on the car they are also going to be really old.

Probably going to make it a little harder on myself but I plan to do this without draining any coolant. Ive read of other people doing it by partly unbolting the lower timing belt covers and getting enough room by that alone. Only thing to be careful of is not to drop any of the bolts from the rotors- then your in for more work digging them out... of course!

The old boat is still running well, hopefully this will make her even happier. After the caps & rotors the next plan is to replace most of the vacuum lines. Most mine are VERY hard and brittle.

Granite88

Got my brakes all done! Rears were done not long ago, and tonight I just finished the fronts.
New pads, rotors & brake wear sensors.

All is well, car is stopping great now!

One observation- my brake wear warning light is still on even with the new brake wear sensors. Will this light go off on its own or does it need to be turned off by a code reader?

Granite88

New caps & rotors DONE




My old ones were pretty bad. They were due for sure.

I made one mistake though. Almost started the car with the Mass Air Flow sensor unplugged. Sadly this caused the check engine light to come on...ugh. (EDIT- Disconnected the battery for 30 minutes. Check engine light is off again, and is staying off.)

The car seems to idle much smoother now. Starts up a little quicker, less cranking.
Driving it feels the same, but I wasn't expecting much of a change there.

Granite88

Never thought I would be saying this so soon, but my time with my 96 LS400 is up. Just wanna thank you guys for the bits of advice here and there. Perhaps someday when I have the space for a second project car I will get another LS400 to share the "Project car" stable with my 1982 VW Scirocco.
My boss at work is offering me a very clean 2011 Chevy HHR with 91K miles on it for $3500. Needs NOTHING. Tires, brakes, oil all fresh. Drives beautifully and will be MUCH easier on the wallet for repairs, maintenance & MPG. It makes the LS400 look VERY difficult to work on, everything is SO easy to service on it.

Trying to daily drive an old and expensive to work on (relative term depending on the job) Lexus is not a wise choice when it comes to value. Tallying it all up I spent over $2100 in fixing the car up. Its still not fully fixed up at that point too!

I love the LS400, but I would be stupid to pass this much newer car up.

As it sits I am trying to get $2500 out of the car. Which ideally is actually what its worth even though at that price I am out $2000 in repairs. If anyone is close to Wisconsin I have the car listed in the Appleton Craigslist.

Thanks guys. Perhaps I'll see you guys again in the future with another LS thats wont be a daily, but a project "keeper"