I picked up my 1997 LS400 from a salvage auction in December of 2019 for $425, total bill was $695 with fees. Interior was in pretty good condition and it had 177k on the clock with fairly regular dealership maintenance. Belt and pump were done @ 100k.

Once I got it home I replaced the broken light, mirror and driver fender for about $200 from a junkyard. I pulled as many of the dents as I could, the pictures don't really do it justice but the rear driver door dent was massive, and was happy enough with the results. Lastly installed new door glass in the driver door, new hood struts, new antenna motor and new motor/transmission mounts.
Initially I wanted the car as an alternative daily driver to my 76 Toyota Pickup as it's not child safe (it's not safe for anyone TBH) but once COVID hit that became less of a need and now I'm permanently WFH I don't really need to drive that much.

Fast forward to 2021 my wife wanted to me find us a tow vehicle for a small travel trailer and sell the LS400 as it wasn't getting driven. I didn't really see anything under $10k I wanted to tow with (I should say that pickups were off the table unless I got rid of the 76, which aint happening), not that there are not options just nothing that appealed to me.

It occurred to me that my LS400 would probably be capable of towing, I did some googling and it turns out people do tow with them and for their accounts are quite capable with loads under 4k. Thus begins my tow vehicle build.

Started off by buying a Hitch, transmission cooler and some 30mm strut spacers.
Trailer is rated @ 3500lbs GVWR 300lb tongue weight
Transmission cooler is a Hayden 679

Install for both is pretty easy, I didn't love the bolts the trailer came with but other than that pretty straightforward. Right now I still have it on ramps and I'm waiting for a transmission filter to arrive as I figured I'd do a simple transmission maintenance while I've got it drained. I'm tempted to do some additional mods to the transmission but it looks like I would have to drop it to do much else.

Initially I wanted to do a VIP build because you know, VIP builds are awesome but with its new life as a tow vehicle I'm thinking more of a "battlecar" setup. I have 30mm front a rear strut spacers in the mail for a lift and as time and money allow i'll do all the requisite dumb **** (tires, lights, cargo rack, flares, etc).

Auction pictures:



As she sits now:


Hitch

Transmission cooler

Door pic

 

very cool to nab the car for so cheap but with minor cosmetic repairs! the LS can certainly tow. pretty cool to see the hitch on there.

why not do a VIP tow rig?!

 

I guess I could but for the cost of a set of VIPish wheels I can probably do the whole battlecar build. A slammed tow rig would be neat though but probably not as practical. I'll gonna mull it over though, suspension won't get messed with much any time soon. Next up are brakes, the 97 ls400 brakes seem plenty capable so I'm just gonna toss in some blank centric rotors and some Akebono ceramic pads on it.

 

yeah it's almost an oxymoron which makes it that much cooler! i would bag it so when the rear is loaded you can just compensate with air pressure but that's deeper than you probably want to go at this time.

LS brakes are large fixed calipers so i agree good pads will do wonders! what i would recommend is changing out the lower front ball joints and take a look at the strut rod bushings (common wear item). getting the front end tight should be priority especially when towing. having good brakes would not really benefit you if your suspension bushings are loose and compromised!

 

Spacers arrived, 30mm front and rear. I think the plan is to buy a set of wheels off a Jeep. Lots of stock sets up on FB and CL for 450ish with tires.

I’m having trouble with the rack though. I managed to pick up a set for Yakima SST towers and a single pair of Y26 clips. Doesn’t really seem to fit on the 97 though, I guess there might be enough difference between gen 1 and 2 to effect fitment.

Does anyone have a rack on a 95-97?

 

interested to see the lift once you install those spacers.

as for the yakima rack, you will just have to play with the towers and clips until it tightens down to the roof. the 1st gen might be more round at the roofline compared to the 2nd gens. i reused clips off different cars and i always got it to work on different vehicles so you just have to adjust the distances of the towers and clips to make it work.

 

Project is on a bit of a hold as my pickup got stolen and trashed so funds that were allocated for the LS are now going to the pickup. I'm also slightly hesitant to lift it because the rampant car and cat theft going on right now. Last thing I need to do is make it easier for them to get at the cat's. Oh well.

In the mean time shes driving fine, after I did the transmission service the lurching when shifting from park to drive stopped so thats cool.

 

That sucks that your truck was stolen! How much damage will you have to fix?

The LS400 cats are not likely very desirable due to age. Plus getting to the upper part is not that easy for thieves to have clearance to cut it out.

 

Well this is how she looked prior to the theft

and this is the truck 24hr's later.

Probably around 500ish in damage? There's a decent amount of body damage as well that may or may not get fixed. I have it running, really I just need new plates and a new drivers window before it's back to as close as I can get it pre-theft. That said I've seen a bunch of wheels pop up. Pretty sure I'm going with a set of Jeep Cherokee gold snowflake wheels for the Lexus. Expect a lift a new wheels soon!

 

nice truck! and glad you get it back, but i know the feeling that the vehicle is not the same any more...

 

I am still working on this. Truck is fixed for the most part. Right now I'm chasing a bank 1 lean code, replaced sensor 1 and cleaned MAF. I have a whole new airbox + MAF coming. If that doesn't do the trick I'm gonna diy a smoke machine. I also managed to snag a Sonic Beat SLA-21a for $60 so soon I'll install that. After all that I will install the spacers just need to find the time...

 

So rather then doing something useful I installed a touchscreen radio using a Beat Sonic SLA-21a I was able to find. I kinda janked up the plate it “fits” in but thankfully it was only 15 bucks so I’ll order another. Everything works well except the disk changer.