Hi all, this is my first post. I'm in the market for a '99-'02 GS400 and thought I had found the one for me. Long story short I drove 4 hours yesterday to look at this GS and drove back without it. The vehicle looked clean and the motor purred beautifully, but I think there were some drivetrain issues and wanted to get your opinions so I know for the next one I go to look at.

When sitting still and rowing the transmission from P to R to N to D the back end would make a clunk noise from under the car near the back wheels. Also with each shift from R to D the rear end would visibly squat down one or two inches and return back up as I rowed back to R and P.
The other issue I perceived was while rolling down the road, if I let off the throttle completely and then gave it gas again (didnt matter if it was a little or a lot) there was a clunk noise. Other than that, even under hard acceleration the gears shifted smoothly.

If these are normal for the GS400 then fine, next time I'll know. I was scared I was looking at a rebuilt rear end soon or something even worse. Thanks for the help and great forum. Hopefully I'll soon be in the drivers seat.

 

I think that the car shifting back and forth or up and down happens normally when you change from Park, Reverse, Drive, it is just the motor sending power to the wheels, and then the brakes catching the energy, my car also does this. For the clunking noise.... There might be something loose in the engine that is moving back and forth every time you change velocity. I had this problem with my aftermarket headlights as my OEM ballast for the HIDs did not mount on the after market headlamps, therefore I just set it behind it haha it just shifted around all the time which ended up pissing me off . I mounted it and now it does not make a noise.

Hopefully some of those life experiences helped
-Joe

 

that squat id definatly normal my friend :/

 

The clunk you are hearing is most likely due to old/worn out engine mounts. They usually need to be replaced at around 100-120k miles or so. The squat is normal because the engine is putting a load on the brakes. Not sure if a 1-2inch squat is normal. I think I get about half an inch squat on mine.

 

Thanks for the replies. I've been searching as well and seems, as you said, the squat is normal behavior caused by the large amount of torque being aplied against the brakes. The clunk noises, both when shifting into gear and when going from no throttle while cruising seem to be possibly caused by a number of things costing from free to several thousand dollars to fix. I'm going to keep looking till I find the perfect one, I've got time and another vehicle.
"Good things come to grasshopper who wait" or something like that. Thanks again guys.