New owner of '99 GS400
05-13-13, 06:30 PM
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New owner of '99 GS400
Hey all,
New poster here. Not 24 hours ago I acquired a '99 GS400 with only 44,000 miles on the odometer. The car was kept in a climate controlled garage and had regular service at the local Lexus dealer. All equipment is original except the Borbet 16-inch wheels, which were installed in place of the original 17-inch rims (since lost) to accomodate winter tires. The car has new tires, new brakes, new serpentine belt, and just received the 45k dealer service a few months ago. I plan to install a timing belt kit this week as a preventative measure. It came with the nav system, and I'm told it has the Mark Levinson amp although I don't know how to confirm that. As you can see, the car looks like it just rolled off the lot. The interior is just as spotless and immaculate as the exterior.
This is my first Lexus. My previous car was a 2002 Camry. Before that I owned a few Civics, a Nissan Sentra, and a Volvo 240DL, so this is quite a step up. I kind of accidentally ended up owning this car - it wasn't something I planned, but after putting about 100 miles on it I think I'll be keeping it.
At the moment I plan to keep everything stock, except that I will probably swap out the nav console for a standard climate control console and replace the factory head unit with something that can accommodate an MP3 player/iphone. I also plan to switch to synthetic oil at the next OCI.
Looking for any advice, comments, suggestions, etc. Thanks!
New poster here. Not 24 hours ago I acquired a '99 GS400 with only 44,000 miles on the odometer. The car was kept in a climate controlled garage and had regular service at the local Lexus dealer. All equipment is original except the Borbet 16-inch wheels, which were installed in place of the original 17-inch rims (since lost) to accomodate winter tires. The car has new tires, new brakes, new serpentine belt, and just received the 45k dealer service a few months ago. I plan to install a timing belt kit this week as a preventative measure. It came with the nav system, and I'm told it has the Mark Levinson amp although I don't know how to confirm that. As you can see, the car looks like it just rolled off the lot. The interior is just as spotless and immaculate as the exterior.
This is my first Lexus. My previous car was a 2002 Camry. Before that I owned a few Civics, a Nissan Sentra, and a Volvo 240DL, so this is quite a step up. I kind of accidentally ended up owning this car - it wasn't something I planned, but after putting about 100 miles on it I think I'll be keeping it.
At the moment I plan to keep everything stock, except that I will probably swap out the nav console for a standard climate control console and replace the factory head unit with something that can accommodate an MP3 player/iphone. I also plan to switch to synthetic oil at the next OCI.
Looking for any advice, comments, suggestions, etc. Thanks!
Last edited by fonebone; 05-13-13 at 06:46 PM. Reason: typo
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05-14-13, 07:19 AM
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I will add some interior pics later today. I feel kind of bad about ripping out the nav system. The touch screen controls for climate and radio are really nice and the screen itself is more responsive than my new Garmin. I can't believe it's a 15 year-old system. It seems like it belongs in museum somewhere.
05-14-13, 07:26 AM
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I got it from a family member who is blind in his left eye. Hence the low miles - he's afraid to drive! He bought a BMW with blind spot detection and sold the Lexus to me for what the BMW dealer was offering for trade-in, an embarrassing $6k.
05-14-13, 07:40 AM
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At the moment I plan to keep everything stock, except that I will probably swap out the nav console for a standard climate control console and replace the factory head unit with something that can accommodate an MP3 player/iphone. I also plan to switch to synthetic oil at the next OCI.
Looking for any advice, comments, suggestions, etc. Thanks!
Looking for any advice, comments, suggestions, etc. Thanks!
From what I understand, swapping out the head unit, necessitates bypassing the factory amp (ie, you'll need an aftermarket amp as well).
A cheap and effective stop gap measure for the stereo issue, can be found here.
Doing a timing belt/water pump replace is a wise decision, IMHO.
05-14-13, 11:56 AM
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From what I understand, swapping out the head unit, necessitates bypassing the factory amp (ie, you'll need an aftermarket amp as well).
A cheap and effective stop gap measure for the stereo issue, can be found here.
Also, for some reason these OEM nav units are selling for $600+ on ebay. If I can realistically expect to sell mine for that much, that should easily cover the cost of installing an aftermarket stereo and then some (although why anyone would pay $600 for a GPS unit that can't be updated past 2005 is beyond me).
I don't really want to mess around with FM modulators with this vehicle. I've looked into the rigging the aux port through the CD changer relay but at the end of the day I think I'd rather just have a modern HU that can do HD radio and interface directly with a smartphone.