nona

The lexus ive been looking at buying i belive is a 1995 lexus ls400, The owner put the same engine in because the one in it had gone to ****, but the one in it now has a knocking sound and i am wondering what the noise could be from and if it would be a expensive fix, also few other things spedometer gets stuck at times he said how expensive would that be to fix, and finally the belt is tearing up he said its likely cause the owner before him did not have it centered, please let me know if i should purchase it or not or wether the fixes are Worth it. Thank you.

LeX2K

Assume you got the car for free, $0. You would still need to spend thousands to get it road worthy.

nona

Needs new brakes new tires which im fine with getting

LeX2K

Also could need a new engine have you costed that out? Post a video otherwise "knocking" can mean anything.

nona

i can get a video I will post when i get it

400fanboy

New brakes and tires are item one of a 27 item list about owning a 30 year old car. They are such a un-important thing they almost don't matter, relative to the other more important questions about the car. Here's the buyers guide:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...l#post10411641

I would recommend against you getting a mystery project LS400 unless you really know what you're doing. Lex is right, it very easily could be a multi-thousand dollar hole or even a $10,000 hole to get the car sorted and running properly depending on what is actually wrong with it. Which right now we don't know.

The car having it's engine replaced is very very very unusual and just throws up all sorts of red flags for me. I don't care about new tires - I care about what the hell happened or what kind of neglect happened to kill a 1UZ, these engines almost never "just go to ****". Every dead engine is a story of abuse. Which raises questions about the story of the rest of the car.

paulo57509

Hard pass.

nona

is it likely a big expensive fix for the knocking?

400fanboy

If you have to ask, is this knocking

And if you have to ask, is knocking expensive to fix

I really think you shouldn't buy a 30 year old car that's got a new engine and problems.

I'm sorry man. Without hearing it, we can't say forsure. But typically, yes, a knock is not a good sign. If it's been going on for a while that engine is not long for this world and there's no fixing it.

nona

I get where you are coming from. I Dont really know much about cars, like what’s expensive to fix and what not i like the lexus ls400 one of my favorite cars and ive been looking for one for a few months now im just not having any luck. theres one other option which that ones is a 1992 And the only problem is the power steering and its up for $4k which is likely the better option for me. Im just trying to see what ithers think.

400fanboy

A nice one can be hard to find. Mechanically sorted cars are $6-15k depending on how many miles they have on them. And even some of the low mile "all original" cars will start breaking all sorts of **** once you start regularly using them because stuff is just old.

IMO the best car is not a 62,000 "one owner" car. It's all original, neglected since Bush was in office and been sitting in some estate for 3 years completely unused while the owner has gone into hospitality. You want one which has been regularly used and had items addressed as they come up. 100, 150k miles, second or third owner for the last 5-10yr. New suspension bits. Motor mounts. ECU repair. Those are the cars which will be the absolute best to own. All the others will just be a headache.

Depending on what's wrong with the power steer, and if it takes out the alternator with it, that's also an expensive repair.

I also GAURANTEE YOU that the power steering is not that cars only problem.

The LS400 is not a cheap car. It's a S-class competitor. It's not a Corolla. Parts are expensive and you can't go aftermarket for very many things (or you'll regret it).