One step away from buying a '93 LS400, need some advice
 

Here are the details:

- 1993 LS400
- Every option
- 190,000 miles
- One owner
- White/Tan
- Drivers seat is worn
- Couple scuffs on the wheels, very small
- A/C may have a leak. Dealer looked at it and added some dye. It blows cold but not as cold as it used to, says the owner.
- Outside of the above issues, the car is mint inside and out
- All service done by lexus its entire life. Timing belt done at 120,000
- Tires have 20,000 miles on them, brakes were done last year
- Owner was asking $5500, but ended up talking him down to $2500


Now, I have a few questions:

1) Is the price right?
2) What am I looking at with the A/C (Price wise)
3) Where should I look for a new drivers seat?
4) is there anything else I should know before i put the money down on this car?

The owner is 69 years old. The car was driven by his wife most of the time. They just bought a couple brand new cars and do not have room for the LS. Is this a good deal or should I go a tad lower on the price?

By the way, great site you guys have here.

1) The price sounds excellent.
2) No idea.
3) www.car-part.com to search your local salvage yards. Whether or not you can find one in better condition than your own is unknown.
4) If the car drives well and is otherwise in good condition I'd say you've found yourself an excellent LS400.

Welcome to CL.:)

Well, kbb says that the car books for $4725 in good condition, so it looks like ur getting a pretty good deal.:thumbup: About the A/C, I read tonight that a new compressor is around $450+ and that you should get it switched to R-134a in the process.

1993 and up LS400's used with R-134a from factory.

Sorry, didnt know that. I dont study the UCF-10's that much.

for 2500 its a pretty good buy considering it has a FULL service history for its 190k mi. :)

still have a dealer do a prebuy :p

Can't really go wrong at $2500. Very surprised he went from 5 grand to half his asking. I would get it looked over.

I got my 94 with 228k for 4495$ -- Though came with stipulations and many free maintenance fixes from the mechanic, so about 2grand in maintenance.. so I guess you could call my sale more abour $3000 or so.

At any rate if it checks out, get it. Is it really clean (paint) and interior?

Also expect some maintenance on the car. Power steering issues, alternator, Climate control blackened, Instrument cluster needles fading, gauges slow to respond and so forth.

There are elements of the LS's that everyone has a problem with eventually.. But thankfully most of them aren't essential to the function of the car.

I am personally dealing with the Power Steering on mine.. Other than that she's beautiful. Good thing about this, I'm learning a ton about it,.. bad thing it is being a pain in the neck.

I'll take some pics tommorow I think of what I've done so far to add to the Power steering bible perhaps..

But again, get it checked out.. and go for it. A $2500.00 car is well a 2500.00 car. Can't expect too much, but take it for 2500, and sink 2 grand (over time) into small repairs and it can be a 50,000$ car that functions perfectly.

Best of luck - If you can take pictures of outside and inside at many angles that would help .. but at that price it could even be a touch banged up inside and be worth it.

Thank you sir.

Thanks, I'm happy to be here.

Do you know how much Lexus would charge me to install a new compressor if it is shot?

That is exactly what I was thinking.
I'm sure he would allow it, but I don't want to push it.

His wife was pushing him to get $5500. This guy lives in 1.5m house. He isn't going to lose any sleep by selling it for $2500. Keep in mind, it took me almost an hour to talk him down to that price.

Sounds like a great deal.

Very, very clean. Except for the drivers seat. It is worn and has a couple small tears in it.

I understand. The car has the Climate contol issue. Is that an expensive fix?

Sounds good, do you have a thread with photos of it?

I was hoping it wouldn't need more than a grand worth of work, but that is wishful thinking I guess.

Thank you.

Based on the information so far, it sounds like a no brainer. I will take photos when I head back there Thursday.

I can see the scenario,.. but sounds good.

Sounds great -- The tears and what not can be repaired for about 100$ or so .. I have a good leather/cloth interior guy here and I'm sure you do as well.

Depends on what you think is expensive. I justifiied the expense, as it is something I was not going to replace with an aftermarket piece. It is roughly $200. I sent mine off and had it done by the guy who supplies them, (same price) -- but you can do it yourself if you don't want to send it off. It involved a bunch of solder work.

Guy I used is Jim Walker -- He does good work, and gets it done in a 1 day turnaround.

Yeah I have many threads :) -- This is the earliest one --

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/for...howtopic=49179


Here is a picture after a detail job of mine. (I am heading into the world of using Rotary (DA's) now.. so the next batch will be of my work using polishes and such) -- Here is an overall picture of how it looks atm.. (Tinted windows and a little paint work added.

With NXT 2.0 of course heh.

http://webpages.charter.net/jaredguess/nxt2-1.jpg

I was just saying if you decided to invest the 'difference' in price you negotiated you could do some amazing things. Not that you will need any certain amount of money for repairs/maintenenace. I would hold some back just to fix some minor things, but these are good cars -- Yours should be relatively maintenance free.

Check those service records for the Waterpump, PS pump, Alternator, and maybe the starter (usually no problems there) -- If those have been replaced your good.. If your PS has been replaced excellent.. If PS and Altenator even better. The Waterpump is generally ok despite miles, and the Alternator can be good much further than your mileage now, but you never know.

You will probably also notice the seatbelt tensioners are slack.. another common problem. If they aren't, then fantastic!
Great! It is a no brainer from the way you describe,.. almost a steal ;)

Keep in mind that there is no substitute for a quality piece of buckskin to begin with. Those interior repairmen, however skilled they may be, can only do so much to a seat in miserable condition. I personally used a local repairman to fix a tear in my rear seat and respray my armrest, but for a seat I think NuGateway would be better served with a salvage unit.

That's one hell of a mint LS400 you've got by the way!

he should allow it, just offer to pay the ~$80-100 out of ur own pocket....

it is worth it as they check to match up the VINS on all the body panels they can and they'l do a service history checkup on the car as well (if u ask)

Yeah I don't see why he would object,.. I wouldn't ask him to fork over the money for the inspection of course :) -- It is money well spent, and peace of mind.

Thanks for the compliment, I'm proud of her --

Good advice on the seat, would have to see a picture of the condition to give the nod on repair or replace type of deal.

I've had recent leather work done is why I commented on it.

2500??? a clean 93 LS??? even if it needs a grands worth of work, you got a sweet car for civic (of same year) money! i mean macbook pro or.... lexuxs ls400?
lucky dude.

Great Deal
 

IMHO, great price, great car, awesome deal.

Update:

I am picking the car up Friday after work. Couple more issues:

- Instrument Cluster fades in and out
- Climate control LCD is shot.

I talked to the owner today and he wouldn't budge on the price. Those two items are going to cost me another $600-$700. What kills me is how clean this car is... Not sure if I could find another '93 in this condition.

Instrument cluster is a $200 fix. Not sure about the climate control.

its gonna be another 160-180

good price for it. i got mine for $2000 w/ 132000 plus miles on it and i got p/s issues and currently finding some alternative routes to buy the part and get it installed for cheaper. other than that, its pretty clean seats and all. runs great, just need to do general maintenance on it and that's about it. in the end I'll be looking at $700 in total maintenance cost.

Picked her up yesterday for $2500. I have a few questions, but I need to get out of here, so I will leave you with a couple photos:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/...85ce646e_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2065/...0efe998b_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/...a0ec8e1c_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3023/...43caf7b0_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2396/...3ace7690_b.jpg

Looks in pretty good condition from what you were saying in the thread.

:thumbup:

Looks fantastic. You got a steal. Spend a little to fix the minor things ,.. Climate/Cluster whatnot. Then check the common problems, Power steering(leaks)/ACV, etc. --

I'd say off the top of my head.

Climate control
Instrument Cluster
Power Steering (entire system)
Alternator (from Leaking PS system)
Motor Mounts
Tranny Mount
Struts/shocks
EGR Pipe
and on and on -- As you can see alot of these things aren't urgent. In fact the only urgent system that commonly fails is the Power Steering system. Other than that, you can go at your own pace.

Great buy.

looks great. you really got quite a steal!!!!!

As others have said, I'd be on the phone with the cops, because you just STOLE that car! I can't believe you got that thing for $2500!

That car is absolutely gorgeous. Look at that steering wheel! The driver's seat! Congratulations NuGateway!

steering wheel looks new! still has grain! unlike most smoothed out leather steering wheels.

I'm super jealous.

holy crap.....what a deal!
i'm looking for a deal like this for my 16 year old son...
congrats dude!

Hello everyone, I've been really busy over the past month or so. Which is why I haven't been on...

I decided to have Lexus look at the car this past Saturday. Just to give me a run down of what the car needs. Now that I have the information in hand, I will find a small local shop to do the work. Here is the list:

- Wiper Blades = $84 (lol)
- Engine E.C.U = $1240
They are 70% sure the E.C.U is bad. If replacing does not reslove the issue, the mass air flow sensor is bad.
- Mass Air Flow Meter = $1400
- Instrument cluster board = $1300 - Getting that taken care of by a local shop in Tampa for $200.
- Rear brakes = $280
- Valve Cover Gaskets = $475
- Front seals and timing belt = $675
- Dip stick oring = $130
- Transmission Flush = $185
- Brake flush = $140
- Two tires need to be replaced, I will most likely do all four.
- Spare tire is flat and jack is completely rusted
- Slight Coolant leak = ???
- Thermostat = ???
- A/C = ??? They were ready to charge me an arm and leg to diagnose it.

Ended up paying $100 for the check up. Outside of the issues above, the car is in great shape. Any thoughts on the repairs? Do you guys think I can get away spending $1500 for all of the above? I figure a total of $4,000 isn't bad for a car in this condition. Opinions, thoughts?

You can buy just the blade inserts for $10, and it will take 10 minutes to replace them yourself.

More info please? Are you having power loss issues?

Not a bad deal, but if you do some research on this forum, you can fix it yourself for a few bucks, all you need is a few capacitors from radio shack.


Does that include new OEM rotors and pads?


Sounds very expensive. See, all these items can be done in one shot, and should be much cheaper, at least at an independent shop. If you're not afraid to get dirty, you can do them yourself as well.

I dont know if thats necessary. I would just drain and fill if anything.

Tires are tires, but if your jack is rusted, it would indicate you have a leak in your trunk. Check the seals hose down your trunk to see where its leaking.

Most likely the water pump. If you going to have the dealer replace timing belt, make sure they replace the water pump as well. In order to access it, timing belt must be removed, so if you dont replace it and it leak later, you'll pay double.

$25 part from the dealer, ten minute do-it-yourself job. Make sure however that you guy an OEM thermostat with OEM gasket. I can't stress the OEM gasket enough. When I replaced my thermostat, I bought an OEM replacement, but the dealer didnt have the gasket, so I bought one in autozone. After replacement, the new thermostat was leaking, and the fix was an OEM gasket. The aftermarket gasket wasnt as thick as OEM, and couldnt hold coolant contained.

Don't know much about ACs. If it works, leave it alone, if it doesn't, prepare to shell out some cash.

Well, seems like new ECU or MAF will be your most expensive items. Please do elaborate more about the issue that causes your dealer to belive either one of them is damaged. I (and many others) are suffering from power loss, and I've done everything I could trying to resolve it, so far with no result. I've replaced the MAF as well. The only thing thats left is the ECU. I personally suffest you take the hit and replace it. It's $1200, but it will save you from guesswork later. A MAF you can always find used, for $200 or so.

As far as everything else, well, tires could cost $500-1000 for all four. Timing belt/water pump/valve covers is an expensive job as well. Then you have all the misc stuff of course. But its nothing beyond normal. All cars require timing belt/water pump replacements, and tires are tires, they wear out. Keep in mind that we have non interference engines, so even if your timing belt breaks, the engine wont sustain any damage, so you cant wait off on that.

wow your repair list is really scaring the **** out of me.


how do i know if my lexus needs a new maf or ecu. i dont think im suffering any power loss, what are the signs and symptoms of this.


is your lexus throwing a check engine light??

WOW man, I have a 1990 LS 400 and I had mine checked out and didn't have nearly that much to fix and I have 250K miles on her. I would double check and do only the necessary repairs. ECU? MAF? in my experience with cars those would be throwing check engine lights etc. Keep us posted.