Well, after spending a bunch of time on suspension, cleaning throttle body, trying to fix EGR malfunction, my car decided to kick me in the nuts.

Never had a problem starting and then all of a sudden last week, I go to leave work and CLICK. Nothing. It's cold here now so I had no choice but to bring it to a shop.

Starter rebuild, knock sensor, gaskets, labor = 1227$ taxes included. (canadian dollars)

I'm also getting them to throw in spark plug wires, spark plugs and apparently one of the coils wasn't giving off much spark. As the engine is already apart and I am not in the mood to do anything myself, I figured screw it.

New total, approx 2000$ CDN

You Americans have it GOOD when it comes to prices on parts for our cars. If I were to ever own this car again, I would only do it if I lived in the states.

I paid 3500$ for this car last year. I've put in about the same amount now.


The worst part is, the body and everything on the car is in ridiculously great condition. If it were bad, I'd have no problem just junking it..


/end rant

 

Its all relative brother. I bought my '93 LS400 spring 2010 for $2,500 and it was accident repaired so body is decent but undercoated for years so quite solid. I've already spent $3,500 on mine too - and my suspension is untouched since new and has 235k plus timing belt is due in 10k or so.

Compare that to my 2010 Caravan I just bought. In month one depreciation cost me $10,000.

Its all relative - I figure if repairs and depreciation considered you get away with $3,500 per year you're doing fantastic. If yours runs for two more years without any major repairs you'll be doing fine.

But I'd be pissed too - rant justified

 

Understandable even with lower miles. I'm on starter #3, imagine how I feel when you guys post at 200K+. #4 should come sometime around 220K miles.

 

It's always the labor that costs,my starter went and having bought the repair kit for around $30.00 and the gaskets for around $80.00 I did the job myself.
Took me about 10 hours but very satisfying when it all went smoothly and has been OK since.

 

Good god why so many starters!?!

Mine was original and I have 240 000kms

Original spark plug wires too!

 

I had my starter replaced for $800 including parts, labor & taxes here in Mississauga, ON, Canada. Let me know if you want my mechanics number.

 

Mine is cursed. ~80K for the original, got 72K on the replacement and if it holds to what my mechanic says, I'll be back for another at the 70-80K mark. I paid $650 for this last one. The past one and this new one are both Toyota rebuilt. About $95/year for this part life expectancy added to the other annual operational costs.

I dunno if there are other starter issues with other Lexus or Toyota models with this frequency. I think I'm the worst starter case here.

 

i just pulled the engine, pulled the heads, lapped the valves, new valve stem seals, new head gaskets, new head bolts, pulled the lower oil pan and baffle and cleaned them and reinstalled, all new front oil seals. new timing belt, cleaned the full egr system, welded up the cracks on the egr pipe, new plugs, new rear main seal, new motor mounts, new trans mount, new trans pan gasket, new trans front seal, trans was completely drained and refilled, including tq converter, new coolant hoses on the top of the engine, new engine temp sensor, new heater control valve, have new 02 sensors to put in this weekend, rebuilt the starter, repaired the alt plug, ran a secondary alt cable to the battery(4awg), ran a 4 awg from each head to he body, a 4 awg from the block to the neg battery terminal, new battery, new valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube seals, replaced various broken electrical clips, oil filter and oil, plugged the hole for the power steering vacuum valve, plugged the 2 vac nipples, new exhaust manifold gaskets, new cat gaskets (had to double them at each joint to seal completely), and reinstalled all the covers and battery hold down that was missing when i bought it back in march.

and before this was done just a few weeks ago, i already put 4 brand new tires on it. new front pads, bled all the brakes till clean fluid came out, replaced the rack and pinion, replaced the ecu, replaced the gauge cluster, and had to hunt for all the stupid air fresheners the previous owner had stashed in the car. smelled fruity as crap.

and on top of this, i still need to install the rear trans seal i bought, change the diff fluid, and i prolly need to change all the rear suspension bushings. i know i need new springs as well. rear of the car bottoms out when my friend and his wife sit in the back. next on my list is to locate and purchase all the bushings for the rear subframe/diff/rear control arms and change them. anyone know a site that has them all?

oh, and i paid $2300 for it back in march, and am getting a whopping 17mpg on the interstate. grrrrrrr.

 

Damn William, I didn't realize ya did that much. It's a damn good thing you do the work yourself or you'd be broke. And at least you got the good weather for it down there. It's starting to get pretty cold now up here in New England and north.

RA40: Ive never heard of any starter going that many times in any car let alone an LS. Like ya said, your car is cursed.

 

williamb82 you have some hours put into yours. How many miles on this freshened motor? 17 MPG seems pretty low for sure.

 

its 175k. compression is perfect. no smoke out the exhaust. im hoping the o2 sensors fix the gas mileage issue as ive done everything else i can think of and i drive it ~80 miles a day.

at the moment i found a site called my bushings

http://www.mybushings.com/lexus-ls-4...hing-p-90.html

and they seem to have all the rear bushings. im just not sure which ones i need or how many of each. i figure ill do the diff bushings first, then the upper and lower control arms. though if i have the money to order all of them at once i will. has anyone changed these out themselves? will i need a press? or will big sockets and a big c clamp and torch work to get the old ones out and new ones in? might as well finish fixing everything wrong.

forgot to mention the gas gauge still doesnt work. even after replacing the caps and the sender. also the climate control lcd needs replaced, but not a big concern. air and heat work great, who cares if i can see the temp number at the moment. the rear view mirror has a couple funny spots on it so needs replaced. front seats and armrest were recovered in leather before i got the car, rear seat is toast. i want a 95+ rear seat that has the cup holders in the armrest anyway. also, i removed the broken cd changer and replaced it with carpet from a non cd changer car. also going to replace the generic head unit the previous owner installed soon with a pioneer unit. not sure which one yet. got it narrowed down to 2 that both have sd card slots so i can just load all my music on a card. no more skipping cd's.

 

I have had 8 LS's and only had starter issues on the two 99's I have now, just put new contacts in them, 1 at 146k and the other at 161. 1 month apart.

 

I used my bushings for my strut rod bushings (polys) on my 99 and they killed the Lexus ride... the pollys last forever because they are as hard as steel. like riding without shocks. I took them out after 3 weeks and tried to return them, but they just said "sorry". the lack of rubber, which gives you a softness is gone with polys.... so be careful, they will make your car noisy!!
like driving on the idiot bumps all the time.....

 

im used to driving supras. the polys wont bother me. lol. my 84 is slammed 2in in the front and has 450lb springs and adjustable short stroke shocks set at 4 of 5 possible hardness. addco swaybars, strut tower braces, roll center adjusters, rear is st springs, kyb short stroke gas adjust shocks from an isuzu tropper 2, addco sway bar, upper brace, etc.. that thing lets you feel every pebble and crevice in the road. lol.

i think the main issue with my rear bushings is that my drive way is a slight incline and i had the front lifted high as crap in the air at the top of the incline for about a month sitting the full cars weight pushing back and down on the bushings. this funky feeling when driving didnt happen till after i had the engine and everything done and back in, and its deff the rear of the car. sucks it took me so long to finish, but had to wait till i had the momey for all the crap i replaced. mainly the mounts as i hadnt planned to replace them yet, but they were shot, so had to.