Horta

Hey All

Well as some of you know I have been shopping for a 98 or 99 LS400 since I wrecked my 91.

Well I am a shopper and I make sure I buy the BEST car for the least amount of money. Plus that I am looking for a Pearl White car does not make it any easier.

Any ways I have looked at around 20 or 30 cars now. These cars range from Very Clean cars and Lexus Lots to untouched/uncleaned lease returns at Lexus Lots to various used car lots and at the Dealers Auctions.

I have some concerns! When I posted about repairs you all may have done on your 98 or 99 cars no one replied with any comments. Well I have to say about 50% or more of the untouched or auction cars the Wood steering wheel was cracked in more than one spot. The cracks are very obvious to the driver. Some times you can feel it other times it just a white line but either way it IS a problem. All of these cars were in very nice condition and did not look abused they were just out of my price range. I did speak to my service technician and he told me its a Heat problem and IS covered under the factory warranty. But once you out of warrenty your on your own.

I am just bringing this to you attention in case you looking to buy a used LS or if you were planning on adding the wood steering wheel. I did not know cracking was a problem.

I have posted a picture of one. The crack looks like a White ring/ line along the circumference of the wheel. Not long ways down the wheel.

My second concern is with the A/C and or Radio display. There is a know proble in the Older 90 - 94 cars with the dislpay blacking out, this is a different problem. I have seen now in about 4-5 cars where there was some kind of problem in the display. Either the numbers of the radios station did not all show up, the bars in the AC did not all light up in the same shade. I have also seen where the AC numbers where only partially shown. Again these are things that are covered under warrenty and my technitian also told me these are heat problems. May you all have not seen these problems because your in cooler climates, I dont know???

Any ways please send me you comments.

PS One very positive thing about my research so far is that all of the cars I have held up much better as far as ware and tare compaired to some Mercedes and BMW's I have looked at. The auction I went to was a High End one full of Mercedes, BMW, Porsches. Comapring apples to apples meaning cars of same age and milage the LS's may have been just as dirty but the leather was in much better shape. Lexus make one hell of a good product.

Other than the wood wheel craking and displays I found no other common problem in all the cars. All of the cars I looked at had Tan interior sence that is the only color I am considering.

markgs300

I can relate. I'm a finicky buyer and I absolutely will not pay the average price of a vehicle, especially new. Its well under sticker or they can sell it to someone else. Nowadays, even INVOICE is ridiuclous. Thats why I normlly buy pre-owned and do it with caution.

velandia

I saw a cracked steering wheel on a white 98 when I was shopping around. I attributed this to lack of placing a windshield sun shade when leaving the car parked in the sun, although I have no data to support that theory. ...But I didn't know that it was a widely spread problem.

After buying our 99 LS 400 (and thoroughly checking for cracked anything), my wife and I bought an off the shelf sunshade and "customized" it to fit the windshield perfectly, slightly tighter than even the custom shade you can get at the dealer for $55.

We plan on using the sunshade religiously as we have with our past cars. Even better protection would be a car cover - those keep temperature inside the car within 10 degrees of ambient, and while I have used car covers religiously in the past, I figured a white car wouldn't really need one since it reflects energy quite nicely (white), and the glass (minus windshield) on the lexus does a good job of filtering out UV and infra-red.

One more measure to prevent steering wheel cracking could be to avoid pointing air vents at the steering wheel - this will minimize heat-cycle induced stress on the clear coat due to quick temperature changes.

... what a boring response... have a nice nap

oac3

Yours was certainly not boring. To the contrary, it was quite helpful. We purchased a sunshade for the Seqouia which my wife drives daily but none yet for the LS. Since my wife hardly ever bothers to use the sunshade, I will simply convert it for use in the LS. The California sun can be quite hot around this time of the year and I'd hate to see my wood steering wheel crack which could be prevented.

Like you, I will plan to use the sunshade religiously !

Horta

Well I may have found a car to buy but it does not have the wood wheel. So I have been looking in ebay to buy one, well guess what most of the ones for sale are already cracked. Some of the item show some good pictures of what im talking about. You may need to also look at "Compleated Items" too.

Tomarrow after lunch I will now if this is the car for me or not. I think so and have my fingers crossed.

qwalls

I bought a '99 in February, and noticed a couple cracks in the steering wheel after the fact. They were just fine lines, not as bad as the picture. The dealer replaced it under warranty, but siad it would have been $2000 if I'd had to pay for it!