z0jx

Hello world, I've been lurking here for a while. I always take pictures of my car so I figured why not post my progress since day 1. I've also got a few issues i'll address at the end, if anyone could help that would be great!

Not to be off topic- but a tiny bit of backstory. I totaled my last car ('02 lancer) driving it off a cliff. Friends were in the car too and it was very scary. Was driving the speed limit, just lost control on a very windy hillside because I was stupid and overconfident. Here are a couple pics.






I wanted something that was going to last me forever, and after owning a lancer, something that could accelerate uphill on the freeway (lol). I talked it over with some buddies and after looking at a few cars I decided on an ls400, and I got one in early October.

126k Mi, $2,500. The timing belt had just been done, it apparently 'was low on power steering fluid and needed brakes soon'. It sounded nice, and I had my mechanic friend come with me to be sure because I frankly don't have the experience to know exactly what i should be listening and looking for. It had a couple of issues though, driver side fender was rusted and beat up pretty bad, the tint was bubbling, purple, and just awful. Front driver side fog light was shattered, the wheels were mismatched and tires were nearly bald, a lot of things like interior lights, ciggarette lighters, climate control unit, radio, sunroof, and tachometer did not work. I figured I could fix everything relatively easy, so I took it home for $2,500.

The first day:






I'd say it looks alright, for a 25+ year old car.

After changing all filters and fluids, the first thing I did was fix that foglight.



Then I decided to replace the old fading gold trunk badges with some cheap ebay chrome ones.



I know its been done before, but I also found some cheap used sc430 rims on craigslist and I bought new tires for them shortly thereafter. I also got around to fixing some of the interior lights that never worked, and got a new stereo deck






I felt like the front amber signal lights really added to the 'grandpa' effect. Although I still love the grandpa effect, I wanted to tone it down a little. I also finally got around to replacing the front badge so its now chrome as well, to match the rear



Also picked up some replacement ebay tails as I wanted to remove all orange from the car. I also looked further into the sunroof not working, it was glued shut, which the old owner told me was to fix a leaking issue it previously had. The sunroof also sat in place at an extremely awkward angle, and appeared to be completely off the tracks. I tore the glue off, and while simultaneously pushing up on the sunroof from the inside of the car and sliding it back, it eventually caught on the tracks and was able to move freely. I live where it hardly rains, and always park inside, so I wasnt concerned too much for the leak to come back, but to my surprise it has never leaked on me. I think I just got lucky.

Enjoying the sunset over my city with the new tails



And that leads us to now, where I have an issue. I went to get the car smogged to renew registration, passed emissions but failed the 'comprehensive visual inspection'. Heres the note left to me with the explanation from the smog shop.


I believe it reads:
"Vacuum hose split past vac. port @ front of intake. Vacuum port broken off from intake pipe. Screw in its place."

So, I got my car back, and after doing some looking I found a screw where a hose should be, and a loose hose.







But after doing some looking around, I believe this is something to do with my power steering, and it is for low speed turning, if I understand correctly. And after looking around, it seems to be not terribly uncommon to 'delete' this part by doing almost exactly this, but actually removing the hose and capping it off rather than leaving it free like it is now. So my question is, is this what I think it is? Should I have actually failed smog for this? What would be the best way to go about fixing this?

Thank you for reading if you've read this far, and I appreciate any and all help I can get with my issue. If you guys have any tips for me and owning an LS that would be awesome

CELSI0R

Welcome!! Nice looking LS!

As you can tell by my avatar and signature, I personally like the orange signals and tails more than the clear ones.

When you got the car, did you replace your driver's side fender right away? I don't really see too much wrong with it in your photos, despite your description.

Currently, I don't have enough time to look into the main issues you're facing, but from the picture it seems that the hose that is still connected to the intake pipe (in the red circled area of one of your photos) may have been cracked or broken, then re-sealed with electrical tape under the clamp. This hose with the tape is also visible in your last 2 photos. I believe this is the vacuum hose that the shop described as being "split." I would look into getting this replaced.

I hope other members can step in and assist you further. Good luck!

dicer

Wow glad everyone survived that roll over, did you all walk away?
The LS, you paid way too much for all the problems it had, especially a rusted fender, I would have got em down much more with all the work it needed. It looks nice in the pics. What color? Is it 6K4 paint code?

z0jx

I did replace the fender right away. Here is the only pic I have of it before it was replaced.



It wasn't TOO bad, just looked terrible.

I like the orange reflectors too, just wasn't the look I had in mind

z0jx

We all walked away (got to the street at least lol) and only one person ended up taking an ambulance after almost an hour of waiting. Two of the four were totally fine, One friend broke 1 rib and had a seizure, I broke a couple bones in my hands/arms but ended up being fine. I can't make a fist in my left hand anymore after surgery, but you win some you lose some. I am just thankful everyone was ok


The fender wasn't incredibly bad (see pic above), I still think it was a good deal. Most the LS's in my area in that price range have over 200K and look worse, I can live with little things being broken. It is black on grey, I aways thought it was Black Onyx 202 but I suppose i've never actually checked. I didn't even know that 6k4 existed haha. I'll check when i get a chance.

z0jx

So a little update, my buddies steering box failed on him on his bug while in a parking lot, and he needed help replacing it. So i drove over and we replaced it the following day and in return he promised he would help me out! I snapped a pic while he drove to the store to pick up the last thing we needed before getting everything back together.


Its a neat little car.

But anyways- afterwards we drove to pick n pull and I ended up buying a replacement for the whole section of the intake that had the broken port. we were able to cut the end of the old hose and just use it and everything works the way it should. Hopefully i'll pass smog now. Also after replacing the fuse and the actual cigarette lighter in my front center console, it still didn't work so while at pick n pull I picked up the entire housing for the front cigarette lighter and now it works.

dicer

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ml#post1581983
This is in the ucf10 sticky,

And your lighter deal
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...utorial-2.html

CELSI0R

Ah, I see! Yeah, the fender wasn't horrible, but I know how you feel. The clear lenses still look cool.

I initially thought your car was 6K4 - Black Jade Pearl, instead of 202 - Black Onyx. From the close up photo you posted, your car's original color does not look like 6K4, because it would have a green-ish hue to it.

You can check the paint color on your Inspection sticker, located on the pillar behind the driver's door. The reference Dicer posted will show you what the code means, and the photos on that thread are from this site, for future reference.

EDIT: Now might also be a good time to mention that other resources, such as LexLS, are commonly mentioned on this forum, and supply good information for repairs that you may need to perform.

Also, here is a fix I posted once on how to fix the tachometer needle, if your symptoms match what I had:

If you notice that your needles sit below the "0" marker when the car is off, this could likely work for you as well.

I had this problem with my tachometer, where it would read 20-40% lower as the RPMs went up. It looked very similar to this cluster; however, that is a picture from another LS400. [It happens over time with these cars] I found this fix on the Lexus Owners Club website, which worked perfectly for me. Here is the text from that post:

Here is ramnozack's profile, to cite a source.

z0jx

Thanks, but i've already fixed the cigarette lighter. I've seen that sticky once before-- never noticed the 6k4 paint code. Mine is the 202, I have no hint of green whatsoever. I double checked

z0jx

I've already made myself familiar with lexls.com, its extremely helpful!

I didn't even have to explain my issue and you somehow knew. This is exactly what is wrong with my tachometer. It generally reads below 0, when accelerating and pushing the car hard the highest rpms I can achieve are about 1k. It idles at about 100-200. I will try this fix today and post pics of the results, thank you! I've been working on this for a while and always assumed it was a problem from the ECU.

CELSI0R

All I can say is, LS owners know their LS 400s well. But yes, I had the same exact symptoms. Idling at 100 rpms is too good to be true, so I knew something was up at the time.

When you're working on the cluster, try to not get any dust or dirt on the gauge face. It's a nit picky thing, but once you seal it back up with the lens, any contaminants inside will remain there.

Also, take your time when pulling the cluster out, as some of the wires don't stretch very much. You may have to change the position of the steering wheel a few times, to make it easier to get access.

dicer

Did you paint the new fender or find one the correct color? And how much stuff did you have to take off to replace it?

z0jx

I had no trouble pulling the cluster out, seemed straightforward enough. But the issue a ran into was once i took a closer look it seems like my tach is broken slightly worse, as its bent at a weird angle as well as being not lined up properly. the light 'stick' was actually touching the plastic backing on causing it to melt in a few places. So i cut the light to prevent it from melting any further, but now i have no tach. I'm going to get a replacement one from a junyard it looks like.

z0jx

Buddy found one at a junyard, bought it for me because he said it looked so nice. It was the same color. If i remember correctly we only had to remove the headlight and and a few trim pieces.

dicer

Good deal, sure beats the painting it, you have good factory paint. I wonder why the rust in CA? Did the car come from some place else?