8055y

Hey man,
Jumping in here a little late.

You've mentioned that you don't have tools or space to work on your car. I get it, not everyone lives in a place that is DIY mechanic friendly.

My best suggestion to you is this (and trust me, you'll save money in the long run)

Take your car to a Lexus certified mechanic and have him run a full diagnostic. These usually run from $50-$125 dollars. I always do this (usually before I buy a car, but sometimes after if I feel confident the car is 80% solid)

What a good and trustworthy mechanic will do is walk you through everything that the car needs in order of priority. They will also give you an estimate with the breakdown of parts costs and labor.

How will this help? Well, since your time and money are tight and you don't have a space to just leave your car while you figure out whats wrong with it, you can work your way down the check list from the mechanic. No guess work, no "it might be_______, or it might be________"

I did this on my LS, IS (And my Audi Allroad and 4runner and Civic Si) the diagnostic was $75 from a Lexus certified independent specialist. So far I've saved $800 by doing the repairs myself AND I know what repairs to do first since I know which ones are the most needed. I also know which ones I can handle on my own and which ones I will leave to a pro to deal with.

Hope that helps!

jaaa

Yes, if you haven't changed out your egr tube, do it then. You have to take the coolant bridge out anyway. My egr tube went out two months or so afterward and I ended up opening it all up again! Costs around $100 or so to buy a new EGR tube, but to do all that labor again......??????? I replaced my intake gaskets the first time, but reused them the second time I went in. Never had any intake leaks on all the times I had the intakes out last summer(I think four times in total). As far as what caps to order, I did mine this year also and just used the links that cowboy put in that first post. Very convenient, and I had them on order in under 10 minutes.

valex

jaaa,
what caps are you talking about?
Also, I have a 1999 LS, I don't think I have EGR

jaaa

Woops(facepalm). Thought you were the OP who had same year as mine(and who also was working on the caps of his ECM).

valex

I don't know when I will get a chance to work on the starter, but new Denso reman is here.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

I would suggest waiting til the weather warms up a bit if it can wait.

valex

That's the plan, I hope it can wait until April.
I will be doing cooing system flush, should I replace any hoses at 221K miles? If yes, aftermarket OK or OEM only?
Does anyone have 1998-2000 LS part # for coolant bridge gaskets/seals? Those will have to be changes if I pull the coolant bridge.