First forum I've joined. Figured it would be a good place to talk about a car I have wanted since I was a young boy. I have a 97 400 and just cracked about 150k on her. Bought it with 100k and while she has held up very nicely I figure I'd get on board a forum for chat and help from folks who are more knowledgeable than I. I commute 120 miles 4 times a week for aircraft mechanic school. (Jet engines not recips) and I was wondering who all else uses their LS as a daily driver? I take very good care of her mechanically but I do drive her quickly (not foolishly or thrashingly) but quick I will admit. I'll leave it with this question, has anyone rebuilt a 1uz fe here and if so after how many miles? I know it's not the most mechanic friendly v8 but I easily think it's one of the best out there. I mean where else can you weasle 25mpg from a "small block" 8 in a big car......cheers und skol! Erik

 

Not a lot of people will have rebuilt these because of 2 reasons. They last a long time if maintained and secondly the engines are quite cheap so a used engine is normally far more economical.

 

Welcome aboard! I myself own a 95 LS400 for almost two years, starting at 221k miles and now above 244k. I will say that if your car behaves the same as mine, then that's where you'll finally start to have to deal with some major repairs, as i have. The most notable one being a power steering leak. overall having to put over $2000 into the repairs.

Before that however this car had zero issues whatsoever, and after the fixes i've done is still fantastic. Engine and transmission are still untouched and don't show signs of stopping yet. My engine light is currently one and my personal mechanic said it's definitely the catalytic converters. However i got my emissions a few months after and it still passed! I love this car!

 

i'd recommend checking out these articles:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...project-35305/
http://aviationweek.com/awin/faa-cer...tandard-toyota

as you can see the 1UZ has quite literally been FAA certified for use in light aircraft, and is actually based of of the race engine toyota developed for use in Indycar and the GT500 series, so these are truly some of the most durable engines out there. i very rarely hear of someone having to rebuild a 1UZ, not to mention Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire currently has a 1996 LS 400 with well over 900,000 miles on the ORIGINAL engine, so i hope this should help you sleep more easily lol...

https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/commen...on_mile_lexus/

i got my car with 79,000 miles in 2011, currently has about 145,000 miles and the thing runs perfectly and i occasionally have mine at over 100, having once hit 145 on the wide open interstates of vermont (that punk in the mazda 6 got rekt and didn't know what'd hit him haha). just make sure to keep maintaining it well at try to always drive very gently until the oil has warmed up.

 

On these cars like others say if maintained correctly the engine and transmission are the least of your worries, at least the mechanical part of them. Its another story as far as the electrical and control systems, that is where you will have the most trouble, just look through all the posts here and you will see its mostly electrical that is causing engine and transmission problems. Just use the correct fluid in the transmission. And there are other little quirks about the cars that can cause more headaches than the engine ever will, suspension for one, and body leaks etc. I'm not sure about the Gen 2 problems but I'm sure there are some. On old cars rubber isolation parts are starting to deteriorate and need replacement, starters and timing belts are about the only major engine work there is to do and will both need to be done at some time. If your the type that does fast acceleration from a standing start that will ruin the rubber drive line joints and engine mounts pretty quick.
And yeah lots of car for a little 244 cubic inch V8 to move around and gosh the size of this engine is only 9 more cubes than the old chevy 6 cylinder of the late 50's.
Hmmmm found this below, and its not really a 4 liter engine ?????
(((The Toyota UZ engine family is a 32-valve quad-camshaft V8 piston engine series used in ... The 4.0 L (3,969 cc or 242.2 cu in) all-alloy 1UZ-FE debuted in 1989 in the first generation Lexus LS 400/Toyota Celsior and the engine was ... In the GS400 application, output was rated at 300 hp and 310 lb·ft of torque)))

So on Lextream site 1UZFE Bore is 87.5 Stroke is 82.5 and that all figures out to be 242.1719 rounded off,, cubic inches. I always thought it was 4 liter.. so its a bit under that.

 

[QUOTE=dicer;
So on Lextream site 1UZFE Bore is 87.5 Stroke is 82.5 and that all figures out to be 242.1719 rounded off,, cubic inches. I always though it was 4 liter.. so its a bit under that.[/QUOTE]

most engine are just under but are still refered to '4litre'

 

Yeah some are like that but not all. And when they do that its a bit of lying, I can understand for gas guzzler deals to call a larger displacement small instead of a smaller one bigger like that.

 

All I saw was twin turbo in those 2 articles... Where can I get these twin turbos lol ahahahahaha

 

95 owner here too. ive had several of them over the years. my current has been my daily driver now for 3 years. im pretty aggressive with mine. 100+mph speeds regularly. rockets on to the highway pretty damn quick for such an old car. just about to hit 200k. never had any drivability issues with it and its never let me down. everything on the car still works but the AC has just about had it. doesn't matter. I hardly ever use it anyway.

anyway any Ls400 is a good decision. I work in the service dept at a high traffic dealership so I get to see these cars at there worst. lots of them still come in for routine checkups and fluid flushes but ive seen less than a handful come in on tow trucks. and ive seen a lot of absolutely **** poor examples but they are still going strong. I also get to see the unicorns, like the black on black 95 with 45k miles on it that still looks and smells new, and even still has the little paper tags on the leather seats. saw a 1990, black on grey with 38k miles on it that had original paint so good there wasn't even as much as a swirl mark on it! no creases on the seats, nothing. fully loaded too with the air suspension and Nak stereo. even the old phone in the center console. looked like it just came out of a time machine from 1990.

I have noticed that they are beginning to fade away in common traffic though sadly. its rare that I pass one these days and I never see them on the highway. I live in a major city with lots of older folks too. it surprises me. don't really see them in the junkyard anymore either. thinking most of the early ones were crushed years ago. kind of gives mine some exclusiveness! I get compliments on it all the time. people think its either 5 years old or know that its very old and I get lots of "wow what a clean old lexus" also hearing lots of words like "old school" and "classic" its pretty neat actually!

anyway just recently I did get a newer car. 2014 mustang convertible. castrated automatic v6 "hey me too" florida tourist edition, but at $9k and 25k miles, it was a no brainer. got it more for the wife as a "security" think cause the lexus is old enough where she was starting to get scared of it and didn't trust it anymore, even though its never let us down. fine with me. id rather drive the lexus than the stupid el-cheapo mustang anyway. its still my DD lol

 

. Where can one get a low mileage engine outside of a pick n pull?

 

<br /><br /><br />wow a 95 with only 45k daaaamn, I haven't pushed her on too many extended 100plus runs by I did get to "tit for tat" with an ungoverned Chrysler 200 heading up north in California. We were doing about 140 tops into eureka and slowed into the town as things were getting pretty stupid lol. Could still pull away from him which made me happy. She's all I got so I'm pretty nice to her nowadays and it is NOT a cop magnet, which is also nice. In Oakland where I go to school cops could give a big one as long as your not weaving about like a heathen and generally going with the traffic flow, and knowing their lurk spots and headlight profiles as well as commuting at 1230 at night also helps.

also my friend you could have done far worse than a tamed stang. That's not a horrid buy by any means.

 

. Wow great info, the 1uz would make a great plane engine, thanks for sharing this. If I was going to rebuild one it would be built one with forged guts as all the crate race built engines I've seen are stupid expensive..and don't come in "street" flavor, I prefer to build one to my own specs anyhow.��

 

Low mileage? JDM from eBay. But they're not usually cheap, over $1k.

 

[QUOTE=Ehrenkrook;9601835I haven't pushed her on too many extended 100plus runs by I did get to "tit for tat" with an ungoverned Chrysler 200 heading up north in California. We were doing about 140 tops into eureka and slowed into the town as things were getting pretty stupid lol. Could still pull away from him which made me happy.
also my friend you could have done far worse than a tamed stang. That's not a horrid buy by any means.[/QUOTE]

ive gone against all kinds of stuff with mine. for some reason bmw 745Li like to pick fights, especially the early ones for some reason. ive always won against them its not fast off the line but it puuls like hell on the highway. its one of the only cars ive ever had that still pulls hard when I hit the gas at over 100mph.

 

205k here. Runs practially like new. I've worked on alot of different cars and quite honestly the LS is not very difficult. Time consuming, yes, but none of the holy crap WTF is this kind of stuff. Check my timing belt / valve cover thread... as you can see nothing has kicked my butt...yet lol.