I bought a used ls400 this time last year and have spent a ton on repairs. At my witts end.
First it was leaking a lot of oil so i had my uncles "good friend/trusty indie" mechanic seal it. the mech said there was a new timing belt and he didnt know why the previous owner didnt do this repair with that one. anyway
fast forward a couple months and the starter died.
Had it towed to him and he "fixed" it. on the way home the car died on a ramp, but fired up and I made it home. Car wouldn't start again, so it was towed back to him. Then it was "fixed"
when I picked it up the CEL light was on and I asked him what the deal was and it just said it's nothing to worry about
so I drove it for a while, no real complaints other than when i went to crank it, that squeal you get from trying to start a running car would happen at the key turn.
that slowly faded out. CEL is back on, the car idles in a sputtering manner unless I put it in neutral. sometimes when accelerating there's not much power/sputters and the CEL flashes.
it's leaking oil again and im just going to try to sell the damn thing for what I can get.
Headed to autozone to check out the codes but would love some suggestions on anything to buy while im there before I leave.
It's a 25 year old car, of course it's gonna need repairs.
Ethan Morris
>buys old neglected car >doesnt know how anything about cars >is mad when minor things happen
Charles Wilson
What? You can't pretend that's not strange behavior
Ian Torres
For one, fuck your uncle's friend, ignoring a CEL like it's nothing.
Two, if it's sputtering, low power, and leaking oil, sounds like a head gasket, and bad. Your uncle's "friend" either just RTV'ed the bitch up and called it a day, or just threw on a gasket without checking the head. Or did both but either: 1. reused head bolts 2. or didn't torque it right/at all
To confirm this, you can always borrow a compression tester from autozone.
Hudson Bailey
When you buy an older car, you better know that.
a) The car is reliable.
b) If the car isn't reliable, that you can fix it yourself.
c) The service history.
You dove headlong into a shitbox and now you're crying foul.
First problem sounds like a seal.
Second problem sounds like the starter is fucked. Just go get a second hand one from a wreck. You can actually test starters with a battery and a few wires.
Locate the oil leak, fix it. Then look up some of the codes. If there is nothing relevant, do a complete service of the oil/filter/ fuel filter/ air filter/ new sparkplugs/new ignition coil/ new sensors. Buy cheap shit off of ebay or use stuff from a wrecking yard.
As you replace things you're going to slowly eliminate the problem, or fix it inadvertently unless there is a major issue with the engine.
If you sell it now you're going to get nothing for it.
Parker Rivera
You're a fucking idiot. I've bought 40 year old cars and that wasn't an issue.
Jaxson Robinson
That's nice. A car from 1976 isn't going to have EFI and they are about as complicated as your brain.
HURR CARB
HURR FUEL GO IN
HURR AIR GO IN
HURR SPARK GO BOOM
Even with an early 90s shitbox, you have to contend with sensors and all kinds of shit that the ECU needs to run right. Unless there is a major engine issue, that's where I'd be looking at.
OP check your coolant reservoir for milky water. Could indicate cracked head/head gasket.
Cameron Morales
did you do a pre-purchase inspection?
Lucas Morgan
No you're wrong here buddy.
Jose Diaz
OP here I didn't do any kind of checking beforehand; no carfax or anything. car was shiny so i went full ignorant and I've already been PAYING for that mistake.
anyone throwing stones at this point is frankly an asshole
I took it to autozone, they don't read codes anymore as of January.
There was a mom and pop shop down the street with good google reviews so I brought it in.
They said there was 3 codes that could all be from one issue.
I belive they said o2 sensor.
They turned the light off and said it's nothing (maybe uncles friend isn't the biggest chach) but if it comes back on to set up an appointment.
I feel much better. car still sputters a little
I My uncle has a gs300 with 276k miles on it and uses the same mechanic. I made sure there was a "guy" for me before i went the lexus route.
LS 400s are legendary and it honestly drove like a dream for a while; still is nice minus the hiccups.
I'm not in a hurry to sell it but did put it on craigslist.
I would like a different LS400 and found a good one about 2 hours away
it's got 75k miles on it, car looks GORGEOUS but there was a wreck. Car was registered in FL, wreck was in PA. kinda fishy
I put the vin in lexusdrivers website and the last dealership repair was a while back. it also had the transmission flushed around the time of the wreck.
any advice on this one is greatly appreciated.
Selling for $8770
Ryder Bennett
You're being ignorant. Stop going to shops and invest in some fucking tools so you can do the work yourself.
Go to a wrecking yard and get the parts you need to fix your shitbox. It's a car from 1991, it's not going to be hard to fix.
Lincoln Baker
Why dont you spend the money on some tools and learn to fix the car yourself? Your eventually going to run into problems with the new one and have to overpay for some dude in a garage to fix it.
Robert Jackson
youre alternator is dying
source im a lexus expert. your p/s pump is leaking and it shorted your alternator, because the alternator is directly beneath the p/s pump
tldr replace ps pump and alternator, maybe you're lucky and it's just a p/s hose
Carter Walker
OP, seems like you know the deal. BTW my lex is a 1996 with 191k miles on it
I believe it had 182 last year when purchased
I agree for the most part. however, im scared I won't tighten something right and cause a whole big me$$
i cant afford a brand new car and the lexus ls400 is wayyyy better than the hondas I drove before.
Is buying a 15 year old car just going to be a nightmare no matter what?
i figured if taken care of it'll last a long time..?
honestly i still love my current car, there's just some rips in the leather seats and replacing those will cost $2k so I figure I might as well upgrade to a newer model with lower miles.
if you start putting money into the current ls and there's only 3 codes away from a tip top running car whats the purpose of selling and buying another one. you might just run into the same issues with your current one and take one step forward and two steps back.
btw is me
Adam Walker
>CEL light was on >nothing to worry about
Zachary Cruz
try removing your maf sensor and cleaning it, with maf sensor safe throttle body cleaner, and then that same throttle body cleaner to clean your throttle body it'll smooth idling. but let the maf sensor COMPLETELY dry off before using it again. sensor cleaner is volatile, and will dry quicly, but there are nooks and crannys in a maf sensor so shake it off real good and let it sit in the sun for 10 minutes then re mount the maf sensor
Aiden Cook
dude your friend is fucking you
for fucks sake as an electrical technician i would hope to never finish a job at someones house and say DONE then 2 hours later get called back to fix their shit again because it really WASNT DONE
Luis Clark
are you throwing any misfire codes? you gotta new dizzy cap and rotor and plug wires and sparkplugs? man fuck i wish i could just take a look at it i hate fucked up lexuses
Logan Murphy
Learn to fix it yourself because your trusted mechanic is a fucking retard that I wouldn't trust ever. Anyone retarded enough to ignore a check engine light doesn't deserve your money.
Step one is get an OBD2 reader off of Amazon. If you have an android phone it's trivial to use a Bluetooth OBD2 reader and cheap as well. Fix whatever is associated with the code and clear it.
If you want to save money you need to start doing the work yourself. Use YouTube and source some repair manuals for the car and get going.
Easton Davis
I know nothing about this car but I always turn my head when I see them around. Aesthetic car.
Christopher Flores
I also bought an LS400, but Veeky Forums warned me what to look for so I knew what to do when I was looking for one.
I bought one that had the timing belt done recently, had a minor P/S leak and oil leak.
So I bought it and put some Lucas P/S stop leak in it and formed a little alternator shield out of plastic and jammed it inbetween the alternator and P/S pump for good measure and changed out the valve cover gaskets.
Other fix was putting a new display and having bluetooth added to the factory radio. Haven't had any other issues since, I think I've put ~25k miles on it.
