Newbie To 92 Ls400

lexusn1ce · March 6, 2010

hi everyone, great site you have here, i am new to the ls 400 always wanted one and just bought one for my second car and im thrilled to bits with it its a 1992 seems to have everything apart from air susp and nikamichi stereo and has done just over 100,000 with full lex history and 2 owners, it has a few minor points thou which the previous owner chose not to repair before sale i will list them and if any one has any info regarding a fix i will be gratefull.

1. Exhaust blow at front gasket (fixed)

2. egr valve (tiny leak might wait bearly audible)

3. broke down last week RAC said water in caps (after i stripped it found bad coil, changed it now fixed)

4. slight bumpy idle after the above, before ran so well you couldnt tell it was running (fixed bad lead re-crimped end)

5. cam sensor wire chewed by belt, made repair

6. radio doesnt recieve stations (ariel and wire good)

7. power locks work on door buttons, exept drivers door which makes sound like it will lock but the lock indicator only goes half way sometimes doesnt move(fixed loose shaft see reply)

8. power locks dont work from key on any lock although drivers lock used to work them all with key but only in lock direction, this has ceased also(fixed was switches)

9. remote locking doesnt work although i have three new keys with chips courtesy of previous owner

10. security indicator never blinks and alarm doesnt sound (to be honest havent found the siren yet not sure if its been removed) Fixed was door switches

11.power steering reservoir leaking all over pump and alternator

thats all i can recall now i appreciate its a lot for a newbie to bung on here but im so eager to get my lovely car to its former glory, i always favour a self-fix over dealer i have reasonable mechanical abilities having been a motorcycle mechanic for 8 years, and i am more than competent with electrical wiring and electronic repairs, but im not familiar with the systems on this car and would rather seek advice from someone who knows rather than make a mistake, thanks for taking the time to read this and i look forward to taking part in some drive outs etc when the weather warms up :D

steve2006 · March 7, 2010

Hi and welcome to the LOC.

Sounds like you have a decent example of the LS there with a reasonable mileage for the year.

A good site for resources is www.lexls.com ( look under tutorials).

There is a method for resyncing the key fobs to the car, the central locking motors do fail but having replaced my passenger side it's not a difficult job.

Repair the PS leak before it takes out the alternator it's normally just the O ring seal on the reservoir, a couple of quid from Lexus.

ROYT · March 7, 2010

On the other side of the drivers door lock keyhole there is a small switch.check this out

for locking problems.

lexusn1ce · March 7, 2010

On the other side of the drivers door lock keyhole there is a small switch.check this out
for locking problems.

done the central locking today, the little switches on the locks were badly corroded hit them with the contact cleaner but the track had lifted on the drivers side so i had to carefully glue it back down, to start with it would only lock but i tested the connections with a meter and the switch was working both ways so i assumed a fault with the ecu, but when i did the passengers side switch it had shorted out so the ecu was stuck in unlock mode i cleaned the switch and discovered one track had corroded away near the solder joint so i carefully bridged it with a tiny wire and solder and tested it and it is working both ways so i completed the job with some spray grease to stop it hapening again and now they both work and the imobilizer light flashes when locked so it was a switch fault preventing it from engaging.

i also had an issue with the drivers lock failing to operate with the others so i stripped out the mechanism and discovered the motor runs but the arm that is moved by the motor had come lose on the shaft and was slipping on its spline so i closed up the end of the shaft with a small flat hammer that stoped it slipping and i then used some araldite (excuse spelling) just to make sure, inside the housing where the motor is there are two tiny tracks like in the switches unfortunately one had completely disolved so no repair possible however the central locking is still completely functional so i do not know what these switches do but i cannot program the wireless fob so i think they may have something to do with sensing the lock position when you do the lock 5 times as nothing happens, unless im doing the procedure wrong.

so thats it i hope this helps someone else to fix theirs, if anyone has any hints on the remote locking i would be gratefull (like a way to test if it recieves the signal) i have three sets of fob keys and the little chip which is installed but still does not work.