Hi all, I just got a 1996 LS400 with 140K on it. You would not know it looking at the interior at least. All major service seems to have been done on it but the brakes are a little light. There is no squealing or brake light on and the fluid looks a little weak so I thought I would bleed them. Does anyone know the proper order for this generation LS400?

I spent yesterday taking off some ill advised window tint. Now if I could just find some stock wheels and a couple of small trim pieces I would be happy!

 

i suppose they are just like any other car, from RR, RL, FL, FR. correct me if i'm wrong.

 

dont bleed it...all u need to do is get a turkey baster and suck the fluid out of the master cylinder, refill with new fluid, do it again about a week later, repeat this until the fluid is clean....

 

^ thats what i did, but thats because i don't have anybody to help me. but the best way is to bleed it.

 

that doesnt flush air out of the lines....

 

OP-
lexls.com has a tut on bleeding brakes, use the same order as master cylinder is in the same basic area i believe.

 

his problem isnt with air being in the lines....he just wants new fluid, bleeding is a waste of time in this case and an unnecessary risk of getting air in the system

 

Well if you're gonna bleed it, proper way is to start from the wheel furthest away from the master cylinder. Right rear, then left rear, right front, then left front... funny thing is, at work, we start from any wheel, doesn't matter which one we start from or end. You should get new fluid in your whole system though, suck all the old fluid out and replace with new fluid and gravity bleed it.

 

Thanks all. I do want to bleed them because I suspect broken down fluid. I believe the tutorial actually said to do the driver side rear first instead of passenger side for first generations because the fluid actually travels further to get there, so it is not the standard order for first gen cars. Wondering if that little anomaly carried over into second gen ls400s.

BTW I have a mini vac, it has been a while since I used it but it does make bleeding brakes a one man operation.

 

It looks as if you do start on the front if you are doing a vacuum bleed. http://www.mityvac.com/pages/info_faq.asp Wonder why?

 

Actually I believe on this car the LEFT rear is the farthest away because of the way the brake lines are routed. There is a drawing to show this, but I will have to locate it.

 

Different cars have different bleeding patterns. Brakes should be bled starting with the wheel that's furthest from the master cylinder and then working in towards the cylinder. Now you would think that would be the rear passenger wheel, it's not! Taking a look at the repair manual shows the routing of the brake lines. It's very clear that the wheel furthest from the master cylinder is the rear driver's side. So for 90-94 LS400's the bleeding pattern is: rear left, rear right, front right, and front left. Consult your owner's manual and/or repair manual for proper bleeding order.