I have heard of this before, but not sure what the likely issue is. My last 1990 LS400 had the same sound when it hit around 220K. Well, my 91 hit 224K last week and its like the front suspension clunk started overnight.

On CERTAIN bumps, when I hit with the front tire, I will get this clunking sound. What is the most likely culprit? Ball joints? Tie rods? Struts? All of the above?

Thanks.

 

could be the bolt on the upper control arm hitting the wheel well. how many miles are on the struts. if the struts are blown or in bad shape that could be causing this

 

I had this problem.... it was cause by either the strut mounts or struts themselves being shot.... because i replaced my stock ones with megans and no more cunk.

 

Probably the originals... 224K miles. The front suspension is stiff and dont absorb the bumps well anymore. I have been wanting to replace those anyway. Thanks

Thanks. How hard are they to change? I changed the rear ones on my old 1990 LS400, but never the front ones.

 

i've only ever see this happen in extremely lowered cars. never stock height.


sound like the standard front caster arm (aka strut rod/strut bar) bushings have gone.
search it.

 

i second PD. My 93 was clunkin and those strut rod bushings were the culprit. replaced em and quiet as a butterfly.

 

I'll co-sign with PD and Omarg. Do the strut rods first. I just did mine and the clunking is gone. Once these cars hit 100k+, you probably need to look at struts, bushings, control arms, and engine and tranny mounts. I find myself dealing with all of this now with my LS at 155K. Once I'm done, I figure I'm good to go for another 100K+

 

very simple and straight forward on 1LS. Parts are pricey though. Cheapest i could find was about 90 new per side. Might was as well replace both.

Luckily i got some off a clunker'd ls400 with 80k miles. Looks like it had been fully serviced about a year ago. Got very good upper control arms and and strut rod bushings for much cheaper. i was lucky! I'm pretty diligent on the u pull a part places, though

 

Mybushings.Com

 

Thanks. Well I am not that familiar with them, so if I were to replace the entire strut on each side, it would resolve it? Meaning its not a seperate part from the strut, or is it?

I went to that mybushings.com site and they are around $38 each. I am guessing now they are seperate from the strut.

As mentioned, my front suspension seems to stiff for this type of car.... I wonder if these new bushings will make it ride softer?

How does one replace the bushings?

 

91LS400LEX,

The OEM part number for your front strut bar cushions is: Part #: 48674-50030

This part is for 1990 thru October 1994... The design was changed after that date... I think the one's your seeing on mybushings.com may be for vehicles after 10/94 since the price you've quoted of $38 each is too low...

Jim

 

Ah, your right! That was for the 1995-2000 models. Why in the heck are the gen 1 parts always so much higher? Because they are the ones breaking down now?

I dont even see the 1990-94 strut bar bushings listed on that site/page...

http://www.mybushings.com/lexus-ls400-c-26_63.html

 

The 48674 strut bar cushion is in this diagram:

t o y o d i y .com/parts/p_U_1991_LEXUS_LS400_UCF10L-AEPGKA_4803.html

(remove the spaces between the letters before .com)

 

Thanks. Says the link is broken though, even with the spaces removed.

 

worked fine with all spaces removed :|