as99east

Question to the forum:

For someone with very little experience and no formal mechanical training, but access to shop manuals and all this great online content, and ability to procure tools (within reason) and willingness to learn, what would be a reasonable progression as far as DIY work on a recently acquired 95 LS400 with some deferred maintenance?

For example, starting with what you all would consider very easy (oil and filter change) and working your way up to much harder jobs like timing belt/water pump, how do you put typical DIY jobs along that spectrum? I guess I’m talking about what you all would consider common stuff - coolant flush, transmission drain/fill, brake job, radiator replacement, power steering pump replacement, starter motor, etc.

Just curious for anyone’s thoughts on what a logical progression might be. I am feeling a little intimidated because I have no friend or neighbor to mentor me but I need to start somewhere, and the amount of content online is tremendous but it’s also a little overwhelming.

Located in Long Island, NY, FWIW.

Thanks in advance.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

most basic is air filter (cabin and engine) as well as wipers, and a good cleaning!
timing belt is at the far end of the spectrum which is not for the beginner DIY unless you have plenty of time on your hands.

what i would do is watch a ton of youtube videos on various subjects and learn that way.
start with an oil change. then how to replace a headlight bulb. tire rotation and suspension checks are next. then brakes. the list gets longer so start learning!

deanshark

First off, welcome.
I applaud you, or anyone, who wants to work on their own vehicle and learn along the way. You don't need to be formally trained to do most repairs, just mechanically inclined and enough knowledge to read and understand "car talk". Most stuff listed as "maintenance" is pretty easy for a beginner unless the service manual, or internet, starts talking about tearing down half the engine to do it.
As for "no mentor" This forum is full of us willing to help everybody, with our knowledge and experience anyway.
The internet content is overwhelming because everyone has a camera nowadays and there's so many people out there that "think" they're mechanics cuz they can turn a screwdriver.
If you're gonna use a video to see how to do something, make sure you watch a few so you can see the best way for YOU to do it, with your ability. Once ya start fixing things you'll have more knowledge and confidence to work up to harder projects.

Most important thing; If you have a question, just ask. There's always someone here to answer, and you'll get steered in the right direction.
It's hard to say what you need to do first without knowing the history of the car but "basic maintenance" is where to start and learn from there.
http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/ is for 90-94 but alot of stuff rolls over to later years.
How many miles on yours? Do you know any history of what's been fixed?

400fanboy

Youtube is a tool that many rely. Many of the things you will encounter will be generalized to most common cars. So you might not need to find a specific video for exactly your model year car. Brakes for example are pretty universal (until you start getting into high-performance stuff then yeah things get weird, or you get into old Aston Martins with twin calipers... crazy stuff).

A shop manual is an incredible tool to have, especially for torque specs for bolts and such - but sometimes, having a video visualizing exactly the tips and tricks of how the gorram hell do you get this ****ing thi... oh - that's how, that makes total sense.

deanshark

Aint that the truth. I spent hours trying to get a rear strut out after unbolted. Everyone was saying "push this, drop that" or "lift and twist"....Nope, not for me. Until I saw the video and then.... of course. Out in 2 minutes.
I use this guy's videos all the time just to get more knowledge on this engine. (and some laughs) https://www.youtube.com/c/CartuneNZ/videos

fondu

I love that CartuneNZ youtube channel. Kelvin has a wealth of knowledge from spending many years working on the UZ engines. Funny guy and he probably has a video on almost any job you can think of with these vehicles.

as99east

Thank you and others for the very helpful and encouraging responses.

I recently acquired a 1995 LS400, with 127k miles, from the original owner, for relatively cheap. Bought as a second car when my wife has our main car and as kind of a project and why not...always grew up loving 90s Lexuses which my family could never afford and now that we could, well we would just not spend that much on a new car. Suffice to say, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but have quickly learned a lot the hard way about buying a car with deferred maintenance items! I though eh, it’s a Lexus, those things are tanks, why not for $2750.

Main items so far have been steering rack, oil pan and exhaust work up front. Also ECU repair cleared a p1600 code she was throwing. While it was garage kept and interior is good with leather in excellent condition, this has been a crash course so far in how some people simply don’t do recommended maintenance on their cars, which never occurred to me because my parents were religious about the stuff.

Anyway I have two things hanging over my head at this point, otherwise she runs great:

1. Seems timing belt and water pump were never changed from the original. The Lexus dealership where I got the initial work sorted did not push me to replace them, as they were basically like see how you like the car before you put more money in and we think she looks ok. I think I need to have a peek at the timing belt myself as I do not completely trust this. Do you know least painful way to get minimum number of parts off to have a look at the timing belt? I am going to be putting very low and light mileage on this car, but no way in next 6-12 months if she is still going will I not do this important job I think. I guess I just want to look for serious cracking / signs of doom since I know this is interference and a broken belt would trash the engine.

2. I have a “phantom” coolant leak I think. Dealer couldn’t find any leak with pressure testing said she was bone dry even with a lot of PSI being put in to system and showed me myself. They said could be engine eating coolant but head gasket issues are super rare with these. My current extremely speculative and relatively uneducated guess is this may be a 27 year old water pump finally starting to go. I bought UV dye to try to find the leak and also have a kit where I can test for exhaust in radiator, god forbid it’s head gasket but don’t want to jump to any conclusion. I am planning on starting those tests this weekend.

bradland

I've always found Lexus/Toyota vehicles an absolute joy to work on compared to other manufacturers. Japanese engineers are on another level.
YouTube videos and even this forum can be a slippery slope for someone with little or no experience. What I mean is they can both foster a false sense of accomplishment that can sometimes be reckless. I'll come back to this...

There's a lot to be said about fundamentals and basic learning curves. A video or tutorial doesn't talk in detail about basic safety procedures like how safely jack up a vehicle. No one talks about the hard lessons we've all learned about cheap vs quality tools.

Obviously, some jobs are easier than others but even a YT video can be misleading. If the OP owns a 95 he needs to be aware of the pitfalls of any car of that age. A simple procedure often turns into a struggle because of frozen bolts, stubborn wiring connectors that break, etc... I recently watched a YT vid posted on the 430 side on how to replace spark plug tube seals. The car in the vid had approx 100k miles and the tube seals popped out rather easily with a gentle pry. If you've done this procedure you know the longer those seals are in place the harder they become. I replaced mine on a 400 with 200k miles and they were hard as a rock. This seemingly simple step added about an hour to the job as they had to be chiseled out in 100 tiny pieces. This same video also didn't go into detail how critical the proper use of FPG is when replacing VC gaskets where they change direction vertically. My point is a video or tutorial can make things look easy to the untrained eye and quickly get someone in over their head. But of course we've all been in over our head and that's part of the learning process👍

To the OP- learn the basics of how an engine actually works. Learn the different parts and be able to identify them on any vehicle. i.e. know how each part contributes to the overall system.
Always practice safety and don't buy cheap tools they will only cost more in the long run.
When in doubt come back to the forum and ask questions. What's are the potential unforseen issues when replacing a ________________ ?

bradland

What is the evidence of a coolant leak? A pressure test is generally VERY reliable.
By chance are you adding fluid to the external reservoir then finding the level lower a day or two later..?

as99east

Yes I filled the coolant reservoir up to the recommended level because it was a little below the “low” line and then a couple days later it was all the way back down. I did not fill when car was hot and both times car should have been at similar temperature. Am I being an idiot about something? Where would it have gone?

bradland

Does ALL THE WAY BACK DOWN simply mean back to the low line?
If so there's no issue. The level lines aren't perfectly reliable. The coolant system pushes and pulls fluid from the reservoir as changing engine temps create a change in the volume of coolant. When the car is running at normal operating temp surplus volume moves into the reservoir. If you've previously added fluid there any excess will be expelled through the reservoir overflow tube which basically dumps it to the ground. The LS cooling system is VERY robust and actually over-engineered. As long as the reservoir isn't empty you're fine.

Also, 1000's of heat cycles will create a layer of "sludge" inside your radiator which slightly changes the internal volume of the cooling system. If you were to replace the radiator the internal volume would be somewhat reset and the level lines on the reservoir might be more accurate.

as99east

Basically I recall there were two lines in the reservoir - low and high or low and full, whatever they are called. I filled it up to the higher of those two lines, no higher. When the car had been sitting and was cool. Was trying to follow owner manual. Later, after the car had been sitting and was cool, the coolant in the reservoir was not empty but it was well below the lower of the two lines. Ie you could barely see it in the reservoir but there was a little. So this came as a shock to me, perhaps unnecessarily for reasons you’re describing? Again dealer said they had significant PSI on the system and that if there had been any leak she would have been spraying it out.

as99east

(And by “later” I mean after a couple days of very light, intermittent driving)

bradland

Just keep an eye on it and trust the pressure test. The cooling system itself may have been a bit low when you bought the car and it's still normalizing.
Even light intermittent driving will reach full engine temps causing fluid to move back and forth in and out of the reservoir.
Monitor it, add Toyota red if needed but don't use the lines as gospel. Check back in a couple weeks...

as99east

ok! Thanks