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I have a 2004 ls430 that came with the 17in wheels and didn't have the upgraded sports suspension. I've got Megan coilover for my ls and also bought the megan rear camber linkages to adjust the camber in the rear since they've been stuck at 1 degree in the back and i'm wanting to take it out for the winter. Getting ready to put the coilovers and camber links on this saturday hopefully I won't need to change out any other suspension components to make everything fit.
Replaced 2 engine mounts (due to slight vibration in the steering wheel and after 100mph), I thought that mine are ok and I'm being paranoic about the smoothness of my LS. As it turned out - they were dead. One mount was torn in 2 pieces.
Result: there are no vibrations at idle at all! It's hard to understand if the engine is running. And the front-end tightened up much more. The car drives smoother too.
I also diagnosed my steering pump that was whining (175Kmileage) and replaced it with a used with only 92K miles.
Result: Now the whine is gone, the car is much quiter. The steering also improved (due to mounts or maybe even due to steering pump).
+ replaced rubber hoses near the steering pump to new ones and added new ATF oil.
Not today, but this past Sunday, me, my girlfriend, and my oldest brother took a nice 15 hour, 880 mile round trip up to central Georgia from here in central Florida. The first tank of gas got us all the way up there and nearly 100+ miles back down. I only called it quits at 486 miles on that first tank because I wasn't sure how far it would be to the next exit for a gas station. I still had an 1/8th of a tank left, so I know I would have gotten well over 500 miles on that tank. The second fill-up is what I still have in the car right now, with 344 miles and at just under a 1/2 tank. And that was all highway cruising between 70 and 80 mph!
The only odd thing, when we stopped to gas up on the way back, I could smell a slight rubber burning smell coming from the front of the car. Since then, we have smelled it a few more times after driving a bit around town and getting out at stores and whatnot. Looking under the hood, the drive belt looks fine, I hear no chirping or squealing of any kind, nothing melted onto the exhaust, the valve cover gaskets were just replaced about 6 months ago with the previous owner.
So not too sure what it could be, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on things. Any suggestions on what it could possibly be would be excellent.
Drove for the first time on a highway/interstate trip to test the car out in that type of driving conditions, very pleased in all respects and a huge improvement over my old daily.
I've had the car a few months and finally got around to changing the air filter. I don't know, maybe l should have tried to get a few more miles out of it.
I replaced my inop driver’s door lock actuator with a rebuilt unit from ActuatorsPlus. It is so nice to not have to use the key to lock and unlock my door 😊. Thanks to a great pair of YouTube videos the job wasn’t as bad as expected.
Replaced 2 engine mounts (due to slight vibration in the steering wheel and after 100mph), I thought that mine are ok and I'm being paranoic about the smoothness of my LS. As it turned out - they were dead. One mount was torn in 2 pieces.
Result: there are no vibrations at idle at all! It's hard to understand if the engine is running. And the front-end tightened up much more. The car drives smoother too.
I also diagnosed my steering pump that was whining (175Kmileage) and replaced it with a used with only 92K miles.
Result: Now the whine is gone, the car is much quiter. The steering also improved (due to mounts or maybe even due to steering pump).
+ replaced rubber hoses near the steering pump to new ones and added new ATF oil.
I looked at the terrible job I did waxing her on Sat. afternoon--wow, bad. I imagine this is how a teen or pre-teen would do it for their parents if they'd rather be playing fortnite. My excuse is that I did 2 cars on Sat. and my wife was rushing me to go to mass at 17:00. So I am wiping off the excess wax here and there as I see it.
And now for something extremely exciting... Fresh air! LOL
Just saw this photo.... I had a cat identical to yours (all white and 2 different colored eyes). He was deaf as a post, but what a great cat he was.....
Crossed over 150K miles this weekend and also finished up the paint correction that I started a week previous. Wished I had done this a few years ago as there was swirls and light scratches all over the car. Finished just in time for the first snowfall...
I’m waiting to get mine back out of the shop. No, not the garbage shop that royally screwed up my starter install but my local trusted indy shop. They did a timing belt/water pump install and ran down my coolant leaks (water pump and surprise, surprise an incorrectly installed rear coolant crossover by that other shop). I got the car back earlier this week and after driving it awhile the dreaded “Check engine/VSC Off” lights came on. Codes P0171 and 0174 both banks too lean. The shop owner is pretty sure it’s a cracked vacuum hose (all the vacuum hose are pretty crispy after 16 years). Unfortunately everyone else in my small town trusts this same shop and they are absolutely buried in cars in needing repairs so I sit impatiently waiting (we got our first cold snap this week and I miss my heated seats and the LS’s supercharged heater).
My family has long been a Toyota family so I'm biased, but love or hate Toyota/Lexus, those engineers know how to do an AC/Heating system better than anyone else, by a mile.
Freeze you out in the summer and roast you.in the winter!
10-29-19, 08:58 AM
Ls430 coilover project
