LS400 Coach. Project Dyslexus.

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Not much info yet, too stressed out over this car right now to say much about it.

Was hoping to just buy the car and do a small maintenance run-over then go on my way saving up for air suspension but it seems it wants more attention in the other areas of the suspension first. Car is named Dyslexus (like Dyslexic..) for now till she's running like new.

Current issue/status: 01-27-2012 at 07:02 PM.

When I bought the car, it had a vibration at high speed, braking and needed a new wheel bearing.

I got the tires re-balanced and rotated, which fixed the high speed vibes. Replaced the wheel bearing and the front rotors/pads the other day and went for a test drive and to break the pads in. Braking vibes were still there, feels warped again and gets worse as rotors warm up. Lastly, it sounds like the SKF bearing I put in there is defective as its making a grinding noise, feels like tires are off balance again, must be the wheel bearing, very slight vibrations felt in steering wheel at 45+mph.

Pretty stressed out about this whole ordeal as i'm trying to save up for air suspension, don't want anything wrong with the other suspension parts before I throw the car on air.

Going to replace the inner and outer tie rods, got a new set that came with the car. Hoping that might fix it...

http://i.imgur.com/04YNMl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/04YNM.png)

Here's some crap quality pics. I still need to get some taken with my DSLR, can't see the Silver Jade Pearl at all in these pics... Got a cool pic with some random LS400 passing in the background, love the cigarette holder these cars have.

http://i.imgur.com/1AZGYl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/1AZGY.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/0dvasl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/0dvas.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/g1X2vl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/g1X2v.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/O8ne9l.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/O8ne9.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/rLlDNl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/rLlDN.jpg)

[timmy0tool]

good looking coach ed UCF you have. you're on the right track trying to get rid of the minor details with the suspension/brakes prior to air ride. what color is your interior?!

[OG]

coach 97 is my favorite ls made. good job takin' care of the maintenance and little s**t before you start building.

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Looking back on my first maintenance record makes me kind of giggle, yet makes me frown lol. I was told and have read everywhere of how reliable and tough these cars are... I always have bad luck and my LS hasn't really shown any want to ditch the name Dyslexus. I'd make it a vanity plate if I could fit it all.... :smiley-rofl:

Maintenance records as of now... And a short spoiler of mods to come in the next couple months :)

http://i.imgur.com/A47Pl.png

good looking coach ed UCF you have. you're on the right track trying to get rid of the minor details with the suspension/brakes prior to air ride. what color is your interior?!

coach 97 is my favorite ls made. good job takin' care of the maintenance and little s**t before you start building.

Thanks guys, the interior is grey. I have a hard time choosing between the 2.5LS and 2LS Coach a lot. I really love boxy looking cars, but the front-end of the 2.5LS really does it for me... Even though it reminds me of the Cadillac DeVille that copied Lexus lol.

As for preventative maintenance, yeah... Doing whatever I can, and being on a short budget has my build going soooo slow. With air-suspension and pushing camber, wheel bearings and a crappy ride are things I definitely do not want.

Here's where she sits right now. Changing out the starter, got about 12 hours into it and then I found out my EGR #1 (lower) pipe is fked... So I just ordered a new one for Sewell Lexus, hoping to get it before the end of the week...

http://i.imgur.com/6jUlbl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/6jUlb.jpg)
http://i.imgur.com/qnCxNl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/qnCxN.jpg)

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Finally completed the starter after a week and 2 days, I'm pretty sure I don't want to tackle that again unless I was paid for it. Not a fun job to do at all. I think i'm going to skip doing the timing belt myself and bring it to a tech.

[OG]

you seem to have hit every common issue, so the good news is that you should be just about out of the woods. personally, i would have deleted the egr over replacing it. based on your mod list i'm guessing that you are the guy buying jeebus' exhaust/air. funny thing is i bought that car and am now second guessing it because i want the square lights. i wish you were closer, we could have traded. what kind of milage does this beauty have?

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Yessir, you spotted it! I just sent him payment for the exhaust and air suspension about an hour ago. Debating on whether I should throw the kit on now or later when I get the new wheels towards the end of the year. My only hint on what wheels they are SSR Vienna. :hsughr:

As for EGR Delete, I'm hearing a lot that even though it doesn't show any real negative effects of doing that mod, I believe the counter argument that the ECU is programmed to have it in there and that the exhaust recirculating into the engine will help cool the engine down. When the engine remains cooler, all I think about is my VW Corrado and how much hell I went through overheating on that car. Driving around my area where 118* outside is the norm for about 8 months is not fun at all. So, I just went the stock route, which is also good because if I think about doing engine mods, i'll do something stupid and impulsive like a supercharger kit instead of doing the stock cruiser vip car for daily usage I been planning before I ever got an LS... Plus, the gas mileage is already pretty killer on these 1UZFE's that I don't want to lessen that anymore, especially with these stupid $4.75/gal gas prices.

Dude... Traded my car for that one? Bloody hell, I'd probably go nuts, his car, well your's, is so beautiful!

I got just a bit over 145k on it. I'm going to replace the following hopefully withing the next month just to stay on the safe side:

- Timing belt
- Water pump
- Spark plugs
- Ignition wires
- Distributor cap and rotors
- Valve cover/spark plug seals

Honestly though... If you want to trade cars, because I'm starting to itch for these 2.5LS front end... We can make it happen haha. I'll keep it in mind.

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Teaser pic! You'll see this stuff is VERY familiar. :thumbsup:

http://i.imgur.com/ulRlzl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/ulRlz.jpg)

[Dajap]

Oh my... I can't wait to see all that on the LS!

[Schnitz]

Noice!!!!

[Nairiku Shiryo]

I'm pretty excited myself! Thing is... I gotta replace a bunch of bushings and whatnot on the front suspension first before I install the air. As for the exhaust, I won't be putting that in yet either until I get money to build up a nice 2.25" mid-pipe section. Probably going to have Mike's Muffler up in LA fab up an exhaust. Going to do straight pipe from the cats.

[jeebus]

sweet. hope the parts were as you expected.

[OG]

try and support those outer sections on the trunk board so you don't pull the hinges.

[soarer718]

sick color

[Nairiku Shiryo]

sweet. hope the parts were as you expected.

Yep! It's pretty damned perfect. My father who is OCD with stuff even thought it was fairly brand new. Lots of care taken in your equipment.

try and support those outer sections on the trunk board so you don't pull the hinges.

I folded the outer sections back up, they were just folded down like that for the picture.

[ISO UCF10]

cant wait to see all this on your car

[Nite_Grind]

very nice, air setup is legit bro!

[timmy0tool]

so that's where the air setup and exhaust went! so nice, hope to see it local sometime when you are completed!

[Dranom]

nice color and goodluck with the build!

[illest]

been almost a month..any new updates?

[Nairiku Shiryo]

sick color
very nice, air setup is legit bro!
nice color and goodluck with the build!

Thanks a ton guys, really appreciate it! :biggthumpup:

so that's where the air setup and exhaust went! so nice, hope to see it local sometime when you are completed!

Yessir! Jumped on it with a quickness within the hour it was posted on ClubLexus! :giggity:

been almost a month..any new updates?

Weeelll. Just more maintenance. I just started on ripping the intake manifold back off and the coolant bypass pipe once again. Lost all coolant on the way back home from school this past Tuesday. Either I did not tighten the coolant bypass hose all the way down, one of the coolant hoses next to the coolant bypass hose split, or one of the gaskets on the coolant bypass didn't seal.

3 miles before the coolant started spitting out from behind the engine, the CEL turned on... Got home fine, grabbed my buddy's code reader: P0325 Knock Circuit Malfunction. :pat:

So, I ordered new gaskets from Sewell Lexus along with two knock sensors. Just odd how both things went out within a few miles apart. I'm thinking the coolant was filling the void between the cylinder banks and somehow got to one of the knock sensors. So, i'm going to replace the sensors, might as well while i'm under there. :shrug:

As far as modification updates, all I have is that pic I posted a couple days ago. It'll be another month or so before I get the air suspension in, I want to replace all the rubber bushings and whatnot in the suspension before I do any mods. Want it to be completely solid and reliable.

As for the exhaust, i'm going to probably have Mike's Muffler build me a custom stainless steel mandrel bent straight pipe cat-back and just run the Aimgain mufflers. I figured that if there's too much drone, i'm going to rip out the interior and RAAMmat every bit of floor panel I can along with the trunk. Which I was going to actually do in the first place. I want to also RAAMmat behind the A, B and C pillars eventually and have the headliner and moonroof slider wrapped in suede.

It'll be a long and slow build, I want (and will) do this right, just working on piecing most of the major fundamental/foundational items that make a vip car a vip car. I'll be purchasing SSR Vienna (won't mention model yet) towards the end of the year more than likely.

[ray316]

Damn I wanted that air set up so bad! I'm jealous haha anyway at least its going on another 97 coach edition! Good Luck with build!!!

[naes]

WOW :biggthumpup:

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Tuesday March 6th, driving home from school and car, CEL kicks on... 2 miles away from home, temp gauge starts to climb, so I kick on the heater. Get home, tons of coolant pouring from car. No idea wtf is going on.

Scan code, Knock Sensor Malfunction.

Fast forward to today, that's 2 weeks of the car down. I just finished replacing both knock sensors and the water bypass gaskets thinking that's the issue.

Start car up, coolant still pouring all over. No idea what the hell the problem is. I just wanna sell the car.

[Juzzo]

Remember that the road to victory is paved with trials and tribulations.

Just fill up the cooling system and keep trying to locate the spilling point, might just be an easy fix :biggthumpup:

[Nairiku Shiryo]

So broke, I can't afford coolant :(. I'm faux-vip lol.

[soarer718]

niceee

[Nairiku Shiryo]

Just stopping in to say that the car is still sitting in the garage under a cover not running. I'm going to have it towed to a shop (Probably Riverside Lexus) and have the work it needs done all in one go.

After that, i'm going to either keep it or sell it. If I sell it i'm going to swap a Audi engine into the Corrado or swap a 24v VR6 and strap a Precision Turbo snail on it. Might even just start off with another LS400... Don't know.

Sad with the way things are going, I should have the air suspension and exhaust on it by now, but they're just sitting.

We'll see...

[ray316]

wanna sell the air?? lol

[Nairiku Shiryo]

I might indeed sell the air and exhaust.