I bought a 1994 Lexus LS400 with 140,000 km on it from a guy yesterday. It’s a bit of a beater, but I hope it will be a reliable beater for the next 3-4 years.
Known issues:
- She needs new shocks, badly. That isn’t unexpected in a car this age. However, other than the groaning of the left rear (when the oil gets low, the shock makes a groaning sound when depressed, rather like people), the suspension is noiseless. The car has a soft suspension, and so shocks are very important. I will have to remedy this pretty soon.
- The instrument lights (actually, the whole dash) doesn’t illuminate in the morning until Sometime Later. This morning, it was about 15 minutes after starting. This is a known problem with 91-94 Lexus LS400s. The fix is to replace the instrument cluster (about $1200 from Lexus), or to replace three capacitors in the instrument cluster power supply, either $5 and a Saturday, or $200 if you pull the power supply and get someone else to do it. I’m thinking I’ll be trying one of the latter two.
- The driver’s side seat belt doesn’t retract properly. Apparently this is due to a solenoid gradually wearing out. The fix is to take it apart and clean it: if that doesn’t work, disconnect the solenoid. A new solenoid is apparently $200 from Lexus.
- The driver’s side seat springs are going soft. It sags on one side, and the seat depresses more than it should. The fix, probably, is to replace the seat – a new one will be out of the question, so I will have to try to find a used one. Either that or find someone that fixes such things – I wonder, in our replace-the-whole-unit age, whether such a thing exists any more.
- The automatic antenna is frozen. Might just need cleaning, might need replacing. We’ll see.
- Overhead light – out. Probably just a bulb. The footwell and door lights still light, so it’s not that bad.
- Various dents and scratches – will not be fixed.
All in all, not too bad for a 17 year old car.

