To all the ls400 guys

im looking for a ls lex to make vip. 
sorry for the noob questions but can somone explain the difference between the ufc/10 and ufc11 and how you can tell the difference just looking at the car?
and possibly things that go wrong on these cars between 100 and 200k miles?

This should help: [URL]http://www.lexls.com/info/lsgenerations.html[/URL]
You might want to also try [URL="http://www.clublexus.com"]www.clublexus.com[/URL] and [URL]http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/[/URL]
Tonnes of LS specific info in those 2 sites.

10 has regular suspension.
 
11 has air.
 
do maintence and its pretty reliable.

Super reliable. Damn near bulletproof. I've got nearly 250,000 miles on mine, it still runs amazingly. Better than my Protege with 70,000 miles less.

The links posted by Schnitz is pretty much all you need. 

Basic things to look out for:

-Power steering pump leak (very common)

-Alternator failing, or about to fail (this is because the power steering pump leaks straight on to the alternator)

-Power steering lines leaking.

-Front upper and lower ball joints.

-Oil pan gasket leak. 

-Rear differential carrier bushings may be going out.

-Expect to do the timing belt/water pump/etc. if they dont have maintenance records. If they do, make sure they got the water pump changed with the timing belt job. If not, expect to change the water pump soon.

These are all pretty much expected with older cars in general except for the power steering part.

Personally, I'd get it without factory air suspension unless the air struts have been replaced before. They cost a SHIT LOAD to replace, and usually by this time theres enough age on them for them to go out soon if not already. You could always convert the stock air susp. to regular coils and shocks, but then whats the point of buying one with air in the first place unless its cleaner than the non air ones out there? :shrug:

As they said before, if you keep up with the maintenance on these LS's, theyll run forever. I've had a few with over 250k miles come in to my shop and they still run like champs.

defiantly agree on the super reliable part. got 51k on my 94 UCF10. and over 280k on my 93 UCF10 parts car.

good thing with these motors are that they are non interference until '95. so u can push the timing belt change till like 120k mi. as discussed above, power steering unit tends to leak, alternator tends to go bad due to atf fluid being dripped into it. valve covers are also kind of notorious for leaking in the higher mileage LS400s.

90-92 has rubber black under moldings and the 93-94 had color matched lower claddings which looked 10x better.

i've got a 1990 ls400 right now and the starter went out. its quite a nightmare replacing it yourself which i did.. but chose to only do the contacts which didn't fix it :( fml
 
if your lookin to get a good deal on a 1990 PM me. im in washington as well and dont have the funding right now to fix it so would consider selling it. ran great and recently passed DEQ in vancouver with flying colors.

I wonder how much replacing i will have to do. 
I just bought a 90 celsior (ls400) with only 26,000kms. 
Hopefully everything isnt all dried out

i want a ls400

[QUOTE=thebeeguy;276779]The links posted by Schnitz is pretty much all you need. 

Basic things to look out for:

-Power steering pump leak (very common)

-Alternator failing, or about to fail (this is because the power steering pump leaks straight on to the alternator)

-Power steering lines leaking.

-Front upper and lower ball joints.

-Oil pan gasket leak. 

-Rear differential carrier bushings may be going out.

-Expect to do the timing belt/water pump/etc. if they dont have maintenance records. If they do, make sure they got the water pump changed with the timing belt job. If not, expect to change the water pump soon.

These are all pretty much expected with older cars in general except for the power steering part.

Personally, I'd get it without factory air suspension unless the air struts have been replaced before. They cost a SHIT LOAD to replace, and usually by this time theres enough age on them for them to go out soon if not already. You could always convert the stock air susp. to regular coils and shocks, but then whats the point of buying one with air in the first place unless its cleaner than the non air ones out there? :shrug:

As they said before, if you keep up with the maintenance on these LS's, theyll run forever. I've had a few with over 250k miles come in to my shop and they still run like champs.[/QUOTE]

all the above PLUS:

-front strut rod bushings
-rear carrier arm bushings
-dash cluster lighting issues (very common, but not 100% failure rate)
-check for the infamous trunk hinge wiring issue. ( [url]http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/lighting/bulbout.html[/url] )

other than that, the 1st gen LS is a brick of a car, in both shape, and strength.  (yes, it is kinda brittle :shrug: )