A year and a half later, after replacing the spark plug wires about an hour ago, I have a fully functioning LS400. It has more power now than my '95 ever did and my neighbor commented on how nice it sounds, randomly.
Best believe - I thanked my maker. I mean it was a hell of a time.
For most of it, I was replacing this and that part constantly on the lemon black LS400 I had. It was a lemon because it was a rebuilt title. After one day it pooped itself, like I like to say, and wouldn't go past 30mph - that was it. I junked it and found Sexy Lexy II. (It's just Lexy II.)
When I first test drove her... Heck, when I first saw the car, I knew it was mine. I just drove around the parking lot. It was bucking and doing weird things which is probably why the lady still had it but I literally had a concrete idea of what each problem was. And I was right.
$350.00. What did I do to it? Spark plugs and just now, wires. New coil pack. Changed out the fuel filter. Changed out the fuel pump and with the aforementioned plug wires, the car is good, thank God almighty.
To whoever it may help, the code I was getting was p0300. Sometimes it would actually flash. That means random misfire. Sometimes I would also get like p0306 sometimes which would mean cylinder #6 is misfiring.
I heard through the grapevine that you should pull over if your traction control and CEL are blinking together. That's bull-doodoo; because of this peculiar problem that makes the CEL flash, if your traction control button is also flashing because IT has a problem, then both will flash. I have never heard of those two lights blinking to mean that before but I thought I'd mention it. This is for the LS400 in particular.
I'm not going to make this very long but I have to celebrate with an article and by scaring my wife when I pick her up.
I want to show you some of the f$#&ery that I was doing in the beginning. Meet Lexy the First... If you haven't.
This is it after I got a new hood and lights for it. Initially, the grill, radiator support, headlight, radiator, and AC condenser were damaged among body parts.
Amazingly, it ran after just putting in a new radiator. It ran pretty good at first but this car was wonky. It was a rebuild so it was two cars in one and you could tell sometimes.
I started learning upholstery not only because the seats were ripped to shreds but because I wanted to learn a new skill. I still suck but have made some better items.
It really wasn't a super bad car. I mean look, this bird is looking inside. Checking it out. However it had too many problems and the fact it was my first didn't count as much as the problems.
It had a different look to it. Was darker and I tried to throw in some purple trim in the back and stuff. If anything, this car would have went VIP.
It looked good.
And here is Lexy II before her eye make-up (tints, man). This car felt five times more sturdy as soon as I drove it. I found the car to invest into. Lexy the First, I hate to say it, was a car I learned to work on cars with, ended up with an underivable car, and junked it. But if I didn't, I wouldn't be so good at fixing the '96.
There they are together. I took a piece of the old car so it can live on as part of Lexy II.
I learned two things from this. Most important; take your L (meaning loss) when you see it's gonna get you farther. I knew I had to sell the black car to get one that will be reliable.
The other thing is, if you're gonna junk your car, leave most of the engine and transmission plus enough suspension to get it on the tow truck but damnit take all the other parts off to sell or use. I could have grabbed my damn ECU - $250. Brand new alternator. New fuel pump. It just had a bunch of small things that I wish I would've grabbed so do that if you're going to junk your car.
If you can store it, instead of junking it for $250, I would consider parting it out aswell. You can also use parts of the old car for yours. I didn't have that option, however. I think you can make a decent $1,000 parting out an LS400 without even messing with body parts. Actually, the motor sells for about $4-500. More than the whole car together. That makes sense!
I got $50 less (than I paid for Lexy II) junking it and they come get it but I had left all those parts hoping to sell it to a Lexus fan so the car would live on but no luck. The guy didn't give me any hint that he just buys junk cars and next thing I know, there's a tow truck out front.
Something about a feeling of accomplishment?
This is just my nature to blurt my real thoughts so actually I am mainly grateful to God for not just helping me and my wife survive but helping the car survive until I could fix it. The belt could've broke in one week from when I got it done, you know? We struggled through many years but it's coming to an end overall. That's my life.
I just want to say something. It's going to sound real sappy.
If you do all you can and truly put everything you have into it, then I promise you He will come in and help you right when you're starting to fail. You might be done but because you did all you could, there He is helping you turn that ratchet one last time. This is the author's personal opinion and that's all.
Another aspect of this is money. You see, I bought the original car for $300 I happened to have had saved at the time. What was I saving for? A car! I saved that first $300 by putting away $1, $2, $5, $12 at a time.
That's exactly what I used to fix everything. If I can do it myself, I would. If I had to take the car to a shop, then again I would literally hoard money a little bit at a time. Have your spending money but this money you're saving doesn't even exist except for whatever it is you're saving for. This is the hard part for most people. I had to play this mind game with myself. If I ran out of gas and had no money, I would panhandle. I did anything I could to reach my goals (only had to panhandle a couple times thankfully).
Spread those wings and fly!
It's almost time for me to go but I will leave you guys with a little update. Some of the parts I ordered should be coming soon. Next time you see the car, it will be as close to how I want it as I can get it anytime soon.
I'm hoping to buy at least two wide tires for the back not just for traction but to fill out the fender well. The fronts can be the same for now. I don't even care. Now that I can hit the gas, I'm gonna... Sometimes. My rule is like once a month maybe or if the situation calls it. You know, save wear and tear.
If anyone has good ideas on wide tires that would look good with stock fronts, let me know or I will let you know. I figure if I paint them black and they're similar - great! This car is for performance but it still has to look good. I believe that's the Japanese Bosuzoku way - work good, look good, have style? I may have messed that last one up but it's describing how a car should be.
For the style and s&#$, I mentioned what I have coming in the mail. Any day now.
No comments:
Post a Comment