You see, I bought both of my LS400s with the last of my money and between the two cars, I think I'm going on year 3 driving these cars living paycheck-to-paycheck. Ok, I'll just give you the advice.
Have $1,000 set aside just for problems that will come up. Even if you're a mechanic - which helps a lot - you may need tows and parts. Set that aside JUST for the car and trust me.
This is what happened two days ago that made me write this article. I'm telling you, I was ready to trade this car in for an '80s Chevy truck. I was practically spitting on it. Today I love the car again.
Here is the problem with older cars and especially ones that lived where it snows. They rust. Where it's hot, stuff dry rots. So even though the major problems are actually few and far between as long as you do the major maintenance, there's going to be gremlins that pop up that will make you wanna kick the motor.
I was going to Walmart for five quarts of oil because, of course, my car leaks oil. I noticed my car was kind of driving shaky. All of a sudden, I thought my damn tire partly broke off the studs because I started hearing the worst banging from the back right. I pull over as soon as I can.
I check the wheel and somehow I didn't see that there was a bump in the tire but the noise was from the right side of my exhaust breaking off! The weld rusted through! Well, better than my wheel. I managed to get home and got the exhaust clamped down good.
So I went for a test drive around the neighborhood and I keep hearing a noise from my tire. I pull over and check again - the tire is holding air but it has a half foot bump with wires going everywhere. Great.
Remember, I'm broke so I patched my spare using a screwdriver to stick that gummy stuff in a nail hole. That was fun. So now I've conquered two issues and I'm ready to go to the store.
I grab my wife. I should've let her rest because a few miles down the road, the car just died. I mean it just shut off. No warning, just off. I put it in park and it cranks but it will NOT start. At this point, I still hadn't eaten and was so tired I wasn't thinking straight.
A nice gentleman gave me a push to a mechanic parking lot. Yeah, he just drove up behind me with his truck and pushed. Interesting feeling.
I try and try to figure it out but I had to give up. I just couldn't think straight anymore, I was tired, and my wife wasn't feeling too good so I paid for a tow truck.
I managed to get a code before it came but I had no idea where to start. It was P1305 - something to do with the ignition system. I quickly Googled it and a random website rated the difficulty as 3/3... The hardest. Great. I know the car well but I'm not that good.
This is where experience comes in. This is the next day. When I say I've fixed over 25 different problems on the two LS400s I've had, I'm not lying. Still, even the internet wasn't helpful. Then it hit me. I have an extra coil pack. That's part of that system so screw it, let me change it out.
Boy, when I took off the one that was on there, the problem was evident. The coil pack has two electrical connectors yet for months this car ran with just one plugged in! I don't know if it was just close enough to where a spark was enough but that wasn't right at all.
Matter of fact, the lower clip definitely hadn't been on there for a long time because it was dry rotted in a position where it wouldn't even let the coil pack slide on. I had to break the clip and connect the connectors naked. Again, fun - no room. It took a while. I plugged in the upper connector for the spark plugs and the car fired right up.
So WHAT is my point? My point is that if you want a car like this, you need to teach yourself to work on them and in the best case scenario, you want that thousand dollars in the bank. Inevitably something will come up that you can't do.
I actually knew very little about cars when I got the 1995 and taught myself. I bought it crashed for $300 with that intent. I learned a lot from that one but it was a true lemon and I junked it when I found my current 1996.
Be ready for frustrating problems like a loose connector somewhere. The ACV part of the power steering will eventually fail - look up my "ACV Delete" article. Be aware that although these cars are reliable - it has gotten me home when other cars wouldn't have drove at all - but it's starting to get old. And that's the problem. Things rust, rot, and dry out.
However, with some planning, love, and mental endurance, you will eventually mow through all of the problems that come up and you will essentially have a car with mostly new components. I look at it like this. Of course the previous owner didn't put love into the car so I have to make up for it and eventually I will reach a point where every system is running fine.
This applies to any car.
If this is your only car, there will be days or weeks where you're riding the bus but when the car runs right... It runs right.
- Rokas K., Automotive Dummy
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