dice1998's 2012 Caprice PPV + 1994 Subaru Dump

[dice1998]

This is the car that started it all.

Spoiler: First picture of the LS430

And here it is in all it's bad-picture-taking glory.

2001 Lexus LS430 with the Ultra Luxury Package. I actually bought this on a whim. I work at a car dealer and this car came in on Halloween. I eyed it and thought nothing of it until a few days later when it was cleaned up and parked in one of the parking spots. This time last year, I really had the mindset of going smaller from my 1996 Avalon and was planning on a Mazda Miata NB (with a 5-speed, obviously). I drove this car and loved it and after some debate and mystery, I ended up going on my day off and buying the car. No regrets so far


Notable Features:

• 4.3l V8
• Radar-guided Cruise Control
• Power Everything
• Mini Fridge
• Massage Rear Seats
• Rear reclining seats
• Soft-closing doors
• Mark Levinson Premium Audio System
• Air Suspension
• Touch Screen DVD-Based Navigation System (it's outdated )
• 6-disc CD Changer

Here are some more badly-taken pictures:

Spoiler

Things that don't work at time of selling the car:

• Subwoofer (possibly a $20 fix)
• Tilt/Telescopic wheel
• Bumper Plugs on the way
• The Lexus First Aid Kit is missing. I must procure one.
• QTP Electronic Cutoff Exhaust
• I dented the trunk lid. I must fix
• Touch up the rock chips from driving
• Update the navigation
• Adjust the trunklid to be realigned again

I'm still learning about this car every day. I also discovered my Lexus Pen doesn't work so I'll need to fix that I also finally found an excuse to break out my Gran Turismo Keyring that I kept in the GT5 box until the purchase of this car.

 

[Doog]

Nice car. Is that another LS430 in the driveway?

With the exception of the rare Saddle interior (but only on a black or gray car), the Ecru interior is one of the best colors, although it can start to look a little gross if you neglect it. If you do decide to sell those wheels, I could use a set of backup wheels for my car that aren't too expensive...

 

[dice1998]

Nice car. Is that another LS430 in the driveway?

It is not. It's my roomate's '95 LS400. He's mostly the reason why I bought the 430. I rode in his 400 and fell in love with it!

With the exception of the rare Saddle interior (but only on a black or gray car), the Ecru interior is one of the best colors, although it can start to look a little gross if you neglect it. If you do decide to sell those wheels, I could use a set of backup wheels for my car that aren't too expensive...

The door handles are looking a little faded but it's to be expected with a car from this year, I guess. I'll keep you in mind when I'm ready to part with the wheels

 

[Brutaka]

You caught the "Working at a car dealership" curse too, which is wanting to buy every interesting car that rolls through the lot.
Congrats on the car .

 

[dice1998]

You caught the "Working at a car dealership" curse too, which is wanting to buy every interesting car that rolls through the lot.
Congrats on the car .

It almost happened again when someone traded in a V8 Hyundai Genesis



Update: I have bass.


Disassembling the rear seats was a a hassle but once it was disassembled, I noticed that Toyota made it fairly easy for disassembly. The guides I found only mostly were for a non-UL LS430 but I finally found one that was for my package of car.

I didn't take pictures of disassambly because it sucked enough doing the disassembly but I did take pictures of the subwoofer while it was out:

Spoiler

Here is the state it was in when I took it out. You can see the foam surround is gone. I touched what was still on and it disintegrated in my hands.

Here is the first cleanup pass.

I razer-bladed as much as I could off, glued the new foam in and left it overnight.

Here is the final* product.

So I go back to plug it in and it works but then I notice that it sounds..weird so I ask for my roommate's kind help. He then said that the voice coil sounds like it's rubbing. After grabbing an end of the sub and it sounded normal, he deduced it was that so we pulled it back out and confirmed it was rubbing.

I and he tried to gently pull it away so it wouldn't rub any more and it didn't work so he has the idea of cutting off the dust cap in the middle to assist in getting it pulled away. That didn't work so he hatched the idea of plugging it in and doing it like that so back in it went. He did the pulling and somehow, some way.. it worked.


I also ordered bumper plugs

 

[GDII]

That's very cool fixing up the old factory speaker. Where did you get then new foam for the outside?

 

[dice1998]

That's very cool fixing up the old factory speaker. Where did you get then new foam for the outside?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/13118582823...&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true

Ships from Florida

 

[Qvale]

Awesome. How does it ride? I'd assume more "floaty" than sporty?

 

[Aki Ko]

And here it is in all it's bad-picture-taking glory.


2001 Lexus LS430 with the Ultra Luxury Package. I actually bought this on a whim. I work at a car dealer and this car came in on Halloween. I eyed it and thought nothing of it until a few days later when it was cleaned up and parked in one of the parking spots. This time last year, I really had the mindset of going smaller from my 1996 Avalon and was planning on a Mazda Miata NB (with a 5-speed, obviously). I drove this car and loved it and after some debate and mystery, I ended up going on my day off and buying the car. No regrets so far


Notable Features:

• 4.3l V8
• Radar-guided Cruise Control
• Power Everything
• Mini Fridge
• Massage Rear Seats
• Rear reclining seats
• Soft-closing doors
• Mark Levinson Premium Audio System
• Air Suspension
• Touch Screen DVD-Based Navigation System (it's outdated )
• 6-disc CD Changer

Here are some more badly-taken pictures:

Things that don't work/to-do:

• Subwoofer (possibly a $20 fix)
• Tilt/Telescopic wheel (fuse blown, maybe...hopefully?)
• Bumper Plugs on the way
• The Lexus First Aid Kit is missing. I must procure one.
• Wheels?
• Exhaust..eventually.

I'm still learning about this car every day. I also discovered my Lexus Pen doesn't work so I'll need to fix that I also finally found an excuse to break out my Gran Turismo Keyring that I kept in the GT5 box until the purchase of this car.

Hang on a minute...

I've seen this exact Lexus on ClubLexus. Are you a member on there by any chance?

 

[dice1998]

Hang on a minute...

I've seen this exact Lexus on ClubLexus. Are you a member on there by any chance?

Same Username.


Update:

So I've been meaning to take a picture of the subwoofer mounted and I finally got around to doing so:

I also finally put on my butt bumper plugs. Pardon the nastiness, the car is due for a wash:

Here's the bracket that was originally there. I plan on keeping it for now..maybe I'll turn around and sell it or I'll keep it with the car and sell it with the car when that time comes.

 

[dice1998]

So, since the last update, and if you saw my post in Recent Purchases, I bought a navigation disc which is supposedly the last official Toyota Navigation update for my generation of car and for $10, I jumped on it. What should have been a simple update turned into a massive hassle.

The disc does not work all the time and the DVD drive has a small tab that keeps getting stuck under some trunk trim so to get it out, I shimmy it forwards (away from the trim) but I did it too much and now it was out of alignment and took too long to get it back on the rails. After unplugging the battery a few times (per some forum posts), the disc still doesn't work all the time so I've talked to the seller and should be getting a replacement any time now.

Another issue has developed and one of my parking sensors forever beeps at me. Luckily it's a corner bumper one so i don't have to drop the bumper to get to it and replace it and can get away with removing the driver's side wheel splash guard to access that corner.

Here's the tricky part: Do I go OEM or do I cheap out? 062 on the cheapo one is the paint color code for my car (Crystal White Pearl 062).

 

[SVX]

OEM is my personal choice. Unless there's a defect in the manufacture designed product, I prefer to replace with what was there on the factory.

 

[MidnightRun85]

That thing needs some BBS LM's... 👍

 

[dice1998]

That thing needs some BBS LM's... 👍

Considering.

OEM is my personal choice. Unless there's a defect in the manufacture designed product, I prefer to replace with what was there on the factory.

I ended up purchasing an OEM Denso sensor on Ebay for $100. I haven't tested it out yet because I ran into an issue of I have no idea how to take the old sensor out without dropping the bumper and I didn't feel like doing that so I turned off the parking sensors (unless I'm parking as front/rear beep sound is different from the corner sensor beeps so it's easy to discern where my car is).


Update on my car: Aside from the debacle with the Sensor which I put off for now, I've done no mods. The Nav DVD I bought didn't work and I even received another disc thinking it was an issue with the disc but it still doesn't work properly. The plan now is getting a newer DVD drive found in the '04/06 UCF30's as it's plug and play and I can use a newer (and cheaper) OEM disc.

I'm still on the fence on what wheels I should choose for this car so I'm open to suggestions.

Also, the subwoofer still works.

 

[dice1998]

Bought a new unit. Got one from a Prius.

Spoiler: Lots of pictures

"New" one on the left, original one on the right. The brackets are swappable (and needed).

Original Unit:

Updated unit:

Swapping the old unit out:

It took 10 minutes because everything's plug-and-play and was definitely worth it.

 

[dice1998]

I had a lame September.

Starting with the Hurricane, I and the car escaped to Central Florida (I live on the Treasure Coast or, for non Floridians, the south east coast) thinking I'd escape the hurricane. I did not but at least it was weakened by the time it hit us. The car survived but it took one or two scratches while out there.

On the way home, I didn't notice an extremely large branch on the road (this was at 12AM the night after the hurricane) and I ran over it damaging the front pumper and the piece below it which I'll call part of the skid plate for all intents and purposes. I don't have pictures of these because looking at the front bumper pissed me off.

I also bent some steering components as well.

I was ready and financially prepared to replace some parts but luckily a realignment alleviated 98% of my steering issue so I'll roll with it right now.

The DAY AFTER that, I, half asleep, backed into an F-650 my neighbor has and damaged the trunklid:

IMG_20170921_133337

• dice1998
• Oct 25, 2017

That's the only pic I took of it because it hurt me emotionally to look at it.

I went to a junkyard in Orlando to buy another one that they had but..it's the wrong color:

*this LS400 is SOMEWHAT for sale and does not run. My roommate and I think that the timing belt was put on 90 degrees out.

It's Parchment Crystal 066 instead of Crystal White Pearl 062 so..it's currently for sale.

In the meantime, I had our local dent guy attempt to repair it and..he did a damn good job:

IMG_20171006_131651

• dice1998
• Oct 25, 2017

 

[dice1998]

I actually got off my lazy butt since it was a nice day and took some half-decent pictures of the car:




*I tried to get the camera to capture the pearl effect/shine
.


I took a bunch of more pictures but am eventually going to take more because I overlooked some things such as the actual seats and engine bay.
Click here if you'd like to look through the pics and see the features a fully loaded early 2000's Lexus has.

 

[dice1998]

Soon.

 

[dice1998]

Spoiler: Exhaust

Coming Soon™

 

[dice1998]

THIS IS THE BEST $400 PURCHASE EVER:

 

[TB]

THIS IS THE BEST $400 PURCHASE EVER:

Facebook video no worky.

 

[dice1998]

Facebook video no worky.

Sorry. Privacy settings. Here:

 

[dice1998]

I want to start with this:

That is a lake surrounding my car. That I had to walk through. at 7am. For a 12 hour shift. Ugh,


Anyways on to the good stuffs. I forgot to take pictures of the individual parts (oops) so I'll start with some stock photos of the parts I bought:

Spoiler: parts

These are QTP Low Profile 2.5in Electronic Exhaust cutouts. I did do research before buying these and learned that going with the low profile cutouts benefited me so I don't have to worry (so much) about ground clearance when going over bumps and whatnot.

I also didn't want to drill a hole into my car to run that large switch to so I bought this:

So instead of installing that large switch, I can put these receiver box somewhere and use the remote supplied to open the cutoffs.

Also bought these so the hot exhaust gasses go downwards:

After shopping around local exhaust shops, finding the one (read: cheapest) I wanted to use:

Spoiler: cutout pictures and steps

Up the lift it goes and the exhaust guys tried to figure out where to put it:

Note the two large mufflers. One idea had was removing those and adding the cutouts there. I dismissed the idea because the goal for this is to keep the car as quiet as possible with the cutoffs closed so I didn't want anything removed.

We decided on installing the cutoffs where both pipes fuse into one and head into the catalytic converter you see there (which, by the way is a much less complicated system than the triple cat, triple exhaust setup the LS400 had) because i'm told that that's the most optimal place to obtain most of the exhaust gasses and, therefore, achieve the most loudness.

Spoiler Alert: The guys at the exhaust shop were right.


So with the agreement on price and agreement they they won't wire up the cutoffs (that'd be my job) I return the day after Christmas to get the cutoffs installed. Again, the goal here was to retain how quiet and refined the car is but have the added option of SURPRISED V8 VROOM at crucial moments.

A saw was taken to the portion of exhaust where the cutoffs would be installed because:

• A. The cutoffs were going to be welded off the car to ensure the welds are done right.
• B. That section of exhaust started corroding. Badly. I'm told that portion is a different metal type (I think it was Aluminum vs steel) and with that shielding, it retained moisture which caused accelerated rusting so they were going to add fresh piping there.

Spoiler: more pictures

Here's the first one being installed off the car.

First one cooling off.

Here's a before/after.

Here's a closeup.

Here's both installed.

And here's a frontal shot of how it looks.

I know the welds do not look pretty but I got what I paid for and i'm absolutely satisfied. The car's not completely as quiet as before but I feel it's only 1-2db louder when the cutoffs are closed; something I can live with. I also had to take it back because there was this crazy rattling going on and, turns out, was a loose O2 sensor.

Now to wiring the reciever up. I decided to mount it on the passenger side shock tower because it had the most work room and is quite close to the battery (which is mounted right in front of the firewall on the passenger side). The reciever itself it easy enough to wire in. Just plug in the box to both cutoffs (which is literally two plugs) and give it power, ground and move the antenna somewhere.

You see the ground there on the shock tower and power is wired directly to the battery terminal.

Once the plastic covers are back on, it looks like this:

The only thing that one may question is "what's that red wire?". It's nothing, kid.


So as posted above this post, you can see how the electronic cutoffs work and how long they take to open/close as well as how loud the car is with the cutoffs fully open.

Why did I do this mod? I promise you it's not because racecar. I did it because no one would expect it. With this, I have also decided to not even buy aftermarket wheels so keep this "sleeper" image.

I did figure out the next few mods:

• Shorter rear end gears
• Higher stall torque converter
• MAYBE a supercharger. I did some research on the Eaton M90 as it's supposedly compatible with 3UZ engines but this mod'll be in the distant future.

I'm enjoying this exhaust mod. It turns heads and, in the last few days, I've received a lot of praise saying that the car sounds great and "that's your car? I didn't even expect that from it!".

 

[dice1998]

I lied. This is my next mod:

 

[dice1998]

So here's what happened:

I'm browsing Facebook and a targeted ad directed me to a "Japanese import website" called croooober. So, out of curiosity, I clicked the link and perused around and realized they had a bunch of neat stuff I can buy only and have shipped me (they do worldwide shipping) such as wheels and exhaust bits and everything in between.

I found that air suspension controller and harness for a reasonable $80 and tried to get myself talked out of it (it didn't work, obviously) and I paid the price plus $70 for EMS shipping and 6 days later, I have it. I'll probably be getting my wheels from there too.

I'm really nervous on tearing down this car because I don't want to break anything so I asked my roommate to help me which he gladly did. To start, we had to take off the glove box and passenger a/c vent/wood trim (which is one part):

Spoiler: pictures

Followed by figuring out which plugs to use which we found quite easily:

]

Here's the harness plugged in and the correct plugs plugged into the harness (the ones with color):

Here's full view of that compartment:

Here's after the harness is plugged in:

The whole thing was completely plug and play and I didn't need to program anything (I thought I would have to). Here's my parked settings; the higher the number, the lower the car:

It took 20 mins to do and it was worth it. Here's a link to the Japanese website which I ordered my part from, if anyone's curious.

 

[dice1998]

Also replaced the ML Sub with a Polk Audio sub:

I didn't touch on this last time I made a sub post but to get to the subwoofer deck, some things need to happen starting with this:

Spoiler

I did it the lazy way so I didn't want to completely take out the top seat parts. I unbolted them (two separate pieces) and pulled them forward to pull the sub mat up to access the sub:

Spoiler

The polk sub needs to be modded so the factory bracket fits on the sub (the greasy white markings on the polk sub:

Spoiler

look at that magnet

Now it fits but it still needs to be wired up!

Spoiler

Wired the sub to the factory connector

Spoiler

All wired up to 8ohms!

The sub's back in but i have no pictures because I got fed up with the car for a little and put it back together. There is a sound difference

 

[dice1998]

Day 632. One of my air suspension struts have began to fail.

I bought a used one with (allegedly) 77k miles on it. I think I got a steal on it. I also bought new turndowns for the cutoffs because the turndowns I bought before aren't really turndowns..

It's a quick job to do. Here's a before:

Spoiler: pictures

And here's a comparison shot:

and here's an after shot:

And yes, it does change the sound. It sounds much less truck-like. I love it.

Back to the suspension. I really don't want to do it. I have to tear out the rear deck again to gain access to the shock tower (that's right, it's not in the trunk. IT'S A PART OF THE REAR DECK WHERE THE SUB IS and I don't want to do that.

Here's what I have to do:

While this is for non-air suspension, it's the same idea. Add removal of the air line using a $35 plastic tool that is needed and I really don't want to do this.

 

[dice1998]

Update:

I plan on getting rid of the car within the year. Costs for parts are starting to add up and I can't be bothered to dump money into the LS any longer. For example:

One of these cost me $40 to replace. #firstworldproblems, yes but there isn't really much of an aftermarket for these cars and usually things are custom-made. I'm honestly over it and and taking my ball and going home.

I already know what I want my next car is going to be.
Hint: it's Australian.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Seems even brands with ultra-reliable reputations can make cars too complex for their own good. I've thought about getting a first gen Infiniti M45 before, but then I think about Nissan quality control + complex electronics and I get shivers.

Even my considerably-simpler Porsche 986 gives me constant heartburn from a reliability standpoint. There's just always something to fix. Do post-mid-90s cars have a future? I wonder about this. For instance, when all of the screens (that control nearly everything, in some cases) burn out and there are no replacements, will people even bother trying to retro-fit in something else? Or will the car just get scrapped?

 

[dice1998]

So,

The LS430 is gone.


I am going to miss that car but I needed out of it ASAP. It needed a transmission/oil pan gasket job and I was dreading the timing belt service as well as small electrical gremlins everywhere and the air suspension failing, I was over the car.

My goal was (and still is) to get into a Chevy Caprice PPV by next year. I needed a stepping stone of sorts as I have never financed a car and I don't have ~$13-15k laying around. So what after driving a bunch of cars, I ended up choosing to finance a 2013 BMW 128i with 90,000 miles on the odometer.

Spoiler: Pics of the BMW

The reason I chose this car is:

• It was the most cheap, exciting car available to drive after driving a bunch of Mazdas, Subarus and other brands.
• It was in stock at my dealership
• It doesn't have a turbo (135i +)
• It's smol

When my Used Car Manager recommended this car to drive, I wasn't into it but after sitting in the car and driving it for a few days, I realized I could live with this car for a few months to a year while I build my credit history and search for the perfect PPV.

It honestly surprised me that I liked this car so much over what I sell but after driving a Mazda3 (new and used), compared to the 128i, it was exciting in corners but in straight lines, not so much. Florida has a lot of that and I do a lot of highway driving and I just wasn't comfortable with how much effort it took the Mazda3/6 to accelerate and change lanes as well as merge on Florida's turnpike. The 128i was much better.

Glaring things that need/needed to be addressed:

• Tires
• Headlights are terrible and foggy
• Brakes - Done

I tried to argue for tires but I couldn't and my dealership didn't screw me over so I bought them separately. The tires I got on it were two Firestone Run Flat Tires and two cheapy Walmart tires which made A LOT of noise when at 30mph+. I ended up buying 4 of these:

I actually paid a few bucks more and now I'm annoyed . I did some research and their parent company is Michelin and they borrowed technology from Pirelli and Continental tires years back. They also provide tires for Formula D cars, rallying and some local Indonesian race series that looked similar to BTCC.

I got them mounted, balaced and also got the car aligned and I'm extremely happy with city performance so far. I have yet to take it on the highway with the new tires.

Next up is brakes because I'm not too happy with how much meat is left on the pads but it passed our safety inspection so it's okay for now.

Headlights: I tried to clean them up but someone put some kind of chemical on both headlights and I can't get it out without using a drill and some more aggressive cutting compound.

I don't want to spend much money on this car so I think i'll leave it at brakes/tires and ride it out until I'm ready and financially stable enough to get out of the car and into a Caprice PPV (or a Camaro SS) which, hopefully, will be sooner rather than later.