Ownership Verified: Four more litres of displacement ('92 LS400)

MXM said:
The car has some sort of aftermarket immobilizer, which looks ancient. It's a card-like fob that goes into a slot under the ignition lock.



I only have one key, so I'm not taking it out with me in the case I lose or break it, and lock myself out. Essentially it's useless and I want to get rid of it. Tried to find some information about this thing, but couldn't find anything looking like that online. Does anyone recognize it?
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Looks like this is the brand:

http://www.trademarkia.com/the-immobiliser-74169669.html

Edit: And this was their website:

https://web.archive.org/web/19980110233121/http://www.immobiliser.com/classic.html
 
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Qzbugxo.jpg


:cool:
 
Just realised, these are two more examples of cars that definitely need to have orange-coloured indicators.
 
Matt2000 said:
I do love these things, especially when they make a sound like that. Would've probably bought this myself if I was in a position to. Looks like it handled the snow and ice well. :)
MXM said:
Haha, no. The studless tyres (as it has to drive from UK) don't work very well on ice, especially having to hold 2 tons of mass. The rubber is also rather hard for a winter tyre, perhaps it's a different compound than what we have here in the north, or maybe it's just age. It was only really enjoyable when the track was roughened up by spiked-tyred rally cars and bikes, but the Sunday track was so polished, that it was rather frustrating.
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If find myself disagreeing with this a bit. But then again, I rarely go for mad drift angles which helps. The problem with unstudded tyres on ice is the progression of grip. They hold on for as long as they do and then let go almost completely, compared to more gradual loss of grip with studded tyres. And the bigger the angle, the difference is even more profound. Definitely had more grip than any car I've driven with "euro winters" and I could make it play with my driving style quite easily. Also managed not to dent it, as I almost collided with one of the racecars that were on track with us on Saturday (it was in my blind spot, going for a pass), which was nice.

I was constantly doing many things, so I didn't get to experience the Lexus all that much. But from the little I had time for, I do like it. :)
 
Mitchi said:
Just realised, these are two more examples of cars that definitely need to have orange-coloured indicators.
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All cars do, as far as I'm concerned.

The Lexus also has yellow fog lights :cool:

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DaBoom said:
If find myself disagreeing with this a bit. But then again, I rarely go for mad drift angles which helps. The problem with unstudded tyres on ice is the progression of grip. They hold on for as long as they do and then let go almost completely, compared to more gradual loss of grip with studded tyres. And the bigger the angle, the difference is even more profound. Definitely had more grip than any car I've driven with "euro winters" and I could make it play with my driving style quite easily. Also managed not to dent it, as I almost collided with one of the racecars that were on track with us on Saturday (it was in my blind spot, going for a pass), which was nice.

I was constantly doing many things, so I didn't get to experience the Lexus all that much. But from the little I had time for, I do like it. :)
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As far as I remember, you only drove it on Saturday evening? That was the enjoyable condition I referred to. On polished ice it was just too slow. Later in the day on Sunday it was stuck on level ground even :lol:
 
Looks great! Do you have record for when the timing belt was last changed?
 
3-day ownership impressions.

It's growing on me. I've said before that I don't really like big cars, and prefer light, twitchy deathtraps, but between the Six and this, I'm starting to soften up. Must be the age. It's obviously excellent at highway yachting, but actually, cruising around in the city is even more enjoyable. Engine barely above the idle, subtly gurgling from the hole in the exhaust, coffee cup in the left hand, right hand does steering and indicating (yes, the stalk is on the right. I've "indicated" with wipers for the first 2 days). Absolutely minimal energy is needed to move around in it. And yet the knowledge that if you need to get ahead, a single stomp on the throttle and it jumps forward with a massive roar (again, that exhaust needs welding). The power corrupts :mrgreen:

My biggest issues currently is that it's a little too sensitive to steering input at the centre, so I end up moving around a lot (could be wheel geometry), and brakes that don't really inspire confidence, especially since you can "accidentally" gather quite a lot of speed.

I've also swapped headlights to LHD ones, so no more black tape. Old lights put up a decent fight. Some bolts were completely stuck with rust. Some remain undefeated still, I'm going to have to drill them out eventually.
 
nicjasno said:
This thread makes me want such a car so much. This is not healthy.
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Same here, but with prices starting at 10KEuros, that's a NOPE.
Also, maintenance.
 
Maintenance cannot be an issue since so many of these are still in use in the States :lol:
 
I can maintain it myself. The big issue here is roadtax. For a 4L engine that's like 750eur/year just for roadtax and probably 500 for insurance.
 
public said:
Maintenance cannot be an issue since so many of these are still in use in the States :lol:
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I don't live in the USA.
Also, I can't import used parts. :|

nicjasno said:
I can maintain it myself. The big issue here is roadtax. For a 4L engine that's like 750eur/year just for roadtax and probably 500 for insurance.
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Road tax is based on value, so meh. Insurance would be NOPE, because more than 10 years old and "luxury".
 
My mandatory 3rd party insurance costs me literally less than 200eur/year (with bonuses) :lol: This is the cheapest car I've owned. I did take an additional cover against theft/vandalism/fire for 200 more.
 
In addition to that immobilizer, which I believe is just a relatively dumb power supply cut, and shouldn't be a huge problem to bypass, the car also has some sort of factory alarm. Doesn't have a remote fob though, only keys. The remote door unlock was still an option in those years. So I don't actually know how do you arm and disarm the alarm. There is a red security light on the dash when I lock the door, and it goes off when I unlock the door. Once in a while I manage to set the alarm off when unlocking, it shuts up when I re-lock and unlock again.

This is all very puzzling, what is the purpose of an alarm that is operated by a door lock? Also, in all corners of the headliner there are very aftermarket looking ultrasonic sensors, some of them hanging by the wire.
 
MXM said:
This is all very puzzling, what is the purpose of an alarm that is operated by a door lock? Also, in all corners of the headliner there are very aftermarket looking ultrasonic sensors, some of them hanging by the wire.
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That is how they did work at the time. The purpose is that it will be triggered if someone breaks the window and opens the lock from the inside...
 
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