LAURIE MILLS

Nope, only got the car a few months ago, didn,t pay much, and relaxed about this big bill, other than that its a fine car. Will look up Flashlube and have it fitted though.

:tsktsk: You may have seen my earlier posts regarding an unsolvable cold starting problem in my 97, LPG converted GS300. The problem is now solved, albeit at the cost of reconditioning the head as two exhaust valves were burnt, at a cost of £2,100. :tsktsk: The car had done almost 100k miles since its conversion, and did not have the "valvesaver" system fitted, but the main caveat when running on lpg is to make sure you do 15% to 20% of your mileage on petrol, which should give the necessary protection to the valves and seats, and save you my 2k bill. Now that the head has been done the car runs perfectly, and does close to 25mpg on LPG, at a cost of 35 to 40 p per litre, a cost of 7 to 9 p per mile, or the equivalent of 50 to 60 mpg, so if you can avoid the head wear, it is a big money saver, especially if, like me, you do high mileages.

Hi, If you can see the belt it it the drive belt rather than the timing belt, which is the one which Chips is referring to. The drive belt should be straightforward enough to DIY, the timing belt is not recommended unless a you are a very experienced DIY'er, and ideally have access to a hoist, as, as Chips rightly says, the bottom bolt is excessively tight. Had my timing belt (a 60k change item) done for £80 labour from small independant garage near Glossop. The belt and tensioner was around £60 from local factors, but some posts suggest that Lexus is the best source for this item. BTW the drive belt failing is a pain, but the timing belt failing is a catastrophe, and will cost £££££ to sort. Chances are if the drive belt is badly worn the timing belt may be too, but to check it you need to take the silver cam cover off. Good luck Laurie

:duh: Any ideas out there. I detailed in a previous post a persistent problem with my 97 Mk1 GS 300. I thought the problem was solved, but I suspect the percieved improvement was due to the engine being slightly warm when I started it, as when fully cold (down to ambient) the problem persists. What happens is that when starting from cold the engine fires up fine, but will not idle at all when cold. If you keep the throttle open so it runs at over 1500 it will keep running, although there is a persistent slight misfire, and the exhaust smells of petrol, indicating unburnt fuel. Once the temperature gauge reaches over the point halfway between cold and normal the engine will idle smoothly with no problems. If you take your foot off the throttle before then the engine will die and will then be difficult to start unles syou leave it for a wheile to get totally cold again. I took the car to Lexus Leeds last week and asked them to try to diagnose the problem, leaving it with them overnight so that they could replicate the problem, which they did next morning, but when they hooked up to the diagnostic computer it showed no faults, much to the consternation of the excellent and incredibly helpful Service Manger who was enough of a gentleman not to charge me for the diagnostic work, feeling that on priciple he could not charge me for failure, and that he did not want to "spend hours and hours at £90 an hour on a trial and error basis". I have cleaned out the throttle body and idle air valve (helped a little), adjusted the throttle position sensor to raise the idle speed slightly (when warm now at 900 off load, 750 in gear), replaced the ecu engine coolant sensor, replaced the plugs, distributor cap, plug leads, cleaned the air mass sensor, and ran two cans of Slik 50 fuel system cleaner through the fuel system. I am tempted to buy a throttle body from a breaker )i have been offered one complete with the IAC vallve and TPS) and either swap it out the IAC and TPS individually, or just change the whole assembly, but I would be shooting in the dark, and could find I had thrown away £150, so any ideas would be appreciated. BTW I have had the vacuum checked, and it shows 17 bar, a bit low, but there are no apparent leaks, and it should not cause this problem anyway. Other than this problem the car runs well, has used no oil or water over 3500 miles, and returned a close to optimal 26 mpg on a recnet 450 mile run to Glasgow and back. Help please all you Lexus experts.

That sounds about right. I got mine done yesterday by my local garage they charged me £100 labour and I got the belt from Lexus for £23 (surprisingly inexpensive for a Lexus part) apparently its 3 hours labour. ← Had mine done last month, around £50 for the belt and tensioner kit, and £80 for a local garage to fit.

Just had my front brake rebuilt (see previous post), and the rear of the discs were badly rusted, and were barely in contact with the hubs. My judder was pretty bad, and I had bought the discs anyway, so changed them, but had the hub faces thoroughly cleaned and given a liberal coating of copper grease to ensure no return of the corrosion. My mechanic also spotted a siezed caliper piston, and rusted slide mechanism, prompting my rant over the effeciency of Lexus's (gold plated) service regime. In fact my man chris felt that the corrosion and caliper/slider problems were far more likely to be the cause than any torque issue, although I made sure the torques and tightening oreder were 100% as per Colin's post anyway. BTW they now work very well. When you compare the specification (diameter, ventillation, pistons etc) with the brakes on a BMW 5 Series (the GS's natural target) they are at least as well specified, so I would question the previous comments about the brakes not being up to stopping such a big and heavy car. Having owned both I would suggest that the character of the BM would lead it to need more hard braking than a wallowy. comfort biased GS300, yet such an experience in a 5 series is rare indeed (I have owned 5 so far|). My view is that shoddy replacement cleaning/greasing regimes lead to this problem on higher mileage GS300's. Comments welcome

Hi Chips, Still struggling with a simialr problem, but have now repalced the coolane temperature sensor. Bit of a pig to get to, being underneath the inlet manifold and its associated plumbing, but it has a green terminal, and is screwed into the water jacket. Do not buy the lexus part, it is £50 and identical to the part from my local motor factor (Andrew Page ltd), who charged <£10.00. If you are stuck, I will get you one and send it to you. I do not think my problem is caused by the Coolant Sensor, and current opinion among Selby's (limited) car repair community suggests a head gasket proble, and slight leak into the cylinders causing the prob. Not sure, and unwilling to throw cash at is, so will keep looking and will keep the board in the loop. Laurie

:duh: I have an ongoing similar (but not identical) scenario whereby the car fires up, and runs rough (or stalls) for a minute or two (or mile or two) then runs fine, and starts first time until left until absolutely cold (overnight) when the process repeats itself. So far have replaced the coolant temperature sensor, and adjusted the Throttle Position Sensor, and cleaned the throttle body, all of which made the car run better, but it still runs rough and stalls when completely cold, and once stalled is difficult to start. Have left it overnight with a technician to see if he can replicate and diagnose the problem. I have also had the inlet vacuum checked, and it showed 17 bar, rather than the 20 bar listed for the engine, but have checked all the hoses etc to no avail. Will keep the board posted, but have had a few false dawns on this problem, so lets wait and see.

:duh: Having spent £350 sorting the juddering and pulling front brakes on my 97 Mk1 (new discs, pads, one reconditioned caliper, lots of cleaning and TLC) I am paranoic about the well known problem of wheel judder returning. A previous post by Colin Barber suggests that incorrect torquing of the wheel studs, and incorrect sequencing of the tightening up can cause or exacerbate this problem. Is there any specific "Lexus Technique", or would the standard 1,4,2,5,3 (working clockwise) be OK.

Westfield Motors in Rayliegh Essex seem to get good press, www.westfieldmotors.com Bit of a trek, but tie it in with a day by the seaside?

Just had Chris, my trusty independent mechanic service the front brakes in my 97 GS300 Mk1 which I bought three weeks ago and has the worst brakes of any car I have ever owned (except perhaps my 1965 Ford Anglia 105E). This car is highish miles at 127k, but has full Lexus history, and was last serviced in January by Lexus at a large south coast town much favoured by the Prince Regent Brakes were juddering, and pulled to either the right or left depending on how hard you applied them (passed on MOT less than 2000 miles and 3 months ago. Amazing) Bought some new discs (twice the price of ones for a BMW 5 Series), and got my friendly mech to strip down the front brakes. The NS caliper had one of the pistons locked absolutely solid, and on the OS one of the sliding spigots for the calipers was tightly rusted into the housing and hardly slid at all. According to my man these had been locked for years, and would have shown up in any "wheels off" check of the braking system, which should be done at every "proper" service, and which Chris does at every service (quote, "it only takes five minutes"). It does make you question the value of Main Dealer servicing Anyway one exchange caliper, new pads, new discs, the sliding mechanism thoroughly cleaned and greased and the car now stops like it should, and I am £300 worse off. Good job I got the Lex cheap. :D

On the throttle body, which is situated on top of the engine, and is the unit which the large tube from the air filter goes into. On the front of the throttle body there are two "Pots", around 30mm in diameter, looking from the front of the engine the Idle Air Valve is the left hand unit, the right hand one is the Throttle Position Sensor I can email you a picture if you want.

Hi, Never heard of Carb Cleaner damaging the Oxygen (Lambda) sensor, although some early fuel additives (especially the original RedEx) can damage it, and indeed the catalytic converter. Certainly I have squirted cans of carb cleaner down the throttle bodies (and carbs) of a number of cars to no ill effect. In the days of carbs the technique was to squirt it down the throttle body while the engine was running, with resultant clouds of blue smoke as the cleaner and deposits were burned up in the combustion process. Modern engines (including the GS) won't run without the tubes attached, so cleaning the throttle body is done without the engine running, and given that it is highly volatile I doubt whether much carb cleaner would go into the engine on subsequent restarting. They are particularly prone to "lead poisoning" due to the use of (now unavailable) leaded petrol. The oxygen sensor usually sits in the exhaust manifold or downpipe, and should not need cleaning, and I am not sure if it can be, or if cleaning it would do any good. Faulty Lamba sensor will usually show up in your MOT emissions test, or by a "check engine" light on the dash, and can sometimes be cured by a high speed run (they work best at or above 600 deg C), when the high temperature will clean it for you. They are not usually an expensive item (£55 on my sons Honda), but can be a pig to remove, so if it aint broke!!!!

Hi Chips, GOOD NEWS. My mechanic has sorted it. Took the throttle body off and soaked the whole assembly in a solvent bath. He then sprayed liberal quantities of carb cleaner into the Idle Air Valve, and then lubricating everything with WD40, including the electrical connectors. Now starts perfectly and runs fine when cold. Idle speed is still a bit low (around 750 rpm) so I am going to re-set the ECU (there is a post on this) which may sort it. Plan to do this tomorrow (Monday) so will keep the board "in the loop". So, saved myself 500 quid :), but just discovered that one of the front brake calipers has a siezed piston . Explains the odd feel to the brakes, which also exhibit the usual wobble. Having new discs and pads fitted, provided I can source a caliper. So much for the legendary Lexus reliability. I have had 5 BMW 5 Series with over 100k on the clock, plus a Saab turbo with 154,00 which I sold two years ago and is still going strong, and none of them has given me any of this grief. ← Guess what!, I have exactly the same problem for some time as well with my MKII GS. Perhaps this is common issue with GS. Lst year Lexus Twickenham seemed unable to sort it out. After charging rediculous amount to clean the throttle body they claimed everything was fine (but actually no improvment at all). I lived with it for a year. And now she is back in Lexus Twickenham for annual service - and guess what - they spot the problem ! and now are charging me again to look at it!" They will be calling today - I will post the result. meanhwile, are there more of us out there who had the same issue and have some more advice on how to deal with it. I am really fed up paying disgusting Lexus dealer prices for nothing - could anyone advise of a repuatable non-lexus garage near the Twickenham area. ← Have a look at my post re Throttle Pot (more properly known as throttle position sensor-thanks Colin). Mine is now running much better when cold, and fine when warm. Learned of a good lexus specialist in the Reading area, a friend of my brother in law, who gave me good pre purchase advice over the phone, and seems very genuine. Bit of a trek to Reading, but you can always go shopping!!! If you want his number give drop me a mail on lauriemills1@ntlworld.com