G_man

Thanks for the info Pete, I called that place in Gloucester and they want £165 + vat and require the car all day as the cars needs to be cold apparently. So their more than Lexus and In Gloucester but I'm in Bristol.

someone on pistonheads with a SC430 had similar issues with his heater and earthing problems check out the following http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1410947

I emailed lexus bristol yesterday to get a revised quote including the gasket and he's put the following. "The price to replace the gasket and the fluid will be £173.94 for the gasket and the original £120 for the fluid." I mentioned in my email to factor in the £120 already quoted for changing the fluid. So I'm assuming the cost is £173.94 + £20.00 what I have to pay for the gasket anyway or is it £173.94 including gasket? Is this a complete rip off or ok still? I also asked about costings for changing a few settings on my 430 in relation to enabling the auto lock feature and disabling the recline on the steering wheel, they want £51.00 to do this. which i'm assuming is for supposedly 30 mins labour I Included a link below to show the available options https://www.dropbox.com/s/1yaecddkn94ar7k/2001%20LS430%20LPS.pdf?dl=0

Mark, only Lexus UK says it's sealed for life, in the states their is a service schedule for it to be changed

Is Dexron a bad type of oil to install in these cars? Is their any PDF's available that list the type of oil as I've been on the american owners site and I recall their was but can't put a finger on them, reason I ask is I would just print the PDF showing what the american service schedule for the change is along with the oil used. Does anyone know how often the diff oil should be changed? I've had the car since July 2011 and this isn't something that's been done ( I've Driven about 13,000 miles since then ) Again cheers to everyone thus far in the advice given.

I had my LS430 on the ramp the other day due to tracking and whilst it was on their, I along with my mate noticed a leak coming from the Transmission Sump. Looks like the gasket has failed, anyone else had this occur? Lexus want £120 to do a transmission fluid change ( doesn't quote in the gasket being changed ). Apparently the fluid is a life of the box thing so he had to go and check the price as it's not something normally needing to be done.- Preferably want this doing by someone who knows what their doing just incase hence why I got a quote from lexus. ( they want £20 for the gasket which abit steep ) Also their was a tiny drip of oil from the rear diff area which i'm unsure of what to do with at the moment.

Having just done some searches on this issue I came across this thread, My 2001 LS430 has the same issue having noticed it today - I didn't know their are 4 drain holes for the sunroof, how does one check to see if these are blocked? what is the exact method to follow? Regarding the rust, I wanted to take the glass out and do a proper job on sanding the metal back and treat and then paint and then possibly add another rubber seal to this area. Can the glass be easily be removed without taking the roof lining out and all that or is this the only option?, If it is then I'm going to have to use a small dremel and sand it in the car which isn't ideal because of all the crap metal flying off. ( will need a hoover on standby lol ) if anyone has any suggestions on the glass and the drain holes it would be appreciated.

lexusdaduk, what dealer did you use? I have been quoted 2 hours labour ( £200 + ) by lexus Bristol + Parts if needed so I can't see how you weren't charged labour mate? I'm intrigued to know who you used.

What dealer did you take yours too? Im quite surprised they never charged anything for the labour?? Im going to take the panel off the other rear passenger door and have a look at that and see if I can see any differences. Once this is sorted I'm probably going to sell the car on and possibly get a gs300 05 year preferably

My door card is off.

Hi, thanks for the links but i've seen them and whilst they are helpful, they only apply with the door being open. I cant open the door to remove the 3 bolts that are by the door latch. These need to be removed to get the door lock / actuator out.

The problem is the very limited visibility in the door due to the actuator location on the rear door is right up in the corner of the door. I don't think it's a rod issue as I can feel resistance on the handle and the inner cable. I think the actuator has just locked it down the lock mechanism, this is drivin me nuts

Hi all, I've got a rather annoying recent issue with my 2001 LS430, the driver's side rear door won't open on my car. Either from the inside or outside, now as this problem was intermittent I managed to get the door card off whilst the door opened last week. Now it doesn't want to open at all and it makes a groaning noise when it's goes to unlock the door. I've seen the actuator lock thread on the clublexus website but from what I could tell that was replacing the actuator with the door open. I need help in actually getting the door to open, is their a way of doing this now I have the door card off? any help appreciated as I want to get this sorted. Thanks

I remember when the seller of that LS had it up for over 3k some months back, I think it's a polish seller

I had a D3 Audi A8 4.2 LWB 2003 a few years back and whilst it spanks my current LS430 ( 2001 ) in the looks dept, the audi was awful for reliability, Mine had the finger print scanner that doubled as the keyless start button. The car was in @ Bristol audi within a month of me buying it because the whole system was in german and the comfort settings for the fingerprint scanner didn't work. ( £980.00 billl ) cost me £70 as a warranty I had on it actually covered this which i was suprised about. The system for setting up all the memory settings for seats etc which worked off the scanner worked for about a month and then cocked up again. Bristol crap audi said it was to do with the screen module in the car and not the work that they carried out, Over the next year my audi had a tendancy like S class mercs of the same era to drop on the suspension if the car wasn't driven much. Royal pain in the ***** and another was the fact that I replaced the battery on the car and didn't realise that the battery had to be coded to the car? I mean come on! I bought the correct replacement and did this because the car would die again if it wasn't used within a week, I jumped the car off my other car I had and low n behold it sparks ( I connected it correctly but I didn't connect the positive first ) and BOOM the car is dead. ( Audi in all the wisdom didn't put terminal points under the bonnet for you to jump the car ) You had to connect straight to the battery on the positive in the boot and a earth that was on the body of the car just above the battery. Anyway car had to be low loaded to audi Tetbury ( didn't want to use Bristol ) and they diagnosed a authorisation module had died and one would have to be flown in from germany, week later car was fixed after a raping of £990.00 I had the car 2 years and covered less than 8 thousand miles in it ( bought @ 93k, got shot at 101k ) and the car cost me 9.5k back in feb 09 I would only recommend a audi if you can get a decent warranty that would pay out, because whilst there nice looking car their definatly not reliable on the electrics front - and their no were near as comfortable as the LS430, the seats on my LS430 are so god damn comfortable it's unreal and on my old A8 they were ok but after a long drive on the motorway they were very hard on the back side.