GoldfingerLS

How excessive are the CO emissions ? was it boarderline or is it way over ? It would be a shame to turn back now after you have come all this way.

How do you rate the pickup and performance of the 730d vs the LS430. I know that the 730d is 245 bhp vs 290 bhp from the LS430. is it a big difference or not that noticable unless you floor it ?

Willydoit - Your car looks amazing. Your bodywork has got lots of clarity and refectivity, headlamp lense have zero clouding, you still have your original finish diamond cut alloy wheels looking shining and from the front tyre tread it looks like you have the OEM Dunlop D8z sport tyres which were made for the Mk4 LS400 (the D8z had a distinctive small tread block design). Next time you wash your car please can you post some pics for us, its great to see a mint Mk4 LS400 !

The LS400 and LS430 use the same steering motor. When the tilt motor stopped working on my Mk4 I bought a new one and replaced it. I opened up the old one to see if it can be fixed but I dont remember seen a broken magnet. To me it looked like it was either something in the way it was designed which prevented the shaft from rotating or an electrical component which has gone. But I didnt get time to look at it in detail....

At its birth in 1989, the LS400 was designed for one purpose: To be better in every way than than a W126 Mercedes S Class, a E32 BMW 7 series and a Jaguar XJ. In their quest to achieve this Lexus engineered a car which was quieter than a Rolls Royce, had better mechanical reliability and durability than the Germans, more smooth than a Jaguar and attention to detail. Without doing this they would have had no chance in breaking into the luxury car market and the LS400 would have gone down in history as another Honda Legend / Toyota Cressida / Mitsubishi Sigma / etc etc

I might not be in great condition hence only one photo, also the front alloy looks like its corroded. If I was in the market for a nice LS430 then this looks like a car I would want to see: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201406145024252/sort/pricedesc/usedcars/postcode/EC2V7HH/quicksearch/true/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/radius/1501/page/7/make/lexus/model/ls?logcode=p I love the black with light cream colour combination and it looks like its very well looked after. A man that puts 4 continentals on his LS is a man that doesnt skimp on caring for his car. A lot of people can pull out a 'stamped service book' and tell you how many stamps they have but few can pull out invoices to show some good money has been spent on the car.

The engine may be running but isn't directly driving the wheels when in reverse. It is running to get up to temperature so that heat can be used to bring the cabin up to temperature. If the hybrid batteries are low/over temp then the engine will drive the generator which will supply power to the electric motor. Thats what ive seen before aswell. if you have the heating or air con while stand still, the petrol engine will start up to heat or cool the car.

Unless the ball join is so worn that it generates a lot of movement it shouldn't be the case. If you take it for tracking alignment and they are not able to bring the tracking back within manufactures tolerances then it could be bushes or perhaps the ball joint.

With age a small amount of grease will leak from ball joints on these cars which are now almost 15 years old (which is expected) but it still might not need replacement right now if the ball joint hasnt worn.

The LS400 often make a creaking sound in the very hot summer months, sounds like an old creaking bed but it quickly goes away. If it really is the lower arms or ball joins the tell tail sign will be perished rubbers and as steve says excess movement in the suspension.

Malc, Good question. As far as I know, the CVT gearbox doesnt have a reverse gear. Apparently the car reverses by reversing the polarity on the electric motor. This was an issue on the very early Prius cars where owners in San Francisco complained that when battery charge was low they were not able to reverse up steap hills but Toyota remediated the problem. So to answer your question you could lose reverse gear. If my knowledge is out of date or the LS600 works differently I would be interested to know.

"Do you really think a progressive manufacturer like Lexus would stake its reputation on a weak product that only lasts 8 years" A "reputable" manufacturer like Mercedes has cheaped out on quality, whats there to say that Lexus wouldnt do it ?

I dont have a LS430 myself but my first thoughts are that the dashboard will light up like an christmas tree beacuse system may give errors thinking that the air shocks / system are not working, if the air suspension is integrated with the VSC it may give a VSC warning. If the car has a pre-collision system (like the LS460) where the suspension stiffens up not sure how the ECU will behave. If there is a way to make coilovers work, I would personally get a set of KYBs which were fitted to Mk4 LS400s. The suspension on the Mk4 was just perfect, and it wasnt even air suspension.

I have recenty sold my Mk4 LS400 and I am already missing it. I would ideally be looking to replace it with an LS600 if anyone is looking to sell theirs or knows of anyone who may be selling one. More specifically, I'm looking for a long wheel base car with 5 seats in either dark blue or black with the cream or ivory leather. The pre 2010 cars that have the Rear Seat Relaxation package only have 4 seats which is no good to me. I've been looking for quite a while and there isnt much comming up so I'm also considering a BMW 7 series LWB as well if I dont find one soon. I've had a good experience with Lexus so I would prefer to stay with an LS. If anyone knows of one that fits the bill I would be most interested to hear from you. Thanks.

Do you mean the cambelt was last done at 86k or the last service was done at 86k ?