New Owner, New Member

[Maroon400]

Hi all,

This is my first time as any kind of forum member and my first time as a Lexus owner,

It may take me a little while to get the hang of using the Forum but I am definatly getting the hang of driving my LS400, What a car! I've been a Merc driver for many years, but the newer they got the more trouble I had. I ended up scratching around looking for anything Merc over 20years old just to stay with the brand and get the build quality. Anyhow after much research I discovered the jewel that is the mk4 LS400, (pity there's not an estate version). My research started with a search for "The most reliable car built in the last 20 years" warranty data puts the LS400 at no1 by a long way. I then studied this forum to see feedback from owners. The original plan was to convert to gas but as I'm getting over 30 MPG on runs and an overall average after 2000 miles of 28 MPG so I'm not so sure It's such a good idea.

As i only do 10k per annum it would take a long time to break even on the investment, any thoughts on this subject gratefully received.

So I started my search for a car, finally found a 1999 mk4 with 3 owners and 89k on the clock, full service history. bonnet struts done, suspension done, cambelt done, new MOT. Snatched it off an Indy Toyota dealer in Norfolk For 2.2k. They took it in PX for a LS430 from a regular client so had done all the work themselves. Still getting used to the slightly under finished interior and "Yank" style steering but a small price to pay such a great car overall. I will have questions so I look forward to interacting with you all in the future!

[IHgs300]

Welcome to the club Gary. Great choice of car and sounds like a bargain.

[Maroon400]

Thanx Ian

Please give me some feedback regarding my post should I have tagged this LS 400

[IHgs300]

No your fine Gary. Although you could have introduced yourself in new members section and posted car details in ls400 forum.... Not a problem though.

I can swap things round if you want your details in ls400 area.

[PEPE]

Welcome to the club, Gary. I like the LS 400 so much that within 18 months I bought TWO. I do hope you will find the LOC as informative and as enjoyable as I have.

Pepe

[Bluesman]

Welcome Gary.

Great car.

LPG conversion? This really depends on how long you are going to keep the car. Most people that buy them if they been the type of person who changes their car very regularly find very quickly that they don't want to let go of it. They are becoming rarer by the day as people are loathed to sell them.

So if you are going to keep the car the Yes conversion to LPG makes sense.

The other thing to remember is that LPG is a lot less harmful to your engine than petrol. It also doesn't push out any where near the amount of pollutants that petrol does so your doing your bit to save the planet as well.

I have run only LPG cars for myself and my wife for the last 16 years and I have a big smile on my face every time I fill up. I am currently paying 65p a litre. You can get a good quality installation in a day for around £1400 incl VAT.

Let me know if you would like to know more.

Good luck with the best car in the world. Mike

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

It sounds like you got yourself a very good deal with the LS400 especially with good service history and the low mileage.

A friend of mine has just scrapped his 300d V registration Mercedes as it needed £2.5K just to get it through the MOT, the year before he had 2 new wings and all the suspension replaced!

Pity we don't get No Claims Discount on breakdown cover I should be on a 65% discount in the 6 years I've had my LS.

Enjoy the Lexus experience the only way is up!

[Maroon400]

Yes please Ian

[Maroon400]

Dear Bluesman, your right I am thinking of hanging onto this car. What about the valve issue, I'm aware of the systems that add lubricant but most mechanics I speak to tell me to steer clear of LPG. £1400 sounds cheap! Most quotes I've had are around the 2k mark

[Bluesman]

Dear Bluesman, your right I am thinking of hanging onto this car. What about the valve issue, I'm aware of the systems that add lubricant but most mechanics I speak to tell me to steer clear of LPG. £1400 sounds cheap! Most quotes I've had are around the 2k mark

This will no doubt start another war.

There is no scientific proof that the LPG damages the valve seats, this is because on modern engines the valve seats are hardened and do not need you spending another £100 for a useless piece of kit.

I have not had a Lube kit fitted on any of my cars in 12 years and I have never had any engine problems. I still know 5 of my previous cars and all are still happily running on LPG, none of them suffering valve seat damage all are over 125k miles on LPG one a Mercedes passing 250K miles. have never heard of anyone anywhere with a modern engine suffering damage vale seat regression, it ain't gonna happen. Mike

Tin helmet on.

[Bluesman]

Check your messages box. Mike

[VijayA]

Yeah Mike but since you only drive 1000 miles a year no way of really knowing :0)

Force field activated :o)

[Gorodish]

Re LPG, I reckon it saves 10p/mile, give or take. My LPG conversion was done (touch wood - no problems) by Leeds LPG for £1200 inc, back in Feb. I've done 13,000 miles since then so am now in 'profit'. I think it is a no-brainer if you intend not to turn over cars that often.

I've always changed my cars every year or two but I'm thinking now that I will hang onto this car till the end of its economic life. At 20k miles a year - I'd like to take it to 280k, just for the sake of it! It should last another 7 years!!

Without wishing to derail the OP's thread, does anyone have experience of racking up serious mileages with their LS's? Anyone running a car above 250k miles? Am I being naive?

[VijayA]

Gary please excuse my rudeness for not welcoming you to the delights of the LS400 and the forum. Happy motoring!

[Maroon400]

Thanx Vijay 😎

[Maroon400]

Gorodish, with or without lube? This seems to be the unclear issue

[steve2006]

Gorodish, with or without lube? This seems to be the unclear issue

Good job I've read the whole topic and not started on page 2 !

I can't wait to see Mikes reply :)

[Bluesman]

Yeah Mike but since you only drive 1000 miles a year no way of really knowing :0)

Force field activated :o)

Sorry you will have to explain that one to me. You've completely lost me. Mike

[Bluesman]

Gorodish, with or without lube? This seems to be the unclear issue

Good job I've read the whole topic and not started on page 2 !

I can't wait to see Mikes reply :)

You must have missed my reply to this thorny problem on page one.

There is no need to be unclear on the subject but if you want to throw away £100 a time for flash lube then throw it in my direction, don't bother to have the Flash Lube fitted and should you ever suffer valve seat regression I'll pay for the heads to be repaired.

Try looking through the internet for serious scientific articles that have no profit margin involved.

In the dirty old days when we all used Leaded petrol valve seats were soft but that was OK because the lead contained in the petrol helped to negate the problem.

Then came along the new modern engine that run on Unleaded fuel so new engines were made with much harder valve seats and if you used an Old engine with Unleaded fuel you had to put an additive in either with the petrol or a Flash Lube system.

Our V8 engines were made to take Unleaded fuel and therefore needed no additives and the same applies with the flash lube system, its now a redundant piece of kit, but there are always the cow boys out there that don't mind turning their customers over by mugging them for whatever it is they charge for this piece of redundant kit.

Mike

[ManicMark]

Gorodish, with or without lube? This seems to be the unclear issue

Bare back no lube needed & welcome to the club from another merc convert.

On my 3rd ls now nothing else compares.

[Adam Evans]

I would put the flashlube on just to be on the safe side

Knowing my luck if I didn't it would break

Its better to have it and have no problems than not have it and have problems

Anyway as for having it converted, without starting a war and without hijacking a thread these are some photos of a gs430 that I have found.

This is how I would expect a job to be done and I would pay top dollar if it was like this. What do you think ...........

[The-Acre]

Welcome aboard Gary.

Phil

[cruisermark]

I would put the flashlube on just to be on the safe side

Knowing my luck if I didn't it would break

Its better to have it and have no problems than not have it and have problems

Anyway as for having it converted, without starting a war and without hijacking a thread these are some photos of a gs430 that I have found.

This is how I would expect a job to be done and I would pay top dollar if it was like this. What do you think ...........

that reminds me of pete haylands lpg conversion - sorry if this is off topic but its an excellent post:

http://lextreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9167

[ManicMark]

I will post a couple more pics of mine, notice the coil put in the copper pipe this is at both ends (if there is a side impact crash the pipe will stretch rather than break) the pipe is run next to the brake lines. The ecu is next to the Battery, the filler is neat & vented to air. A 94 litre tank in the spare wheel well gives me 350 miles on the run. Oh & hana injectors with the nozzles next to the petrol injector nozzles( not in the plenum) equal pipe lengths also.

[Maroon400]

Manic M, where did you get it fitted?