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At last our time has come!!

GULP!

Don't forget the active sound can be turned up/down/off by the scroll wheel near your left knee (apologies if you know this already).

I changed the diff oil on my mk4 after it had done 100k miles or so. It's stinky stuff! Also, the hex nuts can be very tight, so make sure the Allen key is a really good fit before you start wrenching on it; you don't want to 'round' the nut. Always top one first. Make sure the car is completely level when you do it or you could under fill it. Use the right grade of oil. It comes in squeezy bottles which have a long plastic tube for the filler hole.

I think the post Malc mentioned yesterday was by Tim Hunter ( who used to own my silver LS400 ... ) and was in respect of replacing the front struts, but the position may be the same for the rear struts.

Everything In the second photo is internal, what you see is the actual trans cooler which is aluminium and in perfect condition which I took out, there's nothing else that can really fail and because the transmission fluid is pumped it sucks coolant in when the o rings fail due to rust.

...and if anyone would like a laugh - then I'd also completely forgotten that my car has a dashcam fitted. I've now reviewed the journey that my wife took on Sunday afternoon... She was in a hurry... Sets off from home, and within 50 yards passes over a speed-table at normal speed, without any braking or consideration for it at all. 50 yards later there's a slightly raised mini roundabout - and she also goes directly over the top of it (you can hear the suspension "thunks" as she takes it). Almost simultaneously with taking the mini roundabout at speed you can hear the "ping ping" noise, that the dash makes when it displays a warning message. She doesn't seem to notice this, or just ignores it. Around 20s later the dash again pings twice, and obviously continues to flash up messages. At this point she is heard to mutter "What's going on here?" and stops the car for about 10s - only to then just continue driving. At this point she's less than 300 yards from home. A short while later, when around a mile away from home she calls me for a "Is your car OK to drive with these messages popping up?" conversation. We've now had a discussion about the true course of events and the subject of "mechanical sympathy" where road surfaces are concerned.

Not sure if I've read you right but I can tell you that this latest update (VD12103A) was issued in May this year. The install instructions you have looked at were provided for previous updates too. You will find that the instruction will almost certainly be the same for use with future updates. Apologies if I have misunderstood what you were saying. (I am a wrinkley!)

Agree. Owned a (V8) Soarer too - best car ever!

This is where the problem begins, the union corrodes and the o rings no longer seal allowing water to mix. I took my old one apart to have a good look.

I'll soon be doing a gearbox flush and filter (oil strainer) change, the fluid is reddish brown and after 196,000 miles it deserves it. I cannot understand why anyone would not change the fluid and filter after a lot of miles, no filter was built to last 19 odd years, gearboxes wear and the filter does what it says on the box, namely filter! I owned a Toyota Soarer with the same engine and gearbox a good few moons ago and that certainly benefitted from a filter and fluid change. If you're doing it yourself I just think you need to be meticulously clean as those boxes don't like any any little extra bits in them! Oh and from what I've gleaned over the years use the right sealant on the pan which is Loctite 5699 Premium Silicone Grey Gasket Maker/Sealant.

Wear + tear item. You're still driving an icon!

No way. I saw that . Well over priced. Says he's not a dealer but didn't he have a poor specced silver one the other day too.

I don't hold with the latest 'lifetime fill' concept on modern cars. Manufacturers want to replace your gearbox when it fails. The sooner the better as far as they are concerned, preferably, just as the warranty runs out. It's a big con. No ATF can be that efficient that it never needs replacing or replenishing at some point. My neighbour never changed the ATF on her Beemer X5 and guess what? Yep, catastrophic gearbox failure. Cost her a fortune.

Your not thinking about buying baz one are you? Apparently he sold a 51 reg ls430 recently for a white ls430, but if you look on gumtree, he's just advertised another gold ish coloured ls430 as he's still looking for a white one. Overpriced as usual, high mileage, with rust spots in the usual places. I don't understand him sometimes

You may well be correct - I changed the pads last time (and it was almost certainly the first change). As the front faces of the discs looked to be in pretty good nick I probably didn't check the inner faces as carefully as I should have. But it still begs the question - what is the mechanism for clean front faces but corroded back faces?

John - I have just changed the oil in mine today - only had the time to do the oil and the filter before the wife was calling me in for tea so a good time to stop. Will finish the other service areas tomorrow - didn't manage to find whether the diff box drain and fill plugs incorporated a washer so may just take a flier and do this on spec - have a good range of washer sizes if required but think the sizes may reflect the same as the oil drain plug - anyway - while I was under the car undoing the oil filter cap I noticed what looks like a drain point for the radiator - The one I have found is under the cover for the oil filter cap (remove the cover - 3 screws) and it will be noticeable looking through the hole towards the front of the car - a few pictures below - one of the "tap" through the cover and one through a hole in the plastic shield (before removing the oil cap shielding cover) Hope this helps

Try saying that to a 6 year old!!