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Nah this is how they do it in Russia

The reason for the following was because the front end felt wrong, it was very floppy (floppier than normal) and it wandered a bit... you could see the top arms were worn and you could twist them without much effort... It says in the workshop manual that to change the two top arms (the 460 has separate top arms as opposed to the earlier LS's wishbone) you have to remove the air strut assembly and to do that you have to remove the bottom arm and the track control arm so I thought I may as well change all four arms each side as at 116,000 miles and 9 years they will have seen better days... Well, as usual with official workshop manuals, you don't "have" to remove the strut so all the bottom can be left complete if you need to change the top arms...!!! The top arms were in the worst condition out of all of them... You start with this... First thing is to remove the clips that hold the brake pipe and wiring for the speed sensor, and on the offside, the pad warning sensor, then the two bolts that hold the caliper on and tie the caliper to the anti-roll bar with a couple of cable ties, then take the disc off, it doesn't have a retaining screw so is just held on by the wheel, they are very heavy 358mm discs so make sure it doesn't fall off when you remove the caliper as your foot won't like you for it..!!! Remove 4 bolts that hold the disc back plate on, best to take these off to avoid damage, they are aluminium so were in near perfect condition, just looking a bit aged... The front hub is a large aluminium casting, as is the front subframe that holds the engine and attachment points for the bottom arm and control arm, they are all beautifully made and are very light, the bottom arm and two top arms are aluminium but the track control arm is cast steel. It is a pleasure to work on a Lexus again, I remember doing my brothers top wishbones on his Mk1 400 and cracking off the bolts and nuts in the wheelarch and then spinning them off with your fingers, his 400 was about 16 years old at the time. The quality and design mean that everything comes apart with minimal fuss... Having said that the wet looking patches on the pictures were not leaks from anything but some penetrating fluid, force of habit made me squirt some around before I started but it really wasn't necessary... Back to it.. Remove the inner bolt that holds the bottom arm on and push the arm downwards, the subframe casting has a notch in it to release the arm towards the floor and not pulling it towards the wheel... then remove the track rod from the hub, a spring steel split pin (again, beautifully made and we reused them all as they were still in perfect condition) and a large flanged nut (the alloy hub has steel inserts where anything bolts to it so a large flanged nut is used to spread the loads over a large area of the aluminium encompassing the steel insert) Then remove the nut and bolt for the front track control arm, this was made easier by removing the plastic engine undertray. This bolt is a bit fiddly as when it is nearly out it hits the rack...!!! It's worse on the nearside, but if you put a pipe wrench on the arm and tilt it a few degrees you can wiggle it out (and get it back in with the new one) No mention of this issue in the manual... Finally remove the top two arms, two more splitpins and flange nuts. I don't like using balljoint splitters, they break and rarely work well, a few good blows with a large hammer and balljoints will yield... You then end up with a car looking like this And this.. You know the top arms are gone when they drop like this... You can see above that the two top arms are bolted to two small frames that are then bolted to the inner wing, the manual says you have to remove the frames to remove the arms. The two top bolts that hold the frames on are prevented from coming out by the strut, hence, removal of the strut. However, if you remove the other two bolts (front frame) and one bolt (rear frame) you can get a spanner on the top bolts to loosen them and then pivot the frame away from the strut, it is then "just" possible to remove the bolts that hold the upper arms on. This is a close up of the frame You can see the top bolt that is loosened, it then pivots forward like this... (Yes I know I should wear gloves, I really hate them though...!!!) These are the top two arms, you can see shards of rubber and a split all around the central pin It didn't take much to pull this out, it is supposed to be bonded to the rubber... Track control arm... you can see the splits starting and it was movable with hand pressure, the new one wasn't... Bottom arm, inner bush, again starting to wear and offset slightly... Bottom arm strut fixing, squashed a bit... To be fare the bottom arm had many good years left in it and the control arm wasn't too bad either... Big hammer again to remove the bottom arm and control arm from the hub and then the fun starts, removing the large ball joint that locates the bottom arm, it was a two man job and a very big hammer, a brass drift and some heat from oxy acetylene, heat the alloy hub up, being careful of the bearing which is pushed into the hub so not easily removed, they do provide a recess in the bottom of the balljoint to use a drift in, several large blows and it was out... The shape of the upright means it won't fit under a hydraulic press so we used a couple of large (52mm IIRC) sockets and pushed the new joint in with a large vice, again heating the alloy to get some expansion, with hindsight I'd have put the balljoints in the freezer.. Reassembly is, as they say, a reversal, I fitted the arms to the car first, a bit of faffing with the control arm and that bolt but it will go in without removing the steering rack, the top arms need to be bolted on in the correct alignment for when the car is at normal height, there is no way to tighten these bolts up with weight on the suspension so I had a "best guess" at this I was within an inch, so not too bad... Once all the arms are bolted to the car, offer the hub up and bolt it all back together... New bottom arm, Strut is bolted where the upside down R is, then moving right is the drop link for the ARB then the height sensor fixing and finally the connection to the front subframe. New control arm with the wiring to the hub attached, just out of focus in the foreground is one of the large flange nuts.. After putting it all back together it was onto the brakes, the old discs had seen better days... The brakes felt fine though... I opened the new boxes of EBC brakes, a full set of four new discs and front and rear pads in their basic range, these are excellent for normal road use and the pads are low dust ones so even better.... This is where I found out that there are two different sizes of front disc fitted to the 2007 LS460...!!!! and I'd ordered the wrong ones, to be fair it doesn't say anywhere on the EBC web site that there are two different sizes and it doesn't give the disc size either so how was I supposed to know...!!! I phoned them and they were more than helpful and put the correct set in the post for next day delivery but I did have to pay and then claim a refund when I return the wrong ones... The woman said "It happens all the time"... WELL PUT THE SIZE ON THE LISTING THEN...!!! Rant over... So, while waiting a day for the new ones to arrive I thought I would do a summers job I had lined up, luckily I had already ordered the caliper stickers so the following morning it was back to my mates garage with sanding and painting gear... It's easy to do the calipers without pads or discs, just bolt the caliper back on and away you go... I gave them a clean with some brake cleaner, excellent quality aluminium, these don't look 9 years old... First give the calipers a good sanding, I used a DA sander with 120grit pads... make sure you round off any sharp corners, it helps the paint stay on longer Then a light coat of Acid etch primer, just dust on a few coats until you have complete coverage, I used a hot air gun to warm the calipers up first, aids adhesion and drying... Then stick on the caliper stickers... (no I'm not going mad) Then paint it with your chosen colour, Metallic black in this case... again just dust on a few light coats until it is all covered, out with the hot air gun and give them a good baking moving the gun over the surface all the time, keep it in one place and you will burn the paint... Then, very carefully pick an edge of the stickers up with a sharp blade and pull the stickers off.. To reveal this... Then give it a good six coats of UHT clear coat drying between each coat... and the finished result is a well protected caliper and the stickers won't fall off...!!! Rear is the same with a different sticker I sanded, etch primed and stonchipped the back plates Forgot to take an after picture...!!! This is the paint I used, got it from halfords with my 15% club discount card, I had the clear UHT paint already but I think they sell that as well... You must etch prime aluminium or the paint will fall off in a short time... I love the metallic black, the 460 is not really a car that would look good with red or yellow...!!! Then sat about twiddling my thumbs waiting for the new front discs to arrive... they turned up at 4.30pm so my mate did one side and I did the other, discs on, pads in, wheels on, off the two post lift, settle the suspension then onto the four post ramp and fully tightened the lower arm and control arm to subframe bolts so the bushes are in the correct alignment... I didn't get a chance to take a picture with it all back together so you will have to wait... Mark asked above how it feels, well... better and worse...!!! let me explain... The tyres are badly abused, one has at least 10 large chunks out of the sidewall and they are well out of balance so the wheel wobble is even worse. The play in the front suspension was absorbing a lot of the wobble... on the plus side the steering is more precise and the front end wobble is much better... I took it for a four wheel align this morning, it didn't pull and ran straight but that was because it had 5 degrees of toe in on the front, even both sides the rear was 3 degrees out from the front, they pulled it back and got them all within half a degree, the tolerance is 1 degree, it now feels even more solid and drives nicely up to about 50 when the wheel wobble starts... So this afternoon 4 of these were ordered, and another mate will fit them next Saturday as they are coming direct from Dunlop and won't be here till Wednesday It says on the Dunlop website that these are 102 load rating but the ones I've ordered and all the adverts I can find say it's a 98 load rating which is correct for the Lexus, the 102 wouldn't matter much but it would be a tad harder.... So, a fair way towards sorting it out now...

A demonstration of how to handle roundabouts in the ISF......

My village garage mechanic has been laid on a bed of nails and flogged, strange thing is he had a smile on his face so I may well not have punished him.

hi guys, lots of comments regarding RX/GS change, just been on round trip to west of Manchester to see grandkids, car was very impressive on the drive .the RX would have me relocating my derriere several times even thou it was comfy 'the GS was superb, never moved once I was settled in my seat.car ran faultless all the way average on readout on dash 42 impressive. I stayed with the traffic 70+most of the time car just a standard GS executive. as I say very impressed .must be the car ? her who must be obeyed fell asleep coming back ontop of windy hill as I said VERY impressed. still finding new toys it has as standard ,on my old stamping grounds around the country lanes it is a lot better than the RX only thing we miss so far is the hatchback of the RX. polish.

The handbrake shoes on mine will need replacing soon, minimum thickness allowed is 1mm and mine are at that on the leading edge, you can just see them in this pic.. And the 460 has an electric handbrake that automatically goes off when you drive so they do wear...!!! Don't forget EBC for brakes, they just gave me 30% discount through the Gold club scheme, they are a British manufacturer and they even balance and test their discs for runout which is more than a lot do... They have various pads to chose from, from standard to full race, their standard ones are low dust as well which I like, the bite and feel are easily the same as original and with the discount they were cheaper than the trade price for Pagid from the motor factors...

Brian I have learnt my lesson from the Mark 1 I had for a long 16 years so I do not apply the foot operated parking brake on my Mark 4 unless it is parked on a slope .It is very easy to drive off from stationary parking for a few hundred yards before realizing the parking brake is on. If you do that a few times it does not take long to wear them out and the lovely people who designed the brakes put adjusters in for idiots like me. So thats why they have to be replaced

Hi Paul, Blimey their really coming out of the wood work now and I hadn't read this one either. What the hell was I doing with my life during that period!! Again many thanks for finding it. Will have to look and see if I've still got the copy of the article I mentioned. Pretty sure I kept it because it was after reading it that I decided the IS-F was a car I was interested in. At the time I was getting pretty tired of having issues with my BMW's together with the attitude of the bloody dealerships, so going back to a car as potentially reliable as my old Supra was really appealling.

Hello, You are by no means alone with the skipping that occurs when cold. See here: As mentioned, it happens on mine too, and apart from being annoying, does no harm and doesn't indicate a fault. Dealer servicing details are on this page: https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/#ServicingYourLexus As you can see, a full service would cost you £445. Although, since your car is over 5 years old, you can use the Essential Service instead. That works out to £329. Assuming you are referring to front brake pads, then it is £145. Although if it is only squealing you are getting, they might not need changing, just some copper grease applied to the shim behind the pad. As for the recall, did you have the spark plugs changed at the last service? If not, then definitely get them done at the same time as the recall since they would only charge you for the plugs themselves.

Peter Great tutorial and one of the best on here for a long time some great tips with regard to paint applications, enjoy your car .

Good job, the caliper painting looks great and I like the tip about the decals.

I fitted genuine Lexus discs and pads all round and the car pulls up on a sixpence I told the parts department I could get Brembo's for the price they quoted and got a 20% discount for my trouble. I had the calipers refurbished at the same time and I've never had brakes like it before.

The 4th one for my Lexus which has just passed the 100k mark. The MOT tester said it feels like a new car when he took it out, no advisories. Be warned though, he had an 06 plate IS sat outside, apparently it is a local traders car which had been sat on the forecourt for the last few months, the brakes have siezed up solid, they have had a go at freeing them off with no success so far, so remember folks get your brake callipers maintained as they aren't including in the Lexus schedule.

That bloke is a nutter! :)

Hi peter i did have a look but I'm also looking at some bodywork, paint correction and cambelt this year, I'm trying to balance the budgets in that respect. also, I'm almost the polar opposite of yourself in terms of capability!

Go for it Pete - you could make it look like ur brothers!

You could be right. :)

You can see where it's pulled away from the rear wing, just above the bumper..... And covered the chrome trim on the bumper, that's one piece used to cover the wing and bumper...

Well, a slight update to the story. I was putting in our CT for it's MOT and Gary @ Glasgow Lexus couldn't have been more helpful. He asked how I was enjoying my new car, I relayed my woes about how it rattled like an 80s Fiat. He told me to book it in and he would have the Foreman accompany me to listen to the rattles. He said, bizarrely, that sometimes reconditioning the leather helps? Well, they do seem keen to keep me happy so will take him up on his offer. I have a fair percentage of the house's towel collection under the rear seats so my wife will be wondering for sure. She, of course, thinks it's all in my imagination...... I shall report back. Meanwhile, thanks for all the support, great forum as ever. Ed

Lockeyboy I've gone for these with the mintex pads dendonc OK can you us (me anyway) have some feedback on them ie if they are noisy at all, thnaks

Oh I don't know about disadvantaged matey the cake you bought yesterday was lovely the only disadvantage one was @Flytvr who missed out for being late 😂 Only joking matey hope your back is better 👍 Big Rat

Great find, and just cements what I think, great car, don't get swept along by the hype of German equivalents..........................

If I'm being honest, there isn't a much difference in cover or service between any of the well known companies. NFU seem to always get good reviews and direct line are offering some really good extra benefits but as long as you recognise the brand you should generally just go with the cheapest option.

I recently threw most of mine out, but kept all the isf related ones, I'll try and dig them out.

Looks like the yellow is a wrap, 30mins with a hot air gun and you'd have a black car again...

My trusty crowbar tells me there is no play at all on any rear bushings... if he's lying he's in trouble.... to be fair the only play at the front was the upper arms, if the tyres don't sort it then I think it's the big one.... air strut... Glad you are enjoying it... I looked at the GT but they are run flats so thought they would be a bit hard, they are shown as 1db quieter than the RT's though.... I live up north and our roads aren't quite as bad as down south, you sort of learn where the big ones are and drive round them, we can't afford to repair the roads here as we sent all our money to the EU to build roads for everyone else... but that's a different story...!!!

Yours is the Mark 4 with the sat nav right? in which case you use the 3rd option.

That's being unkind to the elderly 😩 Big Rat

I got my rear pads and discs from lexus Birmingham via ebay paid 40 to fit at local garage

Cheers guys, will probably go for the Lexus service as it has got full dealership history. As for the pads, I'll probably buy elsewhere and get a local garage to do them if they do need changing. Good idea for the spark plugs Sha - will definitely try.

Peter I note from your excellent updates so far that you have not seen it incumbent to replace any of the arms on the rear of the car. I only broach this subject because the early LS400 s were very poor at the back end on bushings after 120ks I had to replace the trailing arms and upper wishbones when My Mark 1 started vibrating like hell at certain speeds. Now I know the 460 is a totally different set up but from the wear you have had on the front end is the rear likely to have some. I suspect when you put on those new tyres you will get an answer to this query.

They now claim that they aren't leaking under the spring seat, instead it's by the bracket holding the brake hose which often appears very slight before going into a full leak. I've educated them them that it's a bracket for the ABS sensor and not the flexi-brake line. I'll take a look myself (again) when I can be bothered. Good spot re: the different labels on the dampers. I know one of the earlier MOT's flagged an issue, so perhaps it was changed then?

I have just replaced the rear discs, pads, and break shoes on my GS450H. I replaced the discs because of rust. They would have resurfaced easily there being no ware lip. However I was able to buy a pair of Quinton Hazel rear discs for £20. EBC break pads for £20, and Mintex rear shoes for £18. The rear shoes were worn to about 2mm due to rust inside the drums acting as an abrasive. The new shoes only have about 4 mm of thickness to start with. I could have used the old shoes, but by the time they had bedded in on the new drums there would not have been much lining left. I have never had a problem with any of the well known branded discs. The choice of pads is subjective depending on the way the car is driven, and your expectations on pad ware disc ware, dust, noise, and pedal feel. Again sticking to known branded products should not give problems. Some of the cheap unheard of brand pads can be very bad bordering on dangerous. My preference is for the pads to ware giving long disc life, but I am not heavy on brakes. John.

I found you down the side of the settee along with a Beano annual and a doobie.

Here we go, first of all I was wrong but only in as much that I spread misinformation that I was told and saw regarding the emissions tests on LPG cars. The one thing my garage and I didn't do was read further down the page where it says that this only applies to Dual Fuel cars like Toyota Prius. My car was to old to be in the Prius catagory but had I presented a Prius they would have asked me which fuel did I drive on too the MOT and had I answered LPG they wouldn't do an Emissions test. Regarding the DVLA MOT website my garage did say that it can take ages for updates to go live. I apologise for spreading wrong information that I was told. Mike.

I almost did book a test drive of a 2012 LS460, and did have a sit in one and a good look around with a view to buying. The best word to describe it was "sumptuous". The one I looked at was in metallic black with privacy glass, ivory interior with every gadget except rear entertainment pack. New cost was probably north of £80K. It was on the forecourt for about £28K. Now that's devaluation! What put me off it were several things. Firstly, boot space (that old chestnut again). You don't buy something like an LS to moan about lack of space, and it's not the sort of car I'd spoil with roof bars and a roof box! Their just wasn't enough boot space for us. It was surprisingly tiny for such a lrage car. Two sets of golf clubs would probably have filled it. The other two off putting aspects were fuel economy (claimed 24mpg...actual probably in the teens) and HUGE running costs compared with say an older LS400 which would still be the one I'd like to own oddly enough! I reckon you'd have to double your running costs (or more) over a Mk3 or Mk4GS. Big car, big bills and later ones do seem to have had their reliability niggles like all large complex luxury saloons, which may partly suggest why so many relatively recent examples (say under 6 years old) have such wicked devaluation. That, and compared with a used S-Class of similar spec, and the S class starts to look like a relative bargain (I wouldn't go there personally, as Merc reliability and build quality simply isn't what it once was). In that market, I'd rather take time and hunt out a minty LS400. We ended up with an RX, and I think this bridges the gap between the GS and LS in some ways (with less gadgets though), such as the room, comfort and refinement but with lower running costs. The seating position I found took a bit of faffing around with to get comfortable, but once set, I could sit in it all day now (and may have to next week!). I find the opposite with seats using lost of adjustment. The more, the better as each person can more accurately tailor it to their needs, then hit the memory button to make sure it stays where they work out the best setting. I preferred the 3GS 10-way seats to the 8-way RX ones, but tbh, the softer RX seats are fine and better than most. The RX has so far, for us, been an enjoyable drive and a pleasure to be in. The largest annoyance has been the poor fuel economy.

Well I agree, it seems far too much. All you need is a socket to release the tension. To be honest, if you remove the black plastic air intake ducting from the top (two screws) I reckon you can change the belt in less than 5 minutes, not even time for your tea to get cold! Just make a sketch of where the old one goes before you take it off. I only changed mine as it was squealing a bit when first started in cold weather.

The GS is not as dynamic as the IS, - its bigger and heavier. I wouldnt expect it to drive like an IS, the IS is more of a sport saloon the GS a luxury car, so the GS is more about refinement and less about throwing into corners, which suits this type of car for me. Having said that the GS is very sure footed with a good amount of grip, and rides better - it has a longer wheelbase and wider track so sits better on the road. Its also more refined. N.B. Im comparing current GS with previous IS - Ive not driven the current IS.

Mark there are a couple of threads on here with regards the fitting of the handbrake shoes,I think there is a pictorial instruction on Lexusowners us site. You will find these very helpful the job is a bit of a head scratcher to the uninitiated .

I changed my auxiliary belt a few weeks ago, it must be one of the simplest jobs on these cars, literally takes minutes. I bought a German made Continental belt for about £19.

Got my car back today, they didn't manage to complete the jobs yesterday. No matter, I had a courtesy car. Lexus would have charged £560 for replacing the water pump.....this is the quote on the Visual Safety Report. The invoice to the warranty people would be somewhat less I'm sure. All silent in the engine bay again now

I've gone for these with the mintex pads will get some handbrake shoes also now off to YouTube to figure out how much help I'll need !

Dav that bloke looks like you, well pre grey anyway 😂 🐀

Great read and the calliper look great. I put the same tyres on my GS450 last time and have been very pleased with them, they are more than grippy enough for most driving conditions and more importantly to me, they are quieter than many other brands I have tried. carl

Ah, well in that case yes, its completely normal. The sensors are very sensitive and quick so will behave like that.

@Shahpor, ah are these shocks known to leak from the top? Is that still in the wheel well or under the plastic panels in the engine bay? @doog442, I'll call the service manager in the morning and see what the real story is here. I do hope they weren't trying to fleece me for 2 new shox and an extra TPMS sensor. I was encouraged that they offered to weld the leaky zoorst rather than simply order an expensive replacement. £150 maybe a bit steep but maybe not if the part is removed to weld.

The first RCF I drove was black with red leather. It looked very nice, but would certainly not work with blue or red exterior

Well, I am sure other members on here will make what they will of what you say. As for me, I am going to take my own advice, relax, and let it go.

I think you mean this box Mine hasn't got one, I think it's something to do with the lane assist... Some great tips there.. Workshop manual is available on line with a $26.95 yearly subscription here http://www.alldatadiy.com/ well worth it if you do some work yourself... Looking at the state of the tyres on mine, all four have numerous chunks out the sidewall, I imagine my front suspension problems are caused by repeatedly bumping up curbs.... New tyres will be fitted after suspension and before 4 wheel alignment.. Thanks for the link re wind noise, the passenger side on mine is not too quiet...

That's how I take my MTB to Surrey Hills and around - taking off the front wheel too. Fits nicely - should be no probs to take two MTBs stacked on top of each other.