88b

Wear and tear on the trans and torque converter will depend on driving conditions, if the car has done 100 k on motorways, there will be little wear,. How ever if t's done 50 k in stop start traffic it like doing 200k +. The problem with changeing trans oil is that you can only ever change half of it, and the only way to change the oil in the converter is to remove it unless it has a drain plug. Automatic transmissions work by oil pressure applying clutch's and brake bands, as these wear the fluid becomes contaminated ( which is why Colin stated it should be red ). Contaminated fluid could even be almost black from burnt friction material.

I worked for over 25 years in R&D for Fraud motor co. I will never forget the first LS400's, we had eight as "test cars" in reality for management to drive. Nothing yet has made me change my opinion the Lexus is very good, BMW's are over rated, Mercedes unless you get the million pound models are cheap and nasty. Honda are under rated ,Nissan does what it says on the tin. The only down sides I can see with Lexus is , for some reason Merc/ BMW owners look down on them ( snob value ? ) and they lose a lot of risidual value early on. Unless I win the lottery I will never buy a new car again, not even a Ford that I get at 25% discount. Let someone else get kicked in the nuts.

or ask any yoof standing on a street corner. Most tyre places have the tools to remove locking wheel nuts, they might destroy them but without they tool they are useless

All you can do is ask them, or better still tell them your having the oil analysed. They'd be stupid if they didn't use it then if they agreed to .

As randy says shipping is a bit steep Do you need a new exhaust system ? one thing I like about my GS is the silence, it's not as fast as the Soarer but it can carry four big adults in comfort and cover a lot of distance traffic permitting very quickly. On the other hand I'm the man who spent a fortune on a new Harley exhaust and then paid out for custom made ear plugs .

Like I said I know the work shop foreman, he offered it I didn't ask. Mind you I didn't ask if I could take pictures either :winky: I'm a firm believer in what goes round comes around, I get a lot of people out of trouble with transmissions or Ford stuff and info. This time I was lucky.

Any chance of putting a picture up of this tool :winky: If only I knew how to, doesn't seem any easy way on this site. if you give me an e mail address I'll send them to you

I've had my GS since August last year, and the new cam belt since about two weeks after I bought the car It's a 98 registered Mk1 ( must have been sitting in a dealers for some time ) and had a genuine 16800 miles on it last Aug. it's up to 21k now. Monday morning I thought I'm changeing the belt, two and a half hours later I still can't get the crankshaft nut undone :tsktsk: and the Autodata book says it's a 2 1/2 hour job. I tried the old breaker bar and scaffold bar over it wedged on the ground and hit the starter, just got clunk clunk. Rubber plug out of the sump and a bar in the drive plate, then strapped the bar to the suspension ,two foot Snap On breaker bar on the crank nut and 15 stone + of me holding the roll bar and both feet on the breaker bar . Decided it was time for a break, got in the Fiesta and drove to a friends garage, he couldn't suggest anything, so I drove up to Lexus Southend. I sort of know the workshop foreman there, told him my sorry tale and he loaned me "the Lexus tool" . It's a tube that bolts to the crank pully with two 8 mm bolts ( I couldn't see the bolt holes as they are recessed ) you then fit a holding bar to it with a pin. The bar sits on the chassis rail under the air filter box, you then put a deep reach 22mm socket through it onto the crank bolt. Same again Snap on breaker bar both feet, can't move it, jacked the car up even higher ( the exhaust tips are now almost on the ground ) put a scaffold tube over the breaker bar and BANG. I didn't want to look, I was expecting broken oil cooler pipes or a hole in the rad. Took the socket out and undid the bolt with my fingers . The rest of the job was easy, after I got the pully off. I took some pictures of the tool and all the relevant dimensions, but on reflection you don't need anything so complex as the official tool. Either a piece of thick 3" angle iron or probably better a piece of flat metal about 75mm x 10 mm about 600mm long. 2 8mm clearance holes drilled in it at 65 mm centres and a large hole to get a 22mm socket through centrally between them. I'm going to make one, because once I have it I will never ever need it again

Sorry to hear that, I'd be worried about the turbo's if the ends have gone

Are you having to top up the power steering ? it may be auto trans fluid from the cooler

I bought a Seat Alhambra a few year ago that had a left foot throttle, turned out the previous owner only had one leg :duh: You cannot believe how hard it is to drive with the throttle on the wrong side, especially when your reversing. It lasted about two days. Nice looking car

Would be interesting to see what your mate actually gets at the end of the day I'm desperately trying to talk him out of a Porsche 4x4 Cheyene (sp ?) you know the thing they hit with an ugly stick on the end of the production line

Mind you, can you picture this. Two bikers pull up outside a Lexus dealer. Park up two cruisers. Go inside. Drink tea. Have chat. Take test drive in FULL LEATHERS. AND get treated very well by EVERYONE there, not just the guy we know. WELL DONE AND THANK YOU, LEXUS. (I can't see that happening at Mercedes, can you??) I had almost the same thing at Lexus Southend, pull up on the Harley walk inside and they are falling over themselves to help. Offered me a days test drive. I think they realise if you have have £15 k to spend on a toy you can aford a Lexus. Now one of my friends has / had the hots for an XK8 pull up at the Jag place in Brentwood , I thought they were going to ask us to leave. Big mistake he's got the cash to walk next door and buy an Aston Martin. He's still decideing what to buy now.

The reason most systems stop working or don't work as well as they should is low pressure, just adding a can is unlikely to over pressurise the system. A lot of vehicles have the pressure and weight of refrigerant on a label somewhere. I was getting a car MOTed yesterday and one of the yoff's employed to bugger up customers cars was recharging a system. I had to walk away in the end, I couldn't bear to watch any longer. A WORD OF WARNING anyone thinking of trying the Halfords method ( and I would ) wear protective gogles refrigerant can freeze your eyes.

Probably pulling away in 2 or 3, by manually selecting the gears you bypass parts of the trans.

It's a 4 speed box, pressing the button which brings on the light on the dash board cancells 4th ( OD ) gear. It also brings in engine braking in the lower gears. Being an AUTOMATIC transmission it senses load by various means and selects the correct gear for the circumstances ( or as near to it as Mr T designed into it ). It's an electronically controlled box linked to the ECU so even engine temp could affect shifts or possibly stop 4th gear engagement if it was very cold until the car warmed up.

Check out some local locksmiths, I got a key cut and programmed for £50

Common fault with this model sir, I came out from a blood test on Wednesday to find an elderly lady bent over trying to look under mine. I thought she had hit it in the car park at first.

That would work if the key part is external, but if it's internal I doubt it will. The tool I'm thinking of goes over the round outer and has a thread like an easyout that grips the nut.

There are going to be a lot of different ones, probably the easiest thing to do is go to a tyre shop . Most of them have tools that will remove locking nuts without damageing the wheel, and if you buy a new set from them they may not charge.

I'd tell them now, if you leave it a few days they will claim the problem happened after and they are not at fault.

I've seen it several times. the only people that it will help is the customer so it has to get past the government and retailers. Don't hold your breath.

Just needs a bl**dy good clean inside and out ! Sounds like a result, the LPG conversion alone would be more than that.

Mines about the same, so is the Soarer and that's a Jap only car. I don't like it on the Soarer because of the turbo's and it doesn't do the auto box's in either of them any good engaging gear at higher revs. Both of mine idle at the usual revs after about two miles.

Personally, don't let the tank get too low, otherwise all the dirt and sediment at the bottom of the tank gets sucked into the engine Dirt and sediment should sink to the bottom of the tank, and that's where the fuel pick up is. That's why the fuel filter is inbetween the tank and engine.