genius149

Got my copy of Which? car 2006 today and was chuffed to see the IS250 on the front and loads of plaudits inside for the new model which was the best buy for the 6th year in a row in it's class. The GS and RX came out really well as well.

36 and this is my first Lexus.

At 23 I think I was driving a Triumph herald, then a very, very, rare manual 1960 Mk1 P5 Rover 3 Ltr saloon, that had the added extras of...disk brakes, sunroof and overdrive. Despite being a 33 years old it had only done 59,000 miles when I bought it and it was rotten , this was swapped for a Mk 5 2ltr cortina that had the doors welded shut, the roof cut off and nothing to keep it dry if it rained :duh: The car was mine, the garage was my just as unsensible parents! :P :P :P

I'm a bit more sensible now

Update from this morning...

Started fine, but then I realised that the engine is idling far too high (it is being sorted for the air leak next week) so it was a pointless exercise, but then I'm not a morning person

Sadly though, i had a brief encounter this evening with a young lady in a Citroen AX who was driving a little too fast down a very narrow country lane. Her car was wrecked - I have a dented (well flared) wing, bumper and a smashed headlight. The irony is I had just ordered a new bulb for the o/s headlight as well :duh:

Thanks genius,

I've followed some advice form somewhere on here, suggesting turning the key to '0n' for 10 seconds before turing to 'start', and this does seem to work, I can hear the pump run. I wonder if, because the car always shuts down when running on gas, the solenoid to turn off the petrol is off. When you turn it on again, you have to give the LPG conversion's 'brain' a chance to open the petrol tap again, and also give the petrol a chance to get back to the engine before firing it up. Just a guess

Rob

aaah that would seem logical. I tend to do that anyway as part of putting on seatbelt/sorting out radio/phone etc. routine. I'll try starting straight away this morning and see if I get a problem. (apart from being late for work )

Cheers

Neil

Hi,

Can you explain the nature of your starting problem? I have an LPG converted ls400 that has a starting problem, I wonder if its the same thing. After leaving it overnight, I turn the key and it fires well, climbs quickly to maybe 1000 rpm, then drops to zero. It tends to do this 2 or 3 times, and then on the 3rd or 4th attempt in quick succession, it climbs to 1000, drops to nearly zero, but just catches itself and climbs to idle at about 600rpm.

Touching the accelerator as I turn the key solves this, but obviously this shouldn't be necessary.

I was wondering if 600rpm was a little slow for a cold idle. Do you think my engine is attempting a 'warm' start, even when its cold? Or do you think it has worn valves like yours? It doesn't have flashlube; I better get that fitted.

Many thanks,

Rob

Hi Rob

It turns out that my car needed a new set of plugs. It didn't help that the air filter was the wrong one for the car and that when the throttle body was bolted back on, their was two bolts missing so that my car still had an air leak (It's getting sorted next week). For your LS, if the spark plugs are easier to access than on mine, have a look at those first.

Good luck!

Hi and welcome to LOC.

My big tip about satnav is to go to comet and get the garmin i3 - it's only £99.99 at the moment (well it was last week until the moneysavingexpert email came out and they probably sold out in a day or 2). That model is cheap but very highly rated.

If I wasn't getting married next month it'd be the one i would go for.

The reflection on the back made me think that the pink floyd DSOTM prism would look good as an alternative to the Lexus logo - on the right coloured car of course.

If your looking at paying for a replacement out of your own pocket from say Autoglass/RAC windscreens etc etc so they source and fit a new screen your looking at around £700 to £1000 :o so a friend of mine told me who works for a mobile windscreen firm ;)

That price sounds scary

My XM screen was rated as 'the worst ones that we had to do' because they are also bonded and I recall paying no more than a couple of hundred cash for it about 3 years ago. I can't imagine them costing a lot more than that now.

I'm being quoted 18 hours labour inc a skimmed head, the car is worth barely that.

Can anyone help with a good Lexus Independent mechanic in Surrey or South London ?

Or maybe an engine replacement option. Anyone know of a decent RECON LEXUS ENGINE operation ?

Thanks alot

Daren

Ramsgate is only 90 mins or so from Croydon and Thanet Engine centre will certainly do you a good deal. They reconned my head, replaced plugs and cambelt (easy with the head off) when I thought my valves had burnt out due to my LPG conversion. It was only spark plugs in the end .

My beast has since done 6000 trouble free miles in the last 4 or 5 months since it was done.

Shouldn't be much difference between V6 and V8 as the ECU is often the same (my LPG ECU is for 5-8 cylinders), basically parts and labour to fit an extra pair of injectors. Go bigger than that and it'll rocket as they may use two ECUs running in tandem! Seen this setup on a huge American motorhome with a V10 engine.

Mine cost £1700 inc.VAT. Morrisons are doing LPG for 39.9p/litre, with triple saver points that effectively bring it down to 38.4p/litre. The same station (Morrisons, Morfa, Swansea) does unleaded at 91.9p/litre. Even with the "20% less mpg on LPG" that's still near-enough half-price motoring. Wish I'd done my Carina years ago, I did 100,000 miles in that!

Yep, working the price up from the cost of LPG to the cost of super-unleaded with the MPG thrown in for good measure, I calculated that mine was the equivalent of around 42MPG, which means my GS costs me slightly less per gallon than my previous 2.5TD Citroen XM. I was talked out of buying a 1990 LPG converted Celsior which would have done slightly less MPG but a hell of a lot more car for my money.

Flashlube is an essential though.

If I were to ever veer away from a lexus it would have to be a big citroen powered by vulcans blood. My previous XM was a real beast and the comfort was without comparison. The C6 promises more of the same but with a bit less of the weirdness :duh: . It will depreciate like a stone but what a satisfying ride it will be.

thanks,sounds good but does club not have list of dealers who give these discounts?

I think it would be easier to list dealers that currently don't offer discounts.

I am unfortunate as my local dealership is Canterbury and they gave me a flat "no" when I asked. Until I find another stealership (indie or otherwise) that does, there's not much incentive for me at the moment. No doubt this will change soon, as my car will be due a service.

The toyotaimportforum is also good for advice, tends to be a lot of specialism on the Soarer tho, which was my 'wanted' car before I got my GS.

I ran my LPG tank to empty and got precisely 249 miles before having to flick to petrol, shift to neutral and restart the car (I was doing 65 at the time) I worked out that I was getting approx 18mpg and that I would need to fill up every third day :o but at least it only costs between £20 and £25 each time :P

Scarily and in no particular order:

1st wedding

Divorce

Engagement rings :P

2nd wedding & honeymoon :P

Kids!

best bargain was Michell Transcriptors hydraulic Reference Turntable for £300 about 6 years ago. It's probably worth about £800 - £1000 now and just looks and sounds awesome. The guy I bought it from paid a fiver for it from a boot fair

Induction kit might give you an extra 15hp for and extra 200 quid. Exhaust upgrade for 500 quid will give you more power. However, you'd have to have a turbo added for 6 grand to give you some real power. See here.

http://www.tdi-plc.com/gs300.html

Being more practical, you might as well swap for a twin turbo Supra or buy a GS430 with that lovely V8!

Or just swap the current engine for a twin-turbo one from a supra... :P

Only a tenner!! oh well, it's half a tankfull i suppose! I've only had the car a few weeks and only driven it for a few days - the 'story' of my car and the reasons for flashlube are in the gs300 section. I don't know if the power loss is that significant, but mine is still plenty fast enough, and just cos a car has been converted doesn't mean it can't be chipped or modified to release a few more horses. I am quite content to just waft up and down the motorway in quiet indulgence. The savings are very real as I have only put a maximum of £19 worth of gas and that lasted me a good 200+ miles. I will know more in a week or two as I get some regular use out of it.

Check out http://www.lpga.co.uk/Contents_f.htm and read up on autogas - it lists all the lpga approved converters and all the filling stations in the uk.

My filler cap is in the bumper very low down so you can't really see it. It causes no problems filling up as you 'lock' the pipe on a bit like formula one. It can be a bit fiddly locking the mechanism though. :duh:

If you do a search on LPG on the forums you will find a few interesting stories and facts. Personally I was considering buying a 4litre V8 Toyota Soarer and converting it, but these are apparently the most complicated engines to work on and the converters would have been scared

The general consensus is that you should also get a flashlube system fitted - just do a search on eBay and you should find one easily enough for around £40. Some LPG converters fit them as standard anyway.

The other thing I would recommend is get as big a tank as possible. I have a toroidal tank (fits in the spare wheel well) and it's not really big enough as a tank will only fill to approx 80% capacity, and I would like to travel further between refills.

The bigger tanks that fit in the boot mean you lose some boot space but you can then keep the spare wheel.

Oh yeah, if you travel into london the congestion charge is free, don't know if it makes the Tax cheaper or not yet - I have to wait a few months yet.

And the name of this fine establishment...?

Thanet Engine Centre, on Manston Road, Ramsgate

I think it was via the TIF or a google search :duh: . I was hoping to get a V8 Soarer or a Celsior, and ended up getting a GS300 LPG conversion.

Got the car back today!!! :D

They weren't sure if there was any problem with the head, so they skimmed it, and re-cut all the valve seats. the spark plugs weren't in the best of health so they replaced those, along with the cam belt as it was a simple job to replace it. They also fitted my flashlube system for me.

With Labour, parts and the dreaded VAT it all came to a fraction over £750 which is either a) bloody good value considering the work done and the fact that the car is pretty worry free for a good while, or B) a bloody expensive set of spark plugs!

I'll choose a) as they kept the price as low as poss for me and they came highly recommended and probably could've ripped me off big time if they wanted. B)

...and in case you're wondering what Colin's talking about, there's a Flashlube kit for sale here. I insisted on one when my car was converted.

I bought one from this guy and it arrived very quickly. Mine was fitted this afternoon, and although I may only have needed a new set of plugs, the head has been thoroughly reconditioned and a new timing belt fitted. It now runs absolutely beautifully.

If you're only doing 60 miles a week, your mpg will be horrendous whatever fuel you use so I would stick with the LPG as the cost is 40% of super unleaded.

Good luck,sounds like theres alot of work ahead of you..Be interesting to see how much damage there is to the valves?

chips..

:duh: Have just spoken to the engineers who have stripped the head down, and they were surprised to find that the valves were all OK. They are going to do some investigative work and make sure that the valve seats and everything is all good, but they think that the main problem could be one of two things:

1) Spark plug #6 was seized in the head. If it is then then it is a :tsktsk: expensive spark plug :tsktsk: :tsktsk: :tsktsk:

2) There is a problem 'lower down' with the pistons. They are going to pour some liquid on top of the pistons to see how long it takes to drain. Either way I have another few car-free days

Do all ex-XM owners buy GS's??

I also owned a fantastic 2.5TD Exclusive XM. It was quite wonderful and I am amazed still at how well it handled for such a huge car. It was great fun leaving beemers and golfs for dust on the motorways and still averaging at least 40mpg. Sadly a seized water pump and numerous other things that had just worn out spelt the end for my Thunderbird 2 lookalike.

As for Rovers, I have owned a mk1 3ltr Manual P5, a couple of P6 2000s and a hondover 213, but sadly never an SD1.

I have recently acquired a 1998 GS300, the previous owner had liquid gas installed, I dont do

a lot of mileage and the car has only done 35000 would my using the lpg hamper the engine

performance in any way?

Jeanette

Hello

In my experience of using LPG yes you do lose power, i think the more power you have got the more you lose, but is a lot cheaper and you can always switch to petrol if you fancy a blast...

The one thing that I would also advise is having Flashlube fitted. Having owned my LPG converted GS for 3 days and then having an exhaust valve go, it's £40 very well spent. My own beastie is having the head reconditioned and new valve fitted etc, luckily for a miserly £600 +vat. Better than the £3400 Lexus would have charged me. luckily the service manager at lexus recommended the place I'm getting it sorted at.