Tinonline

Steve is the expert here. If you can: I’d strip down and re-seal using new gaskets and seals. Not mechanically complex, rather time consuming. That pink residue looks like some leaks but could be over spill. Do replace the coolant reservoir cap if it’s it’s worn or old. A little leak of pressure over time will drop the coolant level. Even carefully filling and bleeding the system needs a few miles and recheck/top up to stabilise the coolant level: after that it doesn’t move.

This is interesting… I thought that it was the fuel system: joints, seals, pumps, injector seals and internals that were prone to wear and damage from low grade/E10 fuel and anti knock is critical…that’s core engine performance and sustainability. So how then can % performance and economy be less with the new E10?

Yes I’ve had a rethink…agree with the comments and will be sticking to E5. I do modest mileage. It’s greener to keep older cars on the road than scrap them to build new, particularly with toxic, inefficient battery tech.

Annoying…how old is the battery and what make? Could be a circuit left open but I doubt it…good to make sure boot light is out when shut. Turn it off and on…disconnect battery: wait 20 mins reconnect and do usual Lexus dance and procedure…this will reset systems and ecu. 🧐

Tricky…It’s come in quickly…I’ll do a bit of both. Later 400’s can run on it - no additive needed. As per above most except above will be ok. I suppose this has been in the works for a long time so manufacturers have future proofed their vehicles? I don’t understand the exceptions though on this basis. I’ll run it and see if I can notice any difference: pinking, temp variance, performance changes and mpg etc. 🧐

In that case normal servicing and cleaning will suffice unless you get an MOT advisory or a warning light…or you want to proactively change stuff because you want to get your hands dirty and make use of an offer you can’t walk away from…🧐👍😆

Looks great. The market seems to be stiffening for the Lexus and if I follow my usual timing I will have sold or out aged mine just before they get a great return🤭 I think I’ve mentioned before aged, good condition luxury motors tended to be priced by the trade at between 7-8k for many years. Not sure what the thumb rule is now.

Feel for you…in worse case you can source a recon unit or new from one of the big global suppliers that source OE so it will be well priced even with tax and shipping, then get a friendly garage to fit. I’d use mot as a diagnostic point. You can go for non OE but it’s work ensuring it is still quality. I faced similar dilemma with a £300 -£500 quotes for a wheel bearing. I wanted to buy OE bearing for 70 quid from Arayama or whatever they’re called but sourced an SKF quality kit (made in Japan) and got a known Lexus savvy garage to fit: complete price to fix £105. You are on 70k miles? I’d be surprised to see major failures generally…

Yes I’ve often been ok with aftermarket but had a bad experience with squeaking pads that proved to be a quality issue and an Indy Merc garage saying that they’d had similar and just stuck to OE. OE Lexus are part ceramic so I wouldn’t say without any noise but tend to not fade and you know you get a given quality. My XKR had incredible braking, so much so I had to not to brake hard late generally as a car behind me would not be able to do same if they hadn’t kept their distance…or were paying attention…many years ago I collected a Vauxhall Cavalier on to my Porsche Targa 911 spoiler as I full stopped at traffic lights. OE is great as it fits, lasts and performs well and is a no brainier if a price deal. I know this gets tough when prices are at super silly…I’d look at US and ensure ceramic content…not cheapest…

I thought I was a heavy braker but missus slams em on …. For what it’s worth: front discs can go to 90k but just worth doing before if your pads are ready or you’re getting shimmy or they’re plain thin. Rears about same but will have less pad changes. Pads go for 30 to 40k miles and you’ll have the warning light on when they’ve gone beyond useful life. Pretty good until the end… The pneumatics usually compensates for wear. If you’re not happy you may want to get your master cylinder and servo checked out. Or use the MOT as the diagnostics. That’ll give you very exact braking efficiency stats. And hopefully faults.

I’ve used Brembo and they’re good. Got a front pad set for my Alpha 155 sport and that’ll stop so well the body will leave a couple of subframes in the road…😁 also on my ex car XKR. But I’d only buy from reputable, well known distributors. Brembo have come in to the mainstream so I do wonder about who owns the brand and at what cost vs quality given to expand. The OE give excellent mileage and performance. The price deals mean it’s worth replacing discs after a few pad changes…especially at the front.

Check Lexus Parts Direct in Swindon https://lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/ I’ve bought OEM fronts and rears at very good value.

Indeed - had it been a later model - that button would be the passenger injector seat...🙂

Sharp bit of marketing? Our age group most likely to buy a caravan to lug behind our motor? 😁

To explain😂left of thumb is the sensor covered in grease … it’s not obvious if you don’t know the part! T’other one was clean: not grease covered.

Pads and discs no option but in pairs. Shock absorbers same. Springs you should too. Coil on plugs on some cars like Jags : all of them … wheel bearing I believe is a unit by unit replacement if the mileage is moderate.

(long post warning: please ensure you have you’re preferred beverage ready and are comfortable) 😁 Typical, after the hassle of working through a front wheel bearing replacement: finding a garage that would split the hub, extract and install and fretting about OE or non OE…there were unintended consequences. I’d driven over 40 miles and it was my return journey. As usual, the Lexus sat nav only knew the Roman and medieval cart tracks, so I ended up more cross country than intended. Some of my sojourn was spirited. Halfway point saw me detoured through Farnham in Surrey and on braking to a stop from 5 mph downward the ABS on the wheel with new bearing kicked in without need. It did it on every firm stop. There was no ABS light activation. Oh great, so I wondered what in the wheel bearing was wrong…incorrectly mounted? Wrong way around…? Except there’s no magnetic reader…dirt…as the bearing had worn in from grease? I tried again from cold this morning…same from a modest speed: it grabbed and squawked with the brake pedal flutter. Just on the one wheel. OK, so Google revealed this was a common potential problem with all wheel bearing repairs and sometimes brake replacement; but it wasn’t that easy to pinpoint a fix. My Drivers’ side front had a new SKF bearing with new nut and oil seal. I had spray cleaned the disc and pads on that side. Everything had assembled easily and I’d torqued up all bolts to spec. Nothing untoward occurred in the first miles post new bearing fitting. So I removed the drivers’ side wheel/removed the abs sensor with a 1/4 drive 10mm socket. A small bit of dirt sat indirectly - a little on the sensor head, the speed ring looked relatively clean. Using cotton buds I cleaned the ridged ring via the sensor mounting hole. It was lightly grubby. Then packing said hole, I took to my metal file and filed away the rust buil-up around it and the surrounding areas. I wiped it with a WD dampened area of cloth after blowing away debris. The sensor was cleaned with a cloth and tiny bit of WD on the cloth before wiping clean. I’m not a fan of copperslip, but I smeared this around the collar/seal of the sensor. I refitted the sensor using the handled file and soft mallet to work around the shoulder of the unit and pushing by hand I observed it was firmly home with a little of the copperslip squeezing out from the body of the sensor. Then to the untouched side. Wheel off/spray cleaned the discs and through the back of the caliper, wiped off the dirt. This time on removing the sensor I was greeted with a different sight. The speed ring was well greased and the sensor was covered by a decent layer too. Again using cotton buds I cleaned off as much grease from the speed ring as possible. Removed it too from the sensor. I repeated the process of filing away rust build up to a clean flat surface, used the copperslip and put everything back together. The sensors’ 10mm bolts were torqued to 7.8 Nm. by the way. I disconnected the battery and went away for a coffee. With the later LS400 after reconnecting the battery it’s a turn of ignition key to position ON so ignition and dash etc are on and wait for 6 minutes then switch off. Then you are good to go. All fired up so off for my test drive. I know the experts talk about different tolerances, too much signal variation between the two wheels on the axle, air gap from sensor to ring…and I’m sure that’s exactly what it is. I’ve equalised the sensors working environment I suppose. If they were both grease covered maybe that would have been fine. All is well and back to normal. Hopefully this will continue. 🧐 I reckon if you can’t balance it all up it makes sense to replace both bearings. But there again, given mine was shot for example, and it didn’t once trip the ABS, it does seem to be about balanced operating conditions for the sensors. Probably, I could have just worked on the non repaired side to achieve the fix. Hope this is useful. (apologies the photos are a bit rough)

Thought this might be of interest: Courtesy of Gov.uk website: https://check-vehicle-compatibility-e10-petrol.service.gov.uk/manufacturer/ Lexus E10 petrol is cleared for use in all Lexus European petrol models made from January 1998, excluding: IS250 2.5 litre V6 with engine 4GR-FSE made between August 2005 and September 2007. GS300 3.0 litre V6 with engine 3GR-FSE made between January 2005 and September 2007. LS460 4.6 litre V8 with engine 1UR-FSE made between August 2006 and September 2007.

Now back on the road. Although bearings don’t need running in, a few miles are needed to melt the grease and bed everything in. Now, you know I really crave OEM. My preferred route was OEM but too fiddly, over costly so I got the SKF kit for £55 (discounted and it’s well over a ton at some suppliers) for the bearing, oil seal, clip and retaining nut. Genuine SKF interestingly manufactured in Japan. Removal of old and refit was £50. Given time frame, hub splitting and service this is reasonable. So £105 all in. If you have the press or puller then it’s parts cost. I’ve seen this marked up as a really tough job…no it’s not. You do need the right equipment. You can’t bang stuff out with a hammer. Removing the upright was so easy: don’t take prisoners, use a decent size torque wrench to remove bolts. A normal ratchet is too hard work. I liked a US forum comment regarding tightening up of the upper control arm nut…”creep up on it…don’t let it see you coming…” I used my electric wrench…by the time that’s done it…(it’s not that powerful) I was able to use my torque wrench to finish up to the torque with no complication of the ball joint turning. I followed the service advice of not disconnecting the pad wear sensor line and opted not to disconnect the abs line either. There’s no reason given for this but logic suggests it might disturb the settings/feedback and I did run the engine to turn the steering so I could get to the brake caliper bolts. I don’t like copper grease. I’ve applied to brakes and mating surfaces disc to hub and hub to wheel previously…it has gone. Disappeared. So I want to take out the pins and pads and use brake grease. Funny for me…I always steered 🤣 away from working on suspension but Lexus Lego is ok…show it a big torque wrench and it’s ok. I know it might be different if you’ve a well driven 250k miler when age has welded planets together…if you need heat…do replace all of the parts. I did look for US parts…but eventually sourced from AUTODOC. Done that for an indicator unit plus my aged Alfa parts… As a final thought…£280 to £500 for a bearing change…really. This is a simple service part and replacement. Welcome to the plumbers and builders federation: “whistle…that’s a tough job…” The reply is: “no it’s not, I’d do it now if I had the x tool and I don’t mind paying for not having x tool but this is ok for me as a non pro…” VW used to sell on the ease of removing their engine for major work…yeh it’s just 4 bolts easy as (true). Then a little later: whistle…oh the engine has to come out for that. 🧐 Don’t know what I’d do without this Forum and the support…👍

Some progress on the bearing replacement: My friendly non franchise Merc garage didn’t have the equipment to help and a few garages ran away for cover…but UK Tekniks in Maidenhead who have a Lexus/Toyota guru on board gave me a quick slot for Saturday. With the upright in a small suitcase, I took the train to Maidenhead from Reading. I was back in under 2 hours. This evening I started to put things back together. I didn’t intend to to it all but make a start. In not very much time I had the upright on and upper arm on and torqued up. I used my electric impact wrench to drive on the top ball joint nut and used the torque wrench to finish it: worked a treat. ABS sensor pushed back in. I’ll fit the caliper and clean up the brake pads…I’ve used some brake cleaner already. Should be good to go.

Yes this the option I’m going for. Get it a place that will do it. I did part one of the job this morning. All went very well. To my surprise…and the upper arm ball joint seems to be ok which I didn’t expect. To get the nut cap or cover off I just firmly tapped around and levered with a screw driver and mallet. To stop the upper arm ball joint bolt from turning I held it with a thin pair of grips to get the nut off the last bit.

This is great: the later marque 400 instructions. Yes so a press is needed. Would one of the 5 ton pullers work, available on eBay?

I use Rock Auto and have a beef about their packing. Twice items have arrived in poor shape. Delco used to be a premium player and I wouldn’t have qualms with them. Also, The US is a good market as the legal stricture around deliverable quality is far tougher than here. Do check out AUTODOC and Micks Garage as they can be useful.

Oh I know I’ve taken so long to get to this. I was sure the LH bearing was going…all noise was on that side. I checked the balance weights, visual inspection of joints all looked good. Imagine my shock on a journey when under braking terrible scraping noise erupted from left hand side. Checked the mileage since last brake work…can’t be worn already…despite my driving style.🤭🤫 Then the terrible grating from driver’s side on slow steering on reverse…how I slept that night I’ll never know. Well, the terrible scraping was a corner, loose and hanging from the engine undercover…snapped and held by a single bolt. Sorted that. Back to the driver’s side front. Definite clicking on rotating the wheel. Creaking is from that side. Ahh…with hands 10 to 5 I can feel movement. How difficult to fix at a garage? Ok chucking it at Lexus but nobody else wants to know. That’s it. Fed up. A wheel bearing looking like a minimum of £300 to fix. Forget it. For now: skf kit with bearing, oil seal, nut, snap ring comes in at 60 quidish. Either someone will deign to fit it for me or I’ll take the thing out for disassembly and reassembly. I could do it…but I don’t want time and complication of sourcing the tools. Or more cost for a one off job. The Lexus service guide shows hand tools deployed…can’t see a 5 ton press in sight…tempting…

I’m going to have a thorough look once again...my diagnosis is usually very fair but this has me a bit at odds.