Haylands

Yes.... Maybe if you bought a fish and called in Tom, then had it cloned it would fix the satnav!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pete

Hi Welcome to the club... haven't a clue which one it is but at least all the display seems to be working and I haven't heard a bad one yet, they all seem pretty good. Someone will come along soon and identify it.... Pete

Hi My advise would be walk away and find another, the water will have affected it somehow. There are plenty more around Pete

Hi HID = High intensity discharge, they don't have a filament like halogen lights, they work alot like a fluorescent tube and have a starter to ignite a gas to create the light, and the gas is Xenon.... so they are the same thing... Pete

Hi This is very easy, see the attached, it is showing the gear surround removed and saying to use a screwdriver to remove the bottom panel, this can be removed without removing the gear surround by inserting a bent pick or a small allen key in the bottom corners where the switch panel meets the gear surround, the panel is held by tight clips and needs a good pull in both lower corners, tape up or protect somehow the gear surround as it marks easily. When you have removed the lower switch panel there are THREE screws as shown, the one in the center is deeper in the dash than the other two, DO NOT DROP THESE SCREWS as you will never see them again and they will rattle, I use a blob of blue tack on the screwdriver and get my other hand in to catch them should they fall. I don't know how the switch is fitted to the panel but I imagine it is just clipped in. Good Luck Pete

Just had mine done as a valet parker at the airport smacked a curb with it and the steering wheel was off center, had it four wheel laser aligned and all four were out, the rear camber is adjustable via a cam bolt on the lower wishbone thingy.... I expect the 400 is the same I asked the guy why he didn't just do the front and he said it makes a difference with these modern cars (never had it done on my old Cortina!!!) Anyway it must have been out a bit before because now it seems even better than ever, the feel through the wheel is better and the turn in is a bit crisper.... Cost about £60 I think, had to have a tyre as well and the bill was nearly £200.... and of course the valet company are going to pay.......NOT.... Pete

Hi Bought one for a LS430 and it is excellent, well worth the money.... Pete

I am 53.........pardon? I think he is trying to say that he has fitted a rather nice set of big wheels wrapped in those very thin tyres that you and me couldn't handle at our age, he has also lowered it, again probably too low for our old backs to get in and out, he has also fitted a rather large and rorty exhaust pipe that would deafen us and I believe the last bit is that he thinks it looks like a dogs testicles....LOL Not our cup of tea old boy but wouldn't the world be boring if we all wanted the same.... Pete (44: old, decrepit, grumpy git!!)

Apparently the government put pressure on the insurance companies to stop giving "driving other cars" insurance as it was being abused by people buying second cars and registering them to their mates and then driving them..... So yes some companies have dropped it but others still keep it... Pete

Right... Car is booked in for me to do it on 27th February, have taken a filler to the paint shop to get it painted in the car colour and had a play with some tanks... Looks like I'm going to use a 68ltr four hole full toroidal tank, you can fit a slightly larger single hole tank but these are slow to fill compared to the four hole tank that fills at about the same speed as most petrol pumps. There has to be a 20% space in the tank for expansion so it will give a fill of around 54-55 ltrs which will give a range of about 220 miles. I will start a new thread with pics when work begins Pete

Boxbrownie, Thanks for the offer but even my nokia n73 is better than your box brownie!!!!! Chris Skelton LPG is known as GPL in France and GLP in Spain and Portugal It is widely available in France and is getting much better in Spain with more and more stations, it’s about the same price as over here. You need an adapter to attach the filler nozzle to the car with the French pumps... About £15, but I believe the Spanish are using the UK/Dutch bayonet fitting. There are overlays available for various aftermarket satnavs that show garage locations in the UK and across Europe, do a Google to find them, they tend to be free. Will be seeing my mate at the garage tomorrow and sorting out a date to fit it so will let you know soon..... Any more questions or suggestions please ask Pete

Steve Mileage 10000 a year Average Mpg over last 5000 miles for me was 22 Petrol cost 109p per ltr LPG cost 50p per ltr (max) That's 2066 ltrs of petrol a year at a cost of £2252 Or 2582 ltrs of LPG (you use about 20% more) a year at a cost of £1291 That’s a yearly saving of £960 Or another way 23p per mile on petrol and 13p per mile on LPG That’s 10p per mile cheaper and an equivalent mpg of 39 Your car will be worth a minimum of £500 more at resale, probably nearer £1000 for the top of the range kit It would cost YOU less than £2000 for the kit fully installed So take £750 as an increase in car value so you have to save £1250 before breakeven That’s 12500miles There are more and more garages selling lpg, if the demand is there then they will keep selling it, all our local police force vehicles have been converted to run on it and many bus companies are using it as well There is also a large increase in the number of LGV's being converted to run on lpg as well as diesel, about a 20% mix and you either gain power or economy. So the demand will only increase the supply will match it after all the oil companies just used to burn it off as a waste product now they can sell it.... The government have promised to keep the duty at its present rate for a rolling three years so the cost should stay low until well after you reach payback So..... watch my thread which will be started soon and then you can fit it yourself and save even more!!! Pete

Hi Car looks very clean.... You spent all day washing yours.... I spent all day making one of my other cars look dirty.... If I bring it around do you think you can make it look as good??? Pete

Hi all Circumstance have now changed (mileage travelled/cost of petrol) and I have decided to fit LPG to the LS430, if you read below from an earlier post of mine you will see that I wasn't going to fit LPG on grounds of reliability, well I'm now going to fit a Prins VSI fully sequential injection system with spare wheel mounted tank. I will do the install myself at a registered LPGA approved installers premises and it will be certified by him on completion..... Now the question is would anyone like me to photograph the install and create a topic on here showing what’s involved, or are you just interested in the savings...??? Let me know your thoughts Cheers Pete I worked for a LPGA approved garage for about 18mths fitting single point and multi point on all sorts of cars from a 3 cylinder Matiz to a 12 cylinder Jag and just about everything in between.... I do not know everything about lpg and others on here may know a lot more, from my limited experience and a general interest I have found out / noted the following, I'm putting it on here to help others make the decision...... lpg or not???? A few Facts about LPG It has a lower calorific value than petrol but an octane rating of about 110 It burns hotter than petrol It produces no acid in the ignition process It will give you better emissions then petrol (if set up correctly) An Lpg tank is virtually impossible to damage enough to cause an explosion, a controlled release and ignition into a flamethrower yes, but the pressure in the tank is too great to allow oxygen back inside to create an explosion Now there are two basic types of installation, Single point Multi point or injection Both systems introduce Lpg in its gas state into the engine instead of petrol (Ford tried with a liquid LPG injection system but it didn't work very well) The basic or single point system involves a tank with a pipe to a vaporiser which turns the liquid Lpg into gas, this is then fed to a mixer which lets the gas into the engine, with this the amount of lpg let into the engine is controlled by a stepper motor in a closed loop system, this takes a reading from the lambda sensor and then adjusts the mixture accordingly, this is the type most commonly used (there is a system for early cars with no Lambda but they are few and far between now) Multi point injection system, uses a tank and pipe to a vaporiser which then feeds gas to an injector for each cylinder, this is controlled by a separate ECU that "steals" info from the cars ECU, adjusts the gas injector opening time accordingly (you need the injector open for longer to get more gas in than petrol because of the reduction in calorific value). The system also monitors the Lambdas and adjusts the mixture with them as well. A properly set up injection system will have no reduction in power over petrol but will use approx 15-20% more Lpg than petrol, the emissions will be better with less C02 being released, indeed you could even remove the cats and still pass the latest emission tests (but this is not allowed). Most Injection systems start on petrol then swap over to Lpg after a short time, this is usually done at a certain temperature Contrary to popular myth this has nothing to do with a car not working on lpg when cold, this stems from early systems with poor vaporisers that could not vaporise the lpg unless they were very hot, I ran a Range Rover V8 for several years that ONLY used LPG, it started on LPG at -10c with no problems.... The reason the systems start on petrol is to give the petrol system something to do, the early days saw cars run for 1000's of miles just on lpg, then the driver ran out and switched over to petrol only to find nothing happened as the petrol system had stayed dormant for so long it was all seized up!!!! Now most injection systems that are SET UP PROPERLY will not have much of a detrimental effect on engines Most single point systems will damage an engine unless they are set up right. I saw lots of single point systems on cars where they had been set very rich to get the system to run because of badly matched parts, the vaporiser has to be big enough to cope with the demands of the engine.... ie the bigger the engine, the bigger the vaporiser that is needed, the mixer is very critical to each engine as well. It is easy to get a car to run on lpg, the trick is to get it to run right. Most cheap single point systems will work but they will flood lpg into the engine and cause a rich mixture, this creates excess emissions and will damage the engine. If you have a single point system get the emissions checked, this will give a good indication of the quality of system/installation. Interestingly a friend who has an MOT garage always checks emissions on duel fuel cars on petrol because "they all run rich on LPG don't they" Lpg, being gas, is a dry mixture and does very little lubrication, I would always have a Flash Lube system fitted as it can't do any harm (just check it gives 5 drops per minute at tick over with a warm engine) Lpg does not like running with platinum spark plugs, it can give misfires, although I did run a Voyager 3.3 with platinum plugs for 15000 miles with no problems.... The engine oil does not get very dirty when running on LPG as there are minimal acids and other nasties from the combustion process, this does not mean you can change the oil less, it is still getting bashed to bits by the engine and wears out just as quick, it just stays looking better..... So go for it if you do loads of miles but make sure you get a well matched, well installed system especially if it is single point... Oh and before anyone asks no I haven't got it on my LS430 I know what’s involved in fitting it and I know how many original wires are cut and spliced and I don't want to reduce the reliability of my car..... most engine running faults on cars with LPG are down to ingress of water or wires chaffing from the original install and I bought a Lexus because I wanted reliability as well as a nice car.... Pete

Blimey talk about bad luck.... I had a pigeon hit a windscreen a few years ago and it smashed the screen (laminated) and the mess spread from there to the boot.... good luck cleaning it up.... Mind you a mate of mine hit a sheep at about 30mph in a nearly new Mk111 Cortina years ago and it wrote the car off!!!!! Pete

Steve Sorry to be pedantic mate but a speedy is only allowed to read faster than actual speed, they are not allowed to read under at all, maximum over is advised at 10% (construction and use regs) Just for info mine when checked with sat nav reads 73 at a true 70.... but 99 at a true 100....... Pete (sorry but the new car fund is looking a bit low.... might bump it up here soon and get some more pennys....)

David Bought one of these for my car and they are excellent value and pretty good http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEXUS-RX300-330-350-...1QQcmdZViewItem Might help you out with the plugs Pete

Why are you taking it off? If its for the reversing sensors, you can remove/replace them without removing the bumper. If its damaged, have you damaged the front as well as I saw a brand new front bumper on ebay for silly money, think its still on there Good luck Pete

Spoony.. I've got the same parrot in my LS430 and mine only mutes the front speakers, I think its normal And before someone asks yes it has got Lexus sat nav, I use tomtom on my phone with spoken speed camera alerts, stick it it my top pocket and let Lexus tell me where to go and Nokia how fast to go!!!!! Pete

Seeing as you asked so nicely...... Should be able to sus it out from this Pete

Don't quote me on this but they look very similar to the Mark Levinson amplifier plugs that are on my LS430, had them off recently to fit a parrot bluetooth kit, don't know if the RX had that option though Good luck Pete

Chris This is correct, if you don't have a master key you cannot put your car into "programme" mode to programme in another key, you have to replace the vehicles ecu with a new one with new key, hence the price. There are locksmiths around who can reprogramme the old ecu but this still costs around £1000 You have a good case for a claim against the dealer who sold you the car, it could be argued that you have not recieved the car in a road worthy condition because you are unable to programme other keys... I'm no lawyer personally I would speak to one if they can't/wont help. Good luck Pete

Andy You have an airbag at each corner that replaces the spring on a normal car and also a shock absorber, if the car is low on one corner then it is the airbag, there are height sensors on each corner that determine the amount of air needed to level the car, it is USUALLY one of these that is at fault. Most garages should be able to check them out, without the need to go to the dealer. Clifford alarms are adjustable but I would leave it to a specialist as well, muck about too much and you could immobilise the vehicle totally Good Luck Pete

Hi If you are insured fully comp this covers you for all glass not just the windscreen. Sorry, don't know how to remove it though, would imagine you have to remove the headlining and remove the whole thing in one go, was like that on a Range Rover I used to have... Good luck Pete

Hi Does seem to be acting a bit strange, mine doesn't behave like that and I leave mine in auto most of the time, but at about 19-20 deg, think I'd get it checked if I were you. Pete