rabnoolas

Mat you've ruled this out on cost but for completeness.... buying http://www.towequipe.co.uk/1/1/2509-watlin...loon-95-98.html fitting (similar to Mk3 I think) http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/body/trailerhitch.html Best of.... Rab

Thanks Boss. I'll sort out the aerial with a minor rewire. PS I love the car, hope you love yours too. Rab

Hi The 2001 430 has the ability to search for street name OR town first, if you put in the street name it tells you which town has a street of that name. Maybe yours will let you do that? If I still can't find places I usually print off a Google map or something and use the "point on map" option. You cannot get an upgrade for postcodes unfortunately. I think yours is a CD based system and I have heard this place do updated discs cheaper than Lexus http://www.toyotalexusspecialists.co.uk/ For the 430 you can get an interface for DVD and reversing camera from this place, maybe they do yours as well http://www.tvandnav2go.com/ This place do Tv on various Lexii as well maybe worth a try http://soarer.tv/ Hopefully someone with your car can answer better later Glad you like it Pete I love the car and thanks for the info Pete. Will try all of these. Rab

I'm new to this. My previous satnav was a PDA (handheld sort of glorified calculator) with a tiny screen and charging cables waiting to snare anything close. I now have the inbuilt version which is impressive. It has a posh voice. The children christened the old satnav 'Doris' and have decided on 'Cynthia' for the new lady. She is quite clonky to interface with though, some girls are like that. She sometimes refuses to take directions to anywhere other than home, which is touchingly emotional but not what I need. She also doesn't use postcode programming. This coupled with the fact that you need to specify the 'city' first can lead to issues....for instance I took the family to a wedding on Saturday. The church thought it was at Whittle-Le-Woods in Lancashire. Cynthia didn't recognise the street name in Whittle-Le-Woods so Google was employed to get directions and I got Cynthia to accept a street on the route. I found out later that Cynthia reckons that the church is resident in nearby Wheelton. I'm not arguing with her (I have 2 daughters and a wife and experience has taught me the futility of arguing with the fair s*x) but it would be handy to either plug in the postcode or not have to guess the town city. Anyone know if I can re-educate Cynthia? Is there a way of sorting by roadname? Also has anyone out there had the screen plugged into a reversing camera, DVD or TV? Finally, I noted yesterday that the radio arial elevates on ignition aux position. I replaced the arial on my Mark 3 and wired it to elevate on radio only (decends on CD or tape). Are all Mark 4's like this or has someone been playing?

Today I picked up my Mk 4 LS400, bought off Ebay for £2550. The car is great with new 18" alloys and tyres, all the series 4 goodies, FSH etc. The only faults I can find are; blown internal light bulb, duff drivers side door mirror glass and the road noise from the new tyres. Nothing a few quid and a little patience won't fix. Sadly I will be putting the last few things to rights on my series 3 next week, whizzing it thru an MOT and it must go via fleabay or the local rag. I hope I find a good home for the beast. I'll post some pics of them both this week. Why is it so hard to say goodbye...... Rab

Ken, a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. Much nicer condition than my mark 3. I'm having to buy a mark 4 to get close to the showroom condition your car is already in. Yours enviously....Rab

Hi Kenmac, Great to hear you have bought an LS400. I can now forgive any minor concerns Top Gear gave me..... Something good came out of it. As Manc says the forums and club here are brilliant. Everyone will help you and there is piles of stuff especially on the american sites should you want to do some of your own servicing. I hope that you will enjoy the smoothness of the drive and all the electric goodies, especially the sound system, with its "Sizewell B" output amplifier. They really can run forever. I've heard of 1 car in the US clocking up 600,000 miles, but if you keep the fluids in good order 1,000,000 is a fair target. I have done an 1800 mile fuel check, and am averaging 29.5 mpg overall, but the tracking was out so I hope to break 30 from now on. Happy driving. Rab

I'm sure that there used to be beagles who smoked a lot, normally in science labs. More worrying is how they get into air conditioning equipment. Rab

:winky: Gents, if you didn't see Top Gear series 11 episode 1 (yes the loonies are back) on Sunday, you can still catch it on BBC Iplayer. The last 20 minutes are given over to a series of challenges to buy a second hand car to turn into a Police vehicle. James May opted for a M reg LS400 in Champaigne Beige. I would recommend watching the mayhem at the end of the programme (which I found very funny) but 3 things worried me; James bought a car for £900 which at first sight looked in better condition than mine!!! Is an LS400 so much slower than a BMW 7 series? Is an LS400 a car bought by masons? Rab

Hi Rob, if you paid paypal you can open a dispute (in dispute console on Ebay summary - read the blurb there) and escalate it to a Paypal dispute. This means they record your mails and then have to resolve it. You may still not get your item but it will get him into lots of bother. Worked for me once. Rab

Hi alxm, my series 3 dash looks exactly like yours. I haven't seen any like that U tube video. Don't fret as long as the warning lamps work!!! Rab

Hi Mr2Lad, Glad you're getting it sorted. Hope it ends up how you want. If you want you could post a picture of the final outcome and make us all envious. Happy Lexing, Rab

Hi Mr2lad, My series 3 is a 4M9 too. I rang the local Lexus agency in Chester as I need to do some painting as well. There's a fella there who s supposedly red hot on paint numbers. He said the paint code for the deeper bronze tone was VCA77 but I haven't tried it yet, so I can't vouch for the number completely. Hope this helps. If you want to ring and check yourself the number is 0151 355 5555. Lex long and prosper. Rab

Thanks Steve. There are a couple of parts I could do with. Rab