Cotswold Pete

Sounds like either ECU playing up, though not sure in 2004 model you would be seeing that. Not aware 2004 model has 1UZ. Other option the throttle body needs a jolly good clean, which worked to solve stalling on my LS.

Might get my LS converted to a campervan!! Would save on hotel rooms

The problem with this feature on the Bentley is that unless you have a valet, you need to get out the car and get wet to stop yourself getting wet. Maybe best to just sit in the car until rain stops, but that means you enjoy the luxury of being dry in a pretty darned nice motor (be it Bentley or Lexus) for a little longer, and you employ a valet (or the kids) to do do the shopping!!!

Cheap Multi-meter - £7.99 at Screwfix, always using mine and helped solve a few problems on my previous LS (and many a job around the house) Might be able to see if the speaker wires are presentng some kind of resistance, or AC voltage which might show amp is connected, but just not working. Either way sounds like a bit of a pain sorting. Best of luck

You can quickly check that the bass unit has it voicecoils working. Just get a 1.5volt battery and connect to the speaker terminals, you should see the cone move, but you should hear a click from the cone. If this works, it implies the speaker is working, which might mean the amp is not working (or the cabling is not delivering to the speaker). a 1.5volt battery is not going to damage the bass unit if it is a working unit.

I would not pay £15K, but can understand why someone might. I would love to drive it just to see how it feels compared to mine. Surely the bushes etc will have deteriorated even though mielage is low, so it would not be a 'tight' as it was in 1997, but no doubt be a bit firmer than mine at 202,000 miles. My MK3 was silver, and my only complaint with the silver is the darker skirt colour (to me) never looks quite right. Also a garage that is heated can be a problem as heated air holds more moisture, so although this car would be less corroded from not being out in the rain, it will not be free of corrosion, unless the garage is also runnnig a de-humidifier. Have put it on my ebay watch list just to see if it goes.

How far are you from Japex, down in High Wycombe, I have never used them, but seems they know Lexus and Toyota inside out

I think modern oils are really aimed at modern engines, especially where you have turbos spinning at high speeds. Semi-synthetic fne for LS, (unless you want to drive every where in 1st, and keep the revs as high as possible). Fully synthetics are designed not to break the oil (chains of atoms) at 7000rpm and above for sustained periods. Mineral oils cannot sustain this kind of abuse for long. My LS (202,000miles), uses next to no oil between 10k services, and where I have topped it up, usually less than 0.5 litre just used 10-40W (which is what I use on my wifes X-type - which eats oil for a living - only done 130,000). I have never observed what 'smoke' comes out of exhaust on cold start, though I do check from time to time for water (only because I ignored water on my Omega - which was gasket going. I was being stupid and thought coolant needed replacing as I had a leaky hose, where as it runs out the car was p*ssing water out the back). Still if the Omega had not blown, I may never have got to own a LS 13 years ago. I must confess I have never asked what my garage uses for services, other than I know it is not fully synthetic.

Agree, and it is odd that the world and his wife are talking about repair and recycle, when the manufatcturers are saying, making a serviceable unit is more expensive than a fixed unit. No different (I suppose) to when we had valve radios when a valve blew you replaced the valve, same with discrete transistors, nowadays a DAB radio is more than likely to have a special chip set which if that fails after a period of 10 years, your chances of being able to source the specific chip is rare. The very reason why Morris Minors will still be running (assuming petrol still for sale) in 50 years time, where as a LS500 might just be a musuem piece (as well might be a Nissan Leaf). Progress is not always progress, just change

Just spotted this LS460 om Gumtree (getting bored at work) MOT advisory on rear shock. LS460 - Torquay Not my colour, prefer darker leather.

I would find out what was done to deal with handbrake, I had mine alls sorted out a couple of years ago )before it got to be MOT problem. Not cheap sorting out rear brake binding problems from my experience, but now i can park on any hill you like, and no binding on release. Took a few days for my local garage to source new handbrake cables, so maybe same here, as it took 4 days to re-MOT and pass in May. Worth a punt and it has original tool kit intact, so either owners never worked on it, or they loved the car well. The wheels look a bit more raggy than I would like, and check the boot spare to see what state that is in, for boot leak syndrome

I have got, but not yet tried a Clay Mitt, just need to get some detailer spray for when I next do the car. Not sure if quicker than using a bar. To date have been using T-Cut, which I know cuts a mirco layer of the paint, but I only do it about once every 18 months, and mainly need to do T-cutting as a result of local blind people leaving their own car paint on the LS.

Looking at my cars last MOT the Rear Brake pipe corroded is flagged, yet Osaka said all looking fine. Not sure if MOT chaps 'think' it might need a good poke about with to check, or whether there is something specific they see, which means they know the pipe is going to need doing some time soon. Some of the other advisories on the 430 would have me jacking it up to have a good look, and that engine light !!!!, especially as it was flagged at previous MOT

To be honest a little more grip on dampt roads, no differnce in really wet or bone dry, but I feel the Maxxis are not a trye I will return to as they seem too harsh on a lot of mediocre roads. I have Maxxi on front and Nexen on rear, much preferred it when I had Nexen all around. Am considering Falken for replacement of all 4, as in past I have noticed having different brands front and rear makes the LS a little 'wierd' whereas in y Vauxhall days never noticed such problems with mixed brands. In terms of fuel consumption, not noticed any change in my mpg on commute since lowering pressure.

Same here, and I might buy a second hand 500 for fun as well, but (as my wife points out), you need to be in it to win it, and I buy a lottery ticket maybe twice a year (usually when cr*p has kicked off at work and I wish I could walk into the office and say I'm Off) My LS is coming up to 202,000 miles and everything works, the only slight pain is the wing mirrors need resetting every few days, and the rattle now coming from the drivers side window now and again.

George, a totally valid point, and my post was only to see what other people think. I would agree that the grip in wet is the thing that should be the focus, as when an LS starts to loose the backend it can be a little scary, and given the wet summer we have had more grip on more days is nice. Also I find the LS with certain tyres on some roads feels like your driving a Jeep, but always found Falkens the best all round for noise (not quite as quite as Michelin on average surface, but fine on rough roads) I agree all weather tyres seem to be coming down in price, so maybe that is the future. Having been in Audi A4 on snow tyres in the snow was impressed at how easy to drive. Any rear wheel drive in the snow scares me, especially an automatic. My first 20 years of car driving was in front wheel drive, never got stuck, and drove over 80 miles in the big storms of the early 80's and my Escort Mk4 or Cavalier Mk4 always got me there (with underwear intact). The other thing I hate about driving in the snow is that other drivers seem to be the problem, and prefer not to have some *****-womble ploughing into my LS as they piroutte about the A46

Looking for new tyres for all four corners - so not a cheap day on the credit card coming up any time soon. My question is whether anyone has done any serious compare of whether running with tyres that are rated E for fuel economy are using that much more petrol than one rated at B or C in the real world. I have sat down and worked out some numbers to see how ratings actually make a difference worht worrying about. Looking at Pro Tyres - the Falken Ziex (at £83) is E rated, where as a Bridgestone Turanza T005 (£125) is B rated. My maths (or math if American) means if I buy the Bridgestone I spend £160 more. So lets be reasonable and say the tyes are only going to last 20K (given front scrubbing I seem to get), my commute to work gives me 25mpg so in 20,000 miles I will burn 800 gallons (3636 litres) which today would cost me £4,620. If I say that a B rated is 5% better than a E rated, then that means I could have saved £230 over that distance (which for me is about 2 years). Now to me that means saving a few quid up front puts me about £70 (£230 - £160) out of pocket over two years, which is one weeks worth of commuting to work every two years. Me thinks no reason to go for the Bridgestone unless I was flush with cash when I go to tyre depot. I guess if i was a fleet manager the above savings might be worth doing, but one LS does not constitute a fleet.

A very nice car, not that I would ever own one, and the reason being although I live is a small Cotswold town, work in another Cotswold Town, it seems to me that trying to keep my car in nice condition is thwarted by other tw*ts driving into me when I am parked. Over this weekend another numpty had a go at kissing the front bumper, which from the looks of the 500, would have meant a new grille and hefty insurance claim. At least on the 400 is was a jolly good rub down with a old cloth, and later on maybe T-cut. But the chrome strip is damaged. I think I just give up making my LS look like Tip Top and just keeping it mechanically tickety-boo What is it with people who have no idea how to park without hitting all and sundry around them. This is the 8th time this has happened to me over last 25 years of living in Cotswolds, never had this problem when living in Bristol for 20 years

An LS is a car that once owned, hard to let go of. I keep meaning to try a 460, just to see if it can persuade me out of my 400, but at 202,000 miles the 400 is going strong. The only thing that bothers me is the LS range is so quite that any rattles seem to be prominent, but most 20 year old motors will have more rattles than your average materinty unit. Some twerp in a hot hatch Renault something or another was bothering me on way to work (sat in my boot they were), so a quite blip and the tank was up to 90. Nice to know it can still do it.

Having seen a Century now and again during my travels back in the late 90's and Early 2000's, not a car that appeals to me at all. My first trip in an LS was a mates Mk1 in 1993, and immediately liked the style and comfort. Not been in a Century, but the one I did get a good look at made me think it was a bit like being in my Grans back room in the 60's. The body styling (to me) seemed to be somewhere between Detroit Dustbin (I've drvien a fair few of them) and Ford Scorpio. The V12 seems quite low powered, and for pulling such a lot of metal about, the performance (surely) would be nothing like an LS with your foot down.

My current battery (only one month old) and the previous ones were Exide range, slightly underspec but previous lasted 55 months, car used every day. About the same price as Bosch. If you get an RAC battery they give 5 year guarentee, but last time they quoted me it was £120, so given Exide has 2 year guarantee, but always lasted at least 4 to 5 years for me, seems like not worth paying RAC premium. Having said that, my wife had her RAC battery fail 10 days before the end of 5yr guarantee, so result, she has a new battery, so for her worth paying the premium.

Jim, GS300 SE is a nice car, mate of mine had one for a while, it would be the car that would tempt me out of the LS400 now that I can get away with a smaller boot.

Been in GS and LS and my view is this. GS is like an LS but is more responsive on the gas at the lower revs, so feels more urgent from the lights. The LS will get there but will feel like it had to make sure its slippers were on properly before it pulls the nose up and goes. GS feels like it is going to allow you to push on through a corner with more bravado than an LS, though an LS can do corners at speeds that mean any tractor around that bend is going to be embedded in the bonnet in the next second. Never been in a GS in the wet, but I would suspect it is a little more stable. Had my LS up to 125mph and to be honest that seems like my limit, though car as stable as a rock, never been in a GS at that kind of mph. LS is quiter, though in my view not much in it on most road surfaces, though an LS versus GS on a dead new smooth surface, the LS was so much better to be in. So if ultimate agility is your thing I suspect the 460 might not quite cut it, but likely to be a close run thing. The 460 is chain drive, so assume saving £500 - £600 every 60K to 90K miles helps.

Mk3 loved the fog lights, loved not having a sat-nav (prefered the old LCD stylee), but did not like not having traction control, and did find main beam a little weak for when pushing along those country lanes at night. The Mk4 is also a little more quieter and the HID lights with self adjusting level make life a little easier and I prefer the Mk4 alloys. Mileage is no issue and mine has got me from 132,000 to 201,700 miles and apparently looks pretty okay underneath. (My Mk3 only got me from 135,000 to 192,000 before I changed, and I recall when first getting in my Mk4, that I had found my little Nivarna).

That drivers seat looks amazing even for a low mileage LS. A fair price for such a nice looking car, assuming it drives well and runnnig gear all tickety-boo