Cotswold Pete

I know it is bit out of your way, but Infinity Exhausts, Dodington Ash (Just off M4 junction for Bath), had mine done a few years back, Y piece gone, cannot recall exact price, around £200 i think, done while I waited (well went for a walk around the footpaths of James Dyson estate for a few hours. They seem to be of the view of you want a good repair they can do, if you want anything techically tweaked or pimped up can also do. 3 years on no problems with exhaust

You could check if it is boot seal, by gently pulling at boot seal, if it moves, then means the original mastic has dried and boot seal needs cleaning and re-seating or replacing. With both my Mk3 and Mk4, the water ingress was near the boot lock, not the clusters, even though the boot seal had actually gone near the rear window. Did once have a Cavalier where the clusters leaked, and the reason was a mild bump at back had moved the bulkhead by about 2mm, which was enough to ensure the new light cluster never sat correctly, and even with lots of silicone i could never get it to stop leaking.

Is your a Mk3 or Mk4, the back bulkhead changed between the two. My Mk3 did have a slight leak at one point, think it was just a case of taking out cluster and reseating. On Mk4, I would have thought water ingress much less likely. Do you know if it is for sure coming in the where the cluster is, or whether it is is maybe coming in from top of boot seal and working its way around the boot until it appears near the cluster.

240K for cam belt is madness, but not sure what the recommendation for water pump is.

Still on original water pump which surprises me, but it sounds fine, a very very slight whine, but been like that for the last 30K, so may not get to 240,000 which is only about 3 years away. Still amazes me how ruddy good these cars are at this age and mileage. Getting a few niggly rattles at slow speed on some roads, so need to work out where they are coming from, but at 70mph on the motorway as quite as a dragonfly fart.

199800 - I have 3 full-road-width speed ramps I need to traverse every day on way to work and then back. One of them is quite severe in incline and at 15-20mph will put shocks under stress, so I assume after 5 years of these they helped create earlier failure. I assume the people who hit them at 30mph either have company cars, or are not aware of how shocks hate these beasrts of the road. Was out with a mate of mine for beer last friday, he traded his Mk4 for a 430 2 years back, and now he has saggy air suspension (goes down over about 1 hour). Suggested he goes for coilovers, as he only wanted a 430 for the cooler cabinet. He is also fidning out that not having stainless steel exhaust is another pain. Having been in brand new 430 when they came out and 400 when new, the 430 was a different experience, but a tight 400 IMHO is a perfectly acceptable ride, and mechanically more robust over 20 years. There is one other thing I noticed last night. This is that up until Monday if I parked up and then after that drove off with full lock, the car felt like the car was sliding in direction opposite to lock. That problem is no longer, so I guess the car felt like it was sliding as the spring compressed with no absorbtion of pressure to protect it. It was a really weird feeling, almost like the wheel was going to come off it's bearing. Maybe that is one way to test if shocks are completely shot. Not expecting to have this problem for the lifetime of my ownership of the car.

I will admit that it is not as good as a Notting Hill Carnival setup, but it sounds pretty annoying to my missus if I am out cleaning the car with the music turned up. Anything louder in a car is surely going to re-arrange your internal organs, and the purpose of LS is to cosset you.

I believe they are OEM, and I recall when I took car for inspection a few weeks back, they said having had LS400 with KYB shocks on is never the same as going for original and they have replaced a number of aftermarket shocks when quite new because they made ride not at all good.. They did say it is not cheap to do it right. So bill was £735 - that also included fitting of new stabiliser bushes, which were starting to go. Each shock was £202 + VAT. Not cheap, but with suspension and control arms my preference is for OEM. On way home tonight I could feel the back end shocks as being not too good (on some speed humps), but I think I can live with that for rest of year, and then look at what needs to be done. Also asked about the cambelt (now on 60K) and was told not to worry about that for a while yet. One other thing with new shocks was noticeable lowering of road noise on some of the cruddier motorway surfaces along the M4, not as quite as being in a field with only the noise of butterflies and whispering grass, but will allow my wife to make herself heard more clearly when telling off for undertaking (as i was filtering left off the M5 coming south to go towards Wales last weekend), DOH!

Just had new fronts shocks fitted by Omega in Newport. Only one day driving so far, but amazed at the difference. No tramlining and the car does not crash about like a knackered old Land Rover when it traverse that great British institution - the lesser and larger spotted pothole. Also corners without trying to dive into the tarmac, and the bounce from putting on parking brake has gone. Not sure whether to get the rears done, as that is another wad of cash, but I suspect changing them will make the car even better. Need to give it a proper try out on a trip down to cornwall in a few weeks, and see if I can persuade wife to let me part with some more cash.

Matthew, Cannot recall your previous work on car from your other posts, but when I had ECU problems in Mk3, it never behaved like yours, mainly it would run at 600 to stall, never ran up to 1200. However on Mk4 I now have I had something similar and it was throttle body that needed a good clean. Also had new plugs fitted at last MOT and that has cured the odd gear shifts I got. Never had limp mode (only had that in an Omega - which was auto-box playing up), or vac light. Admittedly my Mk4 is 2 years younger, but the ECU is not showing any of odd problems, so if it is leaking it has not (to date) gone AWOL like the one in my Mk3 was doing. I know what you mean about curing one problem seems to highlight other niggles (and sometimes bigger issues), so best of luck

Totally agree, had a near miss last year driving from Cirencester to Stroud when a deer popped out onto road. I was doing 60 the car coming the other way was doing 60, it was night and when we were about 100 foot apart this deer thundered out of a hedge. Thank heavens for decent brakes. So when driving scenic routes I tend to chiil down to 30, but even at that speed I have side swipped badgers (out early evening), taken out rabbits on Watership down, and had many a near miss with grouse/pheasants and the odd cyclist (not there fault - I am a cyclist and living in Cotswoldds you hope cars on scenic roads are not trying to do a Fangio). As to motorhomes, when spending time in USA, saw motorhomes the size of National Express Coach towing a runnabout (full on Range Rover), would not wanted to have been meeting that on some of the backroads around Maine.

My view is that all these small cars look blinking huge, makes me feel like the LS400 is a Tardis, as it essnce only 40% bigger than that iQ, but probaly feels 100% bigger inside the LS. Now an original mini against an LS, the mini would be true to its name.

Never heard if the NC500 until this post, but looking at it it seems like this is a 5 day journey with lots of breaks to soak up the views (or the haar), why would you want to rush around in a day or two. Reminds me of many years ago while at the Liverpool Garden Festival in 1984, staying at a B&B in Chester and there was this American couple who had planned this trip Day 1 - Heathrow to Edinburgh Day 2 - Edinburgh - Ben Nevis drive by - Stranraer Day 3 - Northern Ireland Day 4 Southern Ireland to cork Day 5 Swansea to Chester (they were looking a bit ragged by now) and they reckon they could not find an castles in Wales (for real) Day 6 Chester to Lands End Day 7 back to Heathrow Nothing like watching great countryside just fly by the window😵 before getting back on a plane

Those single track roads in Scotland do drop the mpg. Recently up in Kinloch Rannoch, most of the runnning around in a mates Volvo V40, sure it was more fuel efficient but no way as nice as trundling my tank along the road from Pitlochry to Kinloch, though nearly ran over a red squirrel (maybe LS to quite for them to hear!!!) The run back was Kinloch, to Arbroath (for lunch) then back to Cotswolds via quick detour into Dundee, and though a long drive, felt well less worn out than my mate in his V40.

So far can only find ghost lights for LS430 and 460, none so far for the 400, so wondering if we are out of luck with our first gen LS purchase

Here is interesting link on fitting coilovers to a 460. This would be my preference rather than refurb air suspension. LS 460 coilover report I have often wondered if air suspension could be done with flexible kevlar would it last longer, but I am sure even kevlar would give problems eventually.

Can you sense whether the vibration is coming from rear or front of the car. If rear then could be trailing arms, or worn drive shaft (not nice) as Phil suggests. However could be handbrake, I had issues with odd vibrations (more like juddeering) at around 40mph, but handbrake was more or less totally siezed, but strangley no overheating. Also what is the status of your shocks, my fronts which are the originals cause a 'sense' of vibration between 30 and 45mph, and seems to vary with tempature, so I am having them replaced next week. Osaka of Newport said all other bushes fine (apart from ARB - they are being replaced at same time), so maybe consider shocks as a key. Best of luck, as over the years have had various vibrations on my Mk4 and Mk3, and never easy to diagnose without going to someone who knows the LS inside out.

Had the same with brakes, driving me mad, then went the whole hog and had Lexus discs and pads fitted including new shims, and had handbrake overhauled, so no squeaks of clunks.

Booked it in for new front shocks and ARB bush replace with Osaka. She wallows like a whale and shocks almost not worth being there (no leaks though) So in two weeks will give her a clean inside and out and maybe get around to repairing aerial.

I would have thought it would have been snapped up by now. If I had the time I would go and have a look, but involved in a manic refurb of a Nephews new flat, so zero time to breath, let alone look at the car

I use a local 'motor factor', J E Clarke (Stroud) for general car spares So maybe google 'midlands motor factors' see if any of them can do a good price. My last battery was replaced by RAC and I recall it was about £80 ish about 3 years back. Seemed like a good price abd surprised he had one in the van when he came to sort out my starting issue.

Just came across this on Gumtree. LS430 - Abbeydale If someone nicked my 400 tonight I would be having a look at this (as well as being totally miffed that my 400 had been nicked). Looks like he is a dealer of some sort, mainly cheap runabouts.

Agree something going on, I recall the days of driving down the M4 from london, and every day would need to wash windscreen. Drove 550 miles the other day dwon from Pitlochry and the screen as clean as when I left. Not right, sure our 4 litre monsters are doing their bit to change the environment, but the cost of rail travel to Pitlochry made the LS seem cheap to fuel up.

I would suggest never running all the time on supermarket fuel, it is in spec, but does tned to be dirtier as the supermarkets just buy the cheapest they can on the 'spot' market. I recall a few years back Morrisons diesel was the cleanest diesel you could get, but things change in the fuel industry all the time. I only use supermarket petrol about in in every 10 or so refuels. I also try and make sure before an MOT the car has a motorway blast before hand. Hope you get it sorted

That does make sense, and I guess most of your clients want a bit of the bling factor which the Lexus does not have in the mind of the general public. As a business decision it would have to be the 300 as the client's perception is the important thing. I would add, that the first time I got into a 460 was as a passenger, it was a cold blow and a rainy night (as Planxty sang in 1974), I knew the car was a luxury barge and thought I had got into the back of some Merc. Was shocked to be told it was a Lexus. So maybe having clients with bad eye sight and weddings on foul weather days means you could get away with a 460.