Manc

Hi Luke, I was gonna suggest the steering lock too, i never put mine on as most times its really hard to get off, almost like im going to snap something. I'm not sure you can get blanks cut, its an inverted key and the few shops/business' i went to for a copy all said i'd have difficulty finding someone who could copy thoses keys. You need to find out if you have the master key. DONT TOUCH the keyhole near the boot/petrol cap release. This is a 'valet parking' thing and only the master key will open this. So make sure the key opens the bootlock at rear of car easily before trying the internal lock near release switches. You see, if you push this lock inwards, it stops the boot release switch working and can be a pain if you dont have the master key. I have to use mine as the boot lock itself is stuck. The master key can program other keys, but if you only have a spare key you need to get yer wallet out & pay lexus a couple of hunderd pounds, or have barrels changed and end up with 3 keys for 1 car (+spares of each!!) Good luck with the motor, i've had mine 6 yrs and am still pleased

if its not the original battery, (they were good but i doubt it is now...) check to see if it has top-up caps..take these off and check the levels, they all should be a cm above the elements. If not top up to that level with 99p de-ironised water from any motorworld / land / factors, or halfords etc 3 of mine were low and i havn't had batt trouble since. If your batt is a self maintaining one then you will have to get someone to check the voltage anyway, they can then usually tell if its the batt or alternator. But check the water levels 1st!!!!!!!! that is normally the issue and the battery can be saved from an early death, and your wallet is saved a beating too :winky:

i've never heard of a headlight amp... dont let him fool you, its prob just a faulty bulb or connection. You can take the sidelight out yourself fairly easily and check. Check lexls.com for guidance, even if yours is a newer model. I'd just put a new bulb in anyway and if it still does it then its the connection to it. No amplifier can sort intermittent signals out, and none is needed anyway. The lights work off your battery and if that was faulty they'd all be doing it

it shouldn't lock when the door is open, its so you cant lock the keys in, well i still managed it one day with the autolock alarm that seems so random. But its an extra safety net for you. The fob might need resetting, you can only do this with the master key or its a trip to lexus..... ouch... The master key should be the only one to unlock the valet bootlock under the wheel (if your model has one). If you have the master then you need to find out the sequence to reset, its something to do with the ignition and pushing buttons etc...i have saw a post on it in this forum It could just be sticky locks, my passenger door never locks with the remote but always unlocks, typically the most annoying way... :tsktsk: i keep saying i'll get around to cleaning it, and fixing the drivers window but......

Can you get better discs and pads for the mk2? Mine squeak like hell and is so embarrasing... I've stripped them and cleaned them and stamped on them....(at 80mph - not the floor :winky: ) and although jetwashing stops it for 5 mins and stamping on them removes it for upto half hour, i cannot get the goddam sound to go It had new pads at xmas, not done many miles since and Im going to order new discs asap... can i get better quality pads than what lexus sell? i cant see it being the discs but they are slightly pitted, but should i but lexus ones?

this happened to me too. when you see its wet, you need to open & close the roof. It seems to not seal properly on occasions and depending on the slope of the car, water sits on the roof around the edges and prompty drips down the window columns onto the floor, front and back in my case, not the boot as i have had to do jobs on the aerial so i have looked for water there, but i just got a few pints inside the car too, i remember scraping the roof several times with a cd case and waterfalls cascading from my elbow everytime. Never done it that bad before or since, but i did used to notice occasional damp spots near sunvisor after several weeks of steamy windows :tsktsk: before the soaking happened, just a simple open an inch and close usually does the trick

Thats the 1st time Ive even heard of that so thanks for the post. Of course, its now set me thinking "do I have the problem"? I top up the p/s fluid once a month due to the dreaded leak but this time of year clouds of white smoke are fairly normal. Or so I thought. i was always under the impression that white smoke meant water in the system somewhere it shouldnt be and was also told thick white smoke was a disaster and stop the car right then, and dark smoke meant oil somewhere it shouldnt be burning. You need to think how cold the day and the engine are when looking at white 'smoke'. Smoke is thicker than the big exhaust clouds that the LS trickles out and white smoke is serious trouble with the engine head gasket. Fix the leak yer lazy so & so - its costs a fiver and it takes an hour if you dont have a brew. Get the engine bay steam cleaned so you can trace the leak. It comes from either underneath the reservoir which is the o-ring replacement job (£2+ postage), or like mine it was leaking from the cooler pipe (open bonnet look down at bottom of fan, see fig.of8 steel pipe - this leaked as a clip had fell off over the years and i was lucky it was just a fiver from the scrapyard :winky: just over £100 at dealers i think So i fixed 2 leaks on p/s for around £8. Cheers for any advice people

I don't know about the door shutting and the drive issues but i do think that the dash lights are a very common problem with this age car. The panel lights need fixing and the cost is OK with a guy both in the States and in the UK able to do the repair. Mine in the Uk was done by Vince ( he's on here somewhere ) and cost me about £75 at his place and waited while he took it out of the car and sodered it up. Then it will last forever ! malc hey malc, did your fuel gauge go slow after the dash repair? mine did. the black dash is fairly cheap to fix thro this site (dont go to dealers, its ten times the cost for this job) i got the door problem too when it was -7 earlier this year - both front doors wouldnt catch when closing, f'kin right nightmare late at night, tied one up with the seatbelt and the bit of wood i use to hold the bonnet open :winky: i then made a brew and held the cup to the doors meachanism, and 2 mins later it shut (just) are you sure it wont go into drive? there is no need to press the brake to get it in gear on these early LS, so i cant understand why? has yours got that lock button to lock the stick (not the finger clutch button!) Think it says shiftlock and presumably stops the kids knocking it into reverse at 80mph?

and if you do, dont tell your wife... or us! jus'kiddin' did you find out what it was then?

Dont pull it, it might stiffen up :D

Hi, yes my radio was crap too, now i broke 2 new masts trying to fit new ones. In fact mw was better than fm b'cos i could get more than 2 stations :tsktsk: fm just scanned and scanned and.... But look in the wheelarch (strip interior) and sometimes the aerial assembly can be rusty as i read some LS hold water down in the wells there instead of draining it, worth a look as rusty connections or housing will lead to bad signals you can fit one of those £80 dab radio devices and then just tune your radio to that. My mate did it in his van, and you dont have wires hanging around if fitted correctly

Hallo mate, Thanks for getting in touch. Holding the release lever down for a few seconds doesnt seem to work either. In between the boot release switch and the fuel flap switch (which works fine) is what looks like some kind of lock, which doesnt seem to unlock with the keys that i have. Does this mean that ill have to go cap in hand to lexus, and pass out when they give me the bill??? Lol. Phil Im afraid so mate, the lock is the "valet" lock intended for keeping personal belongings in the boot and ONLY the master key will open it, presumably valet parkers are thieving toerags and Lexus dont trust 'em?, but really now , would people bother taking both keys out with them together on the same night? you know thats when sods law is at its cruelest and you'd lose both and really be in the sh... I heard the keys were 90quid, but thats if you have the master key as that resets them all...think my mum paid just over £200 for her Rx300 key NEVER buy a car without the master key :winky:

you should be able to tell if its the egr if you open your bonnet and put your head under and towards the middle of the windscreen, or simply park up in a confined space to clarify any blowing sound. my egr is blowing now, its not as bad a sound as the gasket job... I had to replace gaskets where the manifold downpipe meets the cats, cheap job but it can take ages depending on how rusty the nuts are!! the mechanic moaned about it - a lot. You can see if its the gaskets if you drive home when its good daylight (dare i say sunny?) and when engine is hot, lean out of your seat and look underneath roughly inline with the front of the wheels, you will see the hot air around the holes where the exhaust is bent to fit the manifold. If you see the air cloud then you have holes, mine were gone on both sides at the same point - no problems since with those or the main exhaust system, but i kinda like the egr pipe sound and have left it for a few months, but with the cost of fuel getting giddy then i need to fix it to save a few quid

I just know I'm ultra thick too .............. but we must all be not so, coz we all own a LS400 ( I guess ), and that makes us probably the most astute of car owners ! Can anyone tell me what the LS400 cost in 1994 ? Would be nice to know how much deprecioation previous owners took on the chin for me to own my beautiful monster. Thanks guys. Malc :D i think the mk2's were from £30k for basic model, extra for traction ctrl & adjustable suspension, prob no more than 40k for the top spec with custom colours and seats etc. Its amazing such a car is now worth a grand... i've been away from the web for a while anyway so i missed the sites facelift, gotta say i havnt had issues yet, it just looks slightly different on the eyes but i havnt delved deeper yet.. I got a few jobs to sort this summer on my 93plate so im sure i'll see you all soon

i saw top gear do a test on this once and i think they found (an independant tester bloke did the tests!) that the higher octane fuel burnt better and a slight increase in h/p was shown. They used 3 old cars for the test, but dont get exited cos its not like you're increasing the horsepower with mods like turbos or whatever and you can suddenly keep up with the Subaru's and the like cos you spend another £5 on a tank of fuel. Seriously tho', I believe it gives you better mpg, just something i noticed, so the cuople of quid you lose on price you prob gain half back thro efficiency. I think that for the age of the car its worth putting a tank full of high octane in every other week if its got the cleaning additives they claim then it can only be good for older engines? it is only 5p a ltr more so the max 75ltr tank is only 6 or 7 quid more.... what the hell if it costs the earth anyway nowadays, so averaging 3 or 4 quid per week is nowt is it.... but im just the same as you lot, im a tight fisted so & so and i dont use the good gear every time either. These petrol stations have become pirates... :arrrggg-matey: ...i paid £1.50 for a bloody tin of beans&sausages i needed for work whats going on? Think its time we sent in the boys :shruriken:

Yes they do rust...but only a little. Its only just short of a Rolls Royce paintjob. Its 17yrs old & done 220k and the only visible rust spots are small bubbles (2cm) on the wheel arch when opening both back doors. BUT - I've had warnings on MOT for a rusting jacking point and the subframe assy, which i believe is attached to the chassis and is a pain or a massive expense to replace. oh and autoglass told me i'd have trouble when replacing the windscreen as the point where roof meets windscreen is dodgy due to the leaky sunroof syndrome some LS's suffer from. But it still looks good from the outside and back to the underseal...the MOT bloke said i should spray on some old wax type sealy stuff (yes, I forgot what he said shortly after...) all over the suspension & stuff underneath to keep the rubbers usable and he said keeps the crap off..he told me no-one does it anymore but it does work

if the p/s is leaking (or has been leaking) then the alternator is defo broke, its worth a look. Flat batts are usually either - water levels low, some elec part left on, sticky switches, center phone power issues, alternator knackered. If after charging its still loses the charge then its the water levels or alternator for sure. Some batteries are self maintained and cannot be topped up. An AA or RAC bloke (when you spot one fixing someone elses car!) can quickly test the battery/alternator to see if the voltage is correct. Throw the man a fiver for his time and advice

definatley the throttle body job, not bad, done it myself in a couple of hours with several cups of tea!

if its from the front its usually the egr pipe... bit of a bugger apparently but can be done at home for £100 if its not that its the gaskets where the manifold downpipe meets the cats - this cost me £15 fitted but bolts are a nightmare good luck

:D now i know we dont trust our mechanics but give the guy a break, he might be right...he didnt fit the lpg, he's just testing it. Take it to a garage that only does mot testing, not an established service garage. Garages that just mot test have no gain by any work needed, you will then know if he was right or not.

it will be mate, happened to me on my 93, bloke only charged me £15 for gaskets & fitting, but he said he wont work on my car again with jobs underneath it as all the bolts took ages burning off, so it would help if you knew a mechanic bloke :winky:

Re jellybean,'odd for starter to fail at 70k' Agreed, can only assume previous owners, did a lot of short journeys. I think the starter should be twice as big for reliability 'cos of where it's sited!" mines done 220k (ish) and is still fine.... but i was planning on doing my egr pipe soon so would it be an advantage to change starter at same time too? is it really that bad

it could be rusty nuts and joints around the shocks and control arms etc, some may need re-greasing i too have similar infrequent creaks and groans but was waiting for the weather to clear before putting it on stands for the day! Does the sound happen when driving? you know with the normal dips and suspension duties, or just on speed bumps etc if normal it could be the shocks or springs, if speed bumps its the control arms/ball joints you can also check the shocks by pushing down on the wing several times Its prob worth checking & re-greasing everything behind the wheel every few years anyway just realised i dont either

wow, sounds a right can of worms after you buying stuff and the fault is still there suggests its similar to the mk2 dash syndrome. This boiled down to 3 capacitors at fault and i after realising i couldnt solder the tiny circuits then i sent it off to be fixed. When it came back my fuel gauge suddenly didnt work...well, at first. It seems to take 10 - 15 mins to read correctly when you 1st drive it. Occasionally after several stops it might read right straight away but more than often it takes ages. Unfortunately i didnt bother to inform the guy as the car had been stood for a while since re-fitting and time had gone by.. my own fault i know you could do with finding chrisvince on here, he's the expert with mk2 dash only, but he might now have moved on a generation, you never know

Ive gotta think about taking mine to a garage to fit my ariel. Ive bought 2 and no way can i get them to fit. its got no broken bits in the motor housing, its just the masts you buy just seem not to fit the shaft thats in the wheel arch...i've bent the 2 i bought, and thats with changing the motor assy too.. i cant go on with no radio anymore