Mike Floutier

I seem to have got a problem with my cd player as the cds won't eject, none will play and I get a "cd error" message. Does anyone know how to fix this? Many thanks. Mike

Just to finish this off, I took it to the garage who had an enormous slide hammer etc but in spite of them all having a go no one could remove the hub - 225,000 miles and eight years had taken their toll. I bit the bullet and bought a new steering knuckle. End of story except I now have shaky steering - but that will be a new thread. Thanks for your help with this. Regards, Mike

Sorry Brio, I missed your post. Yes, I have partial success with this issue in that I have a temporary solution which is not ideal but fine fttb. I've left the air-sus and headlamp levelling fuses out to prevent the "failsafe" dragster/superhard supension situation and have adjusted the ride height and absorber damping manually. To answer you question: 1. You can adjust the damping by turning the rod in the absorber unit. You will have noticed that you have to turn the actuator by a similar amount to enable you to refit the actuator. 2. Assuming you have left the air-ride system operational, any manual adjustment you have just made will be over-ridden straight away by the system. 3. The trade-off for operating it manually (ie. removing the fuse) is that you lose the anti-dive/squat/roll capabilities so when you brake the nose dives, when you corner the car rolls and when you land after going over a hump the whole car may bottom out. Having said that: 1. I've been driving for weeks like this with minimal disruption - I'm a very gentle driver, and 2. There has been no reduction in my ride height showing that the air side of the system is sound. There is an alternative to the method of manual adjustment of the damping we have just mentioned - this is paricularly helpful for the rear as it saves removing the seating etc. This method involves applying battery voltage to the actuators' terminals on the ECU plugs. This has to be done in sequence as there are several solenoids in the actuator and need to be enlivened in the correct order. Full details are given in the worshop manual which is amazingly helpful when you find the relevant page. Hope this helps. Kind regards, Mike

Thanks Malc, Yes, looking more closely at the situation I'm inclined to agree. I think I'll give up my ideas "breaking" it off and give it to the garage who will have a selection of pullers as I can see that none of my pullers would work. Thanks for the diagrams Richard, they too point towards needing a specialist puller. Kind regards, Mike

Thanks Richard, will let you know how it goes. Mike

I just had this idea to use the weight of the car to get it off. 1. I raise the car with a couple of strong axle stands under the x-member so it's resting on the stands. 2. I replace the brake disc and wheel. 3. I raise the car a further inch and place wooden blocks or whatever under the wheel so there is no gap. 4. I drop the car onto the axle stands, so putting breaking the hub loose. So what are the potential problems with this: 1. There is too much slack in the suspension to load the hub sufficiently. 2. The car falls off the stands or damages the x-member with the sudden force. Solution - I could jack up the car really high to allow a large block under the wheel. I would then lower the car slowly onto the stands and so bringing up the pressure on the hub gradually. Yes I like the more controlled approach. What do you think? Anyway Richard I'll wait for your pdfs before trying this. Mike

Thanks Richard, it's mikeandliz.floutier@btinternet.com

Hi Guys, I'm changing my front n/s hub as the bearing has gone. I've got the bolts out but it won't come off. I've put WD40 on it and tried banging it hard and I even managed to get a piston retractor to push it away from the knuckle but no movement at all. I'm supposed to be picking up a new customer in the car at 10am so - HELP!! Would heat help? I'm a bit concerned about heat as I think the knuckle is aluminium, what do you think? Any ideas welcomed. Thanks Mike

Hi Aky-B, I got mine converted when I bought it at 143,000 miles. I'm just coming up to 225,000 miles so I've done 80k so far. Like you I'm a PHD and do similar mileage, definitely recommended. I had a Ford Scorpio 4 cyl 2.3 litre before. This was also gassed and I did over 250,000 miles on it with the gas before selling it on e-bay for twice what I wanted owing to the atractiveness of the gas installation. The point about a lube system for the valve seats is a must. It adds to the cost, startup and ongoing but with the miles we do it pays in the long run - protects your investment. I paid nearly £2,500 for my prins multipoint system. £400 sounds very attractive. I guess if you can find people with Lexuses who've had it done and it lasts for high mileage without damaging the car then it's got to be worth considering. Regards, Mike

Thanks Guys, But I still couldn't find it, Eventually I found this pic in the air-con section/blower unit removal. Hopefully I can find it now as it will be a boon to further diagnosis. The other connector I'm having trouble finding is the "short block". The instructions say, "remove passenger scuff plate and pull back carpet". Well I've done that on all 4 scuff plates and I cant see any connector. Has anyone done this successfully? Thanks again for all your help. Regards, Mike

Tigerfish, You could be right, I must do that, will let you kow how I get on. In the meantime any help with locating the air-sup ECU would be invaluable as I just can't find it. Regards, Mike

Just to update this situation, this morning I just dropped a customer off at Heathrow and as I was driving away the car really started bouncing up and down. I think what happened is that the compressor operated again even though the back is jacked right up bringing the air pressure up to maximum - ie. no more increase in height just pressure. I drove around for a while thinking that this was not acceptable for my next passenger when suddenly there is this great high pitched musical fart (sorry, I couldn't think of a better description) and I'm wondering what on earth is going on. However the ride immediately returned to "normal" (still jacked up) so I realised that it must have been the exhaust valve overload device releasing the excess air. I didn't realise there was such a device in the system but thinking about there must be to avoid damage to all the pressurised components. Anyway.....I got home ok (none of my customers have noticed anything amiss btw. which is good) and as I've a few hours before my next trip I removed both rear ride height sensors and tested them according to the manual. They both checked out fine. Incidentally, I've read a lot of threads talking about water ingress and various damage - mine were both completely clean inside as the lid seals with a rubber "O" ring. There was a very slight carbon build-up on the brushes which was easily removed but as I say the readings were normal - voltage rising nicely from 0 - 4.5 as the link was turned. So....where does that leave me....there seems to be plently of wiring to test for continuity. One thing I need to do whilst still on the sensors is to check for the presence of voltage at the relevant terminals on the Air-sus. ECU. I see that it's somewhere under the passenger side at the front. Has anyone found theirs? If so can you give me any tips for locating/accessing it? Another question..... I haven't fully discounted the exhaust valve and I'd like to test it. The manual says to apply 12v to the terminals and see if it works. I took the wheel and wheel arch lining off yesterday to attempt this but could see no way of getting at the terminals, even to check the resistance let alone getting a pair of battery wires in without sparks flying. Any suggestions?? Thanks for reading...please don't hesitate to give me your thoughts, I'm really not ready to hand the car over to a garage yet. Mike

Ok, I've been thinking this through a bit and would appreciate your thoughts. Going through the possibilities: 1. The compressor is ok as the back is pumped up to the max and I can still hear the compressor operating from time to time. 2. Actuators (is this the same as "ride height control valves"?)can't be at fault as a failure here would imply low suspension not high. 3. Height sensors could produce this problem as the failure of one would lead the suspension ECU to pump up the back to the max (if you think it through that must be true) 4. Exhaust valve failure would not allow the pumped up back to go down BUT if that were the only fault then how could it get pumped up so high in the first place. Also, as there is only one exhaust valve, why hasn't the same thing happened to the front? 5. The struts themselves can't be the problem as a leak would give low height not high. 6. I guess it could be the ECU but I'm sure that's unlikely. Finally, the back does occasionally go down about halfway implying that it's an intermittant problem which is more likely to be a dirty/corroded sensor. Does this make sense? I'm favouring the sensor as the culprit in the absence of any ideas. I guess I'll try to remove them one by one and test them as recommended in the manual. I believe that I should be safe to drive with the sensors removed, would you agree? Phew! Regards, Mike

Thanks Rory but I've checked the fuses - there are quite a few of them. There is also a relay and a fusible link for the air-susp. - not sure how to check the relay apart from substitution. Any other ideas are welcomed. Mike

Hi all, My LS430 has now done 225,000 miles and I have a fairly serious problem - as you can see from the attached photo. I had been concerned about general stability recently when, the other night, the "height hi" warning, plus red triangle came on, but went out pretty soon. The next day it stayed on for an hour. The front is not affected (has always been fairly high) but the back is now up at dragster height - see pic - same at both sides. I should say that I have read everything on the UK and US sites along with the Landcruiser stories and the LS430 workshop manual. When I switch off the the engine the rear height eventually goes down a way, but not as low as normal. Starting the engine while stationary does not cause it to rise, but as soon as I drive off it goes right up. The warning rarely comes on now (inspite of the problem persisting) and at no time have any DTC's been reported. Today I had some time and found that adjusting the rear height sensors from lowest to highest made absolutely no change. One question that I haven't seen mentioned is: "If one of the rear height sensors fails, what is the default response from the air-suspension ECU? Does it simply default to max height on both sides?" If it does, this would answer my question: "Why is this problem affecting both sides equally. Surely both sensors can't have failed simultaneously?" I did a test btw to see if raising one side of the rear on a jack would affect the other side. The result was that it does, but only by a smallish proportion. I'd like to test each rear height sensor. Does anyone know the resistances I should expect across the 3 pins? As I said, HELP!! Seriously, any advice would be gratefully received. Reagrds, Mike

Hi, This is my second car with lpg and on both I have used iridium tipped plugs. The reason for this is that a higher voltage is required to produce a spark (with any given plug/running conditions) in an lpg environment as compared to the standard petrol mixture. The result is that higher than expected demands are placed on the ignition system leading to higher wear in the longer term and, in the short term, you may notice "mis-firing" at times of high ignition load; eg pulling away from lights. A feature of iridium tipped plugs is that they can be manufactured with a smaller tip resulting in a spark being produced from a lower voltage. This obviously solves the problems mentioned above. I have not run my Lexus on platinum plugs so I can't compare but my old Ford Scorpio (lpg) suffered from mis-firing with new platinum plugs which went away with iridium. hth Regards, Mike

THanks Steve, Having looked at the prices of light computers I'm going to replace the bulb as the old one has done 186,000 miles and I drive with them on all the time. Regards, Mike

Hi all, I too have recently developed this problem - well at least my car has - hehe. Can anyone throw any further light on the problem since 2005? Basically my n/s xenon starts up as normal but turns off after about 5 minutes. If I switch the lights off and on again it lights up properly for another 5 minutes. btw the dashboard warning system does not report the light as having failed. Kind regards, Mike

Thanks Steve!

My front pads will need replacing soon. I've done this once before so I'm happy to do it but I notice that the discs seem pretty well worn. I can't see in the manual how to get them off. Obviously I need to remove the caliper first. Does the disc then come off by itself or is there anything else to do first? Many thanks! Mike

Thanks Sparky, I'll give it a try. Talking about headlights, funny thing happened this morning. When I stopped, I noticed that my left headlight wasn't lit - but no warning on the dash. I went round to the front of the car and sure enough it's out. So I switched them off and then on again and it lit fine and has been fine ever since; strange!?! Anyone had any experience of this? Kind regards, Mike

Thanks Steve!

Ok, thanks, well that explains why I can't see how to do it so now I don't feel quite so silly for asking in the first place. ...however, I'd still quite like to know how....the idea of paying a dealer to change a side light, I have to say that rankles slightly. Mike

I guess it's different on an LS 430. Has anyone changed the LS430 sidelight as I can't see it mentioned in either of the manuals. Many thanks! Mike

Just to add to this, having studied the instructions further, it talks about pressing the "function key on the steering switch" to get the codes up on the dashboard. Any idea what switch they might be talking about?