sir john

Cheers mate. Thats really halpful. :) Done Pads on loads of cars in the past so jumped right in last night and took the Whole caliper off. Then looked at the tutorial. And now your attachment. Ahhhhhhhhhh. BTW. where did you get the diagram from. Is there a works manual i could get?

Got new Mintex brake pads for front and rear. (LS400 93 MKll) Rear wheels off. OS first. Caliper off. One old pad came out easily. The other i cannot get out because of what i take to be the Brake Sensor wire. It seems to be soldered and clipped into the pad. Read in another thread that 50mm on appliance wire will fix. I took the new pads out of the box but there is no hole at one end for the sensor wire. Otherwise they are the same. Have i got the wrong rear pads? Can i just snip the wires off the old pads and join them together to close the open curcuit? or is that not a good idea. Ive had the new fronts out of the box, and although i havent had the old front pads off yet, so cannot tell if they are the same shape, the new ones do have a square shaped hole at one end. BTW. only got one side off at the rear but one pad was paper thin. As for the other, the friction pad material had parted company from the metal. Hoping to get it sorted tomorrow so hope you can help.

I is well impressed. If its not too rude. How much?

I want the clear light as well. Been on a couple of sights in the US and they are about $30 but the postage is $50. Maybe if enough of us want the clear lenses we could get a deal on the postage. The other thing i found from the US is a full walnut trip kit for RHD cars. $140 Again maybe a deal on the shipping if enough of us want to order.???

My nearest lexus dealer is 80 miles away. My nearest toyota 25 miles away. I ring the Lexus dealers and get the part # from them (they know why, i tell them) then i order it through my toyota dealer and pick it up. No hassle. Q; whats the difference between a 100% mark up on a toypta part and a 100% mark up on a toyota part? A; there isnt one. BTW. i have no other dealings with the toyota dealer. its not as if i have a toyota or have ever bought anything other than the odd Lexus part. They sell me the parts because it makes them money.

Steve. that a proper detailed engine bay. you put me to shame. from the picture in your main details your lexus is an L reg like mine. Unbelievable. How do you start to get things looking so good? Sorry to highjack your posting Bus39 but you have got to agree, thats a sweet looking engine.

This reminds me of something that happened long long ago. My dad did a lot of cycle racing in the 1950s. When i was about 14 and getting into cycling in a serious way he showed me how to grease a Block properly. The Block is the cogs on the rear wheel. In them there olden times (1970s) there were only 5 cogs on a block. This is how WE did it. 1. Remove and clean the Block with clean rag to get the old grease and dirt off it. 2. get an old baked bean tin and heat up some new grease until its runny. (best done on mums cooker) 3. place cleaned block on a suitable container. (This is so you can pure the molten grease into the bloke) We used my mums best tupperware mixing bowl. It was the right size!! 4. pure grease into block and allow to cool. The new grease will now be inside the bearings of the block. 5. re-assemble the bike. Its now ready for another year. 6. dont bother trying to clean the inside of the best tupperware mixing bowl. Molten grease doesnt come off. Really! 7. RUN AND HIDE. Dont know why, but mum wasnt best please. Youd think that shed be proud that dad and me had made such a good job of it......Women!

Thanks for that mate. Just had the wheels off 1 at a time. The front pads are down to about 3mm and the rears to 1mm or less. So its all new pads for the old girl. While the wheels were off a put a pinch bar in a few places because shes developed a heavy clunk when i coming to rest under braking. could find anything with teh wheels off but with the wheels back on and still jacked up there is a bit of play. Side to side is okay but top to bottom there is a bit of movement. Its only a little and seems to be coming from what i think is the top ball joint. Could this be the culprit??

Welcome to the foruma nd Lexus driving. Sounds like you have your work cut out but the LS400 isnt difficult to work on. Re exhaust/ Cat gaskets, they are £4.11 each. if you have a toyota dealer but no lexus dealer near by, order them through the toyota dealer. Thats what i do. My local Lexus dealer is 80 mile away. My temperature and clock display doesnt work either. I take the view that i have a watch and i know when im warm enough.. The heated seats can take a while to warm up. at least they do no mine but they do work. I hope you stay with Lexus. They are great cars and the forum is brilliant. I inherited a 1977 one owner 42,000 mile Honda Accord some months ago and posted it as Free to Good Home on the Honda owners site. Not 1 response.

The brake warning light is on. So its time for a new set of pads. I intend to do all 4 wheels while im in the mood. Been on Ebay but the only ones on there are EBC. Are they any good? There are EBC Ultramax @ £54.95 Ft and £17.95 Rr. Theres also EBC @ £16 and EBC Kevlar @ £28.16. The 1st 2 are from one seller and the 2nd 2 from another. Whats the difference?

On the 14th Sept a wolley in a toyota, traveling at about 12mph, ran into the back of my stationary LS. This shoved in the bumper and bent up the boot floor. The car has since been repaired at County Coach Builders Barrow. New bumper and repaired boot floor. (Some of you might remember my posting asking if i should put up with a poor repair to the boot floor) Well, its been back to the repairers last week who, as far as can see, have done nothing. Anyway, in the last couple of days the car has started to make a load CLUNK when it comes to rest while braking. And its getting worse. ie loader and i can feel it inside the car. Its almost as if there is something loose under the car that shifts under the load of braking. Has anyone got any ideas what this might be?? Thinking that it might be part of th suspension shifting back and forth i measured the wheel base on the left and right. Suprise suprise, its 7mm shorter on the OS. Thats the side that took most of the inpact. Im not very happy as things seem to be gonig from bad to worse.

How tall was Sir John Harvey-Jones, the business "trouble shooter" off the telly in the 80s and 90s? He always seemed to be a big guy. He must have found the MKll okay because my 93 LS400 MKll was first owned by him.

Its not all about saving money. Although i agree that it does, i do my own maintainance as a way of staying sane. Im not a machanic but all my early cars, 20 something years ago, were a; british b; old and c; generally rubbish. So i learnt how to repair and maintain them. After 10 years of newish and company cars, that need no work, im back with a 16 year old Lexus. What a relief. Not only is it better than all the other cars of the last 10 years but i actually enjoy looking after it. My 2001 Mitsubishi on the other hand is still in the garage after breaking down 14 months ago. The dealer is 60 miles away, and no one else knows how to fix a GDI engine with a hundred ECUs. Those GDI petrol engines might run on half the fuel of a conventional petrol engine but everything is so tightly controlled by sensors and computers.....still, im not beaten yet. So may be fancy techno cars wont beat the DIY machanic after all. As Citizen Smith used to say "POWER TO THE PEOPLE" apologises to anyone under the age of 40 something.

Im reconning on about 250 mile to a tank based on 50 usable lt in a 70lt tank @ 23 mpg. I average about 23 nocking about and 27-30 mpg on a run, which is what i do mostly. (20k per year) The installer wont put the filler inside the filler flap, as i want him to, because, he says, he cannot give me a guarantee and certificate if he does. Apparently, to do this he has to fit an adapter and that is ILLEGAL. Dont know if thats true but i suppose hes the expert. Might get him to strap a couple of cylindrical tanks in the outside of the car. One on each side. they might come in handy as floatation tanks if it doesnt stop raining. I can just see me up front in the drivers seat, steering and the wee wifie sitting in the boot paddling. Happy days.

"throwing my beloved Mk1 LS400 (>100K) into the mix" How could you? poor old MK1. It must be like leaving your faithful old dag at the vets...never to be seen again. Good luck with the new lexus. PS. the wife has instructions to bury me in mine...sometimes think that she`d like thins to be sooner than later!

Hi manc. When you say that a multi point system should be used on these cars do you mean the Mklll that John is having converted or a MKll like mine? The guy at Leyland LPG said that a single point would be fine. The more i look into this, the more confusing it becomes. £1,000 is a lot of money of it doesnt work and save money. I plan to keep my car for as long as she keeps gonig.

You need to get the PAS pump leak fixed NOW. or you will have the alternator problem that Balch has had. See his posting in the sight now. Not sure about the rack though. Let us know when you find the solution.

Adlington Leyland LPG Conversions 16/17 Huyton Road Industrial Estate, Huyton Road, Adlington, Lancashire, PR7 4HJ Tel: 01257 481858 Ive been quoted £900 fully fitted by these guys. Ive only spoken to them on the phone but the guy seems ok. Has anyone used him? and if so, is he any good? and did the system work properly? He is offering a single point system with a OMVL Reducer and a 70 lt tank where my spare now lives. The filler he insists on putting in the NSR bumper. Only a couple of weeks off having the money so would appreciate any feedback. Cheers.

Oh! forgot to mention this Balch. That machanic of yours. Ring your local police and warn then that ***** Turpin is back in town. £1400 my **se. Im not a professional machanic but the whole job took me less than a day.

Na then Balch mi old son. Sorry this has taken me a little while. I found the address but the dog ate it...no really. I dug it out while i was in the garage at the weekend and while my back was turned the dog ate it. She likes paper. Wish she`d been around 30 years ago when i needed an excuse for not doing my homework. Anyway, you can find this guy on e-bay. I seem to remember that hes in Newbury or somewhere. ................................. just been on e-bay and the guy is Electrostart2006 . look him up. He gave me great service. Mine is a late 93 Mkll. The alternator is a A357. The original alternator is in front of me now and the serial/part # is 100211- 6390. Dont know if your is the same year and model as mine. The guy at Electostart will tell you. Good look with fitting the new one. It really isnt difficult. get the car up as high as you can. make sure it is secure and safe. Remove the plastic belly tray. Undo the clip securing the pipes that are in the way and tye them back. Crack the bolts holding the alternator. The belt tensioner just pushes out of the way so you can get the belt out of the way. Remove the bolts holding the Alt. Tilt it and lower it through the bottome of the car. EASY. This is a good time to replace the "O" ring in the PAS pump because alternator is out of the way. Shove the new up and into possition. Loosly bolt in place, Push the ternsioner up and get the belt on. Tighten up. replace the pipe clip and belly tray and have a cuppa.

Oh deary me. This happened to me last christmas. This is your solution. There is a bloke that advertises on e-bay. Hes called ...2006 or something. ill post the address in a day or 2 when i dig it out. He charged me £169 including delivery and it arrived the next day at 10 am. Brilliant. And im sure it was a new unit and not recon. The swop is fiddly. The nack through is to get the car high enough. I use ramps. With the car up high it shouldnt take more than a couple of hours. Next is the o ring. bit more tricky this but not that difficult. If i were you id also replace the PAS cooling pipe behind the front air dam. 10 mm flexi copper pipe from the plumpers will work fine.. Do it now because it WILL be rusty and will leak exactly 1 week after you fix teh alternator. good look.

I have always found that a single click and nothing else when you turn the ignition key nearly always points to a knackered starter or battery problem. Hope you get this fixed and all is well. I just wanted to say dont let this early problem get in the way of enjoying the best car in the world. these problems are as rare as rocking horse poo or honest politician on a lexus. I bought my 15 year old 400 14 months as a stop gap between my 2 years old merc going back and ordering a new contract car. I was only supposed to have it for a month or 2 but i love it. 15 year old lexus v new merc.......no contest.

I noticed that he has changed his car to a new lexus but im pretty sure me was in a lexus LS before.

The flanges at the front of me front pipe (where they meet the CATs) have rusted away completey now. even teh bolts are gone. Its time to replace the front pipe but i cannot find a pattern part and Lexus are quoting £260+vat. this doesnt seem that bad but cash is thin on the ground just now and there is a chance that i might have to change the CATs as well. Anyone have a good second hand one or know where i can find a cheaper new one??? Thanks in advance for your help.

A bit of advice.. forgive me if im teaching you how to such eggs. Buy the best you can. Dont buy a Lexus with faults.. there are plenty out there that are perfect and they are not always any dearer. I, of course, know this before i bought my 93 LS400. but i bought the first one i saw. Why?? because i needed a car NOW! I had a £1,000 budget and wanted a safe 4 seater that wouldnt let me down. I looked at Lexus because my mate has a GS300. I wasnt intending to keep it more than a couple of months as it was just a stop gap. That was 14 months ago and i WOULD NOT PART with the old girl. only trouble is, it needs a few things doing that i could have avoided if id had time to look around a while. So look at loads and buy the best. These cars are the best on the road. enjoy...