Mybikesacx500

Sadly, it's not! (in my case) Battery was, as mentioned already, replaced yesterday by Lexus Woodford - thank you, yesterday. This morning I turned the key, the lights on and then they went out again and nothing! Tried it second time almost immediately and it started!? Have driven, stopped, turned off the engine and restarted again several times throughout the day with not a problem so it's that very first time that's important, but what is it? As mentioned Lexus spent several hours checking the 3 items (battery, alternator and starter) and could find no fault. An intermitent bad earth would explain it, try a jump lead between the batt. neg terminal and a solid bit of engine block

I had a Topic a while back about my temp gauge which would work for 10 min then go full scale, even with a new temp sender and a different instrument cluster. After staring resentfully at the disconnected temp gauge for a week or two, I had another go at it.. I ran a couple of wires under the bonnet to the temp sender and cable, and had a switch on the passenger seat that let me connect the sender to the gauge. When the gauge went right up, I stopped and did some measuring with a multimeter. Voltage from the gauge was 12 volt. resistance of the temp sender measured against the earth on the cig. lighter frame was- ahh. funny- 70 ohms one way, with the probes reversed, minus 120 ohms. ??? I don't think so, a minus resistance is getting into quantum mechanics,....... Clearly a voltage was getting between the temp sender and my ground connection. So, an earthing problem, not uncommon, but usually a bad earth is a resistance to earth, bit of a puzzle where the voltage rise was coming from. Anyway, I got out my old temp sender and soldered a wire onto the bottom half of the flats, so I could still get a socket onto it, and fitted that, earthed directly to the battery neg terminal. Problem solved. I guess my mistake was to assume the engine block is one conected metal lump at the same earthed potential. I suspect the temp sender is screwed into the water pump or the thermostat housing? with the gaskets, its only the bolts earthing to the block, throw in a bit of steel./ aluminiun corrosion, that might do it. Anyway, anyone else with a temp gauge problem, try earthing the sender unit

Thanks for the answers, guys, I did wonder if the multipoint could be reset with a laptop, I would enjoy fiddling around with that.....

Hi, I have a trusty old Mk1 with single point lpg, it changes over to gas when it is rev'ed over 2500, giving a big click as the revs die down. Does this pretty much regardless of temperature- I can start the car, give it a few seconds to circulate some oil, rev it up, and onto gas it goes. It will do this even on a frosty morning, although it will occasionally complain as I try to drive away, so I have to switch to petrol for a block or two. I hadn't realised this was different for multipoint, and I don't see why- if my vaporiser can produce enough gas to run the engine, why can't a multipoint vaporiser ? Just curious, but also concerend as I am seriously tempted by a MKIV with LPG, and didn't figure on having to run more on petrol...

The brakes sound like warped front disks- depending on wether the warps "line up" with each other the symptoms come and go a bit. I changed mine for Ebay cheapos and had beautifully smooth brakes for 3 months, now the symptoms are back a bit. It has been suggested that braking to a halt and keeping the brakes on overheats the disk under the pad, while the rest of the disk cools, and they warp.

If everyone drove an LS there wouldn't be any road rage. In any car I've always found Cruise Control to be a great calmer. In an LS it's like Diazepam. Absolutely. Got to visit reatives? no problem, at least you get to drive there in a Lexus. Long trip for work? no problem, relax and listen to some CD's. Traffic jam? who cares, I'm chilling in my Lexus

It could well be dementia, or a bad connection on the computer involved, but have you tried reprograming it with the memory button on the door?

You can buy CD player lens cleaners, I suspect all the unusual activity on the car has dislodged some dust, seems a tad coincidental, otherwise. They are like any CD, only have little brushes on them. The alternative is a lot of dismantling to wipe the dust of the cd laser lens assembly

At a guess, Rudd was bidding on this beauty, that I was eyeing up enviously http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160555139787

Making sure to get the the polarity correct..... If you can get into the boot...take off the boot light cover and hook a freshly charged battery to the light connections, then use the remote. It should work

Impressive Rudd, major uplift, from old limo to seriously cool

. I wouldnt want to run till it cut out just to see the figures. You don't have to do that, you fill it, and note the mileage, then run it till the light comes on, or your down to a quarter tank. Then fill it again and subtract the earlier mileage from your current mileage. You now have the miles you got for the amount of fuel you just replaced -simples!

What would you replace the Lexus with?, I have a K reg fiat Panda, its worth as much as my K reg LS400, I know which one I would rather drive in a 120 mile commute. You have done the LS up, it will be cheaper to run than anything, apart from fuel. Work out the cost of commuting over 5 years, go for a LPG conversion. The price of these cars has collapsed, maybe the LPG boys will be reducing their proces....

I would be surprised if 2, or 3, electric motors failed at the same time, did it go from working fine to not working, or did they stop one at a time? Might be worth fuse checking and connector wiggling

Hang on to it if you can, the road tax isn't to bad, drive carefully and save fuel!

Hey mate, your car's twin sister is for sale in ayrshire :) Hi Rudd, I noticed that, same lovely red

If you check the completed sales in Ebay, older LS400's are going for 3,4,5 hundred

My experience is, fluid gets low, froths up a bit, pump makes a noise, I top up the fluid, all is quiet again Bit rough on the pump I agree, but perhaps it has to run a longer time on low fluid before it is badly damaged I am not advocating this audible warning of low fluid approach to monitoring the PAS fluid level

Funny story, I was passing Barrhead on Thursday, and went to see it, turned out it was parked round the back of a bus depot, had a drive, thought the front felt a bit iffy, BUT it was only 25K into a new cam belt, and had a good service history up to Feb 09. I hadn't really been thinking about upgrading, so I went away to think about it and work out what it was going to cost me, coming from LPG- after all, it had been sitting around for weeks, right? So one hour after I see it someone bids on it..... Having thought about it, I DO want a '98 Mk4 for £700, bugger...

The power steering pump makes that sort of noise, linked to the engine speed, when its getting low on fluid

I would have an instrument cluster rebuilt to put the speedo on the right and the tach. on the left, so I can slouch against the armrest and clearly see the speedo. the Factory would do a one-off, right, money no object??

I had a Toyota Ludica, and the heater would not produce heat on tickover, even with a hot engine. Needed higher revs to circulate water through the heater

My stalling problem went away after I cleaned the throtle body B) Hi you dont need to replace the seal after the silicone job, Some early mark 3s have a habit of stalling normally after a dual carrageway drive when you are coming to a stop ( could be your throttle body needs cleaning as it is low mileage & presumably been used for short trips) you could also switch your aircon on, that would bring the revs up on tickover & stop the stalling. best of luck Mark

Very nice, now if only it really was hot, you would be sorted

Re-sealing mine helped a lot, I also thought water was coming in through the plastic clips the rear lights snap into, I removed the light assemblies, and sealed round the clips. seems to have fixed it [Yes common problem but normally removing the rubber seal,giving it a good clean and then applying silicon sealer to the lip before refitting sorts this,blocked sunroof drains can also result in water in the boot as can parking with the rear of the car higher than the front,check out the post entitled "I have done what Lexus should have done (or similar) regarding the latter problem.