John N

(I'll get the hang of posting replies one day!) Mike I had an intermittent problem with an inlet manifold valve last year, nothing to do with LPG, but when it happend the engine malfunction light would come on. The light would always be on immediately the next 3 times I turned the ignition on, but if the fault hadn't recurred during those 3 runs the light would not come on until the fault happend again. It appears the system stores a fault such as an O2 sensor, but if it doesn't reoccur for 3 runs it clears the fault light. So a malfunction light coming on with the ignition doesn't mean the fault is there at that moment, it may have happend one or two trips ago. Hope you get it sorted soon. John N

Mike I’ve never heard any noise from my air suspension compressor at all; the car levels itself in complete silence when it starts up or you change the ride height. John N 2001 - LS430

Mike, I would never consider converting a car to LPG again. The previous two cars I had were a 'C' Class and an 'S' class Merc and I had both converted to LPG with multi-point injection systems. Both conversions gave problems from the start, the first installer went broke and the second installer went missing! I tried a number of LPG 'experts' but nobody could get them to run properly for any length of time. I more than recouped the installation costs over the 7 years I had them, but they had so many problems it just was not worth it. The LS430 may cost a fortune to run on petrol, but it's worth ever penny, and I'm not prepared to chance ruining it with another duff LPG conversion. If you do insist on converting the car chose your installer and system very carefully, and talk to their past customers. Best of luck, John N

ASDA! £200 cheaper than any other quote,after a lot of shoping round. John N

Try these people http://soarer.tv/ I can't remember where I found the web site and I have not used them, but let me know if they can do the TV conversion. John N LS430

I'm looking for four 17" wheels to fit the LS430 and take 225/55R17 tyres. Please contact me if they will fit. John N John.Nixon47@gmail.com

Yes. I forgot to mention I've put 3 bags of sand/salt in the boot over the rear axle, it helps. John N

I live in a cul-de-sac at the bottom of a hill in Manchester, and have to climb the hill to leave home. In last years snow I was stuck at home for 2 days, so I bought some snow chains for £70. They got me off the estate without a problem, but as soon as you reach a clear road you have to take them off. Legally you can only use them on a snow covered road, and putting them on and off can be a pain. This year I've bought 4 Nokian WRG2 winter tyres. What a revelation! No problems with traction and braking on slush or snow, and a good degree of control on ice! In the dry and wet they are as good as normal tyres as long as the temperature is below 7 degree C, when the average temperature warms up above 7 deg you are better off on normal tyres. The second set of tyres may cost you £700 but that is probably cheaper than buying anothey car or 4x4, and it means you can enjoy the LS all year round without worrying about snow or ice. John N LS430

The genuine Lexus web site is: - http://www.lexus-mapupdates.eu/ You may have a problem though, they wanted the numbers from the old disc. John N

I needed a new battery for the LS430 a few weeks ago. Called in a few spares shops, prices ranged from £70 to £100 at Halfords. Called in a Lexus main dealer, but I went to the spares counter in the workshop not the front desk. £60 ! Sorted for the next 4-5 years. John N

I've got the 17" wheels that came on the 2001 LS430. The car was originally on a mixture of tyre makes, Bridgestone, Continental etc. and I had a lot of tyre noise. Did an internet search for tyre test reports and a name that kept getting good scores for noise, grip and comfort was KUMHO. For the past 9 years I've stuck with Michelin, but the Michelins were nearly £200 each and the KUMHO were £100 ! I've now done 18,000 mile on the KUMHOs. They are quieter than the Michelins and just as comfortable, they appear to be wearing just as well and I've had no problems with grip in the wet, dry or snow. I’d recommend them to anyone. The grip in the snow last year, using the 'snow' traction control setting, was better than any car I've had before. Rather than spend money on a second set of winter tyres, I bought a set of snow chains with the money I'd saved buying one Kumho. Nothing stopped me last year! John N

Thought Steve covered it adequetly. I use fully synthetic but the cheapest tyres at the time. I'm just about to change the oil on mine for the first time and thinking of using either Lucas oil, Castrol or Mobil 1 but can't decide which to go for? Any suggestions? I have given my wheels in for a refurb and should get them back on Monday :) I have purchased 4 new Nankang tyres which cost me £155 approx as the cheapest option for me at the moment. Just spent a lot of money on the new Lpg system. Join COSTCO. A 20 litre drum of fully-synthetic Chevron 5-30 Costs about £41 (just over £2 a litre) it will do a few oil changes and you will save the COSTCO membership fee on the one purchase, compared to Mobil 1. But if you do insist on Mobil 1 their price is very competative on that too. John N

It is a model variant. I've got one of the first LS430s with the metal finish round the gear leaver and the 5 speed gearbox. I think they introduced the wood surround with the first 'face lift' when they also introduced the 6 speed gearbox and swivelling headlights. Don't be put off the early cars, I've heard the early and late cars from the LS430 production run are the most reliable, and mine has been fine. Be careful trying to fit a wood surround from a later car to an early model the change of gearbox may mean it won't fit, unless anybody knows different? The early cars came with 17" wheels, and they changed to 18" at the first 'face lift'. All UK LS430s have self levelling air suspension. I believe when it was first introduced the 'lux' pack with the radio and air con controls in the rear arm rest and 'massaging' rear seats was an option, but when only 10% of customers bought it without the option they made it standard. If you find one without it will be rare. All versions of the car are good; just buy the best you can afford. Best of luck. John N

I claim no technical expertise but here is my experience over a number of years: used to use VPower Shell fuel for my Porsche until I discovered that Tesco has a higher octane (99) fuel and have been using that since. The only visible difference was the lower price at Tesco. have used Tesco 95 octane for the LS400 - as far as I am able to tell it runs just fine. have experimented with a variety of fuels on cars (other than those above) but have yet to see a difference. Was I lucky? Maybe. as for the suggestion that Ferrari use Shell I assume reference is made to the Ferrari racing team. Does anyone actually think that the fuel used by Ferrari for racing is the same as what we can buy at the local station? I am grateful for the technical explanation of why higher octane works the way it works but it does seem inconclusive - based on that explanation alone it would seem that all cars would benefit from a higher octane. Is that the conclusion? Or are there other parameters to consider for each model? All the best All car engines benefit from the cleaning additives in the premium fuel, but you won't see any quick difference in performance, and the difference is very small. Cars with electronic engine management systems that adjust the ignition timing to match the fuel octane, are the ones that benefit from the higher octane fuel. (All Lexus) But the difference in performance is small and is hard to notice as you only have to push the accelerator down another millimetre to get the same performance on 95 octane as 99. This is why people don't notice a improvement, to prove the performance had improved you would have to put the engine on a test bed. The difference in quality between brands of fuel can make a bigger difference. Personally I stick to Shell V-power or Tesco Premium when I'm desperate. John N

Before I bought my present car, I ran a P reg W140 S320 for two years. In those two years I had the following problems: - Both Drop links on the front anti-roll bar needed replacing. Front shock absorbers needed replacing. Water pump needed replacing. Engine mass air flow sensor needed replacing. (£300+) All 3 HT coils and 6 HT suppressors needed replacing to cure miss-fire. Rubber flexible joint on main drive shaft needed replacing. Windscreen wiper mechanism needed repair. Drivers’ door stay needed replacing. Both rear springs and lower wishbones needed replacing. Rear wheel bearing needed replacing. Counter balance spring on boot lid needed replacing. But the worst problem was the bodywork corrosion which was worse than a 'BL Montegos' and was the main reason I changed the car. I now run a Lexus LS430: nothing has broken in 15 months and no corrosion! The chances are that any Lexus you buy will be far more reliable than any MB or BMW. Look at the independent survey results. 'Wheel wobble' on any car will be caused by: - A tyre out of balance, or Shock absorber faulty, or Suspension bush fault, or Wheel bearing failure. Any good garage should sort it! John N

The improved performance from 'high' octane fuels comes from the fact that you can advance the engine ignition timing further without causing pre-ignition (pinking). The engine ECU is constantly trying to advance the timing as far as it can until the 'Knock Sensors' tell it the engine has started to pink, it then backs off the ignition timing. When you put 'high' octane fuel in for the first time it takes the ECU a short time to realise it can advance the ignition further, so you don't get an instant change. On the other hand when you change back to 95 octane an engine that has been running on 99 octane will immediately start to 'pink' and the knock sensor will tell the ECU to retard the ignition to avoid damaging the engine. So the change from high to low octane fuel is more noticeable than the change from low to high! John N

Dave This is what the Caravan Club says: - "To find out whether a bracket is suitable, there are several questions to ask. First, has the bracket design for your car been tested to the appropriate British or European Standard? Next, does the bracket mount only to the car manufacturer’s recommended mounting points? Then, has the bracket been tested on a rig representing the car’s mounting points? For cars registered before 1 August 1998, a bracket tested to British Standard BS AU 114b is acceptable. From 1 August 1998 all new cars registered from that date must, by law, only be fitted with a towing bracket that has been tested to the EU 94/20 Directive. Before fitting any bracket that is not the manufacturer’s own, first read carefully the small print of the warranty". Your car should be fine with the Watling Engineering bracket. I tow a 1500 Kg caravan with an LS430 and have fitted a transmission cooler, it's an excellent tow car. John N

Mike The detachable towbar for the LS430 is a standard Lexus part, go to your Lexus dealer and order one! Ask for a set of fitting instructions at the same time, or you just get a box of bits! (The bad news is £400+ but ask for a discount!) They are made for Lexus by Brink, but Brink won't sell them direct to you. I think they are the only 'type approved' towbar available for Europe, so Lexus have a monopoly. If you have a special made it won't be 'type approved' and you could fail your MOT! The instructions will tell you it takes 45 minutes to fit! (Took 2 of us 3 hours! But it was straight forward.) I tow a 1.5 tonne caravan with my LS430 and it is a brilliant tow car. Don't buy the Lexus wiring kit, just get a simple kit and take the power supply from the fuse box under the left hand side of the boot floor. My advice is to fit a transmission cooler, the first time I towed my van up a long hill at speed the transmission was getting 'very' hot. I've fitted a Kenlow transmission cooler. Simple kit and simple job, and it appears to have solved the problem. John Nixon Thanks John - useful advice. I had also sussed out that the Lexus towbar isn't shockingly expensive at £468 and a specialist towbar company can probably get a trade discount. They can also supply and fit dual electrics (and the towbar) for £150 so it isn't looking impossible. Where could I get the Kenlow thing and I'll ask them to fit that too. Thanks Mike Mike I bought the oil cooler from Kenlowe direct, this is the link to their web site. Phone them up and talk to them. http://www.kenlowe.com/oil-coolers/automatic/index.html John N

I've got the 17" wheels that came on the 2001 LS430. The car was originally on a mixture of tyre makes, Bridgestone, Continental etc. and I got a lot of tyre noise. Did an internet search for tyre test reports and a name that kept getting good scores for noise, grip and comfort was KUMHO. They are a premium tyre but are relatively cheap as they are trying to enter the UK market. For the past 9 years I've stuck with Michelin, but the Michelins were nearly £200 each and the KUMHO were £100 ! I've now done 8,000 mile on the KUMHOs. They are quieter than the Michelins and just as comfortable, they appear to be wearing just as well and I've had no problems with grip in the wet, dry or snow. I’d recommend them to anyone. A lot of road testers say low-profile tyres make the ride comfort worse, but the fashion is for low-profile because they look good. If you want to improve the ride try and pick up a set of 17" wheels, the tyres will be cheaper too. John Nixon

Mike The detachable towbar for the LS430 is a standard Lexus part, go to your Lexus dealer and order one! Ask for a set of fitting instructions at the same time, or you just get a box of bits! (The bad news is £400+ but ask for a discount!) They are made for Lexus by Brink, but Brink won't sell them direct to you. I think they are the only 'type approved' towbar available for Europe, so Lexus have a monopoly. If you have a special made it won't be 'type approved' and you could fail your MOT! The instructions will tell you it takes 45 minutes to fit! (Took 2 of us 3 hours! But it was straight forward.) I tow a 1.5 tonne caravan with my LS430 and it is a brilliant tow car. Don't buy the Lexus wiring kit, just get a simple kit and take the power supply from the fuse box under the left hand side of the boot floor. My advice is to fit a transmission cooler, the first time I towed my van up a long hill at speed the transmission was getting 'very' hot. I've fitted a Kenlow transmission cooler. Simple kit and simple job, and it appears to have solved the problem. John Nixon

Try this link, can't remember where I found it but it takes you to a manual. http://bahamutcars.free.fr/workshop/LS_01-06/contents/index.html Not the easyest to use but it works for free. John Nixon LS430 (2001)