pramod

Hi - it may have been a previous post from me regarding the Yokohama AVS dB550. I have four fitted and feel these are the best tyres I have used by far. They are as quiet as OE dunlop D8Z tyres but they grip, handle and ride much better. I use 4psi higher than recommended Lexus pressure and tyres wear evenly. My car, on Yokos, does sometimes tramline on grooves left by artics on lane 1 of the motorway - but no worse, I guess, than I remember with other brands of tyre. I strongly advise against using assymetrical tyres eg P7 and Continental Premier Contact, both of which did not suit my LS400. I pay £100 + VAT per db550 tyre from e-tyres.com, incl friendly and convenient mobile fitting. NB - do not use clip on weights as they fall off - use the stick on variety even though they look dreadful stuck on the outside of the rim. Another Japanese tyre several LS400 users have mentioned is Falken but I have no experience personally of these. Regards - Pramod sorry - the web reference should have read UK-based e-tyres.co.uk

I highly recommend Yokohama AVS dB550. My LS400 is fitted with 225/60 R16 102W. Nice smooth quiet ride. Much better handling than the original equipment D8Z. Great wet and dry grip. First set lasted around 35,000 miles and (after a long wait due to a stockout at Yokohama UK) I purchased another set. I have had P7 tyres previously on the LS400 which were so noisy I changed all 4 after just 5,000 miles. Also had Continental Premium Contact which lasted 35,000 miles a set but had poor dry grip (squealing around corners) and were forever going out of balance; I remember most of the wheels had upwards of 100g of lead balance weights. I'll stick to Yoko in future.

I have recently changed to Yokohama dB550 on my LS400 Mk4. Very good grip and pretty quiet. Dunlop D8Z (Japanese) was OE on the car - but these are an ancient design and now becoming v difficult to find. Also i found the handling on D8Z way too floaty. I had Conti premier contact before, excellent fuel economy 32.5 mpg tank avg best, long tread life but dreadful dry cornering grip (prob all due to a hard compound and low rolling resistance). The Contis were balanced countless times, never seemed right, probably because they weren't round in the first place !! Have also tried new P7s which were dreadfully noisy and i changed soon after buying. Best thing is to stick with symmetrical pattern tyres like the D8Z and Yoko db550. Even with the quiet new Yoko's I still wish my car was quieter as i drive high mileages.

My mkIV now on 143,000 miles, puchased at 54k as a three year old. I'm v pleased with this faithful workhorse and hope you enjoy your prospective new car as much as i have mine. you shouldnt have any problems at all with bulletproof engine and gearbox, provided (as other posts have said) the car has been main dealer serviced. Lexus UK dealers say they have never needed to change a LS400 autobox. Main dealer service is v good but expensive. Must ensure that cambelt service has been done at specified times. When you're in for next service, ask dealer to check / clean out throttle body which sometimes accumulates carbon deposits and also check no slack on throttle cable. My car is driven hard but surprisingly tyres last 40,000 miles a set. Am presently using Yokohama AVS dB550 as original Dunlop D8s are firstly ancient technology and secondly difficult to obtain. Best stick to Japanese tyres, I've used Contis and Pirelli P7 before (latter produce loads of road noise) and just dont suit the way this car drives. I suppose we have to expect some wear and tear on cars of this mileage. Black interior keeps its appearance (IMHO) much better than the lighter Lexus colours. I had some problems with drivers seat sagging, so changed seat backrest and cushion, which was expensive. Also I had to change one front suspension arm at around £450 due to the bushes wearing out. Nowt wrong with the arm, just bushes - I think Maneesh put a posting some while back where says where you can get these at a good price. I have had to change TWO 'fly-by-wire' throttle position sensors, one FOC under warranty - jerky / slow response is the giveaway. Check which sat-nav disc you have. It can be updated at a cost of around £160. My wife bought a "tom-tom go" stand-alone satnav unit to for her Audi today but my seven year old Lexus unit is way better. original polished 16-inch alloy wheels look v nice when new but the lacquer comes off and the wheel corrodes. So budget for about £80 a wheel for a body shop to re-finish these for you. Also budget for respraying the bumpers and mirrors; the paint on plastic trim doesnt last so well. The main body paint finish should still be perfect. Apart from the problem with the throttle sensor (I believe Lexus have changed many of these) I have never heard of any electrical problems on a LS400 - all the same, best check all electrical toys work, like the electic heated seats, radio, sat nav, instruments, xenon headlamps because otherwise they will be expensive to fix. I sometimes think of changing to Merc or BMW 7 next time but all the owners i talk to talk about problems with these cars. So i'll stick with my present car till Lexus bring out a hybrid LS, with nice firm seats. A final word on longevity - at my local main dealer one customer has a still fresh-looking 300,000+ miles LS400 1992 model which comes in for regular service....

Folks I drive long distances so tyre noise is something i really do notice. My own experience with LS400 MkIV, 225/60 R16W Dunlop D8Z's are made in Japan, can be found for around £90 each. These were OE on the car. Reasonably quiet (not so when tread depth down to 3mm), good grip wet & dry but floaty handling. Pirelli P7 - after my D8Zs needed changing (after 45,000 miles) i bought a set of new p7s. Wet and dry grip and handling were really good. But it made the car unbearably noisy - so much so that after 2,000 miles use I sent the tyres back to Pirelli, convinced there was a fault. Then changed to Continental Premier contact, mercifully quieter than Pirellis, and long tread life. Good wet grip but dry grip is below par, especially when cornering hard From previous experience with a Honda Accord, P6000s have fantastic grip but are noisy and wear out quickly. Then changed to Yokohama AVS TW1 - very quiet, good grip wet & dry, defintely the best tyres i have used. The new LS430 has Bridgestone ER33 or Dunlop sp270 as OE fitment, having test driven cars with both brands of tyre, I was a little disappointed that the road noise was more than i expected. The Bridgestone was slightly the quieter of the two. When I change tyres next I will defintely buy Yokohama. They have a new AVS dB 550, which comes in a good range of sizes. see www.yokohama.co.uk

When my Mk4, 130k miles, was in for service last I asked the technicians to check why it felt down on power. They did the following: 1. changed the throttle position sensor (sometimes unreliable on LS400's; I was sure it was on its way out as i was previously getting jerky slow speed gear changes) 2. cleaned carbon deposits around throttle butterfly 3. adjusted slack in accelerator cable ........and the car felt so much faster afterwards.

My best tank average to date, on my 1998 LS400 Mk4 (4.0 V8 VVTi engine, 116k miles on the clock) is 31.0 mpg, on a long motorway drive, using cruise as much as possible. But if you floor it, it will give a sub 7-second 0-60 time. I regularly get tank avg of 27-28-29 mpg on my frequent motorway drives. A/C is always on. I always like to keep on cruise control at 75mph. You get a much more relaxed drive and keep good time......and less risk of getting caught inadvertently speeding. Previous car (Honda Accord 2.0 ES, manual) would give best of 34mpg on motorways. So i think the Lexus has v reasonable fuel costs......provided you don;t do too much stop-start driving ! I always use synthetic oil, just give your dealer a big can of it to use at service time instead of the regular stuff they dispense from big drums. Also I have used Slick-50 friction reducer in the engine.

My 1998 mk4 is also (after 114k miles) feeling too floaty. Most noticeable is excessive dive on braking. I think it's general wear and tear on the shocks. Dealer says they are not leaking and still functioning ok. There are some suspension bushes which can get worn too. you can get a "Dynamic Handling Pack" option, from the main dealer, which for around GBP 3,000 gives you all-new stiffer shocks, lowered stiffer springs, 17-inch wider wheels and tyres and uprated antiroll bars. I've never driven a DHP car; I read somewhere that road noise (which is something i cant stand, being a high mileage driver) is much worse with the DHP. Also when you come to sell your car you wont get more than GBP500 for the fact your car is fitted with the DHP. at the next 126k service, i will get them to renew all 4 shocks and springs + suspension bushes. But I will stick to the standard variety, not the DHP. LS400 is a high mileage cruiser; horses for courses etc. My experience with fitting Koni shocks vs OE to a previous Honda leads me to play safe and stick with original lexus parts only. new LS430 with air suspension has firm and normal settings you can flick between with a switch...... Pramod