The-Acre

Mine will forever be this. Mine was the same colour and model, a 1969 Chevy Malibu with around 35k on the clock, plus, right hand drive!

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

And that is fair enough - when we talking about time period of BILLION years, I think it needs to be accepted that these are just current understanding. And that is key point - our understanding is constantly being updated. When I was in school the consensus was that people have roamed the earth for ~200,000 years. Then we have found remains which were carbon dated 300,000 years... and by now the working theory is ~400,000-2,000,000.

I think this is more or less true for earth age, but what is important here is that earth is AT LEAST billions years old, whenever it is 4.5 or 5.3 or 3.5 billion in grand scheme of things it does not matter when somebody cherry picks 150 years old temperature records and tries not only to draw conclusions from that, but as well decides on policy and forces other people to follow it. I am sorry, but current "climate emergency" has about the same level of scientific proof as most of religions. And it is not far from the truth - many climate activists and their organisations have religious sect like structures and belief system. Even if somebody supports them and thinks we need to do more to reduce our contribution to climate change, it is still undeniable that climate activists do not follow science, but rather their own "belief system".

And that is precisely my point - we looking at the tiny period. Even the ice drilling is just tiny bit of story, because consensus is that earth was completely free of ice ~115,000 years ago. So you one obviously can't use ice core modelling before that period! That is why so ridiculous when some potato-head so called "scientist" says that "this was hottest year for probably 120,000 years". Like yeah sure - 120,000 years ago earth was completely free of ice and tundra had tropical climate, yet somehow it was apparently colder. Last time I checked we still have ice in both poles and we still have permafrost in vast areas.

This does not look very tropical to me:

Yet if you google "siberia" the first link is https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-concerns-siberia-experiences-record-breaking-heat-n1216351 The "record breaking 26C". Again to your point - record breaking since when? And why do we hate people in Siberia so much... I much rather have tropical weather in tundra than 2 miles deep ice cap over UK.

It's a shame someone has mentioned wearing a thong before I have lunch! And of course you're spot on when you say "since when" The constant narrative is, "since records began" As you say, we're only looking at about 140 years of records because the "scientists" say that's when more reliable records began. 

6 hours ago, Linas.P said:

My PC drives me mad, I have little weather widget at the bottom and it used to say just temperature, then they improved it to give warnings like "rain is coming", "high wind" etc. sometimes quite useful... Now it is outright propaganda, every bloody day is record high! Not joking - was sitting at home on rainy Saturday day in July, 22 degrees, windy, had to close window in the room as it was outright cold in the morning, what the widget says "RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE!" 22C in bright red with red exclamation mark (or maybe it is rea thermometer)... I am sorry, but even in my short little lifetime I have seen hotter Julys! And fair enough if it would be some generic location, I know it was hot in Spain that day, but no it is my location, my temperature and it is record high! What?!

As well now BBC shows temperatures between 10-12C as yellow, 13-14C already is kind of amber and it is nearly red by the time it gets to 21-24C. No! I am sorry, but 24C is just comfortable normal temperature in spring and autumn and it is outright disappointing in summer. I guess nice if you sitting in the office, but not a day to go to the beach for sure! I would say ~28C is what normal summer is like, but I don't want to see any amber until it hits at least 30C, and any red before it is 40C. And I have no issue calling hot day a hot day and showing it as red, last summer for example was very hot when we had all the fires near London, even houses burned. As it happens I was in the Egypt at the time and it gain was kind of disappointing, because when we left the Heathrow it was 38C, when we landed in Sharm it was 42C, I even joked that there is no point going in Egypt anymore when we have such temps in UK. Cool - show such days as red! And indeed it was hottest day since record began in 1884 or something like that. But 21C as redish-amber in the summer?! What is that?

And here is another thing - record high since 1884 (maybe different date, but the point is - few 100 years at best)... Sorry, but that is just trivial, even our race which is just a tine dot in the timeline has existed depending on the study for 300,000 -2,000,000 years. Why we care about temperature record since 150 years ago? It is almost like saying "you are smartest and most beautiful lady named Karen I have met in last 15 minutes!"

Here is nice graph - age of the earth and then there are "hominins" - just a dot! I am pretty sure they could not make it smaller in this resolution, but even single pixel is probably exaggerating it! And we think that 150 year old record means something!

As much as I would dispute any attempt to suggest the age of the earth because no one really knows, I absolutely agree this climate thing is propaganda. Propaganda is used to control the masses, but for what purpose? Perhaps secret discussions at the WEF meetings may reveal something. A certain unpleasant person from the 30's and 40's once said "a lie told once remains a lie, a lie told a thousand times becomes truth"  It's also interesting to see (I think it was the Express) saying the Greek fires were arson, apparently there's proof! Talking of propaganda, why is it that the mainstream media never want to talk to scientists with opposing views on climate, they just don't. 

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

Climate Change had many connotations, with the perspective on things that I have, I consider it just normal that climate does change, to be honest I knew that when I was like 10 years old, because as surprising as it is kids actually learns about the history and various changes the planet went trough. Well at least I hope so - because in the days when I was in school (which wasn't that long ago!) we had something that roughly translates into "getting to know your planet/environment", this was for the primary school and had explained broad topics like basics of physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy and history. Just high level, but putting everything in perspective. So it went into how earth was formed, the key periods (geologic scale), ice ages etc. So that is what 7 years olds learn! Meaning that by the time I was 10 I had rough understanding that climate is constantly variable, it does get colder and hotter all the time and that those period can last 10s and even 100s of thousands of years.

Yet Climate Change in many people mind is some sort of negative thing, for various reasons, but common ones are pollution and human activity, yet natural reasons for Climate Change are almost always ignored. 

But like that is not enough - Climate Change was not shocking enough, now we have new terms "Climate Catastrophe" and "Climate Emergency", despite it neither being catastrophic (as Ice Age would be), nor really that "emergent" as even in worst case scenario it will take thousands of years for meaningful change to happen. Same with Sea Level and Salt Level, same with animals going extinct - over 99% of all species that ever existed are now extinct! I am all for preservation, but adaptations, mutations and extinctions just part of existence.

So although I would say "climate change is fact" - I mean it in a way that constant temperature, humidity, co2, o2 levels change is just normal. 

And on the news just 45 mins ago, climate scientists are saying this is likely to be the hottest year for 120,000 years! My question to them, "were you there?"

I looked at the BBC online news today, we're having a heatwave, just like the often occuring early September heatwaves I remember in my 71 years, but the BBC has it under their "climate change" section. The more they, and the met office and the government (and others) do this, the more people will just accept it as fact without a debate. One of my customers was talking about climate change, and when I said "assuming there is such a thing" she just said "oh, you're one of them" No debate, just labeled a conspiracy theorist. But of course, it's only a conspiracy if it isn't true! 

17 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Came across this brilliant video (at the bottom)... just to be clear I personally think it is somewhat speculative, truth is that our understanding about climate is very limited.  That is why I HATE terms like "climate emergency" so much, how can one say it is emergency if in fact we don't know what "normal" is? Instead, "Climate Change" is correct term, because that is observable and we simply stating the fact e.g. average temperature changed by 0.01% per year or whatever, but it is moronic to jump to conclusions and follow ecovandalists and ecomentalists when we don't fully understand the causes, just by observing short term changes that we still cannot explain! For example many people do not realise that CO2 induced global warming is just a theory! It does seem logical and some of data corelates, as well it is fact that climate is warming, but it has not been definitively proven it is because of CO2, or because of human activity... yet most people nowadays already treat this as a fact which it isn't. It may be true, or it may not be true - the judgment is still out, research is still ongoing, the results are not consistent, yet we have things like Paris Accords where our leaders agreed on actions for something we don't fully understand yet. Now if the pledge would have been to spend 1% of GDP to research this - fine, but we just skipped that part and went right into the action without knowing what we are acting for.

Just to note - I am not meteorologist, nor climate scientists, I know some people really get offended if I don't state the obvious when it is just my opinion, so I just like to look at sources on both sides and use logic to work out what adds-up and what doesn't. The video below actually introduced me to few terms that didn't know about before and few interesting processes. For example the fact that based on correct terminology we are still currently in "ice age", it is speculative to say that we are in now in "termination" period, but the concept itself is kind of proven and repetitive. And I think that perspective is what is mostly lacking in the discussion. This planet is billions years old, most of processes takes 100s of thousands of years, and we (or rather all the ecomentalists) are looking in tiny period of few hundred years to draw conclusion about impending doom.

In short - what is being presented here is more along the lines of what I consider objective view or at least discussion when it comes to climate change, I think to understand what is going on we need to look into at least 100s of thousands of years climate perspective, because otherwise we are at risk of sampling error and general research bias. We can even call it cherry picking - in the event that takes 100 thousands of years we picked last few hundreds to maybe a couple of thousands of years and we trying to draw conclusion from that. Yet if we broaden the perspective then we can see that climate was both much hotter and much colder in the past, and if indeed it is termination period then we can expect climate as much as 3C higher than current temperature, yet for some reason we (or at least some people) are alarmed about predicted 2C increase and want to basically stop any climate change. Isn't that a bit foolish to try prevent something from happening despite it being natural cycle for the planet? I guess it is fair to say we don't know if it is or if it isn't, but that is why we should not jump to the conclusions too early.

Now what it has to do with cars and car forum? We all obviously impacted by these overreaching, idiotic and hysterical reactions from ecomentalists. I do agree with desire of preserving the planet, but to do that we need to understand what is going on first, perhaps improve the science and then act, not simply stop living like the ecovandals basically demand. So all of our quality of live is negatively impacted by minority which is overreacting to the processes they don't understand. It would be fair if they demand to fund the research to understand what is going on, but they just want to skip that part and go right into corrective actions despite not knowing what they are correcting and why.

So yeah... the video:

 

Personally I find it laughable that anyone would presume to know what may or may not have happened so long ago. As long ago as the 9th century severe heat and drought caused loss of life in Europe, but it seems most of the "Greta's" aren't interested in climate history, only the current "emergency"

On 9/3/2023 at 1:37 PM, Malc1 said:

Mk1 pitfalls come to mind  …… there’s just the 2

1. the leaking pas reservoir onto the alternator ….. must ensure the gaskets are sound  

2  the coolant reservoir cap rubbers disintegrate and suddenly go pop ….. a non Lexus replacement will suffice 

Malc 

When I had mine I had the power steering leak so I bought the part from Toyota, just a simple "o" ring but still about £2!! I did it myself, not a bad job at all, unless if you have sausage fingers! The other thing they can suffer from, and it's the only real problem I had, is the coil packs. They only have two, unlike the later ones with 8. Again, an easy job, unless the passenger side one goes, that'll take you back to the sausage finger thing!

5 hours ago, Razor61 said:

I had a look at the MOT history on this car - N97 PPG - and in March 2021 there was a long long list of advisories - 50 in total!! I can't remember seeing a longer more in depth list, most of them are for corrosion or slight corrosion which is to be expected on a 1996 LS400. Next MOT's had no advisories at all, either everything was rectified and every bit of corrosion or slight corrosion was sorted or it was a very dedicated MOT tester in March 2021🙂

Wow, that nearly freaked me out, my reg number is N8PPG!

On 8/30/2023 at 4:09 PM, Malc1 said:

hahahahaha maybe the fallacy of thinking a Celsior 430 could be better than your old,  a Ls400 😉

I'm sure a little tlc and your breadth of knowledge will overcome these " tiny " issues .......  after all, your car isn't yet 20 years young 🙄

Malc

Well I'm glad your opening line was sympathetic! The things Steve mentioned are minor, and being the person who sold him the Celsior I know for certain that the car is basically excellent. And if you read this Steve, I wouldn't bother draining the trans fluid, I know shortly before you bought it the colour and smell of the fluid was as it should be, unless of course the transmission is playing up when driving, which I doubt. 

That is truly impressive!

I'll always look fondly on the MK1 LS, it was my first entry into the Lexus world. I bought it for £1,500 way back with the plan to keep it for a year before it all went badly wrong. 5 years later and many miles it was simply superb!

14 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

Well I'm an Ex Lexus owner due to my superb is250 being written off. I'm back in a Ford. 

Oh who said it. From caviar to baked beans? Absolutely NOT. My current Ford Focus drives every bit as good as the is250 I had.Nearly half the cubic capacity but ruddy hell quicker thanks to the turbo and more frugal with the go go juice too. Its also just as comfortable to drive. If only the is250 was a hatchback then ruck my tin hat it'd be the best of the best because that V6 is oh so wonderful. Would be the dogs dangle bits if it was turbo'd.

So basically from Lexus to Ford yet again. And hopefully back in a Lexus in about a year.

Well I'm partly in a Ford. I've had my Volvo XC60 for about 18 months now and I have to say, it's simply brilliant. Safe, well built, supremely comfortable and a joy to drive. 

10 hours ago, DJT said:

The-Acre I have air suspension but wouldn't of thought that would make replacement any more difficult.

The procedure is the same for air or springs, the strut has to be removed to get the upper control arm bolts out. The air strut is fixed in the same way as springs, three nuts at the top and one bolt at the bottom. The only difference is you have to disconnect the airline. If you invest in the correct airline removal tool it will save you many frustrating moments! It's only a little plastic thing but probably won't be plastic money!

If you're replacing the upper joints, and its not a bad job to do, I would be doing the drop links and sway bar bushes at the same time. Remember you need to remove the shock absorbers to do it.

8 hours ago, DJT said:

The-acre I've used rockauto for parts when I had an american RV. They are very good and efficient. Only took 2 days to reach UK. Then another 3 weeks to get to me. Stuck in a customs warehouse until carrier picked them up. 

When ordering from Rock you need to specify FedEx economy, that way taxes will be included and parts will arrive within the week, I've never waited more than 5 days. If you opt for other post systems you can get stuck with customs etc. FedEx have been brilliant.

2 hours ago, VFR said:

The RX450h MK3 is clearly the best, no doubt about it by any measures so if considering a Lexus then this is the one for sure.

 

 

Just get my coat and quietly step out.    😗

I would have an RX sitting on my drive rather than a Volvo if the rear tailgate didn't slope so steeply. We have a very tall dog, and after comparing the two cars the Lexus sadly lost out due to the above.

3 minutes ago, Razor61 said:

So it’s the rubber insulator/concertina protector for the standard shock absorbers in the screen shot below then?
This doesn’t apply to the air suspension shocks/struts for the LS430, the rubber protection is all part of the shock/strut. Or have I got it wrong?

This doesn't apply to the air strut.

7 hours ago, DJT said:

Malc1 yeah going to cost ££££. Lexus quoted me £1600 fitted😥. Steep but should out last me. 300k miles and 20 years of use original parts have lasted very well. Seen wishbone with ball joint on Ebay very cheap . Cheap means issues and buy twice. 2 wishbones for £120 delivered has set of alarm bells to avoid at all costs. 

I know I've posted about this before but I would trust Rockauto for these sort of parts.  When I asked Lexus for a price for two upper control arms it was into four figures, Rock were £93 delivered for the pair, and they weren't the cheapest they had! The quality was excellent, and knowing how the Americans love to sue, I don't think a big company like Rockauto would take that risk. I'm only speaking from experience and I wouldn't hesitate buying from them again.

2 hours ago, Razor61 said:

That is a cracking price for the air struts, that makes a big difference to buying a LS430 or not. Just front struts though, is it the case that the front struts are more common to go bad compared to the rear struts?

In my experience there's no difference as to which go first. I passed a gold LS430 today and it looked very sad right down low. I think it's a real shame that air was ever used because I believe, and it's only my view, the LS400 does have a better ride as far as the suspension goes. That's just my experience having had more than one of each.

10 hours ago, Malc1 said:

and indeed MOST other cars of our aged Ls400s etc are reposing as bits and bobs at the crushers 

Malc

As it happens I bought one of those other cars about 8 weeks ago. A neighbour had a 1999 VW Polo on her drive gathering moss and going nowhere for three years. The very day the scrap man offered her £100 I upped it to £150. I've made it a bit of a quick project. It now has a clean MOT and only 16k on the clock! Surely even Greta would thank me for that! I still have to pass two LS400's locally when walking the dog and without fail I give another glance!

3 hours ago, messi said:

Yeah because the 430 and 460 are newer and dont show any signs of electrical faults or any faults. But do have air suspension issues, gearbox issues, air con issues, cd player and amp issues, speaker blowing, rust on both front doors, but hey, because he said good things about the 430, they are better than the 400 in your opinion too now?

Well I'm not a Lexus owner at the moment, but never say never! Having owned two LS400's, one GS300 and three LS430's, I can honestly say in my opinion the 430 takes the crown. It's easy to complain about the issues they face with age, but you'd be foolish not to expect them with aging luxury cars.

It might be worth a mention that Rock are having a sale on some LS430 parts. I think £23 for front upper control arms are as low as you'll get, and I would trust them more than unknown eBay sellers. 

2 hours ago, AJLexus said:

Hey guys thanks for the questions, in terms of requirements, reliability (Ofcourse), cheap insurance and running cost and preferably a sunroof.

budget wise I wouldn’t want to spend more than 3 grand on my first L 

 

the 430 was my first thought as it looks pretty timeless, but I’ve heard running costs are steeper than you’d expect , there were several different gs’ at that budget but in the last few months the prices have soared

In all honesty I'm not sure you'll get something you'll be happy with for 3k. If you do it's likely to be a poor or high mileage example, and they can suffer from carbon build-up. I think it's after 2005 that the GS300 falls into the higher tax bracket. 

5 hours ago, Redefined said:

Previously I've done two sets of headlights on my cars. One I used a kit from Halfords (probably Maguires or similar) and it seemed an ok job and the clearcoat was easy to get on. Seemed to simple and straightforward, but worked well and I had clear lenses.

The other set (actually maybe the third set as I probably made the first set last across 2 cars 😆) I had done professionally by someone I met at a Subaru Garage in Bradford. Came to my street the week after and spent a good 2 hours cleaning/polishing and coating. Again, results were amazing and I've been looking for a similar local business (sadly, lost his number/details) to do the Ls430 as the headlights look a bit dull.

Other than not being able to find a local specialist, I've also been reading that the clearcoat applied apparently only lasts for about a year. This, I've also read on the Maguires kit at Halfords. Unfortunately I didn't own the previous cars for longer than 3 years and I'm perplexed at what method do I take!

Specialist service outside my door in 2019 was about £80. So I imagine it'll now be closer to around £150 (which might answer my Q of just doing it myself). Thoughts/comments welcomed please...

The three LS430's I've owned have all had the same misty headlights. I found masking the surrounding paint and spending about 5-10 mins on each light with compound and then waxing lasts a good few months. Once you've done it it's much easier to do it the next time before it gets too bad. I've used elbow power in a circular motion but a small polisher in a drill works well. I certainly wouldn't pay to have it done!

13 hours ago, ThePerfectionOfLexus said:

Thanks, I'll go with replacing the radiator with another stock part.
According to Lexus in my department, the issue should have been fixed by now, and the stock radiator has a different part number.
Regardless, I'll stick with replacing the coolant every 5 years, and hope to keep a good preventive maintenance this way. 

I would also think about replacing the two rubber trans fluid hoses at the same time which is what I did. I found mine on a previous LS to be cracked, again, peace of mind. You'll probably find the foam between the radiator and AC condenser falls apart, just leave it off if it does.