Parrot of Doom

If I were you I'd just buy a replacement from someone breaking an LS400. There are a few knocking around on Ebay.

Years ago a mate had a Rover 100. I still reckon it had just about the smoothest nicest most comfortable suspension of any car I've ever been in. Even the LS.

My advice would be to pay someone to do it. It's a lot of work.

The radio isn't the same as the one in my mk4 - it doesn't have the rotary audio control on the left.

Call me cynical but I bet that 20% came from driving more carefully, which is the easiest way to increase mpg.

The cig lighter is probably the same problem as mine, there is a small fuse wire at the back of the socket, it bridges an insulating felt washer. If too much current is drawn through the socket the fuse pops. Lots of people just remove the felt washer to re-establish an electrical circuit, but I'm currently trying to see if I can replace the fuse wire.

I can't answer your question, but I've just had mine done (see thread still on front page) and what I would recommend is that if you have your filler mounted under the bumper (where a towbar would normally be), you instruct the installer to position it far out enough so that if you use the filler gun with the large handle that rotates (I forget the name), it will fit easily. Some stations have a large plastic shield to protect your hands from the gas that blasts out as you remove the hose, and in some stations that shield is fixed. This can make it difficult to connect up. Also, there isn't much clearance between the engine cover and bonnet so if things are getting tight, just lose the plastic engine cover. You don't really need it anyway.

Is it a warning of low oil level, or low oil pressure? If the latter, the sensor may be working fine.

Hmmm, I think mine is the green stuff. That's another job then, flushing that lot out!

Ah I see, I guess it's to stop the cigarette lighter plug getting stuck and setting the car on fire or something :) I think I'll replace that washer rather than remove it, and if I need to run my compressor I'll hook it up directly to the battery.

IIRC about 28mpg, somewhere around there.

There appears to be no plastic trim hiding the interior fusebox, above the pedals. I can therefore see the steering column. Is this normal? While looking at the steering, there is a little bit of play in the universal joint I can see there. Is this a common repair or is it just normal for the car? Also, the front cigarette lighter has no power. The fuse seems OK (fr cig?) Also! There appears to be a bit of trim missing inside the glovebox, that would hide the pollen filter? And what is the elastic strap there for, the manuals? What's the recommended coolant? I need to top up after moving some coolant pipes around. Both my remotes are a bit dodgy. Can I buy a new remote from eBay and reprogram it, or is it a new one from the dealer?

Yep, same here, the petrol gauge does move slightly (a tiny bit) but at some point it slapped itself and returned to what it should read. The mpg on the computer still works, I just subtract 5mpg from the numbers there. Today I did 270 miles before refilling the tank with 55 litres of LPG at about £0.75 a litre. I reckon therefore I can get about 300 miles of motorway driving out of the 71 litre tank in my spare wheel well.

Congratulations, the smoothness and elegance of this car is very much understated. I believe most people on the road look at them and think "cheap old Datsun", well let's just keep it that way, let it be our little secret :) They can sit in their £14,000 Focus, I'll have my £2,000 Lexus, a much better car in nearly every respect!

After about 140-150 miles back and forth over the A628 woodhead pass (basically crosses the Peak District between Manchester and Sheffield) and then to Liverpool on the M62, about 33 litres of LPG used, at a cost of about £25 (at a rather expensive £0.79 a litre station). I'm off to Silverstone twice over the weekend so I expect to see better mpg, since crossing the Peaks I was stuck behind lorries doing 25mph up 1:5 slopes. The figures above are still cheaper than my last car, a W210 Mercedes with the 3.0TD engine.

Quick update, the injectors aren't knocking on the plastic cover (although I'm going to put some rubber blocks between the two to ensure they don't), but the clickety-click of the injectors is pretty loud compared to the engine. Its like slightly cold tappets. Nothing wrong with them and on any other engine you'd never hear them. I chucked a travel blanket over them with the bonnet open and that kills most of the noise. I'm therefore looking at some simple manner of soundproofing, something that will of course be immune to the heat under there. It only needs to 4 square feet or so. I did slightly under 100 miles today and were it not for that faint clicking at idle, I'd never have known it was running on LPG.

There's no other way to describe that than "disgusting".

Does the engine cover make a difference to noise levels, or is it just to make things pretty? I may remove it.

I have noticed a very faint "whirring" only audible when idling, I suspect that something with moving parts has been bolted to the bulkhead or chassis, and noise is being transmitted through that interface. On an ordinary car it would of course not be audible, but with the Lexus being nearly silent at idle... I shall investigate. A couple of bits of rubber may solve it.

I thought I'd post pictures of the LPG installation I've just had done, by Worsley Autogas (just outside Manchester). The cost was £1650 + VAT, and the conversion took from Monday morning until Wednesday afternoon. They also gave me a courtesy car to drive around in. The injectors: The filter (silver cylinder) and ECU: Flashlube bottle - apparently not strictly necessary, but the installer says it does no harm to have one. The little brass knob controls the amount of oil passed through, apparently a drip every five seconds is normal: The fuel tank - Even with the spare wheel on top I still have about half the boot space left, which is plenty for day to day driving: Filler nozzle: Fuel gauge, installed on the blank plastic panel just behind the indicator stalk: Driving it home I noticed no difference. Engine sounded the same, acceleration the same, handling the same, I couldn't hear the system switching between petrol and LPG. All very impressive. I shall update accordingly with cost per miles, once I've done a few hundred.

My first car had a similar noise, it was a noisy diff. When did you last check the oil level in the diff? It's an easy job to do and costs a tenner or so, maybe you should check it out.

Get a prybar between the spring and the balljoint on the top wishbone, and push hard. Mine moved easily. Anyway, I thought some readers might be interested in the quality of the Ebay wishbones. These were £100 for the pair, delivered very promptly. At first glance they look "ok", but a closer inspection reveals that they're not particularly well made. Hopefully they're similar enough, and I think the chances are the bushings are no different than the OEM item; the balljoint is another matter. Overall the construction is nowhere near the quality of the two bottom balljoints I bought from Lexus (for a reasonable £65ish a side). I think for £100 if I get 12 months from them (most of my driving is on the motorway) I'll be happy enough with that, I'm not paying labour to fit them so it's no big deal. With an LPG conversion, 4 new tyres, tax, and various bits and bobs to pay for, I don't mind if they don't last all that long.

Yep, I saw that advert when I was looking. Laughed and then moved on.

Well we tried to change the offside bottom ball joint today but the castle nut on the track rod end was in pretty bad shape, so we left it until I can get some spare nuts (it'll have to be destroyed to remove it). A prybar in the top wishbone showed plenty of play in the balljoint there so I'm going to replace both of those. I'm not paying Lexus's price though.

Mine has exactly the same issue. I'm replacing the lower front ball joints tomorrow but I doubt that'll solve it, I'll be looking at the top front wishbones and the anti-roll bar link rods.