soramad

alan, is this when the brakes failed and you managed to pull up before the big tree out of shot :D very artistic pictures , you could have got a half naked blonde to drape herself across the bonnet to make it really interesting :winky: nice motor though,can't beat fsg .

i drive a soarer V8 which on a long motor way journey will return 32 mpg however rural driving will be low 20's ,i usually manage to get 400 to 450 miles to a full tank of petrol,and i always keep my tank topped up, for no reason other than thats what i do,always ready to travel :D incidently the soarer has 2 good rear seats fully accesable unless you need to fit a baby seat then that could be a bit of a bind,on the V8 the passenger seat automaticly moves forward when the back is lowered for getting in the rear ,there is also a pedal to the lower rear of the seat so the rear passenger only has to step on it to start the seat moving forward and lowering the backrest.

big bob when you moved the plug leads out of the way is there any chance some of them could have got broken as they can get quite brittle in the atmosphere under the bonnet, i lost my No 5 lead sometime back and this gave poor acceleration and a slight missfire ,i think any more than one broken lead would show up a lack in pick up,also possibly cause the engine to judder as it normally runs without any viabration, where abouts in gloucestershire are you? also i trust none of the pullys got turned when you replaced the belt

i know this may be out of order on this forum but it is possible to get replacement heater control solinoids from the Lsoc (lexus soarer owners club) shop for £66.00 and/ or toyota dealers

thinks---- does it really matter ? there are always cars out there faster than the one you are driving at the time ^_^

and a V8 4ltr and a 6cyl 3ltr

the flare is highly ilegal and if i was you remove it asap, if you are stopped by the local speed tax collectors it will be classed as an explosive devise . a thought on the boot switch being off ,some work may have been carried out on the car which involved it being jacked up in which case it MUST be switched off and may have been inadvertantly forgotten and left off.

the other thing that comes to mind is that the vent flaps are not changing over, as i can't see that any hot air can come through the fire wall there would be allsorts of engine smells coming in with it , the transmission tunnel however can get quite hot and generate a lot of heat inside the cockpit.

i take it you have tried turning the temperature down to minimum via the knob on the centre consul try this with the aircon switch on and the vents set to outside air, the V8 is notorious for being hot in the summer so air con is a must but i get good cold air into the cockpit using the method above ,if this does not work get the heater valve checked out ,this is situated top right hand side of the engine on the bulk head it has a round long knob like thing on the top of it ,it could be that it is not functioning properly and has had the pipes swapped over to produce heat only

really really p....d off we missed the christmas bash and in my original home area as well,raz usually lets me know where and when but not this year ,i am going to have to give him a beating :D

if you do need fluid ,use only toyota fluid, idealy have a complete fluid change by the way bison nice to see you saw the light and got another lexus . :D thought you would have got a soarer though more your style

can't help you with a mot tester but your testers are talking through their arses the abs is under continual monitoring from the on board computer and when the ignition switch is turned on the computer goes through its checks which includes the abs circuits, if there was a fault it would indicate such by coming on and staying on exactly the same as any car equipped with abs , under normal conditions on an abs equipped car the abs light comes on for a couple of seconds and goes off as the car is started and comes on if there is a fault ,so where is the difference between the two ?i have never ever had a problem with this as far as passing the mot cert . i would think the testers in the test centres you are going to are only used to cars with idiot lights in them and can't think beyond them, strictly by the book jobsworth's come to mind.

it can be done but it will be quite expensive , the only person i know who has had it done is carlos sc , he has a V8 active ,i would like to have the facility but am concentrating on other things at the moment ,just fitted a dvd player into my glove box the other was under the driving seat but restricted the ability to lower the seat down to where i wanted it

your age will have the main bearing on the insurance ,it will be around group 18/19, the 2.5 tt is faster than the V8 but does not have the refinements, have a look on e bay there are some nice soarers to be found on there ,but have a look at them before bidding.

0r alternativly go to planet soarer or the australian soarers owners club for the difinative diy repairs on soarers,it may not be the tube in the back light that has failed but the circuit that drives it, you will only find this out by taking the emv out and checking the in circuit fuse, if this has blown then you will need a new capacitor and transistors for the tube driver circuit . i am currently working on obtaining replacement tubes for the existing circuitry and also the reason why the emv unit becomes so temperature sensative ,ie only works above certain temp as it gets older similar to blinky dash so capacitors are first suspects

i run 18" wheels with 18x245 tyres ,i run 30psi on the front and 32psi on the rears

just looked at the ad it looks like a std gt with cloth seats , an after market rear spoiler , and modified front with bolt on fog lights , a gt-l like mine has leather seats not cloth and a full size touch screen which controls ac, radio, cd, etc and it is definately over priced for a vehical with what look like original wheels

are you sure they are fog lights as the early soarers had turning lights which only operate when the lights are on and the indicator switch is used the light on the indicating side will come on and shine side ways ,lighting up the corner you are turning into , not much good in the town but very usefull in the country , if they have been modified then they will throw light forward . i prefer the turning lights, but it a personal thing. checking the tems is not easy but try putting the suspension into high with the engine running and listen for the compressor under the front wing to operate and watch for the sus to rise ,or when on a test run boot it in normal suspension setting and the back end will wriggle as the sus is soft , push the switch to sport this should harden up the sus and you should notice a difference in the handling also you will feel every uneveness in the road , well i do in mine it is rarely out of sport except for slow town driving. hopes this helps, if you are unsure try to get someone who knows soarers to go with you , or walk away from it as suspension problems can be expensive unless you are lucky enough to get hold of some good second hand struts , incidently if it is a 91 don't pay any more than 3 grand for it unless its in excelent condition and low milage , has it been converted to mph etc

must agree with dobedo the symptoms you describe seems to indicate a bad earth somewhere in the lighting circuit ,meaning the lights are getting a poor earth through/ from somewhere else hence the hood syndrome, may only be a lose connection to the body work due to viabration . any way check this out first before spending money on relays etc . a volt/resistance meter may be a help .

have a word with lexusman mob 07985304832 he can get hold of most things for soarers

the 4ltr is quiet at all running speeds ,on mine the roar only comes on kick down , but a friend has new back boxes custom made ,not to expensive even though they were ss,which does give that V8 burble even under normal running and has released a few more horses through less restriction. incidently i like the ability to tootle along behind pedestrians in car parks and watch the look on there face when they realise such a big vehicle is following them so close and they did'nt hear it

must agree with nickmoul, access to the rear seats is very good from the passenger side , not so clever from the drivers side as only the back of the front seat drops forward resticting the accessability between the seat and door piller also the seat belt gets in the way , so make sure you always draw up to the curb on the passengers side when loading up passengers. incidently on the rear of the passenger seat ,bottom left, is a foot operated lever which allows the rear passenger to operate the passenger seat from the rear , not a lot of good baby wise but operational from 3 to 4 years upwards, not had any experience of baby seats only small nieces and nephews

steve was that the local gay bar ?

good time in the company of good fun people , a feast fit for a king ,never seen so many different dishes of curry on one table at one time , a vote of thanks for raz for organising it and his father for the venue ,and not forgetting the chef who cooked it and who liked to get into nearly every photo taken, sorry we could'nt carry on round the town but as we live in chelt we know it pretty well. those who did'nt or could'nt attend really missed out on one hell of a meal!!!!!!! any way thanks from tracee and myself.

if you get a V8 gt limited with the emv screen then you are stuck with it as nearly all the audio, aircon,radio,and cd controls operate through the touch screen , all the rest are possible to modify but it is not just a straight swap , you will have to visit sites like lsoc , tif, planet soarer etc somewhere on them you will find the answer to best type and fitting,this also includes dvd's which can be fed straight into the emv screen ,or seperate screens for other models.