tim hunter

Colin - good to hear from you. Very glad you continue to be pleased with my old Mk3 - it was a great car! Malc - I know there is endless discussion about the upper wishbones. All I can say is that I replaced both the ones on this car for £75 over 20k miles ago and they are still as good as new. They are so simple to fit I don't really mind if they fail after that sort of mileage.. I also did the lower ball joints at the same time, and they are just fine too.

Hello I went out to my 160k '98 LS400 recently after it had been stood for a few days and the nearside front was down in the weeds, not good. The front spring had decided to break at the bottom near where it sits on the strut, and the rest of the spring had now gone right down to the bottom of the leg. Using OEM Lexus parts is out of the question, having seen the ridiculous prices, so I started shopping around for a pair of springs and shocks. The least expensive I could find for a set of KYB - which I have used on other cars without problem - were coming in at £220 plus delivery. Casting the net wider I looked in California. It is common in the USA for entire struts to be supplied, pre-assembled. So, not only do you not have to mess around with springs compressors, transferring bits and pieces, but you get a new top mount, bottom bush, dust boots etc... No idea why the UK market has not woken up to this idea yet. Anyway I ordered them, and six days later they were sitting in my kitchen - £210 for the pair including air freight and customs charges. Fitting them was a doddle, less than two hours to do both sides working on the driveway. It still drives exactly like a Lexus should, so I am very pleased. I will be ordering a rear set next week - may as well do all four at these prices! Regards Tim

Good morning, I have a 2003 LS430 with Mark Levinson sound system and really, really want an aux port to play music from my devices. After a lot of googling around I think one of these kits will do the trick: http://incartec.co.uk/Pages/Product.aspx?P=3491 Model 26-264 or http://incartec.co.uk/Pages/Product.aspx?P=3495 Model 26-257-USB The only difference seems to centre on whether the CD changer has a 12 pin connector arranged in a 5-7 pattern or a 6-6 pattern. I can remove the head unit if necessary, but can anyone here confirm which it is to save me pulling it out twice? Help would be appreciated. Regards Tim