Titch LS

Stuart, just inserting the key is enough to make the steering wheel move, you don't need 'on' position.

Paul, great bike, great spot too. I used to ride its smaller stablemate years ago, a 250cc YDS7. Had great fun on that bike. Love 2-strokes. All that blue smoke!! fantastic. The environmentalists eventually killed them off, of course. Shame really, they had real character and were fast for their size. Today's diesels are proving just as environmentally damaging. The latest VW doctored 'emission tests' hide the fact that NOx and particulates are actually at harmful levels despite todays technology. Are 'dirty diesels' days numbered, I wonder?

Only to be expected!! Another year of motoring pleasure. Enjoy.

The LS is as quiet as the Bentley and have a smoother ride than that modern Merc. Fits in perfectly.

John, I agree with Cruisemark, the LS400 gearboxes don't suffer from the dreaded "water in the autobox" problem. I have exactly the same car as you and with proper maintenance i.e. the occasional gearbox fluid change, the gearbox on this model will reach huge mileages without much trouble. I'm expecting at least 200,000 + from mine. So, no need to worry old chap.

That's nothing, --- I've seen on Youtube an angry customer smashing up his brand new, but obviously faulty, BMW X6 with an AXE!! Customer kept getting fobbed off by his dealership in Germany, I think it was. It's hilarious. Just type in "are BMW's reliable?" (I can't post it, too much of a technophobe, sorry).

Ah, but in 15 years or so, will the present LS460 be as reliable as my mk4 LS400 is now? I'm pretty sure that I will have had to spend more money on it in that time than has been spent on my 'pull out all the stops' LS400 . I hope, for future owners, that I'm wrong but I wouldn't bet on it. Have you noticed for example that the Lexus motto is no longer 'The Pursuit of Perfection' but has been changed to 'Amazing in Motion'. Significant?

Any car's interior light will stay on if the door is left ajar. They are designed that way. It can be switched off completely though, if you choose to. My LS battery once drained because of leaving the driver's door open but soon recovered after a long overnight trickle charge.

I was playing around with the rear central headrest (which was high), when I found out that by pulling it forward and releasing it, then pulling it forward yet again, it could be moved progressively to 3 slightly different forward positions. When finally pulling it right forward again, it released itself back into the rear seat, in a lower position, to give more rear visibility. Voila! This car never ceases to amaze me.

I've never had such an old car with so few problems. Keeping my mk.4 for as long as possible.

And the mk 4's.

Must be unique--- it's described as having manual transmission.

I've used Rockauto's a few times. There's loads of stuff on there for every LS.

Something else the Celsior has as apposed to the 'basic' LS400.

I'm in the habit of slipping back into 'N' if the lights have just turned red and I know there's going to be a longish wait. I do this especially if my brakes are hot. I don't like 'sitting' on my brakes. Got good at releasing the parking brake really quickly when time to move off.

Simon, Changing the anti-roll bar bushes on the later models, i.e. on a mk4 like mine, are not any harder to do than on earlier models. I've changed mine and it's a relatively cheap and easy job to do for your average DIYer. Some of the other bushes are MUCH harder to replace. Some of the noise I was getting was coming from the shock absorber top mounts, so I had those replaced. No noises any more. In your case it could be your front strut rods though, and they are expensive. You'll need your Weetabix in order to fit them if you go the DIY route.

The moral of the story is; NEVER let Halfrauds loose on your LS! That goes for Kwik Fit too. From experience, both these outfits are a bunch of amatuers.

I once thought my starter was on the blink and dreaded getting it (or the solenoid) replaced, but found out it to my relief that it was the battery.

Rudy, as Steve says, the mk4 (Celsior) is the final and best version of the 400. It has less known faults and more power. And on LPG much more economy! Also, as it is 9 years younger, it's a no brainer.

You might find after a year of driving that you won't want to drive anything else. I know I don't!

I wouldn't touch a modern used german car with a barge pole. I know too many people who've owned one who have spent fortunes on repairs. I'm not talking about basic replacement of worn out components here, (as in most older Lexus cars), but catastrophic untimely failure of parts that should last for many, many years .i.e autoboxes, dual mass flywheels, A/C systems, timing chain adjusters, swirl flaps, and Diesel particulate filters to name but a few. You would have thought that any buyer after a second hand motor would learn to avoid German makes but the 'kudos' is too strong obviously. Top Gear did an excellent propaganda job.

I don't worry about mpg figures --- I'm paying 55p per litre.

You might like to know that most brake judder can be somewhat cured without having to resort to replacing the discs or pads. Firstly, never leave your foot on the brakes for long periods while at traffic lights, ---the reason for this is to stop the pad from 'imprinting' material onto the disc. Returning the brakes to something like normal operation can be done by employing some extremely heavy braking, (obviously on a safe stretch of road). I've tried it and it works. You have to persevere a bit. I had a bad high speed judder and by following this advice it eventually disappeared. I'm sure by doing this it somehow freed up any imbalance of pressure in the sticking 4 pot front calipers which contributed towards the juddering. Maybe the heavy braking scrubs off any sticking material on the discs as well. An inexpensive but effective fix.

It seems to me that in most cases LS owners spend money on their cars replacing parts that have worn out over time as apposed to costly repairs due to premature failure of a component as in the Audi post above. That's the difference between Audi (for example) and Lexus. My friends have spent fortunes on repairs to their old Mercs and BMTroubleyous. In the States, BMW is known as Buy More Warranty.

That old motor has done near on a million miles, what do those blokes expect? Talk about no sense of occasion. It's like criticising an old man for not running the 100m in 10.00 seconds dead.