Bluesbreaker

Any chance of some photos of your wheels Graham? Regards, Iain.

Mmm, I might take you up on that offer...

I haven't had them refurbished yet, I live in Milton Keynes, where there are at least 2 reputable wheel-refurb workshops, who have quoted me ball-park figures of between 75-85 quid per wheel, me being an impatient old git, I don't fancy having the LS off the road, while their being done!, but am having a real problem sourcing non-Lexus mag wheels that fit the offset, though Lexus MK quoted me an eye-watering £1,200 for '98 wheels.... you think that's bad, they quoted me £360 for 4 plastic wheel caps...so it's a refurb I think!

Looks like you guys did a great job, the White looks especially good against the red of the caliper, I've got a set of the same shape wheels lying in my garage doing nothing-off a ls220d-thought they'd fit my LS400-they don't!

I've had my LS400 about 6 months now, and recently decided to get something done about the wheels on the car, they are the original 5-spoke jobs, and,are in a right state,so, after a few attempts at sourcing a set of mag wheels, and finding-out the LS400 needs such a deep 'offset' -mainly on the front due to these big brake-calipers, plus the money's got a bit tight lately!, I've decided to have them refurbished, off course, now I'm going to have to replace the old plastic centre-caps,as only one has the 'L' logo left on, plus they all look tacky anyway, seems the only place you can get them,( on eBay anyway) is the US, at very expensive prices, ( well, I think they are) does anyone here on LOC have any suggestions as to where I can get them here in the UK? I do appreciate, having researched, the variance in diameter, type,etc,so I know, short of a breaker, (not many) I will have a problem, any comments folks? Iain.

Nice art-work! shame about the subject matter-I always preferred Quenton Wilson, bit more intelligent than hobby Clarkson, plus he is known as a big Lexus fan-I believe he's owned a couple of LS400's in the past.

That old car-alarm bugbear rearing it's annoying head again, the curse of modern electronics, my Mk4 Ls400 doesn't like some shopping-malls, walk away from locking it, 9 out of 10 chance the alarm goes off, click, walk away again, off it goes again, and again, I prevent this now, by manually locking the doors -which on a car as sophisticated as this seems a contradiction-but it does lead to a quieter life in public, trouble is, who ever pays any attention to car alarms going off anyway? don't see the the point of them these days on cars, just another thing to go wrong.....

Not just me that hankers after buying a second LS400 then, I'm 62 years old, was car-mad from an early age, have owned lots of varied makes of cars/4x4's over the years, 4 months ago, I buy on a daft impulse a 14 year-old Lexus LS400, now I'm bloody hooked on the damn car, never driven such a smooth machine,love it to bits, by I want another one.....I need help...counselling.....sigh.....

Spent the afternoon tying to source longer studs-mo luck so far, also beginning to wonder how difficult removing original studs from the hubs would be in the first place-80,000 miles, and 15 years...Mmm...could be problematic.

High mileage though....

Very nice '93 LS400 on eBay at moment, lot of bids, worth it for the 'turbine-blade' wheels alone.....Mmmm.......

What a disapointing morning,met the seller of his ls220 wheels a short while ago, he was very cool about me trying a couple of his wheels on my LS400, -no dice, your right about the caliper issue, it was millimetres that prevented them fitting properly, such a shame, really nice wheels, (4) set of serviceable Pirellis on them,-guy is really laid-back and straight, I was almost tempted to buy them anyway, can I get spacers anyone?.....

Mind you-it was easier in the old days, dodgy geezer/seller would disconnect the odometer cable from gearbox-fit ithe inner cable to the chuck of an electric-drill, whizz it back a few thousand miles, bobs your uncle, fanny your etc.... bit of sawdust in the gearbox to keep the bearing-whine down till the motor is sold, them were the days....

Mind you-it was easier in the old days, dodgy geezer/seller would disconnect the odometer cable from gearbox-fit ithe inner cable to the chuck of an electric-drill, whizz it back a few thousand miles, bobs your uncle, fanny your etc.... bit of sawdust in the gearbox to keep the bearing-whine down till the motor is sold, them were the days....

It does cross my mind occasionally -about how easy it could be, (if the person were especially skilled in this dubious practice) given the electronic sophistication of Lexus cars,is it easy to tamper with the odometer of these cars? call me an old cynic, but without complete service history records, one can never be absolutely sure......

Mike, I've already got my trainers on....

There is a tidy 97' LS400 for sale,( set price, no bidding required) located in Carlisle, no current mileage given, no previous owner details either, looks like a nice buy, though he's asking £1,995 for it, as if that's not enough to put a potential buyer off,he stipulates a 'will swop for a jet-ski' option, dig deeper into his other items for sale,( numerous anonymous cars) and he's an avid swopper, call me old-fashioned, but.........

Yes, contact the DVLA, they will sort you out.

One annoying detail when browsing some of these eBay ads for LS400's-or other models for that matter, is that in the item specifics section, or description, the mileage is stated as 0.....what is that all about then? just puts me right off the seller from the start.

Watch this space..... Iain.

Thanks Dean, -It does help,I'll check that out tomorrow,I meet the guy selling the wheels on Monday, he's very cool about me checking-out trying the wheels on before buying, though, as the price is so reasonable, and as they come with a set of Pirellis on them already, ( guy is treating his Lexus to a more expensive set o' wheels), I may just buy them, and sell them on, even if they don't fit my LS,btw, I cannot believe how helpful the Members are in this LOC-I'm so glad I found this site,Iain.

Hi Dean, you'll have to excuse my ignorance-what do you mean by the offset? Regards,Iain.

What is it about LS400's that makes us who already own one,want to own a second one?!? I'm constantly browsing EBay, checking-out LS400's for sale.....maybe I need counselling......

Abs66- thanks for the heads-up on that, I never thought about caliper-clearance,-I'll contact the seller, and see if he'll do a pre-fit before buying,thanks again.

Can anyone answer this question? I may be stating the bleeding obvious, but will the wheel-rims off a '56 is220d, fit my '98 LS400? I've got the chance on a good deal on 4 wheels,( with the tyres,Pirellis) and would like to fit my tyres to them ( mine are 225/60/16) appreciate some advice on this,thanks.