Colin M

I have finally got round to opening up the non-working relay unit but cannot see anything obviously amiss with it. There does not seem to be any break in the soldering on the PCB, so it is hard to know how it might be repaired. I will probably still keep it anyway, since an auto electrician may know how to repair it in the event that I needed another unit and could not source one.

Looked at in the context of the cost of depreciation if you keep changing your car regularly, £750 spread over a six year period on a car you are keeping is a relatively modest sum. I will be keeping my two LS400s and will have no hesitation spending a similar amount on them when the time comes for cam belt etc replacement. Money well spent!!

Jonathan, good to know that Miles can do cam belts on lpg conversion cars. I will probably need to pay him a visit when mine needs replacing. Regards Colin

A nice birthday treat indeed - looks very good. I had a couple of w126s myself - a white 420SEL (2000-2012) and a black 500SEL (2005-2013). Both now sold and replaced by two Mk 3 LS400s. I liked the w126s - hence the long period of ownership - but on balance I think I prefer the LS400s. I hope the keep them for a long time too. Enjoy the w220!!

No, Rupert, I have not done so yet but plan to do so at some point. I have kept the relay as it might be repairable. I have made a note of which coloured wire operates the tail lights (green with bands of light purple or light brown - hard to tell the colour) so that I have an idea of whereabouts to start looking when I open the unit. I will report back if I find anything. Thanks again for your help. Colin

Replacement green box bought from jmc.autosalvage on eBay has now arrived, I've fitted it and the tail lights are now working. At £9.89 including free delivery, this has been a cheap fix. If only all fixes were this cheap!!

I am pleased to say it is the green box that is at fault. I have swapped the boxes on the two cars and the rear lights on the car that were not working do now work. The rear lights previously working on the other car do not now work so clearly the fault is in the box. I have just bought a replacement box off eBay and should have both sets of lights working when this arrives and is fitted. Many thanks for your help on this. Not only do we have great cars but also great support when we need some help to fix them! Thanks again. Colin

Many thanks, ambermarine, the photos are very helpful. I am going to investigate this tomorrow and will report back on how things go. Cheers Colin

Thanks for the last couple of responses. I have not got any warning light on the dash. I will take the unit from the car with working lights to try it on the other one. I am a little uncertain on which side of the boot I am looking and would be grateful if you could clarify. Is the box on the passenger/near side of the car or the driver/off side? Thanks a lot.

Hi Rupert Thanks for your response. I will have a look for the plastic box and white plug. I am guessing that the circuit board is inside the box and that there will be feed wires to the box, probably through the white plug. Hopefully, I will be able to check whether there is a live feed coming through the wiring. I may be able to take the box off my other Mk 3 and insert the white plug into that to see whether the lights then work. If, they do, this should indicate that the fault lies in the box. If I do this, hopefully the lights will still work on the other Mk 3 when I put the box back!! Here's hoping ... Regards Colin

Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the Mk 3 LS400? The tail lights have stopped working on my 1997 car. Both the bulbs are OK and light up when removed from the car and tested. When the light switch is turned on there is a live feed to the tail light fuse in the small fuse box with the white plastic cover above the driver's footwell. The fuse itself is OK and I have in any event replaced it with another one known to be good. But there is no live feed to the bulbs in the tail lights so I am wondering if there is a tail light relay somewhere which has stopped working. If anyone knows if there is, and if so where it is located, I would be grateful to know. I have looked at the relays in the main fuse box in the engine bay but can see no mention of a tail light relay. A wiring diagram and any other help anyone might be able to offer would be much appreciated. Many thanks. Colin

Thanks both for your quick responses on this. Unfortunately, I do not have a key number for it. There was no metal tag on either of the keys when I bought the car. Someone has helpfully written the key number onto the opening page of the service book I have for my other LS400 (which is good because there is no metal tag on the keys for that either) but there is nothing in the service book for the car in question.

I would be grateful for some advice on obtaining a replacement spare key for my 1996 LS400. When I bought the car there were two keys, each having a separate key fob for remote opening etc. One of the keys and key fob has gone AWOL and despite my best efforts I have been unable to find it. The key I still have is, I think, a master key because it opens everything (and so did the other one, so I assume that was a master key too). I don' t want to rely on just a single key and need to obtain a second one to replace the one that has disappeared. Does anyone know the best and most cost effective way of doing this? Any advice, as ever, gratefully received. Many thanks. Colin

£389 is certainly an eye watering figure!! I will follow up Nach's suggestions (thanks for these) for locating one, as well as keeping an eye on eBay.

Disappointingly the mirror I went to look at yesterday, although still on the car, had had its glass removed and nicked by someone, so it was a wasted journey. I shall have to keep looking ...

Thanks, guys, for your responses. I think I have managed to source a mirror locally and am going to have a look at it tomorrow (Wednesday).

Thanks both for your responses. I was not aware of the changing colour/auto-dimming aspect so that is useful to know. I have no idea how the mirror got into the state it is in. It was like that when I bought the car at the beginning of the year. I have only ever used water to clean mirrors. In the light of what you say, I will see if I can source a used mirror from a Mk 3 or 4. Cheers.

As you can see from the photo, the reflective side of the passenger side mirror glass has deteriorated so that the heated elements are showing through and I would like to replace it. You can still just about see through the mirror but not very well! I have done some reading up on this but would appreciate some advice on obtaining a replacement mirror glass and fitting it. First, am I correct in thinking that the mirror glass I need for the passenger side is convex? I have looked on eBay and car-parts-market has a passenger left side convex heated wing door mirror glass for £9.99. Has anyone bought one of these and fitted it? Alternatively, has anyone bought glass from elsewhere and been pleased/not pleased with it? Secondly, as regards fitting, I have found a useful tutorial on the US Lexus Owners Club website which has some good photos. It is at the following link: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...howtopic=65282 Is there any other help that anyone can give if they have experience of fitting a replacement? Many thanks in anticipation of some help and assistance. Colin PS: I have just tried the link and it seems not to work. The post was headed "Replacing Side Viewmirror Glas- It's Easy" and was on 27 June 2010 by songzunhuang.

My experience of rust advisories accords with Malc's and Scribe's, and it does seem to vary between MOT testers. Sometimes rust advisories can be helpful e.g. when I bought my 1997 LS400 at the beginning of this year it had a short MOT and advisories at the last MOT of slight corrosion on rear brake pipes. Before taking it for a new MOT, I rubbed down the corrosion and repainted the pipes, to make sure it did not fail on this. It did not. But I would not have wanted to ignore this because it could soon become a serious safety issue. Other advisories are less helpful e.g. rust on rear springs, which I had a couple of years ago on my Merc 190 2.6 (now sold and replaced by the above-mentioned LS400). The rust was nothing more than surface corrosion and, given the thickness of metal on rear springs, rust here is nothing more than cosmetic. Scribe's 'general corrosion to rear suspension components' sounds as though it is in the same category. So I would pay attention to some advisories but not others. Some are matters of no concern but others might be.

You might find this post useful: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=65282 Colin

Like Rudy, I have disconnected the battery on my 1996 car to replace it with a new one and have not had any issues with the radio. Hopefully everything will be OK for you.

Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions on this. I decided to start with what I thought was one of the easiest and lowest risk options - a few blasts of compressed air around the switch. Rather than use my compressor at the outset, I used my foot pump with a cone-shaped piece of plastic inserted in the end (a foot pump accessory normally used, I think, for inflating air beds) to see what effect this would have - a few blasts whilst operating the switch, turned the ignition on and then tried the switch. It worked fine!! It increased the fan speed as it should and decreased it when pressed the other way. I tried it several times each way and no problem. I assume it must have been something like a bit of dust which was preventing a proper contact. Of course, I may have blown the dust elsewhere and stopped something else from working ... but hopefully not! Thanks again, all, for you help - much appreciated.

The blower fan switch on my 1997 Mk 3 has just stopped working on the right hand side when pressing it to increase the fan speed, although it works OK on the left hand side when pressing it to decrease the fan speed. It has been a bit temperamental since I have had the car - it has sometimes needed a few presses to get the fan speed increased but has usually worked eventually, although it now seems to have given up completely. Pressing AUTO has increased the fan speed but the switch itself will not do this. Is it possible to replace just the fan switch and, if so, how is the switch removed? If not, how is the climate control unit removed and replaced completely? Any help gratefully received. Thanks in anticipation of some help.

Perhaps the compressor was OK, then ...

Thanks for your kind comments, Phil, and I have to say, Steve, that it did feel like I had the steel tape measure wrapped round my neck at times!! I am pleased to see Phil has come to a decision on which of the two cars to buy and I hope his new purchase proves to be a good one. I would be interested to know whether the compressor which raised the air suspension height on the car I went to look at was noisy. I had the window down when I raised the height and it sounded like a motor bike driving away, albeit some distance away. Should it sound like this?