Keynun

1 hour ago, Malc said:

on a lighter note ................  does it only happen when you have a front seat passenger 

Malc

Luckily not, that would be a difficult one to solve..;)

In other news it turns out it was low on power steering fluid. Topped it up with atf fluid and flushed it through a fee times and it's quiet now. I need to find out where it has leaked out from which is the hard part.

Waterpump is new.... Gates brand. I will check out the pulleys and see

Noise doesn't stop when I turn ac off.. I thought it was alternator but it seems to be coming from the opposite side (driver side engine bay area). Aircon works well so don't think it's the compressor.

Hi guys

Just started my LS400 MK4 1999 and it now makes an extremely loud whining noise. This occurred quite randomly as it was not making noise the other day.

Any ideas what it could be?

The noise gets worse as the RPMs increase and the pitch gets higher. Power steering seems to be working fine and have not had Battery issues as of yet.

The Mk4 has less known faults than the LS430. Fact.

You forgot to mention that the LS430 is ugly in comparison to the mk4 LS400

Kenan, balljoints wearing out in 6 months? You must have bought the cheapest 'Made in China' ones, 'in the world'--as Clarkson would say!

;)

I actually bought Meyle upper arms and blueprint lower ball joints, so not exactly the cheapest **** you can buy but not the best either.

I think my pads are doing the same thing, I had them changed from blueprint to pagid, same issue. Could be balljoints though (I did however change ALL ball joints 6 months ago)

Why the hell would you want to mess about with a car that took a billion dollars and hundreds of engineers to develop, and is widely regarded as one of the finest bit of automotive engineering ever seen? I would suggest selling your Lexus, and buying a Vauxhall Corsa to tart up

I appreciate some people do not like lowering a Lexus and putting on nice wheels (which may I add are from a LEXUS GS SPORT and not a random bloody universal wheel brand) but there's no need to suggest I buy a corsa.

God forbid you take a look at the USA site, where there's at least 100 cars that are similar to what I have done, you may go bat**** crazy and tell them all to buy a corsa too, LOL:

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-1st-and-2nd-gen-1990-2000/260772-ls400-owners-post-your-wheel-setup.html

I'm not putting a body kit on it guys.....it's hardly tarting up the car, in fact it looks quite outdated with stock wheels these days.

I've currently got the following wheels (car is lowered):

18x8.5 et40 (so et25 with spacers?)

18x10 et45 (so et30 with spacers?)

Does anyone have experience of getting similar spec wheels to fit under the arches? I don't want to touch the arches if I can get them to fit without rolling, but good quality hubcentric spacers are not cheap either.

A small update for anyone that is interested:

I installed the 10kg/6kg kit, lowered it and messed with the stiffness of the shocks. I can give a quick review and compare it to my old 180k mile DHP springs/shocks which were well past their use by date:

• BC coilovers are MUCH stiffer, they handle well but you will obviously feel the road much more. I would compare it to the way a stock sport BMW 3/5 series rides. They feel very smooth, I can tell that the shocks are valved correctly to the springs, I've had experience of cheap coilovers and these are miles ahead.

• With low profile tyres, expect more stiffness

• Rubber top mounts, so more comfortable than pillow ball mounts

• Steering shake during braking has completely gone. I believe this was due to the top mounts being dead on my old suspension, but my old shocks were not doing anything at the front either so it could be combination of both.

• Much less tramlining

• Looks pretty cool under the car

• You can probably almost get the LS to touch the floor if you lower it to the max, mine is lowered until you can only fit one finger between the tyre and arch

• Installation is easy, just remove old, bolt in new and make sure the preload is adjusted properly on the springs (search youtube for BC preload setting)

That is all folks, let me know if anyone has any questions on these.

The toyota V8 can take any decent 5w30 or similar oil tbh, no need to use lexus branded oil at all. Just get a decent synthetic oil (valvoline, Castrol, Mobil, comma etcetc) and change it twice a year, you'll never have issues then since the additives will always be renewed after 6 months with new oil.

Does anyone know what size spanner i'll need? I need to make sure I have the right tools this weekend to do it (99' LS400)

the wheels are these:

http://clubaristo.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12139&stc=1&d=1315834727

10j rear & 8.5j front

I just want to cover the centre bore tbh, I'm not fussed about covering bolts etc. I also would rather not leave centre caps on as they may get stolen where I live (I think they're worth around £50 each new)

Hi

I have fitted some very nice Lexus GS MK1 Sport wheels on my car, but I want to stick some centre caps to cover the centre bore area (it came with caps to cover the whole bolt area, but i'd rather leave them off. My DHP wheels came with centre caps to do the same thing, but are not the correct colour.

Does anyone know what size I would need?

That looks nasty. I feel sorry for the Lexus. it would have looked so much better with airbag suspension, flared arches and those wheels.

You can get mounts from USA eBay for half the cost of the lexus prices. I got mine from Rockauto.com from the USA, around £40 x 2 motor mounts and £30 for the transmission mount. You can probably get lexus OEM for cheaper on USA eBay or https://www.amayama.com/en/

Looks like BC racing does some nice coilovers for the LS, so I may get those. The spring rates seem reasonable too so it shouldn't be too stiff. Link for anyone else who ever searches lowering an LS:

http://www.bc-racing.co.uk/applications/lexus-coilovers/lexus-ls400-95-00/br-series-coilover-type-rs-13427.html

Does anyone know if there are any UK suppliers for a good set of lowering springs (or anyone selling here?).

I want to slightly lower it on new springs and I'll stick new oem shocks on there too, but the springs are far too costly to get from the USA. I can't believe no one sells it over here, usually there's loads of performance parts for jap cars.

My 15 year old mk4 LS has been far and away less costly to maintain than any of the Merc's and BMTroubleyou's that my friends own. They have literally spent small fortunes on their cars and not just on routine maintenance stuff either (unlike my LS), but nasty big expensive faults; e.g. timing chain failure, transmission failure, etc. I agree, the LS400 does have potential for faults (as mentioned in an earlier post), BUT, in my experience those raise their ugly heads a darn sight less often in a Lexus than in a german uberwagen.

Agreed.

I've owned quite a few BMW e36s and they've all had more issues than my current LS400. E46 BMWs are even worse.

I think people need to start using smaller garages for these LS400s. They are not really that complicated in comparison to much new cars these days. As far as I have seen, most issues with the LS400 can be fixed by a decent small garage. Main dealers and large specialists should really only be used for diagnostics and things that rarely require repairs (e.g. gearbox issues).

You could do what the americans do. Cut out a section of the airbox. Buy a cheap used box from eBay so you have the original as backup. = Standard but louder induction roar.

Most people tell me I'm environmentally green driving the ls400 around in London. I'd agree with them.

My car knocks after I brake or do a sharp turn. This only happens if it has been parked up for a while and only once until I start reversing, then it does it once again. It's from the front area.

The car has now had:

New lower ball joints

New strut rod bushes & bolts

New lower arm bushes & bolts

New track rod outer & inners

New upper arms

New front drop links.

What the hell could it be? I am out of ideas.

I wonder how the smaller Lexus models would perform in such a crash (obviously I wouldn't want this to happen to anybody). Clearly the LS4xx models are tanks and can take a few big hits with minimal injuries to the driver/passengers.

Hi guys

I had the gearbox mount replaced (solved most of the harsh shifting issues) and now my car is vibrating during cold starts only. It vibrates for a few seconds and then it stops for a few seconds, repeat.

I've seen a few posts of others having this problem on here and on usa sites, but no one ever posts what the solution was.

Do you guys think it could be engine mounts? car has done 180k.

The LS400 still has a huge following in America. I have actually ordered most of my parts through American sites, loads of aftermarket parts and OEM parts still available. I think the LS400 will have plenty of support for many many many years!!!!