mrdoofa

The problem I have is that I need the car for work so don't have time to do much in the way of shopping around, my nephew has been kind enough to let me use his Rover 75 for a few days whilst I sort things out, the other thing is that any specialist will want to see the car before giving an accurate repair quote which is a problem because the car cannot be driven as the gearbox isn't engaging at all in any gear and I certainly can't keep having it towed everywhere. I think the time has come to cut my losses (if anyone wants it as spares or repair let me know!!!) because I simply don't have the spare cash available for any big repairs like this, I'm also worried in case anything else fails on the car such as the air suspension because it has done 200k after all although the suspension is fine at the moment. I've been to see a Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi Ghia X which is cheap and will see me on for a bit.

A bit of an update, my mechanic contacted an auto transmission specialist and explained to them what had happened. He reckons it'll cost somewhere between £1,100 to £1,500 + VAT to fix it although he'd need to actually see it to give a more accurate estimate. Is this a reasonable price? Not that I can afford that sort of money so I may end up having to cut my losses and selling the car as spares or repair. I guess it's the risk you take on a high mileage used car. If anyone maybe interested let me know but bear in mind the car will need trailoring as it can't be driven. It's a real shame as I really like the car but simply don't have that kind of money to spare.

You could be right about the coolant, I know it had a new radiator fitted about 9,000 miles ago so it's possible that could've happened before I got the car. I'll hopefully have more idea tomorrow. It's such a shame this has happened because I really like the car.

Thanks for all the responses so far. I'll let you know what the mechanic says tomorrow although I don't know how much he knows about auto gearboxes. At the moment I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst!!! To say I am gutted is an understatement, I've only had the car for 2 months. The problem is the car is only worth about £2k and I don't really want to start spending more than the car is worth repairing it. I don't have that much money to spare anyway lol!!! I really didn't expect the car to be let down by the gearbox as I know how bombproof the engines and gearboxes are supposed to be, if anything I thought the air suspension would let it down, mind you, knowing my luck that'll probably be next. Anyway, as I said I appreciate all the help from you guys here, I've got a few things to try now depending on what I find out tomorrow.

Hi everybody, Today on my way to work I had a disaster because my car lost drive in all gears. I slowed down for a roundabout and when I accelerated again the car was almost free revving with hardly any forward drive so I managed to coast off the roundabout and pulled over to the side of the road, switched everything off and started again. The gearbox engaged but it was struggling to move with the engine revving but hardly any movement so I stopped again and turned everything off. I decided to try again but this time the gearbox wouldn't engage at all, At this point the car wouldn't move at all, I tried putting the lever in R, D, 4, 3, 2 and L and none would engage at all. It has also caused the EML to come on. I called out greenflag rescue and they dipped the gearbox oil and found the fluid had a burnt smell and also had tiny metal filings in it. His word to describe it was "Terminal". They arranged to have a flatbed wagon take the car to the mechanic I use, it is in his garage now and he said he will have chance to look at it in the morning. My question is what is likely to be the best and worst case scenarios here and how much is it likely to cost!?! My biggest concern is if the gearbox has had it. How much are new and reconditioned gearboxes for these? My car is an 02 plate which has done 208k. The car has driven fine until this point with no other symptoms I'm aware of, it just went all of a sudden. Any help/advice here would be much appreciated. Thanks everybody.

That's what I thought at first but what made me wonder is that I can hear the fans running on both the cooling and heating settings. I've also heard that the heating and cooled seats aren't brilliant at the best of times on these cars but I want to get them working as good as they can be lol!!!

Last night I decided to put my heated seat on and found that it hardly works if it works at all!!! I switched the passenger side on and that one did feel warm to the touch on both the seat base and seat back. I can confirm that I can hear the fans running when I turn the heated seat on. I know there has been some confusion as to whether the seat is heated by blowing warm air with the fan or a heating pad like most other heated seats. Am I right in thinking that it uses warm air and the fans otherwise why would the fans come on with the seat heater? My main question is it worth cleaning or replacing the filters under the seats? I haven't taken them out yet to see if they are dirty. Is it an easy job to take out these filters? Finally, where in the UK sells these filters, I've looked on the bay and could only find some in the USA. Cheers for any help!!!

The power of that V8 with the gearbox kick down sure is addictive!!! You also get a nice distant V8 roar which I love. I do still like the Rover 75 and many other rovers but just had too many issues, Fuel pumps, failed cooling fan, leaky boot, IPK display problems, bits of trim falling off, rear subframe starting to rot and various other minor niggles. The only jag I've had is an X-type diesel before the Rover 75. Nice enough car but the mondeo jokes soon got old and it wasn't the roomiest of cars. One more thing, when checking a car it's always worth doing an online MOT history check to see what failures and advisories it has had in the past. All you need is the reg and make of car.

Looks very nice but I do prefer the mark IV personally.

I also think the facelift model has Bluetooth and on some cars you may find adaptive radar cruise control. I also believe they added cornering headlights. The 6 speed box increased the torque so the 0-60 time went from 6.7secs to 6.3secs. Fuel economy was also slightly improved. Pre facelift cars are obviously going to be cheaper than facelifted ones. I don't think either disappoints though, to me condition and service history will always win out. In other words if there was a good facelift car and a REALLY good pre facelift, I'd take the pre facelift. Also, when checking the bonnet struts, check the boot ones too. I had to replace mine but they only cost £25 on eBay and an easy 5 minute DIY job to fit. As others have said go over the car carefully and don't rush, check all the gadgets and electrics (there's lots on these cars!!!). I too had many problems with my Rover 75 which is a shame because they are nice cars. You really can't beat the quality, fit and finish and refinement of the Lexus LS though in my opinion. I also love the attention to detail these cars have such as lights under the mirrors that automatically illuminate the pavement as you approach the car, illuminated interior door handles, even the storage box under the armrest is illuminated. There is a tiny 3rd sun visor above the interior mirror, they have soft closing doors and much more. One thing I would suggest is look at a couple because even ones that are a bit rough can still easily seduce you, they are that good. The engines and gearboxes on these things are pretty much bombproof and will run forever with regular servicing. These cars are over engineered but there are some weaknesses as pointed out in posts above, I don't think the problems with these cars is that anything is unreliable as such it's just if things like the air suspension, steering column motors etc do go wrong they are very expensive to fix. I've decided to enjoy my car as it is and not worry about something that may never go wrong, I'll cross that bridge if and when I may come to it. Good luck with the search, just don't rush and remember to check everything.

I also went from a diesel Rover 75 to a GS430 and now an LS430. I think the newest sat nav disc you can get is 2012 from these people: http://www.satnavdiscsale.com/lexus-2012-sat-nav-update-disc-for-all-generation-1-navigation-122-p.asp I think it is a very usable system, the only bind is lack of postcode input. The facelift models offer the 6 speed box with tiptronic control, slightly revised front styling, fold down vanity mirrors for rear passengers, reversing camera, I've heard they improved the heated and cooled seats for the facelift but I don't know for certain, the pointers in the instrument panel changed from red to white and all text displays became matching amber, the gearstick surround is wood on facelift models, it is brushed aluminium on pre facelift (I prefer the aluminium). They also added voice activation. (I wouldn't use that because I'd feel stupid talking to my car but others probably like it!!!). That's all I can think of for the facelift. My LS430 wasn't quite perfect, almost but not quite. I have a blown subwoofer which I'm going to attempt repairing with some silicone sealant after reading many success stories online which doesn't even include removing the speaker as you need to take back seats out to do that. My power fold mirrors only close about 1\3 of the way but some WD40 might cure that. The up down adjustment on my drivers door mirror doesn't work so I moved it in place by hand (left and right adjustment is fine). If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know!!! I think when you are looking at cars this old with possibly quite high mileages you can't really expect absolute perfection, there maybe a few niggles here and there. One thing I will say is that mine has done 200k with a full 20 stamp Lexus service history with 2 cambelt changes and really does drive like a dream!!! It is by far the best car I've ever had and I've had plenty!!! I don't think I could go back to a lesser car now, although there are certain things that can go wrong and things to check for I believe these really are amongst the finest and best engineered cars on the road bar none. My fuel economy averages 23-24mpg on my 10 mile trip to work and 10 miles back. Last time I went on the motorway I was getting about 32-33mpg. Not bad for a 2 ton V8 luxury barge. It's bloody quick when you want it to be too, easily capable of smoking most other cars on the road or you can just sit back and relax and enjoy the near silent ride this car offers. As I said, the best car I've had.

I see he's taken the picture of the grubby drivers seat down. For the mileage and condition I would say £1200 at the most, perhaps less if more faults show up.

No wonder it's so expensive, it comes with the optional extra engine management light on, noisy front drop links and scratched bumpers lol!!! Not to mention the filthy looking and worn interior as well as probably many other faults. It's almost like he's using the high mileage as a selling point as though being possibly the highest mileage LS430 in the UK increases the value. I've actually messaged the guy to ask if the price is a joke. (I couldn't resist!!!) not had any response yet, I'm not really expecting one though...

You have to stop believing all these stories that all these great blokes tell you. All they are really after is that money in your bank account and they will say anything that helps them get it. Mike.I bought my LS430 off him and I think I've got a good one, yes it has a few minor niggles which I've mentioned on this site which I am in the process of sorting out but it is definitely more credit to its first owner rather than Baz, the first owner was a doctor who bought it new in 2002 until Feb this year, he is the one who has had it serviced more than 20 times at the same Lexus dealer he bought it from and maintained it regardless of expense, it shows too!! It's done more than 200k miles and drives as good as new.He's had more than enough LS400s and LS430s (he has pictures of them all on Facebook) for both him and his wife to know what they are like so I don't buy the "my wife doesn't like it" story at all. It seems he bought it then probably found out about its past so then couldn't get it on eBay quick enough using his wife as the excuse but has then been rumbled so he's had to come clean about the cat c write off status. It's the fact he's getting another LS400 that made me think because if his wife didn't like the one he's just sold then she certainly won't like this one either!!! I always try and give people the benefit of the doubt but I'm not sure about this one now... BTW this is the new one he's getting... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1998-Lexus-LS400-4-0-V8-/161912160817?hash=item25b2b78231:g:ywwAAOSwbdpWZx3L It doesn't look like he's actually bought it yet because as you can see it's still for sale.

I really don't get Baz!!! Looks like he's sold the LS400. The reason he gave for selling is because his wife didn't like it and she wanted another LS430. Guess what he's replacing it with?? That's right, another LS400!!! This time in Lincolnshire

Hi, I had an interesting problem with the smart key system earlier, basically I parked the car and tried to lock it using the button on the door handle and it wouldn't lock so I tried pressing the lock button on the smart key and that didn't lock it either, I did notice the red LED blinking quite rapidly. Anyway, after numerous attempts I got it to lock, then about 10 minutes later I went to move the car and this time I couldn't get it to open!!! I approached the car about 3 times to see if the smart key would work then tried the unlock button on the keyfob, once again the LED was flashing repeatedly but the car didn't unlock. I was about to resort to the mechanical key when it eventually worked. Then I tried to start the car and got the key is not detected message so put the smart key in the ignition switch to start the engine. I arrived home and once again I couldn't get it to lock either with the button on the door or the lock button on the keyfob. As the car was at home I left it on the drive unlocked and then went back to it 3 hours later and everything started working normally as if a fault hadn't even existed!!! I tested locking/unlocking using both methods and everything was fine and still is. Would I be correct in thinking that the battery in the key might be getting flat? I'm going to replace it tomorrow anyway, I just don't understand why I had all those problems then when I left it for a couple of hours it all started working perfectly again.

Baz has reduced the car again today to £1,195.

Baz is not a dealer but he has been very naive buying this car. In his own words he jumped the gun and bought the car over the phone and even gave a £200 deposit over the phone without even seeing the car and obviously the dealer has chosen not to mention certain things but at the same time Baz should've asked the right questions or at the very least spent £2 at mycarcheck which tells you if a car is a write off or not amongst other things, it's like a mini hpi check. I did the check myself just out of interest for the sake of £2 and sure enough it tells you it was a cat C write off in June this year. It looks like he's been had, he says the dealer won't speak to him now but surely he should contact trading standards about it. He's updated the eBay listing to reflect the cat C write off and taken £100 off the asking price, I don't think he would knowingly push a bad car on to some unsuspecting buyer. The problem he has now is he is going to either have to keep it or end up selling it really cheap and be seriously out of pocket.

Last night my rear subwoofer started to make a really annoying vibrating sound whenever heavy bass was played through it. It got so annoying that I switched the fader to play through the front speakers only!!! It's been fine since I bought the car a couple of weeks ago but has just started doing this now. I understand it's quite a common fault with the Mark Levison sound system, I want to attempt repairing it. My question is can you repair it without removing the speaker from the car as I don't really fancy taking all the back seats etc out. Also, what is the best thing to repair it with? Cheers everybody.

I've just seen the one on eBay for £6,495. It really is mint but I think that it is very overpriced, I really don't think any LS400 is worth that kind of money no matter how good it is. You can bet any money that the one that Baz is selling will drive every bit as good as that one with everything working, the only real difference is that Baz's has done 130k but it is £5,000 cheaper!!! A bit of mileage means absolutely nothing to these cars so there is no point paying well over the odds for a really low mileage example, in fact, cars can have too few miles on them. I'd rather have a car that has had a healthy diet of motorway miles than one that has done about 2 miles a day going to the shops and back.

Baz has got his on eBay now, £1495. 130k miles, 18 service stamps, cambelt done at 104k, new battery, MOT June 2016. Baz says the only faults are remote locking not working (need to put key in door) and memory seat not working. He sold his LS430 to me last week and replaced it with this but his wife doesn't like it so now he's looking for another LS430!!! Here's the link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1999-LEXUS-LS400-AUTO-ICE-LIGHT-GREEN-ONE-OF-THE-LAST-OF-THE-SUPERB-LS400-1999-/381487076330?hash=item58d266d3ea:g:5J0AAOSwxN5WZ4rY Baz is in Bolton so not too far from Cheshire, could be worth a look.

It doesn't have the premium pack which basically means you don't get reclining massaging rear seats although they are still heated, no Mark Levinson sound, as the ad says no air suspension.

Ive found it on auto trader, here's the link: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201511309091148?onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&make=lexus&quicksearch=true&page=1&model=ls_430&sort=atcustom&postcode=ls211dg&radius=1500&search-target=usedcars&logcode=p It certainly looks very tidy to me!!! The MOT history doesn't seem to have any nasty surprises, just the usual stuff you'd expect over the years.

I think 2 of the front parking sensors are definitely shot, they are black and feel very rough!!! The faulty back one doesn't look in bad shape so may be salvageable. I'm not that bothered about the front sensors to be honest, I've never had them before so don't miss them. I do like to have rear ones though if possible. Will the rear ones still operate even if the front ones are faulty or can the front ones be disconnected easily? I wonder if it might be best to just fit some aftermarket rear ones and forget the Lexus park assist altogether. Last night I tried the heated seats again, I can definitely hear the fans start running in the seats and I'm getting some warmth so it might just be me expecting too much, I don't like heated seats that are too warm anyway!!! I had a Vauxhall Vectra once and they got really warm so it was uncomfortable. Are the cooled seats linked to the rest of the climate control? In other words do I need the climate set to cold in order to get cold air through the seats or are the seats independent?

Thanks everybody for all your help and advice, I have been unable to try any fixes today because of the relentless wind and rain battering us at the moment!!! I'm going to try a good dose of WD40 on the folding mechanism. I'll to take the mirror glass out to access the workings for the up/ down adjustment. I found a thread where somebody forced the mirror by hand and managed to get it working again when they had a similar problem, I don't know if it's wise to try that brute force and ignorant approach lol!!! What do you think?? My new boot struts arrived today, as soon as I've installed them I'll report back!!! They only cost £25 on eBay so time will tell how good they are. The boot lid is very heavy!!! The bonnet struts look very new and hold it without a problem I just wondered if I could get some feedback on how effective the heated and cooled seats are meant to be. I think they are working but very seem very weak, is it worth replacing or cleaning the little filters under the seats or are the heating and cooling functions a bit crap anyway? Thanks again for everybody's help, I am loving the car but will love it even more if I can sort these little niggles.