steve20vt

I tried swapping the indicator from the ugly orange oblong lenses. And swapped the indicator bulb holder for some that take the off set Amber bulbs and then fitted those where the original side light was, then removed the fog lamp bulb and fitted the sidelight holder into the fog lamp place. Now I can delete the original indicators.

I've decided as I can't find any clear front indicators I'm going to delete them altogether. I had a play and fitted the side light where the fog light was originally, then fitted the indicator in the side light. Obviously I was just trying it out and the orange bulb I had kicking around had most of the orange missing.

I too have been playing, I make no bones about it, the 1uz is a thing of beauty to listen to. I'll be building a custom system with QTP electric exhaust cut outs. That way I can have quiet when needed and raucous when the mood takes me. I've made the intake modification whereby you remove the air intake above the radiator then butcher the air filter box to reveal the air filter. I'll make a proper cold air feed for it soon and build a partition to separate it from the hot engine. This so far has made the single biggest difference to he sound of the engine, at low speed it's hardly noticeable but at full chat it sounds like the race engine it was designed to be! After reding through some build threads on the net of some truly monstrous 1UZ engines running upwards of 900BHP I'm trying to decide if supercharging is the way to go or a large single turbo or even twin turbos are the way to go.

Vinegar eats rust, smelly but works. Probably doesn't do paint any good though.

Lovely LS, wish mine looked as nice.

Wasn't the LS designed in California by Americans (overseen by Toyota), specifically for the American market. Which if we look at American cars of the time looked pretty much that way anyhow and continued the three box design until recently. I had the pleasure of taking four rather large American oil rig workers somewhere a few years back (2008?) they looked at my 98 Peugeot 406 and one comment was "braaaand new" southern Afro American accent. I guess the reason modern cars are struggling with drag problems is that they all have to conform to pedestrian safety regulations which leaves them pretty slab fronted and all looking the same shape if you squint.

My little avatar minion is sporting a Fiat logo as my other projects are a 98 Fiat coupe 20 valve turbo and a Fiat Marea 2.4 diesel estate. You can see now why the LS is such a luxurious car for me to own, and why I'm so amazed that everything works. I put it on the weigh bridge at work and it came out at 1750kg with me on board a quarter tank of fuel, so it's not quite as heavy as I first thought. I'll be starting to tidy the body up next before it has a slight colour change, then wheels and a change of suspension. But before any of that it's going to have a major service including All the HT side. I'll get rid of the egr and have a look at the engine mounts. I love the sound track of a v8, but I also love the quiet so I'll be building an active exhaust system that can be controlled from the dash so I can choose the sound level.

I've sorted through the history, it turns out it's been serviced on the dot, the previous previous owner has included a separate booklet with all the services and parts it's had since it left the first company owner in London, it also has every mot from its first to back up the 125k miles. I'm very pleased with it to say the least. I even found the owners handbook in the cubby hole under the passenger seat.

New to the forum I've been lurking for a bit working out what I'd need to look out for when it came to purchasing an LS. If you've not seen my new members post I'll be honest as to the reason I wanted an LS. I just wanted a donor to put the engine into a Sierra. But that's not going to happen now. The car was on eBay but luckily for me the seller had put it in the wrong section and the car was listed under "manuals". There was another I was watching that needed stuff doing for an mot which sold for over £500 I went down to Huntingdon to view the car I eventually ended up with, a 96 regency green four owner car that its latest owner had only had a couple of months. Always worrying when a new owner wants rid. The description was pretty sparse so it was a gamble. Turns out he'd bought it as his better half wanted a Lexus, but just not that one as it was about 19 years too old, he'd got the from a friend who'd had it a couple of years so I was starting to feel better. The first thing I noticed was the poor paintwork condition, lacquer peel and badly faded paint. The alloys were in bad shape too, I wasn't feeling too disappointed as I'd planned on scrapping the rest of the car once I'd liberated the running gear. But inside everything was in good order and in fine fettle. The owner didn't know much about the car not graving had it very long. He'd put it through an mot four weeks before and everything on the test drive seemed good. I could hear a slight blow somewhere from the exhaust which I pinned down to the egr pipe starting to crack. All the fluid levels were fine and clean. There was some history and a folder full of paperwork but the owner had never looked through it. All seemed good so we agreed on £600 and I came back for it a few days later. I picked up the car which was really low on fuel so after driving it away and putting £50 of fuel and spent half an hour playing with the seats and cd changer. It was the drive home where I began to like the car more and more, everything worked, it was comfy and went really well! The more I drove it the more I loved it. So now instead of breaking it I shall be improving it and making it suit my taste and driving style. I have some interesting and perhaps controversial things planned for the car ;) Some pics of the car as it stands currently.

Thanks for the warm welcome :) I'll be spending a good while in search mode.

Brilliant, I was thinking of doing just the same. I was struggling to find a DIN adapter. Second post for me, see my howdy thread in new members :)

Hi chaps, I'm Steve from North Lincolnshire and new to Lexus ownership. I came into owning my 96 LS400 for different reasons than most I should think. I was looking for a donor engine for one of my projects. I needed a V8 and the 1uz seemed to fit the bill. I can already hear the tutting, so before you judge me I'll put it on record that the 1uz in my LS won't be coming out. My background has always been based around fast road, track even a blast at drift cars and I'd had a plan to put the 1uz into a Sierra hatch and build a XR8 replica and using the Lexus V8 would mean that the thing would go round corners which is something it was never keen on doing with the five litre ford V8 boat anchor. But as it turns out, I rather like the LS400. It's a very enjoyable drive. It is an old car mind you, so all the electrickery while fun for a while seems very outdated by modern standards, which makes me feel better about making my LS more "performance" oriented. I can hear more tutting, I'm not going for a stripped out track car, I'd just like it to feel more engaging (I know it was never designed as a drivers car) I'd like to reduce the weight, increase the handling and braking capabilities and make it look more modern. There will be coilovers and larger wheels involved and maybe even a manual conversion in the future, I could have gone for a soarer but I like the Q car look. So don't hate me too much, for now I just want to get the car running in tip top order before I do anything. It's a P 95 96 with 125k miles and full comprehensive history, the bodywork needs a little attention due to lacquer peel here and there, but everything seems to function as it should and it's at a nice point to bring it back to life instead of breaking the poor thing just for its heart. Steve