Hawk01

Agreed ^. Previous owner probably never used it.

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Update, the handbrake was the culprit. Hasnt happened since fixed.

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I don't know about foreign versions of the LS, but I have a OBD2- socket in my LS400 from -99, but no regular OBD-reader works.

Very nice. Almost same colour as mine.

I have been told  that standard petrol can be between 5% and 20% ethanol in UK depending on what supplier is used

But not been able to verify that as a fact.

Ethanol attracts water, and I understand that it a petrol/ethonal mix, the water will seperate once the ethanol has attracted it, so it can sit at the bottom of a petrol tank, but once again i am no chemist, so not sure whether this leads to long term problems by drawing water (potentially) into the engine on start up.

I assume higher levels of ethanol will change the burning cycle in the cylinder chamber, so that makes me think the engine will not be running at optimum.

Also if Ethonal is less energy dense than petrol, it will lead to a loss in performance overall.

You're right about ethanol in the petrol, here in the north they even add more during winter, and have been doing it for some time. Back in the day, one bought ethanol in the gas station and added it to the fuel, to prevent freezing.

Anyone here using ethanol in their LS400? I've been mixing petrol and ethanol since I bought the car in october, and all works well so far. Normally I use a mix of 70/30 (p/e) but sometimes up to 60/40.

So, since I had the hand-brake diagnosed as broken, I have not used it at all. And, it has not started to shake violently since. I'm getting it repaired in a few days, but I think it's responsible for the shakes, according to the mechanic it was very rusty and probably get's stuck when used.

An update: Ive had it checked three times now; an extra thorough MOT, fault coding reading at the mechanic and a check-up of all bearings etc at a Toyota shop. The only thing found was a faulty hand brake, which I have not sorted yet. We'll see if that gets rid of the intermittent shakes.

Started off sometimes but as it got worse was there all the time,

Hi and welcome,

I had a similar problem on a 1998 mk4 Ls and after replacing all the obvious things like brake discs wheel bearings wheels balanced and renewing all suspension bits I still had the problem I even went to the extremes of buying new alloys and tyres but still had same problem ie shake on steering wheel and whole car (could feel it through the seats) also checked engine mounts but all was ok

Finally found the problem and it was the centre bearing on the drive shaft was worn,

Part price was around £175 job involves taking off exhaust then driveshafts to access the centre bearing,

Hope this helps

Ps when it first started it was barely noticeable but annoying and only really noticeable at 55mph and above....

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Hi Hakan and welcome to the LOC, we are a

friendly bunch and some of us even know how to pull them to bits and

put them back together again, with of course the one bolt and washer

left over.

We recommend you spend a couple of mins

looking over the rules of the LOC, we will be asking questions later

I cant help with your present queries

but I'm sure someone will be along ASAP.

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/terms-conditions/

Regards Mike.

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Greetings from Sweden,

my name is Håkan and I'm a fairly new Lexus owner, had my LS400 for about 2 months now. Anyways, sometimes when I'm on the freeway/highway in about 90 km/h, the car starts to shake. It does this for 1 to 2 minutes, then calms down. This only happens now and then, not very often so far. Tires are balanced and ok, so no fault there. Engine-related?

Thanks / Håkan

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