Matt1986

I also have the same issue with my cashmere gold 98 reg. Bonnet roof and boot faded. Pretty sure it's a respray or live with it as you say. 

Mines now just a project car really as I have a company car for daily use. 

Should get rid, but everytime I drive it I remember how good these are, even compared to a 2 year old 5 series! 

On 5/20/2020 at 9:24 AM, 39buss said:

There you are take your pick of another Lexus optional wheel. Both these are made by OZ in Italy. Front is DHP shown without the centre cap. I need my wrist slapping for doing that. The centre caps are still in my garage to this day. The car and wheels are long gone. Some where in my photos I have a picture of the inside of the rim showing all the wheel details. The DHP's went to a lad from Liverpool who used this site some years ago. The rear's went with the car years ago.

Hi. I've direct messages you 39buss. 🙂

yeah definitely!  I found it unnecessary to remove the parcel shelf though. the pdf factory manual I found f has been invaluable.

I've also been adding some additional soundproofing to the rear seat as the factory stuff is quite poor under the seat base especially.  Now that is a time consuming process!  hopefully it's worth while. done both rear doors as well and they now have a solid sound rather than tinny when knocked on. doing the fronts tomorrow 

Hi all. just thought I'd share my experience of changing the shock absorbers, top mounts and rubber insulators on my 1998 LS400. 

Bought all the bits from amayama. Good prices and pretty fast delivery before all this covid business started. 

I decided to go with the KYB Excel G shocks but oem for the rest as the originals are made by KYB and are twice the price! 

The removal of each shock was fairly straight forward but the rear was more tricky initially as you have to remove the rear seats. (The 98-2000 models seat base just pulls up rather than hooks on like the early ones)

Each of the old shocks showed no obvious signs of being blown but the handling was wobbly and lots of roll as well as crusty rust on the shocks and springs So i decided to change as I've done all the other suspension components pretty much with oem parts. 

Initial thoughts are that it's made the single largest difference to the ride and handling of anything I've done. it now rides much smoother and more stable and its eliminated a great deal of the body roll! The car feels more planted and turn in is crisper. 

I would definitely recommend that if your shocks are old to replace them. My car has 156k miles on her. 

looking forward to being able to get her on the motorway and see if its cured the high speed instability feeling. 

I'm actually looking at getting some of these 3d printed at the moment as they are unavailable now as new parts and replacements are hard to get in the correct size. if anyone else is interested I'll post up a pic once done. 

Hi all. I'm currently trying to find out if it's possible to replace the bushings the the differential arms. I bought some from febest but they are not the right size. now having dropped the subframe as well it seems that you cant press out that bush anyway! 

can anyone tell me if they have had this done?

car is stuck on the ramp in the mechanics at the moment 

I recently bought these and they do fit my dhp wheels. Having some lexus logos made up using 3D printer info can as my wife has access to one at her work witha 3D scanner potentially. 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123173736653

Saw this pop up in my news feed today. Interesting read if you want to know about the ls400 origins

https://www.autocar.co.uk/slideshow/how-1989-lexus-ls-changed-world

Looks loads better! Was it difficult?  Mines looking pretty shabby also. 

Just to add that the front strut rod bushes were replaced on mine recently and this seems to have helped with wear quite a bit as well. Also handling seems better. 

Mine had the same issue. I spoke with my tyre guy and he said that these cars will eat tyres on the outer edge due to the weight of the vehicle when cornering and roundabouts if you do a lot of town driving. Get a proper 4 wheel alignment at a decent garage. Absolutely transformed mine!

The likes of kwik fit etc are rubbish and when I was last in an f1 autocenter looking for someone to do a 4 wheel alignment the guy even said "we don't do that, we just adjust the track rods. Its the biggest ripoff going" 😲

Thanks everyone. I'll get the ECU out and have that done first

Hi everyone. A few days ago my 1998 LS400 started having an erratic idle. It bounces from a virtual stall back up to 1200 or so then repeats. This happens in gear and in park. It's also got a noticeable misfire. 

I've been meaning to get my ECU done for a while, is this likely to be the cause?

I have no lights on the dash. No EML. I've had a few other symptoms that seem to relate to ECU also previously. Bad shifts, random limp mode and vac light on once. Poor low end power and no communication from ECU on obd port. 

All advice is appreciated. Feels like every time I fix one thing another pops up at the moment. 

The vibration I think is from the center or rear of the car. It's not violent but its noticeable. I had all the rear bushes replaced with genuine lexus parts plus the hub bushes replaced recently. New tyres and wheel balance. It's had a new trans mount as well in the last 6 months. I did all this due to worn bushes and in the hope it would remove this vibration. 

It's possible it's the handbrake I hope so! We couldn't see any obvious wobble in the driveshaft or diff when on the ramp though. 

As far as I'm aware the shocks are all original with 149k miles on them

Hi all. I'm experiencing an irritating driveline vibration at around 50mph which I quite noticeable when driving and also I feel the same vibration when I take my foot off the accelerator and coast when I'm doing over 50mph. 

I've had the car up to speed on a ramp and can't see anything obvious however the mechanic did note that my diff was slightly noisy and that the left rear wheel wouldn't turn when on the ramp (non LSD?) but there was a slight movement of the driveshaft on that side. 

Could the vibrations be the diff? Feels like something out of balance in the rear. 

I have had full rear suspension arms replaced with genuine parts and wheel balance on new tyres and still it persists

Thanks in advance. 

I tried to fit one of these eBay ones but I couldn't figure out how to change the collar over to the new mast! Probably just being a bit thick so any help is appreciated! 

Also the actual toothed strip was much shorter on the replacement than my original one. 

I have recently replaced all my rear suspension arms with genuine parts and my rear hub bushes, ARB bushes, steering rack bushes and changed the diff oil on my 1998 ls400. Also did the strut rods and new tyres and a full alignment. It's transformed the handling. Much more stable and corners better with less roll. Still stock but refreshed. The rear end was pretty shot. It's my daily so needs to be safe and ride well. 

Perfectly sums up what a fantastic machine the ls400 is. I've just ordered a complete set of genuine rear suspension arms for my MK4 as well as new hub bushes and strut rods for the front. I'm hoping it will help give the car a ride closer to feeling new. No other car would get me buying genuine parts at this age of car but the ls400 deserves it. 

I work in car sales and drive pretty new cars all day and nothing comes close to getting back into my 20yr old ls at the end of the day. 

Replacing the mount definitely improved driveline vibration. Most of my vibration issues stem from worn suspension components unfortunately. At this point I'm unlikely to spend anymore on it as I think it's probably needing to much work regarding suspension and bodywork. 

5 minutes ago, skyway said:

I am only up the road from you If you wanna have a look at mine sometime, I am just south of crewe

Thanks! I would definitely be interested in doing that at some point. Especially if I look at a 430. Never even sat in one. Thanks skyway. 

30 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

 

31 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Here's a glimpse of my bottom! As far as good sites go I guess it depends on whether you're looking to do the importing yourself or whether you prefer to have it all done and with the car UK registered.

 

That's very clean underneath! Mines not often that clean on the side you see haha! 

I imagine there's a saving on doing it all yourself but I also would think that there are lots of additional costs that I may be unaware of. At least if I get a UK one that's already here I know what I'm paying to start with. I saw the dark blue 430 that the seller skyway got his from is selling. Very nice and seems a good price. Do you have to convert the Speedo to mph? 

Does anyone know any good sites to look for imported ones?

1 hour ago, The-Acre said:

Good points.  And the underseal thing is certainly something I'll be looking at soon.  My undercarriage looks no less than 3 years old, not even a rusty nut or washer. I'm sure our salty winters will soon change that!

Mine has definitely got more than a couple of rusty nuts! I think I'll just run mine until it fails it's MOT and scrap it for parts at that point. Might have to wait a bit to save for another good import. Would be nice to have one that's worth keeping nice rather than save another basket case from the crusher

I have to say I do like the idea of an import. I love the wool seats you get in some. They seem to wear much better than the leather and better for our climate really. The imported ls400 I test drove once had them and they were so comfy!

9 minutes ago, skyway said:

Matt where are you in Staffordshire?

I'm in Newcastle under Lyme just next to j15 of the M6.