Matt1986

Thank you so much for taking the time to give such great advice, I will definitely be using the questions you've suggested if I get the opportunity. It's a group day but I may speak to them individually I'm not sure. As I understand it's an outside company doing the recruitment day and is made up of individual and group tasks with several eliminations through the day. I'm sure that your advice will be very useful in helping me!

I'm attending a recruitment day for lexus stoke next Wednesday for a sales role and wondered if anyone works for lexus in sales and had any tips? I really want this job as I love lexus! Probably a long shot but thought I would give it a go and ask anyway. Thanks, Matt.

That's no velour. It's wool! Seen as the higher option in Japan than leather. Cool in summer warmer in winter. I drove an imported 1996 celcior with it in a few years back. It's lovely stuff.

Thanks!

I've seen quite a few videos of removing various Toyota bushes and most seem fine with a press or those bushing removal tools. I suppose I'll find out! When I get around to it I'll try and do a guide or video as I've found very little on the ls400 on YouTube.

A company called febest a German manufacturer make pretty much all the suspension bushings for my 98 ls400 and quite a few other bits like boots and bearings. They are in EU and have free shipping and the vat is included in the price. I'm replacing all the rear arm bushes and carrier bushes apart from upper control arm for £132. https://shop.febest.eu/catalog.html?brand=LEXUS&model=LS400&year=1998

Yes it depends a lot on road surface. On a new road surface it's quiet and lovely. A broken surface I feel it rattling the car to bits! I've found a can get a set of bushes for the rear suspension system and have got new upper control arms for the rear, so will probably be replacing this asap as they are all looking past their best. I'd like to get new shocks as well but OEM parts are expensive. Any good recommendations for OEM ride quality shocks?

That's a pretty good illustration of all the arguments for just keeping them going rather than putting to much on cosmetic condition but you could say that about any car. Why bother it could be written off. On that logic we should all drive old bangers. I have done that and it is liberating but I couldn't treat my ls400 like that. I feel sorry for that guy but can't say it's my style!

Hi all. My ls400 1998 feels off. Or at least it's not as good as it should be. I would describe the ride and floaty and soft but I can feel a tough road surface or bumps at the same time. I have a new leaf as well and that rides much stiffer in the corners but feels a less harsh ride. Is this just age? Design , or should I be looking at a particular area for this? Shocks? Bushes etc. I know I'm comparing a 3 year old and a 20 year old car but it currently feels the worst of all worlds. Soft and harsh!

Yes that's definitely true. You really have to shop around d as there's no one stop shop.

Came across this site www.megazip.net a few days ago and they list a huge amount of genuine parts for lexus. I found engine and transmission mounts for £230 with shipping from Japan as apposed to £460 from lexus UK. Not ordered yet but I'm very impressed with the website and selection of stock! Anyone on here used them before?

So how many were there to start with? I'd be interested to know what percentage of the total made are still in existence!

I wonder how many ls400 owners are actually lurking on here. Must be a few hundreds judging by the veiw count on some topics. I think everyone has made good points. I too bought an ls400 because of the reliability factor. Yes they will have issues as they age but compared to similar era jags mercs etc. They are pretty reliable but yes not eternal. I'm taking the view point that even if I keep spending some money just to keep her going it's still a cheaper hobby than playing with golf bats😂 I'll carry on but just keep up the maintenance until such time as it's to far gone. They won't last forever but as long as I still love driving mine I'll keep her going.

The rest of the car has chips and marks. There's other scuffs and it's going to need a new driver door at some point due to having had a door skin at some point in its life which is not starting to rust at the seams. The more I say this stuff out loud the more.mad I think I am to consider doing any work on it.

To be honest. This is my main issue. My wife decided to have an argument with a low wall and lost. Going to cost about £400 to repair. The rest of the car is running ok but this looks terrible. Do I repair or not? What would u lot do?

Yes I do worry to much Malc 🤣 The flanges on the y pipe are actually not that bad but there are about 10 small holes in it all along which I keep patching up. Sounds like a tank when they are all blowing lol

I think you have all said what I was already thinking but didn't want to believe. I've also definitely fallen into the trap of " well I've already spent X or fixed X so I should probably just carry on as I'm in so deep now". It makes far more sense for me to actually buy another than repair the damage to mine. Maybe sell her for parts and get a cleaner example? It pains me to take one off the road that "could" be repaired though. The laundry list is long. To repair accident damage to rear quarter panel is £400 and will still have **** paintwork. New exhaust y pipe that's leaking. New engine mounts, pulleys, refurbish the wheels. ECU caps suspension bushes. The list goes on. Hmmm.

Some excellent responses from you all on this so thank you for that. I think Ben hit the nail on the head with these things. Eventually it will all fail and will be impossible to replicate without a mountain of cash, and even then for what? A 30 year old ls! Ok so change of plan. Run and maintain it with decent preventative work. But nothing stupid like resprays. Enjoy it with its battle scars hope the rot doesn't kill it too quickly. At the moment it's got no visible rust on the body or sills but does have some crusty rust on the subframe and under the boot seal. Which is annoying. Nothing mentioned on the not get about it though

Yes I agree Malc on the cost of ownership. I have had brand new cars in the past and it's cost a lot more to run a tiny eurobox in payments every month than my ls400 for sure! I suppose I just have to be willing to keep her up to scratch and if she dies she dies. I keep getting something fixed and then it's something else but I say to myself I've put so much in already I might as well sort this issue as well. Shes had timing belt etc done in 2012, new alternator and ps pump last year. ECU is next on my list and new engine mounts. The main thing that lets mine down is actually the Paint. It's had a bad respray done in the past but i didn't notice when I bought it. Maybe I could wrap it in something suitable at some point. Painting is expensive! I'm not after a show car but looking clean and in good nick would be good. Want some 430 five spoke wheels as well when I can afford it. I have an issue of knowing when to stop with this stuff. I'd nut and bolt restore it if I had money to burn I'm sure! Just to see what it was like to drive brand new. Must have been special as after 20 years on the road they're still fantastic.

Hello all, I'm having to ask myself some tough questions about the viability of my plan to go beyond maintaining it and restore my 1998 ls400 to as close to perfect as possible over the next few years. My question really is, is it possible to keep one long term i.e the next 20 years as a genuine classic or is the nature of its complex and aging electronic and mechanical systems going to kill them all in the end? Will the cost just be to much to get the parts or will they simply become unavailable? It's not exactly a MK1 cortina in its simplicity. I ask because I'm pouring money into mine at the moment but if it's not really viable maybe I'd be better to just save my money and upgrade to a 430 or similar. I love my car but I'm worried that's clouding my reasoning! Am I the only one who wants to turn back the clock on these beasts? Mine also needs a lot of work as it's 20 years old. Bodywork, a respray, fully rebuild suspension. Rust treatment etc etc. I'm worried I'll get half way in an discover I can't get any further and have a very expensive paper weight. Thanks. Matt

No I literally just disconnected the negative battery terminal for a few minutes and reconnected again. After that it all worked fine.

So just to wrap up this issue I did as steve2006 recommended and disconnected the negative battery terminal for a couple of minutes and reconnected it. This seemed to solve the issue and now everything is working ok. Just needed a reset. Thanks for the tip steve2006. 🙂

Yes I'm coming to the same conclusion. Seems odd that it's just stopped working all of a sudden. Do you know where the body unit is located? Thanks for all your help and looking this up for me Steve 🙂

Not sure on the battery but just to update this a little. My wife was having this issue whilst at work. I've now seen the car and cannot get the central locking to operate at all. It also seems that the seat memory buttons and automatic retraction of the steering wheel have all stopped. The seats and wheel can be moved manually but won't move on auto.Can't open either back door and there's no key. What do all these parts have in common? It also set the alarm off when I started it up but it started and ran fine. The alarm.stopped after about 30 seconds. I feel this is going to be hard and expensive to resolve.

Hi all. Had an odd situation with my 98 ls400 today. I went to unlock the car with the fob and it did nothing. Tried again and this time it only unlocked the rear passenger side door. Locked again and one more time tried to unlock. This time it only unlocked the front passenger side door. Also didn't work with the key in the door locks or boot. It's never done this before. Any thoughts on a probable cause? Could this be ECU related as mine needs the caps doing? Thanks. Matt