BigBoomer

Steaming it will loosen the glue holding the fabric to the foam, so don't do that. Also don't get it too wet as that can also cause problems. On the two I have previously done I just used a fabric or carpet cleaner applied to a cloth and then rubbed gently to clean any stains. For the smell, probably a solution of baking soda and white vinegar sprayed on a cloth and rubbed into the headliner will fix that. Febreeze might also work, or a can of Odor-X fogger if it's more general smells.

The hole (radar cruise control?) and the leather vs wood steering wheel.

That sucks 😞 Might need to contact Pilkington and see if they can make one for your LS if they don't have it in stock. https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/automotive/classic-cars-home/makes-and-models/all-makes-and-models?make=lexus They do list items for the first generation XF10 LS400 (HT1076) which should fit your 93. Bonded screens are a royal PITA to remove without damaging them. Then once successfully removed they need to be carefully cleaned before bonding them into your car.

Make sure you feed the leather well, before covering it. Once out of sight it will dry out and split further.

Sounds about the same. This is the 2nd turbo-charged car I have driven for any length of time and the turbo-lag on both was atrocious and to me unacceptable. I lived with it on my S320CDI for 18 months but hated it and would never go back to that. I can see where Hybrids can use the electric part to fill in that gap in the performance but otherwise turbos are a big NO from me. What is the point of a gazillion Bhp when it doesn't respond instantly? In a race car maybe, but not on the road.

Gods NO! I quite simply don't fit in Bloody Minded W**kers cars, except for their big SUVs and I hate SUVs. Whilst looking for my LS 400/430/460 I tried several 7 series, A8s, S-class & E-class, Phaetons, and Jags,.... and the BMWs were the worst of the bunch for driver space. Even with the adjustable steering wheel out of the way and the seat all the way back I struggled to get into a 7 series. Final cost for the work on the LS was £1670 for both rear wheel bearings, change of diff oil, and a full service (oil, oil-filter, air-filter, pollen filter). Parts cost alone for both bearings was £680. 😲 I have advisories on: - Radiator - corrosion on the trans-oil cooler connections. So I need to decide on whether to get the separate cooler fitted, or just get a new radiator fitted. - One rear ball joint is seized. - Rear brake pipe corrosion. - Rear discs and pads need replacing soon. - Both silencers have loose parts inside so are rattling. - Earth strap to engine broken. - One front strut is weeping, so will need new front air-struts soon. So, once I have paid off the credit card I'll get her booked in to sort all that out. It is nice to no longer have that "whuuuuuum-whuuuuuum-whuuuuuum" when driving. Whilst the LS was down I rented an MG HS for a weekend to visit family. Yes, I know it's an SUV but to get a normal car big enough for me to fit in I'd have to rent an E-class at nearly 3 times the cost of the MG. As it was It was only just big enough for me. It had **SECONDS** of turbo-lag when you put your foot down hard. Do people really think that is acceptable in a car? It had that horrendous "lane assist" crap where it steers you where it thinks you should be going. Disabled that 💩 immediately. Also had constant flashing warnings on the dash, (You're near the speed limit, you're going too fast, you're too close, you're doing it all wrong!). Nag, nag NAG! I hated it all. I am the driver and I make the decisions, not the ****ing car. I am told that you can switch most of it off, but why is it even needed? If someone is that bad a driver, take away their driving licence. If that is an example of modern car "tech" then they can shove it all where the sun don't shine.

Rear wheel bearings, full service (oil, oil filter, air filter, air-con filter), and diff oil replacement came to £1600ish. They do however have a list of "advisories" that I will take a look at when I go to pick it up. <gulp> Oh well, even if it's another £1000 it's still the cheapest car I have ever owned on a per mile and per day basis.

Personally I have never understood the "image" thing in cars or otherwise. I don't want to drive an ugly car but other than that I really don't give a **** what anyone else thinks of it? If you buy a car or motorcycle to impress others then you will be forever disappointed and constantly changing vehicles as fashions change constantly, but hey, it's your money 😁 We have a guy at work who has had 6 different cars in the 6 years I have had the LS430. I spent £4400 on mine plus maybe the same again on maintenance whilst he spent £600 per month on his leases for the same 6 years. That is nearly 5 times what I paid and at the end of it he has nothing whilst I have a car that's worth maybe £3000. Yes, he has a new car every year but his new cars have spent more time in the garage being fixed than my 20 year old 140k mile LS. 🤣

Well my LS430 is at Westfield Motors for a new Thermostat (takes forever to warm up), to fix a loud hum from the rear axle (probably wheel bearings), and for a full service. I suspect my credit card is about to take a beating.

It sounds like my rear wheel bearings need replacing. The fronts were both done last year so I guess it is to be expected. I'm not really getting the "woooom-woooom" sound but there is a constant drone at anything over 15Mph (not tyre noise) and the tone does change when I corner. The drone frequency rises with road speed so it's either the rear wheel bearings, the differential or possibly the prop-shaft bearing(s). Am taking it to Westfield on Weds and they will tell me what it is.

Whenever I come across any rust I wire brush the loose bits off, paint it with Kurust, and once that has gone off a quick coat of paint. If you leave rust, it WILL spread.

Well, esure still don't have enough staff to answer the phone, so I have gone with LV for my Home Insurance (£260). My esure renewal for the LS430 also came through at £335 (up from £257 last year) so they can forget that too. I really don't want to do business with a company whose online "chat" system doesn't work, and whose phone lines are undermanned and overloaded. I went with Hastings Direct for the LS430 as they have a good reputation and my partner has insured via them for quite a while. Cost me £337 but that includes UK Breakdown recovery and zero Excess. I also contacted my credit card provider to block esure from taking automatic renewal payments.

I just had the renewal through for my home insurance. It has increased by £149 to £386 (no claims, no changes). It was £237 which is a 64% increase year on year. On comparison sites I have had quotes as low as £220 which is £17 cheaper than last year. I have tried to call my insurer (esure) 4 times over 2 days but got bored of waiting in a queue so have emailed them telling them to cancel the renewal. I will probably go with the quote from LV at £20 more than last years as they are a known brand. I suspect that they have hiked everyone's insurance by a similar amount and so their phone lines are swamped. They won't be happy later this month when I also fail to renew my car insurance with them. ****ty business practices like this make me no longer want to spend my money with them. I will post what my car insurance renewal comes though at on here. They might surprise me with a reasonable renewal price,... but I doubt it.

Most modern batteries are sealed/AGM so there is never any need to check them or top them up. However, what is needed is to think about what you are doing. Flattening a battery is pretty easy. I flattened my LS430 battery a couple of years ago. I was at the Eurotunnel terminal waiting for my severely delayed train (waited 5 hours) so was sat in the car with the windows open and the radio on for 5 hours. When they finally called my train, I went to start the car and it struggled and would not start. Luckily this is a common issue at the terminal so they had a guy come over with a jump pack and she started fine. I kept the engine running until I was actually on the train (about 30 mins) and then left the ignition off for the trip across to Calais. It started fine in Calais and I had no further problems that trip. When home I ordered a Jump Pack which I then charged, and tested the procedure so I would know what to do if/when it happens again. It is in my spare wheel well and gets topped up every 6 months. The radio, even at low volume draws 10W which is just under 1Amp. In theory a 68Ah battery should last 68 hours at that level, but I was also adjusting the windows and charging my phone, and chances are the car was doing stuff in the background too. It all adds up and in my case after 5 hours the battery didn't have enough oomph left to start the engine.

What difference does it make if your engine is covered in plastic or not? It has a bonnet/hood whose purpose is (along with aerodynamics) to hide/protect all the gubbins in the engine bay. When opening the bonnet I WANT access to what I need access to, so I find all of those additional plastic covers to be a royal PITA. The underbelly covers make sense from an aerodynamic and cleanliness point of view, but the top covers are purely cosmetic for something you only see when you open the bonnet. 🤣

Winter tyres are softer and provide more grip as they warm up faster. They also have bigger blocks so grip better in snow. However, if All Seasons work for you, that's great. The only tyres that work on ice are studded tyres, but they trash tarmac. When we lived in north Sweden, we had to change to studded tyres within a government mandated 2 week period. They make a huge difference when driving on snow/ice.

Burgundy? Since when is Burgundy blue? Were you drinking Red wine when you posted that? 🤣 The blue & gold is classy though 😁

Yuasa and Varta make good batteries, but the cars they are fitted to either need regular use or else plugging in to a battery maintainer. Trickle charging occasionally does not preserve a battery. If you don't use the car regularly and want the battery to last, you should always plug it in when parked at home. However, it sounds to me like you may have a parasitic drain or your alternator may be on it's way out. Since I now work from home and drive maybe 20 miles per week, mine is almost always plugged in to a cheap battery charger/maintainer (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08MQGHC2V) and the Yuasa battery fitted is now 5 years old and doing just fine. The battery got flattened a couple of times during COVID lockdowns, so I wired up the charger to connect where I park the car. The charger recovered the battery and has maintained it well since then. I extended the wiring from the charger to the battery by 10 metres so the charger is on the wall in the garage but the 12V cable runs to where the car is parked. If you can't get wiring to where the car is parked, then consider one of the solar chargers. Make sure it provides at least 5W and ideally 10-20W. Then all you need to do is park where the solar panel gets direct sunlight. I've seen a few cars with the solar panels on the parcel shelf and it seems to work if you can find panel(s) that will fit.

VERY overpriced, especially for the time of year. There is a 99k miles 2004 on eBay for £6k that I would choose over that one. In other news, my 2004 is in for it's MOT on Saturday 😁🤞

All Season/All Weather tyres are always going to be noisy. They need bigger blocks to get the grip which leads to more noise. They are also a compromise so are never going to excel at any one thing. In southern UK I have always stuck with summer tyres year round. In the winter they are a little harsher and noisier, but decent brands last well and in spring/summer/autumn they are quiet and grip well. Here it is rare that we get snow for more than a few days per year so All Season/Weather or Winter tyres are just not worth the hassle. However, if I lived in Caithness I would get a set of cheap scabby wheels and fit winter tyres to those. They should last 7 or 8 winters. 😁

I went to a friends 60th birthday party in 2019 in Linden and was followed the last 5 miles to my hotel by another LS430. It was German registered and we chatted for about 30 mins after he reassured me he wasn't a weirdo. 🤣 He had never seen another in Germany. He bought his silver/grey 05 in Austria in about 2008 and it was in really good condition when I saw it. I mentioned this forum but he said he didn't use the internet.

He's a genius and a looney, but everyone needs a hobby. 🤣

Generally yes, but they don't show the mileage, nor do they show the bores which may have been damaged. They go to the trouble of re-sleeving it so I assume it needed it.

The motoring press are gushy about whichever manufacturer buys the most advertising. I don't trust most of them but have over the years learned to read certain reviewers and read between the lines of their comments. They are rarely looking for what we are looking for in a car. Many years ago Clarkson commented that the LS430 was supremely competent and whisper quiet but too dull and bland looking. Sounded like my ideal car and what do you know,... it is 😁

Bunch of ageing Hippies! <LOL> If the steering got heavy then that is mechanical/hydraulic so no idea how that could tie in with the dash going black.