kayble

How can you tell an uprated brake booster from a vulnerable ome; is there a part number for the updated one? He says with fingers crossed.... Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

If I knew it was compatible and in working order, I'd have it and keep it on the shelf. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

I'm guessing that your brakes work in so far as you have the requisite braking force on the road wheels/parking brake - so I doubt noise from the brake booster would have given a MOT tester cause for concern if so? Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

And some fun pictures of the car:

Quick update on recent developlemts on this car. Main work has been to continue the replacement of the cabin speakers. I've used JL audio 6.5" components to the front, and also to the rear as co-axials. I've used speaker adapter plates shipped in from the states - these make the job of replacing the factory pods sooooo much easier; here's the eBay shop in question: https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/pvcspeakeradapters79https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/pvcspeakeradapters79 Shipping took about 10 days as I recall - no customs fees either. First step is to prepare the doors. I was surprised with the condition of all the doors rust wise. I found a small seam of rust in the NSF door that was kurusted/primed and a small scab on one of the side impact bars in the rear of the car - also sorted. Other than that, the bottoms of the doors are spotless. Kurusting the seam in the NSF door (not the best pic given the access): primed: Interestingly, I did wire wheel a scab off the other side of this door in exactly the same location. I would recommend people take the time to remove their plastic door covers to check for any bubbling underneath. Once that's done, it's time for Dynamat and a liberal spray of dynax to keep any future rust from forming (remember my pathological fear of the stuff): The dynamat is necessary to keep the doors from rattling as the speakers are installed with an open back firing in to the door aperture. The less ratte/movement, the more we'll hear of the music. In the front doors, it was possible to use the factory tweeter mounting brackets for the new JL audio equipment: It's then simply a case of installing the main woofer in to the adapter and bolting that to the door using the factory mounts: I've cut the connectors from the vehicle loom and soldered the wiring directly to the wiring for the JL audio speakers. I use butt connectors that contain a solder and heat shrink component - these things are great for making solid connections with ease - on Amazon: amazon link. I go over the top with a length of heat shrink insulation and cable tie everything in place. The new speakers sound weedy with the door card off - but with everything buttoned back up and the door cavity sealed up - they sound great, considering I'm only using the headunit internal amp. Once the cabin is finished, I shall put some subs in the boot - more on those later!

well in a year and a bit, you could put the Cat D car on classic cover, at which point it being a cat D would likely become irrelevant so long as its +20 years old.

There's a GS430 on a cat D in London: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-GS-430-4-3-auto-SE/323670160684?hash=item4b5c3eb52c:g:ZnIAAOSwveFcTzM~ to be honest, at this end of the price range, the Cat D wouldn't worry me - if the car was well repaired and the incident wasn't serious. The MOT has run out on this one and I'd want to see it in person - but I bet this could be had for a grand. You'd need to put money aside for a new exhaust and some suspension bits - but that's likely the case for any GS now - at this price range I'd sell you my GS300 but I'm having too much fun with it at the moment!

On that white GS430 - I'm in Liverpool, but wouldn't bother with it personally. If you check the mot history for it, the mileage is inconsistent - I think the dash cluster must have got changed at some stage and she's showing an incorrect mileage as a result. I'd *love* to gas convert a GS300 - I did a DIY conversion on my BMW 740i but cheated slightly by transplanting an intake manifold that already had injectors mounted- still had to do everything else to make it work though. You wouldn't consider a GS300 - it has to be a v8? Not that I have anythign against that, I'd love a 430...

This is the space I'm in at the moment. It looks small, but it opens up real wide at the door end, and at the other end is a nice standing area with bench tops and a TV. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

I'm lucky enough to be able to most work, bar welding/spray work, as a DIY project in the garage home. I'd love a GS430 - there's no sustitute for the character of a V8, and my GS300 has been such a fun car to work on, that I'd jump at a GS430 project; so long as it's not too badly rusted, and engine/gearbox are basically good - I could cope with most other things!

You had the same issue I did regarding rusted out rear parking brake backing plates: I ended up solving it by importing rear hubs from an '05 car in texas - not a spot of rust on them!

Cheers, the wheels need spacing front and rear, then with a bit more lowering they'll really set the car off I think. I did think about getting chrome plated factory wheels as on a GS430 - I might still do that for a winter set of wheels.

So... after all the front and rear suspension work was done, there's actually not many more updates to give on this car; I shall post what progress I made between then and now to try and get back to chronological order. Firstly, the car has had a full stainless exhaust system from Tony Banks in Leeds - from the manifolds all the way back, replacing what remained of the original Toyota system (ruined and previously repaired). I don't have any pictures of the fit underneath (it's exquisite) - but a small video of a cold start idle follows below: https://youtu.be/JBwuI6hmQIY With that done, it was time to locate some rather fetching wheels. I went for a design from a company called XXR, with Uniroyal tyres - after a quick test fit: I need to lower the car still further and ensure the coilovers are set up right - after that I think I shall be spacing the wheels to fill the arches out a little more. The more long term issue is that I want a pretty decent stereo in this car - so removing the original non-nav stereo was more or less the first thing I did. I used a double din fascia kit manufactured by Metra (model: 95-8152) - and an ISO adapter harness off eBay. Slight issue is the pins on harness aren't right; I ended up using the pin configuration in this post on ClubLexus: I've installed a Kenwood DMX7017DABS radio, which has Android Auto/ Apple Carplay - so you need to install a USB socket somewhere to connect your phone. I chose to replace the 12v power socket in the compartment under the Centre armrest: Ignore the hole to the right of the socket - that was my first attempt at getting a socket installed - it didn't go well! I'll put a panel blank over that... The double din looks like this when it's powered up: I've also started on replacing the door speakers: Very easy (by comparison to my old BMW e38) to get the door cards off, and was presently surprised by the condition of the doors behind the cards. This is OSF as an example: There's a small scab in the OSR door near the side impact bar, and a seam of rust right at the front of the NSF door - I'll be treating it all and spraying Dynax along with some sound deadening material going on in due course. The plan will then be to replace the factory parts with adapters sold on eBay from this company: https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/pvcspeakeradapters79?_trksid=p2047675.l2559 I'll likely install a JL audio components up front, coaxials at the rear and 2x 10" subs with their own amp in the boot and call it a day on the stereo; I don't think I'll see the need for a separate amp for cabin speakers. That's all for now..I shall sort through some nice pictures I've recently taken of the car, and post them up for your delectation!

I'm not convinced about RX's not suffering with corrosion. I'm interested in the pre-facelift mk1 cars and a lot of them are rusty AF underneath. They seem very exposed around the rear end, where as facelift cars have plastic coverings that seem simply to cover the rust occurring underneath. At the moment my sample size is two cars parked in my local Toyota dealership car park... I'd be intereseted seeing other earlier cars to compare rates of rot.

I would go for the one that has the least underbody corrosion. Do all the standard checks underneath and see which comes out best - pay particular attention to the pinch welds around the back jacking points, the inner arch lip, and the rear end of the sill section as it meets the inner wheel arch, and the rear park brake backing plates. Thereafter, I'd favour the car that has the easier option for retrofit installation of a modern double DIN stereo (saving the original parts of course) - so that's likely the darker non-nav car.

800?! Crazy price... Mine came from adrad.co.uk just over 70 quid to purchase with free delivery. Not a hard job at all - but you will need to do some of it from below, as the radiator integrates the gearbox oil cooler as well. At same time, you could tidy up the radiator support member which is likely to be a bit ripe in areas (scrub/kurust/prime/paint) and you may find your aircon condenser is falling to bits and one end of you pas cooler circuit is rusty...basically doing the rad is easy but you'll likely find other bits to do as well! Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

And some more pics - with kind permission from Lexus Liverpool for use of the forecourt. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Just had to post a couple of pictures to show present state of the car - clearly quite a jump on from last post, but lots has taken place and I need to find the time to update this thread! Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

The solution to the corrosion on the rear knuckles? I simply purchsed parts from a 2005 car that was broken for spares ... in Texas! The parts & shipping were £280 - almost exactly what lexus wanted for one park brake backing plate alone! For that, I got 2x complete rust-free rear knuckles with 60k miles less distance on the rear bearings and what appear to be recently replaced rear ball joints pressed in to the knuckles. Condition on arrival: Backing plate edges got a bit clobbered during shipping - but bent back in to shape easily. There's not a spot of rust on the fittings and you can see the bracket in place under the parking brake cable. The knuckles are easily changed presuming your driveshafts cooperate. I had to use a hub puller on one side to get the driveshaft out the hub - other side cooperated nicely. I did have to use a picke fork on the ball joints on the top arms up in the wheel arch - luckily I had spare boots to put back on the arms, and those upper arm ball joints are still good - so I just cleaned them out of old grease and packed them with new lithium grease. Mounted to the car with a fresh lick of paint, these now really look the part: Yes - I know I won't see the rear face of the plates behind the discs - but to know they're rust free and clean - as if off a southern american state car - that's pretty cool! I've replaced the parking brake cables for new items - but the seller did send their parking brake cables - and they look in very good condition - given the atmosphere they were in of course. If anyone needs a very good condition set of used park brake cables, you can have the ones that were sent from USA - free of charge; just cover the shipping - please PM me. My new items were, again, First Line items: Fitting the park brake cables was self explanatory - but not much fun, as you're directly under the car to get at the connections at the driver's end so to speak. This would be fine if the car was on a lift, but under jacks and jack stands - it was uncomfortable... I was glad when it was done shall we say!

As above. An old laptop running win 7 32bit is ideal. A generic obd2 reader is also useful- but be prepared to do the paperclip trick linked previously- to clear spurious codes for abs/vsc ser as a result of using the reader. FWIW I use an icarsoft i930; this is intended for JLR cars but has a generic obd2 function as well - and its quicker to pull that out than fire up the laptop Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

Glad to hear it's running well again - but you probably didn't need to replace it all. The factory leads have replaceable clips that go round the connection ends - they can be purchased separately (predictably mine disintegrated on being handled) - I ended up cleaning my coil packs and leads, ensuring there was no failing insulation on the leads and re-using them with new clips. There's also plastic holders at both ends of the valley that hold the HT leads in place and stop them from rubbing on the rocker cover - one of mine was brittle/broken, the other still intact. Suck all the crap out the valley with a shop vac, give all your elec connecitons an application of di-electric grease and you should be good to go.

If only the car was in Merseyside I would offer took at this with you obvious caveat being I'm not a professional - just an avid DIY'er with recent relevant experience on this engine. Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

NP - keep us aprised. I have money on crappy connections to the coil packs - particularly if someone's been there before. No question about it - the intake will need to come off to investigate plugs/coil packs/leads - that's less than an hours work IMHO. Once there, you can do rocker cover gaskets, plugs etc. I also spotted you have an itermittent VSC issue? Be aware that some diagnostic scanners can trigger VSC fault codes - and it can be reset by bridging a couple of pins on the OBD socket - have a search on this site as someone has already posted the procedure (Tigerfish already posted it: here). PO of my car thought laterally and simply removed the bulbs in the dash cluster for the VSC/ABS warnings - you may have another issue, but this is a good shot in the dark..

I'd quite like to stance a pre-facelift gen1 rx300 on coilovers. My 2001 gs300 is dropped on Tein Street Basis Z units. Admiral wanted 26 quid for declaring coilovers, wheels and exhaust - but I do have other daily driver cars that I can use and the gs300 is only on for less than 2k miles pa, hence the surprisingly low extra cost (pretty much all of that is their admin fee). Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

What would you say were the common issues on 1st gen pre-facelift RX300s? I can't help but want one! Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk