JellyBean

This is about 500kg too much !

I have used Roys for five annual services. It seems to me that they like doing the service part but not anything else. For example, on separate occasions I have asked them, having taken car in for service, to adjust headlamps, realign steering wheel, fix faulty alarm. They did none of these things. Wondering where to take my beloved next year...

Well... I used to be a mechanic. Exactly 40 years ago, I completely disassembled my pride & joy - a £70 XK120 - and modified or replaced with different equipment, every single component except the door locks. Since then the only times I have taken a car to a garage was when I had fuel injection problems. In November 2003, when I was 57, I was lying under my Golf Git fixing the clutch. I was tired, oily, frozen, and had managed to remove the skin from a couple of knuckles. I decided at this point I had had enough, so after buying the LS the following summer, I now drop off my car and fetch it when it is fixed. (Not quite true, I did adjust the headlamps and also replaced a front air dam which I then busted again about two weeks later.) I may save money if I did stuff myself, but I have never regretted my decision to 'retire' from intense car DIY. Perhaps one or two fellow members will have made the same decision ?

Not owned a 430 - yet - but one area you will surely love on the newer car is the view from the driver's seat. It is MUCH classier !

From about 30mph, I once tried stopping my Mk 2 Golf (weight 945kg) with the engine off, as a matter of interest. It was truly alarming. With the engine cut out, an LS400 with an inoperative brake servo, would be a frightful mass to slow down. I dread to think how long it would take to stop, even with the added leg muscle that fear would bring.

Bore & stroke are same, Mks 1-4. Mks 3 & 4 have slightly higher compresssion ratios than Mks 1 & 2 (10.4 to 10.0). Achieved, presumably by altered shape of piston crown.

I turned 40 about five years ago and now I am 62. Where the bit-in-between went, I know not. If I lost 8kg, my bmi would be 25.0. Have all my own hair. At the sides.

It will bend things when the belt snaps - when the pistons kiss the valves. Hi jelly bean an non interfearence engine means the pistons wont reach the valves, this is so with the mark 1&2 ls400s. I wish it was the same for the 3&4 models then the belt wouldn't be an issue. ( just an inconvienience if it went). I know that. What I meant was that it won't bend components "if you try and start it again" as it the damage will already have been done.

Made me smile, 'cos I had a Mk 2 Golf and put sound-deading everywhere I could - even stuffed it into the cross-bracing in the interior and glued it into the spare wheel well. Then I bought an LS400...

Fibber.

It will bend things when the belt snaps - when the pistons kiss the valves.

???!!!???

Yes, I too am a Falken man ! As much as half the cost of some other tyres, and I am delighted with them. (The wet-road whoopsie with my Mrs happened in a straight line and was achieved on Dunlop D8s, BTW.)

That's good, low mileage. If the car is genuine and has the requisite FSH, I would be a bit cheeky and offer £4000 in cash and see what happens. Must be worth £4500 if it is A1.

Are you a little old lady, then ?

In the first week I had mine, I was chauffering Mrs JellyBean to a 'night out with the girls'. It was preciptating with vigour and leaving a 30mph zone - at 30mph - I floored it and we went sideways. "What are you doing?" said she. "Oh, just messing about, sez I", whilst really thinking, "Oh blimey !". I've even had an SW in the dry - bags of oppo was suddenly called for. Made the old jam tart speed up a bit for a while.

Don't need snow to execute an inadvertant sideways whoopsie in an LS400 without traction control - rain will do just fine.

Funnily enough, the big Facel Vegas of the early 1960s had a steel dashboard which was painted to look like wood ! Fabulous looking cars, but probably awful to drive nowadays.

But Mk IV also has traction control and another gear - two BIG improvements. And more airbags ! Quite a bit better IME*HO. *even

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... For my part, I think the 460 looks great, the 400 Mk 4 is great apart from the wheels, the 400 Mk 3 is OK, the 430 Mk 2 is poor and the 430 Mk 1 is an achievement in ungainliness. (Actually I think it looks horrible.) But that's only my opinion !

OMG. The prospect of a nervous learner prodding the accelerator instead of the brake is a frightening one.

Not geeky at all, he has told you : Ultra Kurz Welle.

I have just looked in "Engine and Transmission" for the first time (well, I have only been reading this website for 5½ years) and someone has just claimed he gets 42mpg in his LS400. I rest my case.

I have achieved almost identical figures for my 400. We have had people on this site mking some rather silly mpg claims for their LS400/430s. Either they are prone to exaggeration or their arithmetic is weak.

I have posted this before... (It was written by someone involved in the DHP in the first place): Hi, I am the guy who did DHP spec for LS 400. For reference - Spring rate + 10% only, Height -10mm all round, rear anti roll bar + 1mm to aid turn in. Tyres Pirelli P Zero 245/50x17 Jaguar spec (XK8?). No change to dampers. Car was done to please Lexus MD, but dealers liked it so we began to sell it ! Ride wasn't bad, but clearly firmer than standard. Any other tyres make much worse. If you want ride quality back, just fit standard springs again. Note- front suspension quite close to bump stoppers, so ride will suffer if springs have sagged with time.