eXOBeX

Found these:- LED Stop/Tail bulbs (Trick Bits Direct) (£10 per bulb) They sell cheaper on eBay - see here for items they're selling Also:- Rear LED bulbs at M-99.co.uk Don't know if they're E approved though - the ones sold by AceParts aren't, and I've just trawled the net and struggled to find any that are. Also remember that the bigger LED bulbs need to be fitted from the lens side of the light - they don't fit through the bulb hole!

Exactly the same thing happened on my 1995 GS last weekend, and once more this afternoon. The pedal goes rock-solid and the front brakes bind up, as though there's too much fluid in the system! Once left to cool down for a while, it was fine and acting as though nothing had happened! Can the servo or master cylinder be repaired, or is it scrapyard time? Any suggestions for telling which of the two is at fault? I don't know about the back wheels, but both front ones had locked indicating that both brake circuits were affected. Looking about on the 'net I see that dual-circuit brakes have effectively two brake cylinders in one, so as I write this the servo is starting to look like the culprit...? Then again, immediately below the master cylinder the servo's paint has bubbled, indicating that something's leaked fluid onto it (or someone's overfilled it!). Also, the front brake pistons aren't easy to shift. Squash one, the other pops out, fair enough. But to squash them both, I have to use a vice! UPDATE Brake servo complete with master cylinder, just ordered from Foreign Car Spares of Birmingham. £175+£10 carriage, plus VAT. Had a quote about 15 minutes later for £150+VAT though, then another for £100 - typical! Don't try importing the servo from the US or Europe, the servo part number for GS300 Mk1 is 44610-3A030 for RHD but 44610-3A040 for LHD. Master cylinder in both cases is 04493-30240, also found in the NATO version of the Supra from July 96 onwards. Will be fitting it myself, following the instructions in my Haynes manual (unfortunately a Carina one, but close enough). Step-by-step guide with piccies may well appear on my website soon afterwards. Will also do a post-mortem on the old servo and cylinder to see what had happened (again, with piccies on the web). FURTHER UPDATE Changed master cylinder only (servo looks too much of a potch so tried half the job first). Bled the brakes (if you buy an Eezi-Bleed don't forget to buy the Universal Cap too). Job done, no more binding. Stamping on the brake pedal used to jam the brakes, doesn't any more! Seems to be a bit of play in the pedal which comes and goes, so I think the servo might still be iffy, it's just that the play takes up whatever expansion there is (there was no play before, so the expansion simply applied the brakes!)

Look up the list, you'll find Darrel's telephone number. Ring after about 5pm BST / 4pm GMT and you ought to catch him first thing in the morning. Mention that you got his number from the Lexus Owners Club website, he may sling a discount in anyway. You'll probably want to keep your VIN number handy in case he needs it. Got a price? Happy to order? Tell him you'll e-mail all the details over to him (it's easier than doing it over the phone) and fire off a suitable e-mail. Mine was along the lines of:- If you want them fitted properly, you may wish to take the car to a Toyota dealer. They won't be snotty because you sourced your own parts (they've got to go round the houses to get them, too!) and don't forget to get your alignment done at the same time - it's cheaper than a new pair of tyres!

I didn't ask for discount but did mention Lexus Owners Club. According to the invoice, price I paid was 10% below list. The parts I received were genuine Toyota/Lexus parts. Toyota dealers have a lot on their plate when it comes to sales/servicing targets, etc. Hit a target, you'll be fine. Miss it, the target'll go up next year, making it even harder to hit. If you've got to mess about getting bits from the states, it may hold you up and make you miss your target. Easier to just grab the parts locally. I'll be passing Sewell's details on to the local Toyota dealer, so at least they've got a choice when doing work on the other Lexus vehicles in the area. Incidentally, if you get your ball joints changed, GET YOUR WHEELS ALIGNED AT THE SAME TIME! I managed to get the joints done, but I needed the car for the weekend and the garage hadn't had a chance to do the alignment. Result: a weekend of rollerskate-like handling and the outer edge of two tyres worn down to the nylon cord!

Don't know. The part numbers are there, try ringing a Lexus dealer and asking for a price, quoting those part numbers. I can't find them on the Toyota EPC (anyone got the 09/2002 version? I've got the Lexus dealer key for it) so I don't think a Toyota dealer would be able to dig them out. My guess is that the price would be pretty close, due to the $80 shipping bumping up the cost of buying from Sewell Lexus.

Update:- Parts have now arrived. Part numbers:- 43330-39486 (which replaces 43330-39396) RHS 43340-39376 (which replaces 43340-39306) LHS Total cost inc. shipping: $195.08 = £108.61 plus £25.17 import duty = £133.77. What you get for your money:- (if the image doesn't show, you're probably running PeerGuardian)

Just placed an order for the two lower front ball joints. Rang Darrel, then sent all the details by e-mail. I'll post the final cost in pounds once I get my credit card bill, I'll know by then how much duty, VAT, etc. to add on top.

...hence the £560 parts estimate! Darrel reckoned the ball joints have always been available separately, though. Fingers crossed!

Well the latest is that it's not the control arms. According to North Road Garage, it's the lower wishbone ball joint that we're dealing with here. They think the ball joint is fixed on the older wishbones, but replacable on the newer wishbones, so it could depend on whether the wishbones have been replaced in the past. The service manager suggested getting in touch with Lexus Cardiff to clear things up (as Toyota dealers can't access the Lexus section of the Electronic Parts Catalogue (EPC) without the authorisation key), so I've just sent them an e-mail. Will keep you all posted. BTW, in case you were wondering, Sewells are 8 hours BEHIND us, so if you're going to ring them, ring them in the evening (I rang at 8pm BST).

Well, good news so far. Spoke to Darrel, apparently the ball joints are available separately from the arms, at $58 each with $83 shipping. That works out at £108 plus VAT, duty, etc. Just need to double-check with the local Toyota garage that these are the right bits and that the arms aren't needed after all!

Naah, good for it. Bit of roughage! :winky: I did manage to run the GS out when driving back from the auction. Conked out halfway onto my drive, right across the pavement! I keep a full 5-litre fuel can in the boot, just in case. At 84.9p/litre here in Mid Wales, I'd sooner pull up at their forecourt and fill from my can than pay those prices! Back in Aberdare I can save four quid on a full tank, so that's what I do. Of course, I've just upgraded from a 1.8 Carina E (managing 500 miles on a 60 litre tank) to a GS300, so I'm on the lookout for a bigger can now! (Machine Mart do 10 litre metal ones for £12.87, add £5.86 for a spout.)

Thanks. One of my mates is a pretty good mechanic, I'll see him this weekend. He can have a look to see if he's up to the job. If he can fit them (or if I can find a garage prepared to do the job), I'll be back in touch.

Recently bought a '95 GS300 Mk 1, but it now looks like my first Lexus is turning into a bit of a :tsktsk: . Besides little niggles like a leaking air-con o-ring, I've now had a quote from Toyota for replacing the front lower suspension arms due to excessive play in the ball joints. £560.68, plus £141.00 labour. Ouch! I'm about to have a trawl of the net to see if I can find suppliers of non-genuine alternative parts, but I thought I'd "pop my head round the door" here first. Can anyone here recommend any good suppliers? WD-40 ain't going to keep my steering quiet forever!

In between the air-flow meter and the ECU? I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a resistor worth about 3 pence! Why not mail him and ask for pictures?

I did this in my Carina, no problem at all. Speaker mute line was fed to a pair of relays. One relay (an SPDT relay) was wired into the stereo's ignition sense wire. Relay on=radio off. The other relay (a 4PDT relay) was wired into the front-left and front-right speaker lines. Relay on=speakers connected in parallel to Nokia kit, relay off=speakers connected to stereo. Same method should work on the Lexus radio, too - making it think the ignition's off should shut it down completely rather than muting it, in case the amp doesn't like its outputs going open circuit (i.e. no speakers). Will probably be doing this soon on the GS300.

I've got an Origin Blue i. Was replaced twice (display packed in both times, went doolally). Display then failed AGAIN, out of warranty. Luckily the display module is a standard type (pretty much any LED-backlit 16x4 character display module will do the job) so I was able to replace it myself. (tip: if you can only obtain 6 o'clock display modules, to make a 12 o'clock display you usually only need to unclip the bezel, rotate the LCD panel 180 degrees, then refit the bezel) Also, the "finders fee" appears to be bull. I found six NEW cameras the first night I took it out, updated it just before and just after. Cameras only appeared in the database about a fortnight later. Also found another four or five cameras since then. So that's 10 or 11 cameras found at £50 per camera "finders fee", that's... £0! What are the chances of that then, eh? The Snooper SLD920 though, now THAT's been a worthwhile investment :D

My Carina was broken into in 2000. Parked up outside my parents' house at gone midnight, left a box of modems, a PC and my laptop on the back seat (not easily spotted, not when you've got limo black tint on the glass) ready for work in the morning. 3am, alarm goes off. Back door glass through, back seat empty. Cops retrieved most of the stuff (all the works stuff) but no laptop. Also heard nothing about the £1,500 compensation claim I put to them. Funny that, considering they raided a place and got most of the gear back, so they must've charged someone! Likely to have been mates of a heroin junkie scumbag living two streets down. Still, he's dead now so that's some consolation, I suppose.

3-series ought to come with a free baseball cap. They're for w :tsktsk: ers who can afford more than just an RS Turbo to race around Tesco's car park in. I feel sorry for anyone who's bought one to show a bit of class, 'cos they'll get lumped in with the rest of the boy racer brigade. BMWs and Mercedes are supposed to be "posh" cars, but if you want to show off a bit you can't do it with a 3-series, it's got to be a 5 or 7 series now. I wouldn't go for one though. Just bought by first Lexus, an N-reg GS300. Always driven Toyotas (82 Corolla Estate, 86 Corolla, 90 Carina II, 96 Carina E) so it's a natural progression really. Once it's sorted (oil drip fixed, new cambelt, B-service) I look forward to getting to grips with it.