DJT

ŴVHC.pdfVHC.pdfLmafudd yes you are right car is 19 years old, 333000 miles on clock. Body wise it is immaculate even technician on video walk around said i had superficial rust. Bought with known issues for handbrake, so expected issues mainly in braking dept as I had warnings in written and big red triangle on dash. Which I remedied by replacing "cut" brske wear sensors 🤔. Test drive before purchase never gave any indication of wheel bearing or back end feeling "sloppy/loose". The 230 mile drive to dealer from very far north of Scotland to Edinburgh was very smooth and relaxing. Even booting it off the line it went like stink with no tugging or steering correction nesscary. I now understand that technicians that work for lexus as marque err on the side of caution. The sheet listing everything that needed to be fixed comes in 3 different groups. Nesscary, recommend and OK. To be fair to lexus they didn't find a lot wrong. See if I can attach inspection sheet and video of my car. 

What did I do with my lexus today, took a huge gamble. Dropped my LS430 off at Lexus Edinburgh, all very efficient and polite. Courtesy coffee given. Went through list of work for approval and mot test. Got a video walk around of my LS430 and faults. Lexus discovered a leaking core plug 😬. Other bad news is condenser on air-con has no cooling fins but still in working order no leaks, steering rack gaiter torn (out of stock so lexus is getting me one from a motor factor 🙄), near side wheel bearing has excessive play (never felt or heard it), brake pipe corrosion, high level brake light bulb out. Now comes the biggy bushes are worn in rear trailing arms. Lexus do not replace bushes only complete arms. Pair fitted is £2500 but not avaliable until July at earliest. MOT is booked in for Friday. Lexus has decided with my agreement carry on with MOT Test and see if a get an advisory on trailing arm bushes.Now in hindsight I should of booked MOT first then decided what to do with my LS430. Knew it would need some repairs when I bought it so was prepared to sink a few thousand into it. A few thousand has turned into a lot of thousands. If my LS430 fails MOT I will have to see if they will let me drive it away, so I can get it sorted at home. If not it's going to fun trying to get to work for Saturday night. One way of looking at this is I could of paid a few thousand for an LS430 and still been in same boat. Repairs will be up to lexus quality standard. Comments good bad and ugly most welcome, blunt comments greatly appreciated as I prefer a straight answer to straight question with no faffing about. A spade is spade 🙂. 

Hi everyone have made it down in fairly good time (6 hours instead of google 5 hours). Had to stop twice for comfort stops. Had numerous road works to contend with plus motorhomes and caravans to over take. Cruised at speed limit as far too many average speed cameras south of Aviemore. My average mpg is 34.2 mpg as shown in photo. Lexus claim 35mpg as best you could get. Very impressive considering part of journey was not very fuel efficient and Scottish hills are known for a long climb up them. On one of my comfort stops I met a LS400 coming in opposite direction to me got a pleasant surprise when he waved at me 🙂. Must be lexus thing waving at other owners/drivers. 

Thanks for info. Might not be able to look at it before my trip to lexus Edinburgh. See how much time I've got tomorrow. 

See post under brakes. A step forward in resolving brake issue. Off the Lexus Edinburgh next Tuesday. See how my LS430 eats the miles up between me and Edinburgh. 

Hi Steve 2006 changed my brake sensors today. No clips on brake pads but bit that slides in is a tight fit. Brake warning lights have now disappeared from dash 🙂.  Brake pedal feel is now more how I would expect it to be. No sinking pedal. Have a sticky foot  handbrake pedal. Probably needs oiling/greasing somewhere. Can get pedal up by putting foot under it while pulling handbrake release. 

There is a theory that a full change of fluid is actually bad for auto boxes. On previous cars with auto boxes I use to drain what ever came out through drain plug. Then refilled to correct level. This usually gives 50% new transmission fluid. This then acts a cleaner then a further change a few thousand miles later. So i would end up with approx 75% fresh oil. 

Talking of wheels I'd love to find a set of lightweight alloys that look good on LS430. These in theory should help acceration not that LS430 needs help in that dept, and make ride even smoother. 

My LS has one big bore exhaust running from cat. When I was in petrol station putting fuel and air in tyres nobody seemed interested. Turn the engine on and rumble of V8 spun a lot of heads. Then gave it a bit of welly got an audience to watch a very non descript saloon making a lovely V8 tune. Considering the number of audi's and beemers with large capacity engines it beats them all. Waiting to play with the corsa crowd with large bore exhausts see what they make of it. You just have to do it and smile. 

Hi is there a link for replacing brake wear sensors on LS430.

Thanks 

David

If you go on to Google and type in tyre size calculator this will give you options on suitable tyre sizes

Hi a member mentioned me in one of the forums. Got notification but cannot find member who posted or which thread it was in. Can anyone help me with this issue

Had fun trying to fit bosch flat wipers as my old ones where useless and wrong size (too small). Couldn't work out how to get wiper arms 90 degrees to windscreen. Must be an easier way than i did them. They are now fitted and work fantastically. 

I've agreed with lexus to do 10 year service with radiator change, water pump and cambelt with all pulleys and tensioners plus any auxiliary belts.They are also going to MOT for me. The costings in PDA format are just for Parts but no extra labour involved. As lexus have said with that level of strip down no additional labour costs will be incurred. Means that my LS would have a very through check. 

Update I have decided to go with lexus edinburgh for work quoted plus MOT as it is due the end of June. So I'm off to edinburgh for 3 days for work to be completed on my LS. Lexus say it shouldn't be that long. I have found if you want a job done within a certain time/dead line it usually goes Pete tong. 

No water pump when doing cambelt from lexus dealers is strange as every other marque that I've had cambelts done always recommended water pump done at same time. Lexus reliability is legendary but all parts will wear out at some point. Perhaps lexus thinks water pumps are fine until they leak/fail. How many 100k miles they have been tested for is an unknown. 

Lexus 2023 have look at my previous posting on costs. They are itemised for each item. 

I will be going to garage at some point this week. Ask them about then as they will be doing MOT. Same garage refused to MOT my other car as ABS light was lit and cannot get hold of an ABS sensor for it. Tried Google search across the globe. Even world wide  owners club say that ABS sensor is unavailable. So looking for sensor that might work from same marque. 

Malc1 that's along the garage said. Take it away it is safe to drive. When you get a car new to you; then get warning lights and messages regard brakes, it prudent to get braking system checked. For MOT need to have lights and messages not lit up. 

Hi everyone got to bottom of brakes issues. Garage phoned me and told me "someone has cut all the brake wear sensor cables. Brakes are very impressive." Garage got a quote from lexus for all 4 sensors £300 a sensor x4. Google this problem and it says to cut wires and join them together; then brake warning lights and messages go out. So why anyone would want to cut them raises a lot of questions. I have my own theories, probably best not said on public forum. Went for drive after being told brakes are OK. So put in sport suspension mode and away I go. Not very far (less than 2 miles) as back feels "wrong". Back to garage to check tyre pressures. I have 245/45/18 tyres. All very 4 where very different pressures.  O/S/R 37psi; N/S/R 42psi; O/S/F 27psi; N/S/F 20psi. Could not see or feel differences until I engaged sport suspension mode 🤔🤔🤔. Explains tracking feeling. This on tyres that where fitted in a national quick fit place. Believe they also fitted the new rear brakes. My car was sold to me with handbrake issue but when I tested; by engaging drive with handbrake on facing down a hill; it never moved apart from squatting on rear. 

Malc1 not sure on local indie but at least he didn't give a no straight away. Other high end cars must have similar issues for cambelt etc replacement. There are many Audi's BMW and Merc's up here with V6; inline 6 and V8 engines. Some are on timing chains which need to be replaced at 100k miles. I know of one owner who drives to London every couple of years to buy his new car. Work being done by Lexus dealer is a two day job. So will have plenty of time for drinking coffee or go and enjoy the city. 

Tulpen you are probably right. Although this problem is not unique to Lexus owners. Quite a lot of cars go to Inverness for regular servicing warranty work. To buy a new car Inverness is closest place to go. 

Here is my latest quote for cambelt water pump tensioners pulleys and radiator. This from a "local" Toyota dealer (100 miles down road). Not a lot cheaper than Lexus dealer. Lexus dealer is offering a lot more value for money. As MOT is due in a couple of months tempted to go to Lexus dealer and have my LS throughly checked. Have found a local independent garage in same town as me that is prepared to quote. Conversation was very constructive; he checked on computer to see if special tools needed for cambelt before offering to quote. No special tools are needed for cambelt. Also suggested changing gearbox oil filter. I think words Lexus and V8 scare anyone but Lexus. KJ04AED-ESTIMATE.pdf

Razor61 that sounds very tempting. Be going back to where I did some relief work as chef. Yes it was in the days when i was allowed to drink. Can't now due to meds and a very ****** back.  That was over 20 years ago. Haven't had a road trip in last few years for obvious reasons (covid19) and many tests and scans to see how badly I damaged my body. Result of a misspent (?) youth 🤣🤣🤣. 

B4U2 it sprt of fell into my hands. Needed something that I could get in and out of with 7 slipped discs and one torn one. As my days of getting into low slung cars are past me ☹️. Also like a car with enough grunt to drive over the Scottish highlands. Then when i go south to visit family and friends its a 700 mile drive one way. If I couldn't get a LS430 was going to look at a RX400H.