Alain

I did see one which was really rusty, about as much as a Renault of same vintage. It stands at an independant dealership in nearby Belgium, has 230.000 Km (about 150.000 miles) but he wanted still way too much for it. Sits still in his front yard after 3 months. Rust is also a common problem if the first (lowest) coat of paint gets damaged. Have seen this twice and both were surely be caused when the windshield was replaced. Toyota itself does, to my knowledge, not zinc plate the body nor use any other form of modern rust inhibition. But they use an iron which by itself is not easily attacked by corrosion (quote from "The Lexus Story" book). However it's not rustfree steel which would be to hard and develop cracks.

Diesels darkens the oil very quickly due to their different burning caracteristics and carbon particles that are trapped in the oil. Such a black oil does not indicate a "worn" condition nor does a nice clean oil always imply a good condition. In fact lubricants fullfill a wide variety of tasks of which only one is to lube the parts. Contaminations in the oil are not only unburnt fuel and water but also metallic abrasion (ranging from sub-microscopic to almost visible, the rest is trapped by the oil filter). So even nice oil must be changed. It depends also largely on the quality of the oil you use. Synthetics are commonly more agressive, catching contaminations much better and longer than standard mineral oils. Final tread is to use the best oil you can afford, change the filter always when you change oil and keep to the maintenance intervals for normal driving. If you do lots of short travels cut down the intervals by 1/3th. But if you want the very best for your engine keep to good minerals and do the oil change every 5000 miles. That's the way an engine can be kept running forever. BTW, if you run the car on LPG it will almost NEVER dirty the oil. But it still needs changing though at longer intervals.

Hi Rick You should try the US forum, http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/ . In this forum here most users are located in Europe and prices as well as general tyre specs are completely different. Alain

Hi, This is just a wild guess but I do not believe the return line is clogged as fuel injected engines do always return a large amount of fuel back to the tank. If the line was clogged you had way too much fuel delivered and pressure would rise to such levels the ECU would cut off. Two possible reasons: First you got bad gas or it was contaminated. A "clasic" is still doping the tank with sugar. But it may also be that deposits of the underground tank got into the car. Almost all cars I ever took apart had a coarse screen in the tank to retain those particles. This screen may be clogged. Had it once on a Land Rover and had to take out the pickup line and sender. The second reason is that your tank builds up vacuum. This is normal to some degree. But if the vacuum rises too much your pump can't suck any more fuel and just stalls. This can easily be checked by removing the filler cup or just loosening it some turns. If it's a vacuum building up it takes quite some time to develop so you might need to drive for an hour to check this.. But I guess it's a fuel delivery problem. In that case best you look out for a specialist. Alain

Hi Mike, Well, when I drove yesterday a boring stretch of motorway I pondered a bit about your problem. If you rule out the air condition charcoal filter you may in effect end on the cluster needles. Those are cold cathodic lights and as such do not give a continuous light as standard glow bulbs. But I do not believe they emit a significant amount of UV-light. At least not more than natural UV from the sun. It may be more the frequency that puts a load on your eyes. This was a common problem in offices before the computer displays were able to reach frequencies above 75 Hertz. If so you do have 2 options. Either you can have the cluster modified which will be both onerous and time consuming. Or you may opt for reducing the contrast. If it was for me I'd go that way. Have you ever seen how window tinters do their job? They do in most cases not tint the glass but apply a thin film of special plastic to it. Those plastics are available in a wide range of colors and degrees of shading. This goes from 5% to 90% tint. All colors are available too. AND those do reduce the amount of UV considerably. What I mean is: Do have such a film applied to your instrument cluster. For myself I'd choose a grayish or geenish tint of 30-40% shading for a start. I'd also have it applied only to the upper part of the display where the needle gauges are situated. In the bottom the warning lights do not need a shading. Also the brightness sensor is located in the bottom row, at least on my LS400. This sensor can be seen when direct sunlight shines on the display. Do not cover it. The cost for this will be more or less neglectable, maybe 30-40 Euros if you haave it done professionally. Maybe half of it if you do it yourself but I do not recommend this unless you have already experience with this procedure. A big advantage is that you can remove the film, without tolls and without damaging the cluster or leaving residues. If this still doesn't work we can still exchange the cars. Interested in a LS400 with 30.000 miles? :winky: Alain

I would first have the trans serviced. This means filter changed and complete fluid flush not just a pure change. Someone may have put in the wrong fluid. In that case a sort of sludge builds up and blocks the tiny passageways in the box. And the auto box solely relies on adequate oil pressure everywhere. So if you are lucky this flush will remedy the problem. I must also advise NOT to use any additive. The Lexus box is very elaborated and doesn't like this. You can't compare it with Ford or Chevy boxes on which this stuff works wonders. Just use the genuine fluid and see if it works. This is the cheapest REAL solution. Hope this helps.

Hi Folks, Sure most of you already know this site but nonetheless I want to point to some interesting wrecks: http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/other/other623.shtml http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/weird/weird036.shtml http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/other/other480.shtml http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/other/other469.shtml http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/other/other468.shtml http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/other/other464.shtml I certainly missed some as so many are damaged way too much to be recognizable. Alain

Just talked to a specialist and he said it can't come from the instruments as those are way too tiny to cause that effect. More probable is that it comes either from a sort of solvent used in the production process of the car (and then you should immediately report this to the dealership) or, if the car isn't brand new, from the charcoal filter contaminated. This can and does happen if the car is left out in a warm, wet environment like public garages. Solution then is to replace the charcoal filter (easy) and have a special desinfecting spray used. Look for a specialist in ACs to do this or it's just a waste of money. Hope this helps. Alain

Thanks folks for your precious help. That's what I found out until now: Morola used to mount 2 different phone into Lexus models. One was a removable system (Microtac I think), the other was a fixed system built into the central armrest and way more expensive. That one has a fixed cord and a steering wheel mounted command unit, as you both mentioned. It also has an output of 8 Watts, way more than a conventional GSM phone. The antenna is the thin vertical line visible in the middle of the rear window, not the connector in the standard retractable radio antenna. The card can be inserted in 2 different locations. One is in the base of the phone holder in the armrest ( there's a small gap at the bottom where the card goes in) or in the trunk where the unit is located under the bottom cover on the left side. Strangely the position in the trunk seems to work always but not so for the card access in the armrest. For both you need a full size card. This just for the records as it doesn't look as if I'm the only one experiencing problems with this.

Hi all, I'm new to the club. Just bought myself a 97' LS400 with genuine 30.000 miles on it. And yes, I do know they are genuine. The car got everything except the manual for the built-in phone. This Motorola fixed unit includes a set of command buttons under the steering wheel. Now I have no idea what the buttons do except for the big one which is for taking the call. Anyone out there who knows more about this? Motorola wasn't cooperative at all, in fact they told me to get lost. The local dealership was also no help at all. It's a shame if you consider that the same unit cost about 1500£ retail at that time.

May sound obvious but did you try Ebay? Saw a lot of those there in the last month.

Although I do not have any spare rims I suggest trying the german Ebay, www.ebay.de. Even if you don't understand their language the pics and prices should be obvious. Last week a set of 15 inch genuine LS400 rims was sold for 150 Euros. Right now there's a set of 4 Rials in 7.5x16 on sale for 170 Euros. But hurry man, it's ending today. I got myself a nice set of 7.5x16s also for 150 Euros but including tyres. :P