GoldfingerLS

"I always use distilled water when changing the coolant as well, prevents build up of scale..." I thought the correct coolant to use on the LS400s and Mk1 LS430 is the pre-mixed red Toyota Long Life Coolant ? And on the Mk2 LS430 Super Long Life Coolant ?

I've never seen your car in real life but from your photos your car looked very clean and spotless. Price wise, yes you can get LS430s starting at £4.5k which is way lower that what you had it advertised, but for that money often you wont get a clean car with evidence that the car was look after properly. It will have stone chips, bumper scuffs and one or two things which dont work. If its compeletely spotless and everything works then i'm not surprised your still getting calls. There are a lot of tired LSs out there, finding a nice mint car which is 7/8 years old isnt easy. I'm sure you enjoyed it while you had it. But as is often said "all good things must come to an end". :)

haha im glad im not alone on this one. It did take a bit of getting use to. But I eventually got use to resting my right arm on the driver door ledge. It did feel a bit high at first but i think it just feels 'normal' now.

I totally agree with Pete here. Often I think main dealer service intervals are about making the car seem less expensive to maintain. With a timing belt better not to take the chance. I had the belt replaced by lexus at 54,000 miles, although the car had not reached the magic 60k miles, it was 7 years old at the time and i didnt want to take the risk due to the belt ageing. Also even though the car may not have reached the 60k interval, bear in mind that this is ONLY AN INDICTAOR. Cars which do city miles (rather than motorway miles) still have the cambelt turning and taking load even at low speeds and when the car is idling in traffic, yet clocking up not many miles. And as for the 9,000 mile oil change, personally i think it is a joke. For motorway miles maybe but, not when most driving is city driving and lots of cold starts. When going to see cars for sale there is no point looking at stamps in a book. Also check if the person has supporting invoices and if the servicing was done on time or over stretched. I remember going to see a couple of LS400's for sale and they were stretched between 11,000 and 15,000 miles between oil changes. I just walked away. With my car i change the oil every 4,500 or 5,000 miles. As for timing belts snapping, I went to my mechanic back in November to get the MOT done. While i was there he had a Mk1 LS430 in which he noramlly looks after. The owner had the car LPG'd and used it for chuffering, with 180k miles on the clock. When I asked him why its parked up with its engine out, replied timing belt broke. He said it was changed on time every 60k but the tensoner had never been changed despite the car being on its 3rd timing belt. Apparently the bearing on the tensioner went, slack came into the belt, belt snapped, the rest was history. They had managed to source a replacement engine for the owner at a cost of a few thoundand pounds. Perhaps a lesson to learn always change the tensioner aswell ??

Last year in Feb or March I purchased a 2007/ 2008 nav CD for my LS400 aswell, from CheapToyotaParts, I think it was just under £100 with my gold member discount. The Nav CD I got through the post was the genuine original Item all nicely packaged and never opened. I also remeber paying about £5 for delivery. I had no problems with their dealing (I spoke to a Gentleman called Chris if i recall correctly). I think best think it to trun to them for an original. Their supplier might be pulling a fast one over them. Please beware of using a copied nav CD. I remember reading on this forum that the most common repair Lexus dealers have for Nav units is ones which have a copied disc stuck in them. Apparently its not just the maps which are newer on the CD. The disc also updates the firmware toa newer version by flashing it on to the ECU when you insert it for the 1st time. If that isnt burn onto the CD correctly (perhaps a bit like the boot sector of a bootable CD) the ECU freezes and the CD gets stuck in there. I've not tried it mydelf but not worth the risk given the cost of repairs :) I remeber i saved approx £50 by going to cheap toyota parts. Even my local lexus dealer was not able to say if i would get the latest 2007-2008 disc when i asked them which version they would supply me with, so i didnt want to order from lexus dealer even if they had the same price.

Hmm, thats a little odd. Often you don't need to rely on the screws to centre the disc to the hub. When the new disc is placed on the hub, before mounting the screws I put the wheel nuts on to the studs and thightend them gently to the disc so that the tapered ends of the wheel nuts centre the disc, and then i put the screws on and tighened them. Its the studs which provide the 'true' centre of rotation. After that provided the wheel nuts are evenly torqued on when the wheel it put back on it should be more than enough to keep the disc centred. I've not experienced even a tiny bit of vibration. Just silky smooth and quiet braking even from motorway speeds.

Hi, As far as I know the UCF20 LS400s (both the 1995 - 1997 Mark 3 and the 1998 - 2000 Mark 4) share the same front and rear brakes. That is 315mm discs with 4 piston calipers at the front and 305mm discs and single piston calipers at the back. Which part numbers do you have for the disc and retaining screw ? In the summer I replaced both front and rear pads and discs on my mark 4 LS and I bought all the parts from Lexus. The front discs were part number 43512-50152 and the rear discs were part number 42431-40080. I also purchased 8 new retaining screws (2 per disc), and the part number for both the front and rear disc retaining screws is 90155-60002. The screws were supplied in a small bag and had the above part number labeled on the packet. The old screws that came off were exactly the same as the new ones. The screws had a good size flange with plenty of surface area to keep the disc mated to the hub and they fitted very nicely in the recess with out any problems. The flange (screw head) was bigger than the hole and there is no way I could see that with the parts I fitted that I could encounter the problem you have mentioned above. I stand corrected but I am pretty sure that the Mark 3 cars have the same discs and hence the part numbers should be the same. The retaining screws are made of quite a soft metal and it is very easy to round off the head while taking them off since they are often siezed on and hence somebody just used non-OEM replacements. (this is why i purchased new ones to make future removal of the disc easier). Although your car has full Lexus service history, it is quite possible that the previous owners got all the servicing done from Lexus, apart from the discs and pads (since this is a very costly job from the main dealer). Do you have the receipts from the previous owner for the brake job to support that this was done by Lexus ? Without this its difficult to prove it was done by Lexus. I might have the old retaining screws i took off laying around somewhere in my garage and I will post a photo of them if i can find them. What are your thoughts ? Thanks :)

I personally would steer clear on any additives altogether. Engine oil manufacturers spend vast amounts on research and development to make sure their engine oil is up to the job. I would instead spend the money on good quality fully synthetic oil and more regular oil changes. If your car can take it use a multigrade oil which is 5W or even 0W to make sure the engine oil circulates quicker on cold start ups.

Hi Anees, This is quite a common complaint people have after fitting new discs. The actual discs themselves are not easy to warp and you wouldnt call brembo a cheap brand. Before the discs were fitted was the mounting hub properly cleaned with wire wool or very fine grit paper and wiped ? Even a small particle of rust can be enough to cause vibration. While the discs are off, the hub should be tested with a dial tested indicator and the runout should not be more than 0.05mm at the very most.(not 100% sure if that is the excact tolerance figure for the GS). If that is fine then the disc sould be mounted and held againt the hub with the lug nuts and then the runout tested again and the tolerance should be under 0.1mm. If it comming very close to 0.1mm, the discs need to be rotated one position and the runout checked until is it below tolerance. The idea is to match the highest point on the disc with the lowest point in the hub. After installation the pads and discs need to bedded in carefully and properly for the first few hundred miles of driving until the surface of disc has an even coat of pad matrial deposited on it. It all sounds very awkard and long winded to go though that just to change pads and disc but its not always a quick job to get good results. I replaced the discs and pads all round on my 99 LS400 and recently on my friends E46 BMW and I pretty much followed the above to ensure best results. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Excellent. Its a good idea to replace the gaskets even though they say they can be re-used twice. On a car which is 10+ years old they will have probably deteriorated and your run the risk that they wont give a tight fit as before. If your starter is a clicker then the chances are that the copper contacts at the bottom of the plunger have worn. Its usually the positive one which has worn. All will be revealed when you strip it down. I hope the weather says on your side. :)

Hi Steve, what parts have you ordered ? To replace the starter motor you may need the following gaskets: 1. throttle body gasket 2. the 4 gaskets which seperate the upper and lower section of the intake manifold 3. the 2 gaskets which sit between the intake manifold and the cylinder heads (one for each head) 4. the o ring which connects the water by pass pipe to the water pump 5. the two gaskets for the rear water bypass joint gasket I had the starter replaced on my mk 4 LS400 and on the mk4 its possible to take off the plenum without seperating the upper and lower sections. I stand corrected but im not sure if this is possible on the mk1 and mk2 cars, hence you may well need item (2) aswell as (3). It may be a good idea to get them replaced once they are taken off, last thing you need is to have to take it all apart because of a leaking water joint or a air/vacuum leak. If i remember correctly a rebuilt denso starter from toyota was approx £200 years ago. But approx £100 for all the above gaskets seems about right.

I saw them on ebay aswell and the shape is quite different to the original ones.

How old is your battery ? I would first check the battery if working (and not on its way out). If so get battery replaced. If it still persists with a new battery then it sounds like the symptoms of a starter motor on its way out. 1st eliminate the battery, the starter isn't cheap to get replaced on an LS. I've been there with my LS400. If it is the starter and you can get it done under warrenty you will save yourself the best part of £1000.

To take the inlet manifold off there is an awful lot you have to take apart and dismantle. The symptoms you describe can be due to not pulling in all the injector plugs, unplugged spark plug coil, other lose electrical connector, loose vacuum hose, or leaking intake manifold or throttle boddy gaskets. If the cars is say 7 years+ old and they just re-used the old throttle body and intake manifold gaskets either one could be leaking. At that age once you take it off, often the only way to get a tight seal again is to use a new gasket. Since it has happened just after its been into the garage I would call them and get them to deal with it rather than spending your own time trying to trouble shoot a whole range of possible causes.

This is exactly why I am against steam cleaning the engine of the car. When it is steam cleaned water and condensation in the electrical connectors will remain (even though it may be very small) and problems like this will only arise well after when the corrosion starts to set in. Thats why when ever I go to see a car for sale I always look for signs of the engine being steam cleaned. Above is a taste of what you could be paying to put it right. Thankfully Pete won't have to foot the bill in this case.

Chris - lol any time :) Steve, That is correct you can adjust the nut on the thread so the steering rests on the correct height again. I'll send you a pm with my number, your more than welcome to call for help and i can describe it to you from what I remember. There are two motors; the tilt motor (which I refer to above) is very simple and straight forward to access. It would take 15 mins to change. So the 1.5 hours labour for that one alone seems excessive. As regards the telescopic motor I’ve not yet tried to take it out, but it looks like a right pain in the neck to get to it and it might much longer because it looks more fiddly. Mat, Which year is your GS ? because the earlier LS cars (pre '95) had a different problem with the mechanism where a plastic gear got out of sync and it needs packing behind it to line it up with the thread again. The earlier GS cars may also have the same issue. It is covered on this post: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...ic=4237&hl= If it is a later GS (98 onwards) it may be the same issue we are experiencing here. If you have access to the Toyota EPC You might want to check if your car uses the same part no mentioned above for the tilt motor.

As far as i know all 1998+ LS400 and LS430 cars have VVTi and unlike the previous non-vvti 1UZ-FE, they not non-interference engines. So if the cambelt did break on the 98+ cars it would leave some serious damage behind.

Hi Steve, I agree this is a known issue with the motors. In fact there have been technical service bulletins and the old faulty part number 89231-50040 has been superseded with part no 89231-50041 (and possibly even again 89231-50050 more recently) for the Tilt motor. Part no 89232-50040 has been superseded with part no 89232-50041 for the Telescopic motor. This affects some 98+ LS400s and even LS430s. The motors also stopped working on my 99' LS400. I got round it by opening up the cover under the steering wheel and taking out the motor and setting the thread screw adjustment to the correct height and putting the motor back in and disconnecting its power supply plug (which is nearby) so it doesnt mess up position again. I have been trying to get round to fixing it, but havn't had the time. Since you mention it could be the gears inside i might just open it up and have a look.

I have a brand new wheel i am selling for a Mk4 LS400. Its a 16" 5 hole wheel with original diamond cut finish and has never been mounted before. Send me a PM if you are interetsed with your email address and I can mail you some pics Thanks

How did you lower the front ? The ls430 has air struts so you cant just change the coilovers like regular suspension ? But looks very nice. Dark blue looks the part.

On the service book for my mk4 ls400, it says replace every 27,000 miles. You can probably get away with doing it twice a year in your case maybe ? The diff takes 2 litres of fluid which should cost about £10 so not a lot of extra cost, and you can do it at the same time as you change the fuel filter (its near the rear diff on my ls400, not sure if its at the same place on the ls430). Not sure what would happen if you didnt change it that regularly.

I've had the diff oil changed before on my LS400. There is a drain bolt and a refill bolt. You will need a new washer for each one, i can't rember if the washers are re-useable or if they were the collapsable type. Changing the diff oil will get rid of any metal shavings in the diff.

I could be wrong, but i havent ever heard of the front bumper needing to be removed for vvti models. Radiator maybe, not not bumper.

I just had the two front tyres replaced today and once again went for Dunlop Sport D8z. They are not so easy to come by but Event mobile tyres supplied them for £100 each inc vat, balance, fitting etc. The previous D8zs on the front had given 24,000 miles of mostly city driving and there was a good 3-5k worth of tread left on them but the outer edges were badly worn now. Had my mileage been more motorway miles i could have got more miles out of them. None the less i'm still very pleased. If next time I can't get hold of them I will probably go for Falkens (around £75 each) rather than a Dunlop SP 01 (£113 each) , based on Mr Jellybean's and other's feedback. I've done 24,000 miles on the back D8zs and the outer edges are perfect and very evenly worn tread thanks to good tracking alignment, so looking to get another 10k ish miles out of them.

Is it worth trying to take it off to see if you can somehow get away without the gear knob for a few days, possibly with a make shift device of some sort which moves what the mechanical linkage would normally move? just try to be really imaginative :) Getting it re-trimmed sounds like a really good idea, you get to keep the original part but have it looking and feeling like new.