GoldfingerLS

Do you mean replace the whole rear upper control arm ? or the ball joint on the rear upper control arm ? (coz i think the ball joint on the rear upper control arm isnt replaceable, only the two bushes are)

Hello mate, If your looking for the starter it sits inside the V of the engine under the intake manifold. Is the click you are heaing definitly the starter relay or is it the starter solonoid ?? If the click is loud its probably the starter solonoid but contacts might be burnt out. The way the this 1uz fe engine works is that the starter needs to crank the engine to around 250rpm, once this happens the engine ECU tell the fuel pump to fire up and start throwing fuel into the cylinders and light it up. Also if ur gonna straight connect the starter or check the starter solonoid plunger dont connect the positive direct for mroe than 5 seconds as you can easily burn out the starter.

53 plate was the cut off. Some 53 plates are old LS430 and some 53 plate are new ls430. Differences between ‘old’ LS430 and ‘new’ LS430 are: Mechanical: - Old has 5 speed autobox, new has 6 speed sequential box - 6 speed box in new one is supposed to be even smoother since it also uses the new WS tranny (World Standard) fluid) as opposed to the Type IV auto fluid Features: - New LS430 has blue tooth (up to 4 phones can be paired) - new one has reversing camera - new one Laser guided cruise control - I think old has only sat nav which is voice activated, on the new one climate, audio, sat nav are all voice activated, - New one has smartcard keyless entry and it can be programmed that when a certain driver approaches the driver door and open, as soon as the door is open the LS will start to adjust the seat position, rear view mirrors, seat belt anchor to the driver’s preferred settings - new one has knee airbags Also does anyone know if both front and rear doors self-closing on the LS430s ? ……I could sit here all day and really get into detail :)

I'm impressed with the results on the seat. What did you use to get it that clean ?

Good Lord. Thats what I call a thorough job. Keep up the good work and keep the pics comming.

Hey good to hear you got it resolved quickly. Thanks for posting this up, I’m sure this could help other people who are caught in this kind of very frustrating situation. Oh and remeber not to forget to connect the siren up again under the bonnet ;)

Standard MK4's have tyre size 225/60/16 97W (the OEM type being a dunlop SP Sport D8z which only comes in this one size since it was especially developed for the LS400). The alloy is a 5 hole design. The DHP Cars had 17" alloy wheels (instead of 16") with a 7 or 8 hole design around the rim. I cant remeber the exact tyre size on DHP cars but its sure wider than 225, most probably a 245 from my memory. As maneesh says DHP cars are lowered and some colour DHP cars (i.e. gold, silver, light green, red) i have noticed have a body coloured front grill. Apart from that no difference.

Totally agree. Without exaggerating, when taking into account, reliability, durability, finish, quietness, refinement, power, luxury, this car is arguably one of the very few cars that qualify for the title of “Best Luxury Saloon in the World”...and the Mk1 in 1989 proved just that.

Hello there, Welcome to the LOC and congratulations on you new purchase. As regards your steeting problem as far as my knowledge goes I would 1. Check all the fuses boxes in the car for blows fuses. This shouldnt be too difficult since the blow ones you can tell from looking at them straight from above to see if the wire is broken. 2. If its an ECU issue where it just needs a re-set, you can eliminated this by taking off the battery for 10 mins or so and re-connecting it. (But make sure you have your radio code before doing this.) These two are the easy ones to eliminate. Failing this a kind-off common glich in the 90 to 97 LS400 was a cog/gear in the mechanism which gets stuck. Please refer to the the link below for the LOC US section which shows photos of how to fix it if it is that problem. Basically the gear needs a spacer to stop it from getting stuck. http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...ic=4237&hl= Let us know how you get on.

" failed rear shocks at 61,000 miles, following the well known air suspension failure at 58,000" Wow I dont want to be buying an LS430 to be forking out for new air suspension shocks that sounds pretty expensive, especially to be doing it after only 61k on a car thats 3 years old. Is this a common fault on the LS430s ? This is why I havnt made my mind up if the next car should be an LS430, just want to know a little bit more about its "common problems".

High Intensity Discharge.

Hello dudes, If your going to clean the throttle body thats cool. If your going to clean the throttle position sensor, you can just take it off and put it back on. It needs to be set in position with a volt meter and feller gauge. Check out the www.lexls.com website in the section where he cleans his TB, he explains how it is supposed to be done. Let us know how you get on.

I saw a 6 speed LS430 go for £22,500 with only 32,000 miles on the clock it was gold with cream leather. I saw another 6 speed ls430, dark blue with cream leather (the best combo in my opinion :) ) with 124,000 on the clock go for £17,000 although prices like £17,000 are not common yet. I wouldn’t lose much sleep over missing out on an LS430 at this point in time. These things (like any other big engine car 4ltr and above) depreciate like a grand piano being thrown down a flight of stairs and the recent introduction of the LS460 has meant that the car has lost its selling point of “the latest model” status. Like Mr Chips says these cars are not easy to sell because of their running costs. The later LS430s have really started to come down in price. Just you watch and pretty soon you will start to see the Mk2 LS430s go for 20k and slightly under. I’ve been watching prices closely myself because I’ve been considering selling my Mk4 for a Mk2 LS430, but right now I’m still undecided if the replacement for my Mk4 will be another LS or not. Still investigating the spec/features and servicing issues with this model.

Hi Alex, If your originals were 205 x 65 x 15" and your new ones are 235 x 40 x 18" then your rolling radius is the same. (205 x 0.65 x 2) = 266.5 then 266.5 + (15 x 25.4) = 266.5 + 381 = 647.5mm is the old rolling radius. (235 x 0.40 x 2) = 188, then 188 + (18 x 25.4) = 188 + 457.2 = 645.2mm is the new rolling radus So your only 2.3 mm out :) hence your speedo should remain unchanged.

Thanks for the info Jellybean. Will keep that in mind. Im afraid thats not a nationwide policy. Dealers are free to set their labour rates, not just Lexus but any other franchised dealers too. Here in London you can expect to pay between £110 and £170 per hour labour. In fact in a 2006 issue of What Car magazine, they did a survey and said that labour charges had hit as much as £178 per hour. Consider yourself lucky to live to have a lexus dealer charge £75 per hour :)

The parts are more expensive than most cars, but the labour charges can really hit hard. If I had a garage I would'nt mind attemping big jobs, otherwise you can be half way through a job and rain stops play, especially in the winter. So on ocasions I have had to go to Lexus. As for diagnostics i'm investigating a possible solution where I can install some software on my PC and just plug the car into the usb port of my PC. Its worth the money as my local Lexus dearler charges around £120 per hour for diagnosing a fault. ZXH - you can also try somewhere like Nationwide Autocentres if u dont want to pay around £100 per hour labour at lexus. Lexus have got this down as a 4.5 hour job. At 120K the spark plugs might also be due since the are every 60K - at least on my one anyway.

iceman is right. As long as the rolling radius (diameter of the rim including tyre) is kept the same the speedo should be ok.

Hi mate - Where is the temp senor located ? Maybe its possible to get an aftermarket one (like you can do with the o2 sensors). After all a temp senor isn't exactly a complex part - at least i dont think do.

If your looking to get the job done at lexus expect to pay around £500 parts and labour I agree with Ian. If the car has done 120K it probably worth doign the water pump and tensioner done aswell. I have seen a few posts on this forum where people have has the water pump fail. the water pump and tensioner are not included in the £500 from lex. Ian - job well done i'd say. Even if you don't have a nice set of stamps on the service book to prove that you have been mugged, still keep your receipts to how that you have been servicing the car, its still just as good. Thats what I do.

Ah ha, thanks Steve. When I was doing my homework before buying the LS, I was comparing the differences between the Mk3 and the MK4. I remember reading that one of the improvments of the Mk4 over previous years models was the instrument dash cluster and needles failing. Apparently, in the past Lexus had used the normal LED technology which had an average life expectancy of 12,000 hours. At the time the MK4 was being designed around 1997, they used the then 'new' cold cathode LED technology in the dash. The cold cathode LED lighting is supposed to be more brighter, clearer and has an average lifetime of 50,000 before failure. I remember reading up on this a few years back. I will try to see if I can dig up the source of the info again.

Hi I don't understand I've completely disconnected my battery on my 1998 Mk IV on a couple of occasions having to replace it twice as the original replacement was duff after 10 months and went flat with zero volts and I've never had any problems with the radio sat nav etc everything works as normal on re-connection Hi, I know what you mean. I have also disconnected the battery on my Mk4 to replace it or to work on the car. There are two reasons why you didn't have any problems: 1. The battery was disconnected for a relatively short period of time. Sometimes if you just disconnect it for just 5 or 10 mins, i've noticed that the radio on the LS400 still retains it station memories so it is still holding power somewhere. I have also experinced that if the battery is disconnected for say 40 mins (on other cars)or more it will ask you for the code again for sure. I'm not sure how long this time is on the LS. 2. On the Mk4 LS400 with sat nav, if you go through the on-screen menu and select 'Security' you will be able to see if a security code has been set or not. If the security code has been set then chances are after disconnecting the battery (say for 30 mins or more) it will ask you for this code again before u can start using the systems. If no code has been set, then even if you connect the battery back on after a month it will not ask you for the code since one has not even been set. On the Sat Nav screen you can go to the menu to see if someone has set the code and if not it gives you the ability to set the code, clear it or change it. But if one has already been set up you can only change it or clear it is if you know the old code.

And the worst thing is folks if you buy a Mk4 LS400 or an LS430 with the sat nav. Then without the code if u take out the battery you have lost access to the climate control functions, the audio system, the on-scren strip computer and the sat nav ! Lovely

Just out of interest, if its not the needles and its not the PCB, then where does the fault lie ? This seems to be a very common problem for series 1 and serieies 2 owners.

I paid £66 inc VAT for the front pads on my Mk4. When you ask for a price for pads they might quote something like £116. Thats coz they want £50 just for the sensor. So ask them for the pads without the sensor. As regards the sensor, if the light warning light has not come on yet then its ok. Otherwise if it has you can either join up the two wires to get rid of the warning light, or you can take out the old bit of plasic from the calliper and provided it hasnt work too much you can carefully thread some new wire in there and splice it back on. Im surprised the sensor is so expensive, I think BMW's sensor is only a few quid.

Just to put in my two bobs worth...I bought genuine pads from Lexus but when i got them i googled the part number around quite a lot to see if next time I could buy them cheaper from US or elsewhere. One or two of the websites referred to the part number as pads for "European UCF20"...so does this mean that non-european UCF20s take a different pad ? Best to check part numbers I guess.