GoldfingerLS

has it just started doing it suddenly or has it gradually got worse ? For geometry you might want to consider 4 wheel laser tracking alignment. It costs between £60 and £120 depending on which garage you go. (Lexus charge around the £120 mark but im not sure). Failing this it might be a suspension issue. While the car is up on the ramp it may also be worth have them check for worn shock aborber, broken coil spring, worn control arm, worn ball joint etc.

I would agree with Mr Chips 110%. Just to give an example of what he is saying, last month I replaced my starter motor on my Mk4 for £900, that almost a quarter of £4k. There is no such thing as a ‘cheap’ LS. The real issue is the maintenance and upkeep on these monsters. The LS is generally a bullet proof car and nothing tends to go wrong provided everything has been maintained properly. If something does go wrong which it occasionally can do so, its expensive to put right. On Mk4s around 100,000+ miles watch out for worn front and rear upper suspension control arms and worn front lower ball joints as these can lead to MOT failure. Replacement control arms are around £380 per side and you’ve still got labour to pay for labour. If the car has done 120,000 miles it will need a new cambelt (labour expensive job), new spark plugs (cost around £8 or £10 and there are 8 of them to replace), transmission fluid costs around £9 per litre. If the car is 7 years or older (as most Mk4s are now) with around 120k on the clock it might also be worth getting the water pump replaced along with the timing belt because if this fails later on (which people on here have had so) it will cost a lot of labour My point being a £4,000 car might end up costing £6,500k, so price the above kind of things in when you are negotiating price. But you can still pick up a bargain out there. If your judgment is telling you its a car worth looking into then you might want to get an AA or RAC check done.

Hi Simon, I would say your guess is right. It did take approx 10 seconds to fill 1 litre. It doesn’t fill up super fast but you still have to act quickly and be co-ordinated when you do this. However beware that after you have switched the engine off, over the next 1.5 to 2 seconds, the engine is still slowing down to a stop and is hence still turning the mechanical pump in the torque converter. Therefore after you have switched the engine off another 200 or 250ml or so will continue to flow out of the pipe. After the first run I took this into account and just switched the engine off just as the level was approaching the 1.5 litre line. Me and my dad did this together and having 2 people was enough. My dad was on the key and I was signalling to him to turn it off when I saw it was approaching the 1.5 litre mark. What I did was to attach an approx 2ft length of garden hose pipe to the radiator pipe so that I was able to put the pipe in a bottle just in front of the front bumper (instead of having to put my head under the car to see if it was full). I didn’t change the sump oil first, but after doing this I regretted not doing this first. If I was to do this again I would definitely change the sump oil first. The reason is 2 fold: 1. There are two types of shavings which come into your transmission sump. Firstly there are metal shavings which are from the actual gears and cogs. These metal saving will attach to the 3 magnets inside the sump tray, so no problem here. However there will also be non-magnetic brass / carbon etc shaving as well (as a result of normal wear and tear). These non-magnetic particles will obviously not be picked up by the magnets and will settle at the bottom of your sump pan, semi-suspended in the fluid. By draining the sump first you end up draining these impurities. 2. When you fill the fluid from the dipstick filler pipe, I’m pretty sure that the fluid goes straight into the sump pan. But what I’m unsure about is if you get oil fluid mixing with new fluid in the sump IF it is the case that the fluid is being expelled directly from the torque converter and not the sump pan. In terms of improvement, I didn’t notice much. At the time the car had only covered 52,000 miles and was 5 years old and the transmission was very smooth as it was. If anything, the gear changes went from being extremely smooth to unnoticeable. Even now under normal pickup the only way I can tell that the car is changing gear is if I look at the rev counter. Afterall, like any oil the trans fluid does start to break down over time, particularly the “slippiness” of the Type IV fluid. I would recommend doing it 1.5 or 2 litres at a time, switch the engine off, refill and keep on repeating. I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think from my experience it will be possible to fill up fluid at the same rate at is it getting expelled. The reason being the filler pipe (i.e. where the dipstick goes) under the bonnet is very narrow and I can remember that it goes in much slower than it is expelled. Garages that repair transmissions often have a special diaphragm machine that does it all in one go. When you disconnect the coolant pipes, fluid will come out the outlet pipe and the other pipe will be the inlet pipe taking fluid back to the transmission. As the fluid is being expelled from the outlet pipe, the diaphragm machine pushes/forces fluid back through the inlet pipe at the same rate. If you can rig up a clever device that can do something similar, would be most interested to hear about it for future use. Lastly, just as a FYI, I’ve changed transmission fluid on my previous Honda which took Dexron II. If you got Dexron II on your hands it would wash off easily with fairy liquid and a bit of scrubbing. With the Toyota Type IV fluid, if you get it on your hands it won’t wash off easily. Even if you wash your hands with fairy liquid it does comes off but it still leaves a slimy/slippy feeling on your hands. This is what I meant about the fluid being very “slippy” compared to other trans fluids. It’s good stuff.

By either draining the gearbox fluid from the sump or by dropping the gearbox box sump it will only drain 2 litres. In order to change the full 10 litres you need to follow the lexls tutorial. In that tutorial he drains out 2 litres at a time from the trans fluid pipes that connect to the radiator. When i mentioned not to let the trans run dry, you have to start the engine to turn the pump in the torque converter which will expel the fluid. Therefore I think that is why the lexls tutorial only take out 2 litres and then tops it up from the top (dipstick) with 2 litres, and does this 5 times to change the full 10 litres. Hence you never take out the full 10 litres in one go. By only expelling 2 litres at a time from the radiator pipe there is always enough fluid in the transmission so it doesn’t run dry. When I changed all of mine I just took out 1.5 litres to be on the safe side. By the time you get to the last 2 litre change you will see clean fluid coming out. After 9 litres the colour of the fluid coming out of the pipe changed from a dirty-ish red colour to the lovely clean red colour that comes out the bottle. Lexus only offer the 2 litre drain and fill service as far as i know. They don’t offer the full 10 litres change service. Last thing, when you have done the change, the most reliable way to check the level from the dipstick is the hot reading after you have been driving around and the gearbox is at working temperature.

A drain and re-fill of the trans sump will only require 2 litres. A complete flushout of the torqure converter via the coolant pipes will require 10 litres, but always be careful you dont let the trans run dry while doing a complete flush. Many people have different views on what fluid to use. I personally stick to the Toyota type IV fluid, you cant even comapre it to dexron II, dexron III etc, the tolerences of this box are very fine. Also £90 works out much cheaper than a new geabox :)

Gents, You might want to try this one, its free: http://www.cureline.net/lex/howtos/howto_key_programming.htm Programming replacement keys - 1990 to 1996 LS400 only. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Driver's door open and unlocked, all other doors closed and locked. 2. Insert YOUR key in ignition, DO NOT TURN, remove key. 3. Using the lock/unlock button ON THE DRIVERS DOOR, slowly press lock and unlock 5 times (count the lock 5 times and unlock 5 times). 4. Shut door. 5. Open door. 6. Using the lock/unlock button ON THE DRIVERS DOOR, slowly press lock and unlock 5 times (count the lock 5 times and unlock 5 times). 7. With the door open insert your key into the ignition, turn to on position (DON'T START), wait 5 seconds. Turn off and remove key. 8. Locks should cycle once (Car will lock and then unlock once). If they don't cycle or they cycle more than once, do steps 1-7 over. 9. Now using the remote, push lock button, hold for one second, release. The locks should cycle once. If not, start over and go slower. 10. Close the door. Open the door. Press the lock button on the remote. The locks should cycle. Close the door. Press the lock button on the remote, the doors should lock. Press again and the doors should unlock. Also, if I can remember correctly, beware of buying the keys from America and Canada. Yes they are much cheaper and yes it it possible to have them cut BUT the frequency of the radio transmitter is different. In the UK we use 433 Mhz and in North America they use 315 Mhz if I can remember correctly. I've not tried it myself but if it works, please let us know because it can help others. Thanks

Firstly, congratulations on becoming the owner of one of the few saloon cars that qualify as being the best car in the world. I also have a UCF20 LS400 like yourself, except it’s a series 4, but I think the wipers are the same since the chassis shape is the same. When it came to wipers I had a slight problem where I couldn’t find wiper blades which fitted to the arms. I tried some Bosch wipers and after lots of fiddling around they just wouldn’t fit (even though the back of the packet said its suitable for the LS400). Eventually for the passenger side (which is a 16") blade I found that Halfords own brand fitted the arm first time without any problems. As for the 22" driver side I couldn't find a wiper blade at all which fitted the arm, so I just gave up and went to toyota and got a driver side re-fill for £7. Both of these have lasted me just over 2 years so they havn't been too bad. You might want to check if PIAA will fit, especially on the driver side. Could anybody else confirm if PIAA or which other blades they have fitted their 2nd generation LS400 and are good and which ones fit the arms without problems ? Thanks.

I hadn't come across Quinton Hazel before but i just checked out their website it looks good. I will keep this in mind. Also, if you want a part for a Japanese car which is just as good as a genuine part from the dealer, I always go for ADL Blue Print. They also have great quality. Thanks,

Hi Peter, This is a big job, not one for the DIY home mechanic. I saw this one going on ebay (click here). It does need the timing belt off to be fitted. Most garages that fit timing belt should be able to do the job. Lexus charge £110 per hour labour. If you want hassle free service you can get a quote from Nationwide (formally Lex) Autocentres. There is one in blackburn: Nationwide Autocentres Blackburn Unit 3 Grimshaw Park Blackburn Lancashire BB2 3DY 01254 682689 Ask them for supply and fit prices. A good quality aftermarket part should also be able to do the job.

If its a question of Mk2 vs Mk3, I think looks wise Mk3 looks better, it has a slightly longer wheelbase ( 2" extra legroom for rear passengers apparently) so its got the prestige limo type look. Mk3 also has 260 bhp vs 240 bhp with the mk2. The interior of the Mk3 is identical to the mk4 (apart from the sat nav of course) so it looks very uptodate inside. Mk3 has heated seats at the back. (not sure if mk2 has rear heated seats). I’m not sure (please correct me if I’m wrong) but I think mk3 onwards also has 4 pistons in each calliper at the front brakes. These uprated brakes are amazing how they can bring this huge 1.8 tonne car to a stop, just feels fantastic. If you go for mk4, now that’s a different story. Still keep your eyes peeled, you never know there could be a good bargain around. When I think of changing my mk4 for an Mk1 LS430 I can’t really justify spending the extra cash to myself, because I’m not gaining a huge amount in terms of core mechanical technology apart from air suspension. Even then I would hardly call the coil suspension ride of the mk4 shabby. My point being there is a BIG jump in technology from a Mk3 to a Mk4 LS400 and relatively little different between a Mk4 LS400 and a mk1 ls430. I really want a LS460...I might even take maneesh's advice

Hi there, I have a ’99 LS400 and the gas struts for the bonnet are already weak (they are the original ones that came with the car). When its up its up, but when there is a strong wind the bonnet comes down with so much force I’m scared its goanna chop someone’s head off while they are checking the oil or something !!! I might be stating the obvious here but if they came from another 96 car, that chances are they were probably weak as well by that age. When they are off its gonna feel strong with the gas pressure, but its only when you fit them and they are under a load that you can tell if its any good.. Again it’s a fairly common problem on LS bonnets as well. The best thing might be to get either original ones from Toyota which are very expensive or remanufactured ones from the US which have been re-gassed and new seals put on them etc. If anyone has any ideas i'd be interested too.....

Oh man I’ve been there before...I can't believe this has happened to a LS430 that’s still a very new car !! I've experienced this with cars older than 6 or 7 years. I've fixed electric windows with this problem before (never on an LS but on other Honda and Toyota) where the window was very slow and did not go up all the way and had to be pushed up. Most of these electric window mechanisms are pretty much the same. When I opened it all up the thing which was wrong was either that the cable in the motor mechanism has broken or has gotten stuck and tangled in which case it needs to be replaced. If the car uses a "scissor" type mechanism which pushes the window up, it has bent. Not sure which type the LS has but I got a feeling its not the scissor type because the last time I open it up on a Toyota Carina it didn’t have the “scissor” type mechanism but it was just the cable with plastic teeth in the motor mechanism which has come lose and all tangled up and broken. That was on my friend’s car and Toyota did not sell the cable separately so we just sourced the whole motor part (for about £20) from scrap. After replacing it is still going fine and it’s been almost 2 years since we repaired it. It’s difficult to say without opening it up and looking at it. You will need to take off the inside door trim to get to it. OTHER FELLOW LS OWNERS: Has anybody else seen or fixed this problem specifically on a LS ? It could help this person before he goes opening it up first.

From what you describe (i.e. it clicks one way and the other way it just comes to a stop), the nearest thing to that on my Mk4 is the dial to adjust the brightness of the dashboard and cluster lights. If you could maybe post a pic that should hopefully shed some more light on it (excuse the bad joke :) ) Or do any other Mk2 owners know of anything similar ?

Yep, best to get tracking sorted first. For the water in the boot, try also looking at this earlier thread: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=37170 It seems it can be fixed with a bit of silicone sealant...cheaper than a new seal. If not you can still replace the seal. Do you mean the hood won't close into the catch when you have lowered it all the way down ? and when it has closed it wont open again when you pull the release ? It sounds like the spring mechanism might have moved out of position or the spring is not working ? Has anyone else had this problem with the hood ?

Hi there, Sounds like your problem is the same as this one here on an earlier thread. http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=24594 Perphaps it time to have the throttle body cleaned out and re-set the ECU afterwards to clear any fault codes. Also if you take the throttle body off you might need to replave the gasket which does in between the TB and the inlet manifold.

No problem man. 130,000 km is nothing for this car. Do you mean the car is pulling to the left for example you are driving along in a straight line and it drifts to the left without you moving the steering wheel ? If so you might need tracking alignment done. Was it a front shock they replaced ? If so chances are when they dismanlted the suspension to replace the shock the alignment probably got knocked out of place. But it usually needs re-alignment periodically. The best thing to go for is 4 wheel laser tracking alignment. Over here in the UK it costs between £60 and £120 but it is well worth it. Also get the wheel balanced aswell at the same time. I think it may be best to eliminate tracking alignment problems first. It is also wise to have this done because if the tracking is out it is usually wearing out the tires unevenly or faster than they should be. Not sure how long air suspension lasts. In the UK all of our LS400 have the normal coil suspension (apart from the imports from Japan). However the LS430s all over here all have air suspension and I dont think it is a common problem. It all depends on how the car has been kept before. Toyota have been putting air suspension in LS400s since 1989 so if there were any major problems i think they should have ironed them out by the time they built the Mk4 in 1998 :) The reason why your shock could have been replaced was maybe it was just the odd bad part. I replaced the starter motor on my Mk4 last month which is very odd for a Lexus considering it only has 62,000 miles on the clock. One thing to remeber with air suspension: NEVER jack the car up with the engine running. Always switch off the engine before jacking that car up. If you do need to jack the car up with the engine running there are 2 particular pins on the Data Link Connector No2 (DLC2) you need to connect together before jacking it up. Hope this helps. Any more questions let us know.

Congratulations on your purchase, this car really is the business The ‘shiftlock override’ button is as Matt says. You can’t take the car out of park unless your have the brake pedal pressed, but if you hold the shiftlock override button down while taking the car out of park you should be able to do it without pressing the brake pedel. As for the function button: Usually the computer under the speedo will display fuel consumption figures, or cruising range etc depending on what you have selected from the Mode button. But lets say there is an error message displaying e.g. ‘front brake pads’ this error message will stay on until the problem has been fixed (in this case until you have replaced the brakes etc) in the meantime if you don’t want to see this annoying error message simply press ‘Function’ and it will toggle to the trip computer again. Try it with the driver door open, it should say ‘Front door open’ and with the door still open press the Function button and it will return to the trip computer.

wow sounds like you are having lots of fun and games changing your gearbox... :o

:) A very good point taken, but the price range is high and LWB 460's are in that price range also!, I can't understand these car companies, this year in particular is going to be a hard one for them and poeple are going to get another rise in interest rates this summer (predictions). I think with reduced labour costs on most newly produced cars, that the purchase price could be kept somewhat lower. I think the LS460 is a fantastic car in terms of spec (I haven’t driven it or anything). But your right John, its going to be a tough year and the competition from the new S-class and the 7 series is pretty stiff. Before Lexus LS could offer similar specs to the Germans for much cheaper money (which is a big reason I went for an LS400 instead of an s-class) but the price gap is closing. I was reading somewhere that Lexus expect the LS460s to find 525 loving homes this year. What might be a contributing factor to the higher price is that Lexus will build another version of the class leading Tahara plant in Japan, this time exclusively dedicated to the production of the new LS. At the moment Lexus vehicles are produced at Tahara which even at the time of it being built in 1979 set very high standards in automotive production. It’s a bit like the Honda NSX where they had a plant exclusively dedicated to its manufacture. They will need to re-coup that investment. Also developing the complex Hybrid technology probably incurred its fair share of R&D costs. In the city some are starting to wonder how long the big profits and big bonuses the city banks are paying out will continue for.....

If the hybrid prices are going to be in the region of 80 - 100K, at that price i'm sure people will consider the majestic S600 V12 Limo before taking a final decision. If you can afford £100K on a new car and afford to take a massive hit on depreciation, then fuel economy probably isn’t that much of an issue.

I think the LS400 would make a good getaway car very smooth and fast haha I was at Lexus Woodford last week and I saw one in the showroom. I didnt even go near it to avoid being heartbroken. Just think in 7 to 10 years time they will be going for dead cheap money :) Even after 4 or 5 years just watch their value crumble to around one fifth of its brand new list price - it happens to every big engine car in the UK.

In the Series 4, the DHP cars come with larger wheels. The non-DHP car comes with 16" 5 spoke/ 5 hole alloys (225/60/16) where as DHP cars have lowered suspension and come with 17" wheel with holes pattern around the circumference. I guess its a personal preference. I personally wanted the LS for comfort and wanted a non-DHP car.

Cheers Steve, I think your right, this helps to clear it up for me. Different regions probably get a different UCF number depending on the spec for that region. I know for sure that R or L suffix after the UCF code refers to left hand drive or right hand drive (e.g. UCF20R = right hand drive and UCF20L = left hand drive). Also, I've noticed that according to the Lexus Bahrain and Lexus Arab Emirates website that their version of the latest outgoing (from 2004 onwards) LS430 gets a 332 Hp engine while the UK spec cars 'only' get a 278 hp engine... thats not fair :( http://www.lexus.com.bh/showroom/ls/specs.asp Thanks for the info.

Does anybody know the difference between a LS400 UCF20 and a UCF21 ? I have seen the series 4 LS400 in the UK as a UCF20 but a lot of the celsiors from Japan are UCF21. Is it just the air suspension or are there other differences ? If I am not mistaken my understanding is: LS400 Series 1 - UCF10 LS400 Series 2 - UCF11 LS400 Series 3/4 - UCF20 and UCF21 LS400 Series 1 - UCF30 LS400 Series 2 (from 2004 onwards) - UCF31 Sometimes is just useful to know this information when sourcing parts. Thanks Sorry typo, I meant LS430 Series 1 - UCF30 LS430 Series 2 (from 2004 onwards) - UCF31

Hey Matt, That’s exactly where it is. It sits inside the V of the engine just on top of the engine flywheel. Although mine is a Mark4, the things you would have to remove on your Mark3 LS would be the similar. You will have to remove: 1. Throttle body and hence you will need to replace the throttle body gasket the goes in between the TB and inlet manifold. 2. The whole of the Inlet manifold. There are a lot of connectors and hoses to disconnect. The inlet manifold is in two sections, its better if you can lift off the upper and lower sections all in one go rather than separating them. Not sure what access is actually like under the bonnet on your Mark3 to the nuts and bolts that hold the lower manifold onto the engine block. In any case you will need two inlet manifold gaskets (one for each bank of cylinders) that sit in between the cylinder head and the lower intake manifold. If you end up separating the upper and lower inlet manifold you will also need the 4 gaskets that sit in between the upper and lower inlet manifold. 3. Water bypass pipe that comes from the back of the engine and feeds into the water pump and replace the rubber O ring on the end of it. 4. Rear water bypass joint and the two gaskets on either side. Now you have access to the starter motor. On the Mark3 you may need to remove one of the Three Way Cat (TWC) from the front exhaust pipe to access the EGR pipe that feeds into the exhaust manifold. Hence you will need the correct gaskets for the TWC exhaust gaskets (which ever side you remove there are two gaskets on each side). I think you only need to remove one side (and hence 2 gaskets) depending on which side the EGR pipe is on. I wish I had a garage and a ramp. Best of luck. Chris – what do you think of this nice little number? http://www.forum-auto.com/automobiles-myth...sujet302821.htm there’s a pic of the 2CV starter about halfway down the page in case you need to replace one hehe The dream car of my youth was the LS400 when it came out in 1990. Back in 1990 as a young lad I use to see a Mk1 everyday on my walk to school and from school and every time I saw it, it was like WOW knowing it was a very expensive car.