Possible Gearbox Problems

[Fringfordjohn]

Dear All, can I ask for some advice? As a very occasional contributor, but avid reader of this forum, I am saddened to read of the number of cars being virtually written off by the antifreeze in the gearbox oil problem. I say written off as the cost of repairs seems to be more than the car is worth.
My reason for asking is because I am the proud owner of a genuine low mileage LS400 Mk4 (42k) which I have owned since it was 18 months old, and it is quite the best car that I have ever had. Its certainly the only fifteen year old car that I have ever owned where every thing still works. The steering wheel goes up and down, the aircon still blows cold, even the radio aerial and the torch in the tool kit still work.
I derive great pleasure from owning and driving it, so I’m sure you can understand my desire not to see it destroyed by a fault that possibly could be avoided by some action on my part.
It does seem from reading this forum that only the 430s are affected by this fault and not the 400, but I can’t understand why as just from looking under the bonnet, the gearbox cooling on my car looks the same as the diagrams published on here for the 430. Also all the 400s are older than the 430s so I would have thought that the problem would have been worse on the 400. Sorry if this has been answered before, but I have just spent a couple of hours trawling back through many of the previous posts on this forum but have yet to find a definitive answer.
So is the 400 immune from this problem, and if so can anyone say why, or should I be fitting an external gearbox oil cooler to my car as soon as possible. Many thanks in advance for your help. Kind regards, John.

[cruisermark]

Hi

john in the 8 years i have driven the LS range i have read, contributed and learnt alot about these 400s/430s and i have never come across any type of major fault or gearbox failure in the 400s - the world bulletproof is really true here - stop worrying

the problem as you say relates to the 430 and can easily be avoided by either changing the radiator or fitting an additional oil coller as done by atleast 2 members of this forum

hope this helps

[Titch LS]

John, I agree with Cruisemark, the LS400 gearboxes don't suffer from the dreaded "water in the autobox" problem. I have exactly the same car as you and with proper maintenance i.e. the occasional gearbox fluid change, the gearbox on this model will reach huge mileages without much trouble. I'm expecting at least 200,000 + from mine. So, no need to worry old chap.

[MNP]

Hi,

Just to re-assure you, my LS on 193000 is fine (touch wood!!!) gearbox wise but my 1999 Land Cruiser

(Land Crusher as we call it) required a complete auto gearbox re-build for the contamination issue. Something

I inherited from the previous owner. I've owned her since 2007 with 85000 miles on the clock, she now has

142000, so I have a fleet of old high mileage vehicles....sorry my BMW R1150RS motorbike is only 13 years

old and 26000 miles!!!! As an aside some one once told me that BMW also make cars????!!!

Best wishes, Mark.

[Ruud]

Ah yes. BMW do make the odd car.

My 2007 E65 730d popped up an error every time I used the wrong type of dash cleaner, or when the hoover was too loud...or when I was wearing the wrong colour socks.....

[Spacewagon52]

Ah yes. BMW do make the odd car.

My 2007 E65 730d popped up an error every time I used the wrong type of dash cleaner, or when the hoover was too loud...or when I was wearing the wrong colour socks.....

Love it! BMW ownership did not impress me.

[Malc]

... I used to sometime drive a K reg BMW manual 318i coupe when I had my garage business ....... remember it to this day, absolutely brilliant car, drove like a real sports car type, such power and speed ..... then I discovered my Mk1 Ls400 .............. and the start of a " love " story now covering almost 15 years

But then in olden days maybe BMWs were rather more reliable than today's models

Malc

[ambermarine]

John

I concur with the other members who contributed comments on this topic.I owned a mark1 for 16 years and it was 22 when it left me it never had any transmission problems I now own a mark 4 and that to is clean of any issues with the transmission .The issues surrounding the 430 are much to do with the internal seals and metals used in the combined intercooler which were not present on the 400 although the principle is the same.There were other issues with the 430 that in my opinion stemmed from a rushed project that was in fact a stop gap until the new generation of LS Lexus was ready.

[Fringfordjohn]

Thank you all for your kind replies. I can now continue to enjoy driving and stop worrying.

I’m also really pleased that I don’t have to modify the car, obviously I would have done if it was necessary to avoid disaster, but its such a well made vehicle that I really didn’t want to interfere with it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Thank you all again for taking the trouble to reply, and for putting my mind at rest.

Kind regards, John.

[Scribe]

For me, at least, this peace of mind is so important when running a complex, elderly car. And it made me wonder for a while whether I should actually buy an LS400, because I was worried about what I might be letting myself in for. That was five sail-through-the-MOT years ago, and the car still wafts along as brilliantly as ever. Much as I like the 430, I doubt that I'd ever have as much peace of mind about things going wrong, or at least not being too expensive to fix.

[Spacewagon52]

John, that is my favourite colour of LS 400. There is one where I live the same colour. What colour is it called? Bronze?

[Fringfordjohn]

Hello again, the colour of my car is Balmoral Bronze, and it has a Suffolk interior. I chose that colour as it doesn’t show the dirt as much as some of the darker colours, and the Suffolk (Cream) leather really lifts the interior, although that’s largely a matter of personal choice.

I’m also happy to say that it has just flown through the MOT without problems and no advisories.

These truly are remarkable cars.

[keybasher2]

Out of the 30+ cars I`ve owned my mk4 400 is the best engineered/ride quality/ergonomic car I`ve ever had ! Got to admit that I`m counting Viva`s ,Cortina`s,Avengers Last car was an e36 Bmw 328i with 135k,nice car but felt worn and tired compared to the fresh as a daisy168k 400 I changed for Just passed its second MOT under my ownership without an advisory....Brilliant car !!

[Spacewagon52]

It is interesting to note that a number of members have had fairly new expensive cars, like BMW's, and have ended up with much cheaper (but far better) older LS 400's or 430's.

I have found that Fords seem to age prematurely compared to many makes. Going in a Minicab / Taxi is a good way of comparing cars. I had a ride in an old Peugeot 405 with 160,000 on the clock and it was very smooth and quiet. Came back in a much younger Ford Orion, with less mileage, it rattled and crashed like a bag of spanners. Admittedly it depends on how the two cars were driven but the contrast was very stark.