1998 ls400 - cambelt change

[MLW]

Gates belts are regarded as top notch.

[ambermarine]

Shirish

Do the oil change yourself the filter and oil will come to less than £50 ,There are lots of opinions on here of what oil to use I use Castrol Magnatec and have done for twenty years on my Lexus cars.

On the Mark 4 I upgraded to a K& N air filter which is on the car for life.

If Lexus do the cambelt and ancillaries the whole shebang will be Toyota /Lexus parts they will not use anything other than OEM parts.

[cornershop]

Yes, I'm thinking the same and will DIY the oil change using an oil extractor via the dipstick tube. I've got plenty of decent oil (Total/Elf SL 5w/40) which I bulk bought a while ago for my other cars.

[goldtop]

Lexus Cambridge did my water pump, cambelt and aux belt all for £501 (inc) last summer.

But I did have to point out the price given on the main Web site before they managed this - £395 for the water pump, on the LS430 (mine was a 2000 LS400).

[Scribe]

Changing the cambelt etc. is an expensive job, particularly in relation to the price of the car, but look at it this way: I bought mine in August 2010 and, after having the starter motor contacts and cam belt, pulleys etc. replaced over the years, could probably still get what I paid for it.  Zero depreciation over six years, and at 156,000 the car still runs as well as it did when I bought it, and it has never failed an MOT.  How many other cars can you say that about?

[stericker]

Shirish, Become a gold member of the LOC and you will get a 10% discount at Lexus Edgeware Road.

[ambermarine]

Shirish

The oil filter is only accessible from the side or underneath ,the method I use is ;

Remove the ps front wheel this gives you access to the protection grill for the oil filter ,remove the top and bottom screws and one on the  plastic engine under shield be careful with these screws, they tend to seize up if not regularly removed and refitted with a touch of oil on the thread.If you apply to much pressure they will snap so apply plenty of wd40 and leave it for a couple of days before attempting the job if they look rusty.

[cornershop]

Just signed up for Gold membership!  May even driven over to Swindon if the 20% off Parts and Servicing holds true? 

[Bluesman]

On 05/01/2017 at 7:03 PM, cornershop said:

Just signed up for Gold membership!  May even driven over to Swindon if the 20% off Parts and Servicing holds true? 

Don't say to them anything about the membership untill they give you the final price, stops them from saying I had already allowed for that before they know you are a member.

[cornershop]

Swindon (Paddington Drive) are not a participating dealer apparently?

"The gold members on Lexus Owners Club discount only applies to participating centre and we are not one unfortunately"

[Tinonline]

Hi Shirish

That could be annoying if you wanted them to do the work.

Perhaps they would like to offer you the same discount...they don't have to participate in the scheme to do that...

 

[cornershop]

Cheers Simon, i did mention that closer dealers have quoted a similar price, however they didn't respond with a counteroffer, so will assume they don't need the business

Its no problem, i'll go to Edgware Road instead - their quote was cheaper start with, prior to the discount.

[cornershop]

Now booked in with Edgware - plus have opted for an intermediate service at reduced price of £150, mainly just to get the Lexus stamp in the book. Will get 10% off parts; Lexus man said i was already getting a discounted Labour rate, I'm less certain on this but didn't push it.

[dendonc]

Now booked in with Edgware - plus have opted for an intermediate service at reduced price of £150, mainly just to get the Lexus stamp in the book. Will get 10% off parts; Lexus man said i was already getting a discounted Labour rate,

 

How much? I use it for spares occasionally

[cornershop]

750 for the cambelt, tensioner, pump and pulley.  That excludes the 10% parts discount.

Labour is 'discounted' at £110/hr +vat!

[Malc]

......  but it will last another 100k miles / 10 years before needing doing again  

Malc

[goldtop]

13 hours ago, cornershop said:

750 for the cambelt, tensioner, pump and pulley.  That excludes the 10% parts discount.

Labour is 'discounted' at £110/hr +vat!

Did you ask about Lexus' own advertised fixed-price figures? It's there on the Web site. My £501 total for the same work was without any club discount/etc. Lexus Cambridge did quote higher until I showed them the Lexus page.

[cornershop]

Did that £501 include tensioner and pulleys?  I haven't seen that price on the Lexus webpage

[goldtop]

2 hours ago, cornershop said:

Did that £501 include tensioner and pulleys?  I haven't seen that price on the Lexus webpage

The initial price shown was £395 for the water pump (still showing under the LS430 column). I went in to have that done  - they initially quoted quite a lot higher until I showed them this figure. Then the service dept called to suggest changing the cambelt at the same time as it has to come off anyway (yes, please!), and then they suggested the aux belt, too.

They also sent me a link to a video of the mechanic checking the car over.

The bill's at home so I can't remember the details on tensioner/pulley - is that a standard part of the cambelt change?

[cornershop]

Thanks - I don't believe it's a standard replacement, although usually (?) recommended. The tensioner and pulley are £180+vat at lexus so that would make up the difference in cost between quotes

[Tinonline]

I believe the nearest to standard is probably the cambelt plus waterpump.

Lexus will just replace the cambelt but will advise that they will inspect the waterpump and advise if it should be replaced.

This seems to lead to a pattern of both being replaced and its not unfair of Lexus taking the cautious approach and replacing the w/pump as it worth doing and likely to fail before the other pulleys. (?) 

I'm not convinced that the pulleys are good for circa 200k miles either. One of mine in particular had bearing wear at 75k but I realise that might not be representative.

But, 100k miles is a lot of miles and probably a lot of years - it was easy for me to replace everything as I did it myself.

I really do appreciate the angst of choosing suppliers, what best to replace with what: as any hundreds of pounds is a cost and quickly adds up.

If I was better organised I'd have a monthly car fund to cover running costs and scheduled repairs... 

 

[cornershop]

Thanks, that does make sense. 

Its obviously not a rational expense on a 1k car - i did have brief thoughts of just driving it until it went bang, however with our 2yr old most likely to be onboard when its in use, i need a degree of dependability too.

 

[Scribe]

I think the point is that despite its age and mileage, your LS400 is still a good longish-term proposition, if maintained properly.  And I reckon that once you've got used to driving it, NOT replacing the cambelt (and then scrapping the car) would seem irrational, if not exactly criminal.  Most of us have been at that 'Is this really worth it?' moment and have come through the other side!

[Tinonline]

Yes and in the general scheme of things whilst the amount might be a little eye watering...you are buying a very high spec luxury car, future classic and a "reliable whip" as my sons would say.

Good all round value that won't depreciate anymore.

Better off than in a new or second hand 2ltr + car I'm sure.

Now we need to get a set of spanners and a socket set in your hands...some of the maintenance is very do-able.  

 

[ambermarine]

Simon

I agree with your remarks on the do-able maintenance I have carried out all the upkeep of my Mark 4 including brakes (new pads) apart from oiling and changing fluids there are no difficult upkeep tasks.

I refer to the service schedule for the tasks and if the mileage is low some of them never occur.

I also used the same methodology for 16 years on my Mark1 .