Ls400 timing belt life ( officially now ) at 165k miles

[Malc]

hey guys, look at the advert on autotrader for the P reg Mk3 Ls400 at 166k miles ...............  scrap really at @£200

Checking the MOT stuff, it passed last year at 165k miles BUT now the cambelt has bust

and some other terminal Advisories ............  but looks an ok body shell and maybe the interior too !

What it does is give credibility to what we might have understood all along that 150k miles is just about ok for a too long in the tooth first change on these beasts .......  just too long at 165k miles eh !  ( if it is that long  )

Malc

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201708168387311?postcode=me115ag&radius=1500&model=LS 400&make=LEXUS&onesearchad=Used&advertising-location=at_cars&sort=sponsored&page=1

[lockeyboy]

17 minutes ago, Malc said:

hey guys, look at the advert on autotrader for the P reg Mk3 Ls400 at 166k miles ...............  scrap really at @£200

Checking the MOT stuff, it passed last year at 165k miles BUT now the cambelt has bust

and some other terminal Advisories ............  but looks an ok body shell and maybe the interior too !

What it does is give credibility to what we might have understood all along that 150k miles is just about ok for a too long in the tooth first change on these beasts .......  just too long at 165k miles eh !  ( if it is that long  )

Malc

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201708168387311?postcode=me115ag&radius=1500&model=LS 400&make=LEXUS&onesearchad=Used&advertising-location=at_cars&sort=sponsored&page=1

Lovely colour car

like you say there's plenty to be re used assuming the engine is kaput

guessing a breaker will collect this very soon

[ste42]

theres a lot of money in spares in that car

[cornershop]

The ad doesn't mention if it's been changed before, so could have been on 2nd or 3rd belt.

[dendonc]

2 hours ago, lockeyboy said:

guessing a breaker will collect this very soon

Doubt it, theres not many breakers would bother stocking spares for cars of that age with a car which was not a big seller in the grand scheme of things, now if a breaker stocked ford spares they'd be flying off the shelf all day every day. how long would an LS 400 spare be it be on the shelf for?

[Malc]

with 5 owners I doubt other than the first one would have bothered, and that's if he did ........... just taking that chance .......  and came unstuck ..  they reckon 100k miles for a change in the USA for the same car/engine

[Malc]

I've just emailed the seller for the Lexus colour and if it's Aspen Green, like mine, I might be persuaded to store some of it for my future use.

But the colour could be any number of real Lexus silvery colours 

Malc

[dendonc]

1 hour ago, Malc said:

they reckon 100k miles for a change in the USA for the same car/engine

and here 150k, but, what I would like to know (curiosity) is what actual belt did they have when they were knew? was it special lexus specification? anyone know?

[Malc]

the Mk1 Ls400 belt was made of a kevlar type product ........ virtually indestructible ............. later belts, well, who does know I wonder ?

Malc

[dendonc]

22 minutes ago, Malc said:

kevlar type product .

If thats the case then I doubt very much indeed that lexus is recommending any other belt(s) then their own have a lifespan of 150k, neither lexus or any other make of car would make recommendations for for non lexus/ford/volvo etc products, I think innuendos that lexus recommends any make or approved of cambelt.

Also, I thought these engines were non-interference if a cambelt breaks

[Malc]

The Mk1 and I think the Mk2 are non-interference

NOT this Mk3 for sale at £200

Malc

[ambermarine]

Denis

The Mark 1 Lexus LS400  89-92 was non interference I had the only one known to fail 10k after renewal at 130k but the cause of failure was the water pump seizing .

And the fix for me at the time 2003 was £800 Lexus Glasgow which at that time was Arnold Clark and whilst my car was in I saw a lot of his private collection of vintage cars passing through for checks etc.

All Lexus engines after the 92 year were interference.

[dendonc]

13 hours ago, Malc said:

mistake post

[Malc]

On 20/08/2017 at 3:14 PM, Malc said:

I've just emailed the seller for the Lexus colour and if it's Aspen Green, like mine, I might be persuaded to store some of it for my future use.

But the colour could be any number of real Lexus silvery colours 

He's just replied, the car was sold on the 19th. Saturday !

so we'll never know any more about it i guess

Malc

[steve2006]

On 20/08/2017 at 6:28 PM, ambermarine said:

Denis

The Mark 1 Lexus LS400  89-92 was non interference I had the only one known to fail 10k after renewal at 130k but the cause of failure was the water pump seizing .

And the fix for me at the time 2003 was £800 Lexus Glasgow which at that time was Arnold Clark and whilst my car was in I saw a lot of his private collection of vintage cars passing through for checks etc.

All Lexus engines after the 92 year were interference.

All UCF-10 engines were non interference up to October 1994, after which the series III onwards were interference.

[dendonc]

12 hours ago, steve2006 said:

All UCF-10 engines were non interference up to October 1994, after which the series III

Oh ok, so is my '95 a Mark3?

[Malc]

probably but put up a piccy and we can confirm

Malc

[ambermarine]

Thanks for that clarification Steve,

I have followed info  that up with a visit to "Lextreme" and they have some very interesting views on the tuning specs for the LS engines through the years up to 06 .It seems the con rods on the series one were the sturdiest they built ,after that engine was upgraded in 95 the con rods have gone weaker and are nowhere near as strong as the first engine.

This reinforces my view that the first LS400 was the best Lexus ever built from a quality viewpoint.

[dendonc]

22 minutes ago, ambermarine said:

This reinforces my view that the first LS400 was the best Lexus ever built from a quality viewpoint.

Thats very interesting, oddly enough when I had my cambelt changed in May my mechi did make an unusual out of the blue comment, he said "these are a "strong" engine, I still dont really understand what he meant by that but it sort of ties in with what your saying.

[dendonc]

probably but put up a piccy and we can confirm

How? they all look the same to me 

[runsgrateasanut]

Talkin g of putting up photo's I see that you now have to invest annually in Photobucket if you want to get that magic image code to be able to post a photo and any previous photos posted are now deleted by advertising P'buckets services. 

Is there another way to get the code for a jpeg, tiff or whatever as you can't post photos in these formats? 

[steve2006]

Easy to spot, the series I and II (1989-October 1994) models have a gear selector that only moves forwards and backwards in a straight line, the series III and IV models have the "gated" shift lever that has a zig zag pattern coming down from park.

Series I and II style so non interference engines, engine number begins with UCF10 or UCF-11

 

 

Series III and IV style so interference engines, engine number will begin with UCF-20 or 21, the series IV has the VVTI engine.

 

[steve2006]

13 hours ago, dendonc said:

Oh ok, so is my '95 a Mark3?

Yes the 1995 is a series III LS400, UCF-20 engine and is interference.

[ambermarine]

Just following up on Steves excellent review on clarifying the series by reference to the gear change lever layout,I was informed at the time of stepped mechanism introduction by my then techy at Lexus that the change was brought about due to customer feedback in the US.

The problem was that drivers were by accident knocking the lever into 2nd gear at high speeds and causing tailspins and brown on white underwear.

I had a couple of times this happened bearing in mind it was possible to reach 100mph in second gear.

[dendonc]

22 hours ago, runsgrateasanut said:

Is there another way to get the code for a jpeg, tiff or whatever as you can't post photos in these formats?

I change some still jpeg's into vid format & upload them to youtube which is free, this is a link to a one min vid of a jpeg I just made when I read this,