Lexus LS430 Build Thread... Mark two...!!

LS road runner · June 18, 2018

3 hours ago, Haylands said:

Had a little play this morning... fitted the separate gearbox oil cooler to eliminate the chance of the dreaded cooler failure wrecking the gearbox, as I've said elsewhere this is the preventative measure I am happy with, there are several ways to preempt this problem and deal with it, whichever way you chose is the best way for you...

It's a simple process... remove this panel, there are about 6,534 10mm fixings....

You can then see this at the bottom of the rad the two pipes coming out are from the internal cooler

They go into two metal pipes and are held on with those constant torque clips, remove the pipes from the metal pipes, cut them short, shove a bolt in the shortened pipe and secure with a jubilee clip, this ensures that should the rad fail internally then you won't lose coolant through the oil cooler...

I forgot to take pictures of the next bit so adapted this one, I drilled four holes in the panel below the aluminium crash bar, two for the pipes (Red)and two outside ones (Yellow) for the purpose of fixing the rad. The pipe holes line up directly with the strengthening ribs...

Then dressed up the rad with the hose tails, went under the bonnet, plenty of room to get the rad in position, I used a piece of wood to wedge it in position then used these self drilling and tapping screws, they are designed for roofing sheets but are handy for loads of things...

Fixed the cooler in place with four of them using a 10mm socket on a 1/4 drive extension bar in a cordless drill... Cooler now fitted very solid and in good airflow under the front number plate..

Then just a case of cutting the pipes to length and fixing them on, then replacing the undertray. The old cooler only had about a quarter of a cupful of oil in it and as I plan to change the gearbox fluid soon I didn't bother topping it up...

Job done...

I then sorted out the electrical socket for the tow bar, the old one was hanging below the bar and got broken when I reversed out of our drive and up the neighbour opposites drive, there was a van in the way to stop me turning up the road as I usually do, this meant the front was going uphill as the rear was going down hill.. a nasty scrape and the socket was toast... it looked awful anyway.. Here it is before showing the extra reversing LED's I removed earlier...

I bought a black one and a stainless steel plate to secure it, the type that sits behind a normal tow hook, as mine is a removable one I cut down and bent the bracket to fit the socket flush with the bottom of the tow bar, i had to remove a semicircle of the bumper edge to get it in, I have mounted it sideways as this meant I didn't have to remove any more bumper as it would start to show...

That looks better if I do say so myself..!! I'll probably paint the stainless bracket but I didn't take any paint to the garage....

It's getting closer to where I want it......

Went to visit the IS250 we have just bought for my good lady. It is in the paintshop, ready for primer, it's having a full front end repaint and the rear bumper, it will then be mint body wise... The bonnet looked like it had been cleaned with a brillo pad and acid, the bumper and front wings had a few stone chips and the rear bumper had a scuff on one corner and a ding in the middle.... (Don't people use the PDC...!!)

It's difficult to photograph but it looks awful in the flesh ( We got a lot of money off because of this )

You can see it's a different colour, the headlights are very faded as well, I polished them before it went in, came up like new....

It has to look worse before it gets better....

The back half of the front wings will be flatted with very fine grade paper and the area will be used to blend the new colour into the original, this should make the repaint virtually imperceptible...

The bumper had a lot of stone chips.... Old wheely bin makes a great bumper stand...!!!

Should be finished Wednesday....

I have order a new radiator and the pipes (metal and rubber) to eliminate the problem you have sorted with the gearbox cooler.

Radiator (denso) was £50 from states and the pipes £97 from local lexus dealer.

Although the cooler is £105 I chose this method because I will get a new radiator out of it and I am doing transmission fluid, new gasket seal and gearbox stainer at the same time.

Haylands · June 19, 2018

The oil cooler was less than £20 off eBay and I had some pipe and clips already.

I've heard that the pipes/rad can fail in less than 7 years (although most last a lot longer) so set yourself a reminder....

The-Acre · June 19, 2018

40 minutes ago, Haylands said:

The oil cooler was less than £20 off eBay and I had some pipe and clips already.

I've heard that the pipes/rad can fail in less than 7 years (although most last a lot longer) so set yourself a reminder....

Do you think a cooler will cool the transmission well enough? The reason I ask is because I fitted one to my first LS430 and it did get very hot, too hot to touch at times. I just wonder how it will be in very hot weather in traffic holdups. On the move it'll be fine of course, but the fans won't do much at standstill I wouldn't have thought.

If and when I do get another 430 I'll be wanting to do this as a priority.

Haylands · June 19, 2018

Just noticed this yesterday..... If you look at the US spec water rads you will see that they supply them with or without the "Tow Package" The Tow package will be an external oil cooler for the gearbox, so it appears that they just fit them as standard here... as I said on the other thread....

"The replacement cooler will cool the gearbox oil to a sufficient degree, the ideal gearbox oil temperature will be around 90c, it can reach 170c+ inside the torque converter when doing grand prix starts or driving up steep hills for a protracted time, or towing a heavy trailer or caravan (Not likely in a 430..!!) Most of the time the gearbox oil will be within spec and no cooling will be needed, Lexus have to respond to all sorts of abusive driving as well as very hot climates so they fit a rad... Is it really needed by "most" drivers in this country...??? probably not... The replacement coolers can be screwed to the bottom of the front aluminum bumper support, this gives them a very large heat sink and they will dissipate the heat just fine. The only downside I can see is that the original system will actually heat up the oil to operating temp quicker in the depths of winter whereas the replacement won't. I think the difference would only be a few miles of driving though..."

Sitting in traffic inching forward doesn't heat up the oil much... it's loading that heats the oil...

Haylands · June 20, 2018

Nothing done on the 430 but the 250 is done and finished...

Bought it for my good lady, it's a 2006 Lexus IS250 SE-L with Nav, we have the original bill of sale at just over £33,000, we paid a lot less than 10% of that for it...!!!

It is a one owner full service history vehicle but had some cosmetic issues...

It has now had a front end respray, along with the rear bumper, the wheels have been refurbished, it came with a nearly new set of four matching tyres but the front nearside had got too friendly with the curb and had various chunks missing, none were to the cords but I wasn't happy with it, it would have been OK on the rear but the 250 has larger rear tyres..!! So a new matching tyre was fitted... a 2017-18 sat nav disc and a dam good valet and it is looking like a 2 year old car... It has been serviced by a Toyota and Lexus specialist for a number of years and has had all the fluids changed recently and new discs and pads all round, it drives spot on and hopefully will give years of use...

That bonnet looks better...

Rear bumper looks new and is a closer colour match than the picture portrays.... The rest of the paintwork responded well to a good polish..

The wheels were very poor, now looking new again....

The inside was pretty grubby but responded well to a clean and feed, new genuine mats fitted...

430 hits the paintshop Monday.....

rich1068 · June 20, 2018

3 hours ago, Haylands said:

but the 250 has larger rear tyres..!!

I did not know that. Is it all 250s or just the SE-L? Used to have the same on a BMW E91. Always thought it was a bit unnecessary.

Haylands · June 20, 2018

Yeah, my old Merc CL500 had significantly wider and taller rear tyres than front, this has 225/45/17 front and 245/45/17 rear so a massive 20mm wider...!!!

I think it is the SE-I SE-L and the ISF of course, the IS350 is the same but we don't get that (shame)....

Haylands · June 24, 2018

The 430 heads for the paintshop tomorrow... it does look nice but 13 years has taken its toll in one way or another....

The worst bit is the nearside rear wheel arch (car is on a wheel free ramp hence the big gap!!)

The rear bumper has a dink top to bottom in the middle

And a dig in the corner...

Bootlid has a big scratch down the edge here (touched in)

And more scratches and chips here.... it also has damage around the number plate area where various different plates have been put on in the past...

The front has lots of rash that always shows more on the darker colours, difficult to see much here but it annoys me...

The front bumper has been painted before and the quality is a bit suspect, the paint is very flat with little shine and the lacquer is peeling in several places...

There are also some large chips out of the bonnet and boot..

So not that bad and yes it's what you would expect from 13 years and 130,000 miles but I'm sad and want it looking the best it can... so bonnet, both front wings and the front bumper will be painted as well as both rear wings, the boot lid and rear bumper, the nearside rear door will get painted to blend the colour in.... There is not much in the way of repairs, most is just flatting and painting so it's only £400 for the lot so for a small outlay it will be near mint bodywise...

As you can see I took the rear badges off to clean them up before they go back on the new paint... you can see why you don't see debadged 430's... they still have locator holes for the badges... virtually unheard of these days... They would look something like this if debadged...

Think I prefer it with badges....

I also took the grille off to strip it down and give it a good clean... looks weird without one....

More to follow....

Haylands · June 29, 2018

Got the 430 back this morning, then spent several hours with my machine polisher, and finally a good polish by hand and the paintwork is pretty good now...

I shall let the pictures do the talking...

One thing I did do was get the bodyshop to paint the chrome strip on both bumpers, these are plastic inserts and after a few years go dull grey instead of chrome, I bought some chrome vinyl tape to redo them to original but I'm liking them body coloured at the moment, think I will leave them for a while and see how it goes...

That rear arch came out well...

Not too much more to do now....

Glover · June 29, 2018

That looks absolutely amazing; what a brilliant finish. You've done a brilliant job with the polisher and your spray shop has done really well to fix the blemishes and blend everything in. I'm not sure if it's allowed by the forum but if it is are you able to provide details of who you use? My RX is fine but the Yaris could do with some TLC!

June 30, 2018

Money well spent and looks like a job well done.

Vlady · June 30, 2018

Well done, the car looks great!

I am very surprised to see locating holes for the badges, isn't it just another location to rust, yours looks pretty clean though.

Haylands · June 30, 2018

9 hours ago, Glover said:

That looks absolutely amazing; what a brilliant finish. You've done a brilliant job with the polisher and your spray shop has done really well to fix the blemishes and blend everything in. I'm not sure if it's allowed by the forum but if it is are you able to provide details of who you use? My RX is fine but the Yaris could do with some TLC!

Cheers, they painted both front wings, bumper and bonnet, both rear wings, one rear door, boot and rear bumper, you get the car back filthy inside and out and the paintwork has been flatted and polished but will be covered in swirl marks from the rubbing compound, it then needs further polishing and a dam good clean up... BUT, it is cheap at £400, especially as it's mica paint... I prefer it like that as I'd rather do it myself... The bodyshop does mostly trade work from local car retailers but will do work direct from the public.... I have used them for years so get the rock bottom trade rate so if you want something done PM me and I will introduce you.. they are in Hull...

3 hours ago, Eame64 said:

Money well spent and looks like a job well done.

Thanks, looking good for 13 years old...

3 hours ago, Vlady said:

Well done, the car looks great!

I am very surprised to see locating holes for the badges, isn't it just another location to rust, yours looks pretty clean though.

Thanks, yes, I was surprised, they are well painted and there was no sign of rust around them after 13 years so guess they have it sorted... makes them real easy to fit, no hours of measuring and tape...!!!

Vlady · June 30, 2018

You had three more panels to paint (well roof as well), why didn't you? It would be probably another £50-80 for you but you would end up with fully painted car.

Odysseus · June 30, 2018

Looks great, and has acted as an additional motivator for me to consider getting the (stone-chipped) front bumper of my GS450 repainted.

Yours is a lovely car and a credit to you attention to detail.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

cruisermark · June 30, 2018

Car looks lovely now however I'm a big fan of originality and the the paint on the chrome strips does not look good - just comes acorss as a bad paint job i.e as if some did'nt bother to mask up.

Haylands · June 30, 2018

3 hours ago, Vlady said:

You had three more panels to paint (well roof as well), why didn't you? It would be probably another £50-80 for you but you would end up with fully painted car.

It was just the door panel, above the plastic panel at the bottom, that was painted to blend the colour in, to do the whole car you would have to strip them down, and paint the plastic panels and then the sill covers, plus the roof which painters really hate painting as they are awkward... it's an awful lot of extra work for no real improvement, you can't tell which panels have been painted and which haven't. It would more than double the cost...

2 hours ago, Odysseus said:

Looks great, and has acted as an additional motivator for me to consider getting the (stone-chipped) front bumper of my GS450 repainted.

Yours is a lovely car and a credit to you attention to detail.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks, get it done, it'll look great.....

1 hour ago, cruisermark said:

Car looks lovely now however I'm a big fan of originality and the the paint on the chrome strips does not look good - just comes acorss as a bad paint job i.e as if some did'nt bother to mask up.

I know what you mean but I sort of like it, it looks better in the flesh than pictures. I'm going to mockup the chrome tape and see which I prefer... I had a fight with the painter as his view was the same as yours but even he said it looks good...!!!

Vlady · June 30, 2018

I hope the paint will stay that way, I am very worried as I have re-painted full front (2 wings, bonnet and the bumper) on my previous car and in less than 2 years the paint started flacking and not just on the wings arches but on a bumper too, not sure why it happened, the bonnet though held well, The garage I used also does jobs for the trade (Lexus garage one of their clients) for minor stuff so I was not happy to find that out as you buy a Lexus from Lexus garage and it could have a bad paint repair that will show in not long feature! I hate rust that much that I sold my previous car even though it was perfect otherwise!

Haylands · June 30, 2018

1 hour ago, Vlady said:

I hope the paint will stay that way, I am very worried as I have re-painted full front (2 wings, bonnet and the bumper) on my previous car and in less than 2 years the paint started flacking and not just on the wings arches but on a bumper too, not sure why it happened, the bonnet though held well, The garage I used also does jobs for the trade (Lexus garage one of their clients) for minor stuff so I was not happy to find that out as you buy a Lexus from Lexus garage and it could have a bad paint repair that will show in not long feature! I hate rust that much that I sold my previous car even though it was perfect otherwise!

It's another reason not to spray any more than you need... the shop who did it may have done it completely right but it had been painted in the past and not prepared properly, flaking is usually caused by not flatting or cleaning the panel properly, it usually occurs where they don't repair and the area is just covered in a thin layer of colour and the clear coat, tends to be worse on plastic panels.... It's one of the reasons my shop sands most of the paint off the bumpers, they then don't get so many comebacks.. Every paintshop will get comebacks, mostly down to other things beyond their control.... My guys painted a Yaris for me well over 8 years ago and it still looks great.... I see bodywork as a service item if you want to see your car at it's best.....

Haylands · July 7, 2018

On the original check over I noticed the brake pads were getting low so I ordered some PowerStop Ceramic brake pads from Rock Auto, they arrived a while ago and I fitted them when the 430 came out of the paintshop, I have used these pads before and they are excellent, they are more progressive than the original pads and have a better initial bite, they are also better at feathering out when you come to a standstill. The best bit is they are very low dust pads and keep the wheels nice and clean, these two pictures are from the LS430 and my wifes IS250, both have done a similar amount of town driving, the difference is marked...

They are also nice and cheap, only around £40 delivered from the USA and that's for front and rear sets...

I have just ordered a set for the IS, the pads on it are OK but I have to clean it so it's a no brainer....!!!

I have also just ordered a Vias Technology MML-T1 ipod integration for the 430, I had one in the old one years ago and found it excellent, it also presses "I Agree" every time you start so it's worth it just for that...!!!

https://www.vaistech.com/product/mml-t1/

They currently have $30 off in an Independence Day Sale..!!

Haylands · July 23, 2018

Vias Technology MML-T1 ipod integration recieved and fitted, It now looks like I have a poltergeist in the car, it was worth the money just to not have to agree with the car every time you start it... and now I can listen to Barry Manilow and Abba all day....

Vias Video

Haylands · February 12, 2019

Well it's been a few months since I posted an update, a lot has gone on....

I bought my wife and I a Lexus each as we are planning on being snowbirds for 6 months a year and spend winters in warmer climes on our boat... we left in October and spent the last 3 months there but have had to come home unexpectedly..... I hoped that two Lexuses (Lexi..!!??) would wait happily on our drive and work when we got back, I thought long and hard about preparation for leaving them, Battery conditioners etc but in the end just disconnected the batteries and left them alone.... Both started first time when we returned and both have no faults or other issues, even the batteries had enough in them to not need a jump... I took them both for a good drive to get them nice and hot before they were left and this resulted in the tyres flat spotting which took several miles to go until they were warm again... I did think at least they wouldn't have to get covered in salt as we shouldn't have been home till the end of March but alas they are both now covered in salt.....

We left our boat in Panama City, Florida earlier last year, it was fully shrink wrapped and looked like this...

We got back a week after Hurricane Michael, a few miles away from the boat the wind was recorded at 202mph...!!! Our boat looked like this on our return, apparently shrink wrap is good for about 120mph......

Substantial cosmetic damage and no canvas left.... a lengthy insurance claim followed...

But I digress, that is another story... back to the Lexus...

We had to go to London before we left and attend the American Embassy to obtain visas as we would be in US waters longer than an ESTA allows... we drove down in the 430 and ended up sat in traffic for a while, all appeared well until I pulled away, as the gearbox changed into second it felt like we had been rear ended, the jolt was very violent... it then seemed to change to third okish but you could tell something was wrong... We pulled over and I had a look.... There was a lot of oil all around the front of the front undertrays, nothing dripping, just damp, it transpired that one of the genuine "Jubilee Clips" I had used for the new gearbox oil cooler had failed, it sort of peeled apart, never had it happen before and I always use genuine Jubilee when I can as I have always found them excellent...!! This had let gearbox oil out and the box was now low on oil and hot.... Presuming that the gearbox was now ruined anyway, we carried on and left the Lexus in the Hotel car park for a couple of days, we had a nice time being London tourists and secured our 10year Visas and drove home late in the day to reduce traffic, the 430 drove "ok" but not right, changes were noticeable but she never slipped... I set the cruise for 60 and 200 miles later we were home...

Garage visit the next day confirmed my thoughts and it is amasing how much of a mess a few liters of oil will make... The undertrays and most of the lower half of the engine were covered in it, took several hours to clean it off... The leak was found and repaired and I drained the gearbox, on removing the sump plug about a cupful came out... Having read that most people get something a little over 3 liters out I pumped three liters of the correct fluid back in to keep me going while I sourced a new box or rebuild kit....

To my absolute astonishment the drive home was as if nothing had happened, the first couple of changes, as I left the garage, were harsh but then they smoothed out and were back to being virtually imperceptible by the time I got home... We had another long trip the following weekend and were going to take the IS but we chanced the 430 and it did 400+ miles with no issues at all.....

I have since dropped the oil in the sump and changed it a couple of times to change some more oil and it is more red than brown now....

I also fitted one of these, I have used them before and found them to help autoboxes, it is an inline oil filter with a magnet and a bypass should it get blocked, I fitted it in the oil cooler lines just to introduce two more Jubilee clips to fail....lol....

It has now done around 2,000 miles since and is changing gear better than it ever did...!! I imagine it has affected the longevity of the gearbox but there is no point changing it now, it looks like I dodged a bullet for now.....

The only other thing of note is that some kind person drove into the front N/S and has broken at least three clips off the front bumper which is now hanging down a bit... the bumper doesn't seem to have any meat in it where the clips are so a repair maybe out of the question and I may have to find a replacement but I'm going to wait till it is warmer....

Doesn't look much (the white mark to the left of the bottom of the front wing is a crack in the paint) but my OCD won't allow it...!!!

I have just had delivered a Blackvue DR590W-2CH dash cam, this is a twin pack front and rear camera and plan on fitting it in the next few days...

https://www.blackvue.com/dr590w-2ch/

I will have to find a suitable position for the rear camera that misses the rear sun blind...

I'll post some pictures when done....

cruisermark · February 12, 2019

HI Pete

Glad to have you back - your posts are always informative and interesting

Haylands · April 3, 2019

Well the next mod is bound to cause a few raised eyebrows, it is certainly a Marmite issue.....

Wooden steering wheels..... My 2p worth....

I hate them, I can think why anyone would want to hold something so hard and cold, the steering wheel should be tactile and a pleasure to hold, after all it is the one part of the car you touch the most, a wood wheel is hard all the time, they are usually thinner than a leather one and this makes it worse, your hands sweat on them in summer and they are freezing in the winter, they serve absolutely no purpose and are just a fashion icon...

And the only thing I hate more than a wooden wheel is a wood and leather one...!!! Another 2p....

They remind you what a decent wheel would feel like but then ruin it with wood where you need to touch it... If you let the wheel feed through your hands it sticks and then runs free depending on which bit passes through your hands....

So you have probably guessed what I've done....

Gone from this... (Google pic but you get the idea...!!)

To this...

I had it recovered in leather by http://royalsteeringwheels.com/ They charged around £160 and it took a couple of weeks... It is about as close a colour match as you can get and it feels superb....

If you want to know how to change or remove the wheel, read on....

I bought a cheap wheel from eBay for about £20, it is in terrible condition but was still round and worked, I sent mine to be covered so they would have the colour (the one I bought was a beige one) my wheel had a lot of crazing on the wood part of the rim, not sure if this was an impact or sun damage but the colour had been sun bleached

To remove the wheel first disconnect the Battery and wait a few minutes for the capacitor in the airbag to lose charge..

Use a trim tool to remove the piece of trim around the cruise knob, it has fixings front and back that will just unclip with a bit of persuasion.. you will then see the T30 torx screw on that side... The bright silver screw...

Then you have to remove the switch panel on the other side, place you finger where mine is in this picture and you can feel an edge, it doesn't take much to pop the switch panel off, it's only the top bit that comes off...

This is what comes off, don't worry the rest is fine as it is and no bits will fall out...

Then you can see the airbag bolt that side, the bolts are tight so be careful you don't slip off and damage something with the spanner..

When they are both undone (they are held captive so they won't fall out) you can lift off the airbag, just turn it over, top towards you and unclip the horn wire from the bottom, you then have to remove the two airbag connections that look like this...

You have to prize up the yellow tag in the middle, I used a fine screwdriver, they are an all plastic plug so no bother with shorting it out or effecting it with static...

This shows the yellow tag on the orange connection where it needs to be to remove the plug, pull the plug straight up off the airbag, I used a small plastic trim tool to prize it off... remove both of them and put it somewhere safe...

You then have this in front of you...

To remove the wheel unplug the connector at the top of the wheel that goes to the squib (clock spring) then undo the 19mm nut but leave it on a few turns, make sure the wheel is straight, grab it both sides and yank it quickly to remove it from the splines, mine came off reasonable easily, if yours doesn't then a cheap three prong puller would work... Remove the wheel feeding the airbag wire through the wheel..

You are then left with this...

DO NOT PLAY WITH THE SQUIB, DO NOT TURN IT....

It is like a clock spring inside and will only tolerate turning a few turns each way, if you turn it you can damage or snap the wires inside and they are not cheap to replace...

I then took the wheel apart to send it off but you can send it as is, if you want to take it apart it is easy to do, just take some pictures so you route the wires correctly on reassembly.

Refitting is the above in reverse, if you put the wheel on a couple of splines out and it's not straight when you drive it, don't go far before you correct it, the clock spring is a steering wheel sensor as well and it will through fault codes if it's not straight....

That's it...

IF ANYONE WANTS TO BORROW MY SPARE WHEEL THEN LET ME KNOW...