New GS 300 owner saying hello!

[rich1068]

Actually that's not entirely true. I don't pick it up until Friday. 

So you may or may not know (or care) that I recently came to an agreement with @ronniemac for his 2002 GS 300. Well this coming Friday myself and Mrs rich1068 are flying up to Inverness from East Midlands to do the deal in person and then driving the car over the Cairngorms and on to Musselburgh where we'll stop over with friends and then carry on home to Sheffield. So that's roughly 400 miles over two days in an unknown 17 year old, 125k mile, sub-£1k Lexus. To say I'm looking forward to it would be an understatement  

I've also just renewed my Lexus breakdown cover for another year. I think there is a problem with one of the O2 sensors and I'm hoping the drive won't burn out the cat.

Anyhoo, a couple of pics supplied by Ron.

Btw, is this Cinnabar Red?

 

[ShelleyB]

That's some epic trust there. Enjoy your travels (I'm  also from Sheffield) 👍

[rich1068]

A leap of faith maybe but I get the impression Ron is a true gent.

[The-Acre]

Lovely looking GS!

[kayble]

Congrats on the acquisition - looks lovely! Drop your sill covers and inspect jacking points as first order of business.

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[rich1068]

Good stuff. Thank you.

Any further advice would be much appreciated.

[kayble]

58 minutes ago, rich1068 said:

Good stuff. Thank you.

Any further advice would be much appreciated.

1. Thorough inspection for rust - sills under the plastic covers, jacking points (mostly the rear), rear wheel wells - particularly at the point they joint the sills, rear wheel wells as they present in to the boot.

2. Excavate all mud/crud from the rear wheel wells/arches/ sills the full length/front of the car under sill covers and plastic exterior panels as they meet the sill cover

3. Check the operation of your parking brake - both the cables and the state of the rear park brake backing plate (need to take the disc off) - and check for corrosion on the backing plate/ whether the cables have siezed/broken

4. Check the condition of your sunroof, from the inside of the car - you're looking for rust on the metal frame that the glass is bonded to.

5. Check the condition of your core support - the metal under the radiator and a/c condensor - check my thread for experiene thereof.

5. Diagnostics check to look at any codes the car has stored.

6. Full maintenance of breaks & suspension; not sure if you're a DIY'er or not though; all quite simple and accessible.

Glad to help if you ever find yourself around the Liverpool area 😀

[rich1068]

A little update.

Everything went extremely well. Down to East Midlands Friday morning

Duty Free on domestic flights!

An hour and 15 minutes in the air

And cue Inverness, I am in you comments.

[rich1068]

Ron and Mary were perfect hosts and we enjoyed tea, bacon rolls and home made jam. Absolutely the best car purchase experience ever!

The deal was done and away we went to friends in Musselburgh over the Cairngorms on the A9. Amazing scenery and the car behaved impeccably.

Out for one or two Friday night and then back on the road this morning for the final leg to Sheffield.

Plenty to keep me busy and one or two questions to ask but now there's a HUGE spanner in the works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literally half an hour after walking in the door I was offered a 2JZ Soarer. At a price that is hard to resist 

 

[royoftherovers]

I love reading stories like this Richie.

I have never had any kind of Jam with Bacon Rolls--must be a Yorkshire thing I suppose.

Buy the Soarer and cogitate afterwards.

Please keep the story flowing and consign Eric Carlsson to history ? 

[rich1068]

It could well be a Highland thing but alas, it's my description of the welcome that's at fault. The bacon rolls and home made jam were quite separate. There's only one thing that should be had in a bacon sarnie and that's brown sauce. Though that did get a raised eyebrow from Mary.

The car needs a good scrub, a little bit of suspension work to the os front, a service and possibly an O2 sensor depending on the fault code Lexus will read on Monday. I'll also be working my way through Johns list of GS 300 tips.

It also needs something doing with the stainless exhaust. The noise is most un-Lexus like and while this might be fun around town, on a run it is most definitely not. It sounds like you're forever in too low a gear.

BUT... the car did perform brilliantly. Everything works (need a nav disc) and when called upon it lifted its skirts and flew. There aren't many sub £1k cars that I'd just jump in and drive like that but the GS didn't even break into a sweat.

Oh, and it's Beaujolais. Classy 

And the Saabs would have to go to accommodate a Soarer... 

[ronniemac]

Delighted to hear that the car behaved well on its journey south and it was a pleasure to meet you and your good lady wife. Glad, too that the bacon (and HP sauce!) roll met with approval.

A Soarer is hard to resist - you may have to take up Dad's offer of storage - pass on my regards to a contemporary.

Take care

Ron

[rich1068]

Glad you're still here Ron! 

You'll be pleased to hear that I've got it under cover today and it's had a bit of a fettle and a couple of jobs sorted. Got the satnav working for a start. A good clean inside. Inspected the timing belt (looks OK) and aux belt (needs replacing), cleaned the air and cabin filters until I can get new, started to investigate a bit of a leak in the boot which I think is coming from the os rear light, tried to remove the oxidation from the headlights but I think they're going to need a polish or I'll fit the spares you kindly passed on.

I've saved the worse news until last. I'm afraid there's no easy way to tell you Ron but I found 20p under the driver's seat 

[rich1068]

Ron tells me it's a "lucky piece" so I've put it back.

List of work required seems to be firming up.

Unfortunately the paperclip trick didn't work so it's still going round to Lexus Sheffield tomorrow for them to tell me what the problem is. No doubt they'll also give me a list as long as my arm of other work that they believe is required 

Front suspension is decidedly crusty. I had it up on a lift yesterday and I don't think there's a bush on the front that isn't split so that explains the osf noise.

Rattle from the exhaust is just a loose shield and I've found a guy down the road who's happy to put two large silencers on the back.

Other than that it's either cosmetic or general service items. Might pick up one of those service kits from Lexus Parts Direct because the free oil offer makes it a bit of a steal.

[kayble]

Rich,

Are you a DIY'er?

Recommend you drop your sill covers and have a thorough poke around your arches,sills and wheel wells - scrub/clean/seal/weld now rather than regret not find rust later down the line.

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[rich1068]

I am. But not to your level. Baby steps.

I did note your earlier comments regarding this and did have a look at how to drop the sills when it was briefly in the air. It is on my to do list but for now I'd just be happy to get it on the road!

[rich1068]

Hmm. Not a brilliant day on the GS front. The list of active fault codes is lengthy and potentially ruinous so some tough decisions need to be made.

Taking further advice.

[kayble]

Rich, want to share them? Dint make any rash decisions - I'm happy to help (if I can), if the car ever finds itself in liverpool.

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[rich1068]

Don't worry. No rash decisions will be made. At the end of the day I could drive it round as is until the MOT in March. I'm also aware that dealers (even though I can't fault Lexus Sheffield) aren't too happy with older cars with patchy history. It will always be a very expensive worse case.

I'm going to speak to Dave at Lex-Tek and see what he says. If he says my cheap car5 luck has run out then my cheap car luck has run out. 

 

[kayble]

Was that all the active codes the car had stored? That seems to be a report from just one module

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[aviator888]

These are indeed all stored in ABS control module. Did they scan ECU and other modules aswell? 

My gut feeling is that it would be either fault in the module itself or bad wiring somewhere.. something silly and maybe difficult to trace. 

Think carefully before proceeding.. what is the car worth to you? The car looks decent but according to your description showing signs of age now. Before committing financially maybe 430 would be much better project car (my personal opinion no offence to anyone)

[kayble]

Need to get this on Techstream and look at live data. Clear codes and do zero point calibration, then see what comes back.

 

Live data will tell you what's going on with the wheel speed sensors for a start...

 

And check basics: Battery voltage at idle, security of pos and neg Battery connections.

 

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[rich1068]

3 hours ago, kayble said:

Was that all the active codes the car had stored? That seems to be a report from just one module

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2 hours ago, aviator888 said:

These are indeed all stored in ABS control module. Did they scan ECU and other modules as well? 

My gut feeling is that it would be either fault in the module itself or bad wiring somewhere.. something silly and maybe difficult to trace. 

Think carefully before proceeding.. what is the car worth to you? The car looks decent but according to your description showing signs of age now. Before committing financially maybe 430 would be much better project car (my personal opinion no offence to anyone)

As far as I'm aware a complete read was carried out and that's what came back. According to them quite a few sensors had been replaced over time with non-OEM parts. You know what dealers are like, as I mentioned earlier they're out of their comfort zone somewhat and expect the worse. 

Don't worry about me throwing good money at it. It won't happen. If it can't be made good then I just won't bother. I'm 600 quid in to this car and fully expected to spend a bit more than that. If these are ££££ faults then I'll call it a day and move on.

[rich1068]

11 minutes ago, kayble said:

Need to get this on Techstream and look at live data. Clear codes and do zero point calibration, then see what comes back.

 

Live data will tell you what's going on with the wheel speed sensors for a start...

 

And check basics: battery voltage at idle, security of pos and neg battery connections.

 

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Hoping to get in touch with Dave at Lex-Tek tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. I would like to save this car but I'm also realistic. A shame you're not a bit closer John. Your offers of help are very much appreciated.

[aviator888]

If you are in Midlands i would be happy to help. I'm equipped with techstream and we can have a go over the weekend 🙂