Andy's LS430 II: Return of Alexa

DruLS · March 30, 2020

Taking advantage of not having to work at the moment. First job I tacked was to change the diff oil. No idea when it was last done (if ever). But I think you can have a good guess based on the colour.

I was going to be changing out the ATF but the fill plug is buried so deep in the tunnel I can't get a socket on it and I have no 24mm spanners. I've ordered one and will have to wait until that arrives.

In other news, I hate this brake disc. The car is currently still on jack stands because this refuses to come off.

I've ordered a brake disc puller (which was not cheap) and a big ole' hammer (which was). Hopefully I can get this off with a bigger hammer then the one I have so I don't have to fork out money on this puller. Cross your fingers for me, because after all that hammering I can't cross mine anymore.

The-Acre · March 30, 2020

Wow, I've never seen one so firmly stuck. I guess you tried some heat?

DruLS · March 30, 2020

11 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Wow, I've never seen one so firmly stuck. I guess you tried some heat?

Heat, WD40, hammers, chisels, swearing, more WD40, crowbar, more hammering, swearing again. I swear somebody welded this thing onto the hub.

steve2006 · March 30, 2020

You have I assume tried putting 2 high tensile bolts in the threaded holes and gradually and evenly tightening them onto the hub face?

DruLS · March 30, 2020

1 hour ago, steve2006 said:

You have I assume tried putting 2 high tensile bolts in the threaded holes and gradually and evenly tightening them onto the hub face?

Yep. One stripped the threads out, the other broke a piece of the disc off. You can see that on the left hand side of the disc.

Herbie · March 30, 2020

I find this stuff to be infinitely better than WD40 for releasing stuff.

DruLS · March 30, 2020

35 minutes ago, Herbie said:

I find this stuff to be infinitely better than WD40 for releasing stuff.

I actually ordered some PB Blaster already. Usually only sold in the US but I found a UK seller, should be here tomorrow. It's supposed to eat through the rust. Never tried it so lets see if it works. Either way I've ordered a 14lb sledge hammer and a brace disc puller - that's going to be my last resort as it was quite expensive. Hopefully I can hammer it out and return the puller. Doubt I'll ever need it again.

DruLS · March 30, 2020

Haven't been able to listen to music in the car as the rear sub was blown. Ordered a new surround replacement kit from the US.

Bad news is, once I removed the sub I tried to stereo to see how it sounds and it's still distorted. Looks like the drivers side speaker has the same issue also. I've ordered another repair kit but it has to come from the US so they'll be a wait on that.

RgrWynne · March 31, 2020

I must say Andy you are a revelation, willing to get stuck in to anything, with brilliant reports, which are both entertaining and informative, well done, Rgds, Roger

DruLS · March 31, 2020

23 minutes ago, RgrWynne said:

I must say Andy you are a revelation, willing to get stuck in to anything, with brilliant reports, which are both entertaining and informative, well done, Rgds, Roger

Well thank you very much 😀Yesterday was my last day of working due to redundancy, and with the lockdown I have to keep myself busy somehow otherwise I'll go stir crazy!

The-Acre · March 31, 2020

1 hour ago, DruLS said:

Well thank you very much 😀Yesterday was my last day of working due to redundancy, and with the lockdown I have to keep myself busy somehow otherwise I'll go stir crazy!

At least there aren't restrictions on car fettling if we have space to do it away from people.

DruLS · March 31, 2020

I'm going to be sore tomorrow, even with a massive sledge hammer it took some beating.

Looking much better now.

You can see how much rust is on the back of these.

I'm guessing I loosened up the other one because that came off with a few whacks with the hammer. But the passenger side took a good 5 or 10 minutes if smacking it, and this was no small sledge hammer.

On another note, when I bought the car I noticed two of the tyres were leaking. Pretty annoying as I have to top them up for each journey. Thinking it was a puncture I treated the car to a nice set of Goodyear Eagle F1s but unfortunately it's still doing it. I sprayed them with soapy water and it looks like they're leaking from the rim.

Do you think this could just be corrosion that can be cleaned up or am I looking at a new set of wheels?

I was going to change out the ATF but I couldn't get the fill plug loose. It's a 24mm bolt but there's not enough room to get a socket in there. I bought an offset spanner like this, but it just slips off the bolt:

Does anybody know where I can get a similar spanner that's a 6 point instead of a 12 or whatever this one is?

Another thing I've always wondered, any idea why the car goes all gangsta lean after it's been lifted off the ground for a while? My old one did it too. Are my struts leaking or is this just something they do? (It never does it on the ground, even when left parked).

DruLS · April 2, 2020

Tyres are now all fixed. One of them actually had a crack in it which was causing it to leak. The other just had dirt around the valve that needed cleaning. Luckily I had an old set of wheels from my last LS so we just replaced the cracked one with one of those.

It seems these Lexus wheels have a problem with cracking. I had a wheel on my last one get cracks along every spoke.

The-Acre · April 2, 2020

Another member had a really badly cracked wheel recently, I've not heard of it being a common thing though. I don't know why the car would sag after being jacked up but the sir struts are complex beasts, it may well be because the height sensors have been raised so high. Glad you got that disc off at last, did you dance on its grave?!

cruisermark · April 2, 2020

58 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Another member had a really badly cracked wheel recently, I've not heard of it being a common thing though. I don't know why the car would sag after being jacked up but the sir struts are complex beasts, it may well be because the height sensors have been raised so high. Glad you got that disc off at last, did you dance on its grave?!

I think that was andy when he had the silver LS

DruLS · April 2, 2020

24 minutes ago, cruisermark said:

I think that was andy when he had the silver LS

So just me then 😆

1 hour ago, The-Acre said:

Glad you got that disc off at last, did you dance on its grave?!

I didn't have the strength left to dance! I'm sure all the neighbours wondered what on earth I was doing smacking my own car with a sledgehammer though. Probably thought I went made under lockdown conditions haha.

The-Acre · April 3, 2020

13 hours ago, cruisermark said:

I think that was andy when he had the silver LS

I see....

DruLS · April 7, 2020

So I came outside yesterday to find both tyres completely flat again, even on the one where I provided a replacement wheel I know to be good. So I had to have somebody come out for a third time to take a look. It appears there was corrosion as suspected, especially on the one we didn't replace. It appeared no effort was taken to try and remove it on any of the other visits. The paint was pealing and flaking right off, there's no way a tyre would have made a good seal on that surface. The guy that came today actually took photos to report it to the other guy's manager as obviously this wasn't acceptable. I was using tyresonthedrive.com. I've used them for years and never before had any issue like this with them, I recommend them to everyone.

Instead of trying to clean it up I just handed him over another spare rim I had which was much cleaner. He cleaned them both up and added some sealant. The replacement does have a slight buckle but nothing that can't be evened out with some weights. Hopefully when I go outside tomorrow I'll find they're still holding air. I don't fancy buying a new set of wheels at the moment. If I do buy a new set of wheels they won't be Lexus. I've had nothing but trouble with these wheels and I've had 3 sets of them. Two of the tyre fitters I spoke to told me Lexus wheels were not great. Surprising seeing how everything else on the car is so well made.

In other news, I've had to get in touch with the company that built my exhaust for my last LS. I have it and want to fit it to my new one, but I can't use stock gaskets because they cut off the original flange on the cats and welded new ones on. I guess they did this so it would fit the flanges they have for the exhaust side, rather then trying to make ones that match up to the cats or use the old rusty flanges from the original exhaust.

Also took advantage of the weather and treated it to some snow foam.

I cleaned up the manky floor mats with the jet washer too. They came up looking much better then before. Hopefully they won't take too long to dry out. Tomorrow I think I'll finish off cleaning it, and wire up my dashcam and GROM-USB3 which I've been putting off for too long.

The-Acre · April 8, 2020

And don't forget to mow the lawn!

DruLS · April 8, 2020

47 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

And don't forget to mow the lawn!

It's on today's list, I did the front yesterday. I'm trying to space out my chores 🤣

RgrWynne · April 8, 2020

1 hour ago, The-Acre said:

And don't forget to mow the lawn!

Don’t tell him that Phil....will stop our entertainment 😂😂😂

The-Acre · April 8, 2020

1 hour ago, DruLS said:

It's on today's list, I did the front yesterday. I'm trying to space out my chores 🤣

Ditto! And I've just washed my car to discover paint splashes on it from painting my garden workshop, another job to pass time!😁

DruLS · April 9, 2020

On 4/8/2020 at 11:14 AM, The-Acre said:

Ditto! And I've just washed my car to discover paint splashes on it from painting my garden workshop, another job to pass time!😁

Oh no, have you tried using a clay bar? Hopefully that will work and you won't have to resort to something a bit more harsh.

Or just finish the job and respray the entire car using the same paint 😂

The-Acre · April 9, 2020

5 minutes ago, DruLS said:

Oh no, have you tried using a clay bar? Hopefully that will work and you won't have to resort to something a bit more harsh.

Or just finish the job and respray the entire car using the same paint 😂

Good idea but I'm not sure a water based "willow" will suit! At least I waxed it recently so it could be worse. I was thinking the same about a clay bar and as I have one that's what I'll do.

DruLS · April 9, 2020

15 minutes ago, The-Acre said:

Good idea but I'm not sure a water based "willow" will suit! At least I waxed it recently so it could be worse. I was thinking the same about a clay bar and as I have one that's what I'll do.

It'll take some elbow grease but at least it won't be too harsh on the paint. If that doesn't work (I'm assuming this is water based paint?) - if so you could try using acetone (or nail polish remover which is just a weaker acetone). Just make sure to wash it off immediately as it will start to eat into paint, but in my experience contact over short periods of times doesn't do any damage.