LS400 finally gets some attention

[Tinonline]

As threatened some time ago...feels like months...I spent some time on my LS400.

The delay was a case of coronovirus...living close to London and me commuting with a son also travelling proved to much. In a way I'm glad to get it over with I think as long as I don't get it again. 

My two boys at 24 and 20 got through it well although wife and I did well but it hurt. I had some nasty afters though and ended up collapsing in Tesco and spending a night in hospital. No driving for 6 months...docs think it was post viral infection or post covid reaction.  Looking back I tried to return too quickly and was running again...too soon. All ok now and I'm on a good 5km time and my running training is back to normal. Moral of the story: take your time with this b****rd - symptoms vary btw. Lasts for a while too.

Task 1 should have been the MOT but by the time I was ready...the world and country was not...I'm not forcing one now,  if I need a garage to fix something...that won't work.

Task 2 was an oil and filter change so with OE filter and Shell Helix that was a straight forward job - sump plug gasket was OE too.

Task 3 air filter change was really easy and differed from my previous experiences: I paid more attention and tried to move things as little as possible. This resulted in this being a painless task with the case fitting together easily and quickly! The outgoing filter after less than 5k miles and one year old looked pretty mucky. The engine side was much better so clearly it was doing its job. Certainly this is an annual replacement and my urban living clearly doesn't help.

Task 4 replacing the windscreen washer level float switch. I bought this a while ago for around £40 OE from abroad and with no postage so a bargain. Now this was fiddly and I ended up removing the very tight new seal from the switch, fitting it first to the base of the tank, then pushing up the unit through it. It takes some polite force and I feared damaging the float. To get the seal over the lip of the base of said switch means pushing the unit up whilst pulling and folding over the bottom of the seal. Done. All works and I suppose time will tell if I've been too rough with the unit.🧐

Some time ago I fitted a new coolant expansion cap - coolant level looks unchanged so I'm happy with that. It had moved lower over time in the past: there were no leaks and the engine is on 93485 miles with no signs or expectation of anything more sinister going on.

That'll keep things going for a while.

Hope you are all well. Keep safe. 😷

 

 

 

 

[runsgrateasanut]

Good to hear you've beaten the Virus.  Well done!

[Malc]

thankfully you're all over the covid crap..... well done ................  and now making good use of your Ls400 time

take it easy and just chill

Malc

[007M]

Good that u & your family have recovered from the virus, hopefully cannot harm again. 

Great job in getting some work done on the car, i recently also changed the air and pollen filters for my car, they were quite dirty. 

[Cotswold Pete]

Simon,  glad to hear your now cracking on with the 400.  I have just disconnected my screen washer float, did look at buying a new one (or repairing the current one), but been living without it for two years now, and always carry a 1.5 litre spare of wash in the boot.

I really want to do some work on mine with all this nice weather, but the Covid gave me Pneumonia and Heart Attack so even 5 weeks out of hospital, I find that lifting the bonnet and bending down to check wheel arches is a making me out of breath for a good half hour so likely to be a couple of months at least before I am going to be tinkering.

Going to be firing up the 400 today or tomorrow as it is now 8 weeks since the engine turned, Battery seemed okay a week ago.  Even though Dr say I can drvie now, methinks will not be wanting to drive anywhere just yet (even though a trip the Garden Centre would be handy).

 

 

[Tinonline]

10 minutes ago, Cotswold Pete said:

Simon,  glad to hear your now cracking on with the 400.  I have just disconnected my screen washer float, did look at buying a new one (or repairing the current one), but been living without it for two years now, and always carry a 1.5 litre spare of wash in the boot.

I really want to do some work on mine with all this nice weather, but the Covid gave me Pneumonia and Heart Attack so even 5 weeks out of hospital, I find that lifting the bonnet and bending down to check wheel arches is a making me out of breath for a good half hour so likely to be a couple of months at least before I am going to be tinkering.

Going to be firing up the 400 today or tomorrow as it is now 8 weeks since the engine turned, battery seemed okay a week ago.  Even though Dr say I can drvie now, methinks will not be wanting to drive anywhere just yet (even though a trip the Garden Centre would be handy).

 

 

Pete so sorry to hear this and very glad to hear you are up and about. Give yourself plenty of time...difficult when you want to get back to normal and get on with things.

Yep I disconnected mine some time ago too after failing to repair the float...just kept it topped-up. I got the part from that Ayama site or whatever it's called - some parts are expensive but the float from one of the suppliers was around 1/2 price. Came in Lexus parts box and was identical in every way. It's just one more thing to stop a long list of repairs forming!

I'll be interested to see how I get on with the MOT. I failed on emissions idle last year and fixed it with a bottle of cat cleaner and a thrash around a business park for 1/2 hour. Also I have a clunk at the front that I think is the upper arm. I've had new ball joints and lower arm bushes done...drop links seem to be OK.

I'd like to get at the rear brakes before the light tells me too... ☺️

[Cotswold Pete]

5 minutes ago, Tinonline said:

I'd like to get at the rear brakes before the light tells me too... ☺️

I just carry a spare, as they seem to blow about every two or three years (well the halford replacements do).

The Mk4 cluster is easy to pop out.

Never had any other lights fail in the rear clusters, so no idea whether they are still original or not, even so I have had the car for 7 years, so not too shabby.

Just had a front side/parking light go, that is one of the jobs I was going to do, and I need to either replace o refurb the off-side front indicator housing (has misting), its these really small jobs that must wait a few more weeks/months, and my MOT now overdue, but we did a 700 mile motorway blast the week before Covid got me, so hoping that will make the emmissions fine.

All in good time, as I have other DIY projects that my wife keeps telling me have to wait, so just spending a lot of time in the garden pottering, and watching all those series I recorded over last year I never thought I would have time to catch up with.