250,000 mile Neglected LS400 - worth watching.

[Spacewagon52]

 

 

[BigBoomer]

It's reassuring that you can neglect them that much and they'll keep running, but then that timing belt could have snapped at any time over the last 100k miles.
It does look like it's had regular oil changes but the primary maintenance seems to have been neglected.

[hockeyedwards]

I remember this vid, a real testament to Lexus/ Toyota. Just shows how much people differ in their car 'care' though. I've probs spent more on mine in the past year then that car has had in its lifetime 🤣

[Malc1]

a good bodied specimen is always worthy of good maintenance ....... lucky previous owner to have simply got away with not spending too much on here BUT he did do the brakes and tyres and obviously did oil changes whatever so it's not really had zero maintenance .  just not really enough maintenance . but hey, he got away with it !

That leather seating looks sad tho'

Malc

[runsgrateasanut]

I think the owner could get away with the Cambelt, water pump vvti part and bearing changes, the valve cover gaskets and brake fluid change (not mentioned?) and the propshaft part.  Basically service items and ignore all the other stuff that the "shop" would want to do adding great expense.  The engine oil looked the right colour to me and the Transmission is good. I assume it has been MOT'd (or the equivalent) in America), and passed so all the rest looks like the hopes to boost Shops bottom line.    Oh and the rear light bulb - essential !

[Malc1]

22 minutes ago, runsgrateasanut said:

I think the owner could get away with the Cambelt,

It's a Mk3 with the interference engine should the cambelt " snap " 

I was reading some years ago that the early Ls400s cambelt life to " snap " was 150k miles  ..........  taking a chance for sure by not changing it ...  must be tempting not to tho' if the waterpump is still all ok !

Ho hum ...... a wonderful car and worthy of a better future in life surely ?

Malc 

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, Malc1 said:

It's a Mk3 with the interference engine should the cambelt " snap " 

I was reading some years ago that the early Ls400s cambelt life to " snap " was 150k miles  ..........  taking a chance for sure by not changing it ...  must be tempting not to tho' if the waterpump is still all ok !

Ho hum ...... a wonderful car and worthy of a better future in life surely ?

Malc 

 "worthy of a better future in life surely ?" Are we still talking about cars?😀

[Spock66]

2 hours ago, Malc1 said:

I was reading some years ago that the early Ls400s cambelt life to " snap " was 150k miles  ..........  taking a chance for sure by not changing it ...  must be tempting not to tho' if the waterpump is still all ok !

The first version was a non-interference design, so no major drama if the belt did break.

[ColinBarber]

34 minutes ago, Spock66 said:

The first version was a non-interference design, so no major drama if the belt did break.

1995 onwards have interference engines. 

[Linas.P]

That is what I often like to point out when talking about "reliable cars".

The way I see it there are basically 3 categories:

• Many modern cars are "reliable", but they are reliable conditionally on timely maintenance - for example I would put IS250, GS300, GS450 and most of current Lexus line-up in this category, they are reliable, but they are not indestructible and if you get poor example it could cost thousands to fix... it may still run for a long time on shoe strings, but it won't run well.
• There are unreliable cars with design flaws that even when cared for still fails - like IS220d.
• But then there are those cars which are "inherently reliable", one example of such car is LS400, I think Toyota 2JZ is another such example, so Supra for example. Those are cars that even with minimal maintenance still can stay on the road for very long time. I think cars equipped with 3UZ engines (all the 430s) still fit in this category of inherently reliable cars, even though I really hate anything with belts, they still can last 200k without issues.

I mean just look at it - 250k miles with minimal maintenance... sure not recommended, but after replacing few belts and few dried out gaskets it will do another 250k miles... again on minimal maintenance.

And you know in our modern "environmentally cautious society" it seems ridiculous suggestion, but why wouldn't they make the new car like this? Give it new body, new electrics (which even in latest Lexus does not have any reliability issues) and just pop out new LS, GS, IS400. Maybe slight update to ECU for better fuel economy (not that 32MPG is bad for 90s 4L v8), maybe a more modern 8 speed gearbox (again Lexus/Toyota/Aisin seems to be able to make them completely reliable) and continue making these cars, because they last forever. I probably would as well move from belt to chain as that is my pet peeve, but apart of that it is bulletproof. But no - we have ridiculous taxation and air quality requirements which would make this car impossible to buy and register... much better force everyone to upgrade to BEVs and replace them every 2-3 years. I still think consumerism is the key issue, not the cars... I haven't done exact math, but I do suspect that this 26 years old LS with 250k miles works out cleaner to environment, than replacing 9 cars in the same period of time (no matter who individually economical and clean they are). Well at least they still make 3GR (or derivatives of it).

[runsgrateasanut]

On 10/7/2023 at 8:51 PM, ColinBarber said:

1995 onwards have interference engines. 

Yes my Mk2 (1993) is non interference Engine and I did change the Cambelt as soon as I got it (110k miles) and it looked brand new so now I'm on 150K it won't get changed again until 200k if the car last that long. Rust being the only bugbear.

[Malc1]

I'm sure my " new to me " 1991 Ls400 has the original cambelt, waterpump etc at just short of 98k miles  ......  I'll get this 6/700 mile trip off to Wales under my belt these next couple of weeks at which time the fresh MOT will be due .......  at which I'm not expecting any issues arising  .....  then I'll think about renewing the cambelt, knowing it's possibly looking like new under there !

The cam belt isn't due on my Mk3 ( as in the video ) for about another 60k miles 

Malc