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Prevention is better than the cure, I've mentioned this many times before but will again. I clean out my wheel arches every year since I owned the car, the 1st time I did it there was a pile of crud all over the floor and now there is very little. When the car is dry remove the black arch trims ( 4 self tappers) then feel around the arches loosening any built up crud with your fingers (take care here not to snag your fingers or use a stiff toothbrush),using a hosepipe wash the remaining crud from the arches and clean the area where the black trim fits over. Allow to dry then apply a good coat of underseal behind the arch,apply a good layer of grease to the back of the arch trims and refit wiping off any excess grease. I also take the car to one of those car wash places where it also washes the underside after winter to remove the salt. I've no rust issues with the arches or anywhere else on my 21 year old car, the arches rust due to the build up of crud which contains plenty of corrosive road salt and when left causes the problems especially when it gets damp.

Don't buy it, you'll become addicted! Nothing else will be able to take its place....... If its in decent condition with good history, grab it while its still available, they're becoming harder to find and you'll be smitten.

Hey Chaps, So finally had some time to give the beast a good clean, and snap some photos with the newly painted bonnet. The vents are still carbon, and the bodyshop have lacquered them for added protection. The sharper eyed will also notice the rear has been partially de-badged. ;) Hope you like it. :) Next up is my Novel carbon fender ducts, service and recall work at Lexus Woodford, BC BR coilovers..... busy times! :) Cheers. Pete

Hi Guys, It took me ages and lots of online searching to find some feature tips n tricks here n there. I have hand picked few ( hand clicked :) )which i really liked. so here they are. If you have any thing to add please feel free. Thanks When you put the L/R mirror on and you put your car on reverse, the mirrors turn downwards allowing you to see the floor behind. If you hold the unlock button on the remote down for more than 2seconds all the windows roll down There's a rotary knob underneath driver's side dash that adjust the loudness of the beep when you lock and unlock your car ( i have not tried this yet ) Smartkey: If you leave the key inside the car and try to lock the vehicle using the door buttons it can detect the key is inside the car and warns you with a long beep ...how does it know whether the key is just inside the door or just outside in your pocket? Beats me. Smartkey (2): You can assign seat setting presets to each individual key (husband and wife for example) by pairing a key with a seat position preset button (1, 2 or 3). From then on whenever that key unlocks the car the seat will automatically adjust to the right position without having to press the seat memory button. Bluetooth Phone: You can get around the "can't dial when the car is moving" problem by simply dialing the number from the phone in your pocket - it will still come through hands-free once the connection is made. Bluetooth Phone (2): If you have a PDA that uses your bluetooth phone to sync it won't work while the phone is connected to the car. To get around this temporarily you can tell the car to try to connect to a different phone that you have previously paired (just borrow one for this purpose). As it attempts to pair with the other phone (the other phone doesn't have to be present for this to happen) it will release the current phone and therefore allow you to sync your PDA. Just reverse the process to pair the phone with the car again afterwards. Bluetooth Phone (3): If you switch off the car during a handsfree conversation the phone will offer you option of transferring the call back to your phone to continue it (works on Sony Ericsson T610 at least). Door Storage Pockets: You can actually pull these and they will swing outwards 45 degrees to more easily get to items. I Agree Button: You can get rid of this prompt on the Nav system by saying "I agree" into the voice recognition system when this screen is first presented rather than pushing the button. Be aware the voice recognition system in the LS430 isn't all that great (as you know) so it might require a few attempts until it correctly acknowledges the command. Rear massaging seats will change speed if you hold down the button The 3rd button bellow volume controls on sterring wheel is preset volume memory button. set your volume to where you want it tobe then hold the 3rd button down for about 5sec untill you hear a beep. (I got my set to very low volume, so i can just tap it when i need to answer my cell) Don't forget the little roll of material behind the rear view mirror to keep the sun out of your eyes. Just pull it down...how neat is that

We must have been in the same class! There was a Frenchman who had an LS 460 and who was out with his wife for a leisurely Sunday afternoon`s drive. She offered the instruction "Go home" and the car took them both to his mistress! Regards John

The only voice recognition in my car is the wife's

It is difficult to make welded repairs to the inner arch partly because of limited access but also because the metal may well be too thin and/or too rusty to weld. It is OK to cut metal sections to cover any holes by sticking/riveting them in place or using self-tapping screws. The holes I had were quite small so I used Petropatch to cover them (see earlier post). If they had been larger, I would have cut some metal to cover them. Repairs like this are fine in the wheel arches because they are not structural but this should not be done on the sills/cills. These areas are structural and only welding repairs should be done here, preferably with the rusty section cut out and new metal welded in. If you just weld a patch over the rust, the area will continue to rust from the inside.

That will work for a time and will give the car a longer life ,if you are happy with knowing the rot is still going on and keep an eye on the cills it should be ok.

If the car is going okay then it's worth fixing the rust and your mileage is quite low for this car. I bought some 1mm thick steel sheet on Ebay (about £12), used some cardboard for a a template, and cut the metal to the template for both wheel arches. You can't do it in one piece for the whole wheel arch, so I've done in several sections. I haven't done the trailing edges yet. I've just painted them with Hammerite. My idea is to stick the metal to wheel arches and rivet in place, then paint using waxoyl underseal.

Jeremy If the inner arches are rotten its a lost cause,the cost of taking off the rear wing to get in there is prohibitive, you can bodge them from the outside face but they will continue to rot were you can't see.Thats not to say that the car will fail its ticket and may take ages to get riddled but its not something I could live with.

If the chassis is corroded through, unless it's localised and minor i would abandon it. The wheel arches can be repaired, but if the inner arch is rotten as well it becomes a big job. Get a body man to see how extensive and widespread the corrosion is. I broke up a series one with no corrosion anywhere, better than my series two and looks like better than later models

............. any MOT Advisories about rust ? Generally I would say repair it all ... 86k miles is insignificant in the life of a Mk3 Malc

I did a fair amount of research before buying Mobil 3309. Many examples of transmission failure have been reported by not using the correct one. I think it's the same on all Lexus cars, the correct type is stamped on the end of the dipstick. Mine clearly says T 1V

I think scaremongering is a bit strong. There are plenty of examples, both on these forums and others, where owners haven't used the correct fluid, such as a standard dexron fluid, and their transmissions very quickly started to misbehave. If T-IV is recommended/mandated then I'd recommend that advise is followed. Obviously a direct equivalent can also be used, such as the OEM Mobil 3309, and owners should do their own research to make sure what they are using is compatible.

Hi everybody, as a retired engineer I have done lot of research into this over the last week as it seems to be very difficult to purchase atf fluid for the ls430 at a reasonable price. I have examined the specifications for Toyota type T-1V, Mobil 3309, and most importantly Mannol Jas 315 type 1A which is badged as JWS 3309. All the specifications are the same, the only difference being in the price which as the Mannol JWS 3309 is very cheap compared to the other two. I have also contacted Lexus and Toyota and the answers they have given me would suggest that there is no reason why this can not be used in their vehicles, the only proviso is that if used on a warranty vehicle it would void the warranty. Saying that, drivers with vehicles under warranty should not have to top up their vehicles anyway if they did their would be a serious problem with that vehicle and it would have to go back to the supplier. I have also contacted Mannol and they assure me that their transmission fluid can be used in all Toyota and Lexus models. The warranty issue is slightly irrelevant for the reason already stated, the same thing applies to also anything you purchase that carries a warranty. Aisin Warner also state that the Mannol fluid can be used in their gearboxes. There appears to be quite a lot of scaremongering on this issue and owners of Lexus vehicles need to make their own decision on what type/make of fluid they wish to use. If you read this thank you for your time.

If you do not want to go down the main dealer route, I can recommend a Varta Type 068 70Ah battery from Tayna Ltd (www.tayna.co.uk), who have a wide range of batteries at cheaper prices than I have seen elsewhere. I bought one of these batteries at the beginning of 2013 for my 1996 LS400 and have recently bought the same one for my 1997 LS400. The one I bought recently was £65.50, which included delivery. It comes with a 4 year warranty and is a perfect fit in the battery tray. The cars have always started without any problem, whatever the weather.

Seems a bit drastic, just to get some rust killer in place....

Its always best to use the genuine fluid in my opinion, but having spent many many hours researching this I found quite a lot of evidence that Mobil are the ones who appear to make the Toyota fluid as they do for other Car manufacturers who use the AW gearboxes. AW are a sub division or joint venture between Toyota and Borg warner as they were. Some guys who appear to know what they are talking about are adamant that T-IV is just Mobil 3309 rebadged as is the case for Volvo genuine fluid that is alledgedly the same as T-IV used in the same AW gearboxes. Now I know that doesnt clear things up much but it might be worth finding out if the Mobil ATF was 3309 or another mobil type which wont do the job as 3309 will. So in summation, the Mobil needed to be 3309. I hope that makes sense.