ambermarine

Roger I have to point out that the requirement for a torque wrench is not strictly true the wheel brace in the toolkit of the LS is adequate to undo the wheel nuts if used to tighten them up and that tightness is achievable with the wheel brace . To that end the design of the wheel brace as been thought out to create the safe torque for manual application,sometimes the tyre garages use power wrenches that are set too high this can result in snapped lugs whilst driving especially on steel wheels and the impossible task of undoing the nuts in the case of a puncture with the vehicle supplied wheel wrench.

I agree with Pete mistakes are only made by learning from experience ,If you want to avoid this issue in future tape a notice to the inside of your hubcaps in red letters "Tighten wheel nuts" this will cover all instances when wheels are off punctures etc.

Here is a pic

Get a replacement sensor it is located down behind the front bumper fitted to the reinforcement on the drivers side,below the headlight to one side of the number plate Paul frost will have one .

I was speaking to a mid fifties garage owner a couple of weeks ago and he commented on doing a cambelt on a merc which did his back in I said he would have done better with a 400 and he retorted it was just a Toyota and if you speak to people who know the link they all say the same thing. It is as been a lifetime experience owning Lexus LS400s something only a very few of us get the privilege and I for one thank my lucky stars.

But those miles are coming at a price the suspension and running gear as been well used and as good as these cars are it will show on high mileage models also the batteries are going to fail eventually with constant charge and recharge that end come nearer the more use thy are put to. Having owned a ls400 mark 1 and run that from 50K to nearly 190k I noticed the difference both financially and in the feel of the car.that feeling was amplified when I got my 19k mark4 . So yes they are a quality build that are going to last the test of time but you do not want one at the end of its good spell.

The chances of petrol driven cars being taken out of use on roads worldwide are non existent and as much the green elves want it there are numerous reasons it will not happen for decades if ever. First of all the cost to the economy of any country changing over to a more expensive format . The finite resources for batteries ,available content limit. Infrastructure supporting recharge of batteries likely too expensive in developing countries. Geopolitical effects on developments ie; China controls most of the mining resource on battery content. The final one and most important is freedom of choice,not everyone or even a small minority will give that up.

First impressions are mixed the damage to the cill as been botched both in panel work and paint the interior is far from showroom condition and the general appearance is shoddy no service history and a kph clock ,not worth £5K and to my mind if you are in the market for a import get one that is imported direct this one is UK used.

I raised this topic about five years ago when I acquired the Mark 4 and tried all of these solutions mentioned but to no avail, I also ruined two front tyres inside 3k miles and was at my wits end until I was informed about a engineer in Glasgow called Kenny Miller,he specialized in building racing cars and high end motor engineering. He had the car half a day and he fixed the problem and it was a lot more to do with geometry and cam settings than wheel alignment ,unfortunately the guys at Kwik fit and the like are basically just reading the manual on the equipment they are using and do not understand the fundamentals of the science . Consequently if the readings coming out of the equipment look OK that may not be the solution to the problem on the car which was the case on mine, the equipment at Lexus and a Mitsubishi dealership in Barnstaple failed to pick up a 1 degree error in the nearside front lower arm cam adjustment and 20k miles on the front end alignment is perfect.

Short answer to that is yes, The alternator is probably shorted and that will in turn create a circuit which will drain the battery.Take the battery off the car and charge it up and after you have fitted the new alternator re- connect . Anyway you should always disconnect the battery before doing any type of electrical work on a Lexus Ls 400 mainly to protect the 32 ecu's on the car.

If one were to speculate on treatment post manufacture, the operation would only be a complete steam clean of the chassis and suspension then a complete spray of Dinitrol to the surface area. This is what I did on my Mark 4 six years ago and there is no rust but there was no rust when I bought the 14 year old so the answer to the question ,who knows, it is a case of what is being covered up .

Hi Try www.manuals.co/workshop/lexus/ls-400 its free

Maybe its a retrofit after a failure.

My car still has that tracking device fitted and as in your case it was originally a demo car that Lexus Cheltenham owned for the first twelve months,probably part of their insurance conditions it was fitted. I have not found the connections or the device but I do know it still operates as it runs my battery down after about three weeks if the car is idle,the documentation and contact information came with the car I have spoken to the company that operates the service and they confirm the car is connected and I can subscribe to the service any time. If the car was worth a tidy sum I think re-subscribing might lower my insurance premiums but it is not worth it now. I now keep the battery in fine fettle with an intelligent charger that was designed to keep golf caddy batteries charged up and have been using it for seven years I got about three years out of my last two Yuasa 80 AH batteries,that's a far cry from the 10 years I got from the factory fitted battery on my Mark 1 they don't make em like that any more .

If your screen wash is freezing up you are diluting it too much go for a more concentrated mix also the bottles on the LS range are not in a warm place stowed down between the wheel arch and front bumper

Lets calm down boys the debate on pro's and cons of the Ls 400 and the 430 are well established and go back at least 15 years,there have been reports of design faults on the 430 leading to mechanical failures but conversely there were design faults on the ls400 in the first three series it was only in the Mark 4 that the engineers had tweaked the car to being almost perfect but that was taking into account initial start of the design 1983 to 1997 fourteen years of tweaking .The ls430 was in production for six years and had some features that were new and had not been tried on the 400 although air suspension was available on the first 400s and was an abject failure so much so that it was dropped on the next two series. Anyone who bought a mark 1 with air suspension ended up changing to coilovers on Lexus advice. If the LS430 had stayed in production I doubt some of the problems they have would be inherent in later models but time moves on and even whilst the 430 was in its third year of production the ls460 was on the drawing board and they were omitting a lot of the things that were wrong in the 430 in that design.

Hi INorman Get yourself a decent sized needle and insert it into the hole in the nozzle and move it around until it hits the headlight were it is best ,usually low down as the airstream then shoves the water across the lens as you travel forward.

Stu Very good question and to be perfectly honest I have to say no ,but I have one as good as that so it makes me a bit tight in the wallet ,should anything awful happen to mine then I would be making a bid for it.

This debate is interesting to me in that it highlights my own mint ls400 Mark 4, It isnt a DHP version but it only as 41k on the clock and condition is comparable to the advertised example . I paid £3750 with 19k on the clock six years ago and I know the gent I bought it from had been trying to sell it for more for at least a year. At the time a couple of members on this forum were foaming at the mouth and beseeching me to contact them if I ever intended to sell it. Well six years on it is virtually the same condition as when I first laid eyes on it and I learned so much from my previous Mark 1 of 16 years ownership regarding preventive corrosion practice that there is no rust on my car and it is now twenty years old. If you were to put the advertised example in that scenario ,then you have a car for the rest of your days at my age and £9K for that peace of mind is nothing when a second hand compact will cost you that. As the advert says its a Lexus LS400 Mark 4 in mint condition, go and find me another one and you are not getting mine even if you offered Nine grand

Mathew I have a well sorted Mark 4 that runs like it left the factory yesterday because it as only 40k on the clock and dismisses the argument that these cars do not benefit from being lightly used.There is not a suspension part that lasts forever and the very extreme torques and frictions the parts go through will tell on the dynamics of the car with age. I had previous to this car a mark 1 that I owned for 16 years which I got with 50k on the clock when I sold it with 180k on the clock it was suffering with all the ailments yours has despite replacement of all the oca's and trailing arm bushes.Quite simply she was tired and did not justify a complete rebuild due to rust which I do not have on the mark 4. As good as these cars are they are a mechanical object and have in the end all the frailties that mechanics bring . The chances of picking up a Mark 4 in mint condition are virtually nil and it looks like you will have to heed the advice of those members who are better qualified than I on replacing with a Celsior which after all do come from a better environment.

Just replaced my rubbers from the official Lexus (ebay) work out at £17 for drivers side and are genuine Toyota branded on the rubber . Always put on genuine and they last 4/5 years. I did try Trico years ago on my Mark 1 but they were poor and noisy.

I agree the parts will be an issue here but are available from jap importers at a price ,looks very retro and a bit style dated I would stick with a Celsior if you are keen on the LS range but good example's will fetch a premium.

Points to worn suspension bushes if it comes on at speeds between 50/80 mph I had this problem around 130k on my Mark 1 ,turned out to be trailing arm, rear bushes but it can occur on front suspension bushes also.

Malc I beg to differ on the low mileage causing harm to the car. My Mark 4 had 19k on it at 14 years old( one owner )now its got 42 k on it after my 6 years of ownership and it as never missed a beat and still runs and performs like it came of the factory floor this morning

The lock on the boot is sequenced with all the locks and if you unlock the boot with the key and not the solenoid pull on the dash the alarm triggers . The way round this is to unlock the car with the fob and then use the key on the boot that way the alarm is not on to go off but you will need to do it within fifteen seconds or the alarm will re-arm.