ambermarine

The only remedy is to replace the sunroof with a breaker kit from Paul Frost ( contact details on forum archives). The task of removing the existing roof will have to be carried out just to access the problem and looking at the pics I have doubts as to how much can be achieved, The removal of the roof liner will be required after that it is quite straight forward.

The normal mode for the ariel is up at all times the audio is on,this enables the TA function (Traffic alert) to inform you of local road and traffic issues it butts in on your CD then goes back to the CD play when the TA as finished its bulletin.

I may have unintentionally insulted you Phil and that was my clumsy way of explaining why the Lexus designers made the LS600H a non towing vehicle. The model is aimed at the high end Luxury market and the Designers would look at the potential use as a towing vehicle outside that market and its resultant sales. Their consideration that the US being their biggest export market and the fact that caravans are not the holiday vehicle of choice there ,rather the RV and some of them can cost From a $100k to $1M. Sorry for that.

The LS400 was made for towing and its towing capacity was 2000 kg which is nearly the weight of the car the car weighs 2245kgs ,now that towing capacity is for a braked unit and this drops significantly to 750kgs if the trailer is unbraked. Again the LS430 was designed to tow and I believe around the same parameters.

My My John thats one hell of a car you have there dragging a 20 ton caravan down the M5 Must get you some funny looks.

Phil There are valid reason as to why Lexus consider a vehicle fit for towing or in your case not,The main reason is the weight to power ratio of the car and its transmission. The weight of the car is a big factor in the design of the power train and to get the optimum performance they factor in all sorts of inputs and outputs ,one being the gear ratios, this is critical in the feel of the driving experience and the road holding capabilities. Now a big upset to that is a three quarter ton or more hanging on the arse end pushing and pulling that highly tuned drive train all over its thrust range and quickly messing it up. So what Lexus are saying is we don 't encourage the towing of caravans because we did'nt design the car for that and we will probably void your warranty if you tow anything and lastly we do have Rx and Lx 4wds that are more than capable of doing that job. Sorry Phil but after all its a Luxury sedan who's owners normally stay in a five star hotel.

I expect to report back after the winter on how well the application as withstood the conditions,the question on brake calipers is something that needs research but why not on a temperature basis you would have to give the brakes some continuous wellie to achieve those parameters. Having done further research I believe this is a ceramic aluminum compound that creates a durable coating when heated up and is probably the same compound they coat mild steel exhaust systems with when in manufacture.

On my Mark 1 Ls400 the flange connection at the cat to exhaust slowly over the years corroded away until there was little metal left and the exhaust started to blow. It needed repair and that was either new flanges on cat and exhaust pipe or a welding job that turned out to be inadequate. When I purchased the Mark 4 this area was something I have monitored very closely and over the five years and 20k miles there as been some regular flaking of the metal on the flanges relative to the use of the car. I realize that over time this will lead to a similar scenario I had with the mark1. So I did some online research into protective coatings for this area and got some interesting results,these first of all entailed the temperatures this flange area gets to.The catalyst core can reach over 1500 degrees and the manifold at exhaust port 2000 but these are extremes and normal running temperatures are lower by 20% so looking at the flanges I reckoned they would get to a thousand maximum bearing in mind air flow cooling etc. The fahrenheit scale I have used (old school) led me in the direction of Rust-oleum product "hard hat"which gives heat resistance to a maximum of 750 degrees Centigrade this equals around 1380 F peak, plenty of cover for my 1000 F estimate at the flange area. I ordered a 500ml spray can and applied it liberally after removing all the flaking rust with wire brush and paint scraper. I went for a ten mile drive this morning and could smell it cooking during the trip, on my return I checked it and after it had cooled down tried to scrape off the paint it was as hard as enamel and impossible to scrape off I took these pics and it as not scorched or broken down so hopefully it will arrest the oxidation process that occurs on these flanges. Should it require a regular reapplication of the paint that is not a problem there is enough in the can to do 3 sq metres so I suggest that this is a very economical prevention method of replacing these flanges.

The baking of paint jobs is usually for individual panels such as boots bonnets wings bumpers etc(accident damage) ,as for rubber seals round doors a good paint shop will remove the rubber seals and mask up accordingly,but the paint will not be baked on a respray. The best way to find a good shop is to call on the ones in your area and check out work in progress and ask questions .

I fitted china delivered struts earlier this year bought on ebay simple to fit and are still working fine they were £20 delivered free and took two weeks.

bottom 95cm top 70cm

You could consider the vinyl route not as expensive as a respray and the look would be brand new.

The fuel filter is located in the halo above the rear subframe on the LS400 mark 4 ,this is an improvement on the location that was relevant to the Mark 1 which was on the rear passenger side rear door cill area. I think it is located in the halo region of the LS430 and retails between £10 and £15 ON EBAY

The problems with buying a written off car ,is you know it is and that for me is the reason I would not buy one, the intangibles would play on my mind not knowing the true history of its damage and the subsequent repairs how good they were etc. I once bought a written off LS400 but for spare parts and was'nt worried about the front suspension and steering gear damage that the seller said would repair ok .I stripped the car except for the engine and transmission and sold that on. If I was buying another Lexus it would have to have no baggage so in answer to your question ,No.

The number one rule in sales ,start by selling yourself, if the prospective buyer does not like you you are fighting a losing battle.the same goes for the interview.

John The misfire may have been caused by the engine ecu adapting to the poor fuel mix and subsequent changes after flushing the system .I would run it for a while yet before doing anything and see if the engine settles down it might be worth while changing the plugs.

Yes Stuart it is so easy to do and I have nearly done it before this occasion ,I have now found a solution that leaves a key in the car I can get to anytime. I mentioned on another subject there is a rubber bung in the chassis that gives access to the inner cavity I have placed a small magnet on the valet key that stops the key disappearing into the chassis ,when dropped just aside of the bung. It will be in there for ever so as it is not used for the purpose provided for it will be a useful safeguard against this happening again.

Decided to spend a few days in North Devon drove down Sunday six hours great trip , Parked the car in the hotel garage and went out with my daughter in her car (she lives in Braunton),on Monday did the same thing and on my return to the hotel garage unlocked the boot placing some purchases in there and not needing to enter the car shut the boot. Hey presto keys locked in the boot and the car not unlocked as fifteen seconds had elapsed since unlocking the car with the remote the car auto relocks. I have the green flag cover so rang them they sent me a tow truck from a local garage who informed me he had told green flag he would struggle to get in a Lexus ,alarm bells started in my head and I had visions of hire cars and a 600 mile round trip to get the spare key from home,I had earlier rung Lexus Exeter who did not have any source of help and recommended a locksmith. I asked the tow truck mech how confident he was he would'nt damage the door of the car forcing it apart to get a trip wire in ,he offered to leave there and then if I was going to worry too much so I was virtually in his hands . He pulled two inflatable envelopes and a plastic wedge out of a grubby satchel and after creating a gap at the top of the door with the wedge he then inserted the rubber envelope into the gap he pumped it up with a hand bulb similar to the one used on a blood pressure test bandage. This by degrees and alternative use of the two envelopes and the wedge on the top and side of the window profiles created a gap wide enough to get the wire into the car. He taped up all the edges the wire would contact and within a couple of minutes snagged the handle yanked it and the door flew open,the door was not marked or damaged and the profiles and gaps were fine . He was very professional from start to finish and I promised to write a good report on his garage website but he did not leave any note or card so I cannot name the garage but it did have the word horse in it and was in North Devon around the Barnstaple area

Just google the part no it will show up if it as been used on the search engine anytime. or failing that ,www.jp-carparts.com

The only live switch that carries a decent loading is the ariel and that is relayed, the rest are for the lights which you don't want to mess with. One of the reasons the LS range as a good record as far as failed bulbs is the perfect wiring system it as. You would be better advised to run a line from the engine bay fuse box in the brake pipe conduit beneath the chassis and enter the boot floor through one of the rubber grommets. That way you will be able to use a spare or inline fuse and install a switch in the boot on the plug in.

I have to say that if that is supposed to help driving at night it would have the opposite affect for me . It is taking the drivers attention away from the forward view through the screen and causing the focus of attention to be changing constantly from different perspectives.

I did that exercise on my Mark 1 and that had a further chip that needed to be soldered in place to convert the LHD to RHD I bought the LCD from a Chinese Guy in California and spent hours on the internet with him( subject to time zones ) in resolving issues that came up during the soldering to the board process and when completed involved 52 soldering joints. It eventually worked apart from 2s being 3s on the numerical display. If you are going to replace the LCD take some practice at fine soldering before you start on the installation the lcd connections if overheated will fall off.

Thanks for your link Adrian it as helped to clear up a dispute I had with Lexus UK over the faulty ignition switch I had on my 98 LS400 ,the symptoms were total loss of power to the instrument panel and most of the dashboard including some running lights whilst in motion,thankfully the engine and brakes was not affected. It now turns out after reading your link that the switch was the subject of a recall on the 97 Lexus LS400 issued in January 98 ,when I originally approached Lexus UK they denied there were any issues or reported faults they were aware of,subsequently I replaced the switch myself at a cost of £90. The fault turned out to be over application of lubricating grease which had migrated onto the contacts within the switch ,when it was cleaned up it works perfectly. So the thing to remember with Lexus is they don't always tell you the whole truth, and persistence is required.

There is a publication in The USA that gets very close to the official Lexus LS400 workshop manual but it is also very expensive and I think the Haynes publications could not get copyright permissions to produce a Manual for the LS400 back in 1990.