TigerFish

If you reach through the spokes on the wheel and flick or "twang" the backing plate behind the disk, does it rattle?

I'm not aware of any early warning signs, just that the abs/vsc lights come on and a buzzer noise sounding. They are not repairable as far as I know, or I should say, no oner has ever posted that they fixed one. There is a diagnostic procedure in the worksop manual I believe, but no idea if it leads to any other remedy than replacing the unit.

I have some rust on mine, and someone else mentioned getting it in the same place as mine has. Mostly on the drivers side just around where the bottom plastic panels meet the metal door. I don't think it is a common thing but look out for tell tale signs in the join areas. As far as other problems go, similar to the mk2 excluding the brake servo unit issue. Suspension parts are the same or very similar. Soem parts are cheap, some not so cheap. Other expensive issues to look out for are a leaking rear crank oil seal. A common issue on this engine. £900+ bill via Lexus or I got mine sorted for a touch over £300 by an independent. Head gasket went on mine too, again, an expensive job to get sorted. All in all, I would class the reliability of mine as pretty sh*t, and cost of ownership as pretty damn high. I guess mine has turned out a bit of a lemon but having got to a certain spend level, I'm better of keeping going rather than swapping for a different GS and having all of the same issues crop up again. Swings and round abouts I suppose. I've done 70 odd thousand miles in two years in it, I love the look and ride of the car, and performance is ok'ish. Not sure I would go with a Lexus again, so when this one finally dies, I'll be moving back to my previous marque I suspect.

Part numbers for the sensors are I think 89465-30630 Rear sensor 89465-50120 Front LH 89465-50130 Front RH

That's better. looking good

No pics showing mate

If its the same shape as mine in the pics in my signature, then you have a mk1. What you have is a Legato, rather than Leganto. Not sure what the differences are to a standard GS other than the legato had cloth seats rather than leather. Personal preference I guess if you think that is a good or bad thing. Easy enough to tell if it is an imported Toyota Aristo or a genuine Lexus GS300. If the car has not been tampered with you will have Toyota badges on instead of Lexus and it will say Aristo in the back panel between the rear lights. If those have been changed out to rebadge it as a Lexus, then check if the front indicators are seperate or built into the head lamp unit. The Aristo had them built in so the front glass headlamp lense wraps all the way round the indicators. The Lexus had plastic seperate indicators. Also the Aristos had traction control, so there should be a trc (or similar) button by the dash. The blanking plates you refer to are where the orange daylight running lights went on US models (and possibly jap models, not sure).

that is what the bleder i have does,but when i used it it just built up pressure in the resaviour and the fluid came out the top with all nippels open,from what i can see there is no air left in the system If the fluid came out of the top of the resevoir, then the seal on the cap on the top of the resevoir was not air tight. On a side note, when I used to use one of those kits, it did used to fill the fluid up to the brim in the resevoir (above max), so i did add a short length of tube on the inside of the cap so that it stopped adding the fluid at the right level.

Some suspension knocks and bumps are cheap to fix, some not so cheap. You could use this to your own advantage when haggling. Just be sure what is knocking if it is. bottom ball joints, track rod ends, tie rods are very cheap on ebay. Anti roll bar drop links are another common'ish knock, especially at the front and again, cheap on ebay. Top wishbones not so cheap, Bottom arms more expensive still. Sticking calipers and slide pins is very common across all lexus models pretty much. If you take the car for a test drive, make it reasonably spirited and check the temp of the alloy wheel on each corner, if one is noticably hotter than the rest, it could indicate one of these problems. Not especially expensive to fix, but can be frustrating pinning the actual issue down as it can cause knock on issues such as warped discs etc. The brake servo unit mentioned by Dave is the most expensive gotcha that I know of on the Mk2.

Very odd. Is it the original aerial (as per the pics in the links) or is it an aftermarket one? Where did you get the masts from? I've bought mine from ebay, both UK sellers and latterly US ones as I could 2 masts for the price of one compared to the UK. If I remember rightly, I think the US ones cost me £20 for two including delivery.

Nope, the existing brackets are no good. That's why I was asking Matt what the part numbers were on the brackets in his pic above. The fascia plate is a push fit into four sprung slots on the brackets, those slots are missing on the standard brackets as the stereo head unit takes up all of the space. I made my own brackets cutting bits out of a spare set of original brackets and using wood to make the missing bits. I would like to put proper ones in once I have the part numbers. The dealer said there were none, but Matts pic show otherwise :)

It should still be solid. A seized caliper shouldn't make any difference to bleeding, as the pistons are essentially redundant when the bleed nipple is open and the fluid is coming straight out. I suspect the extra bit of work on the calipers, and presumably bleeding them again, just cleared the air pocket.

wait fore the second one to turn up and its yours, for what i pay for it Im in no rush at all bud, my car has been out of action due to HG failure anyway. Just waiting untill im well enough to fix so PM whenever :) Not expensive for the plate, £15 or there abouts. Part No 55412-30430. I used the cubby hole bit as well on mine as the stereo is single din. Costs £23'ish + vat. Part No 55521-32011. They are Toyota part numbers, Lexus don't do the equivelent. Thanks for that TF, is that £15ish for the actual double din facia? Have actually got a couple of the single din Toyota pockets already from running single din units in my MR2 briefly. JDM double dins much better though ;) Yup, that is for the double din fascia plate only. No brackets.

wait fore the second one to turn up and its yours, for what i pay for it Im in no rush at all bud, my car has been out of action due to HG failure anyway. Just waiting untill im well enough to fix so PM whenever :) Not expensive for the plate, £15 or there abouts. Part No 55412-30430. I used the cubby hole bit as well on mine as the stereo is single din. Costs £23'ish + vat. Part No 55521-32011. They are Toyota part numbers, Lexus don't do the equivelent.

Do not believe they are available. I gave dimensions for the front calipers to Janey a while ago but have yet to see any in the LOC shop. The rear calipers have too small a surface area to apply decals. Have you tried sorted vti with your measurements?

If they are squealing like a stuck pig, then they are probably worth getting then. Shims are simple to fit, just need to remove pads and then put everything back together including the shims. Oh, and don't forget a tube of copper slip to put in between shims/pads/caliper. Looks like you either buy the pad kit which comes with the pads and shims for about £75, or buy the shims seperately. You will need 4 x Shim No1 P/N 74444-14130 and 4 x Shim No2 P/N 47745-14060. I think all eight should come to somewhere around £25 all in, minus LOC discount if they give it.

They should be the same as ones for any other lexus. Ebay has them, the LOC shop has some I think still, and a member called Sorted vti (aka Neil) can make them for you if you PM him.

Ouch. Some big jobs there although shop around for sure for some of them. The brake pad shims I would get from Lexus, they come as a complete set. Mind you, they are not a neccessity IMO, they just help prevent squeal from the brakes. The crank oil leak is a common fault. Had to have it done on mine and requires the gearbox to be removed. Lexus quoted £950 I think it was, got it done for £330 by a local place including changing the torque convertor oil seal at the same time. Upper wishbones are a pretty simple job to change, I did a tutorial here when I did one of mine. clicky Discs and pads are easy to do yourself too, I did a tutorial on the front brakes, rears are similar bar the foot/hand brake drum and shoes. clicky Not a lot you can do regarding the aircon pipe other than get another one. Bit of a lottery getting a second hand one so your call really. One of the pipes on mine was replaced just before I got it, and from what I remember, it was an unpleasant price. I certainly think if you are ok with a spanner and happy to get your hands dirty, the brakes, balljoints, wishbones, dampers are all easy wins at fairly cheap prices. Not sure what they mean by strut being worn, any extra info on that one?

Has the toothed cord inside the mast come out properly from the old aerial? i.e. definately none of it stuck inside the motor housing still? I did this tutorial on the mk1 GS antenna, which I would imagine is the same as the LS. clicky. I had no problems with the mast fitting with the replacements I have had so does sound like something is stuck somewhere. Hopefully the mast tube hasn't got bent when the car wash mangled the mast, that's the only other thing I can think of.

If Lexus Derby are anything to go by, they don't actually do it themselves. You drop your car off, and it goes off to a local geo place. Can't remember the name of the place in Derby off the top of my head that carried out the geo, but the kit they used couldn't read castor/king pin angles. In short, I would check who is actually going to do it and what angles they can adjust. Not all geo places are equal.

What's the problem? Infact, I have to agree with him after seeing some of the hairdo's that Hammond has sported recently on wipeout.

What was wrong after the spacers were fitted? wheels sitting too proud? Are those stereo brackets the toyota items? Thats where I got my fascia, but they guy reconned there were no brackets. If they are, have you got the part number?

Glad you are sorted mate.

What did you do? If the car floods, normally just keeping the throttle peddle to the floor while continuously cranking will sort it. No need to pull fuses to the fuel pump.

Exactly, they are nothing to do with Lexus Owners Club and are just ads from google - you'll find a lot of forums have exactly the same Any particular reason why LOC has them? I know that normally the free hosting sites have them as a way of earning some kind of revenue for providing free forums and disk space, but most "Paid" hosting forums I know do not use the google adds for the exact reason that has happened here. i.e. the perception that there is some kind of affiliation with the add or the service provided by the add.