Neil E

Okay, the fact that it is up in the air means the struts are holding air and the pump put the air into them so its probably fine. The most common fault with air-sus is the height controllers. Check to see if one corner in particular is higher than the others? On level ground, set the height level to the middle setting on the switch and measure the gaps between the wheel arches and the tyres. If one side is higher than the other, it's very likely to be the height controller on that high corner that is faulty. The other way to check if it's high on one side is on a level road the car will pull to one side. If the suspension goes down and stays down that points to a leaking strut but if they are all 'up' then it seems your struts and pump are fine. New height controllers are about £200, they are quite small items and very easy to fit. You might try to source a good one from a breaker for a lot less but it's a risk. They can sometimes be taken off, cleaned or freed up again if they have just seized up through dirt ingress.

I agree with Phil's summary above. Simply replace the struts with new Lexus RX300 non-air struts in each corner. Unplug all air system components and then it's a case of eliminating any error codes and warnings. I wouldn't consider swapping from air unless there were several failures of the system but that wasn't the question. Has your air sus failed or do you just not like it?

Yes it's all guess-work until the insurance company assess it and make an offer. If it gets to the point where you need to source parts, I dare say we can help with some contacts.

That's good. It's just to get an idea of the extent of the damage/impact. If the radiator, sills, exhaust and suspension survived then an economical repair may be possible but new replacement parts + paint for the front end alone will be quite expensive. If the insurance company write it off, settle in full and you have the chance to buy it back, would it be worth it? Well if nothing significant is out of shape, then putting the front back together with second-hand parts is fairly easy to do but the parts need to be sourced. If they offer say £4-5k and you could find/afford a later 6 speed model SC430 for say £6-7k, that might be tempting. If it's cat N, with a 'buy back' value of perhaps £1500 but can be restored to good order for say £1200, that may be tempting too.

From the limited detail available, I'd say it can probably be saved but would expect the insurance company to write it off. Did the impact set off any airbags?

The mechanic would have taken the trim out of the boot to access the top mountings of the rear shocks. If there's no sound at all, then yes, it could be an issue with the amp or a connection to it.

Okay thanks for the advice, maybe I'll look into changing the leather seats for cloth instead.🤣

Thanks Graham I'll give it go.

Worth a try for £12. I've read mixed reports for UK strut suppliers.

I can deal with the leather even to the point of matching the dye but what do you guys recommend for seat-belts? The beige belts are particularly hard to get clean. I've tried interior cleaner, neat TFR and various other sauces with limited success.

I think you will need to measure the holes. The original rear sensors on mine were a dealer fit option and looked very similar to this aftermarket kit. When I changed the rear bumper I fitted a camera instead.

It's quite surprising how much will fit into an SC430 if it's packed well. I carry a space-saver spare wheel in the boot, hifi system on the back seat and can still manage luggage for a 2 week long Summer/Autumn holiday. I will admit it wouldn't work for a winter holiday.

Yes,I suspect on this occasion, cleaning it might have fixed my controller. The problem with air suspension is that so few people know what to do with it. I'm no expert but experience with the Soarer, LS430 and the RX has kept me floating on air okay so far. If a strut fails, usually the pump will be going full time to get the air back into it and the air leak usually traced to the low corner. Struts don't usually fail in pairs. Unless it's something obscure, a dealer that knows their stuff should be able to diagnose the problem and explain it properly. The rear height controllers cost £200 new. I vaguely remember cleaning a Soarer controller that worked for a while but I need to keep 2 cars on the road ready to go anywhere so prefer to fit new and accept the cost. Electrical component cleaner like the cleaner used for MAF sensors I think is what I used. There's a tutorial somewhere in the Soarer forums. A sticking (or broken) controller rod linkage is another possibility, I think this may have been the case with mine the other day. I've known this happen following vehicles being jacked up for tyre fitting, new brakes, etc or going over very rough terrain with the controller rods being extended to the maximum. (I've only seen them actually break on a Soarer and it's very obvious)

If the car is high, it's usually a fault with the height controller in the highest corner. I would get another opinion unless the dealer explained why the car is high and why the front struts are 'solid.' As a quick check, park the car on level ground and measure the wheel arch lip to tyre gap for each corner. If it looks high at the front, is one side higher than the other? Coincidentally, I had to replace the rear offside height controller on my RX300 last night. It took 15 minutes and fixed the issue immediately, no special diagnostic equipment required. I replaced the rear near side controller when that one failed some time ago. I first encountered air suspension through owning a V8 Soarer. Height controller faults usually result in the car being higher. When the car goes very low in one corner then that tends to be a strut failure.

IS400 that's awesome. Takes me back to Soarer days. IUZFE + headers + cat delete + x pipe must be 280+bhp?

I've always liked Alpine but Pioneer integrate well with Lexus. Yes 4 hours should be enough as they are just replacing the head unit. It took me a lot longer but that was before Beatsonic made the euro version of the MVA-13L.

Yes Chris, pretty soon we won't even need voice command, it will just play the track you were thinking of and the car will drive itself to the destination.

Nice work Graham. It's also quite easy to connect an add-on device like Grom or Vaistech, etc if you prefer to keep the original head unit but to have a modern Sat Nav with live traffic updates, a double din unit would be the neatest solution.

Yes it's one of the known faults that can develop with the ML amp. With this particular fault, switching off the head unit prevents the amp from drawing power. I had this on the RX300. Replacing the amp cured the issue.

I tried poly-bushes on the V8 but went back to Toyota originals as they just didn't last.The V8 Soarer is the most sure-footed car I've been in at very high speed and the auto was a joy. The hifi was similar to the LS400, some of them even had Nak head units. As for the Soarer in the add, it's not worth that much until you compare it to a Supra and I suspect it's a bit of a handful to drive.

The V8 Soarer was every bit as good as the LS400 but very few people in the UK were aware of it. If you could find a good one with lowish mileage, good suspension and renew all of the serviceable parts, all of the bushes, etc. That would be a very nice car indeed. It was way ahead of its time, it's just so old now, finding a good one is the challenge.. And don't dismiss the 2.5 GTT as a temperamental, brutish turbo. Far from it. The 1JZ is a strong, reliable, powerful but silky smooth engine. I owned them both at the same time, amazing cult cars. The Soarer was the LC500 of its day..

I looked at it whilst on my travels as a potential project car and I would describe it as an 'opportunity.' It has an electrical fault with the headlights (they kept flashing, it may now be fixed) and various bodywork issues. The front and rear bumpers need to be taken off, fixed and refitted. I think it needs new arch liners, NS headlamp washer nozzle broken off and some paint here and there. The oil level low warning light came on too whilst idling, I wasn't strong enough to undo the oil cap either. It had no MOT so I didn't drive it..It had the feeling of a nice car that had fallen into the wrong hands in recent times. Most ISF enthusiasts would and should walk away but someone with the resources to restore it properly and economically, might, after going over it more thoroughly than I did, negotiate a good deal. I would want to do a proper test and inspection on ramps following them putting a new MOT on it and it would need to be substantially reduced from the asking price. If it is basically mechanically sound then at say £10.5k ish it could be a cheap route to own an ISF.

I don't have access to check the connections at present but you could just disconnect the boot lights to see if that is the issue.

A colour change and finish to such a high standard will be a lot of work for someone. Hope to see a full build thread. I like the idea of replacing the black vinyl pieces with leather. Some of the switch and vent surrounds could be done in wood by a specialist but changing the actual switches to metal, I don't know of anyone who could do that.

That's a good question with such a rare car. Have you put out any requests to the big UK breakers like 247spares, Motorhog, specialist Lexus breakers, etc? Dewsbury had an ISF but that shell was 'toast.' It might be worth researching the difference between an ISF shell and an IS250 too. Thinking out load here but another idea for something different could be a GSF concept using a GS430/GS450 as a base? I'll say this with a note of caution but it's surprising how many parts do actually fit other models. For example my SC currently enjoys a little extra rear stability from a US ISF sway bar. Add the ISF drop links to the SC with lowered adjustable coilovers and it's an easy fit. Similar with the front but the ARB came from an Aristo/GS430 upgrade if I remember correctly. Oh and now I think of it, the GS460 had the low power version of the 2UR. Add PPE headers and a 470bhp stock looking, well appointed, comfortable GS has a certain appeal.🤨