Cotswold Pete

Who is the seller on ebay, as there are a few, and i could find the ebay code you posted (or am I doing something wrong). Glad to here your a belt and braces type, that's how it should be.

How long to fit the aerial. Mine needs doing, and was wondering if the pain of just replacing the mast is not worth it and go for a replacement. What was quality of it like, as always worried that some Chinese goods is not well finished.

Years ago a mate of mine tried this pre a holiday to Benidorm (so he did not stand out whern on the beach). He looked like a ruddy carrot, or maybe better to say a Trump. Took two weeks to become his normal pale Brit in colour.

You are right that the headlights look poorer with a full moon. Reason for this is that as you get older your eyes become worse at contrast, so on a dark country lane, you get good contrasts between the dark road, the dark hedge (or ditch) and the headlight beam, but any other light gives your . So keeping headlights clean, and the beam focussed (in other words on Mk4, the acrylic smooth) all helps. The only real option for us oldies is to have eye transplants or get headlights that blind the heck out of on-coming drivers. Other optiion is to get a younger person to chauffer you about. So on this basis we need to make sure the Queens hubbie does not go out at night, coz I expect he could not tell the contrast between an garden wall, and hump-back bridge!!!! Surely he can afford a lacky to drive him about??

Be interested to know what it costs for the rear arch re-fab. I had the same problem, but went the cut out and IsoPon the whole sheebang, though I had enough of the top and sides of arches to get away with. Wax-oiled to the hilt, and will make sure every year gets a good old check over to make sure no more wormholes appearing. Having owned a Mk3, and been in Mk1 the Mk4 is a different motor, and found the gearing makes it a quiter drive at 'legal' speeds.

Delaminating windows is the cloudy issue. New glass (from previous posts) is the answer. Find out how much that costs to sort if it is just one window. I assume over time other glass may start doing the same. If it were me I would be looking at Mk4 LS400, but I know those who own 430 love them, and they are more luxury like in the interior, and having been in one, would vouch for it being a nice car, but not one I would personally hanker after.

Might be worth reading this link. Poly v. Rubber Not a materials engineer myself, though did Mechanical Eng back in 1977 (1st year of degree), and so agree natural materials are better but they wear out before a lot of synthetics. My choice is rubber for damping properties over lifetime of product. Lexus OEM bushes seem to be pretty good rubber given their longevity on the heavy LS.

Sounds like a good price to get them done. Need to get my off-side front done soon as at 193K miles, will get my indy to look at nearside and decide if worth doing both. I guess after 19 years and so many miles this is to be expected, but never had any previous car get to over 160K without really starting to fall apart, let alone be okay to drive at 85mph with the UCA starting to go. Glad to hear that she drives better,

Lovely car, would love one myself, saw one of these when buying my sons first car, was nearly tempted to test drive, but ran out of time. Wifes Jag at 12 years now getting the dreaded Jag sill-rot, shame as rest of the car is great, and handles well, so in 2 MOTs time expect it to be scrapped (which will be a shame) Jag engines are really nice free running beasts, so 400bhp sounds like fun in such a light car.

Martin, Would agree on all points you made, took me a while to find right seat settings to feel as good as when I had Vaux Omega. Would say LS seats could be better, I think back seats are better by a long way, but hard to drive when sitting in back. On heated seats the LS range seems to be a gentle warmer, been in Audi/FOrd/BMW of late where your backside is being roasted within 10 seconds, so agree on really cold morning LS is a little too gentleman like. Mondoe V6 in Ghia, a nice car, not driven one, but previous Ford experience tells me Mondeo a well sorted machine more or less since day 1.. X-type, the wife has one, Sport 2 litre, moves well, cheapish to run, but would say after 10 years expect to be spending a lot of money on welding sills every couple of years. Seems to be really common problem on Jags, not just X-type. Grips road well, but clatters about a fair bit, and not so quite at 80 as I would like. Running gear seems susceptible to earlier replacement than I would expect (well compared to LS). If it were me I would stick with Mondeo and enjoy life with the brilliance of heated windscreen (I know Ford used to have patents on this tech, so maybe thats reason why not a common feature).

I see more 400s than I do 430s, but I am not in centre of Glous, out in the sticks near Stroud. Saw a 400 on New Years day heading north past the Woolpack in Slad, woman driver, so surprised to see one, and still half awake after late night (totally sober though), did not get time to even think about the Headlight Flash greeting. I also see more 460s around than 430.

I assumed it was a mobile phone connection, did not know they were pre-wired. I guess it was from the days when mobile phones needed a brick sized charger and cradle in the boot and connection to external attenna. Forwarding thinking chaps these Japs, shame they did not predict the rise of Bluetooth when building the Mk4, as it was around at that time.

I would say worth a drive, certainly going to be a different drive to GS250, and though 6 years old, will not feel 6 years older. Price seems fair, but a bit of a long way from Argyll, but if I was in market for a bit more luxury I would be off to Bedford ASAP

I did have a real mini drift the other day, single carriageway (nothing coming the other way), suspect it was diesel or oil on the road, and I did notice that VSC did not come on, which surpised me as one country lane I use with a cattle grid on a slight camber and 12% incline the VSC always comes on if I do not take foot off the pedal as I traverse the grid.

As he says, they made one of the best cars. Cannot argue with that. I would like to see this video redone with Jacob Rees-Mog, that would be less American😬

From my experience the changes like this are caused by tempature changes affecting the stiffness of bushes. I would have punted on UCA bushes gone or going. I have same issue, I know it is off-side UCA and some days at 20mph it vibrates, other days it is 50mph, other days it is okay (mainly when it is about 12centigrade and a little damp. This UCA has been slowly going for about last 20K miles, but now got to point where it needs doing, and I get some weird tramling, which is probably UCA as well. Brake judder - had issue on my Mk3, that was drop links. One other thing might be checking tranmission mounts, but I would assume if you get teh vibration and then go into coasting mode, and it is still there, less likely to be transmission mount. I would get a good indie to have a prod, and not just with a crowbar. I had a read UCA picked up as MOT failure, but with that one noticed no vibration or impact (as a far as I could tell) on the handling of the car. As you know it can get expensive repalcing running gear on these motors.

Totally agree, I think the original LS was an experiment never to be repeated in terms of quality and build (as it was known in the late 80's when this beast was on the drawing board) and British Leyland were still churning out the Montego/Maestro and your average Rolls was a money pit from the start.

Re-reading this thread makes me think I never want a car with TPMS, especially given the Lexus part costs more than I paid for my LS in the first place. My Mother In Law had a GOlf with TPMS, became a real pain once it started to play up so she got rid of it.

Most modern cars seem to be built to sound quite (ish) up to about 40mph, and then after that you have to crank up the stereo and forget about having a chat with the passengers. Done to Stroud to Gatwick run a few times at 70+ and with mother in law in back (deaf old bird), and me (deaf old g*t) we can still have a chat. Try that in any other car! My next door neighbour as Hyundai Tucson, at 70mph, there could be a pair of mating elephants in the back🐘🐘, but you would never know for the cabin noise.

Not heard of her, will be searching out her music some time when not at work. On the full tank measure, only did it once on trip from Stroud to Aberdeen (in dead of night so no hold ups), drove at 60-65 most of the way (very chilled out cruise). Got 36mpg out of one tank. Those hills, Shap & Beattock do not help the mpg. I find my LS only slightly thirstier than Omega I once had (which on similar run, similar conditions, but running at 70-75) got 38mpg. LS is a much nicer car for such a trip. I still reckon for the money I paid for my LS, and the petrol I have put in it, I am better off than if I was running a younger motor with smaller engine.

I would over to able to wall mount the Thorens, but have a wife with other ideas. Have set up 3 point suspension using Linn setup technique, and damped the platter and subframe as well. Also mounted some rere earth magnets to pull the motor's magentic field down, as I use a Goldring GX1022, which with a Pocan body has no inherent magnetic sheilding. Stills sounds blooming good for a 40 year old deck. Been using a inner tube to good effect (not at all floppy when inflated correct) for last 20 years, just getting fed up with every 6 months having to re-inflate.

Did not know that fact, is this why ATS try and get you to have Nitrogen in tyre for a few more £££. I wonder if they would inflate a 16inch bike tyre to 10PSI for a few pence? Good idea will be buying some to try out. In past tried squash balls - cut in half - but they did compress eventually. Also they look naff as it was hard to get a decent 50/50 split straight cut and get the platform properly level.. On speakers, have Kef Q35 (in dining room) only 20 years old, still working nicely (not the most HiFi but good enough to enjoy a roast dinner with a nice wine on a Sunday). Main speakers are SEAS units (DIY transmission lines - based on design and cross-over from Aussie outfit) , still look like brand new, and no sign of surround failure or stiffening. Must say I liked the Isobariks, but always found they needed to be driven hard to sound their best. Preferred sound of Spendors, and the lovely veneer finishes, but just never got around to splashing the cash.

Okay, that knocks my idea on the head, did wonder if the tube was permable. Shame!

Now this may seem like a bonkers question, but here goes. If I seal the valve on an inner tube (bike, schrader valve) with - say - some J&B weld, will that mean the tube will never deflate. Reason for asking is that I have both my Thorens Record Deck and Marantz CD player mounted on Asda Solid Marble Chopping board, with 16inch inner tube underneath to act as a isolater. this really improves quality of the bass, and does not cost the fortune something like a Stratbase, or Townsend. Problem is the air leaks out, and I assume the valve just needs sealing once I have got correct PSI in the tube. Any thoughts.

Sounds like a great idea, I assume a stop is needed in the bottom of the bottle (or some decent waterproof tape) to keep water in while using the car. I have had mine disconnected for about 18 months now. The only issue I see with one from a scrapper is that it will be on its way out, so a repair would be needed at some point. From prevvious research I found that they are not cheap to buy new, and I always carry a spare 2 litre water bottle and screenwash for when I run out.