Cotswold Pete

When my rear o/s UCA was replaced so many corroded bits and bobs, ended up with car in garage for a week. So a pitta (and a wallet emptier - as i recall)

Totally agree, my wifes Jag is only 13 years old but has more corrosion than you care to know about. She managed to get the welding done really cheap (by chap who welds trucks) and he said, in another 2 to 3 years be prepared to scrap the motor. On looking Jag forum I have decided she is not having a another Jag. Maybe back to Honda for her, though she was tempted by a GS300 a while ago. On Kens comment, I have never owned a Merc, but my mates who do have deep pockets, and all the other marques mentioned I would have said Vauxhall was better than the rest, but not anything like as reliable as Lexus. Appreciate LS versus your average Vauxhall, at a price level is not fair, but know of two VW Phaeton Owners who have deep pockets and car in garage more often than not. This forum is like a gentlemans club, it's quite, all its members are gentlemen and we we all know our cars are rock solid (maybe like 67 Pall Mall), and so we can just get on with reading the Times and smoking our pipes (or in my case, the gardening, DIY projects and listening to vinyl records - when my teenage lad is not hogging the best stereo in the house).

Agree with the above (though they did sort the Steer Ahead out), looked at my last sheet done by Chris Mullins in Glos, and only had fronts done and Toe In and Forward Steer was way out. Now the old lady steers like a dream and the tyres looking fine. Rears mildly out, and so not needed doing. I paid about £50 as a I recall, and would have been £70ish for all 4 corners. My only thought for finding someone nearer Merseyside is to chat to enthusiasts who pimp their motors and have their wheels set up 'oddly' for want of a better term. Whoever they use is probably a better bet. Using ATS. Kwik Fit etc, is such a hit and miss affair even when I have had so called experienced operatives.

I have heard that an electric car will be simpler to maintain as it has fewer moving parts than a fossil fuel burner. But it sounds like hybrid or pure electric you need DC/AC convertors and if these bits of kit are going to fail then it might be simpler to get hybrid/pure electric car on the road, but it is going to be a case of $$$$. The one thing about good old fashioned tech is that you can pootle about with it (in most cases) at a reasonable cost to coax some movement. Or is that just that at the moment anything hybrid is $$$$ as it is all new. I wonder what ScrapHeap challenge would look like in 50 years time, more soldering irons than welding rigs!

I wish for a ski hatch in my 400, its the only fault with my Mk4 that I cannot forgive it for.

Malc, A worthwhile saving. Shame about all the add on charges that eat into the original saving. Wonder what it will be after Brexit, hopefully no worse.

I have a wobble, around 35-40 mph, seems to fade to a barely noticeable wobble at 50+ and I run my tyres at 34psi. Will try pulling back to 30psi, see what happens. Need to jack up the front and prod some bushes, as at 191,000, some stuff is going to getting a little tired.

You have not seen my steering wheel, really scabby, need to get off my backside and get it sorted. Probably going to get mine recovered at some point, means some down time while being done. All the second hand LS400 steering wheels I have seen on ebay and elsewhere have the early-onset skank setting in. All those years of finger grease wearing at the leather. However with Xmas coming up (and a roof of house in need of repair) might be a while yet before I get this done.

This is something we have been thinking for a few years now, but I suspect with petrol now at £1.35 a litre (compared to 90p not so long ago) only nutters like us would run a big engined motor. But as we have all discovered these tanks are light on petrol (considering). I know more modern big engines are fuel efficient, but why spend £60K+ for a frugal merc when the £54K would buy you a shed load of fuel. I think I have the biggest and cheapest car in the office and driving a petrol head to garage last week (so she could pick up her motor), she was gobsmacked when I put the beast in PWR mode and put me foot down. As good as a Chimera that she once owned but a darn sight nicer to be in.

Agree with the above. Does the wobble get worse still if you go above 75, to me that indicates tyres or wheel (could be UCA - though I had worn UCA replaced and had no such symptoms before). I wonder if it could be pads/shims, though does not present as 'wobble', (well not for me), sort of a feeling of a unbalanced wheel, but once it kicks in it does not get worse with speed. One other thought, had a tyre with seperated layers years ago on Omega, it presented like I was sort of driving on a slippery road at low speed only when turning a corner and then at motorway speeds felt unbalanced, but when you put it on wheel calibrator it showed as perfectly balanced. This was with brand new tyres, which is why it took a while (and pure chance) to diagnose. Cannot remember how tyre depot confirmed the problem, but it was me that asked them to suss out if that was the issue. Is this a job for the chaps at Japex to have a look at?

Agree it is progress, so long as system works as intended, and no doubt means you do not need to check as part of the weekend checkovers I do. Had a puncture on mine a few weeks ago, it went from 35PSi to 10PSi over 5 miles, and could tell there was something wrong just driving the car. I assume where TPMS is real benefit is high performance cars which are driven nearer the envelope and you want to know if anything out of kilter is going to see you flying off the road at the next corner.

I have a rattle, ever since handbrake cables replaced. Cannot trace it so far,but wonder if it is the heat shield. Also had rear UCAs replaced about 2 years ago, does not seem to make any difference to handling, and I was not suffering un-even wear, but got picked up in MOT, so had them done. Having front disks/pads/shims etc replaced next week to hopefully cure brake snatching and a bit of rumble from pads. Been quoted £355 all fitted (OEM parts), seems like a reasonale price compared to what ATS charge me 4 years ago just to replace rear pads. Slowly working on getting the LS back to running as smooth as one can get a 200K miles motor running.

I am not so sure this will be the case, as battery technology changes rapidly at the mo. Try buying a OEM grade battery for 10 year old mobile phone or DSLR, and you are more than likely to end up buying a less robust Chinese copy which keeps it charge for as long as it takes a cup of tea to cool down. I wonder if at some point we we start to see independent battery specialists popping up to maintain the Pruis or 600 as a classic car??

I would probably steer clear, unless the service history is exemplary. But with body-work needing attention makes me wonder how loved the car is, or as Martin says just treated like a work-horse until its a bit knackered. Batteries I assume just slowly die due to age as much has anything else, so for that reason I would be nervous, in fact nervous of any future electric car when it starts getting to around 10 years old or more due to battery degrading. I think in the last few years battery tech has moved on a bit, but the 600 is using older tech (I assume). All this makes me wonder what happens when the only cars we can buy are electric, because IMHO electric cars are as advanced as the Ford Model T was to the first Petrol engined cars.

Here is an idea!! How about an owners swap club. I have just done the Cotswold to Wirral run two weekends in a row, using a variety of roads to avoid the M5/M6 car park on fridays. Wide variety of roads from 'Smooth as a baby's bottom' to 'more ridges than a ploughed field', along 'top dressed a few years back and now looking like the road has measles', and up and down like a roller-coaster'. Most of the time my 400 handles it well, but some surfaces seem to be as noisy as you like. I would love to have done one weekend in my 400 and the next weekend in a 460 just to compare notes. I wonder what I would choose, as I love the shape of the 460 (just) over the 400 But mainly I love my 400 as it has all I need, and most people are shocked to see a 18 year old car (in not too bad a shape) and able to pull away like a rocket when needed.

Very nice - car and holiday cottage. Looks like it was a lovely sunny day as well. What more could one ask for.

Most petrol and diesel tanks at garages will have a small amount of water in them (some more than others). Usually not a problem, as even when I worked in a garage many moons ago, it was by a river and subject to flooding now and again, and we would have to check for water ingress, and never had a problem. But looking on Web plenty of reports of water damaging engines. Fingers crossed that is all it was

Wonder if could have been some cr*p in the fuel that caused a hiccup, fingers crossed that it does not re-occur.

Sounds like a car just used now and again to run down to Tesco Express. So the paintwork probably not too bad, and interior looks pretty good, just sounds like a bit of work cash would get it back to roadworthy.

Best of luck, I had similar problems when fiddling with front lights, but was able to reach with hand and pliers to get things back on track.

Maybe check engine oil, most likely not related to problem, but once had a Renault where engine light came on even though oil light did not, yet it was the oil level that was problem causing rough idle and naff acceleration at times. I know a LS is not a Renualt, but worth checking.

I assume the ECU is generating some codes that you could get checked out by garage with right kit. Rough engine at idle could be a number of things, and getting battery checked out is usually quick (and free), but having run with failing batteries a few times, I found they upset the alarm but never had Engine Check light come on even with battery in death throes and a 200 mile journey ahead of me. Might be worth looking at cleaning throttle body, though had two cases where as dirty as you like, LS stalling and up and down like a Yo-Yo at idle, but never have engine light come on. Best of luck getting it sorted.

Cor blimey scarier than the mother in law when she sits in the middle seat.

Sounds like a nice way to use up some petrol, wish I had the time to undertake such a magnificent tour as my experience of working in Dublin, Shannon, Belfast has exposed me to a small amount of the beauty of the Emerald Isle. Agree that cars and walls are not a good match, and neither is an LS fitting snugly in it's parking bay when other drivers around cannot seem to park a Micra (other smalls cars available), with scuffing the LS. Been using T-cut a little more than usual this year. At least one of the owners had the courtesy to leave a note and an email, but T-cut and elbow grease got 99% of scuff out. I wish I knew what my previous garage (no longer in action) fitted to wipers, they were not OEM, but 2.5 years on still working brilliant, and I am aware a 19 year old pitted windscreen is going to wear the blades a little worse than a brand new screen.

If only there was an LS estate, then that would have been the car for all dog lovers.