Malc

Thank you Herbs ..... puts my mind to rest a little with my gremlins which thankfully, albeit on a tiny ongoing mileage, have seemingly. at this time evaporated I just pray that when we get back into sensible motoring mode, and I'm driving somewhere in Europe, that the gremlins don't italianate or whatever and begin their escapades Malc

someone on here will know the answer, soon hopefully when mine went Jan 2020 ( 1995 car ) I think even my indy was faced with a choice, presume amps value maybe and I think we paid about £400 exchange, the old one going back to the supplier ...... presumably for a rewind ! Malc

£100 seems good value if the guy's genuine and competent so why not just remove it and take it t him to work out if it's 80 or 100 amp ? .... surely he can being the " expert " Malc

Of course it's 21 plate time now ! LC500 looks interesting for sure BUT my tried and tested Mk3 Ls400 suits me well enough, and has served me well driving over lots of europe from time to time with wonderful driving holidays and escapades Western Motor Works was owned by a Mr Bennett too when I was there at weekends filling cars with petrol .......... remember a Rolls came in every two weeks to fill up with £5 of 5 star petrol ......... 6/8p a gallon then if I remember ....... happy days too Oh my Kevin that's a dreadful event in your life back in 2012 ? Are you quite fully recovered now I trust ! I thought I wanted to learn to fly back in about 1982 when I got divorced ( 1st time that is ) so I went for a flying lesson at Biggin Hill, close to home .... to then buy myself a small plane to fly around the world, South Africa mainly I thought ............ beautiful country ........ lots of others are too of course NO NO NO that first lesson, one single propeller, thin bodywork, couldn't see ahead of me when the plane was at the wrong angle .. seemed little between me and my Maker . so I didn't progress that I was a career banker at NatWest and redundant at 41 as a City manager in Capital Markets stuff by then ..... no future for me they told me, too young as those old men higher up weren't going to voluntarily relinquish their jobs .... so they thought at the time.............. that was 31 years ago and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my amazingly happy and eventful banking career my life since has been quite happy too ....... especially not commuting 4 hrs a day to an office somewhere inter alia, had a 2nd hand car sales business and drove amazing cars ... hence the first Ls400 and now a travel / flight sales business ....... hahahaha, that's a challenge too right now ..... but we keep on going, just in case someone wants a flight to somewhere sensible at sometime that's my UK business but essentially based out of Delhi, albeit the guys work from home having stopped paying the purposeless office rent for some months now ! What on earth will the future hold I wonder .............. Life goes on, up and down, but can be and should be quite eventful ....... the Best is Yet to Come Malc

but please guys, what is the MOT Advisory " wet test " ? Thanks Malc

I haven't yet, I'm waiting on what seems a really good, and very busy it seems, Specialist that's local'ish to me .................. BUT the gremlins vanished ..... did an " essentials " but 58 mile round trip and not a single gremlin showed it's ugly head ........ thankfully BUT I do remember my bro-in-law before I bought his ( 56 plate and ) cossetted Honda Legend used to spend £££££ on Honda Main Dealer diagnostics and then charge a fortune to replace the bleedin' obvious ......... it's the Main Stealer syndrome I'm afraid ......... if it looks like it can pay, then charge it ! Malc

I've raised a thread about Specialist Auto Electronics guys .......... not a proper answer in sight sadly ......... the normal and run of the mill " specialists " can only deal ( seemingly ) with straightforward issues that readily show up on their screens and metres and laptops etc ........... and a freebie when the RAC guy attends you on a breakdown ..... very very thorough and free too ....... BUT if you have an occasional gremlin then there's no hope of a standard " specialist " being able to track down the problem ....... it needs someone with Real Real Specialist Auto Electrics skills .... and those people are seemingly as rare as " hens teeth " Malc

I saw this before on autotradeer I think ... quite intrigued too .... what's the MOT " wet test " ? Malc

well done Jonathan .... an astute buyer has sensibly emerged .............. Malc

ah, but we now have " country of origin " issues post Brexit and I really don't know if a born in/ created in Japan item can be legally imported to the Uk from residence in France ( a year you say ) without paying again full Customs Duty, VAT etc ............ I am jesting BUT after all our chats about your dreadful problems Stuart I hope you can see the sad but funny side of all this ridiculous mullarkey you must be almost resigned to the impossible and economic challenges you face with this right now Just a thought ............... Do they have the equivalent of " webuyanycar " in France I wonder Best wishes whatever the outcome of it all Malc

hi Kevin, yes lived in Kent most of my life ..... had to work at a local petrol station to help pay for my Imp tho' ............ Western Motor Works at Perry Street, Chislehurst ......... even tho I had a full time job working at a bank ........ never enough money eh !" My first Lexus in about the year 2000 or perhaps a little earlier, was a 1992 Mk1 Ls400 that we had taken in to my car sales business, couldn't sell it ...... too much of a gaz guzzler at that time, so I decided to drive it as my personal car and kept that for years, rapidly followed by my Mk2 and then this Mk3 ..... all the best cars I've ever driven I feel ..... and over much of europe on holidays too ...... in those days Air Suspension does feature on this Forum quite a bit, but only for those unfortunate enough to have the issues I guess ... but my synopsis of their problems and of Lexus at the Centre walking away from them is at say 100k miles / 10 years unless the owner has some sort of extended Lexus warranty in place ............. and at about £1000 a corner ........ but never a problem on the Ls400 of course Doc Martin of course had his Ls600 in Cornwall ...... looks a lovely part of the world Malc

my little Hillman Imp seemed invincible, well, apart from the clutch thrust bearing breaking into pieces in it's holder, the front heater pipes going pop and flooding me one fine day and a wild deer jumping over a hedge and swiping the passenger door one dark night in the Kent countryside ................ no engine problems at all thankfully how we reminisce eh ! Malc

Oh my ........ I bought myself a brand new Hillman Imp in 1969 AYL273H ...... when I was 19 .............. loved that car, that hatchback was unique to the Imp I think in those days ..... brilliant and happy and fond memories ........... and hugged the ground in the snow and ice .......... for which the Ls400 is utterly useless I find ( in my dotage eh ! ) Malc sorry to digress

Kevin, why on earth didn't you buy yourself another brilliant Ls400 rather than the LC500 ? There are a few BRILLIANT Ls400s on the market albeit at significant cost compared to what they should really be .. IMHO I'm really in a quandry over my own Ls400 ........... J P Savage on here has an outstandingl Ls600 for sale at quite low money .... Full Lexus Service History and a small balance of the Lexus Warranty remaining ..... my Ls400 is now so old that I've recently had a little electrical gremlin show it's ugly head ...... but it's vanished for now thankfully .... the Ls600 seems a good candidate for change but oh, that air suspension cost when it dies ! I've driven lots of brilliant cars in my time BUT have always had, for some 20 years, a Ls400 as my main daily driver ... this one is at 232k miles now .. nearly 10 yrs and 106 k miles with me ........... money wouldn't really be an issue ....... I just want the supreme comfort and power, ease to get in and out of ........... and up til now total reliability of what I now have ! And there's nothing comes close that I'd be wanting to spend my money with ....... I've seen the odd LC and Ls500 from afar, RCFs close up ....... and they don't really appeal either ...... the Ls600 does BUT the air suspension I find a little scary when that all starts to go awry ........... and it's inevitability that it does fail with age and miles .... silly expense methinks So I guess the Ls400 sits supreme ....... even the green Shabu-Works one in the above piccy Malc

Stuart hi ..... how's the French saga going on ? Malc

Did you get her going eventually ? alternator all ok ? Malc

OK it's Feb 27th. and 50+ miles today and all's well right now I'm praying it's sorted itself out Time will tell eh ! Malc

update guys ........ driven some 58 miles today ... pharmacy and other " essentials " ........ stopped halfway thru to fill with fuel too ......... that's been a long time coming AND she behaved impeccably .... no sign of my little gremlin ..... so what shall I do now ...... cancel the appt made for 11th March with a local garage electronics guy ( not specialist tho ) who said to give him 2 weeks notice and I should cancel 2 weeks before if it's not playing-up when I get the car to him ! Malc

I find all this electronic mullarkey starting to go awry so so frustrating ......... we have fabulous cars, comfy, powerful and purring like a pussycat and we can relatively easily achieve component continuation .. e.g UCAs etc ................... BUT the quarter century old electronics seem to be not quite so well at " holding up " and very tricky to resolve Can't for one moment imagine that a quarter century young new, modern EV will be any better tho ................. and probably just simply a throwaway Malc

an existing Cat C .......... or in my case a Cat N ........ probably means on another smack the write-off value will be nigh on zero ........ anybody know about this type of scenario ? I'm still buying Fully Comprehensive insce for the added legal protection, glass cover etc but suspect the w/o value would be negligible Malc

anyone any further thoughts on all this please ?? Malc

aha ! ............. so how do I take my 1932 Triumph back to the Main Dealer ? Malc

Very many garages have this thought process too I always left ordering of parts to my indy ..... I usually paid, often directly for " big " stuff Most garages will want to charge a not unusual 50% mark-up on cost Malc

Old Baz has a bit of a history on this Forum ..... he seems to know a lot about the Ls400 ........ the write-up sounds pretty good ( were OEM parts used etc ? ) and apart from a few£00's on the respray on the back wing you might end up with a sound car .... £2350 doesn't sound too bad with all that work done to her ..... but a Cat C, well I have no idea what would be the value in a write-off situation ..... probably about £25 ! Good luck whatever Malc

if the old screen can be removed from an existing and refitted to yours ............ a big IF I guess ...... then buy yourself a wreck of a car and get someone to do just that for you maybe ?? Malc