John N

My MPG is around 30 on a long run and nearly 20 round town. The other thing to factor in with an old LS430 is 'Depreciation'. These cars have reached an age where a good example can actually be increasing in value! I paid £2,900 for mine 5 years ago with 97,000 miles on the clock. Now with 160,000 m on the clock and a clean new MOT, I know I could sell it for a profit.

Today for the first time I can remember I've got a car through its' MOT with a straight pass and 'no advisories'. This LS430 is now 25 years old, but I've only had it for the last 5 years. It has never failed an MOT for me and looking back in the DVLA record its' first MOT was in 2005 and there is not a single failure recorded in the record. Anyone else with a 25 year old car that has never failed an MOT?

In a Manchester traffic school run I scored 16 mpg today!

I've just changed my radiator again after the one I bought 5 years ago started to leak. It had cost me £100 off eBay. This time I priced a radiator from my Lexus dealer at £650 inc. VAT. (Don't forget to add VAT to the dealer prices.) So it was back to eBay and the price was still £100 inc, VAT after 5 years. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152429318586 ( If you look at the picture of the radiator on eBay, the top right hand corner has a small connecting pipe that goes to the reservoir bottle. Check you buy a radiator with this connection. All LS430s sold in the UK need this connection.) Other things like coolant look expensive at £90 for 6 liters - when 4 liters of concentrated coolant from COSTCO costs just over £10 and will make 12 liters when diluted. (The car needs 10L) I would not buy any idler pulleys without checking the existing ones first, if they turn smoothly and silently leave them alone. Belt tensioners are something else I would not replace. ( I bought a serpintine belt tensioner 10 years ago, and over 100K miles later it is still in its' box! ) 5 years ago I bought a genuine new timing belt and pump and got a local Lexus dealers' service department to fit them for £650.

That's the way my mind was thinking. I was just wondering if anybody had experience of using the Chinese ones from eBay? Something strange has happend. A few days ago I set the suspension to 'high' and the shocks to 'sport', and the creaking stopped. Then a few days later I set the suspension back to normal height, and there was still no creaking. Now I have also turned 'sport' mode off and there is still no creaking! I'll let you know if things change. All I've got to do now is fit my new radiator. The one I have has a split in the top header and was fitted 5 years ago, it was a £100 from eBay. My local main dealers parts department has quoted me £650 just to supply a new OE one! So it's back to eBay for another £100 replacement. No inflation there in the last 5 years ! ! !

The last MOT that was 10 months and 7,000 miles ago only had advisories for tyres and a tiny bit of rust. No mention of any suspension issues.

The last MOT was November last year. It passed as usual, the only advisories being tyres and a spot of rust. Since then it has done 11k miles with just normal servicing.

At 24 years and 200K miles the car has developed a 'creak' from the front nearside suspension. I think it is the shock absorber because when I switch the suspension to 'sport' the creaking stops. There appears to be three choices for a replacement. 1. Genuine Lexus from Lexus Parts Direct at £1,352 2. Ebay genuine Chinese copy at £179 3. Second hand at ? Does anybody have experience of the Chinese copies?

By mistake I did the same job on my first LS430 a few years ago. Working on the drive at home, it took me 2 days to reach the point where the old timing belt and water pump were off the car, and I could start putting things back together. I even used the same technique to remove the 22mm crank bolt. It then took another day and a half to put everything back together. The mistake I made was that when I found the front of the engine covered in water, I assumed it was the water pump that was leaking and needed replacing. So I had decided to replace the timing belt at the same time as the pump. But after I restarted the car the front of the engine was still covered in water! The water leak had been from the top of the radiator, but I hadn't seen it because it was under the air intake! Moral of the story: Don't jump to a diagnosis!

George The only difference between your V5C and mine is that yours shows the CO and HC emissions, mine only shows the NOx emissions. I had to sent my EEC Certificate of Conformity with the application to show all the emissions.

How did you get a Level 2 Sticker? When I filled in the application it would not let me enter EURO 4 in the emissions standard box. I think because it was registered in 2000 it would only allow me to enter 'no classification'. Even though I sent them my V5C which now shows NOx emissions of 0.020 g/km and my EEC Certificate of Conformity which shows all emissions within the EURO 4 limits they have given the car a Crit-Air Level 3 sticker. It was hard enough sorting out the Scots, what do I have to do to sort out the French?

Never Mind France - These ULEZ Zones are breading over here! They are now in:- Bath Birmingham Bradford Bristol Greater Manchester (under review) Portsmouth Sheffield Tyneside - Newcastle and Gateshead Go to https://www.gov.uk/clean-air-zones to check your car. I now realise why the Scottish Scheme administrators sent my details off to the DVLA and the DVLA have sent me a new V5C document showing the cars' NOx. Now when I check this site it says the old girl (November 2000 Reg) is exempt from charges in all these zones.

I replaced both column adjusting motors on mine about 4 years ago, both had failed. (Found both replacements on Ebay.) The problem is they do a lot of work moving the steering column away from the driver every time you turn off the ignition. Then moving it back when you turn on the ignition again. This constant in and out wears out the motors. I then found out there is an option in the software to turn off this feature, and then the steering wheel will stay where it is, unless you use the switch to move it. The problem is you need the Lexus programming tool to program the change. I asked the service department at my main dealer if they could do it for me, and how much? The answer was, 'just let us have the car for 10 minutes sir'. The technician turned up with the programming tool and did it in less than 10 min. 'No charge sir' ! Got to recommend Lexus Stockport, they can be very good.

Out of the blue a new V5C document for my car arrived in the post from the DVLA. Just in a brown envelope with no correspondence or explanation. When I compared it to the existing V5C they have added a value in the exhaust emissions section V3 of 0.02 for NOx. But there is still no value shown for the CO and THC emissions even though that information was in the information I sent! Can anyone explain what is going on and why this didn't happen when the car was given exemption from the London ULRZ ?

Ray - I've had a victory too. I don't think they know what they are doing! I've received an email from them today saying - 'We have escalated your case to the DVLA and will supply you with an update via email as soon as we receive a response from them.' That is the only response I've had from them since I sent them copies of my V5C and Certificate of Conformity on the 11th June. But. I've just checked my number on their Vehicle Checker and it now says it is compliant !!!