The-Acre

Yes, exactly that. It's just held down with clips. Pull it up evenly and it should come off easily. That'll expose the cone. Mine was deteriorated around the edge so I just resealed it with silicone, took 10 mins. Some purists would frown on the idea but if the speaker's kaput anyway what's to loose?

Although you can't remove the speaker that way, the sub cover does just pull off so you can easily check the foam to see if its deteriorated. If so you can cheat and use silicone around the edge. I have done it in the past, not the right way but it does work.

According to Paul Frost who emailed me about rear suspension access, it's possible to get the rear shelf out with the seat in place. Apparently you recline the seat as far as it goes, and if you know where they're located you can just get to the plastic poppers that hold it in place. I questioned him on it but he said he's done it himself a few times. Having said that, the guy who replaced one of my rear struts took the seat out and said it's not difficult.

It's a good price for sure. Will you fit it yourself, bearing in mind removal of the rear seat?

Do a search for BrightonRX300 and you should find his post on the conversion he did last year.

I do. The only time I don't is if I need the estate for work, but most of the time it's the LS (or Celsior in my case) If I just wanted a daily use car and wasn't too bothered about economy there's no competition!

Yes they did, but as they don't all have it I guess it was one of the few options.

Apparently not! Although one of you out there must know.

I've got the reverse camera and Bluetooth but wheels in-between the others. The first were 7 spoke and facelift 5 spoke but mine are 6 spoke!

Welcome to the LOC. Great to have another LS430 owner onboard. If I don't ask others will, some photos please!

Interestingly, mine being a facelift has 17"wheels. I can only assume it's because it's an import. The pre-facelift had brushed aluminium centre console around the gear shift and window switches, although late pre-facelift had all wood.

A job well done! Filling with fluid first answered my next question "how did you refill it" When I replaced my radiator recently only a tiny amount was lost, probably less than half an egg cup.

Did you manage to find a cooler that took 10mm hose, and how many rows does it have? I seem to remember the one I did a few years ago had 13 but when I took the radiator apart I noticed how tiny the original cooler was, probably only 60mm high.

Gummi Pflege is as good, if not better. Give it all a really good clean first and try to get it in the top groove where the window shuts, I really am amazed at how it silenced it.

All I can say is these engines do mega miles so mileage wouldn't be an issue. I agree the reg number is good, but best not to be sidetracked with that! I like both colours, although there is something special about dark cars with light interiors. I'd also add the ML system in the LS430 can be troublesome, so if it's the same it's worth taking into account.

I'd find it a hard choice, both look brilliant. I've always thought they look bigger than the later ones. Both lovely cars. And surely it's 10 years or 100k for the timing belt.

This is my third LS430 and all of them have had the same minor issue. The doors start to creak over bumps and poor road surfaces and eventually becomes permanent. I've even read about it on the US forum. Mine got very annoying so I rolled all the windows down and cleaned all of the door rubbers, including the areas where the windows slide with wonderwipes (especially up inside where the windows touch at the top) dried it and gave everything a dose of Autoglym rubber and vinyl care. It's completely eliminated the noise. In the past I've tried silicone but it only works for a day or so. It may well be where your odd noise is coming from. If I just cracked open my windows the noise would go.

It does seem a common thing for that rear quarter light rubber to come away. Can I suggest you try driving with the window on the offending door lowered by a fraction, maybe just 1 or 2mm. If that resolves it then I have another suggestion.

Well if that isn't a wonderful testimony to the quality and engineering of Lexus I don't know what is. Maybe you should tell Herr Jeremy Clarkson as I don't think he'd agree!

Same colour as mine, the touch up paint worked a treat.

Wow! So there really are people with more money than sense! You'd think if that kind of effort was put into a project like that they'd make sure the end result was pleasing to the eye, it really could have been. I'd still like to see it though.

The only thing I have against it, and I know I've gone on about this before, its lost what I call the classic limo shape that attracted me to Lexus in the first place. It still looks like a bargain to me, especially as it has "make an offer" If it wasn't miles away I'd have taken a look, just out of curiosity.......

This is a bit of nostalgia that I love, the original tape player in the rear with unused earphones. I can't imagine anyone ever using it again (maybe it never has been) but it's great to have it and see how quickly things have moved on. It's a bit like having the original toolkit, unlikely to be used but great to have it.

I would certainly say the thermostat is suspect. the bottom hose will stay cold until the coolant is hot enough to open the thermostat, then the bottom hose should get almost as hot as the top one. If it's easy to get to it take it out and test it in boiling water.

I think I would risk a Chinese one from ebay for the sake of £10, after all, the complete sets you can buy for £15 seem to work perfectly well and they're Chinese, I fitted them to my Celsior with no problems. The ones I bought were black but there's also a seller on ebay who will sell you small bottles of touch up paint if you give the car's paint code, which is what I did so it doesn't really matter which colour you buy.