Smoother

Yes it is/was. So a corporate decision? I thought they just needed the room taken up by the above ground storage tanks, and the security-fenced area around them.

That's good. They identified themselves as ***** holes, so now you know not to give them any of your business. Which dealer was it? @rz1c13 Prinz, Prins? Sounds good. I Just get in and start it, just like you do. Don't think that much about it until its time to fill up. It always amuses me how people think LPG is some mystery fuel. It's cheap, and it's insanely clean burning hence a very green fuel as fossil fuels go. And contrary to old reports, it's not down on power compared to petrol; the ECU just squirts in 20% more to compensate. But that's more than compensated for by the ~50% lower price. It's hard to tell when the oil needs changing (without figuring out mileage), as the oil always looks clean; there's no smoke or soot in the exhaust. The biggest downside is finding a station that stocks it. The only station near me (Bromley) took their LPG out a few years ago. Now I have to fill up when on a trip. Fortunately, I don't use the car during the week, and on weekends I always drive past a station that not only stocks LPG but also gives progressive discounts on each fill-up, with a card they stamp. Started at 1p/L and goes up 1p each fill up. Maxes out at 10p/L. I'm on 6p next time so I'll be paying 54p/L. Hopefully, I will be able to get a new card at that point. The other issue is the toroidal fuel tank replaces the spare, in the spare well, so now the spare is taking up space in my boot. But I partly alleviated that by removing the A/C unit for the back seat, removing the drinks cooler, and pushing the spare into that space. It's not perfect, and the boot is a bit untidy, but it works. One day I might spring for a cylindrical tank to better use that space, and reunite the spare with the spare well.

That's pretty fast. Glad you're enjoying it. What LPG kit did you get and what did it cost? If you don't mind me asking. Mine came with LPG, a top of the line Prinz kit. Today's cost would be close to £3,000 to buy and install. I basically bought the LPG system and got the car for free. I don't have urban numbers, my figures are overall. I keep all fuel receipt (3 years worth for this car) and calculate the cost per mile next time I fill up. I'm not interested in MPG or Lpkm in Autogas because it's like comparing apples to oranges. I'm interested in my costs per mile compared to other vehicles I own or have owned. My diesel Fiesta receipts said 11p/mile, My MX5 receipts say 16p/mile, and my LS430 receipts say 13p/mile. Obviously, there's the occasional petrol top up so maybe add 1p per mile. Still cheaper than the tiny tinny light, rough and ready MX5. It's a very respectable price to pay to ride around in such luxury. Yes, it takes a lot of fuel to get these things out of the blocks. I try to drive smoothly (with the occasional burst to overtake, or lose someone) and I frequently put it in neutral and coast down hills. But I do that in all my cars so the cost per miles is still a direct comparison for my driving style. BTW this thing is the dogs' bollocks of downhill rolling. It just goes and goes (that weight and low CofD finally paying off) On one particular motorway hill that I won't name, I boost it up to a number that isn't just under 100 then pop it in neutral. Two miles later I'm still doing 75 as the hill flattens out. I know people have opinions about coasting in neutral, but I'm not interested. It works for me. Oh yeah, I keep my tires at 42psi. Its perfectly safe for standard profile tyres, but an absolute no no for lwo profiles. This reduces rolling resistance. The recomended pressure (32psi is it?) is set for comfort leveles appropriate for the engineers design goals. Yeah, well those engineers don't pay for my fuel. There's no inherent safety peramiter based on the stock pressure (again, run low profiles at the correct pressure or you run the risk of spinning out). The ride is a bit stiffer but nothing unpleasant. Try it yourself (if your tyres are maked for this pressure) for a full tank and see if there's any improvement. I've been doing this for this car since I got it, about 30,000 miles ago. If it was dangerous, I'd know by now. And I'm still running the cheap already quite worn, Chinese tires, that were on it when I bought it. So it doesn't even seem to be hard on the treads.

assuming petrol at £1.25 (I don't actually know as I rarely buy it) I get an effective (cost equivalent) 43.65mpg. That's everywhere, not just on a motorway run. Did I mention I love Autogas?

I run mine on LPG (Autogas) It cost me about 13p a mile. For reference, my old 1.4 diesel Fiesta (yuck) cost 11p and my 1.8 Mazda MX5 costs about 16p.

That's really good to know. One always second guesses these jury rigged mods, imagining destroyed engines, roadside breakdowns, etc, all because of one minor condition, one didn't anticipate. WOW, I'm feeling like an engineer already.

Speaking of radiator costs, I bought a new chinese one on FleaBay for £30 !! It wasn't 100% correct so I asked if they had the correct one (with the nipple on the top right, going to the expansion bottle) they said no, but if you keep that one we'll give you 50% off. I lengthened the tubing to reach the nipple under the radiator cap, then I modified that cap so that its always open to the tank but not the atmosphere, which mimics the factory plumbing. Hey presto new rad for an LS for £15. + £4.65 for some extra tubing .FYI the cap on the expansion bottle is a fully functioning radiator cap, so overpressure scenarios are handled there as per factory. As far as I can see, the one on the rad is just there so you can fill the system, and needs no pressures relief functions, only sealing. But I could be wrong.

Yes, I've wondered about this, too. Here are my thoughts: --- Heat is the biggest killer of tranny fluid, by far Hot fluid will trash your tranny Trannys work right after start up even on freezing mornings, although they wont shift into top until a certain temp is reached. (i'm not sure where this is measured) The rate of flow from the tranny to the cooler is rpm dependent only, regardless of temp. And the temp in the rad, once up to temp is pretty constant but a hot constant. Trannys on these cars are expensive, and the labour's no picnic. External tranny coolers exist, and are recommended when towing or hauling loads. My american motorhome has one and americans know auto trannys Tranny fluid can heat up something like 15 deg. a second when the torque converter is not locked Toyota tranny fluid is insanely expensive, and I used about 15 ltrs when I did mine. --- As for assuming Lexus engineers always know best, is a risk. Look at all the check engine VSC, etc, air struts,etc issues. After all they aren't that concerned once the car is out of warrantee. So an inexpensive in-rad cooler pipe will do for the warranty. But us high mile 5th, 6th, and 7th owners are our own warranty department. And if they really did know best, why does every motoring journalist complain about the horrible constant whine in the CVT transmission cars? How hard would it have been to add a "simulated shift change" button and programme to make people feel comfortable with the engine noise (BTW I had a friend in the 70's with a CVT Daf. It was weird listening to the tranny spin up to optimum rpm then sit there while the speed of the car changed. OK for a 70's econo box, not cool on millennial luxury cars). And don't get me started on the corroded A/C pipes to the back seat of EVERY ultra (is it ultra?) model LS. Lexus engineers "Know best" my arse (no offense to you @The-Acre ) I just haven't drunk the kool aid about engineering prowess. Yes I agree at stand still ( the only practical time to put your hand on an external cooler) it can feel hot, but is that bad? Its hot, yes, and its passing through ambient temp. air, which is always cooler that coolant, except for the first five minutes after a cold start. Also the cooler has many layers of pipe while the cooler in the rad is, i think, just a straight pipe. But even if its more complex than that, it stall cant physically lower the trans fluid temp to below coolant temp. And that heat you feel is actually the fluid cooling, and heating the air around the cooler, so even with no wind, cooling is being done. Having said all that, I will take your comment to heart and look up if its bad to JUST use an external cooler, and report back. BTW what is the correct temp for tranny fluid. We all agree that too hot is bad, is too cold bad as well? It can't burn from being cold, that's for sure. Just did a quick Google and this was the first thing that came up: "Heat and age are mainly what causes transmission fluid to degrade, and this only leads to more overheating. The ideal range for fluid temperature is between 175 and 225 degrees, and every 20 degree drop in fluid temperature can help to double the life of your transmission." Just looked at some tranny forums, and from what I can see, the only danger of "too cool" fluid is sluggish shifting. This is not dangerous, and is easily detected. Some contributors said it would only be a problem where ambient is significantly low, e.g Canada in the winter. Solution. put a sheet of card board over the cooler in the winter if sluggishness detected. I'm happy with that. AND, nothing I have done cannot be reversed in an hour or less. When I find my IR thermometer i'll scan incoming and outgoing temps to see the differential with low/negligible air flow and note the ambient too.

Having recently done my timing belt, I replaced the rad too, one, because i knew it was leaking, and two because I read somewhere (US forum I think) that someone trashed his tranny when the cooler pipe corroded in the rad. A very stupid design, and ineffective in my opinion; who cools something in something hot? Is this the water problem you all are referring to? BTW milky Tranny fluid is the clue for water I think. Perfect time to add an external oil cooler. I bought one from Amazon for £28 and mounted it in front of the condenser. I completely disconnected the tranny pipes from the rad internal cooler. It gets the coolest air possible out there, and can NEVER get rad water in it.

Correction, £86.50 was pre VAT. Total was £103. Cheeky bugger quoted me non retail price over the phone. Still, it IS the right battery.

Sorry about your lunch. I did go on a bit.

Hi, I'm new here, and as such I am restricted to posting in new members only. So if a moderator would like to place it appropriately, that would be cool. I recently decided to tackle my timing belt. at 185,000mi (1st. one was around 90,000) it was time. I know there's a lot of leeway regarding miles, but age, usage, and environmental conditions can age rubber products differently, so I didn't want to push it, or i'd be pushing it, literally. I'm no mechanic. But I have a few tools, and I regularly study at the university of YouTube. Basically it was quite easy (and bear in mind, when I first watched others do it on YouTube, I said "no way am I up to that ". Well it turns out I was. You may be too. Here's the stuff that caused me trouble, that isn't mentioned by others: 1. Try and do it all on the same day, which means, have ALL your new parts there already. That way it will be fresh in your mind. Don't let a few days elapse between disassembly and assembly, like I did. 2.MAKE METICULOUS NOTES ABOUT WHICH BOLTS/STUDS GO WHERE AND WHAT THEY DO. 3. Take lots of pictures, and make sure they are clear detailed pictures. 4. Work with a lot of light, its quite dingy down there in a november garage. 5. Dress warmly (if appropriate) cold will make you take shortcuts. 6. Take your time when warming the car up, as well as checking for leaks and funny sounds, you need to make sure the water system is completely full. Just filling it up isn't enough. I can't explain what happened to mine, but I think I had air around the water pump, so it couldn't pump. So make sure your radiator is getting hot. Make sure the top hose it very hot and the bottom hose is cooler. If the fans come on and the air they move is cold, you have air in the system, and air in the radiator, even if you did just fill it to the top. Take your time and confirm the system is circulating hot water. Let me 'splain. Item 2 above. For example, the first thing to go back on is the new water pump. It's got a lot of bolt holes in it, but when I picked up the old pump for reference, it only had 2 bolts in it. Huh??!! how did that happen? Looked all around for the missing bolts but none could be found. Through a painful process of trial and error, and putting the tensioner system on then having to take it off again(complete with re setting the tensioner unit), I finally figured out what was going wrong. As you are pulling the various bits off in sequence, you don't notice that a particular bolt you remove, is holding on more than one device. Example, if I remember right, there's a small black plastic cover that comes of very early in the process. At least one of these bolts also fastens the water pump; the last thing you take off. That explains one vacant hole on the water pump, because the bolt was in the plastic shield. There were several other "dual purpose" bolts like this. Seriously that was the hardest part. Other notable events: Bumping the 22mm harmonic balancer bolt? prop up the cheater bar, YouTube style, and bump the starter. Easy Peasy. Lining up the cams and belt, a little fiddly but very doable, check your work 6 times especially the little mark on the cam shaft pulley, its visible from underneath. Try and get the Mitsuboshi (sic) or other belt with timing marks printed right on the belt. Makes life so much easier. (curiously the old belt had these marks, but the dealer mechanic who changed it, didn't use them ) Yes, they were the right marks, I checked. And yes, just like everyone else, the old belt looked pristine (but it makes no sense to put it back in, does it) Retightening the 22mm crank bolt took some thinking (no impact gun and no assistance) I took the old serpentine belt and locked it around the harmonic balancer by pinching it against itself. Then i took the loose end and wrapped it around the power steering pulley anti clockwise. then I put a cheater bar through the loop and wedged the end in a strong place above the alternator. With my left hand I held tension against the other end of the cheater bar, and cranked as hard as I could on the crank bolt with a long 1/2" torque wrench. Did i reach the specified torque? hard to say, cos my torque wrench doesn't quite go that high, but I was close, as I was passed the "click click", AND I used some thread lock. When I flocked up and had to remove the new tensioner pulley, I had to remove the harmonic balancer AGAIN, having just almost popped a blood vessel tightening it. I used the serpentine belt again. This time I wrapped it around the A/C pulley and found a different place to anchor the cheater bar, and another vein to almost pop.. Why not just bump it again? I didn't want my timing marks to move, as I'd lose site of them; and when the tensioner came off I was in danger of the belt jumping a tooth ( it likes doing that when there's no tension on it, ask me how I know) To sub for the tensioner while I was discovering ALL the bolts for the waterpump, I used zip ties to cinch the belt up against both cam pulleys. This took all the slack out of the belt so I was ok on the cam pulley, but I did triple check ALL marks when it was all back together, AGAIN!. So if you think you're up to doing your belt, let me tell you, its a lot easier than you think (I've never done a timing belt before on anything) Total cost £227 (water pump, timing belt, idler pulley, tensioner pulley, tensioner, thermostat, serpentine belt, AND radiator) Good to go to at least 280,000mi) Oh, and for £28 more, I added a trans cooler in front of the condenser. Whose idea was it to cool the tranny with hot water from the engine? The perfect time to do the rad and the cooler.

Hi. New member here. Been coming here for years looking for answers. Didn't feel the need to contribute, but I do now. Firstly thanks for all the good information here. Secondly I can confirm that even now (2017) the dealer has competitive battery prices. £86.50 Lexus Sidcup. Order by 11, in store by 3 he said, we'll see. Last battery I bought was from Halfrauds. They listed two and because i'm fundamentally "frugal", I selected the cheaper one. WRONG! Too small, terminal wrong way around. I made it work but I wasn't happy they had listed an incorrect battery. Seems others here have had similar experiences. That one's dead now so time to do the right thing,