BigBoomer

You may need to replace the top mount as well to be able to use standard shock absorbers. The DHP top mount will be a different shape from the standard one. Nobody seems to have documented exactly how the DHP shocks differed from the standard ones.

It should be as it is AWD with a FWD bias and pretty much the same engine as my '98 with 80bhp more. The computers in more modern cars are very clever at such things. They detect air temperature and such and adjust accordingly, much like in the LS430 😁

A couple of years ago I drove my LS430 quite a bit on snowy/slushy roads and was also impressed with her surefootedness, and that was on summer tyres as it's rare we need anything else down here in the wilds of Saaaaf Essex. You do need to be smooth and think ahead but even when she loses traction it is smooth and manageable. My '98 Honda Legend was better due to the big heavy engine over the front wheels (FWD) but otherwise this is the best snow car I have driven. Both my mid-90s company Mondeo's were terrible on snow but then they were manuals.

Are you going for the whisper quiet LS430 sound with bypass closed, and the deep throaty rumble of a V8 when open? The legal limit for the LS430 is 74dB(A) when on the public road. More than that and you are asking for 7-day wonder. Also be aware that you will need to declare it to your insurance company who will probably double your premium because of it. If you don't declare it they will use it as an excuse to not pay out if you are involved in a claim and they inspect the vehicle. I love the sound of a nice V8 rumble, but too many take it to extremes these days and nobody wants a neighbour with a LOUD car (or motorcycle).

I've always done sump first on all my cars and bikes, mostly because I don't want my hand covered in litres of hot oil when removing the filter, but the LS430 filter is horizontally mounted so you can unscrew it a bit to let the oil drain and get zero hot oil on your hand so I guess either way around will work. 😁 Repositioning a full oil tray is not an issue if you do it slowly and carefully. You will have to do that anyways to get it out from under the car. You are using the 16 litre easy pour oil drain pan aren't you? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oil-Drain-Litre-Capacity-AU295/dp/B006B3Q3H4 SOOOOOoooo much easier than with any other oil pan I have every used. On my GTR1400 the filter is also horizontal so it can be removed without getting ANY oil on your hand, but you'd better drain the sump first or you get a jet of oil shooting across your garage from the filter mount. You also need to be very careful as super-hot headers are right next to the filter. On the GTR1000 it is a cartridge filter that screws into the sump from underneath and the the oil from that goes everywhere no matter what you do, but draining both (yes it has 2) sump plugs makes the mess manageable.

Just last week I had a snide comment from an acquaintance about me running an olde worlde dinosaur of a car. Apparently I should be ashamed of myself, and him having spent £45k on an all electric car (Peugeot E-3008) makes him a superior human being to me,.... so I started to explain to him about limited resources, about the real cost of recycling vs reusing, about open-cast lithium mines, about the fact that his car probably would not last the 21 years mine has already lasted, about the fact that I only spent £4400 seven years ago on my dinosaur, about the fact that I work from home and probably produce less total annual greenhouse gases than he does due to my low annual mileage, and finally about the fact that he was a self important little ****hole who could **** off and die for all I cared. So, he's no longer speaking to me, which is a relief. 🤣 A friend who overheard the brief altercation got a stitch from laughing after the ****hole stormed off. 😁 Ella thought I was a little harsh, but she smiled when she said it. ❤️

And Autodoc probably sells enough volume to the UK to make it worth their while registering with HMRC and doing the bureaucratic double-step needed to sell/ship to the UK. Some large suppliers also include the import duty and shipping cost in their final price if they ship enough volume to the UK. Brexit didn't stop trade, but it has effectively limited it to the larger players in the market and we are all worse off because of it.

Well, you saved yourself some money at least. 😁 I paid to have my rears done. £1200 including OEM hubs.

Just another "Brexit Bonus". 🙄 In 2022 I sent my sister (who lives in Brussels) a small package with a birthday present in it, total value maybe £45. She ended up having to pay nearly £30 to get the package from the shipping company and it took so long that it missed her birthday by nearly 2 months. Now I simply don't bother sending to or buying from the EU any more, and a great many small businesses feel the same. I tried to get some parts shipped from a specialist supplier in the USA and he told me that for small value shipments he has to register with HMRC and declare on their website for each shipment. He apologised but said he really couldn't be bothered to spend the time and effort to go through that hassle just so that a foreign government can collect it's taxes. When I suggested that he could charge more for UK shipments, he said he didn't care about the money. He just did not want to go through the hassle for maybe 10 shipments per year. This is typical of what I hear from other small businesses outside the UK (not just the EU) who ship to the UK. We are not worth the hassle of doing business with until there is a certain level of income to make it worth their while.

If the windscreen has been replaced with a non-OEM screen then the rain sensor often does not work, so the system defaults to being an intermittent wipe with adjustable speed via the twist knob on the stalk. What there is in the OEM screen to make it work I have no idea, but lots of comments on the US forums about this problem.

Thanks Steve, do you have a link to the 20 minute bumper removal video as well? Yes, modern cars do seem to have gotten more and more difficult to replace the headlight bulbs, but then bulb reliability has also increased considerably. On my first Carlton (bought in 1997) I was lucky if an H4 bulb lasted 2 years. On my Honda Legends I only replaced the H4 bulbs once in 12 years of ownership. On my LS430 I have yet to replace any bulb whatsoever (yes, I have probably jinxed it now) in nearly 7 years of ownership, but then dipped beam is an HID.

Just because it was the Dealer that did the brakes, doesn't guarantee that the job was done correctly. Sounds like they reset both sides before fitting the new discs, and then forgot to set one side and didn't check the parking brake. All that "Dealer" service guarantees is that they will use "genuine" parts.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186738940740 Not sure how much the shipping to Spain would be but the gearbox is cheap enough.

My parking brake gets used when I park on a slope. Doesn't happen very often here in Essex, but some of my family live in Harrogate and my better half's family are in the Peak District so it gets used when we visit. When parking on a slope, I put her in Neutral, apply the parking brake, then ease off the foot brake until I am sure that the parking brake is holding the car, and only then do I select Park. The scariest part of Porlock Hill in the LS is the narrow bit at the bottom, especially when you encounter a bloody coach coming the other way 🤣

The above device may work (fingers crossed!!). The problem with the adapters that you found Francisco is that the modern ODB2 readers do not know how to talk the Toyota specific version of ODB1, so whilst it may work for some codes, it will not work for others. They also will not give any more info than the flashing lights on the dashboard. For the transmission problems, it sounds to me like it is either a problem with the shifter linkage, or more likely one of more of the transmission solenoids are broken.