BigBoomer

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.

I highly recommend using the M6 Toll unless you enjoy sitting in traffic jams. However, it is £9.70 EACH WAY! The regular M1/M6 and M40/M42/M5 routes are regular traffic jams. The A50 from Derby to Stoke-on-Trent isn't too bad so long as you can avoid the rush hour at both ends.

What is the part number on the ECU. There are several on Ebay but you need the exact part number.

Francisco, does the engine start and run? To be able to move the gear selector requires having the engine running. The only way to move the selector with the engine not running is to press the ShiftLock Override which will allow you to put it in Neutral so you can push or tow the car. The 95 is a Mk3 LS400 (95-97) so won't have the OverDrive button on the selector or the O/D Off indicator. That is a TEC (ODB1) port (unique to Toyota) and getting a connector & code reader for those is very difficult. Only a Lexus/Toyota dealer will be able to connect to that port as you need an ODB1 scanner as well as the adapter for that port. ☹️

I assume that what it means is that you can park on a 16% incline and the parking brake will hold it there. Simply put, if you apply the parking brake on a steep incline (the steepest you can find in your area) and the car stays put, then it should pass. If the parking brake does not hold it, then it will fail the MOT test. Admittedly it is difficult to test that here in Essex where a 10% gradient is rare, let alone 16%. However, if you live near Porlock (25%), Hardknott (30%), or Ffordd Pen Llech, Harlech (37.45%) then you will have excellent brakes. 🤣

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/intro/codereading.html It also gives you the Transmission codes (if any). "For transmission codes, you count the blinks on the "O/D OFF" light. "

I bought a cheap £30 ODB2 reader and it works for basic stuff, but to get all the info you need a TechStream setup which is complex to get working. Have you tried the battery disconnection that Mark suggested? Disconnecting the battery for 10-15 mins resets the ECU and can resolve certain codes as it wipes the code memory. If you do that and the code returns afterwards, then you need a reader and have a problem. The RAC won't take kindly to calling them out to read a code for you 😁 They'll probably do it and be all polite, and then send you a bill for work performed that is not covered under the contract.

Those seem to be the factory 5 spokes, only powder-coated black. £400 for a strip/re-coat and they are once again silver. Why is the language on the screen set to Danish?

I believe that the Self-Levelling systems only came in with the HID low beam in the Mk4 (and all later HID models). The headlamp aim can change if the Halogen bulb is on it's way out. The filaments in Halogen bulbs sag over time until eventually they break. Adjusting the aim should be the second thing you do, as replacing the bulb normally fixes that problem. This is why I take my vehicles to an MOT test centre that does not do any work on vehicles. You pay full price for your MOT but you don't end up paying for unnecessary work being done.

Ahh yes, the joys of the Dartford Carpark. I just looked and at 10am Monday morning (21 Oct 2024) it is completely finagled up. Only the left tunnel is open due to a hydraulic fluid leakage last night. So your 38 miles drive to Costco would currently take 2+ hours and probably cost you a small fortune in petrol. The M25 clockwise is also closed between J5 (Sevenoaks) and J6 (Caterham) because of a truck fire last night (resurfacing). I only mention that as it would have been my morning commute if I wasn't working from home and I would probably still be stuck in the car trying to get to the office,.... or more likely by now I would have given up and gone home, only to get stuck in the queues for the Dartford mess. Yet, despite this being a common occurrence (the Dartford area becoming a carpark), the incompetents in power (of all political parties over the years) have once again decided to postpone the decision on whether or not to build the Lower Thames Crossing. So, it was first proposed in 1989 and yet here we are in 2024, 35 years later and £800million spent on various consultancies, surveys, and other expenses,.... and we STILL don't know if it will ever get built.

All you need to do is occasionally BOOT IT and let her redline in 1st and 2nd. Either that or else override the auto and leave her in 2nd to keep the revs up. Besides doing the engine a favour,.... it's FUN!

The Cayenne is an amazing piece of kit, but it has a few VERY expensive common faults. If you are going down that route, join the Cayenne forum first and have your eyes opened. Also worth finding the Wheeler Dealers episode where they do a Cayenne Turbo S. I would say that £3,500 is a decent price for a 177k LS430, but it depends on condition and maintenance history. I paid £4,400 for mine in 2018 with 91k miles.

On a long run my best has been a smidge over 30Mpg, but I was cruising at 130Kph/81Mph. My worst over a full tank was 18Mpg and was due to 3 days of hell commuting on the M25 Carpark via the Dartford Crossing. Thank FSM that I don't have to do that commute any more!!

That is one of the two Power Steering Fluid coolers. It's really just a U shaped piece of metal pipe in front of the radiator but that's enough to keep the PS fluid cool. There is one between the Pump and the Rack, and the return one between the Rack and Reservoir. https://lexus-europe.epc-data.com/ls430/ucf30r/5111/chassis/4503/?color=8P8&trim