hockeyedwards

No problem. Ok that has clicked in my head and makes sense, but I did swap a like for like relay and issue still presented itself, maybe I've been dumb all along and the bulb was the culprit, will find out soon enough 😛

Lovely early car. I love white cars, but not the beige interior. I do agree with George on the not driving part, but mainly because it is so mint, you risk spoiling it, decreasing its value etc, unless of course you don't care about future values, but that would also pose the question of why spend so much in the first place? I wouldn't be worried about reliability issues, they are great cars, tonnes of knowledge out there and although some parts for the early gen cars can be a little tough to get ahold of, a lot of items can be found on reputable websites, but require import from Japan or US. Both of which I have done and not had issue. If you are buying as an investment/ once in a blue moon drive, probably one of the best examples, but if you want to swan about in it on the daily/ semi regular, probably not worth it.

Yes definitely H4's and pretty sure HB3's. So maybe bad luck and as you say both bulbs have blown one filament each. I will grab some brand new ones tonight and swap them out and inspect/ see if that makes a difference. Because the bulb came on with the click forward on the indicator stalk, I had presumed it was good, forgot it had two filaments, seems odd that both would go a once whilst in storage and have been undisturbed for months, but hey ho! On the relay side, I did swap some over to check if one had blown, how many relays are there for headlights?

Was minding my own business, swear I wasn't looking for trouble, but it'll always find me! I need a wiring diagram for the Body control module under the steering wheel, whilst vaccuming the interior I can across a stray wire hanging down, managed to follow it back to the MPX unit. Now it looks botched, like someone has cut into it to piggyback. I did remove an aftermarket phone kit when I first got the car 3 years ago, so hoping it is just the remnants of this. However, I would like to check before brushing it aside. Tough to get super clear picture, but it is the first harness at the bottom of the unit as you look up from the footwell, it is on the top row of that harness and is the second wire in as you look at it. It is green, but has been spliced with a black wire. If anyone can identify or provide diagram, would be greatly appreciated.

Now then! (General Melchett tone), I have been reinstalling front and rear lights this morning and went round testing everything to make sure everything worked and have a seemingly odd dipped beam issue. As far as I can recall, everything was working before it headed to the bodyshop, not that anything they could have done would influence this. When I turn the stalk to dipped, neither side comes on, however when I push the stalk forward for high beam, they both illuminate alongside the high beam. I have checked fuses, relays, bulbs and there would seemingly be power getting to the bulbs, just not at the desired time. Would the indicator stalk itself cause the issue? I even tried setting my phone up to record the lights whilst I had a waggle around to see if I could coax them back to life, but no dice. Any insights, suggestions, words of wisdom? I am hopefully going to get ahold of a spare stalk to test my theory, but wondered if I could do anything in the mean time?

Car came back to me on Saturday, not fit for road so had to be trailered, was the earliest I could organise the company I always use, but was worth the wait! Today I made new weather seals for the rear lights as one was missing and the other very tired, seems a previous owner had issue with water leaking into boot and decided it was the missing weather seal, instead of making one, just siliconed the entire back end to within an inch of its life! So that'll be a job for another day. So I used the old one as a template, bought the neoprene from ebay for £6, cut them out rough then trimmed down a little for fitment. Quick, easy and satisying, I wonder if easier than the silicone marathon....

I have a similarly scarred underside from mis-use of jacking points etc, my sills are captain crusty too. They are going to be assessed by a friend who is a fabricator, we pulled a large hump out where someone had decided to jack underneath the footwell on passengers side before it went to bodyshop, wasn't too tricky, just a lot of bashing! 🤣

It was the exeterior and interior colour combo that I wanted and it was going to become a 'banger racer' according to the gangsta I bought it from, so £1200 saved it from a rough(er) rest of life!

I bought this one for £1200, the odds were never in my favour if I took your approach 😆

Just to throw it out there, Esso 99 has the E5 sticker on the pump by law only, 'may contain up to 5% ethanol' is the meaning, however, it 'should' have no ethanol content - as stated on the website (not that anyone would go and read it, which they know), but it may offer a medicore reason as to why they might be more expensive compared to other E5 fuels. The NX gets the cheapest around and the LS (and F when I had it), only got Esso 99, albeit for different reasons. I would agree that it is annoying when the big price signs are conveniently inoperable when prices bump high. Our local Morrisons and Tesco have habits of 'faulty' large advertisers, only for you to rock up to the pump and find it to be up 5-10p from last time.

I've kinda thrown the kitchen sink at the LS to get it looking minty fresh as every aspect was just getting tired. Looking back now the HSDs were 'cheap' on the spend list haha! I did enjoy the subframe and entire car bush replace, was a bit of a faff as a one man army, but where there is a will/ profanity/ danger, there is a way! I was tempted to have engine out whilst she went to bodyshop but ran out of room storage wise and was already crowding the gym portion of the garage with car parts 😅

If they did the DHPs in 18s, would definitely have them as I agree the bigger wheel looks better, but I love the DHPs. I ordered the 18s online from wheelbasealloys and specified the offset with the company so no spacers required, I genuinely can't remember if I went stock spec or pushed them out a bit more. The rear camber bolts were all seized so in that last picture you can see the rears don't sit right, having refreshed all of that with subframe out, will all be corrected in due course. Eventually I'd probably go air-ride so I can have settings for driving, static and speed bumps etc, but many £££ that I don't currently have!

That pic was taken before I changed the reg, is now under a more appropriate plate 😉

Looking a bit worse for wear, pre-bodyshop strip down. The car is on a slight incline as an FYI and with the smaller DHP wheels on, was on a larger wheel whilst I sourced these DHPs. The last pic is of it with the larger wheels on, think it highlights more how 'low' the car is.

Seems reasonable for 'custom'. Yeah I looked at lowering springs and it was just not feasible for your mentioned reasons. I managed to swipe some HSD coilovers from driftworks on one of their sales with 15% off, so was worth the purchase. I came down around 30mm, but think now with the lip kit I will come back up a little as I don't fancy ripping it off on first drive out 😅 and see how it goes.

Managed to do some digging and it concurs with your result, 15mm spacers were used on the LS on the facebook group, although a later model year. Curiosity wise, does the cost of custom springs come in better than coilovers? - or is it more a fact of not wanting to go that route for lowering? 🙂

I got all excited today, saw the whole picture coming together and beamed at her in all the soon to be glory. The body shop kindly allowed me to come put some bits back on to make her a runner instead of a pusher. So all 4 calipers were installed, brake lines reattached and parking brake cable reconnected. Reinstated rad, condenser and associated pipes, air box etc all put back in and then finally all fluids refilled, only to realise I had forgot my EZ bleed kit for the brakes (doh!), so going back tomorrow morning to finish that off. Battery has been at home on trickle since its departure to the body shop, I had to give it a go right? Car of course started first time, no exhaust attached so a thumping V8 grumble rang through the building. 7 more sleeps and I should be good to have the car back at home 🙂

uh oh, was up to 4 last year 🤣 and between my dad and I, it would have been 9... one can never have too many toys 😉 - however, back down to 2 for now, as @BigBoomer has said, a bigger house with more space for tinkering and I would gladly have more, again!

Usually get a mobile guy out to do the AC side of things, 1000x better than going to any of the above mentioned places. They tend to care about their name, business and workmanship for future recommendations. I would sit out with them and chat, offer food and drinks etc, make it a more personable experience. Having worked as a teenager in Halfords, I can only attest to some of the janky stuff happening back then, that no doubt is still a mainstay today!

There is definitely a guy on the LS facebook group who ran SC wheels on his LS. Despite me not appreciating the standalone look of the SC wheels, they did look good on the car, it was lowered but i cannot remember if he ran spacers or not. If i manage to scroll back far enough and find it, will let you know!

My dad had an early SC430 whilst I was a growing up, was an amazing car and I have only favourable comments about its reliability and used to revel in the drives when we would go to events. Saw us up to nearly 200k before being swapped in for an RX as the little me became medium! 🤣 I like the hard top convertible as I feel cloth can ruin the lines of a car, either an SC or the IS250C are the Lexi based options, the IS is rare and I don't know too much about them.

If you can find part numbers and if they are indeed brembo, autodoc or buycarparts are pretty good, they come from Germany despite UK website and they usually phone after you order to double check everything with you, which is decent, delivery takes about a week usually. I bought all 4 discs for my GS F from there and fitted myself to save all the monies. Shame EBC don't do the pads as they are good.

I would be hesitant to say I'm a pro, but I had them in and out several times whilst trying to make my mind up on what to do 😆, the bigger question is, can remember the safe place I stored all the bolts...

Full spiel on my leather seat thread, but finished effort from myself and my dad DIY'ing repair/ paint of rear seat back/ bench. Front seats next week!

Finally got round to some seat related items, rear seats seemed to be in the worst condition so spent a lot of time working on them. The bench was just very creased but the back had some very minor repairs which is highlighted by the white filler, which I have to say I am astounded by. Hopefully the pictures are in order. General order of repair was, clean entire seat, scuff up seat as a whole, repair required areas, very gentle flatting off, spirit wipe down. 3-5 colour coats, 3 matt finish sealant. Car coming back to me next week is latest update from body shop. Away at a wedding Fri-Sun, so finishing front seats next week. I would love to take all the credit, but my dad is a retired painter and still a rather dab hand with his paint sprayers, so I did most of the prep work and he worked his magic with the dye and paint gun. A good two days chatting all things car!