Razor61

Front strut bar camber bolt removed this morning, I had to use a 9inch grinder without the guards to do the job. You can get in, grind through the sleeve and bolt without damaging anything if careful and with the strut arm pushed up as far as possible to give the best access. I had to buy the grinder and metal cutting discs, £55 for a MacCallister with 5 discs. Well worth the money, 20 mins and it was off rather than hours of effort with a hack saw blade. Plan for today is clean and paint the strut brackets, rebuild the shock/struts ready to fit. Paint the inside of the strut turrets and everything should be ready re assemble. Either today or tomorrow for the reassembly, raining at the moment so will probably depend on the weather…………

Howard, all Lexus OEM parts are being used and mostly new OEM nuts/bolts/washers and bought from Amayama mostly. The front strut bars have new OEM Lexus bushes pressed in. They are the only bits that have had replacement bushes rather that a complete new suspension arm. I did consider PSB bushes for the strut arms on the last LS400 MK3 I had and bought a set which I still have, this was because the original bushes were not available but I fitted a pair of Toyota Century bushes instead. Other than that I didn’t consider poly bushes. The same applies for the rear suspension when I do it, I even have new Toyota/Lexus OEM ‘rear carried sub assy’ for both sides and the new bearings to go with them - very expensive parts, I was quoted £1600 from Lexus for replacing one of them because one of the bushes had some play.

Thanks, should be straight forward from now on. All of the new bits I’ve painted ready to fit, some bits I’ve taken off need fettling and painted which will take a day or 2 for removing rust and painting. Its a decent sized job but will be worth all the work, 🙏

Everything dismantled and removed apart from the RH strut bar, bolt is seized as expected so will cut through the bolt tomorrow. 100% had enough for today and no energy left to spend a couple of hours sawing through the strut bar bolt in 2 places, it’s a PITA job so will start fresh tomorrow.

The planned front suspension rebuild has begun…………I’ll update as much as I can as I progress. Undertrays removed, jacked up, secured on 4 axle stands and wheels removed . Took a couple of hours all in.

Mot guidelines for 5.2.3 J

Wheel/tyre valve

This looks nice, and it's Gold Considering the current market the price isn't bad. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304491042111?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=LCMUhJolTWu&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I got that totally wrong…….make that 27 miles from Kirkham.

👍

I know I am😂 I live about 15 miles from Kirkham, I can check if the AC clutch is working but that’s it.

Pic of the drier assy, sight glass and pressure switch.

One other point before anyone mentions it should have a dye put in to detect leaks, which is true to a certain extent, the nitrogen plus soapy water method is used as a preliminary check for leaks. If obvious leaks are detected, remove nitrogen, fix leaks and repeat until no obvious leaks are detected. When no leaks are detected using this preliminary check then nitrogen is removed, system re gassed/pressurised with correct gas including a dye then checked again for any signs of the dye as the final check. Doing it as said above removes the time and effort to gas it properly only to find leaks then reclaim gas and start over again, maybe quite a few times until all the leaks are sorted.

New issue with the car which I knew I needed to look at it. The Aircon isn’t working but it was working 5 months ago when I bought the car I think. I booked the car in with the AC specialist for yesterday morning, same guy I used on the last LS400. The issue with the AC on my last LS400 was the magnetic clutch on the compressor, I didn’t know this at the time and replaced the whole compressor including the clutch. Now I know how to check if the clutch is working I checked it before going to get the AC looked at. Applied 12v to the clutch connector and I hear it clicking into place and could see it engaging, so clutch is working and compressor isn’t seized. Off to see the AC guy. First check was to see if there was any gas/pressure in the system, no pressure and was empty. Next thing was to pump nitrogen into the system and watch the pressure to see if it dropped while spraying soapy water around the condenser, compressor, drier assy/pressure switch and all couplings etc. Could’t see the pipe work under the battery at the time. Pressure didn’t drop at all and no leaks found anywhere apart from a tiny leak on the pressure switch that screws into the drier assembly. Nice one I thought, test it again, fill with gas and away we go! Pressure switch removed and O ring replaced, old one was flat as a pancake, switch re fitted and tested again with nitrogen and soapy water. Tiny leak on the pressure switch was sorted. However, there was now a tiny leak from the sight glass on the drier assembly, smaller leak than on the switch coupling. This only became apparent after the other leak was fixed. Can’t fix the leak so nitrogen removed and a bit of gas pumped in to check that everything works. The system works and compressor now kicks in and works so it’s just the tiny leak to sort. Disappointing but I know where the very tiny leak is. Problem is what to do about it and fix it. To fix the leak with a new part means replacing the drier assembly along with the pipe going back to the bulk head/firewall. Not the biggest of jobs at all. Obtaining this part isn’t going to be easy, I seem to remember another member needing the same part for a different reason and it wasn’t available anymore. The exact part isn’t available as far as I can tell. What is available is the same part for an LS400 with rear cooling which was available in Japan but not UK. The difference is a ‘T’ at the bulkhead end of the pipe with an extra piece of pipe with a coupling to connect to the rear cooling. I hope that makes sense. Approx £100 delivered from Amayama iirc. I suspect the previous owner had fixed the AC by replacing the condenser with a used ‘good’ one, had it re gassed and it all worked but over time the gas has escaped. It would have taken months for it all to escape as the leak/s are so small. So the options for me. Option 1 I’m pretty confident that buying the part for the LS400 with rear cooling would work by blanking off the extra bit of pipe with a ‘stop end’ coupling. That’s one option. Option 2 Fix the very tiny leak on the sight glass, the sight glass is pressed into the aluminium drier assy, it’s raised up and is leaking round the edge of the glass. Because it’s such a small leak and I’ve nothing to lose, I have a plan to fix it. After measuring up the diameter of the sight glass area, I’ve ordered a 18mm x 1mm flat sapphire watch glass and some clear Gorilla epoxy glue. Plan is to clean up the area and glue the watch glass over the sight glass area which will cover the sight glass, where it’s joins and a mm or so past. The Epoxy glue drys clear so if I do it right I’ll still be able to see through. Get it tested again see if it works, if it doesn’t work it will be option 1.

I would get a used instrument cluster, there is a working cluster for sale on Facebook. Easy to fit as well. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/236484945333437/

Just looked at epc data and it shows 4 wear sensors for the mk2, that is doing things properly! A wear sensor per wheel when normally it’s one per axle, impressive.

I have only seen 2 wear sensors, one for the front and one for the rear. I stand to be corrected though but for the 95 LS400 I had and current 98 LS400 there were/are 2 wear sensors.

Whoah…….that is expensive!! Approx £25 from Amayama plus shipping iirc.

Did you fit the KYB shocks? I’ve bought a full set ready to fit if the existing shock need replacing when I rebuild the front suspension, I’ve read that KYB shocks can make the ride harsher and I’d be interested to know if it’s true.

Not quite 20k but judging by todays prices I should get my money back 😀 Most of the stuff I already had in the garage. I bought it all for the last LS400 but didn’t fit the bits. I did put all the bits up for sale on here, sold the rear UCA’s and rear insulators and that was it. Seeing as nobody wanted the rest of the parts I bought a car to fit them to🤣

Thanks, feel free to visit the North West anytime if you bring beer tokens😀

Small update and I hope I’m not tempting fate. Since the Yaw Rate sensor was replaced with a used one from the USA, the ‘VSC Off’ issue hasn’t occurred at all since. I’ve done a fair few miles since as well, a couple of 200 mile journeys and to work and back for the last few weeks. So far so good and hopefully it stays that way. Next job in a couple of weeks is a full front suspension rebuild, I have all the new parts ready and just waiting for a week off work at the end of the month to get cracking. Meanwhile I’m painting all the new parts ready. Strut bars, lower arms, UCA’s, drop links, shock mounts, insulators, tie rods and all new nuts and bolts to go with it all which have been painted as well. I have also bought new KYB shocks for front and rear. Didn’t buy new springs though. Got all the same stuff for the rear as well but the rear suspension rebuild will be done another time.

The VSC Off issue………. I was convinced it was a temp issue, for whatever reason. Fitted a new battery and that didn’t cure it, nothing much lost and it has a brand new battery now. I also suspected it happened when the car was started on a slope facing up, my drive has a slight slope and I always park it up the slope so water doesn’t pool in the corner boot area. I know it sounds bizarre but I am trying to figure out a pattern of when it happens. I purchased a used ABS/VSC ecu, which I received a few weeks ago but to fit it means removing the glove boxes and I wanted to wait for the used VSC Yaw Sensor I bought from the USA which is a piece of cake to fit. VSC Yaw Sensor arrived yesterday and fitted it this morning. It’s in the boot and I just needed to remove the lower boot linings, disconnect the battery, 2 x 12mm nuts for the Sensor, reconnect the battery, start the car without pressing the brake pedal and leave it until the VSC light goes off to reset the VSC and that’s it. I needed to go out in the car after anyway and the VSC Off light didn’t come on but that doesn’t mean it’s fixed. For the past month or so it hasn’t happened as much at all but it does happen. Time will tell and I’ll know after a few weeks if it’s ok or not.

Good tip thanks, I had been told about this by Phil (Ambermarine), it saves a lot of work. I'll be removing the struts anyway to clean/paint the springs, fit new top mounts and I may buy some new KYB struts/shocks depending on what condition they are when I remove them, I've found you can't tell 100% if the shocks need replacing until you remove them completely and check.

Thanks Mark and I am surprised. I shouldn't be surprised though judging by the LS400's I looked at that were described as being excellent, as new or something similar. Reality was very different when I looked at them.