Razor61

I think you did the right thing replacing it, the sensor works with very small increments (millivolts I think) so it wouldn't take much to give the wrong reading to the ecu. To quote a post from another forum - "Coolant Temperature Sensor is the "MAIN SENSOR" for the computer. This sensor has more control over the computer than any other sensor". Testing to see if the voltage changes according to temperature on the sensor and testing that it's not open circuit is one thing but whether it's actually accurate is another thing. It was the accuracy aspect that prompted me to change mine.

1997 MkIV/Series 2 facelift for sale on Gumtree, looks tidy enough and has all 3 keys. Drivers seat will probably need some work though from looking at the pictures (or lack of a full picture of the drivers seat) https://www.gumtree.com/p/lexus/lexus-ls-saloon-1997-automatic-3969-cc-4-doors/1395783197

They do come up on eBay. There is one for sale at the moment, link below, but it's from Lithuania. Checking on epcdata the subframe is the same for the model years 2000 - 2003 and face lift 2003 - 2006, LH and RH drive. Part number is 51206-50040 for the rear subframe and it looks like it's still available from Amayama. £713.87 + £203.46 delivery + import duty etc of approx £150 + admin charge from Parcel Force of around £25 iirc. So for a new one it would be around £1100, if my math is correct🙂Plus the cost of new subframe and diff bushes and rubber stoppers (approx £400 from Amayama) as you wouldn't really want to use the bushes from your old subframe. So all told it would be approx £1500 for all the new the bits I think. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEXUS-LS430-F3-Rear-Subframe-4-3-Petrol-207kw-2001-/254841430658

Going off the LS400 I purchased in Oct 2019 the areas to look out for concerning corrosion are listed below. I have posted some information about all this, have a look at my posts which will give you some insight on what to look out for and other stuff as well. The stuff below might be alarming but like with any other old car things can be fixed/sorted with some time and effort and surprisingly little money. Rear subframe. This suffers, can look worse than it really is (as with other cars) and is often mentioned on MOT’s. Mine did look really grotty but I got it jacked up, wheels off and scraped, wire brushed everything I could get to then treated it with some rust converter (copious amounts sprayed and then worked in with a brush). Once dried etc sprayed with Dynax stuff. It wasn’t like new but better than leaving it to rot through. Unless a previous owner has sorted this out it probably won’t look pretty. Rear inner arches and especially the bottom at the boot end and cill end. The corrosion into the cill area is often mentioned on the MOT as ‘ Rear Body or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of the body mountings Inner arch’ or something similar. Around the inner rear arch lips where the under seal is thinner is another potential area. On my car there were holes into the boot area both sides and into the cill area both sides on the bottom of the rear arches. It’s a very similar story for the IS200 as well. I sorted this out during the first lockdown, it was back breaking and time consuming work but is fixable if not too far gone. Unless you can get the car on a ramp, clean all the crud out of the arches and have a really good look round you probably won’t notice this. I could probably detect these problems without the car being on ramp but that’s only because I know exactly where and what to look for. Generally underneath on the floor pan was pretty good, exhaust to cat clamps/flanges were starting to go though. Suspension components rusted and seized but that’s not unique to the LS400.

I don't think £3,000-£5,000 is expensive for a good example that has been well maintained and looked after. To quote Howplum, "they have their foibles" and are not immune to the common issues that can affect any car so research on here will stand you in good stead. There is a silver 1997 on eBay at the moment, currently £950, which looks like it's been stood quite a while so may not be in the best shape underneath. That car could be a bargain or it could be a total lemon, if it was near me rather than Clacton-on-Sea I may have been tempted to have a look myself. Good luck in your search but I think it will be a waiting game for a good one to appear or buy cheaper and do work on it, iirc rich1068 bought a very very good one recently so they do appear for sale from time to time.

According to the post below that is correct but they need to be the correct make and type, there are a few different ECU's which are interchangeable for the MK3 10.1994 - 07.1997 and just one ECU for the MkIV 07.1997 - 08.2000. This is according to website: Lexus parts catalog (epc-data.com) I presume your car is a MK3? If it is a MK3 then, being a 97 car, the ECU is probably part number 89661-50351 which is the latest version of ECU for Europe (also see the post below about ECU Combability) I purchased the capacitors from DigiKey in the USA but there is a UK website as well: DigiKey Electronics United Kingdom | Free Delivery On Orders Over £33 I have an earlier ECU revision for sale on here in the 'Buy and Sell' section along with 5 x sets of capacitors, ECU isn't any use to you but the caps are the same. PM me if interested. Just one other point, if your ECU is a 89661-50351 then maybe find a second hand unit in decent condition, have the caps replaced then swop it out. Info for capacitors with correct make and type. All my crazy Lexus issues SOLVED!! (ECU-leaking capacitor) - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion ECU compatibility, this was applicable to the 1995 Mk3 I had.

I think they replace the caliper itself along with the caliper carrier/bracket, from what I've seen it comes as one complete unit called 'Cylinder assy'. Normally the caliper carrier/bracket can be purchased separately but not in this case.

The reason the display was so bright was because the dash lights were full, past the the click, and this overrides the auto dimming when the lights come on automatically.

Light are on Auto, I'll play about with the settings and experiment but now the novelty of having a large touch screen and pressing buttons etc has worn off I'll probably just leave it off until I need it or buy an SE-L🤣 The display was on it's brightest setting and it was very bright.

This may be helpful😉

Just a slight update on this, it's a bit bizarre, it may make you laugh, it may help someone or people may have noticed this as well. It is a bit difficult to explain but I'll do my best🙂 So I've been travelling in the dark to work since I got the car a couple of months ago and have had the sat nav/multimedia display on all the time. Start of the journey to work entails a narrow dark country road with no street lights and some left hand 90 degree bends. When going round the first left hand 90 degree bend I struggled to see the left hand side of the road, so much so I was making sure I was compensating right so as not to clip anything. I could see the right hand side ok but I literally couldn't see the left hand side of the road unless I put the front fog lights on, which prompted this post about brighter bulbs. On Monday morning I decided to to turn off the sat nav/multimedia display because it was very bright and annoying me. The next morning when going round the same left hand 90 degree bend in the dark with the sat nav/multimedia display off I could see the left hand side of the road ok. Mmmmh that started me thinking and I can only assume that because the screen was so bright it was blocking my vision to left, similar to a car coming towards you with bright headlights and it blocks your vision. The display is in the middle of the car but it's on the left when driving. I'll play about with the display brightness or put it on night mode.

Yep the ‘sliding caliper’ design does need regular maintenance and would be good if they were checked and done when the brakes are ‘serviced’ at a dealer. But in reality most of the time it’s a case of replace discs and pads, wheels on and move to the next job even at main dealers. It’s down to cost/time in the end. Apologies if this has been said before. The lower pin on the IS250 slides in the caliper itself and is metal to metal plus it’s steel to cast, moisture gets in and hey presto corrosion sets in and it seizes if not sorted. Top pin slides in a rubber bush so not metal to metal and from my experience does not seize, bit sticky maybe but not totally seized. As you say it’s definitely the weak point of the design and should be checked under regular maintenance, especially at a main dealer. I do like a few bits of the design though The caliper carrier doesn’t straddle the disc so you don’t have to remove it to replace the discs. All that’s needed is to remove the top slider bolt and the caliper swivels out of the way, if the lower slider pin isn’t seized of course. The pads are held in with proper pins for the pads to slide on rather than sliding in the caliper carrier as in a lot of other designs. The design is sort of a mixture of ‘normal’ sliding calipers and proper 4/6 pot calipers without the pistons either side, I hope that makes sense🤔

Yep the rear brakes need more love and attention because, as you say, they work less. Same applies on most cars. Next time will take a lot less time just to grease them. When I did them this morning it was a learning curve and cleaning properly. The main bit was cleaning out the lower caliper pin bores which which were rusty, not easy to do and takes a bit of brain matter, abrasive paper and brake cleaner😉

Dismantled the rear brakes etc this morning on my IS250, cleaned everything, removed any corrosion and greased the sliders and pad pins, pads and clips using Proslip stuff. Took me around 3 hours but next time will be 2 hours max now I know how it all fits together. I bought the car a couple of months ago and I had read on this forum about the rear brake slider pins seizing and the need to inspect and grease them regularly. I’m glad I did this as they needed doing, they were not moving as free as they should by any means and if left over winter I suspect one side may have seized completely. New discs and pads had been fitted by Lexus a year or so ago and I could tell they weren’t moving/working correctly just by looking at the discs. Took the car for a short drive to make sure everything was still working and I can feel the difference when braking already. All done for winter and I will take the good advice on here to do the same thing twice a year, once before winter and again in the spring. When I do them again in spring I’ll fit new slider pins.

🤣 that’s a better pun than mine! I’m going to take one of the bulbs out at the weekend and make sure it is all clear glass and I’m not losing it......

I have only purchased headlight bulbs from ABD.co.uk for the past few years and is where I bought the bulbs in question so they are not dodgy counterfeit, unless ABD has supplied counterfeit which I doubt. Not sure about the subtle difference you mentioned as they look the same to me, apart from my photo wasn’t taken in a photographic studio🤣 As for poor assembly.................it’s not difficult to fit the new bulbs themselves on the IS250, IS200 and LS400. The most difficult bit is taking off any bits in order to get to the bulbs, mainly the drivers side on the IS250. I have fitted quite a lot on other cars over the years as well and always double check they are fitted correctly. On the IS250 I made absolutely sure that the new bulbs fitted and even rotated the same amount as the originals to fix them in. I wasn’t questioning the quality of the bulbs themselves as I have always been happy with them and I bet if the H11 bulbs I purchased are fitted to another make of car they would probably be just fine. I’m pretty convinced it’s the silver ‘cap/paint’ thing on the top of the bulb (which is clearly visible in the photos) that is the problem for my IS250. New bulbs with silver ‘cap/paint’ thing on the top fitted resulted in worse and pretty poor illumination with dark stripes - original bulbs refitted which don’t have the silver ‘cap/paint’ thing on the top resulted in back to standard halogen illumination - that settles it for me and I can only guess that the design of the headlights on my ‘halogen’ headlight equipped IS250 does not like bulbs with the silver ‘cap/paint’ thing on the top. Of course the bulbs I got may have been faulty or a faulty batch, who knows but I’m not going to buy another set. I’ve looked at pictures of other makes of H11 bulbs just now on the internet and they all have the ‘cap/paint’ thing on the top, some silver and some black, the originals in my car do not have this and are all clear glass. I may give Lexus a call tomorrow and see if they can shed any light on the issue😀

You are quite right, my headlights are not xenon (as you have) or HID but halogen. The Osram D4s bulbs you mentioned and others that have been mentioned are a different type and configuration which don’t have the blanked out bit at the end, which I suspect caused the issue.

I know you are😉 I didn’t look at the make of the original bulbs but the glass was clear all round with no blanked out bit/cap at the end. I don’t think it’s the Osram bulbs themselves but the design of the lens assy on the IS250. As said before the fitment isn’t straight facing towards the front of the car but at an acute angle. I can only assume the light is bounced in the lens headlight assy and the blanked bit at the end of the bulb disrupts the light. I fitted a set of the same Osram type bulbs on the Mrs IS200 at the same time, I bought a set for the IS250 and IS200 together, they have definitely improved things on the IS200 as I expected but the fitment is ‘normal’ straight on towards the front of the car.

Nope, not at all and I’m more than happy with the SE-I. I would have preferred an SE-L but not particularly for the HID headlights. The standard halogens are not really bad, I just wanted to improve them that’s all.

Definitely a bit odd, I’ve never seen it before but all the other dipped/full beam bulbs I’ve replaced were pointing ‘straight on’, the IS250 bulbs are not far off pointing completely outward to the side of the car and definitely not ‘straight on’. Oh well, you live and learn by trial and error. £35 down the tube but not wasted because if I hadn’t have tried them I wouldn’t have known🤪

The standard H11 Halogen dipped beam bulbs seem a bit weak on the IS250 so bought a pair of Osram H11 halogen Night breaker Laser 150% bulbs which I’ve used on other cars (LS400 being one of them) and they are better than standard. I didn’t expect them to be super bright but they did improve things. Fitted them to the IS250 last Thursday tested that they lit up etc but hadn’t driven in the dark since then until this morning to go to work, to my surprise they were were a lot worse than the standard bulbs. So much so that I turned round, drove back home and put the original standard bulbs back in! Took 20 mins because I’d already knew what I needed to remove. I was a bit puzzled why they were a lot worse, they were not bright and there were sections of ‘dark’ stripes compared to the standard bulbs. The Osram bulbs have a blanked out section at the top which the standard bulbs don’t have, I presume this blanked out section (see pics) was causing the dark stripe effect in some way (maybe the way the headlight assy/lenses are configured in the headlight assy). The bulbs are not fitted ‘straight on’ but are at an angle so maybe this isn’t good for bulbs with a ‘blanked out’ section on the top/tip of the bulb, certainly not good for an IS250. Has anyone else experienced this?

Recently decontaminated, clay bar, buffed and waxed the paintwork. it came up pretty well I think.

I don't intend to use it, I bought the Ceratec stuff (high temp, no metal particles etc) after reading the link below and haven't used copper grease/slip since on the brakes. The 'ProSlip Brake Lubrication Kit' looks pretty good and you get 3 x types of grease designed/formulated for the different areas on the brakes, it all made sense to me so will try it. Copper slip v Ceratec link: Copper slip vs Ceratec: facts for the modern mechanic – Mintex ProSlip Brake Lubrication Kit link: ProSlip Brake Lubrication Kit - ProSlip Brake Grease

That's interesting, so that implies if you buy them yourself and fit them you wouldn't get the warranty or get limited warranty. I didn't realise that.

Regarding Lexus prices and cost to fit them, below is a screenshot from Lexus website for IS250 Essential Care costs. I presume the costs are for supply and fit so they don't look that bad to me.