Micholas

Arnotts in America are around £450. I need to make some American friends 😌 re. The Chinese stuff being scrap, I’m saying this because every listing on eBay for the Chinese struts is from a seller with very poor feedback scores. Lots of sellers saying either the part didn’t fit or it didn’t last long. If anyones tried them and had a good experience I’d be open to giving them a go.

Hi all.. on my last couple of services I’ve had advisories from the dealership for my OSF air strut being sweaty. Tbh the suspension is starting to creak and moan these days, so I’m going to start here. Obviously the dealer wanted to charge me £1500 for the replacement. I can change it myself but as most of the cost is in the shock I’m hoping someone knows of an OE supplier in this country? I don’t fancy a second hand one as not many will be sub 100k miles.. and I’m definitely not going down the coilover route. I’ve found that Arnott produce them in the states for around £500, and I’m a big fan of their products.. but with shipping and customs it comes out not far off a genuine Lexus shock from the dealer. What have you guys done? I’m guessing the Chinese eBay shocks are scrap?

Thanks for this. But they seem to be for the facelift LS430, mines a 2001. The pressing of CD button twice, is one of the issues I had with the GROM. It’s asks to do that to get into CD2, which is essentially GROM mode.. but the pre-facelift doesn’t go into a separate CD mode. There’s just a CD button on the headunit that just flags up ‘no CD’ no matter how many times you press it and doesn’t move from radio mode. A lot of the products out there seem to be aimed at LS430’s from 2003 onwards!

Anyone recommend any decent Bluetooth adapters for a pre-facelift LS430? Tried GROM but just cannot get the thing to come up as a Bluetooth device on my phone, and their customer support is non-existent.. so pulling the plug on that. Any decent alternatives that anyone’s running on here?

As stated, all doors aren’t locking. So not a actuator issue on any particular door.

I realise there’s a number of things that could be causing this, but my 2001 LS430 with smart lock is not locking on all four doors. This is the same with me pushing the button on any door or trying to use my smart key (I only have one). Things which could impact this. I had a flat battery last week which I replaced. I also did a lot of work on the drivers door at the weekend. Removed actuator, window, replaced the whole window guide etc. Everything was plugged and bolted back together. Today I’ve double checked that nothing was missed and all was ok. Any control units known to be weak points? Anything else I could be missing? thanks

Haha I think this option sounds best!

Thanks guys appreciate the advice. I will give this a go this evening. Whilst on the subject, that middle strip is causing me a lot of grief. I thought it was a separate strip that I could just replace, but it’s actually a part of the whole rubber window run system which is all one part and connected. See below That horizontal middle strip is being dragged down by the window. I’m thinking it’s because the metal rivets aren’t holding it down anymore see below.. but the strip on the rear OS door is in exactly the same condition with the rivets missing it, but I have no issues there. Any suggestions other than completely stripping the door and fitting a whole new rubber window run?

Chaps I’m at my wits end with this so hopeful someone’s come across it before. My drivers window was always slow and started to stop half way down. I put it down to the old motor on the way out. I ordered a used one from the LS430 spares guy on eBay that everyone recommends. Spent hours on Good Friday replacing this and the lock actuator for the same door. Horrible couple of jobs. But nonetheless it worked perfectly, with the exception of the inside weather strip being loose and getting caught on the window, which I’ll have to replace next. But for the sake of testing the window I held the strip back and the window went up and down like new. Left it until today, as I have the same two issues on the OS rear door. So done the replacements on that door today. Much easier, completed it after an hour or so. Anyway after bolting it all back together, with a sense of pride I tested all windows.. and low and behold the front drivers window does the exact same thing again! Goes down slow and then stops half way!!! I have a new switch on the way, as they’re pretty cheap, but I’m very sceptical as usually a switch issue would mean it wouldn’t open at all. Anyone come across this? Anything I’m missing? Really cba to strip it all down and investigate again!

Thanks for all your comments. Firstly I replaced the radiator as soon as I got the car, so no issues there. I took the car to Toyota and they did an ATF change with no fuss or issues. Took about 2 litres out. I’ve probably put a couple of hundred miles on it since then and as always it drives like a dream. Still get the hard shifts when cold, but meh I can live with that.

One thing to also note is that main dealers have generic minor and major services across all models. And the major does not include a gearbox oil change. Not sure how long this has been the case as I’m new to Lexus’ and not sure whether this differs depending on franchise.. but my recent full service at main dealer didn’t include gearbox oil, diff oil or spark plugs. When I queried it, they showed me a sheet with what’s included in the minor and major irrespective of model. So I’m guessing if you want these done, it’s an ad-hoc job that you request and pay for outside of the service.

For the most part the gear changes are seamless. But I have noticed at lower revs when the engines cold I do notice the shifts. Popped into the local Toyota dealership this morning to pick up some new floor mat clips and they seemed quite happy to do the job. They’re calling me on Monday with a quote.

Thanks a lot for this Roy. Much appreciated. The more I’m researching this, the more I’m coming across advice saying not to touch the ATF on Lexus’ if the mileage is high and oil dirty. Apparently it causes gearbox slippage as you’re dislodging general grime that’s built up on the gears that’s stopping it from slipping at the moment. Not sure how true that is as I’ve changed gearbox oil on many an old car without issue.

It’s just down the road from the dogs home.. definitely a different franchise to the Tunbridge Wells site but still a main dealer nonetheless. If you google Lexus Battersea, you’ll see them.

Now I know Lexus aren’t too fussed about keeping their older classic cars on the road.. parts availability even for essential parts is very poor in comparison to Mercedes, BMW, Ford etc. Who still produce a number of low selling parts, even body panels for their 60’s and 70’s cars... however today took the biscuit even by Lexus’ standards.. I firstly called the Lexus dealership in Tunbridge Wells to book in and get a quote for my LS430 to get a gearbox oil change.. to my amazement I got a call back from the service advisor saying.. and I quote.. ‘the car is too old really. We wouldn’t want to get involved as it may do more harm than good, so we’re going to decline the job’ 😳 This wasn’t an engine rebuild.. or anything intense where possible NLA parts might be involved. This was a basic gearbox oil change. I was in shock, as any other main dealer for a car brand would bite your arm off to charge over inflated labour rates, let alone a so called luxury car brand. I dismissed it as being just a bad dealership so called the Battersea site asking for the same job... again they couldn’t be more disinterested. I’ve called twice now chasing the quote and availability to book the car in, and I’m pretty certain they have no interest in taking on the job. Ultimately it’s not the end of the world as I can get any decent garage to do the job. It’s just worrying how disinterested the dealer network is in their heritage cars. Even a car that’s from 2001 which for me would be still be quite new-ish.. but Lexus really don’t want to know.

I wonder if there’s any difference between a facelift and pre-facelift shock. Both have different part numbers but there’s a big price discrepancy 🤔

Ok so a new update on this. The waterpump and tensioner were apparently fine. I did pre-warn them that I wanted justification for the extra cost if it did need them.. so I’m not sure whether they just gave it the thumbs up to avoid the confrontation with me. The tech did have a pop about the non-genuine radiator being fitted though 😄 One of the unfortunate advisories to come up was the NSF shock is weeping, which they showed me on the video inspection. The quote they’ve given me is £1400 😭 A look over the pages of history supplied by the dealership and I can see the first owner spent a lot of money over the years. He replaced the steering adjustment motor twice! And he also seemed to go through a couple of tyres a year!! 😳 not quite sure what he was doing with them! Also interestingly enough the car maybe came with an in car phone as there’s an entry in 2006 for this being removed. Anyway back to it. I got the spare wheel refurbished because it was an absolute state, and a new Pirelli fitted as the tyre was bald! I wish I took a photo of it before handing it over, as it did look like it just came off the titanic. Unfortunately due to the LPG tank being in the spare wheel well, I’m resigned to a lot less boot space. Next up was the paint work. As previously mentioned the whole car is a bit of a mess from a body work perspective. I’m not looking for a show car or concourse, but just acceptable. The paint has suffered a lot from scuffs, scratches, a key mark! It actually looked like it had been scraped by other cars on multiple occasions. From a correction perspective there was stuff I could do to make some of the panels look presentable.. but the NS was beyond help. it’s very hard to capture from a picture but try to focus on the chips and deep scuffs rather than the scratches The quality isn’t great on this site for uploading pictures but there is a long key mark just below the chrome trim going along the whole width of the door and into the quarter. So I’ve always known that you get what you pay for with bodywork. I know some people get happy when they find somewhere that will respray their whole car for £2k.. but from my past of working with body shops and in the trade.. we all should know to stay well clear of cheap paint jobs. HOWEVER with that being said. I just couldn’t justify top spend on this car. I found an average priced body shop and went with it hoping for the best. Again I struggle with the imaging on this site so you can’t really see how good it is.. but I was fairly pleased. I guess I’ll find out in a couple of winters if the lacquer starts to peel 😄 In terms of the rest of the bodywork. There are some other blemishes that I will not be able to get out.. but aren’t entirely obviously. There’s also a lot of swirl and scratches around the rest of the car from poor washing techniques and maybe from a few hits.. but I’m confident a good compound will sort this out. So once the weather warms up in the spring I’ll dedicate a weekend to working on it. That’s pretty much all for now. Next on the list is to refurb the rest of the wheels and get new tyres all round. Mechanically I’m happy for now. There are just a few things that need doing. Two new wing mirrors that actually fold and heat like they’re supposed to. An inspection of the electric window mechanisms on the OS as they’re slow and noisy.. and I’ll probably change the lock actuator on the OSR door as it’s loud and intermittently working. With all the salt and snow on the road I don’t intend to do anything for a few weeks now. So I’ll smoke around in the 5 series and let the warmer weather come before I tackle anymore jobs. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

Good shout. When I get time I’ll actually go on parts direct and check the price of the water pump, tensioner and a few litres of coolant. Funny, when I called back the girl sounded annoyed that I had changed my mind and now they’ve got to drag the car back in to the workshop. I did make sure she took all the labour off the drive belt though seeing as it’s got to come off for the cambelt change.

So I decided to go ahead with just the cambelt. Apparently best practice for the dealer is that they offer the timing belt replacement and a visual check of the waterpump and tensioner.. and then if the waterpump or tensioner is in a bad way then they charge for that as well (another £600). Currently praying that the first owner wasn’t a tight wad and replaced it all at 80k 😀

I lost barely any ATF and because I knew the service was happening today I just left it. So today Lexus managed to retrieve all the service information from Blackrock Dublin.. and unfortunately no record of a timing belt change. They quoted me £380 to replace just the timing belt.. or £992 for the cambelt, water pump and tensioner. The PO was quite specific about the mileage he claimed the timing belt was done.. and there were also multiple visits to the maindealer after the 10 years and 100k threshold.. so I’m sure they’ve would have told the first owner just how serious it is.. So I’m really at a loss with what to do to be honest. With everything else that needs doing on this car, the tyres are a mess, wheels are a mess, bodywork a shambles etc. I really don’t want to fork out a grand when it might not be needed. I’ve had a full service today and they’re replacing the aux belt tomorrow morning, which is coming to around £550.. so it’s all starting to add up! 😏

It’s in the service book as an additional service for 60k miles or 6 years. I more want them to check out the history on their system rather than check the actual clearances.. obviously that would involve keeping the car overnight and a new set of rocker cover gaskets. If there’s no record I’ll have to make time for another booking to do that.

Had a proper rummage around today and nowhere to be found. I did find a run of the mill service sticker with a mileage on it in the door aperture dated from 2014. I got my courtesy call from Lexus today and told them I wanted them to check it out. Also the valve clearances. No idea if or when they were last done!

It’s a facelift 750il which is quite common in black. Very fun to drive, but very deep pockets needed to run it as a daily. 😔

Previous owner stated that the belt change was done at 85k. Which means it’s got another 50k miles. After buying the car and going through the service history I couldn’t find anything around it, so I called him and he said ‘oh there’s a sticker in the engine bay or something’ Still to this day I’ve not found that sticker. I’ll be getting Lexus to check it out tomorrow.

Thanks Shahpor.. Nice Tech 2 👌 and love the early calypso red E34!