donkmeister

Be aware that ultrasonic deterrents are not truly ultrasonic... My parents had one that they couldn't hear, but was very unpleasant, nay maddening, to younger ears to the point that I opened it and chopped the power lines out before reassembling. It also drove dogs mental when they walked past, which confused elderly owners who couldn't hear the screech.

Hiya, I've found that eBay is best for items like this, from breakers. With our cars being uncommon you may need to order from overseas. However, if it's any comfort I've ordered parts from Japan, the continent and the US for my Lexus and never had anything go missing. I'd strongly advise checking the part no on the old one and matching this before buying, to avoid the heartache of ordering an incompatible part. In my experience of non-lexus cars, the mirror glass is attached by a little leaf spring that latches over some lugs. You need to get a small thin screwdriver or trim removal tool to flip it up to remove the old glass, then detach an electrical connector or connectors. If you are very lucky you may find "new old stock", but it won't be cheap. I paid £300 for a heated electrochromatic glass for my Merc, for a car that had been out of production for about 8 years. It came from Lithuania, despite being RHD specific.

You can easily check if it has SBC - the pump actually has SBC on the casting, and there's a little pressure sphere (like an old Citroen hydropneumatic sphere) with a warning label ("this has got loads of pressure inside, just don't muck about with it" IIRC) attached. Front driver's side of the engine bay. The SBC Stop mode is a one pedal drive mode that is pretty cool. SBC Hold is essentially the same as Hold on the LS.

I've found eBay a god send for this sort of thing - I've even ordered parts directly from Japanese sellers and the cost/shipping time was better than I expected. I have a vague recollection of engine bay plastic parts for my LS arriving in less than a week.

Which bodystyle is your E-Class? I always thought the E-Class wagon with one of the V8 options was close to perfect as a do-all car. Much as I love my LS460 the boot is smaller than what I really would like... Fortunately I have another car for load lugging but it's not a luxurious V8 waftmobile. Noting that your new Merc is a 2010, thankfully by this point they had dropped the SBC braking system! It's a great system, but as it was new tech and longevity was unclear Bosch took the (understandably) risk averse step of building in a pre-defined life. When I had my pump replaced the quotes varied from £1500 at a good Indy up to £3000 at the dealership. They're good cars, the E-Class of that era - I think they get a lot of flack because of the 90s quality issues and the Daimler-Chrysler merge but TBH that seemed to be more about Chrysler benefiting from Mercedes tech than Mercs being rebadged Chryslers.

Frustrating though it is, sometimes you have to concede these jobs to physical maladies; I have an old back injury that meant I struggled to do much in the way of DIY for a few years (doing wheel bearings would have crippled me for a couple of weeks after). Remember, you're helping to keep someone in a job!

Anything can be retrofitted if you can source the parts and code it in. However, retrofitting power tailgates (to any car, not just Lexus) involves quite a few parts that are different to the non-powered version plus a lot of dismantling and reassembly of the car. What that actual cost would be for your car... One way to work it out is to do a side by side comparison of the EPC to work out which parts are different, you can get the parts costs from a lexus parts desk or your online auction site of choice. Once you add in a couple of days labour for retrofit you may find it more cost effective to trade in against a car with power tailgate from the factory.

Today I replaced an entire front door on my LS460. Recently Mrs D had a bollard run into the side of the car when she was in a supermarket car park... She took it to a well-respected bodyshop nearby who (being a well-respected bodyshop) couldn't fit it in for 3 months, and couldn't give a full quote due to not being able to get Lexus to quote for a door. So, with a quote for several £k plus an unknown amount for the parts, I went on eBay and found a breaker had a door in the right colour for under £200. Yes, it will be only 99% the right colour when I look at it in certain light, if I find it noticeable I'll have it blown over to match. It took me about 8 hours to strip the old door, remove it from the car, refit the new door and get everything back together. The biggest ball-ache was the exterior door handle and lock/softclose actuator... That seems to be a common issue with cars I've worked on, so may be down to my sausage fingers. The door itself is lighter than I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't about to start juggling with it, but I was surprised that I could hold it with one hand while getting the bolts in from the hinges with the other. One interesting detail was that there are small plastic structures bolted to the door that appear to be there to prevent resonance... At first I was looking for the cables to detach as they looked like electronics units!

How many degrees do you have, that despite being an engineer, you cannot count them? 😜 The problem (for me) is twofold: firstly, some people point at The Environment as a reason for doing something when the reality is that particular thing won't really help. Secondly, people seeing that sort of thing and declaring "well, if that one bit is hogwash then it is ALL hogwash". You need to look at each thing on its own merits. Manmade climate change is there. We know what we've been burning since the Industrial Revolution, we can predict what the likely effects are on the climate and have been doing so for decades, and there has been a measurable change. However, slowing the motorway down past a massively polluting steelworks is ****** in the wind (although I suspect that particular one is more to do with local air quality. Still ****** in the wind though!) Some idiot coming up with that as an idea, or putting a buslane on the M4 etc does not invalidate the fact that man-made climate change has been happening and will continue to happen so long as mankind carries on with the current set of industrial processes. Climate science throws up some interesting stuff from time to time; I remember reading a paper demonstrating an increase in lead levels in Arctic ice due to a sudden increase in silver mining across Europe (particularly in the British Isles) in the middle ages. It's not just grumpy people telling you you aren't allowed a V8 anymore.

Hi Ross - as it's been a week and no-one has come back with a precise answer, the rule of thumb used by hyper-milers (for obvious reasons they like to compare the total drag of cars) was to multiply the width without mirrors by the height, by 0.85. This takes into account that cars are not square, but cant inwards top and bottom, plus have air (albeit turbulent air) underneath. So, width of an LS460 without mirrors is 1.875m, height is 1.465m. Therefore frontal area would be ~2.33 square metres, and CdA is ~0.61 square metres. Obviously not precise numbers, but close enough for most things. What's the plan then; working out how much power you would need to crack 200mph? 😀

Update: I fitted a Blue Music adapter today (thanks @BigBoomer for the steer!). I went for SKU 2720, which is the version without telephony as the LS460 already has handsfree built-in. I also needed the Y-cable (see screenshot for the items I used.) Fitting was surprisingly straightforward - I didn't take pictures as there are already quite a few YouTube videos showing how to remove the LS460 head unit however, the basic process is: unclip then slide the trim pieces either side of the trans tunnel out of the way unclip the piece of trim between the gear selector panel and the armrest unscrew the gear selector use a socket to undo two 10mm hex screws on the driver's side of the trans tunnel (recessed) unclip and lift the gear selector panel, then carefully lay it down (I didn't bother disconnecting the wiring) unclip and lift out the ashtray (again, I didn't bother disconnecting the wiring) undo a 10mm hex screw on each side of the head unit (these are hidden and must be accessed from underneath... and removing/replacing these was the fiddliest part of the job) use a trim tool to lever out the head unit use the Y-cable to connect the bluetooth adapter check it works try 3-4, maybe 5 times to get the cables into a position where you can slide the head-unit back in, then reassemble the trim around it. Total time: 30 minutes. Seriously, I'm impressed at how the interior goes together. Not a single broken clip either. Total cost: €47.23 delivered ( £41.51 at today's exchange rate). Sound quality... the Blue Music adapter, like Grom and VAIS, doesn't do APT-X of any flavour, nor LDAC. So, you get "standard" bluetooth audio. Whilst I would have preferred a higher-quality codec, it's perfectly fine once you are on the move - even in an LS460 there's enough wind and road noise to mean that you probably wouldn't hear any benefit of such a codec. Functionality: it shows up as CD Changer 2 automatically (no configuration required). The track forward and back buttons work on both dash and wheel. The track names don't show up on the screen however that may be a limitation of the audio player on my phone (I use Plex to stream from my home server and didn't think to try anything else). Any foibles: none identified as yet. The volume of the adapter seems to be the same as that of the radio and CD player, so you shouldn't find that one input is exceptionally loud or quiet (this is a detail that is missed by quite a few aux adapter makers!)

Yes, I was surprised at how little trans fluid comes out when the engine is off - it only pumps it round when the engine is spinning the transmission. The amount lost is not enough to warrant an ATF change as it's within the "margin of error" for trans fluid capacity. What I DID do after disconnecting each pipe was to immediately cover each pipe with a rubber glove held on with a rubber band to ensure no grit or grot got into the system.

I did the rad on mine - it was a surprisingly straight forward job as I had very little in the way of corroded fasteners (the only one was a screw holding the rad to the a/c condensor at the bottom). I replaced the water pump, hoses and ATF cooler lines at the same time, and Toyota even helpfully explain the fill/bleed procedure on a sticker (on the header tank IIRC). Even with fiddly clips it was a summer Saturday's effort. Lexus quoted me £1k for the labour alone, hence the interest in doing it myself. If I were you, as a first step I'd refill the coolant then run the engine whilst watching to see where coolant/steam appears from. If it turns out you've just got a split hose or leaky rad then you'll spot that fairly easily. It's not impossible to have more than one leak at a time, but as you would need to fix them all anyway you may as well do the easier/cheaper ones first! Also there is a YouTuber called Car Care Nut (who is a Toyota / Lexus mechanic of many years standing) has done a few videos on the LS460 when he has had them in his shop for various leaks... Suggest you look up his LS460 videos and see if you can correlate anything he shows with what you are seeing. I'll warn you in advance that he doesn't seem to rate the reliability of the LS460, don't take it personally 😁

I replaced the rear calipers, discs and pads on the LS460 late last year (which was fun as I was recovering from COVID... Had to take a lie down on the drive a few times!) I was impressed with the OEM set-up. The standard rear discs had details such as being left and right-handed, with the vanes between the two surfaces curved to ensure airflow through the disc. Obviously the person who had last been in there had them back to front (confirmed by part number and the big "L" and "R" on the castings). The quality of the machining on the disc face was better than any other I've seen. The only downer was that bleeding through is a pain in the backside as you need to go through the rigmarole of resetting codes every time the pump realises it's losing pressure (I don't have a Toyota-specific scantool), but Lexus are far from the only manufacturer to do fancy brakes that get in a hissy without dealer tools or awkward workarounds (Mercedes, I'm looking at you). So, OP, £140 for fitting AND a fluid flush sounds like a very good deal indeed. Also the brake fluid spec is DOT3... Which I think is what Fred Flinstone was using in his brakes. But, fortunately DOT4 is fully compatible (I've genuinely never seen a bottle of DOT3 in 20+ years of spannering modern-ish cars)

I'd be interested to see what you think of it after you've used it a while. I used to have a Mercedes E500 and the American owners saw the "Sprint Booster" (same type of device) as a must-have mod, I presumed they had sloppier throttle mapping for their market as the UK ones were pretty nippy. Given the LS460 seems to communicate throttle inputs via telegram I can imagine the SC430 may have similarly "relaxed" response out of the box (i.e. quite quick once the engine wakes up, but you have to wait for it to read the "full power if you would be so kind" message, put down its tea and then open the throttle.) Does it have any modes besides altering the throttle pedal response? E.g. a speed limiter

Has anyone added any circuits to the blank slots/ways in any of the LS460 fuseboxes? I have done this on other cars in the past to avoid using fuse-taps, but for the LS460 the fused power goes out through multiway connectors and I've not been able to find info on which slots are connected to which pins (nor what pins I'd need to buy to populate the blank parts of the connectors). I'd rather avoid having to buy a set of used fuseboxes on eBay to test! Specifically I'm interested in the boot fusebox and either of the passenger compartment ones. It's not to add anything particularly exciting (towbar wiring and a dashcam) but it saves having to piggyback off something else or having to leave the fusebox cover off for a fuse-tap.

Brilliant video demo, thanks!

It seems to be a common recommendation - I went to MK Lexus to quote on a new rad and asked for them to do an ATF change (I didn't realise that you only lose a tiny amount of fluid when doing the rad, I had visions of a litre in the tranny cooler and then loads gushing out of the pipes)... They said they wouldn't do it due to tales of transmissions breaking after a fluid change. I think it stems from people having a transmission problem, trying a fluid change "just in case it fixes it" then amazingly, the new fluid doesn't repair the worn bands or blocked valves. So it gets remembered as "new ATF broke my gearbox" rather than the more accurate "new ATF didn't fix my broken gearbox".

For long road trips I have a BT module hooked up to the aux input; it's too annoying to fiddle about with the remote and folding the screen back up for most journeys, so it rarely gets used. I had been contemplating the GROM, but for £500 would want something that works perfectly... Which doesn't seem to be the case. So, I found a company called VAIS in the US have a BT module that is a fair bit cheaper ($280USD plus shipping , taxes etc) and emulates a second CD changer (I.e audio only; no screen mirroring or android apps). Seems ideal. Has anyone here had any experience of them? Anything to report?

I saw that LPD are down to their last few official branded power banks, there are some odd bits of Lexus branded merchandise about 🤣 But as he said... Never buy stuff from an unsolicited random, it's always too good to be true. I knew some guys get taken in by the speaker box scam 20+ years ago.

The first picture shows the old radiator I removed. This pink crust, both top and bottom, wasn't apparent before I removed it from the car, so I'd suggest any old LS460 owners who suspect they are still on the original rad should have a good look around with a nice bright torch and a mirror, phone camera, boroscope, just something to peer underneath the fan shroud as I couldn't see it beforehand from just nosing around. The second picture is just the "bottom crust". Apologies for the brown grass, it was July. The third picture shows the incompatibility of the pattern part rad with the fan pack. I'm afraid I was rather annoyed at this point and this is the only picture I took, but you can see that the bottom clips are engaged (top of the pic) and the top hose (bottom of the pic) is fouling the shroud. It appears the rad itself is too short, top-to-bottom. My advice is to pay the Lexus premium and get the OEM part (16400-38192) - approx £300. The pattern part claimed to cover that part number but clearly doesn't. Also, for the transmission cooler I'd recommend changing the following parts. 32941-50040 (oil cooler hose) qty 1 32942-50040 (another oil cooler hose) qty 1 90466-16004 (clips for those hoses) qty 4 Finally, whilst you COULD do the waterpump with the rad in situ, for a novice such as myself I was thankful for the extra space once the rad was removed. So I'd recommend doing that too as I did find a small amount of leakage that was cleaned up with a scotchbrite before I fitted the new pump, gasket and belt.

I'll dig out a photo of the old rad later on; it was definitely getting rather crusty!

Just realised I never updated this. I ordered one from Rock Auto and found that (despite the manufacturer themselves saying it was a replacement part for the correct part number) it didn't fit... The top pipe fouled the fan pack. So, I ordered the part from LPD, perfect fit. I replaced the water pump, trans pipes and clips, and the large rad hoses whilst I was at it. Only one corroded fastener, holding the rad and condenser together at the bottom. The little thoughtfully placed hole in the undertray meant draining down was nice and easy. Hardest part was figuring out how to remove the radar. Obvs the little overflow nipple snapped on the old one, because that's what they do 🤣 Also, Lexus kindly put the fill/ bleeding instructions right there on the header tank so I just followed those and it was perfect.

That makes sense, thinking about it. The boot SHOULD stop it, but in reality it's only going to stop 99% of rubbish getting in rather than 100%.

I hope you realise you've just jinxed yourself... Buy a full caliper rebuild kit now, to break the curse! 😁 I've had a few seized calipers in my time, but only ever discovered them the first time I replace the brake pads after taking ownership of a car. So I don't know if it's something that comes on gradually and can be anticipated ("that piston was a little stickier than the rest... I really must rebuild the calipers on that axle in the next year or two") or if it's something that you cannot spot until it's happened. I do know that just because a mechanic says "you really need to do this work" doesn't mean a customer agrees to that work though, so I'll withhold from blaming them. If it wasn't the family transport I'd be happy to buy in a rebuild kit and do it "soon" however currently we're having to use the Citroen Picasso for family duties... a perfectly acceptable car but ours smells of wet dog (mostly because we use it when we need to transport a wet dog).