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Dollywobbler's Lexus - £SOLD


dollywobbler

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As you may have seen elsewhere, thanks to JohnK, I've managed to upgrade from Bluebird to Lexus LS400 in one fell swoop. John even kindly brought it all the way from Middlesborough to the Electric Train Museum. Here's the first sighting, complete with Autoshiters. John arrived just as we were leaving.

22365521_10155780083198200_4911844975576

 

This is 'Mason' the Lexus, which has been owned by half of Scotland. It is the second vehicle I've owned this year that has passed through the hands of 320Touring, but much nicer than the last one...

 

The danger element comes from the timing belt, which we know was changed at around 55,000 miles, but have no way of knowing it has been done again since. Now I'm home, total mileage is 156,000 miles...

 

But that's getting ahead of myself. After a hasty handover, JohnK loaded the Bluebird with kids and associated gubbins and he was away back up north. Hero!

 

Meanwhile, I dashed to the Wythall Transport Museum to catch up with the Autoshiters. On arrival, I had to have a pantograph moment...

DLnbEkZX0AUsKch.jpg

 

Next to Asimo's Insight.

DLnqLmmX4AEBVvU.jpg

 

Calendar?

22228375_10155779359988200_5515196305539

 

Then we headed to the pub for dinner. A twisted sign caught me out as I lead a convoy of shite, but only Asimo fell for my wrong turn. Everyone else seemed to know where they were going. Embarrassing, as this used to be my home turf. Food was eaten, geekery was indulged in and then it was back to Wales.

 

Via a petrol station, obviously.

DLpcwVYXkAAUZTY.jpg

 

50 litres went in, and I reckon 20 of that has now gone again, on the 110-mile cross-country drive home. 

 

Findings so far. The sunroof is very noisy, there are two interior rattles which stand out amongst the silence (roof noise aside), it's quite big, it's very easy to make decent progress yet remain no higher than 2000rpm. That's what the engine is doing at 60mph. Pantograph wipers are ace. It feels a touch under damped. There are exhaust heat shield rattles. I slide between the seat bolsters (reminds me of the XM). Pantograph wipers are ace. It's quite big. More tomorrow!

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There's a weird handling characteristic on these, at least on the one of my Dad's I drove.  The suspension feels like it's going to be all rolypoly so you back off coming into corners when you really don't need to.  The whole thing will, and does, hunker down and get on with the business of handling surprisingly well.  Push too hard in the wet and it will go all RWD on you and look surprisingly graceful in the process, like a chimney meeting Fred Dibnah for the last time.

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When Mason was driven from Leicester to Northampton two and a half years ago he had no idea how extensive his tour of the United Kingdom would be!

 

Have you pressed 'the button' yet? The one that leaves creases in the tarmac? Allegedly, I should add. I would never drive him like that. No sir.

 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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I would love an LS400.  There are two reasons, and only two reasons, that I've not bought one yet.

 

1) I'm stuck doing a 100 mile commute for another couple of years - and not sure that I could stomach the fuel bill.

2) After one of these, everything else is going to be a disappointment.  I don't want to peak too soon.

 

I have very specific 'Hendryesque' requirements.  MK4, Purple, DHP.  It'd stay forever.

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Er, having priced it up, I'm not sure I fancy it. £250 for parts alone, and probably six hours for someone who knows what they're doing. That means about six weeks if I have a go...

 

But if the belt fails, apparently this is just the right age for carnage. Ugh.

 

It's also bloody enormous. Had a right game trying to turn it on my driveway last night. May end up reversing it in. A bit annoying, as I've managed to turn a Peugeot Boxer on this driveway without issue...

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top barging!

 

A lot of the lexus chat online is suggesting 90k miles, maybe that is for later enguns?!? One forum I read said 55k for UK 100k for RoW. maybe we are bigger idiots with deeper pockets?

 

Also suggestions that the 1UZ-FE is non interference?!?

 

can you see the belt, I seem to recall that it bends back on itself in two places, you should be able to see if there is any cracking between the teeth, which is obviously a bad thing

 

If you fancy a cambelt change weekend maybe autoshite could do a crowd help! looks achievable but a big old job

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I had the Celsior 400 Jap import version...... heated massage rear seats, courtesy of Wuvvum of this parish.. By far the best car I ever owned. Sadly gone in the middle of the night during one of my trips away - never to be seen again. Took me all over Europe and I loved every minute of it.

Other peoples parking was the main bugbear - I had it walloped on every single corner and a front wing within 2mths of getting it - I gave up trying to repair the paint in the end as custom mixes to match the complicated layers was costing me more than I paid for the entire car!

 

You'll love it - I can guarantee it. Hopefully you'll have a lighter right foot than I did though - eye watering if you want to have fun in them!

 

I also recall being informed it was none-interference...... but of course best to check.

 

Good luck with the old girl ;-)

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Not too horrifically priced:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-90-97-4-0L-Lexus-LS400-SC400-V8-034-1UZFE-034-DOHC-32V-Timing-Belt-Water-Pump-Kit-/360477319609

 

Current exchange rate brings it at £75. Import Duty will be eligible - so throw 20% (VAT) on that and handling fee (£10). All in, about £100 for belt, tensioners and water pump. Once done, it'll probably* go another 150k

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Not too horrifically priced:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fit-90-97-4-0L-Lexus-LS400-SC400-V8-034-1UZFE-034-DOHC-32V-Timing-Belt-Water-Pump-Kit-/360477319609

 

Current exchange rate brings it at £75. Import Duty will be eligible - so throw 20% (VAT) on that and handling fee (£10). All in, about £100 for belt, tensioners and water pump. Once done, it'll probably* go another 150k

 

Don't forget the "10% off if you buy 2 or more"

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Good old Mason!

 

I remember when my non-AS mate Dan bought Mason from RantingYoof. We drove it overnight from Northampton to Aberdeen. Somewhere around Preston, we found the POWER button and left creases in the tarmac.

 

I got cold sweats on the come-down from the energy drinks somewhere around Stonehaven. At one point I was so tired I mistook a sliproad for another lane and clipped a kerb at 50mph. The only damage was a small bulge in the front left tyre.

 

 

 

Dan owned Mason for about a year, until November 2016 when he emigrated to Oregon. I bought Mason from him for a piss-take price about 12 hours before his flight left. In the brief 3 weeks I owned Mason for, I thrashed him up and down Scotland, and even took him round Knockhill! I can also vouch for the sideways handling characteristics. I exited a few roundabouts sideways in the wet.

 

Anyway, I decided to get rid of Mason the very day I did the trackday at Knockhill, due to total electrical failure and a horrible judder from the brakes, and my total lack of arsed when it came to maintaining such a ropey cheap old boat. The total electrical failure was fixed by dome when he collected Mason after winning the raffle. The fix involved kicking the living daylights out of the fusebox in the driver's footwell.

 

When I say total electrical failure, I mean it. The electric windows, the central locking, the interior boot release, the steering column adjustment all stopped working somewhere between Dundee and Knockhill, as Tickman will confirm.

 

 

 

 

I must ask. Does it still idle at 2k rpm when cold, and did anybody ever figure that one out? It's been doing that since RantingYoof's ownership in 2015. It's quite fun being able to do 20mph without touching the throttle though! I even replaced a couple of exhaust sensors when I had it, in an effort to cure it. I didn't buy the sensors, mind. Dan did but never got round to fitting them.

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...If you fancy a cambelt change weekend maybe autoshite could do a crowd help! looks achievable but a big old job...

 

On my IMP (factory 'endless' bike chain) I covered up the open timing case, ground off a link, connected the 'split-link' replacement new chain - keeping the cam sprocket linked on the chain all the time - wound engine round & reconnected with split/hairgrip link [u end to rotation direction]

 

... Aye, well, not a Lexus ;)

 

 

TS

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I must ask. Does it still idle at 2k rpm when cold, and did anybody ever figure that one out? It's been doing that since RantingYoof's ownership in 2015. It's quite fun being able to do 20mph without touching the throttle though! I even replaced a couple of exhaust sensors when I had it, in an effort to cure it. I didn't buy the sensors, mind. Dan did but never got round to fitting them.

 

It does. I suspect a duff idle control valve. Managed 30mph without touching the throttle this morning. Stopping it requires some efforts in such circumstances...

 

Not sure this gives a sense of scale...

DLr4VqMW0AAD0qa.jpg

 

I see someone has fitted a nice set of Avons to it at some point, but do we know when it last actually had a service?

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Good old Mason!

 

I remember when my non-AS mate Dan bought Mason from RantingYoof. We drove it overnight from Northampton to Aberdeen. Somewhere around Preston, we found the POWER button and left creases in the tarmac.

 

I got cold sweats on the come-down from the energy drinks somewhere around Stonehaven. At one point I was so tired I mistook a sliproad for another lane and clipped a kerb at 50mph. The only damage was a small bulge in the front left tyre.

 

 

 

Dan owned Mason for about a year, until November 2016 when he emigrated to Oregon. I bought Mason from him for a piss-take price about 12 hours before his flight left. In the brief 3 weeks I owned Mason for, I thrashed him up and down Scotland, and even took him round Knockhill! I can also vouch for the sideways handling characteristics. I exited a few roundabouts sideways in the wet.

 

Anyway, I decided to get rid of Mason the very day I did the trackday at Knockhill, due to total electrical failure and a horrible judder from the brakes, and my total lack of arsed when it came to maintaining such a ropey cheap old boat. The total electrical failure was fixed by dome when he collected Mason after winning the raffle. The fix involved kicking the living daylights out of the fusebox in the driver's footwell.

 

When I say total electrical failure, I mean it. The electric windows, the central locking, the interior boot release, the steering column adjustment all stopped working somewhere between Dundee and Knockhill, as Tickman will confirm.

 

 

 

 

I must ask. Does it still idle at 2k rpm when cold, and did anybody ever figure that one out? It's been doing that since RantingYoof's ownership in 2015. It's quite fun being able to do 20mph without touching the throttle though! I even replaced a couple of exhaust sensors when I had it, in an effort to cure it. I didn't buy the sensors, mind. Dan did but never got round to fitting them.

About the idling issue,my avensis hits 1800 first start then drops to 1500 then 1200. When warmed up it settle around 850
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About the idling issue,my avensis hits 1800 first start then drops to 1500 then 1200. When warmed up it settle around 850

 

Yeah, I know most cars idle high-ish when cold, but there's certainly something not right with Mason.

Imagine a 4.0 V8 trying its hardest to be at 2,000rpm for a good few minutes after starting from cold, no matter what you do. As I mentioned, you can literally drive it at 20mph+ without even touching the throttle. You just select drive when it's doing its thing and it accelerates off.

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Awesome purchase, definitely the most interesting vehicle in your fleet for me right now! I'm contemplating myself whether I should pull the trigger on one eventually, it would need to be a 1st gen for me though. Cannot wait to see a few vids on your channel about it!

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Cor the ICV's aren't cheap either are they!

 

Doubt much on these is cheap. If I can find it and it can be removed easily, I'd probably treat it to a bath of my favourite new cleaning fluid (cheap cola) and see if that improved matters. After driving four miles and restarting, the ideal started high, then steadily dropped over the course of about 15 seconds, so whatever should be working clearly is, but it seems a bit gummed up.

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