Sold Dollywobbler's Lexus - £SOLD

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I think it would be fair to say that you far prefer the Lexus to the Daimler!

 

They are notably modern for their age and very competent cars - and in fairness the poor old XJ40 wasn't, ahem, the best example out there...

[dollywobbler]

Indeed, though the Daimler was at least very cheap. Last week, I drove an XJ40 (Daimler as it happens) and the interior felt like it was a full decade older. Terribly designed really. But, when it came to ride and handling, the XJ40 absolutely aced it. It had the higher mileage too.

[hairnet]

hooligan

[Felly Magic]

You delinquent Ian LOL, wheelspinning a Lexus is just not cricket

[Supernaut]

More video action! Includes acceleration, and that odd intake noise.

I nearly spat out my tea at the part "I missed that one of the people on Autoshite took it on a track day!"

 

*sheepishly raises hand*

 

Yup... that was me. It was indeed rather fun. Very understeery when pushed to the limit though. Duffus dip was fun! Nearly got taken out by a Civic Type R who overtook me on the outside. Tickman was in the passenger seat, and made the point that the Civic would come off worse anyway...

 

[dome]

I nearly spat out my tea at the part "I missed that one of the people on Autoshite took it on a track day!"

 

*sheepishly raises hand*

 

Yup... that was me. It was indeed rather fun. Very understeery when pushed to the limit though. Duffus dip was fun! Nearly got taken out by a Civic Type R who overtook me on the outside. Tickman was in the passenger seat, and made the point that the Civic would come off worse anyway...

 

IMG_2134.JPG

 

That's exactly how it looked when I picked it up!

[dollywobbler]

I nearly spat out my tea at the part "I missed that one of the people on Autoshite took it on a track day!"

 

*sheepishly raises hand*

 

Yup... that was me. It was indeed rather fun. Very understeery when pushed to the limit though. Duffus dip was fun! Nearly got taken out by a Civic Type R who overtook me on the outside. Tickman was in the passenger seat, and made the point that the Civic would come off worse anyway...

 

IMG_2134.JPG

Brilliant!

[rantingYoof]

And I've literally just creased up completely from that music at the end...

 

That tape came with the car when I bought it. It was purchased from a Leicester city-centre based 'garage' and the owner was a very friendly Asian chap who did advise me when they delivered it that 'they'd left a tape behind for me to enjoy'. :shock:

 

I'm trying to rack my brains for some more 'history' now...it's all coming back to me.

• When I bought it said friendly Asian chap had fitted an eBay tuning chip which we first attributed to causing the high idle. Then we removed it and discovered it did the square root of jack (quel surprise)
• When I bought it it had absolute gangsta tints front and rear. The fronts were completely illegal; I didn't know if the rears passed the 75% light rule either. They were peeled off sharpish.
• My dad and I tried to replace the coolant temperature sensor in a desperate attempt to fix the cold idle problem. I think we gave up because it was unreachable on a driveway without specific mechanic tool thingymajigs.
• While trying to replace the coolant temperature sensor we may* have broken another bit under the engine which caused an vacuum leak and threw the EML light. This part was replaced and this was fixed. I promise. Honestly. I'm trying to find out what exactly it was; my dad's eBay history should have it.
• There's a fuse you can pull out in the fuse box under the bonnet; keep it out for 30 seconds and replace it and for some reason it 'sorts' the high idle for a short while in that it'll idle at 1400rpm or so instead of 1900rpm and then drop. It'll reset itself back to 1900rpm within a few starts though. I've tried a lot of Google-imaging but I cannot determine which fuse this was or why it worked.

Everyone who owns this also gets a copy of the advert that I found on Autotrader that enticed me to it...

 

Some discrepencies between the advert and real life:

• It was 20 years old when I bought it
• It hadn't got 12 month's MOT
• It hadn't got a full Lexus service history

However, they had genuinely serviced it. I saw the receipts for the plugs and everything! I asked for them to be brought with the car when it was delivered. They weren't.

 

See. Isn't it nice* and reassuring** when you find out more history about your new car and realise how competent and mechanically minded previous owners were.

[Supernaut]

See. Isn't it nice* and reassuring** when you find out more history about your new car and realise how competent and mechanically minded previous owners were.

I've already demonstrated how gentle* I was with it.

 

Admittedly, I did try cleaning out the idle control valve with some carb cleaner. It resulted in the car cranking over for abnormally long, making some horrible knocking noises from deep within its bowels, then starting up and idling at 1900rpm like it always did. Recalcitrant bastard! /Basil Fawlty

[mat_the_cat]

The high idle *must* be an air leak of some kind, either directly into the inlet manifold or past the ICV for some reason. Would beinteresting to get live data from the ECU to check a few things, e.g. what it thinks the temperature should be (although if it thinks it is cold all the time I'd expect the fuel consumption to suffer).

[dome]

The reason I left it and wasn't convinced it was an air leak was because once warm it would idle perfectly at 650rpm.

The noise on full throttle does need investigated though. I thought it was down to the shonky exhaust setup but something intake related makes more sense.

[Noel Tidybeard]

is there some kind of learning process the car needs to go through to reset base idle values etc?

i remember there was a sequence you could go through with a primevil to reset the tps etc

[dollywobbler]

Oh dear. You were had Mr RantingYoof. As you say, that service history is about as 'full Lexus' as a Fiat Cinquecento is a Ferrari. Thanks for removing the tint though. I'd be tempted to have a go at the rear window if I thought I could do it without screwing up the HRW.

 

I need to have another go with the carb cleaner around the engine, to see if I can get a change of idle somewhere. It's either that or fill the induction side of things with pressurised smoke, which I've seen done before. Or just not boot it everywhere...

[SiC]

I assume someone has plugged a code scanner in (not a generic), incase there is a pending code?

[rantingYoof]

Oh dear. You were had Mr RantingYoof. As you say, that service history is about as 'full Lexus' as a Fiat Cinquecento is a Ferrari. Thanks for removing the tint though. I'd be tempted to have a go at the rear window if I thought I could do it without screwing up the HRW.

 

As I was spending less than a grand on it and had faith in the over-engineered nature I wasn't too fussed about the history. All I cared was that they had genuinely just serviced it with an oil change and new plugs/filter, which for a sub-grand V8 barge was all that mattered at the time given I knew it would be a six month bucket-list tick at most.

 

However it was advertised with 12 month's ticket and actually had ticket until January (this was in June). So I made them MOT it before delivering it.

 

How much that was an 'MOT' or not I'm not certain.

[17-Coffees]

Wheel spinning the LS? It it can do much more than that...

 

"No officer, that was some guy in a BMW" 

 

Hope you find the high idling problem, my impressions have always been it's a buggered sensor of sorts. 
Also sorry if this has been covered but has the brake judder been sorted? I remember Supernaut describing it to me as "Its along the same lines as yours, but more fucked"...

[Spottedlaurel]

I'm pleased you're bonding with it. They (and 1990s Toyotas in general) may feel a bit cold and efficient initially but once you realise that it's thorough design and engineering that's eliminated those quirks and foibles that are considered character in other cars then you grow to respect just how well they do their job. Does that make sense?

 

I did a trackday a couple of times in mine. Maybe it was better suited to a fast, open circuit like Marham, or perhaps it was the fact that I ran on 18's, but I thought it acquitted itself very well.

 

Lexus ready for the track by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

140+ MPH by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Changing into top at just shy of an indicated 140 was quite amusing. And of course it was still so smooth at that speed.

 

Yes, my old one had the clear indicators. I think they look OK, less of a contrast to the big headlight/sidelight unit.

 

1996 Lexus LS400 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Regarding juddery brakes, getting the discs skimmed cured mine. Worth a try if there's enough meat left on them before getting into the possibility of fitting new ones, or the control arms being in need of replacement.

[DVee8]

This is a great thread,from my reading it has a service history of sorts.A Autoshite history.

So many owners in a shortish time still able to remember and recall their time with this car..

[oldcars]

I nearly spat out my tea at the part "I missed that one of the people on Autoshite took it on a track day!"

 

*sheepishly raises hand*

 

Yup... that was me. It was indeed rather fun. Very understeery when pushed to the limit though. Duffus dip was fun! Nearly got taken out by a Civic Type R who overtook me on the outside. Tickman was in the passenger seat, and made the point that the Civic would come off worse anyway...

 

IMG_2134.JPG

LOL at the Scottish Legends in the back. Well positioned in the photo.

[mat_the_cat]

Going back to fundamentals for as moment – only the presence of extra air can increase the idle speed. So a dodgy sensor can’t *directly* cause a high idle. Whether the extra air is the result of a physical leak (which could potentially close up with temperature) or the ICV being ‘told’ to allow extra air in we don’t know yet…

 

Assuming that the default position for the ICV is closed, as in my (limited!) experience normally the case, I would simply unplug it after a cold start (or blank it off) – if the revs drop to a typical cold level then you know the problem is that the ICV is being held open too much, or there is an air leak in the ICV pipework upstream of the valve.

 

If no change when you do this, the air must be getting in some other way i.e. a leak or the throttle butterfly not closing. I can’t see how the latter could be temperature dependant, which only leaves the possibility of a leak.

[vulgalour]

If it's sucking in air when cold and not when hot and making a whistling noise under hard acceleration.. could it be something like a knackered inlet manifold gasket?  Is it these that suffer from cracked inlet manifolds or am I thinking of another luxobarge?

[dollywobbler]

Aerial now fixed. Works much better when you use ALL of the parts... I'd missed the cable holder, so it wasn't working very well before.

[dome]

I thought you were selling it already when I logged on for my weekly dose of shed of the week...

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-features-sheds/shed-of-the-week-lexus-ls400/36990

[Supernaut]

I thought you were selling it already when I logged on for my weekly dose of shed of the week...

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-features-sheds/shed-of-the-week-lexus-ls400/36990

BARGAIN! The way prices on LS400s are going anyway.

[dollywobbler]

Aye. I'm very much hoping that's the way values are heading, given what I'm spending on this one next week. Mind you, I have asked whether we can get it up on the ramp for a good poke about the underside before committing...

[Supernaut]

Well, I'm not sure if the values are creeping up or if there are an increasing amount of chancers selling them, who are asking more and more for them.

 

Isn't that how the 'value' of certain cars creeps up anyway?

[DaveDorson]

I had an LS400 and it was an utter delight.

 

I swapped it for a stripped out lowered white povvo spec Porsche 924 on cut slick tyres.

 

That was immensly good fun for a whole different set of reasons.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

The old wuvvum jap import Celsior 400 was a complete star - certainly in top 3 of cars i've ever owned. I loved it from the first 5minutes of getting in and then all over again once I visited my ex's parents in autobahn land....... I had it de-restricted and it was a mile destroying monster. I often envied the passengers in the back, my football friends would argue over who got in there as it had heated massage rear seats. I was, and have ever since then, been known as the club pimp.........

Glad you're getting her the care she deserves and needs. I don't know of many (one maybe) owners that didn't enjoy owning these.

 

*DIBS*

[dollywobbler]

Ha! I think about 20 people have tried claiming dibs on it already! No massage seats here though.

[bezzabsa]

have loved these from day 1 of seeing one..not sure i'd be able to run one though LOL..most of my journeys are sub 5miles...admittedly i've run V8 land rovers in the past worst was 8Mpg in RR classic round town, best was 18 round town in a V8 discovery G reg .. also had the opposite end where Panda 750 was doing 60+ mpg round town..and my Pug 405 estate i think nudged 90mpg a few times running on Bio dizzle