Lexus LS 400 brake problem - anyone help?

[Guest]

Hello chaps.A colleague at work is trying to get his dad's LS 400 through another MOT before it gets moved on.There's an intermittent problem with the brakes that he thought was a warped disc. I drove it (having never properly driven an auto bar that XJ8) and braked with the normal type of modulation you'd use.The car pulled up square and quickly, but the pedal dropped to the floor and the ABS pulsed like buggery on the front offside. Oddly, it doesn't do this in reverse.The pads are low at the front, and you get the warning light if you stamp on. No ABS warning light though. I presume that would be an MOT fail. I don't think it'd have problems on brake effort either - but then again I don't know if the test for an ABS equipped car is different to that of a normally braked car.From what I could tell the ABS was cutting in mega early. Is this a corroded ABS sensor ring? What could it be? Are the rings cheap to replace \ easy to clean \ fixable etc? The pulse was only on the front offside.Also, the exhaust has a blow either on the right bank or as the manifold goes into one at the front of the downpipe. What's the rules as regards to blowing exhausts? Sounded proper woofly though, a bit like the dubbed on cruiser sound you get in cop films.

[Guest]

Probably a wheel sensor - what I would do is look under the bonnet for the biggest fuse marked up as "ABS" and then take it out.Edit: Because ABS is for pussies.

[Guest]

Probably a wheel sensor - what I would do is look under the bonnet for the biggest fuse marked up as "ABS" and then take it out.Edit: Because ABS is for pussies.

Yeah, but that would light up the 'ABS' failure light, which would mean a big ol' FAIL for the LS 400.

[Station]

ABS light wouldn't come on - ABS would not be activated at all with the fail light on. I have a sensor on my Astra that judders occasionally, esp at low speeds (usually in traffic a couple of feet from the car in front ).It's definitely the sensor!

[Guest]

ABS light wouldn't come on - ABS would not be activated at all with the fail light on. I have a sensor on my Astra that judders occasionally, esp at low speeds (usually in traffic a couple of feet from the car in front ).It's definitely the sensor!

I see. Did you get my ansaphone message?

[andrew e]

HIRST!!!!

 

 

PULL THE ABS FUSE!!!!

 

 

*FOR MORE INFORMATION GOOGLE "MOST UNLIKELY HANDBRAKE TURN EVAR"

[r.welfare]

Great film, that.If the pads have less than 2mm of material on 'em, they'll need changing or they'll fail. Dunno whether a warning light for pad thickness is enough for MOT man - I'd be checking the pad thickness and, if it's >2mm, whipping the bulb out of the warning light... On the ABS front, all the MOT man cares about is if the ABS warning lamp comes on with the ignition and goes out again a few seconds after the engine starts.A neighbour of mine, using some cunning, rigged his ABS light so it was linked to the airbag light on his Mk3 Golf - so it came on and went out at the right time - and that was enough for the man from the Ministry. Naughty...Exhaust - difficult to say. Up to the discretion of the tester as to whether he feels the blow is a minor or major leak of exhaust gases. The former's an advisory and the latter is a fail.

[Guest]

Cheers for clearing this one up lads. Off to the West Coast unit for a cursory inspection and some swearing.