1995 Lexus LS400 fix log

[Andrew]

I have tinted my windows. Haters will say it's fake.

 

  

On 11/05/2022 at 14:19, Alex said:

 

Is it honestly worth removing the coil-overs (or any other thing that might degrade) to store inside while you wait? Also de-humidifying the interior (if you remove the seats to preserve the leather)?

I don't have anything to put the car on if I take the coilovers off, I replaced the factory ones because they were just so broken in the first place, I've long since thrown them away and even if I still had them, I don't want to go anywhere near them. They were basically bombs. These coilovers I have are designed for like 10-15 years of hard use so they should handle a couple of years of not really doing anything just fine.

 

 

[Andrew]

Exciting news for either tomorrow or Friday, possibly Monday, depends how it goes

[Alex]

15 hours ago, Andrew said:

Exciting news for either tomorrow or Friday, possibly Monday, depends how it goes

Nice, what price did you get for the car?

[Andrew]

3 hours ago, Alex said:

Nice, what price did you get for the car?

REEEEEEEEEEEE

[Andrew]

Update: They arrived, however I can't get them in right now

 

Toyota stopped making hub bolts for my car, at least with the exact part number but luckily they carried on making them for the Toyota Yaris/Vitz. Because of this, I only had to pay £6.99 each instead of what I imagine would have been £14.99 each because Lexus parts.

 

They are slightly different, but the bits that matter are identical so that's good.

 

Unfortunately I can't get the rotor off because of stuck screw. I tried drilling them out but I don't have the right drill bits and it broke. I'm now going to get the right drill bits then try again. I am able to get (presumably) all of the hub bolts out but I won't be able to get the new ones in with the rotor in the way. I hit this one with a hammer to see what would happen and it just fell out. I hope the rest are this easy to get out. I do need to get some copper grease as well. I don't want to rawdog these in and they end up welding themselves to the hub.

 

 

[Andrew]

I did a thing!

 

 

Three of the five were crossthreaded and damaged, I finally, over a month and a half later, had the time and weather good enough to go change them out for the new ones.

 

It was much easier than I was expecting, except the brake bracket bolts. Those were really stuck on. I had to use my 1m breaker bar and between 80-120kg of force (785-1175Nm/580-865lbft) to get them to come loose. I really do need an impact wrench, but they're £500+ for a decent one with batteries and a charger. For a laugh I had a look at a Snap On one. £1200 for two batteries, charger and the impact wrench itself, so no thanks.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Andrew

[Andrew]

I put a socket on my crankshaft today and rotated my engine 2 revolutions to see if it is seized as well as to have a look at the belts conditions. It's not seized and the belts are in poor condition, so that's half good.

[Andrew]

I've done another thing!

 

[Andrew]

 

ngl I wasn't expecting this.

 

I initially had some issues when I connected the battery. Mostly security related. The alarm (which unluckily for me but luckily for my neighbours is silent) would constantly go on and the immobilizer was active not letting me start it. Turns out, I had to lock the car using the key fob, then unlock it again with the key fob. Started up straight away, 0 issues as if it has been running this whole time and the last time I started it was yesterday. Not even a warning light except for the brakes but I'll get onto that in a bit. I let it run for a bit to see if anything bad would happen and it didn't. I didn't even have to use the fire extinguisher I bought. I did also very slowly drive it backwards and forwards for a couple of metres to see if there are any gearbox issues, and again. No issues, like I just drove it yesterday.

 

The brakes are a bit of an issue The brake pad sensor warning light is on, which I'm not sure exactly what's causing that. The brake pads still have more than enough chonk on them. The brake pedal is really spongy and goes straight to the floor which is not a good thing. I'm hoping it's just because the fluid is 10+ years old and is mostly water now. That's going to be an easy fix and something I had to do anyway. I do still need to buy new pads + rotors just because I don't trust these to be safe, let alone pass an MOT.

 

@Artikbot did buy a Toyota Supra that has been sitting for a very long time and he said he had the same issue as me with the brake pedal, even after changing fluid. He did say the issue with his was the slave cylinder was stuck, it just needed to be taken out and cleaned and that if that doesn't fix it, there are rebuild kits you can buy for £10. Given that my car is effectively a Toyota and they were built during the same era, this is very good news for my wallet. Not so much good news for me though, removing and cleaning/rebuilding the slave cylinder is a PITA, so I'm hoping new fluid will fix the issue.

 

So now, the potential repair list has basically been cut in half, all that remains (to get it safe to drive) is:

• New brake rotors
• New brake pads
• New brake hose (rubber, not metal)
• All fluids flushed and replaced
• 9 lugnuts

Requirements to get it road legal (potentially, they might find something wrong that I missed):

• New front license plate
• Insurance
• MOT
• Tax

Misc repairs/replacements:

• Repair/replace AC compressor (needed this when I bought the car)
• New AC gas
• HVAC screen replacement
• New headunit so I can have Apple Carplay

Ironically in me suddenly speed running getting it fixed is because someone reported my car to the government, even though it's on private property. They came around to inspect it and said it was a fire hazard where I parked it. The reasoning behind this is because "you don't legally have a driveway because there is no drop curb so the car is a fire hazard". I don't understand this logic either and I'm not going to attempt to fight this legally. That's going to cost far more than just fixing it. I have until April to get it off my property when they come around to inspect it again, otherwise it will be taken from me. Because I've now put some petrol in it and started it, it is now more of a fire hazard than it has ever been in the 28 years it has existed.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Andrew

[Andrew]

Just pricing out the things I need now + just bought lugnuts. I found some that weren't £5.99 each, so I bought them. I only need 9 but I found 20 for £24.99 so I bought those.

 

Rotors and pads - EBC PDKF1098 + PDKR512 - £379.33

Brake hose - Goodridge SLX0401-4P - £95.98

Oil - 5L Mobil Super 1000 + 1L Mobil Super 1000 - £44.48

Oil filter - Can't find a Toyota/Denso one. - £??

Coolant - 5L Motul Auto Cool x3 - £80

Brake fluid - Motul DOT 5.1 500ml x6 - £43.80

Timing belt - Dayco timing belt - £43.99

Auxiliary belt - Dayco drive belt - £49.99

Wipers - Bosch Aerotwin - £25

 

So that's £762.57 not including oil filter or tools that I may need to buy.

 

Other things to get it road legal assuming it passes the MOT first time without problems:

New license plate - £15

Insurance - £???

MOT - £50

Tax - £295

[Andrew]

Another update: I started it up again today to try more things to see if they're working, mostly electrical things.

 

• The heater does work, so that's good. I thought it didn't work because the heater core was clogged or something.
• All of the lights except right parking light works. Bonking the parking light did make it switch on so most likely just a loose connection. This is something I have to fix as it's an instant MOT failure but it's not a big deal.
• When going from N to D, the car does lurch forward which is not a good thing. It's not dangerous or an MOT failure, but it's something that does need to be fixed ASAP. I've looked at two different documents from Toyota on this and both say it's most likely a solenoid issue, but it could also be an issue with the gearbox oil filter that just needs to be replaced. I'm hoping it's the latter as that's a much easier thing to do.
• Rear suspension needs adjusting. It's far too stiff, even on grass. This shouldn't make it fail the MOT but tbh it should be a fail although there's no way to really test for this. Suspension much stiffer on the rear than the front, especially on a RWD car, makes it prone to oversteer. Not only that, but it has increased danger of having a blow out going through a pothole. Luckily this is relatively easy to fix. I just need to soften the damper settings. It's a shame it's not like the front suspension with super easy access. I need to remove the rear seat again to get to the adjustment knobs.
• The horn does sound a bit bad. It might just be a loose connection but it sounds off and a bit quiet.

But other than those things and the things in the above post, it's looking good.

[Simmons]

I am still shocked that this thing is running as good as it is, all things considered.  

5 minutes ago, Andrew said:

• Rear suspension needs adjusting. It's far too stiff, even on grass. This shouldn't make it fail the MOT but tbh it should be a fail although there's no way to really test for this. Suspension much stiffer on the rear than the front, especially on a RWD car, makes it prone to oversteer. Not only that, but it has increased danger of having a blow out going through a pothole. Luckily this is relatively easy to fix. I just need to soften the damper settings. It's a shame it's not like the front suspension with super easy access. I need to remove the rear seat again to get to the adjustment knobs.

I would check to make sure your suspension isn't mounted backwards /s

[Andrew]

1 minute ago, Simmons said:

I would check to make sure your suspension isn't mounted backwards /s

[Andrew]

I've bought an petrol. This cost me £110 and it's not even full. This much petrol is good for ~260 miles of driving.

 

[Andrew]

I have acquired another piece, the front license plate. It is now one step closer to being road legal.

 

[Andrew]

Minor update:

 

When I installed the rear suspension, I should have made sure it was at the correct setting before I put everything back together. I didn't and set the suspension to the middle setting. As it turns out, that was too stiff. So, today I adjusted it to put it on the softest setting. It was a PITA. I also put the sound deadening thingies back on while I was in there.

 

[Alex]

Nice, now hopefully its not too soft

[Andrew]

It will be fine. The middle setting was too stiff for grass. I'd only use that and stiffer on a literal race track.

[speed_demon]

You can't just leave us hanging like this. Was there any more progress made over the summer?

[Andrew]

Nope, won't be for a while.

 

I was going to fix it over the next few weeks, but then I got an insurance quote. The quotes I was getting back was "no" I wasn't even getting "go away" quotes like insurance companies usually do. So I literally can not legally drive it November next year at the very earliest.

[Andrew]

Update: I have finally acquired an job. I will carry on fixing this once I get my first paycheck.

[Andrew]

I've been on an emotional roller coaster recently for several reasons. One of them being this car.

 

I booked it in for an MOT expecting a laundry list of dangerous MOT failures, which I don't care about because I'm not selling it anyway.

 

 

 

It failed on headlights and wipers. That's it. They replaced the wipers and bulbs and it passed. The mechanic said "this car is incredible. When you told me it has been sitting in your back yard for 10 years, I thought it would fail on a lot of things."

 

Nothing mentioned about chassis or sub frame rust, which is fantastic news. However:

 

 

Alternator is most likely dead. If that is the issue, I'm hoping it can be repaired because a replacement one from Lexus is £1050. A decent third party one is £250, but it's out of stock and I'll have to wait several weeks to actually get it.

 

Also when it broke down,it was at the side of the road for about 1.5 hours. 5 people stopped offering help and one of them even wanted to buy it. The recovery guy also offered to buy it.

 

It's going back in next week Thursday for an alignment and ride height adjustment, getting the aux belt and timing belt fitted as well as literally every fluid getting replaced. This car did absolutely hemorrhage my bank account on Monday. I spent near a months worth of wages on the MOT, tax, insurance, recovery and battery charger.

[speed_demon]

I can send you the proper alt from US and even with shipping costs and VAT it will end up cheaper than that. That's an insane cost for what is the same alt used on multiple models.

 

If you really wanted to be budget oriented you can buy a rebuild kit for the alternator relatively cheaply. I'd wager no more than £40 or so including shipping.

 

Also I offered to buy it too. lol.

[Andrew]

9 hours ago, speed_demon said:

I can send you the proper alt from US and even with shipping costs and VAT it will end up cheaper than that. That's an insane cost for what is the same alt used on multiple models.

 

If you really wanted to be budget oriented you can buy a rebuild kit for the alternator relatively cheaply. I'd wager no more than £40 or so including shipping.

 

Also I offered to buy it too. lol.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

 

If the mechanic can't fix the alternator, I'll likely end up with one of these.

 

It's the only place I can find a trustworthy third party one. There are a bunch on ebay for like £100, but I don't trust them to not catch on fire. I'd also like to buy one locally for warranty reasons. If it does need to be replaced and my mechanic can't find one, I'll send you a DM.

Edited October 17 by Andrew

[speed_demon]

16 hours ago, Andrew said:

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

 

If the mechanic can't fix the alternator, I'll likely end up with one of these.

 

It's the only place I can find a trustworthy third party one. There are a bunch on ebay for like £100, but I don't trust them to not catch on fire. I'd also like to buy one locally for warranty reasons. If it does need to be replaced and my mechanic can't find one, I'll send you a DM.

Hey that's not too bad of a price if you can find one in stock.

 

I also don't trust ebay or knockoff parts. I generally want either the original part replacement or a rebuilt original part.