brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,339 
Club RR Member Number: 72
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1998 Lexus LS400 brachunky
@brachunky
Club Retro Rides Member 72
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Feb 24, 2018 16:17:50 GMT
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So you have had the LS for a few days now and need to know what the plans are for it  VIP,slammed.................... Haha - well, first of all I'm gonna try and sort the high rev issue - hopefully nice and simple. Then tidy up some bits and bobs on it. Front bumper needs painting and there are two dents I want to get removed by those paintless dent removal magicians. The airbox mod above WILL be happening soon! And the exhaust is blowing a little; I'd better look into removing some boxes I suppose! I'm liking the VIP look to be fair - but to do it well it'd be expensive. In my head, a subtle lowering (to retain the glorious ride and to still be practical) with some deep dish wheels would look ace. Kind of a J-muscle feel. The standard wheels have more flakiness than a Gregg's pasty.. so I'm on the lookout for some round-shaped bargains! I've seen some subtle ducktails on the Web which could look good with some wider wheels. The front splitter is mostly missing too, so I'll need to replace that with something. Made up with this motor so far. Its a difficult one with the LS if its not VIP. Courtesy of the p/o, mine has those fancy cushions & curtains but also cannot justify the cost of a proper VIP treatment. In all honesty, its not really my scene and will most likely lean towards the J-muscle feel you mentioned! |
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Feb 24, 2018 18:30:46 GMT
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Randomly reading another thread & found a pic of my old ls400 as we were chatting about in my Gloria thread. Check out the crystal lights & clear lenses. They're very expensive from America.    |
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Feb 24, 2018 19:22:06 GMT
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That looks the bee's knees, love the wheels! Are they 18s?
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Feb 24, 2018 19:46:55 GMT
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Different wheels to when I had it. Mine were japan racing 18".
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Feb 24, 2018 23:30:36 GMT
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Moody nighttime 'been-to-the-24hr-shop-to-get-teabags-so-I'm-not-disappointed-in-the-morning' shot:  |
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j4mes
Part of things
Posts: 168
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And now I'm looking at these on ebay again after strategically forgetting about them- so cheers for that!
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Had the pleasure of riding in one of these while working at camp in America. The guy apologised that it was small!
Love the acres of grey comfy leather in them. It's like wafting along in an armchair. What kind of MPG are you getting?
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Haha - it's massive! It's currently saying 24.8mpg on the computer. Been driving it round town for a week, with one trip up the motorway. I didn't reset it when I bought it, though. Back to work on Monday, so I'll reset it and see what I get with my commute over the week.
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brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,339
Club RR Member Number: 72
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1998 Lexus LS400 brachunky
@brachunky
Club Retro Rides Member 72
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Feb 25, 2018 17:26:04 GMT
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Had the pleasure of riding in one of these while working at camp in America. The guy apologised that it was small! Love the acres of grey comfy leather in them. It's like wafting along in an armchair. What kind of MPG are you getting? I had a 900 mile average of 29,6 mpg last year on my hollibobs & that was not being particularly gentle with the right foot. |
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Feb 25, 2018 17:32:31 GMT
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Managed to nab an hour today. Gave it a quick clean inside, brushed the vents and cleaned the mats. I've not cleaned the leather yet - this is literally a vac out and a bit of dusting! Looks better though.   I also cleaned and waxed the paint - there are a few shades of silver, and some marks here and there, but it's tidy enough - bar the front bumper!   Gave it a spruce up under the bonnet and topped up the levels.   Oil looks clean, but under the cap it's black and sludgy. I'm thinking an engine flush and change may help if it's the vvti being a little reluctant. Checked underneath and the cats are blowing a bit at the flanges - going to come up with an exhaust shaped plan sooner rather than later! |
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Feb 25, 2018 20:00:55 GMT
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Oh - and it's had a new pair of bonnet gas struts, too. Bonus! Looking into the exhaust it looks like a rear box delete would be a piece of urine; they are relatively straight up to the rear box so wouldn't take much work. I don't want an intrusive bassy drone in the car though - so a bit of research is required. Youtube suggests that when the exhaust is tinkered with on a 1uz-fe they sound absolutely class..
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Feb 26, 2018 19:22:21 GMT
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It runs really well; smooth and very torquey - although I have found a slight issue. It pulls effortlessly up to 5k and then chokes. I've ordered an airfilter in the hope it's a little air-starved up top. Obviously, it's not an issue that's going to be a problem daily - but I'd like to be able to see if the 6ish second 0-60 claims are true! Thing is, it makes you want to drive so slowly! It's super relaxing and effortless to keep up with traffic. If you just tootle about, the most you need to press the accelerator to keep up with traffic (including socially acceptable acceleration from junctions) is about an inch and a half! If it's spent all of its time pootling around, there's half a chance the VVT bit hasn't had a workout in a long while and has got a bit lazy? Could just be it needs a good old Italian decoke. The CFO at one of the places I worked at had this Jag S-type (3.0 V6, with VVT). He used to crawl round everywhere at pretty much tickover - a maximum of 30mph - but he was about 85. Every 6 months it started running a bit rough and sounding like a bag of nails, so sent it off for a service (with the garage who did the company fleet). It was a 5 mile trip there at which point it was driven there on kickdown. Pulling out of the yard, it was coughing, spluttering and sounded like it was about to explode but by the time it got the 5 miles up the road, it was back to being a Jag - purred and pulled like a train. Irony is when it returned, he complained it was too fast for him. Well, it appears the Italian decoke is starting to work! Oil level was about 3/4 on the stick, so I topped it up last night. Gave it a few full throttle runs on the motorway and the 'choking' started to happen further up the rev range. Seems to be 5800rpm-ish now. One attempt it actually didn't do it at all. What are people's thoughts on engine flushes on 20 year old engines? |
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The Doctor
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,449
Club RR Member Number: 48
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1998 Lexus LS400 The Doctor
@thedoctor
Club Retro Rides Member 48
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Feb 26, 2018 20:41:43 GMT
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i don't like to flush old-ish engines. As the crud you loosen can end up in critical places and ruin more then you can 'fix' with the flush.
For instance, my mate did it with his Supra engine, the crud loosened and went in the valve lifter area, when the engine cooled down the lifters would stick, the lifters would be pushed down by the camshafts at restart and stayed there, until the piston pushed the valves shut again. Never happened before the flush.
This might've been a really bad engine, but still it made me think twice about using it.
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Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
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1998 Lexus LS400 Phil H
@philhoward
Club Retro Rides Member 133
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Feb 26, 2018 21:07:08 GMT
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I’d agree - steer clear of flushes. Better to do a series of short oil changes with some cheaper oil (some say diesel oil?) to get any residual muck out. Anything more aggressive tends to pull big chunks out. I’ve heard more bad stories than good.
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I thought as much - any ideas how to clean the crud out of the VVT system without continual full throttle runs?! I mean, it's working..it just feels a bit wrong as I'm not 100% sure it's the issue.
On another note, looks like I'll be testing the 'snow' switch on the gearbox today!
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I’d agree - steer clear of flushes. Better to do a series of short oil changes with some cheaper oil (some say diesel oil?) to get any residual muck out. Anything more aggressive tends to pull big chunks out. I’ve heard more bad stories than good. Ah - didn't read that properly. So will that break it down in smaller chunks then? |
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Phil H
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,448
Club RR Member Number: 133
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1998 Lexus LS400 Phil H
@philhoward
Club Retro Rides Member 133
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Best way to describe it is that’s it’s best to gentlly wash any muck out rather than scrub it out.
Now the VVT has had some exercise, I wouldn’t deliberately try and clean it by actively flushing - but a couple of short oil changes won’t do it any harm at all along with an occasional blast.
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Feb 27, 2018 21:06:21 GMT
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Best way to describe it is that’s it’s best to gentlly wash any muck out rather than scrub it out. Now the VVT has had some exercise, I wouldn’t deliberately try and clean it by actively flushing - but a couple of short oil changes won’t do it any harm at all along with an occasional blast. Cool - I'll do that then I think. Had a few more full throttle runs today once it'd warmed up. The first time it accelerated to the redline with no issues at all. The second time it choked at about 5800rpm. It's definitely improving the more I drive it. The MOT history suggests it's not been used much over the last few years, and I'd wager it's been pottered about everywhere. It's probably not seen over 3k for a couple of decades! It'll be doing 30 miles a day from now on! I hammered it off the line at one point today (private test track) and jeez; she moves for a car the size of the QE2! I think the soft suspension excentuates the sensation as the nose raises, but it doesn't half go! |
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Feb 27, 2018 21:10:26 GMT
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well, the issue continues to improve. Hopefully it'll be non-existent soon, I'll let you know! Used through the Beast from the East; it was marvellous. Toasty seats, lovely heater - and a surprisingly good 'snow mode' on the gearbox. Don't know what it did, but I had plenty of traction when needed. Something a big old torquey,rear-wheel-drive motor tends to lack when the going gets slippy. Just in the process of considering an exhaust modification around Easter time. It'll be a budget job, no fancy stainless exhausts I'm afraid. The cats are blowing on the flanges quite a bit, so I'll get them welded up. Whilst it's at the exhaust place I'll eyeball the system and have a think which boxes to remove. I'm assuming there'll be resonators as well as silencers. I don't want it to be boomy - but I do want to hear the quad-cam 4.0 V8 when I open it up. I'd like a tasty idle, too. Snowy Lexus:  |
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VIP,slammed....................
