1995 Lexus LS400 "Mason"

[shakotan]

Veeayt said:

320touring said:

It has to be said that apart from a few hundred yards in A8s when I worked at a Car auctions years ago, I don't have any real experience of them..

Sometimes I go through phases of wanting one, but usually come back to gazing at BMWs.

They are nice places to be in, the A8's. Well built, comfy, and aged with real class. However the V8's in them are neither of the extremely reliable sort found in LS's nor cheap to maintain, and gearboxes are also a well known weakness. Speaking as an Audi V8 fan here.

The later (post-1998) 5-speed gearboxes are known problematic, and go against the 'sealed for life' promises offered by Audi.

The earlier 4-speeds are totally fine however.

Doing a timing belt on the 4.2 is quite a job, requiring removal of most of the front of the vehicle (unless you are very deft), and the appropriate Audi cam locking tools.

[Veeayt]

shakotan said:

The earlier 4-speeds are totally fine however.

Not true from experiences. 4ZF24's are flimsy.

[shakotan]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Nice barge! I've often thought that these look like a lot of car (and engineering) for not much money. How do they cope with the salty roads in the uk?

How many rusty LS400s have you even seen? Very few I'll wager.

Any rust seems limited to a few bubbles on wheel arches, and even then that's caused through surface rust from scrapes/damage, it's certainly rare to find anything structural.

[Big Rod]

I've always admired these and hankered after one a few times.

I appreciate that it's not this car's MO but if they'd built a wagon version of it I'd be all over them like a Brut commercial.

[shakotan]

Veeayt said:

shakotan said:

The earlier 4-speeds are totally fine however.

Not true from experiences. 4ZF24's are flimsy.

When I had my 4-sp 4.2 Quattro it was totally fine, and doing the research as to whether I needed to do a filter and fluid change like the 5-speed, the general consensus was to leave the 4-sp alone, do a filter and flush on a 5-sp.

[320touring]

Took this drag racing the other week and it did pretty well.. 15.59 was its best @93mph.

It fairly gulps fuel running flat out, but managed 14 passes with no issue.

The exhaust on it makes a funny noise- A proper whistle as you can hear on the vid below

https://youtu.be/xegvkKW2f-w