I have been lurking here for a while since purchasing my LS430, but I thought I would put up a thread of mods/maintenance as I go.

I snagged this example for $7000 AUD ($4750 USD) with 130k (80k miles) recently, very happy with the purchase just for the daily drive to work and a nice luxury upgrade the the Holden commodore which preceded it.

 

The first port of call was a timing belt replacement, so I ordered all genuine parts through Amayama including the water pump.



Then i completed the job using the guide from here (love forums guides), below pic is belt marked and ready to remove



then completely torn down ready for new parts



Belt condition was fine



The job went well, the only issue i ran into was the radiator was on its way out, you can see the red coolant weep spots in the below pic.



so a new denso radiator and genuine hoses were also ordered and installed and done with the timing belt job. Another issue i had was that i put the lower radiator hose on upside down and it was cut by the serpentine belt, so that needed a replacement again.


Now this major job is done it should be minor maintenance for a while to come!

 

The next job was to give it a good clay-bar and wax, it was my first time claying any car but i was impressed by the results. there were a lot of black dots which appeared in the paint which are now removed.

A pic mid - waxing

 

Just last week I started the first real modification which was lowering, again thanks to this forum i went with BC BR series coil overs and Megan rear camber arms. Also on reading here I went with 12 kg front springs and 10kg rear springs extreme drop which has turned out well.

box of parts ready



specs



Height at stock before installation



Height after coil-overs installed and set to my desired height.



If anyone reading this finds it useful, with extreme drop BC BR coil overs at the highest setting, it was very close to stock (630mm from bottom of 17 inch rim to guard lip) and I lowered it 65mm all round (565mm from bottom of 17 inch rim to guard lip).
There is still probably 40mm it could drop further too so the extreme drop kit is a really good balance.

 

While it was up on the hoist doing coil overs I noticed what appears to be something missing from the front bumper on both sides, anybody know what goes here? ignore bug splats!



the list of work still to do looks as follows

• Install rear coil over damper adjuster extensions through the rear parcel shelf
• experiment with and set final dampening settings (currently half way between soft and hard)
• One parking sensor is broken so i need to find out which one and replace.
• One headlight washer is glued in place
• Some front bumper clips are missing
• rear taillight is cracked - find replacement
• new rims and tyres once the current ones are worn out.

 

This weekend I had some time to work on the LS again, I set the coil over dampers to all the way soft just to see how it rides. I also adjusted the rear coil overs down a little more so now the rear is 10 mm lower than the front.

Currently sitting like this after a wheel alignment



And a fail on the coil over adjustment extenders which i intended to poke through the parcel shelf, they were too short! I ordered the BC BR 110 mm ones. the next option was 200 mm which is way too long so i will go without and just pull the back seat if need be.

In my research i found that there are normally pods on the front bumper which are missing, so i will add that to the list.

• Install rear coil over damper adjuster extensions through the rear parcel shelf FAIL
• experiment with and set final dampening settings (currently half way between soft and hard)
• One parking sensor is broken so i need to find out which one and replace.
• One headlight washer is glued in place
• Some front bumper clips are missing and pods are missing.
• rear taillight is cracked - find replacement
• new rims and tyres once the current ones are worn out.

Thanks for reading!

 

Nice work! Clean engine -- must have been well taken care of.

What do you think about the coil overs? How is the ride?

 

Thanks Peacebay, I hope appearances reflect that it has been taken care of because one risk I took with purchasing this car is that there were no books or service records that came with it. But so far I have had no mechanical issues really.

On the softest shock setting I think the ride is OK, it is certainly stiffer than factory but that is only really noticeable on bigger bumps/uneven sections on roads such as railway crossing etc. on smooth highway it is still a very good ride.

I carpool with 4 people in the car sometimes and that is fine

 

Hey! I had the same plan with the extenders for my BC's as well, and got it to work by cutting down the length with a dremel.
The extender is basically a plastic coated spring, so you can make a hole in the shelf, detach the **** and thread the extender through, then cut it down and reattach the **** (I cut mine before threading through so its about 0.25 inch longer than I would have liked but close enough!)

 

Good point, i did not realize they could just be cut down to length. thanks for the tip.

I will see if i go down that path yet because I am pretty happy with the damping setting at the moment.... do you find you adjust yours at all???

 

No never to be honest! I set them to bang in the middle front and back to start with, the plan was to then go all on soft, then all on hard, and then dial in to what rode best.
Ended up never touching them again, just got used to it and now this is how it is!

 

Yep, I came to the same result, I have not touched it since setting it to the desired position so no real need for instant access to the adjusters.

 

I tackled another small job, the steering telescope was making a squeaking noise so having a look at a few threads here I decided to order the bush required and lubricate the thread with Lithium grease.

Before



Old bush and new bush



Installed



Now squeak free!

 

I also Picked up a new set of wheels second hand. 18 inch Rays Volk GT-P 2 piece, I only wanted 18's as it is still a daily driver and I wanted to keep some comfort. The tyres are the wrong profile so I will need to replace them and the rims will require a refurb as there is a fair amount of kerb rash and one wheel has been attacked by the PO with a die grinder already as shown in the second pic. chasing quotes for refurb now and will see what direction I go.

 

Some small maintenance stuff done over January holidays

- rear brake pads replaced
- windscreen sprays adjusted
- front end clunk sorted out, see clunk thread

Looking forward to getting the new wheels sorted!