v8will

I'm going to be giving my budget buy 1995 LS400 a bit of a mechanical work over in the next few months. Nothing major but just some little things to hopefully keep the car reliable and safe for the next few years.

I intend to do the following: (suggestions welcomed)

Valve shim adjustment, the engine in my car isn't as quiet as it should be, the valvetrain/tappet noise will sporadically disappear - I imagine that one or several of the valve shims are out of spec and occassionally stick making the noise disappear and the car sounding as it should. Hopefully this work might realise a little more performance as the car doesn't feel as punchy as my recently owned Volvo T5.

Front discs and pads, well they are needed so that's self explanatory. The rear parking brake mech needs adjusted again! No issue as I have done this before, will have to investigate why it has loosened up so quickly

Inspection of suspension components. Lately the car has developed a slight cracking noise at the front when driving over speed bumps and I get a small shimmy through the car when pushing over 80-90mph.

Aircon, mine doesn't blow cold although I'll probably farm this job out to someone that knows a bit more about it.

Heated seats that don't, any links to DIY repair procedures??

General fluid and lube service. I'll be doing the gearbox oil as well as mine is definately past it's best and I want that sorted before it harms the tranny, I have noticed a slight wobble transmitted through the car (occassionally) on the overrun so something in there is starting to protest.

Exhaust/heatshield rattle, The car has an irritating rattle from cold that does disappear quickly as some component is warming up, any common bits that do this. I also believe that the joints below the manifold (headers as some call them) may be blowing a little, they look pretty rotten although I'm not too worried about this, a few quid/beers and a friendly welder should sort this

A couple of issues have cropped up that I'm more unsure of, hope someone can help.

White smoke and a pungent smell when the car is accelerated hard. I believe that this is something to do with the powersteering fluid getting into the inlet and can be plugged in some way, any links?

Engine fan running all the time (one behind the radiator) even from cold and a reluctance for the car to show much more that 1/4 way on the temp guage. Could this be related to the non functioning aircon in some way? I'll need to remove and test the thermostat or probably replace as it seems to be a pretty cheap part.

Dash will occassionally blank out for a second or so. It's maybe done this 3 or 4 times in as many months.

Exterior temp guage showing -30 at all times, annoying! and a headlamp washer that doesn't, blocked pipe maybe?

As I mentioned the car cost me very little and cosmetically isn't perfect but I've grown quite attached to it and would like to get a few years out of it for minimal cost. Better the devil you know etc and otherwise the car is running pretty good for having little or no recorded history and 160K on the clock.

Appreciation in advance!