Bratman91

I recently drove from Cheltenham to a small town called Palmanova in North East Italy. In a journey of 1000 miles, I saw only three Lexus's (Lexi?), and none of them was an IS. The first day in Palmanova, I saw a white IS250 SEL automatic parked on the street. I drive a white IS250 SEL automatic! Cosa significa?

Boot opening : have you tried holding the boot button in for a few seconds - just clicking it is not enough? Reverse mirror dipping: If the Left/right mirror selector is in the centre position, the mirrors don't dip in reverse. Try selecting left or right

See the posts here: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=73008&st=0&p=755594&fromsearch=1entry755594 In summary, you can probably get a repair that will be impossible to detect for around £60 and will take less than a day to complete.

Here is a thread I started some time ago: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=54369 and this is a more recent thread on what seems to be the same or very similar subject http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=68587&st=0&p=730099&hl=rattle&fromsearch=1entry730099 Do the noises described in either of these threads sound like yours? I think that this is the first time that VVTi has been suggested as a cause.

I recently had a wheel refurbished after kerbing it. The damage wasn't severe - just some scuffing at the edge - but it spoiled an otherwise pristine appearance. The cost of repair was £66 and it took a morning to complete, the result being a really superb job such that the wheel is as good as new. Frankly, I was rather surprised that the finish and match to the original was so good. The company was Reinventingthewheel.co.uk of Tewkesbury and I have no connection with them whatsoever other than as a customer.

Computers can behave like teenagers - truculent, refusing to answer, insolent and generally a PITA. However, although not available for teenagers, the final sanction of switching off all power often forces a computer to start behaving itself. Your problem sounds as though the car's microprocessor could be playing up so it might be worth disconnecting the battery for a while in the hope that things reset themselves. However, I urge caution and suggest that, before you try this, you call your Lexus dealer and ask if disconnecting the battery will do any harm.Maybe someone else on this forum can comment on whether or not disconnecting the battery would be worth trying.

I have experienced slight difficulty in starting (two or three attempts necessary) and rough running for a while after driving my car out of the garage and switching off. I am almost certain that, as mraines suggests, this is due to flooding, and driving for a bit burns off the excess fuel. I have just checked with my car and with no pressure on the brake to get the green ignition light, it take two pushes of the starter switch before the gear selector can be moved. Is it possible that you push the switch once to try to start the car but, as the engine does not fire, this prevents the gear selector from being moved? What happens if, without any pressure on the brake, you push the switch twice?

Here are some thoughts about this issue. Automatic gear boxes and their controls are very complicated and expensive to repair. If you are in "Park" and are shunted from behind, you run the risk of damaging the gearbox and, possibly, suffering greater than necessary damage to the rear of your car as it will be near immovable. In many circumstances, it may be possible to see that a shunt is imminent and release the footbrake and/or drive forward to reduce or even prevent the impact. There is unlikely to be sufficient time to do this if you have to move the gear selector into "Drive" and press the accelerator. Moving the selector from "Park" to "Drive" means that it passes through "Reverse" and so the rear reversing lights will flash - potentially confusing or momentarily blinding the driver of any following cars at night, particularly if it's raining. At best, it's annoying. In my view, "Park" means just that - not stopped temporarily at, for example, traffic lights or road junctions. Selecting "Park" every time you stop will, at the very least, cause wear and tear on the selector and its linkages. I*n comparison to automatic gearboxes, braking systems tend to be much cheaper in price and repair costs. I am not sure if the Lexus parking brake works by applying the wheel brakes or some other way (clamping a prop shaft for example)but, whatever the method, I suspect that the damage caused by a shunt would be more tolerable than damage to an automatic gear box with "Park" selected. The foot operated parking brake is not exactly designed for on-the-road driving comfort and ergonomic excellence. But, if it's a parking brake to be applied when a car is parked, it doesn't need to be. In other words, it is a parking brake. In summary, "Park" selection and the parking brake should be used when parking - not for brief temporary stops. I am aware that some expert sources say that "Park" should be selected after stopping but there are other authoritative sources who have different views.

I haven't tried them but, if you do, I would be interested in how you got on.

thanks F.A, tried that but they still park a little higher than i'd like; they certainly aren't seized up - I'll ask the dealer about it next time i'm over there. According to the manual for my IS250, the mirrors will not dip when reverse gear is selected if the mirror adjustment selector switch is in the central (off) position. It has to be in either the L or R position.

It seems I was mistaken. The A2DP is only available on 2010 models upwards. Sorry No problem - many thanks for getting back to me. Liked your Utube video, by the way.

I have tried using my wife's brand-new Iphone 4 which, according to various web forums, does have A2DP and I still cannot play music over the car's speakers, even though the phone is correctly paired with the car. The car is a September 2009 IS250 SEL with all the bells-and-whistles multimedia - can anyone confirm if this had A2DP?

I'm sure the 2009 models support A2DP (obviously as long as you have bluetooth option in your car). If you have the bluetooth option in your car, and your phone is paired correctly to the car, then everytime you play something from your iPhone (OS 4.0 or Above) it should stream out of your car's audio system. A late 2009 courtesy I had with bluetooth had A2DP. If you've done that and you still dont get any audio, then maybe your car hasnt got it. The sound quality of my setup is awesome. You actually cannot tell the difference between the CD track and the Wireless iPhone track. It streams high quality stereo music I have a late-2009 IS250 SE with bluetooth and my phone (a fairly basic Samsung)with bluetooth works well as a hands-free device. However, when I play music on it, this doesn't play on the car audio system. What selections are needed on the car audio system - if I have tried slecting AUX but this doesn't work?

But What Car? also says this: "Lexus buyers are a very happy bunch, with the brand coming top of the JD Power Customer Satisfaction survey for a decade, so buying and owning an IS should prove a highly satisfying experience. Owners report being particularly happy in three key areas: vehicle quality and reliability, vehicle appeal and service satisfaction". Of course, ordinary motorists, by and large, have to pay for their vehicle, fuel, insurance and servicing costs, and are not fixated on high-speed driving around narrow country lanes, scintillating acceleration, superfast gear changes and so on. There may also be proof that advertising does pay - the number of BMW and Mercedes adverts compared to that of Lexus in the motoring press seems to be in direct proportion to the favour in which those marques are held.

I am on my second IS250 and, on both of them, it takes around 15 minutes (depending on driving conditions) to warm up fully, and the gauge needle sits less than half-way. Your experience seems to be normal based on my admittedly small sample size.

Here is a thread that I started on what seems to be a similar or the same issue. I took my car back to Lexus and they could not find anything wrong and, to be fair, the car drove flawlessly apart from the clicking noise when starting up from cold. This noise was never more than very faint and I came to regard it as simply a normal feature that I had become overly-sensitive about. Be aware that there is a known problem of a brief knock rather than a clicking noise at startup and this requires substantial rebuild work to resolve. However, from what I can deduce from the various threads on UK and US Lexus owner club websites, this is NOT the same problem that I had and, perhaps, you are having. My local Lexus dealer offered me a good deal on a new car after just over three years and put the old one on sale at quite a high price (it was in superb condition and very low mileage for the year) so I presume that they had no concerns about the engine (OK - maybe this is a naive presumption but I have found Lexus service pretty fair). http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=54369

The potential danger with this option is that you are immediately vulnerable to physical attack if you happen to stop and park in a dodgy area. The option I have on my car is that all the doors unlock when the drivers door is unlocked. This gives opportunity to look around before opening the car. Good grief. If I was that worried about the neighbourhood I wouldn't even dare take my car there. I doubt that there are any crime-free neighbourhoods and, for example, a poorly-lit, underground car park late at night is no place to be complacent about personal security. Sometimes, being in a dodgy area is unplanned.

I bought a brand new IS250 SE Auto in February 2006 and replaced this with a brand new SEL Auto MM in September of last year. There's precious little difference between the two cars ( a few new features on the latest one - self-folding door mirrors, for example) and both are superb cars. Comfort, quietness, reliability and fuel economy are outstanding. A small but irritating dashboard rattle on the first car was cured by inserting a tiny piece of foam rubber and the paintwork is very soft (a consequence of modern enviromentally-safe paints, I believe).

The potential danger with this option is that you are immediately vulnerable to physical attack if you happen to stop and park in a dodgy area. The option I have on my car is that all the doors unlock when the drivers door is unlocked. This gives opportunity to look around before opening the car. Also, the key fob unlocks only the drivers door with one press and the other doors if pressed again. This means that no-one can leap in through the passenger doors as soon as the lights flash to indicate unlocking. However, I don't think that these options (or, at least, some of them) can be selected by the owner - I took mine into Lexus, Cheltenham, where they plugged in a small hand-held device and programmed the options I asked for (all very quick, convenient and effective). It may be that this sort of thing is required for the option you are interested in.

The noise is not just one or two knocks - it is constant in synch with engine speed. Further to my posting above, the noise is not there when revving the engine while in Park, and is only apparent when the engine is under load (ie. accelerating ) and cold. It lasts for 2 or 3 minutes and then quickly reduces in volume until it is inaudible. I am fairly sure that it is not the knock on startup that is referred to in the service bulletin. The noise is even/steady (ie. it is not as though the tap occurs in synch with only one cylinder) and is somewhere between a tap and a knock in sound.

The noise is not just one or two knocks - it is constant in synch with engine speed.

After starting up my IS250SE auto from cold, there is a slight tapping noise from (I think) the engine when accelerating. This is reminiscent of tappet noise and gets faster with engine speed. It is not apparent at idle, and only appears if the engine is under light load (accelerating on the road). The car has done less than 17000 miles and the noise wasn't there until recently. The noise disappears after a few minutes - presumably as the engine gets hotter. The USA LOC web site mentions what seems to be something very similar although for an IS350, and the "answer" is that it is "harmless" piston slap. I am old enough to remember old-fashioned piston slap and my noise seems to be rather more like tappet click. I don't recall piston slap ever being "harmless" either - it was typically an indicator of severe wear. Has anyone else had this problem or know what is is?

The cat unsuccessfully tried to climb up a door to get to the roof and has left a couple of scratches that, although very fine are down to the undercoat in a couple of points and are mildly notceable. They are not bad enough to warrrant using touch-in paint but the old-time dealer's trick of rubbing them with a childs wax crayon doesn't work. Does anyone know of a way to fill in the scratches with, for example, a crayon designed for the job? The car is Supagard-ed (and, yes, I have read the less-than-glowing comments about this) so I want to avoid something like T-cut or other abrasive polishes if I can avoid it.

If you had the patience you can sit in the car ...do nothing for 30 seconds... all the doors will then lock automatically...now startup and drive off with all doors locked. According to my manual (page 370), customising (personalisation) can only be done with specialised equipment. Is this so?

I too have just completed a year of ownership of an IS250 - in my case, an IS250SE petrol automatic. Overall, I am very pleased with the car; it is by far the best car I have ever owned and probably the best I have ever driven. The engine is silky smooth and the auto box unbelievably slick with often the only indication that gears have changed being from the rev counter or central display. Build quality is superb and the driving experience is luxurious, quiet and comfortable. The windscreen side pillars obscure vision at junctions but I guess that they add to the body strength and that will be tested only in extremis. I regularly get 36mpg on a run although this naturally can't be maintained in town. Pity the rear seats don't fold down to give more room for lengthy luggage, especially as the boot is not cavernous. As others have pointed out, the paint is about as hard as butter.