JollyRoger

My kid brother has joined the lexus family with 220 d, it has cloth coverd manual operation seats, does anyone know can these be swapped out with later model leather elecricaly operated seats,

Looks like you've proved my point, other than the air condenseness on the evaporator, as the condenser sits in front of the Radiator. By condensing on the evaporator it is effectively removing the moisture from the circulating air, the moisture collected on the evaporator drips off into a drip tray and runs out via a tube onto the road, which is why if you have your air-con active on a hot day at a standstill, there will nearly always be a puddle of water under your car. My post was rather simplified for those who may not understand the fundamentals of Air-conditioning without the need to give a Physics Lesson. And i'm afraid that i know very well how Air-Conditioning works.

The air recirculation button allows already moisture laden air to constantly travel around the inside of your car and condense on the cold windows thus steaming occurs. the air replenisher button brings fresh air into the cabin that may not be as humid, i.e not containing as much moisture. Air con/ climate control doesn't cool the air but in fact removes the moisture from it which makes the air cooler, example, stand out in a really hot day and feel the heat of the sun,and the move into the shade and feel the relief and feel cooler because your out of the sunlight? example, in Malaysia its really humid i.e lots of moisture in the air, so step out of the sunlight into the shade and you cant escape the humidity. so with the heater on, air replenisher button pressed and the air-con active will heat the cabin whilst removing the moisture and the windows steaming will clear. Obviously the faster the fan speed and the air direction controls directed the right way the quicker the windows will clear.

You can draw power from any 12v supply but to draw 2amp's you would be best running it through a relay, Electrical Circuts Have a read at this, its all fairly simple if you follow the basic rules. You wouldn't want to set you pride & joy on fire.

Fitted one last week for a customer, should come with a full fitting kit comprising bolts, screws and a rubber trim/gasket. You will need to remove the bumper, put a blanket on whatever your work surface is to prevent scratches, on the inside of the bumper you should be able to see markings for drilling the holes, use a six mm bit to drill, from the inside out, press the bolts supplied into the brackets on the skirt and fit the gasket, then offer it up to the rear bumper and fit the blots through the holes you have drilled, put the nuts onto the bolts, Now drill two 1/8 holes at each corner where the mudflaps would go and fit a couple of self tapper screws. Hey-presto, job done. Refit your bumper

Nearly all Auto Glass is manufactured by the same companies, so you can buy a genuine Lexus screen made by securit, or buy one from national made by securit, Both made by the same company but you will find prices can vary quite a lot, Some businesses just want to make a larger profit on the screen itself, some companies also charge more because they dont want to be out of pocket for any warranty issues. some companies need the work and so will keep the costs down to get the business. A bonding kit costs less than a fiver, and a remove & refit will usually cost around £40 - £50 labour making the Screen cost about £90. Makes you wonder why some companies charge £500, But thats because they play on the our notion that a cheap job will be a poor job, which isn't always the case. As for a heating element at the bottom, seems a bit silly for the wipers only to defrost when the rest of the screen will be frozen, A drop of warm water usually does the trick

The Front door handle is pretty easy, open the door and you will find a plastic grommet at the same level as the handle a few cm's in from the door skin. Remove the grommet with a small blade flat-head screwdriver, behind the grommet you should find a gold coloured 30 torX screw, turn this anti clockwise and dont worry the screw wont fall out, the handle lock cap should now wiggle out. now grab the handle in one hand as if to open and strike the very front of the handle back-wards with the heel of your hand, the handle should slide backwards and unhook from the door. The rear door is more tricky, you will need to remove the inner door trim, now undo the three 30 torX screws holding the locking mech in place and drop the mech enough to allow access to the screw holding the handle cap, should be in same position as the front only at a different angle, screw the torX anticlockwise, as for the front it will not fall out, wiggle the cap off and strike the handle rearwards as for the front, To refit just reverse the procedure. Good Luck.

it is possible to adjust your shut gaps, but if your car was in for a repair it is the repairers responsibility to make the gaps right, This is some thing that you don't want to try unless you know what you are doing, even a small adjustment can severely affect the way that a door opens and closes. If you really want to have a crack at this you will need to adjust the hinges on the A & B pillars, the Bolts through the hinge into the door itself are self locating and don't offer any adjustment. Adjust one hinge at a time, start with the top hinge on the rear door and loosen the 12 mm bolts, close the door over but leave it ajar, now raise the door from the rear and tighten the bolts, the loosen the bottom hinge bolts with the door ajar lower it again until it closes cleanly on the striker, this will widen the gap between the 1/4 and door and tighten the gap between rear and front door. To adjust the front use the same procedure as with the rear only lower the door with the top hinge and raise with the bottom, this will widen the gap between wing and door. Little adjustments at a time, and don't loosen both hinges at the same time, this will result in you having to take it to someone who knows what they are doing. Bad panel gaps are a sure sign of accident damage and of a repairer who is sh!t at their job. Hope this helps

Opening the lights wasn't to difficult, I used a Black & Decker heat gun and gave the lens a good heating around the edges and then started to prise the lens off working from the inside corner nearest the grille continuing to heat as i went along to the outside edge where the repeater is. I tried a different option off heating the whole lamp in the oven as described on a you-tube how to, but this went horribly wrong leaving the lens as the only usable part, the rest of the lamp melted really badly. lucky that it was on old lamp salvaged from a car in work used for a trial run. The lens can take a lot more heat so just keep moving the heat gun up an down along the seam and allow the heat to travel into the glue. Just reheated the glue to reassemble. It took about half an hour to remove the lamp from the car and remove the lens, and about the same for reassembly. It was well worth the effort, i also removed the amber lens from the repeater and fitted a chrome bulb, car looks sleeker and more modern from the front now. will try and post some pic's' And thanks for the info on the HID's

Just wondering if fitting after market HID kits cause any faults to flag up on the dash. See a set on E bay £33 posted and look easy to fit, I have just split the Headlamps and Blacked out the Chrome, Looks really mean and think that a set of HID's will set it off and hopefully make visibility a little better, Any thoughts guys.

Taking off the Air-Bag will not dis_engage the whole system, but it will put the light on the Dash, I'm not sure about the diode but could work if wired properly, You could also pull the bulb in the dash cluster, Air-bags aren't as good as you might think, I work with accident damaged cars and it would surprise you what it takes to set them off, I have seen cars slaughtered with the bags still intact and seen little or no damage with all the bags discharged, so don't be expecting them to save your life. Seat belts are a far better option.

From previous experience with other vehicle's the only main difference should be the Fly-wheel. The Auto fly_wheel will have a torque converter bolted to it instead of a pressure & Clutch-plate. Should be able to swap over the Flywheels. The end of the Crank-shaft will have a recess in the centre where the Fly-wheel bolts on ( manual trans) inside which may have a needle bearing, So I would expect the Auto-trans to have the same recess without the needle bearing fitted I don't think that it would make sense for Toyota to manufacture two different Cranks, for the same engine, Should just be a matter of fitting a new needle bearing set into the recess. Though I have never done this particular swap on this model, I have done on others. Hope this helps. Some-one else out there may have a little more info and be able to confirm this.

Do as Lexus say and drain the fuid and change the filter before you go and further ? Modern Auto trannies are more complcated than of old what with internal elecro switches and fluid viscosity. I doubt even if any lexus tech,s would be confident in stripping an rebuilding auto boxes you will need a specialist and thats going to cost, Second hand route will be the cheapest but you could be buying someone elses trouble.

Pull the plug on any of your ABS Sensors will in effect render the ABS inoperable, which will be ok if you can handle it. just remember if you have to brake heavily and your not good with braking feel with your right or left foot, your going to come a cropper especially in the wet. I would be looking for a Trc fuse to pull, but with auto tranny i wouldn't be expecting a big improvement ?

Its a fairly easy job. you will need to jack the car up on the side your working at and remove the wheel, this will allow you access to the splash guard/ wing liner. remove all the plastic clips from the wing liner, they should have a star head screw centre, screw the centre out and pry out remaining with flat head screw driver, remove the screw at the corner of the bumper and the clips underneath and there should also be two bolts, remove clips along top edge of bumper, ths should allow you to pull bumper away enough to gain access to the two bolts holdin the wing behind the bumper corner. Next romove the bolts from the bottom to the top at the back of the wing, it should have a bolt at the bottom, one in the middle in behind the wing,and one at the top, open the door and look at the a pillar where the front edge of the mirror would be with the door closed. remove the bolts along the top edge from the front to the back, ease the wing away gently as not to scratch the door. to refit the wing, set it on and fit al the bolts and leave the about half a turn loose so as to allow adjustment. with the door closed align the wing hieght and tighten the middle bolt behind the wing, now check you gap along the back edge where it meets the door, adjust the wing back or forward to get your gap and tighten the bolt at the top of the wing at the front,now open the door and tighten the bolt on the a pillar and the the bottom bolt, at all times keeping the wing flush with the door. now loosen the bolt at the top of the wing at the front and ease the wing out along the top edge, close the bonnet and check the gap between it and the wing, tighten the back bolt at the top and then the front and then middle. Adjust the wing at the headlamp moving up/down/forward back and tighten when your happy with the,gap. spay a little stone chip on the bottom bolt at the back to seal it back up. Audatex bodysystem give 1/2 hour to do this whole job, strip and refit.