J Henderson

One of the German cars with a 3.0 diesel engine would be my pick - A4 Quattro or BMW 335d. My personal choice would be an Avant/Touring model.

Interesting video comparing several DI/Carbon cleaners. The products are tested in a controlled fashion, on valves removed from an engine, so "real world" performance might be different. But, on the face of it, they seem fairly ineffective compared to actual physical cleaning (walnut blasting).

If replacing OEM shocks with, say, Bilstein B6, I would tell the insurance company nothing.

Hankook would be my choice. I had them on my IS200 when I had one, and was impressed by them in all aspects. They were also on my IS250 when I bought it. They're arguably a premium brand tyre these days, despite being priced amongst the traditional mid-range brands like Toyo, Khumo, Falken etc.

Yep. Don't think it had an emblem in the first place. At least not for ones with that single spoke wheel.

That key location is SAAB-esque...

Lexus themselves commissioned a "IS430" concept car to be built for SEMA in 2003. IS430 Concept 1st-gen of course, and with a manual box, no less, but as Linas alluded to, the biggest challenge is the electronics.

Definitely a petrol one, not a diesel? At the very least, it appears to have a IS220d rear bumper (no exhaust cutouts).

If one of the remaining 4 nuts is a locking one, I'd swap it for a regular nut until you get a new stud.

Are you using E10 or E5 fuel?

Was having a root around in my glove box today and discovered that my handbook wallet had this CD-ROM inside. I had no idea it had been there all this time. Worth investigating? Anyone know what's likely to be on it? The minimum specs required mentions a Pentium II processor, so I guess I might have to jump through some hoops to run it on a modern computer.

Thank you. 🙂 Those calipers were the one and only time that I've bought something from Rockauto.com, so I don't know if they calculate the total cost including taxes etc now, but at the time, they didn't. From memory, I'm pretty sure that I was charged import duty & VAT by the courier when the calipers were delivered. I wanna say it was something like £40 or thereabouts. Even then, it was still a great price as the exchange rate was about $1.8 to £1 at the time. So, even with the additional VAT etc, it still worked out at well under £100 per caliper. The whole conversion including OEM discs, pads, shim kit, paint, decals etc was around £400. It'll no doubt cost a bit more to do the swap now with the exchange rate being less favourable, but it's an upgrade I would recommend highly. Based on my experience though, I would not recommend the OEM Lexus discs! I have now had to replace two pairs of them due to premature failure. The first set of discs literally fell apart after two years. I chalked that up to bad luck and bought another OEM disc/pad set to replace them, but those eventually developed (funnily enough, also after about 2 years) a so-called "high spot" or hard spot, which made the disc surface wear unevenly, resulting in juddering, weak performance, and ultimately, an MOT failure. Ending my car's unblemished test history! I currently have EBC slotted USR discs, paired with their Yellowstuff pads. So far, so good.

This was my sub £100 setup when I had a 1st-gen IS. Quite neat. A fairly modest TomTom unit with Bluetooth connectivity, and the suction mount was attached to a £5 adhesive plastic disc. The cabling was routed in behind the centre console and plugged into the cig lighter. Not every IS has that storage bin on top of the dash but I'm sure something similar can be achieved in 2023. 🙂

Agreed. I run them on my own car and they've always been quieter than normal summer tyres. Even in 30+ degree weather.

That's right. The noise test is measured by the test car passing a microphone, placed a certain distance away, at the side of the track.

The CLX are discontinued now I think. I regret not buying the new old stock set that was on eBay for absolutely ages. They were about £900 or something.

Rear dampers on my car are made by Tokico, with 48530-53280 part number. Fronts are Tokico too, but I don't know the part numbers of those. As for coilovers, the only ones I've seen for an IS that supposedly retain a comfortable ride, are Hipermax III CLX by HKS.

Make sure you know a place that will actually fit loose tyres before pulling the trigger. Some tyre shops will refuse to, unless you're buying the rubber from them. Fitting is about £20 per wheel in my experience too. So, have that in mind when gauging prices. 🙂

I was charged £20 to have a loose 245/40R18 tyre fitted a couple of weeks ago. It just seems like that's the going rate now. One of those things that cost £10 forever, and now it's suddenly £20. Years ago it might be prudent to order tyres online and then get them fitted locally, but now, not so much. That's if you can find someplace that will actually agree to do it.

Car Care Nut on YouTube has an interesting video on this very subject. His recommendation is to change the fluid at 60k miles, but only a drain & fill. Not a complete flush. The reasons why are detailed in the video. Conversely, he also recommends not changing the fluid if the mileage is way beyond the 60k interval... I'm currently stuck somewhere in between at 85k, but I think I'll get a drain and fill during my next service.

Apparently an oil flush was performed at my last service. I didn't ask for it, but noticed the additional £5 charge on the invoice. I didn't question it. The mechanics in the garage I use are a couple of older guys, very trustworthy with good Lexus knowledge. So, If anything, I was quite pleased to see it had been done since it was probably beneficial and the cost was next-to-nothing. I believe a flush can clean out any deposits on the VVT solenoids, help cure cold-start rattle, rough idling etc. My engine was not rattling and running fine beforehand, and still is, so no harm done.

Just make sure that the car is off and not "ready" and you'll be fine. I guess you could disconnect the 12v battery for additional piece of mind. Removing or at least loosening and repositioning the air filter box might be required or desirable. Access to the rear of the lamps is pretty tight otherwise.

Seen one of these on the A720 Edinburgh City Bypass this morning. Perhaps the very one mentioned in the OP six years ago, since it's pretty much a Unicorn.

Confirmation from the manual. Also, the section below about Automatic mode (which I use). I didn't realise this has some form of adjustment possible. Every day is a School day.