To run flat or not

[jbow]

In my 1st week of owning my 1st ever Lexus a 17 plate is300 with only 6500 miles on the clock. 3 questions/issues....1 is it worth fitting run flat tyres.....2  brakes are "creaky " at very low speed.....3  any easy way to adjust the handbrake (doesn't hold fully on a medium incline). I am loving the car driving my first automatic is a joy.

[Jayw13702]

I looked into running run flats on my Lexus when I first got it my local tyre centre told me that it wasn’t possible due to the way that the room is designed, it’s not designed for a runflat tyre.
There is also the cost implication to consider, run flats are about 50% dearer than the equivalent normal tyre. Finally you lose your ride quality as well, if you’ve ever driven a BMW with runflat you will know exactly what I mean by that.

Even a well adjusted handbrake on a Lexus seems to have a level of give on it. If you pull up, apply the handbrake and then release the footbrake the car will always move on it’s a bit. It seems to be the design of the handbrake and no amount of adjustment will sort it out


Sent from my Iphone using Tapatalk

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, jbow said:

In my 1st week of owning my 1st ever Lexus a 17 plate is300 with only 6500 miles on the clock. 3 questions/issues....1 is it worth fitting run flat tyres.....2  brakes are "creaky " at very low speed.....3  any easy way to adjust the handbrake (doesn't hold fully on a medium incline). I am loving the car driving my first automatic is a joy.

All Run-Flats I had were always atrocious (harsh riding) and failed to do exactly the thing they meant to do - once I hit the pothole and tyre literally dismounted itself from the inner edge of the wheel. To this day I prefer just using spare if needed. I know that IS300h does not come with spare and it is little bit of an issue, but even it that case I would stay away from Run-flats.

If you can find - look at Continental "self-sealing" tyres, they won't help you from major damage, but they should do well enough for minor punctures like screws and nails.

As well 300h is technically CVT and not automatic, but truth to be told I always thought that e-CVT with "fake" gear changes was quite suiting for hybrids in most scenarios.

re: handbrake - do you mean it literally does not hold, or do you mean it rolls ~1 inch when you let off the brakes after parking? If latter then it is fine, but if it does not hold at all then it definitely needs looking after (MOT failure as well).

 

[steve2006]

Chances of actually getting a puncture is generally remote, I think I have had 2 in 16 years both as a result of me leaving screws on my garage floor.

I think you can purchase a jacking kit and space saver wheel from Lexus but if you are stuck on the hard shoulder that’s the last place you want to be changing a tyre!

Breakdown cover will always get you going again 😀

 

[Linas.P]

You are lucky (or probably you driving in friendly neighbourhood). At times I get up-to 4 screws into my tyres a year and at that rate I suspect somebody wasn't entirely pleased seeing my car where it was (London is nasty place for drivers).

But I agree that breakdown cover is at very least better than run-flat tyres. Spare is still the best in my opinion. 

[Thackeray]

3 hours ago, jbow said:

any easy way to adjust the handbrake (doesn't hold fully on a medium incline)

I don't use the parking brake very much. Parking on the level, it's usually sufficient to leave it in Park. Lexus actually advise doing this in frosty weather so that the brake pads don't freeze to the discs. Don't rely on the Park gear selector position on a hill, though.

And of course, for hill starts you don't need the parking brake. As you probably know, you have three or four seconds to move your foot from the brake to the accelerator before the car starts rolling backwards.

As Linas has said, if the parking brake literally doesn't hold the car at all, it needs to go back to the dealer to be fixed.

[J Henderson]

With such a low mileage its doubtful any components are actually worn, or have been damaged somehow (eg: a dodgy brake disc change). The parking brake probably just needs adjusted.

Adjustment is easy enough if you want to DIY - remove a rear wheel to reveal a rubber bung on the bell of the brake disc. Once you remove that, you can rotate the disc until the hole is roughly at 2 or 3 o'clock position to gain access to the adjuster, which is a cog wheel you can rotate with a flathead screwdriver.

IIRC, you rotate the cog to the right to tighten the adjustment. Do this on both sides, but if the car is a recent purchase from a dealer....take it back and let them sort it.

[jbow]

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

All Run-Flats I had were always atrocious (harsh riding) and failed to do exactly the thing they meant to do - once I hit the pothole and tyre literally dismounted itself from the inner edge of the wheel. To this day I prefer just using spare if needed. I know that IS300h does not come with spare and it is little bit of an issue, but even it that case I would stay away from Run-flats.

If you can find - look at continental "self-sealing" tyres, they won't help you from major damage, but they should do well enough for minor punctures like screws and nails.

As well 300h is technically CVT and not automatic, but truth to be told I always thought that e-CVT with "fake" gear changes was quite suiting for hybrids in most scenarios.

re: handbrake - do you mean it literally does not hold, or do you mean it rolls ~1 inch when you let off the brakes after parking? If latter then it is fine, but if it does not hold at all then it definitely needs looking after (MOT failure as well).

 

Thanks for all the replies...regarding my handbrake it only moves a few inches then stops will get it checked out at next service 

[Linas.P]

That is fine then, all Lexus cars, including brand new loaners does that. Few weeks ago I had CT with 900 miles on the clock and UX with 2700 miles and both did exactly the same thing. My RC does that, my old IS did it.

It seems that once you let of the brake, the handbrake shoes takes that inch to fully engage.