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Cheers Chaps. Dropping the car off tomorrow with Lee at SRD to have the PPE headers, PPE mid-pipes with race spec hi-flow cat's, and suspension raised a tad! Lol. Once that lot is done, car will be treated to it's RR-Racing performance intake and further tune from the OBD 2 hand controller. That I believe is as far as I can go for now, as the only other real performance step left is the RR-Racing supercharger kit. That'll hopefully be next year if I can save up enough dosh! Matt is a master when it comes to lighting, angles, dramatic backdrops etc. So glad he was happy to sell me the photos he took. I'm going to get them printed off and framed at some stage to hang in the garage (wife won't let me have them up in the house! Lol).

Good morning all, Well I've been a member since 07 I think and I originally had a IS Sportcross which I loved. I always wanted an LS though and have been close to buying one on a few occasions and have made various posts on here. Anyway my mind was set and I just wanted a 430. So yesterday a put a deposit down on a 06 plate silver with black leather. The car has had two owners and the dealer sold it to the second owner in 08 and has bought it back from them, which i think is good sign. 81,000 miles with full Lexus history from Edgware Road. I rang the dealer went over the history and nothing unusual came to light, just it seems a well maintained car. Also I checked the MOT history and noted it's never failed one and had few advisory's. I did pay top end at £6995, but it's the car i want in the colour I want. Also a low mileage car. Lastly I was pleased it was registered January 06 so have avoided the car tax hike to £515. To say I'm excited is an understatement and I collect the car next Thursday. Will post some pics next weekend. I have always liked and enjoyed this forum and hope to be a more active member of it. Oh and can I connect my phone to blue tooth (does it have blue tooth even?) or will i need a Parrot? All the best for the day, Nick in Sheffield

At the end of the day it is a 14 year old car and buying it now, you have no idea how often its been washed or sealed underneath etc so there's bound to be rust somewhere or other! Having said that, if the body is fine thats awesome! Take a 14 year old Merc or BMW and you may find that the arches no longer exist!

At first glance this RX looks ready equipped to deal with the sky rats ! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-56-LEXUS-RX-400H-3-3-SE-CVT-5DR-/112345156147?hash=item1a284b0a33:g:S3gAAOSwB-1Y0~P5

Hope it gets sorted soon. I was up at Kemble today. When I pulled up, I thought you were there!

Yep, plus you can flash the card at the till in Halfords for 15% off.

Disappointing Lexus turn out (4) but not too bad for a school night. Fantastic venue... @peter174 @Chetz

Wow what a car ! I'm currently in Japan on holiday and went to the Toyota factory today on a tour then to their museum where they had a LC and a LFA plus various others. Took a few pictures, you could sit in the LC but not the LFA . Awesome car .

My dash lit up like a Christmas tree yesterday while on the motorway. Traction control was disabled, check VSC & CEL were on and I was understandably worried! There is a lot of info from lexus owners about the vsc light but nothing relating to the isf. Apparently it covers a range of issues from loose fuel cap to broken ecu's 😯. It seems like most issues aren't actually related to the engine or the traction control system! Got the car to my friendly mechanic for a diagnostic and it turns out it's the oxygen sensors for the cats. There was no voltage going to either of them so he suspects it's a broken wire rather than the sensors themselves. Going back on Wednesday to get it fixed. Not really a suprise as the bottom of the car was rubbing on the track so much 😳 This is purely down to how low and soft my coilovers are, shouldn't put anyone else of track days 🖒

Guys, after much searching I'm struggling to find a definitive answer regarding whether headers can be sought with Cats or are they all without. I'm looking to change exhaust system also and am leaning towards H+S as they are UK based and have chatted to them regarding my requirements. PPE and Sikky both state they remove the cat but also state cats can be fitted. No mention of how to source the headers though. Will I have to buy and get the TIG welder out to modify myself? I know H+S systems are used by a few on here, I've looked at Borla and JoeZ also, have missed any good ones? Appreciate that the search function is there but it's sometimes easy to get confused by some of the threads Marcus

I have altered the exhaust – have a bigger bore pipe from the centre resonator to the boxes and have twin boxes fitted (4 exit tailpipes) so I have improved the flow of gasses exiting the engine, albeit from the centre box. Before I done all this I fitted an oiled K&N panel filter (have done this to all the cars I have had as it does give some benefit in performance) so I have increased slightly the air into the engine also. I have not gone down the full route of converting the intake, just changed the filter to a lifetime one. If I was looking for a bigger power output (which I am not) my next step would be to have it tuned but it can’t be done on these engines anyway but I am not worried about that. The filter is expensive at first compared to replacing a normal one every year but it has been in the car that long now that its paid for itself. No noticeable difference in noise between the K&N| one to stock one. I clean it every year – it states its good for 100k before cleaning – can’t see how they can claim that as they don’t know the environment the car is being driven in. Once a year is no hassle as while the filter is drying out I put the original one back in if I know I am going to be driving it in the meantime. In doing this I can compare the differences between both filters and can say that there is a noticeable difference between them both – the K&N one makes the car more responsive and initial acceleration is better but after a while with the K&N one in you can’t tell the difference until the next time its cleaned and you can do the comparrison. Always wondered if the ECU compensates for the change immediately? I would recommend the filter – but I guess its personal preference really. As for the exhaust – I didn’t set out to make it a twin pipe but I found a set of boxes that fitted perfectly so went with them – what’s been about 6 months with it on – I have only had one issue with it in I noticed a weeping weld which I sorted. Still to put the diffuser on but have started to mod it so it can fit over the twin pipes (It was only for a single pipe exit both sides so have altered it to twin box exit on both sides) Will get it painted and placed on the car next along with a front splitter which will be painted at the same time. I must say how easy it was to do the exhaust and it worked out peanuts cost wise to an OEM or even a stainless one. Still got the stainless one which I need to clean up and may sell. I wont go down the route of stainless again as it seemed to drain a lot of the power from the can and make it uncomfortable to drive due to the drone. I can easily replace this with another mild steel one as I have the pattern for it so it wont take long and the hassle is gone from guessing what the angles are etc ...

40k service a few months back, got 15% off service and 25% off the parts used, so yes more than paid for itself in one hit 👍 Big Rat

i just smile at the Lady on the service desk and say if you don't give me 15% of ill buy a BMW that seems to work, have just paid £478 for the second year 20k service on my RC-F. should have been £545

I do run a second car, as a day to day car I have a Honda Civic 1.6 Sport , not quite sure where the Sport bit comes in, great car, cheap to run and super reliable keeping the ISF for weekends etc, but to answer your question I would consider one at the right money when I am ready to change.

ECP currently doing 30% off.. Pair of Brembp front discs and pads coming in at £214 with discount. Use code: Sale56

Hi Mark. No, no need for O2 conditioners as the tune can factor this in to avoid any CEL issues. Still need the sensors, so hoping SRD can get them off my OEM manifolds without damaging them! Fingers crossed!! Yes, special order from PPE themselves. They have to fabricate them specially for you being RHD.

Only just seen this question @Big Rat 2007 RX350 great car, colour was Champagne 2008 IS220d good but 6th gear was useless below 80mph, fuel consumption was rubbish as well. Colour was.........................................silver....................... 2010 IS250F Sport great car. looked the business, a bit underpowered, in Ultra Blue.................naturally............... As I said all 3 were used everyday and the RX and IS diesel had a lot of miles in a short space of time and not one penny had to be spent on them, not even a bulb needed replacing.

Dramatic photo's, Matt caught some good angles of your car. 👍

Well provided its green when you drive in the voltages will be up. The Jury in my brain is out as far as whether its a good thing battery wise or not - what's good in the short term isn't always good long term ? mmm leaning towards the probably ok view. I'm not schizophrenic -- are we???

I did love my GS 450h f-sport and its a car i could quite easily go back to.i only had it 4 years but did not have any issues at all, although i only covered around 12k.

You're not wrong, I wouldn't have sold it if I wasn't trying to be practical, but as being practical seems to have failed I'm back to being impractical! Drove it for the first time in nearly two weeks today, what a fine car, I think it'll have to stay after all!

Yep - a year too for me in my 2012 black ISF (have done about 3.5K miles in that time). Mind you with my previous 08 ISF I now have about five years time with the ISF and counting

@Peter P18 Got the mag tucked away, those are great pictures 👍 Big Rat

Here's a few more. Would highly recommend Matt to anyone looking to get some good photos taken.

Thanks to Matt Woods for these epic photos he took of my car for the Banzai feature back in October.

Anyone else have an issue with auto connecting with paired devices. My wife and I both use the car - if my wife last used the car it will not connect when I'm in the car alone and the wife's phone is well out of range. I've had the same issue with two IS300h both 2015 Exec models. Both phones are IPhone (5 & 6) with the latest updates My Vauxhall works flawlessly, it remembers the last connection, if that's not present it locks on to one that is, with the IS I have to go in and reconnect manually.. any idea?

True, Paul. That sort of money could be reserved for a good tidy-up sometime in the future. There will be more I'm sure, it's the nature of things. I'll see what they can do with the touch-up option. It'll be a battle scar

Peter I think I'd run with the touch up this happened to me on my isF the morning after I picked it up in broadly the same place as you 😡 Now 1100 squids so far on my 'F' has covered a 40k service, spark plug change and a full second set of used genuine IsF wheels. Just a thought matey. Big Rat

Yes, I'm thinking that way also. I know there'll be more stone chips, may as well make it worthwhile! I looked at protection films for my previous car but discounted it because it always shows and can discolour the paintwork. They do work but in a sacrificial way, so it could still end up looking rough.

Fingers crossed for a simple and cheap fix!

Thanks for this all, just ordered pads. Don't need them yet, but nice to have a set ready to go on!

@Rusty Crobar Sorry to hear that matey an easy fix hopefully, be careful with grounding your bottom, nasty thing that gravel rash 👹 Big Rat

@Spacewagon52 Just seen this from you, in was my playground in the 60's happy days were had by us all, Dad used to do sand yachting there back in the days when that started out, great fun 👍 Big Rat

Would be pretty awesome to get that kind of mileage wouldn't it

A remarkable 53mpg from central Birmingham to home today. Wasn't rushing. Remarkable figure for a petrol-powered SUV. Weather warm today which has probably helped. I wasn't trying either, I just drove home sedately and checked the figure when I got home. 5 miles of congested city centre roads, another 5 miles of free flowing urban roads and then 20 ish miles of country A roads and dual carriageways

.......... a while ago i was selling my 1932 Triumph tourer and a prospective purchaser sent me £1000 deposit, his wife went mad, refused to let him have yet another car and he cancelled the deal. No amount of persuasion could convince him to take a refund of the deposit from me so I kept it ! and the car too which is in fine fettle and can often be seen around the local roads in Newmarket at the weekends in fine weather Malc

I would do the same - would'nt feel content and I know it evades the whole point of the deposit!

Phil, I think they call it "fate" Rgds, Roger

Hey Stuart, I'll pop a new thread up soon to catch you guys up on the latest raft of modifications I've done. I actually have a tune already on my car right now. The current one factors in my H&S exhaust, and the RR-Racing intake pipe/TRD panel filter. Also moves the rev limiter to 7,200RPM from the 6,800 OEM limit. I've been doing a load of 4th gear pulls recently to get things bedded in. Butt dyno says it's more responsive than before, and pulls stronger especially in the mid-range. The beep for the rev limiter still goes off at 6,800, but the needle does keep going round to the 7,200 mark. Should be fun with these next bits done. Been waiting a while for this stage!

Hi Nick You've just bought the second best car ever made.

Great looking car.

Yep, finally got it all up and running last night using the username and bluetooth. Thank you very much for the help & tips! Finally have traffic updates :) Some thing that seemed strange - when adding the Bluetooth communication you have to enter your Username & Password for the portal, yet you also have to add the same credentials under Nav (strangely the password on the Nav section gets * out but not under the Bluetooth section) Also got the following response from Lexus so they might have had an issue at first launch which they fixed:

On iPhone, I know this seems obvious, but you also need to turn on your Personal hotspot on the phone settings.

So I cleaned the MAF sensor tonight. This is the first time I have ever done it from owning the car at 60k miles - its now about to turn over to the big 100k. So that's 40k miles without a definite clean and I doubt it would have been done before unless its part of any service schedule so I am presuming its gone from new to 100k without a clean... Picture below is of the location of the sensor - 2 screws to undo and the electrical connection to release (as well as the drivers side engine cover to remove to get to it. Picture below with the electrical connection removed Picture below of the actual sensor before cleaning The cleaning agent I used is below So .... any difference ... I cleaned the sensor - noticed the liquid change colour slightly when I was doing this (went a bit cloudy) but not too bad. Gave the sensor a good clean inside and out - let it dry for 10 minutes then placed it back into the air intake. I left if tor a further 20 mins or so (went in for tea !!) Took it for a 5 minute drive and there is a definite difference - I would not say wow what a change but its definitely smoother and it seems to accelerate better. Definitely not a placebo effect. I will make this a part of the annual service I do on the car.

My stand alone sat nav makes a bong sound if I go over any speed limit, trouble is I keep looking up as it sounds exactly the same as the fasten seat belt bong on aircraft.

I have the current GS (13 plate), but the 250 so I cant comment on the hybrid aspect. But I can say having owned the GS for 6 months now its a deeply satisfying car to own\drive\live with. Mine is the luxury spec with Mark Levinson sound and 12" screen. Its comfortable, roomy, feels very planted on the road, interior quality is excellent.

So, as promised, a review of the day (and the car!) The day: I did a track day last year at Silverstone (amongst others), in the dry. Yesterday's event was an entirely different affair! I used a TDO I've booked through before - they're really good - and helpfully had an instructor sit with me for several laps, right at the beginning to get my eye in again. Grip levels were utterly abysmal (many times the rear wheels span approaching 100mph in 3rd gear), corners were slippery, there was quite a lot of standing water and in the spray of vehicles in front, forward visibility was zero. We had stoppages for cars leaving the track, some leaving various expensive internal components externally on the tarmac, one closure due to the sheer amount of rain and a puncture (for me) which ended our day an hour or so early. No, it couldn't be plugged :-( There was a great atmosphere there however, also because of all the stoppages the marshalls offered to work through their lunch break - usually the track is closed between 1-2pm. The car: For a heavy saloon car, with a massive lump of metal in the nose, it was great. I used sport mode, manual shift (obviously), but left the stability/traction set on throughout. The ISF felt like it could have stayed out there all day, non-stop. Speeds were slightly lower due to the weather, but there was no brake fade, the various guages on the dashboard never ever moved from halfway (apart from the fuel guage hohoho!) and nothing from the car made me feel like I needed to come in for a rest. The handling was 'lively' on occasion! My car has the standard Bridgestone Potenza RE050A front and back, in the usual OEM sizes - 225 width on the front and 255 on the back. The car did want to wheelspin the entire way through third gear (so up to around 100mph) and we probably nudged 135mph at the end of the Hangar Straight. Around the corners, unfortunately, the huge weight of the 5.0 V8 made itself known - quite a bit of understeer was present, but until the electronics started beeping and power was reigned in, this understeer could be balanced on the throttle. Once I'd got the hang of this, the car was quite nicely set up, but you had to be GENTLE! The sheer torque of the engine could end play on that corner so easily if too much power was requested. We never span, occasionally slid, but the car was always willing for more. Other special mentions go to the awesome H&S cat-back on my car - the car sounds like a Spitfire at WOT and it must have *just* scraped in under the 105dB limit. An old mate from school who popped in, grabbed a helmet and was present throughout - I think he had as good a time as I did despite the setbacks and the stoppages! Summary: Silverstone is ace. It's a world class circuit with sections to exploit the potential of any type of vehicle. The ISF is truly staggering - I drove 120miles to the track in comfort, drove as quickly as I could for a day around a race track in some awful conditions, then drove all the way home. All it demanded from me was more petrol (and one tyre!). It's truly a fantastic road car and a passable track machine. Is it's natural home Silverstone on a wet, cold day in March? No. It's too nose heavy and modern driver aids interfere - though probably saved my bacon - on at least a dozen occasions. Could it be improved - yes! I think slightly wider tyres on the front would help mitigate the understeer, and I'd like to try the car again in the dry, also a slighty stickier tyre compound would be worthwhile. I don't do many miles in it a year (5000 or so), so longevity of tyres isn't an issue for me. I am fortunate to also own a Honda S2000 as a toy car. It's not nearly as powerful, but it's about half a ton lighter, practically mid-engined and shod with VERY sticky rubber (Toyo R888). This has been my companion for a few years of track days now and for that type of driving, it has the ISF beat. I wouldn't dream of selling either of them! Hope you lot enjoy the read - pics to follow.

Ha, even that's silver!

5 days in and loving it.

The manufacturer's recommended pressures take the heat expansion into account. It would be impossible for Joe Public to inflate their tyres to the operational temperature. It's well known underinflation is the more dangerous scenario as tyre sidewall flexes excessively and overheats the tyre with possible disastrous consequences. Over inflated tyres will simply wear prematurely and give a hard ride. Because they are harder the tyre wall won't flex so much so overheating isn't a problem. Tyre pressure is a function of axle weight so it is recommended to maintain the front to rear differential or handling could be compromised. Bottom line, I'll stick with the pressure recommended by the manufacturer and listed in the handbook. It's stood me in good stead this last 40+ years....