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Nice snow foam @Rusty CrobarI've been frequenting the hand car washes a bit too frequently. Although they're better than the garage roller washes, they still don't do it properly to avoid fine swirl marks. Now nights are drawing out might invest in a snow foam adapter for the pressure washer.

Looks great. Since discovering g-technique c2 v3 I have never looked back! It is spray on and buff off and takes me 20 minutes to do the whole car. It can also be applied to glass and plastic. It's used by pro detaikera and lasts for 6 months with one coat. Epic stuff.

Maybe it was a silver ISF

Yes enjoy your run in safely. Leave the hairy bits for the track. Take care lads and take plenty of photos.

All this talk of cleaning has made me want to get out there on mine!

Would love to learn how to do that, is there a masterclass in Mid Wales? @Rusty Crobar @Flytvr @Big Rat @Mark G @Warrington guy etc, etc.?

@Rusty Crobar She's gleaming matey, so it's about time I did some pics of mine, here she she is 15 months ago on the day I picked her up :) Big Rat

After months of truly miserable weather that ALWAYS seemed to coincide with my days off, I finally got the weekend I'd been craving. So I gave my car the first proper clean its had since its been in my ownership. Not a full detail, but I'll hopefully get a chance to do the stuff next week that I didn't have time for today. Products used were mostly old favourites that have been in my kit for a while, but new to me was Autoglym's new flagship Ultra High Definition shampoo. Like their other HD products, its quite pricey but with the current Halfords offer plus LOC discount, it cost me £12-odd for a bottle which isn't too bad because it's really good and well worth the money IMO. Anyway, as my aching limbs will attest, I spent about 6hrs in total washing, claying, polishing & waxing. The fact I was doing everything in direct sunlight made the job more time-consuming and harder work than it should've been, but I don't care. The end result was very satisfying. Products used; Powermaxed Traffic Film Remover Bilt-Hamber Auto Foam Autoglym HD Shampoo Farecia G3 Clay Mitt Autoglym Glass Polish (outside) Autoglym Fast Glass (inside) Autoglym Rapid Detailer (door shuts, wheels) Meguiars Endurance tyre gel Autoglym Super Resin Polish Soft99 Fusso Coat (Dark)

At what speed does it become airborne with those doors open

The colour is correct!

Got to be one of my favs! I know it's from an advert, but could so easily be our very own Big Rat!!!

Ooooooo errrrrrrr Mrs. I hope it wasn't painful.

I cannot support that sort of behaviour, hooligans, no need for it, there will be none of that nonsense in Wales........................................will there?

@Spacewagon52 Especially concentrating on that back seat for me 😂 Big Rat

Hand car washes are evil! We can chat about our snow foam nozzles on the Wales trip 😄

One of the problems with forums like this is that it's possible to convince yourself that you've got every forum niggle going. As I said, drive a few to see if yours is any worse or on a par with others. So subjective and so many different variables I would think

@Tom24 looking good! Gave mine a wash too, this is how it was supposed to look last Saturday 😶

Hi Just bought a new NX300h Luxury Nav in Velvet Black from Nottingham Lexus. Got a fantastic deal and excellent trade in on my one year old CT200h Sport. Very good team there who are very helpful and well worth a call if you are looking to buy.

Busy day today. I knew i had some caliper slide pins to get checked and the weather has been just great today. First up was the wifes MX5. This has a very similar type of slide pin set up to the Lexus and they too require a bit of TLC from time to time. Did all 4 and had a quick test drive. To be fair they were in good order and moving freely but i cleaned and regreased the lot. And yes I was using the correct grease. Next up my Lexus. I always dig out my copy of noobies guide for the fronts and rears. In truth I could have done it from memory as it all comes back once you get started. Found the lower guide pin on the rear drivers side was a tight little so and so. A bit of jiggling and gentle persuasion and it came apart. It looks like the rubber boot was not sitting quite right and had allowed water in. Needed a good bit of wet and dry to get the surfaces smooth, then re-grease and reassemble. Swapped the car round to do the nearside and this all went really well Until I got to the upper slide bolt on the nearside rear caliper. Its useable and working but I'd like to source a replacement. Part of the thread has sheared off in the carrier side, which was bloody annoying. Seems bloody hard to find though. Only source at the moment is good old USA if I go new route or seeing a scrappy will separate a part for me....kind of think they might not be too helpful on that route. We'll see. Anyone got any surplus bolts? Its this that I'm after ...the bolt on the right. Anyone ever need to source one in the UK?? Anyhow, its all back together and functioning but I know I need to get it sorted in the near future. While I had all the wheels off I pushed out the centre caps and removed the chrome Lexus logo(2nd time I'd done this). They were silver as the wheels when I had them refurbed last year. I preferred the idea of them being black. So, I cleaned them and cut them back with fine wet and dry (1200) and degreased and left them to dry for a few minutes. Then sprayed them 3 times with 15 mins between coats and left them to dry in the garage. After 30 mins I put them in the sun and left them whilst carrying on with the slide pins. Next i bonded the logos back on (only on the pin part) and then added a blob of hot melt glue to be extra secure. This is how they look now. I'm pleased with the result .... it's exactly what I wanted to achieve. Next thing will be a full set of new shiny wheel nuts and a chromed set of locking nuts.

My long awaited parcel turned up yesterday Heard good things about these products on dark coloured cars. gave the car another going over with the clay mit beforehand Completed one panel at a time as I've never used poorboys products before. i usually would have gone over the car with meguires scratch x beforehand but time was short so a carried on with the glaze and the wax. I have to say that these are the easiest detailing products I have ever used, goes on really easily and comes off with a single wipe, no residue or dust was left even when I was a bit heavy handed with the application! I was amazed how little I used to do the whole car. The black hole glaze gave the paint a nice deep depth. the nattys black wax gave the car a real wet look. In the words of my wife 'wow, I didn't think you could make it any shinier!' Really pleased I gave them a try, will definitely be using there products in the future. not the cheapest but well worth the money, I don't think you'd be disappointed. Pictures don't do the shine justice 😎 Matt

move OUT ;) easy , easy , very easy :)))))

Is it supposed to be representative of anything................ Its a track day with a GT3, a 430 and an Is-f, I don't know anyone that goes to a track day with high end equipment to follow someone around, so the GT3 gets dropped after a lap and the Lexus chases the 430 for a couple of laps, was the guy in the 430 really trying??????? we don't know, was the guy in the isf trying?????? it would certainly appear so, in the end the Lexus passes the Ferrari, does it represent anything? Maybe it represents a light 510bhp car cant hold off a 420bhp car giving away 400kg with a better driver.................................... Who knows, it was posted as an entertaining piece of video.

Referring to your customer base as the C word doesn't sit easy with me in the slightest. It demonstrates a lack of professionalism in front of colleagues plus a general sense of negativity and lack of respect. He needs some suitable advice.

Where do you find all these pictures!?!?!?!?!?

I know it can be an obsession to some but at the recent Cannock meet I saw this on the M6 😂 Big Rat

Fluff ordered.... Doesn't say Rusty exhaust proof, I will need to go to NASA about that.

Indeed, it has a separate mic, was going to try mounting the mic in different places but good shout about the fluff 👍! Alot of YouTube videos, of anything remotely fast, has interference caused by wind. Better not Google 'fluff', but with try something similar.

Just messing about with a few filters.

I am actually surprised as well... merely leaning on the seat will leave some ripples in the leather. It is natural material, it is meant to stretch and be flexible to make your bottom side comfortable. If you that concerned, you can probably wipe with hand to the sides and ripples will be gone, it is not defect of any kind and I am confused of what you want Lexus to do about it. You always have an option to go for BMW or MB stone hard slippery leather, which regardless how you press it won't change and therefore feels very uncomfortable. Lexus uses soft good quality leather and that is actually advantage.

I think people, including myself, were just ribbing you my friend.

I have enjoyed this series so far. I think Chris Evans should have been given more time. The interactions between the presenters is getting better and seems more natural. Chris Harris needs to tone it down a little. I hope they will develop the show and not try to copy Clarkson et al but develop their own style. I agree the camera work is stunning.

Wrong colour! In all seriousness, given that we all have walkie talkies, you could defo talk us through some driving tips.

I have fitted an xcarlink to my LS430, as a result of an article way back on here. It is brilliant and play my iPhone through it. Do not now use the CD player because all my cd's are on my iPhone. Have to say that the sound really is fantastic. It also enables me to Bluetooth my phone so it is now hands free . I am not technically confident, and it does mean removing the fascia to take the radio out. However there are numerous videos on you tube , and very straightforward. If I can do it, anyone can! I am taking the car to Spain in May so will really benefit , enjoying my music in luxury. Rgds, Roger

I'd be happy to help I'm just popping off an email to Lexus for the appropriate car, I've included a picture of my requirements. Bug Rat

@lockeyboy Mark the car is a long term prospect and I just want to try and guard against a few unforeseen eventualities. The wheels on an IsF are corner specific, they are rare and are the thick end of 1600 quid each 😳 I got four off a member on here for just over 500 quid. I suppose if we ever get a winter again they could have a set of winter tyres on them ! Big Rat

@emjay82, you do know that @Big Rat is a bit of a driving god? He really does know his onions re driving.

There's one available at £35,750 with 25k on the clock. Definitely starting to make some of the higher priced ISF's on Auto Trader look like very poor deals. Especially with the GS-F values following the RC-F values down. I'm starting to reconsider my 08/09 ISF plan for this year. I don't actually need the four doors and, by the time I save another £8,000 on top of what I'd planned for the ISF, the RCF should be available for £28k or so. Really want that V8 sooner though :)

I'm a patient chap, it's ok

and more....

Nice car for a 19 year-old! First mod I done to my IS200 was to lower it with Eibach springs. Maybe you could also get a wheel refurb. Looks like a bit of kerb rash on the rear?

I have successfully fitted a new double din head unit while keeping the air con and other top screen control systems operational. I did this by bypassing the amp for sound (done before I know) and stripping down the original head unit to just the PCB needed for the controls for the original environmental and nav controls. This PCB was then plugged in and tucked out of the way behind the new double din... all works well so far...

Its better since clarkson killed it. Old format was about the old 3 bigging thenselves up. New format is more about the cars and it seems to be getting better. Personally i think evans should have been given more of a run yes he shouted a bit but needed to settle in.

Looks good Tom! Let's hope for a few days of sun so it stays that way!

After a few hours cleaning.

Edwardo, are you serious? I would have demanded that the car interior be immediately sanitised, preferably with ozone, after asking the farter or his employers to produce medical testimony that he was not suffering from any intestinal disease more serious than simple flatulence....

54 in body and not a day over 24 in mind

It's not really snapping that's the issue at big mileages (although it can happen) - it's stretching of the chain, along with corresponding wear of the tensioner and the sprockets. That leads to excessive noise. This problem will rear its head more and more with stupid extended service/oil change intervals - the wear is largely caused by ineffective lubrication when the oil gets contaminated. I'll say it again - frequent oil changes! (BTW - IS250s have three chains - the main one which drives the intake camshafts and two small ones, one for each bank, which drive the exhaust camshafts from the intake ones.)

The toyota smart key maker is all over eBay £10-£25. I only used the T300+ OBD2 programmer to view info in the ECU IMMO to clarify 2 new master keys, also got this on eBay £139, the T300+ isn't essential but will be a great help as it gives you ECU fault codes to fix any faults (without trial & error) keeping costs to a minimum

Car: LS400 Mk4, Year: 1999 (T-Reg) I changed the coolant on my LS400 today. I’ve changed coolant many times before but it’s the first time I’ve done it on a LS and it took me quite a bit of time to locate the drain plugs. I checked many different parts of the LS400 service/repair manual and I found it wasn’t very clear where the drain plugs were located so I was looking in the wrong places for too long ! In the end I ended up finding them myself. One thing I liked about this car as far as coolant goes, compared to other cars where I’ve changed coolant, Lexus have placed special drain plugs with small nipples / tubes on the engine so that all of the coolant can be drained. Other cars do have engine bolts for draining coolant, but if the car is more than 4 or 5 years old and you try to open one of these bolts you might end up breaking the bolt since it has seized up, or you get problems trying to seal it back on to the engine block again. What this mean is that you have to make do with draining just the coolant in the radiator. Anyway if there are other MK4 LS400 owners wanting to change their coolant fluid they might find the below information useful (and possibly save themselves from beating around the bush like I did). To avoid confusion when referring to position of components (e.g. driver side or passenger side), the below is for a normal UK right hand drive car. 1.) Open the radiator cap on the reserve tank under the bonnet located towards the driver side. This is obvious to spot. 2.) Remove the engine cover and remove the 10mm bolt on top of the throttle body. This is what it looks like (photo below). You will need a 10mm hex key to open this. Be careful not to drop the gasket into the engine bay when you take the nut off. It is best to open the radiator cap and bolt before you start to drain the system so all the fluid can drain with gravity. FillerBolt 3.) There are now 3 drain plugs you have to open in order to drain all 10 or 11 litres of the fluid. One of these drain plugs is the radiator drain plug actually mounted on the radiator and the other two are mounted on the engine. The drain plug on the radiator is on the driver side end of the radiator. It can be opened from the under the bonnet. When the radiator drain plug is opened, the photo below (take from under the car facing the front) shows the pipe from where the coolant will drain when the plug is opened. Place a container under this pipe. The plug is a normal plastic one and should open without too much force. RadPlug 4.) DRAIN PLUG ON DRIVER SIDE: Next you will need to open the drain plugs on the engine. I was able to access these by getting under the car. One of the engine drain plugs is on the driver side of the engine. To locate it, it might be easier to follow the long black ribbed rubber boot which comes from the driver side wheel hub, and the drain plug can be seen just above it. This is shown on the photo below. In order open this bolt I needed a 10mm socket and a 11 or 12 inch socket extension. Yes that’s right 12 inches. Be warned: the nut is quite far deep inside the cavity than appears on the photo or even when you actually look at if from under the car. (At this point I got stuck because I only had a 3 inch extension for my breaker bar, so I had to phone a friend to buy me another 8 inch extension from Halfords and bring it round.) I combined the 3 inch with the 8 inch extension along with the actual 10mm socket and it just reached and no more. Even with a flexible joint breaker bar which I had there is not much room for manoeuvre. DriverSidePlug Anyway, you might want to attach a piece of hose pipe to the outlet going into a container. I did not remove the 10mm bolt, only enough (a few turns) to let the fluid out of the outlet. 5.) DRAIN PLUG ON PASSENGER SIDE: Now open the drain plug on the passenger side of the engine. It is located in between the cross-member support and the long black ribbed rubber boot which comes from the passenger side wheel hub. This is shown on the photo below. In order open this bolt I needed a 14mm socket, and again, the long socket extension. The access to this bolt has slightly better room for manoeuvre than the driver side. Again, you might want to attach a piece of hose pipe to the outlet going into a container. I did not remove the 14mm bolt, only enough (a few turns) to let the fluid out of the outlet. PassengerSidePlug The fluid took quite a few minutes to drain and towards the ended it trickled out for 5 minutes or so. 6.) You will need enough contains at the three drain points to take 10 or 11 litres of fluid in total. Once the fluid has drained, tighten all the three drain plugs. The radiator drain plug can be hand tightened. The ones on the engine should be torqued to 12.7 Nm. (I just tightened it with the socket and then gave it a slight nip since my half inch drive torque wrench does not go as low as 12.7Nm.). 7.) Make sure you have 11 litres of pre-mixed red Toyota Long Life Coolant. I purchased 11 litres from Toyota. I purchased two 5 litre cans, (part # 08889-80002 for £17.94 each inc. VAT) and a 1 litre bottle (part # 08889-80002 for 4.34 inc. VAT). Start filling in coolant slowly thorough the filler bolt opening on the throttle body until it becomes full. I filled it up slowly so as not to get any air locks. Towards the end you will also see coolant filling up in the radiator tank. Once full, put the 10mm hex bolt back on and tighten to 45Nm torque. 8.) Top up the remainder of the radiator reserve tank through the radiator cap opening until it reaches the full mark and install the radiator cap. 9.) Start the engine and turn the heater temperature (both driver and passenger temperature) to ‘MAX HOT’. By doing this, it will open the heater water valve under the bonnet. Rev the engine at about 2,000 to 2,500 rpm until the engine is warm. Once the coolant starts to circulate and the engine is warm, the coolant level in the radiator tank will drop. Wait for the engine to cool down again and re-fill the tank to the full mark. 10.) Over the next couple of days of driving you might need to top up the radiator tank if the level drops below full. Always remember to check the coolant level when the car is cold for an accurate reading.