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For anyone who might fancy sticking on a bike rack to the rear of their LS I can definitely recommend the Saris Bones rack. The rack is well made, tough yet very light. I attached it easily to my LS and put on two 29" MTBs. I came down to Sennen, Cornwall on Saturday from Sheffield and the bikes were stable and I felt confident driving up to 80 mph. (max recommended speed for the rack) I removed the pedals and put bubble wrap on the forks of one bike and I can happily report that the boot suffered no marking form the six straps that attach to the lid. In fact I thought the car looked pretty cool with them on the back. What does amaze me though is that I didn't see another LS on the entire journey. Certainly very rare cars. Nick

Called at a car meet yesterday and spotted this beauty. Can't be many around

Update. Lexus replaced both rear shocks today at no cost. Had a brand new NX 300h premier as a courtesy car. Was disappointed with that in comparison to the GS!

Hi. I'm not really a new member, but I have been absent for a couple of years since selling my IS300 SportCross and buying an Audi. But I'm back with Lexus again after picking up my new (to me) RX450h yesterday. Today's task has been to figure out how it all works, a job which I am making progress with but there's a lot to learn! I know how much everyone likes pictures, but it was raining when I got the car home yesterday, so here's a few from this morning, along with its stablemate from the opposite end of the Toyota catalogue.

No - that's £795 fitted for the pair. It's £595 for a pair of front ones, hence me thinking it might be cheaper. Also work joining the Lexus Owners Club to get your card just for that discount alone! I have saved £308 over the last year using all my discounts!

Never used any temp gauges for that so I can't relate to specific numbers. What I would say is If you can smell the heat of the hub ...it's too hot If you can't touch it (be very careful doing this) without fear of burning ... it's too hot If the disc looks slightly blue coloured and darker, certainly not silver like normal .... its too hot. I noticed one of the wheels of my wife's Mx5 had a much darker disc a few weeks back. Looking closer I could smell it was hot. Once it had cooled down I jacked the car up and took the wheel off for a looksee. Caliper pin was sticking so the pads were not releasing properly. Removed the offending slide pin and cleaned out the bore, regreased with the correct grease and reassembled. All is fine again now. That weekend I removed all the wheels and overhauled all the slide pins on.

I bet it would frighten his guide dog though....

Wheel woolies have arrived today, they look very good, will get chance to try them out this weekend hopefully!

The above points are true, but to be honest I don't think it matters. The problem here is that on some marketing material Lexus called something stainless steel specifically implying it will be more robust when exposed to elements, which is not the case and outright lie. I personally don't think that reduces the value of the vehicles or impacts experience in any way. Reliability, of mk 2 IS250 auto (specifically not manual and not diesel) is second to none (ok maybe mk1 LS400)... and mild steel exhaust last over 8-10 years and well over 100k miles, which is approximately just above average for ICE cars. So it is bit mixed message - Lexus lied in their marketing material ... shame on them, yet does it really matter, does it make car worse than peers in segment - definitely not.

@Big Rat That's an impressive watch you are keeping on the market there......

Hello from what I found out my sat nav is generation 1 which means it won't update to the most current software 2017 anyway. I'm just leaving it for the meantime unless an update disk pops up at the right price. I did try a copy disk but it made the whole nav system really slow so I couldn't use it. Now brace yourself for an essay- With regards to the CD player. No mine didn't have aux it is the mark levison system, but I have an update. After I changed the broken one in the car for the one off eBay which seemingly worked fine after 2 weeks it also began to say Error 4 which was strange so I sent it back for a refund and replaced it with my original system. I looked into it further and found that the error 4 message is the sign of a mechanical failure in the disk changer itself. So I tried the trick posted on the forum of holding the radio power button and the eject button at the sae time as turning the key. And hey presto it made some funny noises then opened the load disk :) then I loaded a disk and it works lol. My theory is if it's a fault in the multi changer then if I only use one disk at a time it will be ok and I haven't had any trouble since (fingers crossed)

Hi Lee Your car looks amazing; definitely doesn't look 9 years old. I'm in Nottingham too. Can you PM me approx. cost too (do they do interiors too? Also where did you get the spray attachment? Looks a lot better than the standard one that came with my power washer. Cheers Geoff

I've had 3 ls400's, 2 ls430, 2 Gs300 mk3, 1 Gs430 mk2, and now I drive an sc430, but I can still say, the Lexus ls400 is the best and the most reliable car ever made

I love this car it's so smooth to drive. Thanks for your help sorcerer, I'm going to France on Saturday so the car will get its first proper trip. I'm expecting to be at fuel stations a lot with averaging 20mpg around town lol. But I love it I raised the suspension only a bit it was the front passenger coilover that was 3 cm low. Much better now. This forum is great dibble it gives a wealth of advice and support from fellow owners. :) glad it helped you too x

After putting another couple of hundred miles on the exhaust I can now confirm a definite improvement in economy of around 5%. This is something I had not contemplated as a result of changing the exhaust, but I am more than pleased with the result. John.

More pictures I'm afraid...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-navara-d22-Lexus-4-0-v8-2wd/222609025021?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D45732%26meid%3D4818652d47b24fdf97f1d28a11f3fb2e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D232442489659&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 Tempting if you need space?

Good outcome. Keep a close eye on the fronts just in case you never know. John

Before we had our RX300 converted to LPG, the best I managed out of it was about 20 around town with about 26 on a run - and I'm no Sterling Moss (or Lewis Hamilton for the young 'uns). Hybrids are great for lots of stop/start and town driving up to about 30mph where the traction battery tends to do most of the work in 'milk float mode', but once you get much above that they just become ordinary petrol-driven cars that have to lug the weight of a huge battery around. You'll see from my sig that I use fuelly.com to keep track of mileage (more as a novelty than any serious use) and I must confess that I haven't updated it in a while but I'll get round to it in the next couple of days. In the meantime, below are three screen grabs that I did a few months ago. The great thing about Fuelly is that you can compare your own car to others but I must point out that because fuel prices vary around the country the figures are of very limited value. To get anywhere near a true figure I'd need people living in the same area as myself to compare with so that we know we're paying the same prices for fuel but as yet I've not found anyone, so take these figures with a pinch of salt - but you'll get the point. Most expensive is a petrol-only RX300 at 22.5p/mile, then an RX400h at 19.6p/mile and finally, my LPG RX300 at just 12.6p/mile:

Thanks Lee It looks good I'll give them a call before the winter sets in to get the car protected.

Strangely, almost all of my cars have had a sunroof including the RX300 that I have now, but I can never understand either their attraction or why manufacturers put them in cars with aircon/climate control. Nothing better than setting the cabin temp to what I want and letting the climate control see to it; far, far better than a sunroof in my humble opinion - especially as the sunroof tends to mess with my hair

Pads and discs fitted. I'm extremely happy with the fit and quality. I know some cheaper pads come with a terrible paint finish or the back plate is out of shape and need a bit of filing to get them to fit nicely in the calliper, but these were lovely. Time will tell how they fair. The kit seems well worth the low price at the moment.

I needed an UCA a few years ago, Lexus RRP was nearly £500.00, the same part from Nippon was £120.00 was genuine in original factory wrapping so yes I can vouch for them.

Cycle Carrier Boards, did not realise they are as cheap as chips (not too solid in engineering terms). £20 from Halfords - 2m cable £18 from Screwfix - 4m cable plus cost of number plate

try telling that to your insurance company when they decide to write your car off for a dented wing or door mirror ! These are fabulous cars but true value rests at the auction and insurers decisions on economic repair ...... and it just doesn't wash with them and the values are still on the floor ... Ferraris they ain't and what's great value to us afficionados is limited to ................... just US Malc

Its from Nippon AutoSpares in Derby. They do have an ebay listing but I contacted direct for the prices. If anyone has experience of these it will be good to know! It was the Lexus dealer who identified the shocks need replacing and then warranty rejected claim. Dealer was only going to replace one on each axle. I had a rear one replaced (under warranty) 8 months ago so I guess dealer/Lexus must be relaxed about not replacing in pairs...

They are good prices for the adjustable dampers, were the listings available online? I see you refer to 1 damper needed replacing per axle but shouldn't dampers be replaced in pairs, across the affected axle(s).

First mod. Yay! Yellow... Not yellow... Now just to get some of those washer nozzles that light up and a boot sub that will surely kill me in an accident and I'm sorted

Hi Neil, DAB in my area is far better than FM, but i wanted to listen to stations that were not on FM in my area like LBC. The signal does not drop out and the quality is excellent

Hi Nicky have tried yr hack and it seems to have cleared my error 4 message even though i had no more discs in and its now operating normally! I got brave and tried 2 discs, it worked fine too! Still need to try on a long journey and see how it works once it gets hot but so far so good. Thanks for passing that on and thanks to whoever posted it originally! Now to sort this sat nav.......

Back to Tim's original query: you mention 09-15 RX.... I would recommend that you go for the facelifted model that came out in 2012. Better specc'ed, a little more fuel efficient. easy to pick out... it has DRLs whereas the 09-11 model does not.

If they are the correct parts that is an extremely good price. The cheapest I have been able to find front or rears have been £100 more than the prices quoted. The non hybrid GS shocks however are at the price levels quoted so beware that they are the correct parts. The difference is that the GS450H shocks are adjustable on the road. The adjustment is via a rod accessest through a hole in the top of the threaded section of the shocks. John.

Looks like the old Toyota Camrys ? I remember my uncle had a V6 GXI one

Try IPA on wipers first.

I wonder if the same would be said on a German car forum!

looks dopey money to me tbh Malc

I have had a Saris Bones for about 12 years, but only just got around to using on my LS, once set up takes about 5 mins to fit and remove. Have had 3 MTB on the rack, and solid as they come. Only thing I need to do is get a plate/light bar to put on, as I have tow bar electrics, and probably blocking the brake lights a little too much, but so far only used the rack to carry a few miles at a time. This rack works well becuase the back bumper is darned solid and deep, where as on my Omega of old, it never felt quite so stable. Agree that it adds a certain look of menace to the back of the car without adding the length problems with a bike rack mounted on the tow bar ball. One thing to be careful of is the pedals catching the metal work, and I like the idea of bubble-wrap, will use that next time to be safe.

@ThebigC Charlie the White London car, spoke with garage owner on behalf of another member who was interested in it, he to lives a long way off. The car is virtually one owner from new apart from someone who but it for 3 months and then had a change of circumstances, they sold it to him and then took it back in. More than that I don't know. Yes the USB car was nice, the Silver one in Jersey looks a beauty but a heck of a journey to say the least but I know for a fact there is a deal to be had on it, there is a thread running on it in the Jap section of Pistonheads as well as the member on here occasionally. Give him a shout and see you never know 😉 Big Rat

well, I'm pleased they stopped wittering on about the exhaust being welded as an Advisory ! Quite surprised that it actually failed on some rust areas, in such a young car and low miles too .... but hey, there we are ......... must be just unlucky I guess OTHER THAN maybe a giveaway was the lacquer peeling on the door mirror .......... perhaps a sign of some badly repaired earlier more serious damage at some time.... and rust now rampaging through the beast Malc

Hey Nicky, you've not been here for a while so just curious - how's the car doing and are you enjoying it?

Car and coffe wirrall.it on once a month, always a great turn out . And we'll run

Very useful & usable post, I have no probs with my LS400 or any of the others I had but I often wonder what I would do after this one (maybe I'll be buried) it always helps to read someone who can compare these cars

Couldn't agree more. How do you find the SC430? A friend of mine is in the market for one and after another member kindly took the time to give him a spin he's smitten!

Im not so bothered about when they say they don't know but they should at least offer to find out and let the customer know. Back in the days, the salesmen were extremely good at their job and knew their products inside out - it seems nowadays, salesmen just go to the brand that's giving them the most pennies and hence seem to change jobs every 6 months

The merits and de-merits, the latter mainly economic, of ML audio have been debated as long as LOC Forums have existed without, as far as I can see, anything like a general consensus of opinion having emerged. As for me, my RC is my first Lexus without ML, which, on the basis of tried and trusted performance, I would have preferred had its availability not involved a wait of 4-5 months against immediate delivery of an F-Sport with the 10-speaker system as standard. While I have learned to live with the latter system, and consider its quality perfectly acceptable (so much so that I am faintly ashamed to be focusing on such a typically First-World issue), I would still objectively have preferred the ML. What I would not have tolerated, on the other hand, and would have put up with any length of waiting-list to avoid it, is the 6-speaker system, whose tinniness I experienced in a CT loaner and which would certainly once not have been considered worthy of Lexus, let alone of any of its higher models.

Everything from the resonator (including the resonator) back was replaced - the y piece pipe was not that hard as I had the old one to use as a template but must admit that was where I had the persistent exhaust leak but eventually found and welded it shut. Picture is of the Rover box used and the finished look on the car.

Lexus NX300h Luxury - Petrol/Hybrid. Style. ***** Interior and Comfort. ***** Practicality and boot space. ***** Engines, and performance. **** Ride **** MPG. *** Reliability. ***** Verdict. ***** Style. The NX is the best looking SUV on the market right now, in my opinion. Although not all would agree with that statement as it is too much for some, but I think it looks stunning. Interior and Comfort. The interior is one of the best in its class. The leather seats are superb; in fact they are the best seats I have ever sat in, I wish I had them in my lounge. The driving position is easy to get right. The cabin is well laid out and in general it's a very nice place to be. Practicality and boot space. Compared to others in this class, the NX may be slightly smaller,but not by much. That is because it has a spare wheel! Yes, it is true, a car with a spare wheel, something of a rarity these days. The rear shelf is easily taken down and there is a space to store it away just above where the spare wheel is, a nice touch that. The seats easily fold down and the loading space is flat. The back seat legroom is good, so is headroom. The back doors open nice and wide, making it easy to get in and out, it is also easy to get young children in and out of child seats. Engines, and performance. In my opinion the 2.5 Petrol/Hybrid engine copes well on our UK roads. However, compared to a normal petrol car with a turbo, or a diesel, some may feel it lacks power. I don't find this, but maybe it is because my previous car was also a hybrid, so I am used to the power provided. There are three driving modes to choose from. 'Normal' is what I use mostly and I find it is not lacking. In fact compared to my old CT, it appears to have slightly more pulling power. Even the 'Eco' mode seems better, as I found the CT 'Eco' mode made the car a bit sluggish. I do get slightly better MPG when I use 'Eco', but it is so minimal I rarely use it. The 'Sport' mode makes the car slightly more responsive. I used 'Sport' mode quite a bit in my old CT, mainly to give better acceleration when overtaking, but I find in the NX it copes well enough in 'Normal' mode so have not used it as much. I understand that when fully loaded the 'Sport' mode helps the car on steep hills and when overtaking. As I have not had it fully loaded yet I have not tried this out. Ride. This is the one area I was disappointed in on the CT. Lexus gave the CT a sporty ride, which means it is quite firm. Some like this, others, myself included, did not. So I made sure the NX had a softer ride, it does. It is fair to say it is not the softest riding SUV, the Range Rover Discovery Sport is softer, but it also has a lot of body roll, which the NX does not have. If I was being really picky, I would say it could be softer, but I think the ride/body roll balance is not far off the mark, about the same as the BMW X3 and the Audi Q3. MPG. The official government figures published by Lexus and used in all the advertising states this car achieves 54.3mpg. This is not possible in real world driving. My average is about 34mpg, so well down on the official figures. On some long journeys I can reach the high 30's but on short trips to the shops etc it barely reaches 30mpg . This is still not bad for a car of this size and comparable to diesels on short journeys but lower than diesels on long journeys. I knew the real world figure would be mid 30's so it was not a big issue for me. Reliability. In my four and a half year ownership, covering 40k miles, I never had a need to take my CT back for any fault. Says it all really. Lexus dealerships are the best. I expect no difference for the NX Optional Extras I added the following: Protection pack - The rubber mats are very nice, especially in the winter months. The rubber boot mat and net is also very useful. Not sure if I like the mud flaps, but I am sure they help keep the car clean. Illuminated Scuff Plates - A bit pricey, but I must admit they do look nice, so I am glad I had them fitted. Panoramic Roof - You loose the roof rails, but as I would never use them it was not a problem. The interior is nice and light, even on a dull day. I understand some say the it can make the car noisier, but I have not found this. Passengers in the back seats love it, my grandson especially thinks it is great. 'It's like having a convertible without the wind' a passenger said. Sat Nav - Very overpriced, but I had it anyway. I have not used it much, but it seems to work well enough, albeit a bit complex to work. There is no way to turn off the voice easily without going back to the menu, which is daft. Convenience Pack - Power Tailgate, lazy but nice. Smartphone charger, only works well with some smartphones (not Apple iphones), so a bit of a gimmick really. Other Positives. I like the way the fog lights come on when cornering slowly, it illuminates where you are going, very handy. Reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors. A 'must have' in a car this size. Excellent. Smart entry is really nice. Adaptive Cruse Control is wonderful, not used much, but very useful on long motorway journeys. Electric Parking Brake and 'hold' button. Both are brilliant. Other Negatives. The bottoms of the doors (inside) get very dirty, especially the back doors which seem to attract the dirt/mud/leaves. I've never had this in a car before, so it needs regular cleaning. I think it must be a design fault. Hard to reach when cleaning the roof. Verdict. So far this car has been a dream to own. I love it, so does my wife. I look forward to driving it, which says it all really. I was concerned after reading various reviews, but I need not have been worried, as the NX does everything so well and in style. Only 2000 miles covered so far, which is not much, but I know the NX will serve us well for many years to come. I can't help but look back to it as I walk away. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I doubt I would find anything better than an NX. It does everything I want it to, drives well and looks stunning.

Lots of questions will spawn lots of replies! Here's a few starters for Ten: What to look for: Full Lexus dealer service history is a must. Most newer, lower miles examples ought really to be fully dealer serviced from new as most owners tend to run with franchised dealerships for models up to 10 years old in order to benefit from the warranty. Best holding out for one of these; Check a few known issues as listed below: Rear subframe and rear suspension mounts for signs of rust. Expensive to replace. Avoid buying anything having lived near the coast. Fuel filler pipe, located behind the arch liner connecting main filler pipe to tank....these can rust and are very expensive to replace; Suspension...big heavy vehicles can be sore on bushes, shock absorbers and joints. Check these are all ok; Check waterpump (obvious signs of leaking from pulley bearing spells trouble). These can fail and are not especially cheap to replace on these. Battery....check when the vehicle had it's last hybrid health check. They are generally pretty reliable and individual cells can easily be replaced either via careful DIY or via specialist hybrid mechanics much cheaper than going to Lexus. Hybrid batteries seem generally to be good for at least 10 to 15 years. Inverters rarely seem to give problems unless the cooling vents beneath the rear seats have been blocked. It's easy to check. Simply start the vehicle and check battery state. If low, a quick spin for 15 to 20 minutes ought to have the batteries almost completely charged. When you put your foot down, you should get electric motors kicking in with main engine (check display). There'd be a warning light on or a fault code thrown if not. Always a good idea to beg, borrow or buy a code reader, as these can reveal a lot that the naked eye cannot detect and tell you of any current or historical issues; Brakes don't get a hammering on these due to the recovery system aiding breaking and most drivers of these seem to be of the more mature variety but worth checking disc condition and asking when the last full brake service was carried out; Check all electrics actually work and that menu system works. Anything broken here can be expensive to fix. Check headlamps. Xenons are not cheap. Any signs of flickering on the main bulb is a bulb ob its way out. These can be around £80 each to replace. Check steering rack for knocking sounds, best done on a ramp. These are electro-mechanical and a new rack (for the 3Rx at any rate) costs £1200 to replace. There've been reports of premature wear on these for the 3RX face-lift model, but unsure if the 2RX and older 3RX are the same. Check wheel alignment and tyre wear. Check exhaust and cat for signs of rust or leakage on older models Again, not a cheap part to replace. Other than that, they're pretty sound. Personally, I'd avoid the air suspension models. Old compressors have been known to fail and are very expensive to replace when they do go as are the air struts themselves. These models are also a bit heavier. You'll be fine for towing with one of these. They make ideal towing vehicles BUT expect a large hit on fuel economy if you do, possibly low 20's to the gallon if towing a heavy boat. Real world economy...well it depends on where most of your driving is done. Flattish A-roads with few stop-starts and high 30's are possible. Motorway at 70mph only yields 32mpg for mine. If you push on a bit harder, without taking the mickey and driving at 3 figure speeds, expect no more than mid to high 20's. We've just returned from a few weeks away in Cornwall, fully loaded up, and including local very hilly small roads and some urban crawling as well as hundreds of m-way miles saw only 27mpg average. Driving ultra cautiously and within speed limits and I can get this nudged up to 33mpg but that seems to be about your lot. Claims of 40+ mpg on a 3RX, frankly, I don't believe. I know a few people with these, my mate having had a 2010 SEL and his long term average was 31mpg, mixed driving. That seems about right to me.

Here it is in pdf form if that's easier ... sorry wasn't thinking, 1st one was in Word document. Headlight and Bumper removal.pdf

I used to get so fed up with this back when i owned coupes that I'd park on the outer edges of the car parks at an angle across 2 spaces, preferably on the end of a row just so I could get back into my car. To this day I prefer to park on the edge of car parks and enjoy a bit of exercise (although no longer take up two spaces as I have a 5 door rx ) rather than risk door dings and difficult access.