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Robert. I am happy to be able to help when I can. To me the forum exists to help each other, and keep the costs of repairs to a reasonable level. I have learned much from the forum, and continue to do so. John

Ok, I feel a little picked on now But seriously, I think I might have misrepresented myself somewhat in my last post, so let me clarify. Paul, I did say that since the warranty company is paying, so if it wasn't free I wouldn't have suggested the dealer replace it. I am certainly of the opinion that you should make an effort to look after your car yourself, wherever possible. In fact, if you browse my old posts, you will see that one of the first things I did to my car was unstick and grease the front calipers when I bought it. Recently, I noticed a neighbours car had a flat tyre and told him so. Looked out of my window a while later to see him struggling to figure out how to get the wheel off; he couldn't figure out which way the wheel nuts turn to undo, and worse, he was trying to undo them with the car jacked up. I went out and showed him how to do it. I just assumed it would be obviously how a wheel is changed and even more so on which way a thread unlocks! I feel that it does help if you have an interest in cars or how things work in general which, unfortunately, excludes most people, who would rather just pay someone else to fix it for them.

Well, the Lexus have been on back burner... I have been busy with other things Like this :)

Hi all, I have been considering a change for some time now from my ISF to an RCF and have been following availability and prices closely. It would seem that due to many owners upgrading to the LC 500 there are quite a few available and Lexus Coventry have a blue one currently that looks to be a nice car with all that i was looking for (ie blue, well its a bit more than that). I have reserved it subject to test drive. The reason for the post is just to say that if anybody knows anybody that is looking for a really nice ISF, then if all goes too plan this week, Coventry will have a lovely blue ISF (2010 with just over 30000 miles and a full Lexus service history) for sale shortly which is a cracking car and I would recommend to anybody. Cheers, Jon.

At 75k I can’t see you having any problems with the battery. They are very reliable and each individual cell can be changed rather than the whole lot. If I had a 75k miles BMW I’d be more worried about the engine or gearbox going. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pffft, I would never speak to him again..............well unless he brought cake, lots of cake, Battenburg would work..................

So another small update, i was hoping to get lots done this weekend as weather forcast was good and i was not working....... well the mrs had other plans and ive ended up decorating all saturday!! I also forgot to bring my tools home from work so today i set about doing something small that i didnt need many tools for. I made a start on relocating the factory engine ecu box up where the battery use to live. It was going to need some chopping and modding to make this work, i trimmed down the old air feed pipe that comes from the fan cowling. Also cut away the old pipe which goes down to by the washer bottle, this was to avoid contact with the brake pipe for the passenger front. I also cut away from 1 of the supports for the bolting positions as this was touching the wiring loom coming out of the bulk head. Now i know it looks rough as a bear's arse but this will be tidied up with a small set of fine files just so it looks tidy. Once this was done i trial fitted it to see if it was ok with the bonnet down. This is the advantage of having no engine or front end on the car i can crawl into the bay 😂. Plenty room, as you can see its resting on that brake line but it will sit around half an inch above this when i have had some brackets fabricated. This now means the factory body loom that goes in through the bottom of ecu box need to be lengthened by around half a meter or so. Ive also been eyeing up where to locate the AEM and the glove box is prime place, its looking difficult though as to where im going to get the loom through the bulk head to it. Its very tight up behind the glove box and around the blower motor.

Yes, with this Tein Street Advance Z (ex Super Street), you can play with height and damping force adjustement, it's very easy to do. And it's ready for use with EDFC (Electronic Dumper Force Controler). The Street Advance is realy good for street use, more hard than oem but confortable for a daily, but not hard enough for track. My new wheels setup is : 8x18 ET30 for rear, ET35 for front with 225/40/18 tires.

The GS450H is one of the rare Lexus and non-German cars getting rave reviews all over the globe Would be weird to get rid of it, even though it's understandable since it isn't popular. Easiest way to fix it would be to lower the price by a couple thousand. As for the sheer raw power, it isn't just a zero to sixty thing. The smoothness of the ride in a 450h cannot be compared to an IS/GS300h IMO. The motor doesn't even need to strain itself and that makes the ride, both audibly and the feeling, better. There's also the fact that if such a heavy car with such acceleration can get 37 mpg, it's damn impressive. It's sad to see how unpopular it is really.

If you have the parking sensors on it then some manufacturers have a switch so you can switch them on or off .. the RX450 I have just bought does but not sure yet if it just switches off the front or back ones ... if the back then it is for when you are towing a caravan or trailer so it does not bleep all the time you put it in reverse when towing.

The only reason screws bugger up in the first place is by not using the correct size screwdriver. Believe me, my sausages are so fat that I can, and often do, easily hit more than one key at a time on any computer keyboard, but it's nothing to do with that. If you have a set of watchmakers or jewellers screwdrivers, just pick the one that looks closest to doing the job and gently try it for location and grip in the screw head - you'll know when you've got the right size. If the screw head still buggers up, a Dremel (or similar tool) with a drill bit the same width as the screw head can be used to gently drill off the head. This will allow the case to be opened and there may just be enough of the screw shaft to grip with pliers to unscrew it, but if not, just drill the shaft out too.

True Dav. I have been looking at them for a while and the right car has never come up. The spec, colour and options on this one would have been how i would have chosen from new which is the only reason i have progressed this now. I certainly wasn’t intended to change at the moment. Still got to drive it yet 🤔

Thanks buddy. I will look out for Dave in that case 😀. If it does happen i would still like to join you all on the next meet so you can have a good look then.

@Mark G Righto Matey where we going have you seen a nice pair at dealers for us both, actually make it 3 Silver for me carbon edition preferably tangerine carbon for @Warrington guy and blue for you I’m guessing or maybe red ? 🐀

Oh no just turned 45k today so I’ve decided to take her to the pub for a celebratory shandy 😇 🐀

.........maybe better to get a new car whilst 'poor me' & 'poor spacewagon52' struggle on opening our doors with the flaming key & all that entails

Bloodyhell that needs a build thread of its own! Nice new home for the lexus

That does seem very expensive. Be aware that as soon as you drive away its just cost you at least £6k. Plus you will probably just have a 12 months warranty. I would consider paying £9k at a non Lexus garage then getting a 2 year Lexus warranty for £1k. But if it's the 100% car for you and at the spec you want go for it.

I think that's a lot for that ,Lexus offered me £6500 for mine 53k 2006 and would have put a couple on top when on forecourt so for 3 years newer and a bit more miles seems a lot.

New wheels

Just drill it out and use a small self-tapper to close the case after replacing the battery - two minutes of a job and Robert is your mother's brother.

Yes, that's fair IF you got a warranty that's gonna cover it but I personally have never subscribed to paid for warranties and when it comes to repairs I am very reticent to 'get someone in' ( apart from anything to do with mains gas installations!). I have over the years fixed countless domestic appliances and have always maintained my ( and rest of families) vehicles. Upto purchasing my current 250 I have never bought a car that had Less than 100,000 miles on the clock and needless to say they all needed some kind of work along the way if not just for MOT's and as I have never sold a car ( keep them until they fall apart ie silly money to get through a MOT) the continuation of the full Lexus service history I got with this 250 is prob not going to be continued, but the maintaince is going to be done by me and I will have the self satisfaction of really knowing the history of the work. Hopefully this one is going to take some serious time before it starts to 'fall apart' ( if I got anything to do with it anyway!) gotta say I do find it quite funny/annoying/frustrating when I come across people (read drivers) who don't have a single clue of what is going on under the bonnet of the thing they rely on so very much everyday. While I accept that it takes all sorts to make the world go round and it may be beyond the realms of some then I guess that it is these types that keep the likes of Kwik Rip and Halfrauds in Business! That Was a Rant and now it's over......I'll get me coat and be gone in a mo. paul m.

Think a 24hr test drive is needed, only real way to know u can live with one, lovely cars as are all the F’s 👍👍

@Jon_B If it happens Jon be sorry to see you go, personally for those in the know about ‘F’ cars and you are obviously in that small select 😊 group it’s just natural progression. Now if you find yourself jostling in the dealership with a northern bloke trying to part x his white is-F that’ll be @Warrington guy Dave 😂. Remember if you do it..... pictures pictures 👍 🐀

As a post I just put up against Shahpor's caliper post Checking all the components when you have the wheel off is a no brainer - when for example I do the re-greasing (a bit off topic) of the calliper pins I will check all the components and give them a clean to make sure there are no issues. Once they are cleaned I will put a squirt of WD40 in all of the components that move (obvious ones excluded) - things like the ball joint rubbers / suspension bushes - for no other reason, good or bad) that its something I have done for years now with no issue (it may have been something my dad showed me when I was helping him with his car ... don't know?) I would suggest you could do the same to yours - oil the rubbers, bushes etc, in the arches - if it disappears then you know there is possibly an issue with one and narrow it down from there. I have also heard that while the shocks are ok (something along the lines of what Rayaan said above that the inner shocks can cause a squeak. I have seen this on a few other posts against Lexus. If oiling them, remember to do the top mounts and use a WD40 can with the straw attachment as it makes the job a lot easier and cleaner.

Thanks John. The manifold was on tight, way more than 13ft lb, I struggled to undo the deep recessed Allen bolt near firewall, as had to us a long Allen key coupled with a spanner for leverage, as long Allen bit in socket adapter wasn't long enough. They were well over torqued! I'll undo and redo correctly today and see if helps. Thanks, again, your a true font of knowledge of John!

I’m starting to improve my MPG on my CT200H. I use brim to brim filling to ensure accuracy on the readings. Most of my motoring in town and commuting to work with the occasional longer trip. Last fill up was 51.7 mpg. The average mpg read out on the car says 49.8 so it’s pretty accurate. On another topic, I do like the 2018 facelifted models. If I feel up to leasing a new car I may change in 2020 when I have paid for my current F-Sport. (If the CT200H is still on sale of course, if not then a low mileage used model should do the trick. That should see me up to retirement in just under 7 years. (I will still work on if able to for a bit)

Just to correct a mistake in my first reply the dashboard screen does NOT connect to the DVD player. Nor does the sound transmit over the car speakers. My car is a 2007 model. Yes there are covers for the headrest monitors. One does not realise that there is anything beneath them and I always surprise people when I take them off. Both screens show same content. There is a remote control that comes with the DVD player. I believe that the headphones come with a built in frequency, but now that you have mentioned it I will check and see if the can be fine tuned to reduce the hiss. There are no sockets on the screens. There are however loose connectors housed in one of the pockets at the back of the front seats that may be used to connect other devices to the DVD/monitors system.

Inlet manifold bolts are 13 ft/lbs. I would not bother altering the spark plug settings. John

If it sounds louder and less power did you tighten up the inlet manifold properly? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Correct spark plug torque is 18 nm or 13 ft/lbs. John

@Warrington guy I'm p.....d sat here watching A bridge too far...... Mrs Rat told me to do something constructive and stop shouting at the telly....... 🤗 🐀

"I have not tried GS300h but it must be extremely annoying machine " It does amaze me when someone can say something is awful without even trying it! I find the GS300h more than adequately powered, especially in S and S+ modes. I thought I'd miss the mid range torque of my previous IS220d but not at all. More than enough power for overtaking and pulling away from tailgaters.

Decided to have a quick tidy up in the car. On the odd occasion my Mrs is allowed to sit in the passenger seat. Today, whilst cleaning, I discovered this hidden in the passenger door pocket!!!!! Crisp & sweet wrappers! I’m not impressed!!!! Hmmmm.... thinking about this, the last person to sit in the left hand seat was @Big Rat!!!!