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Hello GS-F Well I have done it, I have been torn for a few months now, do I want to change the IS-F and if so do I go for an RC-F or the GS-F, no other brand was in the frame, anyway I took a trip to Lexus Cheltenham on Saturday to look at a GS-F they had in stock, I know the history of the car and they put together what I think is a good deal, so its now sat on the drive. I know its clichéd but I found it very difficult to let the IS-F go, on the way to drop it of I was reminiscing about the trips I had done in it, the runs out with some of you guys and blasts across Europe, it really is an epic car and the GS-F will have its work cut out to match it. There was no one particular reason why I changed it was a number of things and to me the GS-F was always a natural progression. One last thing, I wont be going over to the GS forum, I am staying here, you will have to put up with me a while longer. The colour...................do you really need to ask.........................

I’m of the opinion that consideration should be given by the powers that be that the forum could be ‘F’ ISF/RCF/GSF. Just a thought what do others think ? Big Rat

Well I was going to keep it quiet until weekend but I think you have worked it out anyway as nothing gets past you!!!!!!!!! Its mine, I chopped it in for the blue GS-F

@mike m Yeah your right only messing, find memories of that car , a GSF in that colour I’m not so sure, a Carbon RCF in it looks good. Im guessing it’s Blue one for you when the time comes, I’m thinking Metallic Grey is something I’d consider. The fact remains though there will probably never be huge choice ! Big Rat

@mike m Oi nowt wrong with Orange here's my last Orange car from back in my youth, SWS 492 S where are you 🤗 Big Rat

They aren’t? Heavier than ours with the same engine, just tweaked to produce more horsepower. I’d honestly be surprised if either an RC-F or a GS-F could out perform a bpu spec’d IS-F. As for a supercharged IS-F, no chance! I know that’s not a fair comparison, but I probably have spent GS-F money on my car, so pound for pound, it’s fair. Just don’t get the way manufacturers keep adding weight to their performance models. It’s like the Skyline GTR. R32 was a total animal. Still high tech for its time (first seen in 1989 I believe), but destroyed everything it raced. R33 came along, bigger, heavier and the RB26 was tuned to give the same horses as the R32. Next, R34, bigger, heavier and even more factory tuning to match the R32 output. Not only are the R32 blocks stronger, the tuning makes much better gains, as it’s not stressed as much to start with. Porsche get it. You buy a GT3/4 etc, no carpet, manual windows etc etc. I’m not saying I want a stripped out Lexus, but a true performance model would be a nice addition. Sure, I’ve proven you can modify one to release true performance car potential, but why not get it right at production level?! They’ve done it once (LF-A), but times have changed, and materials like carbon fibre, titanium are more common now. Just hoping the LC-F delivers the goods.

The Lexus Paradox - people are drawn to the brand, in part at least, because of their legendary reputation for reliability and then they spend hundreds, if not thousands, on warranties because they worry about the reliability Remember that a Lexus warranty requires you to have the car serviced at Lexus dealers at Lexus prices (I think it does anyway, but stand to be corrected if not) so you'll end up paying more than that £995 in the end. I suppose it depends on how much value is left in the car. My 2005 RX300 is too old to qualify for a warranty anyway, but it's also too old to buy brand new parts for unless I really have to. If it needs a new mirror (as per Les's example above) I'd get one from a breakers yard or eBay rather than pay Lexus prices.

I don’t know who would pay that amount of money for this shaft. Seriously overpriced when you look at the US price for it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations Mark & let us know your impressions when you have lived with it a while compared with the ISF 👍🏻 I’m sure the sadness at parting with the IS will probably short lived 😉

Hope you enjoy the GSF. I've definitely got one on the maybe list for the future. Got to concentrate on buying and owning an ISF first!

I will upload them later today :) Thanks

Absolutely stunning car, for me this with red leather or blue with black leather is the car to go for, hence when mine came up and the deal and time seems right then I go for it.

It is a big chuck above what I'd want to pay mate. I'd have to go down the PCP route, which isn't such a bad thing if it wasn't for the large APR figures for used cars [if I understand it right]?!

I was thinking the same thing few times! That would make a lot of sense as currently IS-F forum is kind of exception, based on current forum logic IS-F, IS mk 1, 2 and 3 should all be in same model sub-forum. Now that would not be great as there are more in common between GS/RC/IS-F than say between IS220d and IS-F or RC300h and RC-F. The only other way of doing it would be to have sub-forum for Lexus "F marque" as per your suggestion, that is as well the way Lexus sees it - they do not include GS-F and RC-F as part of GS or RC families on their page, but instead gave separate page.

Congratulations Mark, you must be very pleased. I’m sure the sadness of letting the ISF go will ease over time. Lovely looking car. On my wish list one day. matt

@mike m Yep White last one I had for an extended test drive was white - nice 👍 And here she is 😊 🐀

Good shout, should boost activity, with such low numbers the individual forums will no doubt struggle. I'm not sure the RCF and GSF drivers would want to deal with amounts of off topic content from certain members 🤔 😂

Well, folk will know I had one of these for 7 years......Left-field (whatever THAT is? Some amurrican term?) i.e quirky, is fine with me.......

Congratulations mark.rearly looking forward to seeing it . Was it hard letting the isf go ? I sused it out this morning . A major component change.

My list is pretty short but I decided to share it anyway. It will include my cars + cars to which I have access to (family etc.) Hyundai Coupe FX 2.0, manual, year 1999 ( my first car, bought it 4 years old, I still have it as a summer holiday car. Brilliant car, economic and had nice spec at that time, very very reliable and nippy) Pontiac Firebird 2.8 V6, manual, year 1988 ( I call it KITT for obvious reasons, it is a classic and we still keep it in the family. It will stay with us forever :)) Mitsubishi 3000GT, manual, year 1998 (Black Japanese beast, bought it from a friend who bought it brand new when it was 6 years old. Very fast, it is one of these cars that has a soul . We still keep it in the family it has 70k miles on it, nothing went wrong with this car ever, it has never seen rain/winter) Deawoo Matiz, manual, year 1999 ( bought it when I got my first job as a daily driver , the worst car ever in terms of reliability but very cheap to repair/run, rust ate it completely ;-)) Status: DEAD) Pontiac Trans Am GT 5.7 V8 LT1, automatic, 1994 ( another classic muscle car. Only 40k miles on it, very rare in Europe. I will never sell it . It is my baby) Hyundai Sonta 2.7 V6 , automatic, 2005 (US version) (parents' ride... very comfy car and reliable, this is the only car which is as comfortable as Lexus. I love it , especially for a long distance driving) Hyundai Coupe Siii, 2.0, manual 2007 (my daily driver in the UK, loved the car and unfortunately it was written off because some idiot crashed into me :-(( ) Hyundai Coupe Siii, 2.0, manual 2008 (at the moment it is my daily driver. I had it for over 1.5 years. I think that it has the looks, it has the specs (leather etc). Very reliable - touchwood, economical. Ideal for cruising. Love it! It could be faster though, 0-60 in 9sec does not match the looks of the car. Anyway I will keep it as long as I can :) ) and finally... Lexus RX300, automatic, 2005 ( bought just recently to experience how it is to drive a luxurious comfy car, so far I am pleased). What will be next?? I am in love in Honda Type R (2015 or 2017 models) as well as new Lexus RX. We will see in 5-7 years :)

Yes I did, went in on Saturday to take a look and did the deal there and then, picked it up on Monday.

I think as long as you don't touch it when it's moving, it should be fine...

On the GS there is plenty of space for the oil bottle. If you look down between the front grill, and rads you will see lots of space. Further the oil filter, and oil pressure switch are mounted just in front of the bottom pulley at the bottom of this space. So the take off point for the oil bottle "the oil pressure switch" could not be better positioned. The switch is removed, and replaced with a "T" piece. One outlet on the "T" is used for the pressure switch, and the other for the feed hose. The hose is connected to the solenoid that is in turn connected directly to the bottom of the bottle. I worked in northern Sweden for a while, and yes it was cold. I also worked in Canada where it was even colder. The cars there had a heater in the oil sump to stop the oil turning to jelly. A block heater could be made from a towel rail heater available from B&Q in various wattage's. For the V6 engine you would need the highest wattage version. John.

did they take it from wheel or fly/wheel365 bhp is pretty much bang on at wheel

Thanks for posting this as never seen it before. Most complete technical run down I’ve seen - brilliant👍🏻

The only thing that I would be concerned about is that it's coming from a car crash body shop so has it been involved in an accident? I would definitely do an HPI on the car.

Not really. Its more a case of less incentive to buy any other car as well unless its an EV. And the papers are blaming lower September car sales on Brexit when its actually the tax going up by a chunk for plenty of cars and loads of owners buying just before the tax change so no need for them to change for another few years

I wouldn't use tar remover to be perfectly honest. Reason being is that they also double up as glue removers so there is a high chance it'll seep underneath and cause the edges to roll over. Additionally, being PPF, I wouldn't use a tar remover anyway as they aren't designed to be used on plastic so would imagine that it may stain the PPF itself. You shouldn't get any dullness of the paint unless its already in very bad shape to begin with. To remove the PPF, I did one side by heating the entire PPF with a hairdryer. Worst decision I ever made as it left loads of glue behind which took the mick to remove. The other side, I heated a corner with a hairdryer and then just pulled it. It comes off really easy without heating the glue up, you just need a good corner section to hold onto.

Thanks for the reply boys, now when I got the car I needed a new oil cooler rad and new filler neck to fuel tank which cost the dealer £1600 and a new rear coil spring fixed at Halfords £250 under dealer 3 month warranty I got with the car. So by slackbladders advice I suppose it's money well spent. On the service front I paid £400 for essential service in February. So food for thought.

I think it's worth mentioning the eBay system. I've bought and sold cars through eBay along with plenty of other stuff too and I'm not going to say that it's impossible to be scammed because it isn't. However, the guy selling this car has completed 351 transactions and has a 100% positive feedback score, so I reckon that there's no more risk attached to buying this car than any other, irrespective of whether he's selling it on behalf of a friend or not. If I was in the market for a car like this, I'd have no qualms whatsoever about buying this one, from this seller.

@mrfunex That’s good still can’t get mine booked in, it’s just ‘Ratism’ 😊 🐀

I put the 2 year warranty on my 2013 RX when I bought it in March this year. I had two ISs previously and in both cases I claimed more than the warranties cost me. Don't forget it includes top of the range AA cover too. It doesn't take much to go wrong with an RX to get a bill of £1k+, the peace of mind element is important to me. I'm in for service next week and I suspect I'm going to get a rear brake caliper out of it and there's still eighteen months left to run.

I made my own using an empty small propane bottle, a 12 volt solenoid, a grease gun flexible hoes, a brass "T" piece, and made my own timer. John.

After watching the video it makes sense that an engine flush and regular oil changes should resolve this - likelihood of the spring breaking? or the valve clogging with dirt? I would bet on dirt building up and after seeing the same resolution from users who have experienced this then it does make sense. With the immediate start up after an oil change then that also makes sense that it rattles a bit at this point as the valve is not pressurised which is what I have experienced. Its possible that the last user has made one oil change which is not enough to resolve the rattle and also you do not know if a flush was used.

Take the warranty because if you get a bill for any problems in two years it will be more . Ask lexus how much to replace a gearbox or an auto dimmig mirror for example

I guess that the reason why the dealers have "never heard of that as the cause" is because intermediate shaft replacement costs £700 and the bolt I replaced cost me nothing. However, my 2011 CT had a low tensile bolt in it which i replaced with a high tensile bolt. There hasn't been a clunk since. If you kneel by the side of the car with the drivers door open, you can feel the top joint between the steering column and the top clamp of the intermediate shaft without having to remove any covers , or wires etc. If you subsequently sit in the car and turn the shaft to the right position, you can gain access to remove the bolt and replace it with another and torque it up. My £700 saving fix took me 15 minutes using simple tools. Most of those minutes were spent finding a new bolt of suitable size, length and tensile rating ( head stamped 8.8 as opposed to original bolt not stamped at all) The car has done 70000 now and still has no knocking from the intermediate shaft. The choice is yours. I cant see any modern independant mechanic wanting to own up to such a simple fix when there's the potential for a week or two's wages in the balance but there again, I really don't trust modern day fitters anyway. 50% of what I have been told about my Lexus by professionals isn't strictly correct but does somewhat coincidentally err on the side of profit.

If you play the video from about 3 min 15 sec in after the plunger has been removed you can see the two parts rotate separately until they reach the end of travel. This is where the noise comes from as they rattle back, and forth each time they turn a cam over the highest point until the gaps are full of oil. If the plunger was doing it's job of locking them together there would be no noise. Once the mechanism is full of oil, oil is fed to the tapered end of the plunger opposite to the spring. When the pressure reaches 21 psi the plunger is pushed against the spring to unlock the timing mechanism. If the spring is week, broken, or the plunger is jammed in the open position the mechanism will rattle back, and forth until there is enough oil to stop it moving. John.

A little off course again, of course! But never coarse-a man of refinement and taste!

Again, good for you. And without sounding too precious, especially as you're carrying children. The expense is always extremely painful but worth it for the peace of mind I think.

All done. Four new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres, plus the kerbed alloy refurbished. Total bill £709.92. Apart from a minor grumble about not returning my car when agreed and nearly causing me to not collect my offspring in time, it was very good service from Lexus Cambridge. I am MUCH happier not having budget tyres on the car, from both a safety and an aesthetic perspective. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Wind up? Loud exhausts not for me sorry lol

Oh how coarse. I thank my learned friend of course for pointing out I wasn't coarse enough.

As a GS300h owner I am a lot disappointed after 1,5 year of daily driving. Dashboard rattles and squeaks, engine is trashy and generates loud vibrations in almost all rpm range. Power is not an issue but, economy changed from 5.2 Liters/100km to 6.5. Maybe i have bad piece but the car is not what it was. From sweet whistling car i have now a tractor with jackhammer under the bonnet.

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.

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.

Depends on how you define quick. Anything under 6s is quick in my book and mid range acceleration of the GS450h would still decimate most cars on the road today. And if opting for the F-Sport version, can go around corners as quick as any other M-Sport or AMG-Lite saloon from Germany with its 4 wheel steering. Ask me how I know - I've done it.

So time for some more updates, firstly ive just become a gold member 🤘 got to support the club. Ive tried to change my profile name too but im not sure thats worked. On to the car and time for some more transmission bits, next up was the pedal swap and master cylinder fitment. I was going to use the wilwood master supplied with the clutch kit but as this was designed for a mk3 supra, the billet adaptor supplied would have to be modified to fit the IS300. I really looked into this but i just could not see a way round it without butchering the billet adaptor and i did not want it looking crap. I decided the wilwood master would be sold and i am going for an IS200 OEM master and clutch line. This would again be using original toyota/lexus parts making it look nice and factory fitted. I first of all made a little template out of card to mark the bulk head. I then marked up the bulk head and drilled the holes for the master cylinder studs I the used a cone cutter to cut the hole for the mater cylinder plunger to go through. As you can see good old toyota came up trumps again by leaving a hole in the insulation for the bulk head exposing the master cylinder location. This was the same for the inside of the car on the bulk head insulation. It was pre cut so all i had to do was pull it out. I then fitted the master ready for the pedal to go in. Now as this was auto i would have to swap out the large auto pedal for the manual pedal, ebay provided these. Went from this ........ To this .......... Thats better, looking like a proper original manual now! Master cylinder all bolted up to the pedal box now and a paper gasket used. Just waiting on the factory clutch line now and the beauty of this is the clips on the bulk head holding the brake lines have the blank space for the line the clip into. So no ugly braided line hanging across the bay and another part i can sell on with the wilwood master. Whilst i was at toyota i also ordered a gear pattern plaque for the center console, not fitting this yet but just thought it would be a nice touch to make it look OEM factory fitted. This brings me up to date, from here updates will be slower but i will keep this going soon as i get something else done. Once the clutch line comes, next weekend im hoping the engine will be out so some juicy updates to come.

So the journey continues, once i confirmed the prop was good to go i pulled the box back out. Now it was time to decide on a clutch setup. I have been watching alot of vlogs on youtube of people running supras and IS300s and 1 guy in particular his chanel is "garage project motorsports" now this guy has pretty much done exactly what my intentions are, very informative, attention to detail is amazing and an interesting chanel to watch. This guy did use a single disc setup clutch but he blew this to pieces and wiped out the bell housing in the process, he is running slightly less bhp and torque to what my goal is. So he swapped it out for a clutch masters twin disc setup and said its the best decision hes made............... Ding dong delivery 😂 i had considered at clutch masters fx850 but it was very very expensive!! I went with the spec twin disc, ive had to use a 1jz kit because of the fitment to the gearbox and it all still bolts straight up to the 2jz (good old toyota again 👍). in this kit it includes a rebuildable very lightweight flywheel, the hydraulic throw out bearing (so converting it from pull type clutch), braided clutch lines and a wilwood clutch master cynider. None of these extra bits come with the clutch masters fx850 and its cheaper. It will handle near enough 1500NM of torque ............... (i know i had to read this twice too) which is over kill but as we all know toyota over manufactured everything in this era which made them so reliable so why should i stop that tradition. Few more pics to admire its beauty ....... There it is in all its glory, 1 6puck sprung disc, 1 6puck unsprung disc, center plate, pressure cover and that buildable flywheel. Once this was trial fitted to the gearbox to confirm the spline fitment i was back on the mission to sort the gearstick issue. This bit is going to be tricky, this being the 3rd revision of the box means the shifter housing extension has a slightly different bolt spacing. Everywhere i looked just seemed to get me to a extension housing that was the early style fitments. There are places that do custom billet made housings but you also need the rod that goes inside which you cannot seem to by anywhere 2nd hand. The 1 i needed for mine i had no idea where to even get the correct part number and because its not the standard housing for the box i have toyota could not even try to look it up on there system. Every project thread i found for an r154 swap was using the early box so i was on my own. I thought i was stuck untill just randomly searching on google images i came across a housing that is very close to what i need. This housing is from a very strange looking car called a Toyota Verossa... This you probably guessed is fitted with a 1jz which uses the r154 (good old toyota 👍..... again) . So i got hold of the part number for the housing and got 1 ordered up ........ fast and furious style "overnight parts from japan" this comes with that rod inside too. Old tripod setup....^^^ New setup ....^^^ this sits around 1inch further forward which now puts the stick in a decent position, coupled with a short shifter it should be perfect with plenty room from the trim surround. The added bonus of its original toyota part too. More to come .............

So once it was back in the garage i got it up on the stands ready to remove the gearbox. The power goals i have in mind would blow the standard tranny to pieces so the best option for me and what i want it for was to convert to manual transmission. This modification over in "merica" is very comon amongst the IS comunity, this is where i have got all my research, plans and ideas from. The best choice would be the v160 from mk4 supra but these are very rare and eye watering in price!! Other option was to used the cd009 from the nissan 350z with and adaptor plate but i wanted to keep this original with a toyota transmission. So this led me to use the r154 found in jzx10, chaser, mk3 supra....... list goes on. Very robust, proven to take big power, bit clonky and noisey but its good for the job and bolts straight up to the 2jz! So i didnt mess around, instead of going 2nd hand i just brought a brand new 1. I figured trying to get hold of a 2nd hand 1 and the price of a 2nd hand 1 just would not be worth it, it would need a refurb and even worse it coud be a completly shot gearbox. The dogs not to bothered 😂 Gearbox coming out.... Clap of the hands and this happens....... Once this was out i just trial fitted the r154 to see what would have to be done to make it work, this is when i hit a few road blocks. Firstly the rubber mount from the auto box on the cross memeber does not fit the r154. So i got myself an uprated megan racing rubber mount designed for the w58 gearbox this bolts straight up to the r154 and the original auto transmission cross memeber (good old toyota 👌). This now makes the cross member sit too far back! Then i noticed the gearstick is to far back to come through the body. This is the 3rd revision of the r154 and this particular 1 is for a jzx10 so its using the tripod style gear stick support. This would need changing to center the stick up This is what it would look like in relation to the trims when fitted... Not to worry as i have another option for this. Another reason why i trial fitted the r154 was to get the measurments for the prop shaft. Measured from gearbox rear seal to diff flange. The auto prop will not fit and the only real option is a custom made jobby. This part i ordered from america from a company called the driveshaft shop. Great customer service and did not have to wait long either. This work of art turned up..... Fits absolutly perfect, its alloy and weighs about 7kg, and can handle over 650whp! Game on, more to come shortly.

Interesting review in carmagazine.co.uk about the LC 500h and LC 500. 167 cars already on order. half hybrid. Very positive article!