Leaderboard

Do 155mph in Surrey and you will finish on the first page next morning as bloody maniac :) In my case it was between Leipzig and Dresden which was perfectly fine with everyone and acceptable.

Well, I saw TWO SC430s on my way back from Stow-on-the-Wold (to Bristol) on Sunday! Inc a nice White one. thinks; must resist temptation........

Mine didn’t either, although my older ISF does? Accept it as one of those charming quirks, like the bl**dy clock not being able to show time in 24h!!

Hey Crew! Sorry I wasn't able to make the Welsh Blat! It looked and sounded like fun and was a good drive with beautiful landscapes! I however couldn't resist accepting a breakwith this amazing view...slightly different from the stunning views in Wales! Plus, my misses would have killed me if I had said no, I wasn't coming to Spain and instead chose to go to Wales with a bunch of blokes! lol!

@Big Rat and @Flytvr I will come with you to Cheltenham and show you how easy the process is.........................

I'm looking to replace the rear brake calipers on my IS250, will probably do both O/S and N/S at the same time. Anyone know of any cheap deals? I think I'd prefer new over refurbs. Part numbers would be useful if anyone has them? Spotted these non-OEM calipers (Apec / Brake Engineering) https://brakeparts.co.uk/shop/Lexus/Is250/05-12/Is250 Gse20 2.5 Petrol/Rear - Brake Calipers and Wheel Cylinders Does anyone have any experience or knowlege of these parts? Any advice gratefully received.

Decided to pull bits of the car apart today to see what rattles so much from my side air vents. So after removing a few panels the vent pops out the dash with abit of force (watch out for the vent light cable). Under the vent is a plastic linkage that opens / closes the vent and I'm sure this it the rattling culprit because the rattles improved with the vents closed. Anyways I've smothered the linkage in thick grease so hopefully that's it. I'll take the car out tomorrow and update. Then see what's involved with the passenger side.

Yes you are correct. The standard head unit uses a separate amplifier and you will be using your new head units built in amplifier. As for quality I cannot comment on whether it would be the same as this is down to your head unit. I removed the amplifier and run all new speakers and cabling into both doors with 2.5mm core vann damme cable, new DLS performance 6.5" components and DLS 6x9's in the back running off a 5 channel Genesis amplifier in the boot. You might lack some bass as the standard amplifier and speakers are run at 2 ohms and normal car speakers run at 4 ohms. And I think by using the bypass lead you lose the 2 ohm subs which are built into the rear speakers. This is why I decided to install a whole new sound system. I'm sure if any info I have provided is incorrect someone on here can clarify this.

looks a delightful shade of ..... Aspen Green ! Malc

Very nice - reminds me of the red leather Recaros I had in my S4. Red always made it feel like an event when getting into them!

It’s a shame because they build some great cars, but my experience was very similar to yours with reliability issues, huge repair bills & some of the worst dealerships i’ve come across. That said my local Audi dealer was really excellent, which was a good thing given I had the worst bills & issues with both my A4’s.

Thanks matey 👍 no im not going to bother, theres no real need to add them tbh, many have done it this way without. Some people with higher bhp 2jz-gte's have also deleted the oil squirters to improve oil pressure. I will be upgrading to the GTE oil pump though. Ive also been toying with the idea of an oil cooler too.👍

That Lexus is first is kind of "old news"... but Alfa Romeo 5th... above likes Honda. Dacia is actually above VW and Mercedes and Tesla third from the bottom (and they say there is nothing to go wrong with electric..).. that is my "who would have thought" list. As well bear in mind this is 3 years old cars... I know MB are awful when over 10 years old and maintenance costs skyrockets rapidly resulting in pages full of cheap and run-down examples, but still I would expect 3 years old MB to hold on a bit. Actually clicking around.. I am a bit puzzled of their summary e.g. Luxury cars: https://www.whatcar.com/news/reliability-survey-9/ Executive cars: https://www.whatcar.com/news/reliability-survey-8/ Lexus not even in SUV categories, nor there are any mention of Alfa Romeo anywhere except the summary... I don't know how they come up with the list in summary to be honest. I am sure Lexus is first .. that is kind of given, but just saying that numbers doesn't add-up

Hi Bob Thanks very much for replying, the post of January 25th is fantastic and just the information I was after. Didn't see it when it was originally posted as I was not a Lexus owner then. Still trying to get to grips in sourcing all the excellent information the site holds. All the best. Alan

Yes, the surround cameras are very useful on my 4RX and I agree that this option should have been available on the LC. I would have gone for this for sure. Actually, thinking about it, at this price point I would have expected it to be standard.

I am really surprised that the LC500 does not have a surround view camera. I had it on my previous car, a BMW 640 and I really miss it. I think the RX has it and so I cannot think why it was missed off. It makes parking in tight areas so much easier and makes it much less likely to kerb the wheels.

@mike m It does have one advantage in that when it used to rattle with Mrs Rat in the car I couldn’t hear her say “ How come with you being a builder other peoples drives are finished” blah blah.......... 😊 🐀

maybe it got confused in the translation from Japanese ! Malc

Excellent comments from all of you, thank you. I have some time before I make a decision, but will bare your feedback in mind. I have to say that I am not sold on going for a IS250 though. Maybe a 200T may make more sense as I expect the 4 cyl would be cheaper to run than the 6 cyl version. However, I would think that insurance and road tax may be high. I also believe that the 200T is pretty difficult to find these days, and it could be that rarity pushes the prices up. Thanks again.

What a great thread, and good work !!! Are you going to add the piston oil squirters to the bottom of the bores? IIRC these are not fitted to NA blocks but are to the turbo blocks.

Mine is indeed an 85-Litre doughnut tank and the most gas I've managed to get in was on one cold winter day when it took 75.3 litres. You've probably seen the photos already but in the one below, 1 is the Flashlube reservoir, 2 is the gas ECU and 3 is the gas reducer. You can't really see much of the tank but the next picture shows tank and filler point. If you're not going to tow anything then that's a great place for the filler because you can easily fill from both sides. EDIT: I've just noticed that you've got the SE-L so it'll have air suspension. I have no idea where the compressor is located but maybe it's something to do with that - either compressor or pipework - that may be stopping him fitting an 85-litre tank for you? I don't know, just a complete guess.

Hiya, Yes when fitting an after market stereo to the IS200, the factory amp becomes purplus to requirements. This only applies to I think the SE, LE and Sport models. The base S model has no amplified stereo. You can either remove the amp completely or leave it there and just leave it unplugged. If I remember correctly there are two plugs that go into the amp, one of which is connected to the bypass lead, the other if left unconnected. The other end of the bypass lead runs behind the glove box to the headunit. Dean

I don't know if the Pantone System extends to car paints (primarily it's for fashions; printers; graphic designers in the corporate world of printed packaging, logos and suchlike) but as this quote from Wikipedia states, "The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. " The Pantone system even provides monitor calibration tools so that you know what you're seeing on your computer screen is the same as what someone else on the other side of the world sees. A Google search for the colour Aspen Green returns far more results closer to the Pantone colour block than it does to the Toyota/Lexus version of the same-named colour, so rather than that colour block misrepresenting the true Aspen Green, I think David hit the nail on the head - the way Toyota/Lexus have named some of their colours seems to make no sense at all. But it's still a lovely car

My estimate would also be in 170mph (indicated) area. But then we need to remember max speed is not going to be sustainable as when (very quick) battery will get depleted we will lose 50bph. For my needs 155mph is enough but I got one stubborn A8 (also limited I guess) on my tail and this few extra mph would be nice :)

The service schedule says after 10 years and then every 5 years.

You are indeed quite correct John:

Looks like you had a busy weekend, well done. I'd have rather been spannerin' but alas I was decorating.

Hi everyone, could someone on her tell me if these spark plugs would be the right ones for my IS 250 auto Thanks guys. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The only things that matter are the thread diameter (14mm) and thread length (26.5mm) - same for both. The Denso catalogue here: http://www.denso-am.co.uk/e-catalogue lists both types, IKBH20TT under 'TT' and they're promoting TT as the latest and best. Thanks for bringing this to our attention - my plugs are due for a change really and these prices are a lot more reasonable than I was expecting!

hang on, I'll go wash mine again in the morning Malc

Great pic 👍

Thanks Martin and Ben. I have found it at last! Amazing how you miss things when you are looking for them, is that just a reflection of my age??

There is original Lexus branded glass but it won't be cheap. Asahi glass corp make the original windscreen and its highly unlikely you'd be able to get it here - it'd have to be ordered in. I wouldn't be worried about the glass itself - that won't have any effect on why the windscreen is misting. Back in 2001, my VW Passat did the same thing out of the blue, basically misting the inside of the windscreen permanently - turned out it was a heater matrix that had gone so worth checking that out.

@MNMJ I admire your thrift explains how you can afford to run two lovely cars 😂 🐀

I'd be happy to fit aftermarket parts if they came from say Blueprint or similar, but I'd be wary of parts from ebay or the like when it comes to steering.

Hey - it's music in the car - and your music from your phone. It's hardly a listening studio. It's OK for me - might not be if you're really picky about sound accuracy.

@DAWSo David I've learnt my lesson with the German manufacturers over many years it was my choice to buy repeatedly Bmw and Porsche, I'd be lying if some of the cars didn't haven't very great aspects to them M3CSL - Engine. Porsche 996 Turbo - Engine. But in the overall scheme of things rubbish reliability poor build quality and mostly rubbish dealer service. With the exception of Wellsway BMW in Bath So if I'd done my homework for example to give one example should have bought an ex demo is-F and not the ex demo Bmw M5 E60. Even the dealer and staff grew to hate that car 9.5k in warranty work in just over a year and look at the reputation of them now you'd need a skip load of cash to maintain repair out of warranty. 🐀

hmmm they havent changed then. Just a nice car to look at while waiting on the recovery. Nice to see Audi getting slagged. I really really absolutely hate Audi especially the tdi i'm better than you mob that sit glued to everybody's back bumper before going for some ludicrous death defying overtake. Aberdeen is full of them. Rant over lol

@DAW You are right David New Zealand dealers did a limited edition ‘Red’ is-F I believe there were 10 and of course right hand drive, the red interior was available in many markets but not us....typical as I for one would have had it with a Grey exterior. Oh and here is some pics...... Big Rat

I made this when i did my 1jz swap.

I have fitted EBC Greenstuff pads on 3 cars now, Gen 1 GS300, Gen 2 RX300, and my wifes Honda CRV and they are great with little to no dust on the rims. What there is easily hoses off. They are relatively cheap too

The real question is what are you trying to achieve? Is it performance or low brake dust that you are looking for? Standard high performance brake pads do tend to dust more than others but if you're looking for a brake dust remedy, it may be better to use a wheel coating like Gtechniq C5 in which case you should only need a pressure wash to bring them back up and the dust will stick less.

Anyone has the possibility of being prosecuted if their action causes an accident whatever the circumstances. However I would agree its not good practice :-)

Its not illegal I'm afraid. Anyone changing lane really should pay full attention to both offside and nearside. Often on motorways you can be advised to stay in your lane, so undertaking is inevitable.