Leaderboard

Well, in anticipation of the creation of a giant 'F' section of the forum, and as a previous ISF owner; I thought I'd leave this here: I’ve gone and bought a GSF! I’d had my ISF for around two and a half years and after sorting out what was, in my opinion, a hilariously firm OEM suspension setup, it was smooth sailing all the way. I loved that car – great looks, biblical noise (thanks, H&S) and a real Jekyll and Hyde personality. The last bit was so important to me as the old ‘race car for the road’ adage gets pretty uncomfortable and wearing on a daily driver. I’d covered 12,000 miles, taken it to Le Mans, done a Silverstone track day and on one occasion discovered the speed limiter – yes, there is one and yes, it’s around 170mph… The trouble is, just after it was launched, my local Hedge End dealer had a black GSF in the showroom and ever since I’d sat in it – I’d wanted one. I’ll stop the preamble now with – I caved eventually; it’s around 16months old, it was previously owned by the area manager for Lexus, travelling the South West, and it has 17,500miles on the clock. What’s it like in the cabin? I’ll start with the seats – they are a vastly improved over the ISF, which weren’t bad at all! – they’re heated and ventilated. There’s a cornucopia of materials used all over the dashboard etc, which displeases some people. I like it. I love the alcantara topped dash, the bespoke clock and the carbon fibre detailing. There is a bewildering array of settings, both for the radio/sat nav and the dashboard hidden within menus and submenus, but thankfully the basic controls are simple and easy to use. The Mark Levinson stereo (is it still a stereo if it has a dozen speakers?) is excellent and Bluetooth integration is seamless. The screen is over a foot wide and makes the satnav look spectacular, where post code lookup is available! Driving? The engine sounds different to the ISF, despite being of very similar design and the noise in the cabin is a bit more aggressive on cold start. The rev limit is now 7300rpm and the gearbox seems identical to the ISF with slightly smoother shifts. There are 4 drive modes – eco, normal, sport and sport+. These progressively quicken gear changes, firm up the steering, sharpen throttle response and change the behaviour of the torque-vectoring differential (which I believe acts more like a traditional LSD than the e-diff on the early ISFs, which applied the brakes to the wheel struggling for grip). Sport and sport+ also introduce more engine noise to the cabin through first the rear speakers, then the fronts as well in sport+. The brakes are exceptional – grooved discs now rather than drilled. On the move, the ride is slightly softer but definitely more composed, and the car feels a lot more grown up over my local potholed roads. It’s bigger than the ISF (obviously) and more powerful, but I would guess the performance to be fairly similar. Initial journeys suggest it’s slightly more economical than the ISF too, perhaps 2/3mpg better on average. Other random musings… The boot is HUGE – utterly cavernous! I love the noise it makes – the over-flowery blips on the down change are still there! The headlights are the clearest/brightest I have ever seen. The carbon rear spoiler is extremely pretty. The carbon front splitter is a magnet for stone-chips. The steering wheel is pleasantly chunky. The high build quality is obvious immediately – it’s like the thing has been hewn out of granite. A head-up display makes me feel like a fighter pilot. The previous owner ought to be horrified that this car has lost £2/mile in depreciation alone. The amount of information you can display on the dashboard is enormous – amount of torque applied to each wheel – yup, G-force – of course, lap timer – no problem! So, there we have it. It might seem like I’ve only got positive things to say*, but I liked the ISF so much, and this is essentially a newer version with everything turned up to 120%. I’ve only had the car for a couple of days, but I shall keep this thread updated every once in a while. Happy to answer any questions…. *One negative. I had real trouble getting the headlights to switch to full beam. It turns out that there are TWO auto settings for the lights. One for switching them on automatically as it gets dark, and the other for auto full beam (switching back to dipped beam in the face of oncoming traffic and a few other parameters). Human Factors obviously has a day off when they put these two switches on opposite sides of the driving position! It’s all sorted now!

Hi, I'm new here, and as such I am restricted to posting in new members only. So if a moderator would like to place it appropriately, that would be cool. I recently decided to tackle my timing belt. at 185,000mi (1st. one was around 90,000) it was time. I know there's a lot of leeway regarding miles, but age, usage, and environmental conditions can age rubber products differently, so I didn't want to push it, or i'd be pushing it, literally. I'm no mechanic. But I have a few tools, and I regularly study at the university of YouTube. Basically it was quite easy (and bear in mind, when I first watched others do it on YouTube, I said "no way am I up to that ". Well it turns out I was. You may be too. Here's the stuff that caused me trouble, that isn't mentioned by others: 1. Try and do it all on the same day, which means, have ALL your new parts there already. That way it will be fresh in your mind. Don't let a few days elapse between disassembly and assembly, like I did. 2.MAKE METICULOUS NOTES ABOUT WHICH BOLTS/STUDS GO WHERE AND WHAT THEY DO. 3. Take lots of pictures, and make sure they are clear detailed pictures. 4. Work with a lot of light, its quite dingy down there in a november garage. 5. Dress warmly (if appropriate) cold will make you take shortcuts. 6. Take your time when warming the car up, as well as checking for leaks and funny sounds, you need to make sure the water system is completely full. Just filling it up isn't enough. I can't explain what happened to mine, but I think I had air around the water pump, so it couldn't pump. So make sure your radiator is getting hot. Make sure the top hose it very hot and the bottom hose is cooler. If the fans come on and the air they move is cold, you have air in the system, and air in the radiator, even if you did just fill it to the top. Take your time and confirm the system is circulating hot water. Let me 'splain. Item 2 above. For example, the first thing to go back on is the new water pump. It's got a lot of bolt holes in it, but when I picked up the old pump for reference, it only had 2 bolts in it. Huh??!! how did that happen? Looked all around for the missing bolts but none could be found. Through a painful process of trial and error, and putting the tensioner system on then having to take it off again(complete with re setting the tensioner unit), I finally figured out what was going wrong. As you are pulling the various bits off in sequence, you don't notice that a particular bolt you remove, is holding on more than one device. Example, if I remember right, there's a small black plastic cover that comes of very early in the process. At least one of these bolts also fastens the water pump; the last thing you take off. That explains one vacant hole on the water pump, because the bolt was in the plastic shield. There were several other "dual purpose" bolts like this. Seriously that was the hardest part. Other notable events: Bumping the 22mm harmonic balancer bolt? prop up the cheater bar, YouTube style, and bump the starter. Easy Peasy. Lining up the cams and belt, a little fiddly but very doable, check your work 6 times especially the little mark on the cam shaft pulley, its visible from underneath. Try and get the Mitsuboshi (sic) or other belt with timing marks printed right on the belt. Makes life so much easier. (curiously the old belt had these marks, but the dealer mechanic who changed it, didn't use them ) Yes, they were the right marks, I checked. And yes, just like everyone else, the old belt looked pristine (but it makes no sense to put it back in, does it) Retightening the 22mm crank bolt took some thinking (no impact gun and no assistance) I took the old serpentine belt and locked it around the harmonic balancer by pinching it against itself. Then i took the loose end and wrapped it around the power steering pulley anti clockwise. then I put a cheater bar through the loop and wedged the end in a strong place above the alternator. With my left hand I held tension against the other end of the cheater bar, and cranked as hard as I could on the crank bolt with a long 1/2" torque wrench. Did i reach the specified torque? hard to say, cos my torque wrench doesn't quite go that high, but I was close, as I was passed the "click click", AND I used some thread lock. When I flocked up and had to remove the new tensioner pulley, I had to remove the harmonic balancer AGAIN, having just almost popped a blood vessel tightening it. I used the serpentine belt again. This time I wrapped it around the A/C pulley and found a different place to anchor the cheater bar, and another vein to almost pop.. Why not just bump it again? I didn't want my timing marks to move, as I'd lose site of them; and when the tensioner came off I was in danger of the belt jumping a tooth ( it likes doing that when there's no tension on it, ask me how I know) To sub for the tensioner while I was discovering ALL the bolts for the waterpump, I used zip ties to cinch the belt up against both cam pulleys. This took all the slack out of the belt so I was ok on the cam pulley, but I did triple check ALL marks when it was all back together, AGAIN!. So if you think you're up to doing your belt, let me tell you, its a lot easier than you think (I've never done a timing belt before on anything) Total cost £227 (water pump, timing belt, idler pulley, tensioner pulley, tensioner, thermostat, serpentine belt, AND radiator) Good to go to at least 280,000mi) Oh, and for £28 more, I added a trans cooler in front of the condenser. Whose idea was it to cool the tranny with hot water from the engine? The perfect time to do the rad and the cooler.

Last month my LS 460 marked its 10th anniversary. I bought it 5 years ago - it now has about 80,000 miles on the odometer - and thought this would be a good time to reflect on my ownership experience. I had, previously, owned an LS 400 for 15 years and would like to think I can keep this machine for a similar length of time. I did consider an LS 600 but decided that the extra complications presented by the hybrid set-up might be too costly in the future. I found the transition from 400 to 460 very easy. They are, however, different in a few ways. We all agree that the engineering on the 400 is second to none, and that it is a wonderfully quiet and smooth automobile. The 460 is NOT as quiet, mine has the 19" wheels which I would not recommend. It is still a very quiet car. The seats are not as robust as the 400 because they are heated and air-conditioned. After 10 years, my leather still looks like new. It has air suspension with 3 settings. I find it very comfortable although the 19" wheels mean that it doesn't 'waft' like the 400. The 400 was very well equipped, electronically, for its day - and the 460 is a natural progression. However, I think that some of the features are a waste of time: the Self Parking for instance.......I never use it. If you read the US Lexus Forum you would think that the 460 has lots of problems......the air suspension, wind noise, upper and lower steering links etc. I have my car serviced at my local Lexus dealer, here, in Holland. Apart from the annual service I have only had 2 problems; a shattered wheel bearing, caused by an evil road in Scotland (during my annual visit) and a glitch in the parking computer which caused my steering wheel to sit 'off-centre'. The 460 has electric steering and a computer re-set fixed the problem. I had to have a new battery in 2015 - replaced free because it was still under warranty - and then another one 2 months ago (again replaced free). When I took my car in for its service last week they did some investigating. Here, on the Continent, there is a lively 'trade' in stolen, nearly new, luxury cars - which usually end up in Eastern Europe or Russia. Some insurance companies insist that new high-end cars have a 'Track and Trace' device fitted. This involves a monthly subscription and most owners stop paying the subscription after about 2 years. The device, however, is still fitted and hot-wired to the battery. The power drain is the equivalent of leaving the boot light on. The dealer found the problem and disconnected the device. I did not have to pay for this......they want to stop giving me free batteries :) The Service Manager is an acquaintance of mine and gives me lots of good information. There are very few LS 460/600s in Holland but, as far as problems go, here is what he has told me: they have changed 2 air struts on a 600 which had 200,000 miles on it. Steering links; one so far - at 150,000 miles. They do have computer glitches which require a system re-set. Remember I said I had chosen a 460 over a 600? They haven't changed a 600 hybrid battery ever! The dealer is a combined Toyota/Lexus franchise - separate receptions, workshops and, of course, far better biscuits in the Lexus coffee room :) They have only changed a handful of hybrid batteries, and only on the early model Prius. Perhaps I was too hasty opting for the 460 over the 600. I know that, as LS owners, we are fiercely loyal to our cars. Unfortunately your 400s, 430s and, indeed my 460, will eventually become uneconomical to keep. Moving up the LS ladder isn't a problem!

Interesting review. My 460 is 10 years old. Serviced only by Lexus Carlisle from new and I am the second owner. I travel from Yorkshire to have it's annual service because the dealer is outstanding. One rear drive shaft and one rear air ride suspension strut replaced, both under extended warranty at around 65000 miles. Very surprised that one of my rear struts failed at this mileage. In fairness the drive shaft was replaced due to a split gaiter and not failure of the CV joints. 19 out 20 possible extras were specified by the first owner, around 14 of them within the 3 major upgrades you could opt for and they all work or are in first class condition. I too considered a 600 but held back because I couldn't find a 4 seat version with the Rear Relaxation Pack and a detailed battery history. However I think my caution was unjustified regarding the battery pack as replacing the hybrid battery is as common as hen's teeth. Still looking but very rare to find in my price range.

it will happen soon. sorry for delay

Another little job done on the beastie. Front discs and pads. Not a huge range of tools needed. The old discs were in very poor condition - lots of large rust spots from having stood immobile under previous owner. This was causing vibration similar to warped discs at certain brake pressures. Very little pedal pressure = Fine, normal steady braking = HORRIBLE, Lean on the pedal = Fine. The old pads had plenty of meat on them but as a new axle set of Genuine Mintex ones were £25 it would be silly not to. £105 all in for Mintex discs and pads. So far, so good, done ~500 miles on the new discs and pads now and despite changing nothing else the brakes are so much better! The car never felt under-braked before but now I look back and think "Crikey, was it really that bad before?" Next job is LCA bushes, lower balljoints and wheel bearings.

2008 Silver isf for sale at Lexus Hedge End £21450 60kmiles prices creeping up nicely

I see that H&S have designed and are now selling a cat back bolt on system for the RCF, I know H&S are popular on here with us IsF devotees may be worth a look for some. There are two different tip styles I've attached the link for both styles, I prefer the round myself looks a bit more OEM whilst the one in the YouTube vid is reminiscent more of an isF 🐀 https://www.haywardandscott.com/lexus/lexus-rcf.html

I'm not sure about my Lexus Sat nav 😕 I was at the safari park this weekend and it said bear left. It was clearly an elephant 🤣

That's more or less what I did with mine and it works a treat.

Hi Brian, yes I agree, the roads in this country can be appalling but unfortunately a high percentage of the road tax we pay is siphoned off by all Governments to fund other things. The failed strut crept up on me as an odd thump every now and then till it was every bump in the road surface felt like a drum roll from the rear end. I try and nurture a dealer to meet my needs rather than imposing their idea of my needs on me. Lexus Carlisle have been great from day one of crossing their threshold. Hi Malcolm, you're right about LS600's. I've seen every 600 advertised on E Bay, Lexus dealers and Autotrader and the one's around 2007-2009 which featured 4 seat versions with the Rear Relaxation Pack usually have in excess of 100,000 miles and 150,000 isn't uncommon. However I think this is a testament to the reliability of the brand. The asking price is remarkably low because unless you are a fan most people wouldn't touch a large V8 with a pole. If you can stomach some of the running costs of a large car they represent amazing value when a ten year old car costing £80K new can be bought for around £12K and as you say often with full dealer history.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no hero and if anyone threatened my wife or myself I'd basically throw the keys at them and just say take it. My main point is to ask, do we REALLY need keyless entry? Have we really got to the point where pressing a button is just too difficult or awkward for us to do? Having a key/fob constantly transmitting a signal, just so that we don't have to press a button, insert key and turn it - especially when said signal seems to be an open invitation for the car to be stolen easily - just seems pointless technology to me and something that was added to the cars just because it could be done, rather than an actual need for it.

@Warrington guy That's right mate we're just misunderstood 😁 🐀

big rat the isf is for us poor builders

All I've done is remove the short breather hose and plugged the holes with screws, will get pics tomorrow. Back in summer sitting in traffic I did notice a drop in power when I did get a chance to give the throttle a good prod but power came back once you were moving and cooler air was coming in through the slots in the inner wing next to the air box flap. Now in winter and it's averaging 4c during the day here in Scotland this diy mod gives you the maximum torque the engine can produce, the front of the car rises up at low revs. I need to do a cold air feed from front of car to air box and seal it so it doesn't suck air from engine compartment when sitting still. My miles per gallon are less after doing this.

May sound strange but this way of theft is better than thieves entering your house at midnight to steal the keys and drive off.....

Done this to my isf back in spring, does sound better.

As the engine in the GS-F is pretty much the same as the RC-F, can you do the simple hack to make it louder below 3500rpm? There is a thread on the RC forum, but I don't know how to make a link. Below is the link to the internet version using Office Supplies. I used a pencil and masking tape and can confirm it makes a worthwhile difference. https://www.edmunds.com/lexus/rc-f/2015/long-term-road-test/2015-lexus-rc-f-making-it-louder-with-office-supplies.html

Latest news on the RC facelift/update I spoke with a local dealer earlier as I am debating whether to go for an RC or an Audi A5. I had said before that dealers couldn't order a new car in current shape and someone said that was not the case, but today I was talking to another dealer who has been pursuing me since I did a carwow quotation and he showed me the new larger multimedia screen currently in the NX and LC and actually said he could now place an order for the updated RC, sounds like just a refreshed MMI system, icons along the bottom versus them dotted across the screen in a grid. Apparently, if I order now I would be taking delivery Mar-Apr so there you have it

This doesn't make any sense at all from your point of view tbh ....... if it fails then Lexus earn a fortune repairing your car .... or you write it off and buy another .......... the radiator replacement cost £££ is comparative peanuts Malc

@Mark6pot What a good customer 😂 🐀

Well you've been a busy boy, and my lunch has got cold reading your epistle! Well done for taking the plunge, it may encourage others to do the same. And welcome to the LOC!

The beast in today for airbag recall and got this for the day, it's a softer ride but no throttle response and steering is slower but it's nice. 114500 miles on my 08 isf and a couple of thousand on this but my isf doesn't feel any older to drive. More buttons to play with in this. Got a safety report sent from lexus, email and video, stating nothing to report and a full list of things they checked all for free. Courtesy car looked as though it was driver through a pig farm when they gave it to me, so I've washed it for them as i was happy about getting a free safety check.

That really makes so much sense, and of course it's common sense. To run a luxury car and not expect to have to dig deep in your pocket from time to time would be daft. The difference being that Lexus are so well built that those digging deep days may well be less than with most other makes. I realise that it could change at any moment, but in my 9 years or so of LS ownership (400 & 430) my "unexpected" bills have only reached less than £1,000 in total. One of those was starter motor failure, the other a height sensor. In nine years I think that's brilliant.

I did ask Steve a month ago and reminded him again yesterday with a BUMP . i IMAGINE THAT HE`LL GET ROUND TO IT ,BUT THE ABSENCE OF SEQUENTIAL NUMBERING CAN HINDER COMMUNICATION.

Yes it does ,and I am mistaken in that I have crossed into a manual transmission, either way do not depend on it on a incline of any sort.

When the autobox is in P there a pawl that engages a notched wheel on the output shaft preventing it rotating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking_pawl

The engine compression is holding the car in a stationary position but should not be relied on to hold the car in a fixed place as the weight of the car and its load can move the engine through its rotation and the car will creep backwards or forwards.

Hi. New member here. Been coming here for years looking for answers. Didn't feel the need to contribute, but I do now. Firstly thanks for all the good information here. Secondly I can confirm that even now (2017) the dealer has competitive battery prices. £86.50 Lexus Sidcup. Order by 11, in store by 3 he said, we'll see. Last battery I bought was from Halfrauds. They listed two and because i'm fundamentally "frugal", I selected the cheaper one. WRONG! Too small, terminal wrong way around. I made it work but I wasn't happy they had listed an incorrect battery. Seems others here have had similar experiences. That one's dead now so time to do the right thing,

A friend sent me the HJ review and I managed to watch the whole video - it wasn't easy I have to say if he'd loved the rc300h I'd of regretted buying it instantly and probably traded it in for a hot hatch with fluffy dice I bought mine mainly because - 1. I wanted something different - I've only seen 1 other so far 2. 0-60 in 8.5 secs is as quick as my previous RRS and DS and quick enough to get penalty points on my licence if I found an empty road or a speed camera - lot easier to find the latter. But a PHEV version would be better Agree a V8 sounds awesome and if I was after a track car and had money to burn I'd love one - happy to use one as a courtesy car though

I'm not sure how easy it would be to know if the transmission has been contaminated unless it felt like there was a fault. Maybe oil deposits in the expansion tank. Remember though, it is rare, although having been bitten by it I understand your concerns. I bought my radiator for less than £100, but it needed a slight modification. A genuine Lexus one is about £350 and takes only an hour to replace, it's also a good opportunity to put in fresh coolant.

For me the classic F (ISF), the RCF and the GSF all need a lift in the exhaust department. Given the number of combined F models, surely Lexus could endorse an exhaust system that dealers could fit. Shame.

Big rat . The price is right. 30k would buy It tho especially this time of year

thank you for this, it's good to know and gives me more confidence to change to a used Ls600 at some time ( maybe ) when my 1995 Ls400, now at 201500 miles finally departs this life Malc

Firstly I would like to say that I don't no the person or have anything to do with the company selling this product i don't, no do any of my friends or family make this product I just thought I would let you all no of a cheep product that would help keep you pride and joy safer. after reading on this form about potential theft of our loved Lexus cars, and how they can now use a detector from out side your house and scan for your keys anywhere in your house I decided do give this product a go, and can say that it works perfectly, once the keys were in the pouch I stood next to the car and the boot and doors would not open, I took the keys out of the pouch, got in the car, put the keys back in the pouch and the car would not start, ( a message saying " Keys not detected ). I brought 2 of this , one for my spare set of keys and one for my general use keys. At less then £3 each I think it was a very good buy. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Keyless-Key-Entry-Fob-Guard-Signal-Blocker-Faraday-Bag-Version-for-Phone/232535957664?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Excellent reflections and insight into potential problems from a dealer perspective

I have used a company called engine carbon clean for past 3 years. They come and give my car a 30min service which is adding Hydrogen through the air inlet and then revving the car every 5 mins while running. They have website and come out to you...this is not the same as Terraclean which use so much chemicals. There is a thread somewhere on LOC about Carborn clean, mention LOC and get the service for £75 i can really see the crap coming out of the exhaust and also feel the difference instantly. My car drives and idles so smooth. also like Normski I use the archoil at every fill. Worth the extra pence and keeps the engine squeeky clean.