Leaderboard

He has bought a 450h!

yesterday i took my partners Auris hybrid for its mot at my lexus dealership as they where £15 cheaper over our local toyota dealer (same group) before you know it i'm looking at a 17 plate is300h F Sport and today i've signed for it to replace my 63 plate 300h i collect my new car on wednesday ,the saving i was hoping to make has suddenly been lost, cant wait for wednesday.

Hi Guys, I have been a member of this forum for quite some time, not very active tho. I have had my ISF for 2 years (amazing car), last week I went to a Lexus dealer to see nice white RCF and I bought it... dunno how this happened as I didn't plan on changing the ISF, I guess love from the first sight lol. The car comes with QuickSilver exhaust already installed and I have a quick question for some of you who already have the exhaust. On QuickSilver website, there is a video of the exhaust on RCF with switchable valves. Anyone knows if this is the standard option they provide for all their exhaust systems or do you have to request that? When I had a test drive I checked all the modes and the car sounds exactly the same. Don't get me wrong the sound is amazing I'm just concerned about my neighbours and morning starts as it is super loud... :D. Ta!

Some of you will remember my brush with a 460 last year... thread here... It was a Friday car, I hated it anyway as it felt like a BMW and not a Lexus, it was an expensive mistake but who makes money on cars...!!! It did make me miss my old 430 that I had to sell for medical reasons (mine, not the cars..!!)... now I have two new hips and a new knee I can get in and out of them again so I started looking last year for a facelifted 430.... well it turns out that there are a lot of overpriced tatty cars out there and after hundreds of miles looking at rusty, bent and abused cars I gave up as the other part of our latest master plan was getting close, we had sold the house and downsized and it was time to actually move and get on with it... Kids have left home and we can just about afford to retire... my various smashed up bits of body hate the cold weather so we decided to be snowbirds and head for the heat during our cold wet winters... So at the beginning of February we caught the big white bird over the pond and landed in Miami for a spot of boat shopping... to cut a long story short after 5 weeks we had found and bought one in Panama City FL, up on the panhandle... We have a few commitments this year so had to wrap her up and leave her in a yard till we return after the hurricane season towards the end of the year... So... back to Lexus.... we will only be here for around 6 months a year so another 430 seemed like a good idea, well made enough to not worry about sitting going nowhere for 6 months.... Yesterday I managed to find one that fitted the bill... a 2004 LS430 facelift in Blue Onyx Pearl with Light Gray leather 123,000 miles, full history, nice clean condition, no dents scapes or rust, near mint interior, drives as it should and has 4 new Pirellies. I love the colour combination and the guy was keen to shift it as he had already got it's replacement so a deal was done at £3,700 and the next 240 miles wafted by in serenity.... It is a joy to drive, so much nicer than the 460 and smoother than the earlier 5 speed 430..... It has a few small cosmetic issues that I will get sorted. Mechanically the Pirellies are runflats and give a hard ride, and are also the wrong size so I will have to see how much they annoy me and may change them... The steering wheel up/down motor has failed, refurbished ones at a reasonable price are available now. The aircon does have some gas in but is not very cold so I will get it recharged, and one front parking sensor has failed. The wheels could do with a refurb but aren't too bad.. On the plus side it has had the cambelt and waterpump done, all the cabin filters replaced, the modified gearbox oil cooler mod has been done and it even has the latest sat nav disc.... So I'm sort of a happy bunny now... can't wait to get back out to the boat but at least I have somewhere nice to sit in the meantime.....!! (460 owners, please don't take offence at my comments about them, I love the look of them and admire the technology but personally they just don't do it for me...)

@Mike Peter Hi Mike congrats on the purchase, the two systems are not interchangeable parts wise I'm guessing you've got the axle back system which is NOT switchable on cold start up is loud but settles quite quickly. If you want to tone it down immediately just put the car into drive and move off immediately. It really is a fantastic bit of kit just done 500 or so miles in mine in the last 3 days it really is epic. The full switchable system depicted is the thick end of £5K when you add vat. Big Rat

Well I'm guessing he's bought something more befitting a man of his advancing years!

Pad carriers are the brackets which attach to the hub and hold the pads in place. The caliper also attached to the carrier using slider pins and bolts to allow side to side movement of the caliper. Picture below shows the pad bracket on the left and a slider pin on the right. Normally brake problems arise due to lack of lubrication on the slider pins which causes them to seize in the holes on the bracket resulting in poor braking performance, the pins can generally be freed up with a good dose of WD40 then cleaned,regressed and refitted but if rusted or severely pitted they need replacing. Cannot quite understand why you need new pad carrier brackets unless the slider pins have completely seized, the brake pads themselves sit on stainless steel inserts fitted into the carrier brackets which do become clogged with brake dust but easily cleaned up. The calipers rarely need replacing providing that the piston is free to move,there are no leaks from the piston and the seals are intact, I did the rear brakes on a fellow member’s lS400 recently and just the pads and discs were required.A couple of slider pins were tight but soon loosened up and were deemed serviceable.

@Spacewagon52 Great spot that I'll give the Rcf a few more years before I change to the Rx........... mind you I have the the use of the other Rat mobile in the household.............. Here she is next to my isF that was .......☹️ 🐀

Thank you all, this will be my next car so I will be here more when I get it :)

Not removed, you just have an incorrect link.

I originally started looking for an 8v rs3, two months on the Audi forum and an insurance quote put death to that! Someone breaks into my house where my child and wife are sleeping due to my choice of car knowing it might happen I’d struggle to forgive myself.

You should never reveal your true age on any social media ;-)

Hi Guys, posted a couple of times over the past while, and a few members have asked for better interior photos of my USB IS-F Never actually taken any half decent photos of the of the cars interior since fitting the seats and having the steering wheel re-trimmed. Quiet afternoon at work and an ideal chance to give the car a wash an hoover, and take a few pics. Hope you like them! The Seats are Recaro CS Sportsters from a Lotus Evora and came with manual runners. Yes, I've lost the heated seats and electric adjustment, but small price to pay for the perfect seating position as I've always found the standard seats didn't' quite go low enough for me. I must admit though, the heated seats were missed over winter, but it is nearly summer :) There is quite a bit of wiring involved to address the PCS and Airbag lights. This was taken care of by a professional Auto Spark. The bases came from the states, using IS350 mounts, although if I'm being 100% honest, the drivers frame isn't perfect and I'm going to have the original adjusted or an entirely new subframe fabricated. I used Optimus Trimmers up here in Glasgow for the wheel. They are top notch. Even did the wheel in once piece, unlike my GT3 which wheel uses three sections. I wouldn't ever have known, but Del the owner wanted it to be like the factory finish. He's some man! This is my third IS-F and chose to address all the little things I didn't like about the model with this car. There isn't much, but always room for improvement. I'm not into going overboard - Prefer to get the car like they way I imagined it might have come from the factory. OEM+ I think its called on the 'scene' :) Cheers, Stevie

Decided against H&S exhaust as almost as common as RCF's nowadays.... ;-) Taking one for the team and I have ordered an exhaust from Fox in Germany with black tips. Contacted them directly and got free shipping to the UK and 10% off the exhaust Also ordered a Takeda intake from the States. Bonus gone :-) Bring the noise :-) Will post relevant pics & vids once arrived and installed.

BRILLIANT ..... ENJOY Malc

@Spacewagon52 Yes that was a good spot by yourself, I used to have B16 RAT some years ago sold it to a vermin control company..... not that Rats are vermin of course.......... 🐀

Did not realise you had a RAT plate! Brilliant! But to find RAT AND on a Lexus!

Great to hear you are sorted Peter after the tribulations with your Irish 460. If you are not already familiar with them you may enjoy the classic novels of John D Macdonald. His hero, Travis McGee is 6' 4" and lives on a Florida houseboat called The Busted Flush. http://jdmhomepage.org/travis-mcgee-novels-1-9.html All the best. Jon

Yes .. like a lot of potential Lexus Hybrid customers I worried about this battery issue too .. that was until my wife said I want to buy this !!!!! which of course was the current RX .. so Like a good husband did what I was told but .. recently have also bought an LS600h L RSR and I just LOVE it .. no kidding .. after years of owning a string of high performance cars this LS is so indiscreet but fabulous not only in comfort but performance and regularly indicating 40 mpg although give it some head and it does drop into almost single figure consumption .. point is at 10 years old with 85k it has a folder full of Lexus Battery Health checks the last being at 84k so am I worried .. the answer is No .. I don’t even think about it being an issue anymore .. Don’t let battery issues put you off buying ..

Add a little fun to the conversation I guess.

That’s the issue I had with my isf system. For early starts it was super loud. I would need a valve next time around. Sounds like you have the non valve one. The operation of the valve is usually on a separate fob if you have one.

I hear there re some decent conversations an a lexus forum near here.....

Yes 'PooBucket' or 'PhotoBlockit' has ruined a great number of forum threads on various topics containing an absolute goldmine of technical information for the world to see and gleen from, they ain't silly and tried using this 'control' posistion to maximise profits but seem to have just got themselves a very poor reputation amongst forum users. paul m.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.

Normally If the ECU just needs to learn the new idle point then I recommend getting it up to temperature and then whilst driving come to a complete stop and let it idle in neutral for 10 seconds then drive away and repeat. The ECU will lower the idle each time by a small amount unless it settles at the correct speed. Letting it idle for a prolonged period should also correct - which seems to have happened in your case

I find the display to be about 2mpg optimistic, Fridays jaunt form North Shropshire to Northampton and back, mixed traffic and long 50mph roadworks on the M6 and the car told me 40mpg. I usually double check by brimming when filling up and zeroing the trip. I use Tesco momentum by the way. On 10+ miles to Shrewsbury and back I get around 30-32 on the computer. I'm not a boy racer!!!! Hope this helps. Mark.

Something like that [emoji6][emoji23] Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I didn't realise it was a quiz - to me it just looked like some random posting that had me scratching my head and wondering what was going on

My best is around 40mpg but town use mid 20's

By pad carriers, does he mean the shims that the pads slide along? Some pads don't come with them, which is fine if you can reuse yours. But maybe yours are in bad shape and need replacing?

In my 2008 I can get around 40mpg on the motorway but not so good around town. Drops to around 27-29 mpg Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Shirish, I left instructions for the old parts to be retained but the guys binned them, annoyingly enough (first time they've done that, to be fair). I asked the mechanic what condition the links and bushes were in and he said fine with no breakdown of the rubbers and were Toyota parts so probably original (car has done 75k miles.). Here's to another twenty years on OEM components.

Congratulations on your skills and you’ve done a great job on the boot lid. Like you say, the looks will split opinion and I must admit that in my view each subsequent mod you’ve made has made a once classy car look worse. Putting it back on the right wheels with the correct ride height would improve matters no end. [emoji846] But hey, it’s your car and it’s a good job we’re all different. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dashboard light confirms the Height is set to high and with a moaning Mrs plonked into the drivers seat it did rise up when pressed. It is subtle though, I used to have an XJR which always reminded me of a camel getting up as it would lift the back then the front. I'm hoping it's just a final tweak now as the drivers side is only a cm or two more than the passengers. I forgot how phenomenal these cars are and had kind of given up on it but driving it again today was a pleasure. I just need to find out how to dial out using the Bluetooth!! Sent from my G8141 using Tapatalk

Few more updates

Well done, the boot lid looks much better. How did you secure the mess behind the redundant number plate holes? Are the coilover, BC something or others? Do the coilover use rubber top mounts or are they bolted directly to the towers? How's the ride now?

You should clean the butterfly by spraying carb cleaner on a rag and wiping it. You should remove the throttle position sensor or throttle motor. Have this just happened? It could be something like a faulty temp sensor or some other issue causing the high idle. The following is a diagram of the throttle body

Colour match is near enough spot on. It's not the best job up close but definitely happy for a diy job Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Still really pleased with it Phil. It’s a brilliant car!!!

Yeah but everyone has an RCF nowadays... Almost as common as the VW Golf PCP R ;-)

Mine wouldn't look that clean after nine months let alone nine years?

I’m not sure wives can be switched off in the manner you suggest, but if you do find a way to do this please let me know! [emoji846][emoji106] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another update

Hi all, thanks for your comments. Yes they are rays 350z wheels, straight bolt on except spigot rings so that was easily done. The ride at the moment doesn't feel much different in my opinion, but then again for the past 3 and a half years I had a celica so I'm used to a rough ride, and the seats are more than comfortable enough to soften and speed bumps lol. Although I don't mind black wheels they aren't staying that way, the squares in the spokes will be smoothed out aswell. At the moment I'm thinking of a dark grey, as silver is too standard for myself (young folk, can't leave things alone lol) I'm pleased that everyone gives their opinion as it's nice to hear what you think. And as you guys have mentioned although this is modified it is still looked after, they are indeed a rare sight and I love being one of a few to own one of these that's still on the road [emoji16] Hopefully over the coming weeks the wheels can be painted. I'm having an increase in hours at work so although I'll have less time, I should have more money to spend. All comments welcomed, thanks guys Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I fitted these to my old Saxo VTR in 1999 (I was only 19 at the time so please forgive me the Saxo) I should imagine they would be a tad more expensive and complicated in the F. Could do it on the driveway with a can of WD40 and a multi-tool surely :-)

It only takes one. I'm self employed, worked all my life, worked hard for the nice stuff, yada yada. But I don't care what car it is, they can have it if the alternative is them putting a hand on my front door. The possible consequences of them coming into my house and waking my wife or children doesn't bear thinking about. If it was up to me and keyless entry thefts were becoming widespread I'd encourage insurance companies to make the option unaffordable. I've had it on two BMWs and just thought it was dumb.

Good idea but playing devils advocate, a theft like this is probably targeted...if they can't gain access using a scanner, would they they then try and enter the house? I'm thinking if the car is targeted and they want it that bad, let them have it, I don't want them in my house. Or are these opportunist? Interested to get views on this....

With respect Rayaan but i dont think you can be the judge for other people in deciding what what is good or bad. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so on, and what you think is ugly or fits in your bad taste category can be the opposite for other members of the club. Me personally would never order an orange Lexus but i just smile seeing one, i respect the owner for ordering it. Same with the Wald kits, some are maybe over the top but i like to see them on the road, it brings color to a bland landscape of grey and silver cars. I just admire the individualism and i do think people ordering motorcars like that follow their own taste and they like the look of what they order. I respect your taste ( have to have same car and color haha) so please pay some respect to members that have a slightly different taste then you. PS i also like the Juke!