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You don't really need to drive fast to appreciate the appeal of RWD. I "feel" it every time I accelerate out of a slow corner and experience that natural-feeling push from the rear wheels. It's one of those small things that makes driving more of a pleasure, much like using a manual gearbox that has a nice mechanical action.

The noise is cased by the oil draining down from the VVT "variable valve timing" sprockets. They then rattle on cold start till they are filled with oil. According to Lexus this is not problematic apart from the noise. The official Lexus cure for this is to strip the top of the engine, and replace the 4 VVT sprockets, and empty your wallet. Many Toyota/Lexus engines suffer with this problem to varying degrees. I have developed a low cost reliable solution that pressurises the oil system before the engine starts eliminating the noise. The system also reduces cold start engine ware as the engine is lubricated before it turns over to start. I am testing the system at the moment to iron out any possible bugs, but I am virtually at the point of issuing the details of the method here on LOC. Parts used are all obtainable on the net the most expensive part being a 12volt DC solenoid valve at circa £12. The other parts are mainly small pipe fittings, flexible hose, and a suitable pressure container holding about 1ltr. John.

yes you are right but like I said doable for the home mechanic and imagine the self satisfaction along with not getting a £600 bill! obviously a V6 is gonna drink a bit but please don't be led down the DERV route. In my opinion ( and I don't think I am alone) the IS Diesel was the worst car to have the L badge on the bootlid. Enjoy the 250 and if the consumption gets to be a problem at least you can say you had one. I love mine and for an 11 year old car it is phenomenal. Paul m.

After fitting the tow bar the exhaust occasionally knocked (very occasionally) so I renewed all 6 hangers. The two bigger hangers sit in the middle of the car with four smaller ones at the rear. Here are the old rubbers flanked with their new counterparts; SealeyTools part numbers EX01 and EX02 are a fair bit firmer than the tired old OEM items and worked a treat with no more knocking. Was quick and easy to swap them over too, once the rear was jacked up. Since fitting I've covered over 1k miles with approx half of that fully loaded with 4 adults / luggage in the boot and on the Bak-Rak. Reminder: the tow bar bolts in between the rear zoorst hanger brackets and the boot chassis rails. The slightly lowered exhaust coupled with the narrower tow bar mounting plates/bolts caused the knock.

236,000. 99,000 have been done since I bought the car about 10 years ago.

My 2002 LS430 has done 25k fault free miles since I bought it. Just did 1,400 miles in Scotland. The gearbox is a 5 speed and is slilky smooth. Can't hear or feel gear changes. The power is amazing although we never use it as we waft everywhere in near total silence. The air suspension is like silk. It uses no oil and does 31 mpg, although that is mostly 'easy' dual carriageway and motorway milage. For a V8 it is remarkably economical on a run. Stop-start driving is not its real forte. Has all 4 brake pads redone. All the pads were about £55 on Europarts, and took 1 1/2 hours to fit at my local place. Easiest pads to fit in any car the young lad said. One bolt, up caliper, pads in. Shell oil and a Mann oil filter are about £25 all in at Euro car Parts. An oil change is easy, but the undercover plate is a pain as in most new cars. Starts on the button every time. The inside is pure luxury, and very spacious. Mine is my favourite colour silver and cream inside. The only problem is the £1,800 Mark Levingson radio (premier pack), which I think is nothing special, but in Suffolk the signal is sometimes weak. The CD is good. It has about 10 airbags and must be incredibly asfe in a crash. When I bought mine it had a new battery and Lexus fitted new cam belt. A full belt, water pump and pulleys is about £600 ever 90,000 miles. Best car I ever had. Plan to keep it for ages.

I scared the life out of a guy in one of those new Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio's on an A road near me. He was hanging off my rear bumper through traffic and I think he thought he was in a fast car until the traffic moved aside and he witnessed 50-100 from the RCF two or three times...we stopped at some traffic lights about 5 minutes later and with a big smile on his face, he opened the window and said 'f**k that things fast! what is it?'...it amazes me more people don't know about these F cars...and most of them would consider themselves petrolheads?!

Yes was at the Lv roundabout! Looked the business! The USB one was at my local car wash in Poole. Think I’ve decided I’d like to get the exhaust as I feel the stock exhaust seems too quiet!

Depending on the year and mileage of car, remember Lexus recommend changing plugs at 60k or 6 years, I would go on the mileage rather than the years, plugs are not wearing when the car is not running. Lexus recommends that the same car in America to change the plugs at 100k miles and lets face it , the Americans know their cars, so don't get hung up on the job, the car will soon let you know when the plugs require changing.

Hi everyone, First of all thanks for the responses. I am probably something of a veteran when it comes to nippy/interesting/cheap/old cars. A search engine, a forum, eBay, and a little bit of effort has kept me out of garages and in fun cars for around a decade. This is my first lexus though. It is also my first v8, my first rwd, and my first auto. I have fixed a few bits already. I paid £400 so I was expecting to. Side indicator I blagged with a near fit (can't see both sides by side anyway) and I have done the usual top ups. Brake pads on the way to me, but will probably need discs soon too. Front strut bar bushes will be needed soonish. This has had a straight pipe fitted (groan) but I can probably live with it. It is also on 18s. It had dings and dents, but life is too short to worry about what other people see. The two big problems are the ice/display and the lack of a belt change. It is on less than 75k but at 20 years old I would expect to see two of them. I will probably see where I get to over the next few months before I commit; this is probably more than I can do roadside so it would be a significant outlay. As far as the nav is concerned....the air con works well, but no audio or display. If I could get the audio working with a cheap unit that would be enough for now. As I understand it the other option is to put in a double din and get a non nav a/c. Anyway...I will check the fuses, and then buy a cheap single din first. As for derestricted roads...I am on the isle of man. TT has just finished, and my test dive was on a one way, unlimited a road. Not too shabby really. Picture attached hopefully. Excuse the side mounted plate etc

here is the pictures of my new ride. Couple of minor issues with it - the most annoying is a small rust bubble in the paint below the number plate on the rear (size of my little finger nail). Only spotted it today after car had to be washed because of a bombing attack by a seagull with poorly tummy. Strongly suspect a previous bigger plate chafed the paint and then water has got in and travelled under the basecoat . I've spoken to the salesman who assures me they will come up with a solution to fix it (car of course is under 30 day Lexus assured warranty). Hopefully it will be resolved quite quickly as I know a good repairer will be able to lose the repair easily into the rest of the paintwork. Service book is apparently located and will be posted to me (again that I see is a condition of the approved used car waranty. another 170 miles today so I refuelled and my average mpg is in excess of 36mpg.

I think if between the vendor and the buyer they would agree to arrange for a 10k service and inspection to be carried out at a local Lexus dealer then it would be a relatively risk free purchase providing nothing nasty was revealed during the service/inspection. If the car was then going to be a keeper then the lack of initial service history would become more meaningless as more Lexus or other services were carried out. I'm guessing the 100k service is a biggie so if that has been done at Lexus the again that provides more reassurance. I think it still looks a good price. As for the Bentley, I agree that the risk factor would be high and I would bet despite the arguably better exterior looks/presence of the Bentley that the LS is actually a nicer place to be.

Hi Matt As John said average MPG is OK for a car with this size of engine, I drove from Glasgow too Bispham (200 miles) last week and averaged 40MPG, and lets just say I cannot put on print the speed I was travelling at, needless to say I'm happy with this MPG. To and from locally to the shops , don't expect anything like this however mid twenties is again OK to travel in comfort. When checking over car, take out dip stick, oil should be nice and clean, if its black, either not well maintained or something amiss. My oil has been is for over a year ( only 4000 miles done) and it is as clean as the day it was changed. Will be replacing with fresh oil soon. In my experience it is one of the cleanest engines I've had, in my previous car, Mercedes, oil was always black at oil change and the same mileage done. Hope you find a good one.

Fuel economy is pretty decent for what it is, especially at this time of year. I've been getting 35+ MPG driving to and from work for the past few weeks.

Welcome Matt, Good choice of car As Paul has said, the tax difference is down to the gearbox. The sat nav is a bit hit and miss. If you were travelling between cities then it would probably work well, but if you get into all the back streets then it isn't so good. For any potential issues with the IS, there is an excellent guide written by @is200 Newbie which should be helpful: Good luck with your search.

The tax difference is down to the gearbox option! IS250 Manual is about £500 and the auto ( same engine!) is about £300! Lots of info here https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/lexus/is-2005/ Paul m.

Be sure it is leaking? I had an LS400 that I bought from a relative circa 2004 (it was a P reg 1996) - the first thing I did was to take it to Lexus, Woodford Green for a full service and new Belts. They advised that the sump had a leak and wanted circa £200 to fix it - that was a lot of money to me then so I said no thanks. It never once in the 6 years I owned it afterwards dripped a single drop on my garage floor. Subsequently an independent mechanic advised me that the little oil on the sump was likely caused by some careless filling up, where the spilt oil or filter change residue had eventually worked its way down the engine to the bottom of the sump. Suggest cleaning it up with some degreaser and checking that it is definitely leaking through the pan seal? Best of luck.

Noby76, you're not suggesting that undriven wheels will push a car when accelerating? A FWD car squatting under acceleration is just weight transfer.

this feeling is not unique to your car or RWD cars.... infact all cars will distribute a higher percentage of weight to their rear wheels resulting in a push from the rear when accelerating from a stop or exiting out of a slow corner.. next time you at traffic lights or exiting out of a corner watch very closely at all the FWD cars in front and see if the rear of their cars lifts up during acceleration or remains down until reasonable speed has been reached..

I don,t know who as the highest but I think I have the lowest 39k

The new link came in the post yesterday and today I had another lunch break at work rolling around under the car, to the amusement of my work colleagues. Once I've finished all the bits and bobs that need doing, maybe I'll do a post with pictures of all the mods and work done.

Cue an objective Linas response!

You can't really compare an IS to an RX. Compare a Audi A4 to a BMW 3 series. It's not really about the driven wheels, but the balance the layout offers. Hard braking, and corning on a car with balanced layout give a completely different feel. hopefully the IS will last, although I would like the latest gen RX as my next car (even though it is FWD)... 😉

As mentioned in previous posts these filters in the line to the cams "can become partially blocked, and are certainly worth checking. This however is not the prime reason for the noise as if the oil were returning back through the filters to drain the sprockets this would increase the time taken for the oil to drain back. They would however increase the time taken to refill the empty sprockets, and increase the duration of the noise. On belt driven versions of the engines an "O" ring seal lets the oil escape as the seal wares, and hardens producing an external oil leak at the sprockets, and is visible behind the belt driven sprockets. The GS450H engine is chain driven so that the sprockets are enclosed within the crank case so any leak back returns to the sump with no sign of any external oil leak. In the US there is a recall for this, but not for the hybrid versions of the engine where modified sprockets are fitted. I do not know if the recall applies in the UK. The none hybrid cars with normal starter motors have been know to loosen the bolts that holds the sprockets to the cams. The bolts falling into the timing chain with disastrous results. However because the starting method in the hybrid is faster, and smoother Lexus say it does not happen with the hybrids. Again however there has been a reported incidence of this here on LOC that I believe Lexus would not acknowledge. It is difficult to know how different oils may affect the situation. More viscous oils (10w40 or 10w50) may take longer to drain back, but they will also be slower at refilling the system. Thinner oils (0w20 or 5w30) may drain back faster, but will also refill the system faster. The OEM specified oil for the MK3 GS450H is 5w30. I now use 0w20 without any noticeable difference in noise level or duration until the pre-lube system was fitted eliminating the noise completely. There is within the sprockets a spring loaded locking pin that looks like it should lock the sprocket to the cam when the engine stops. When oil pressure reaches a given level the locking pin is released by the oil pressure. It may be that the return spring behind the pin breaks or becomes weak or the pin sticks in it's bore. In either case the sprocket would then not lock as the oil drains away. It may be that this is the mechanism that has been modified. The job of the pin can only be to stop the noise until oil has filled the sprockets at pressure, and this is what my system does by pressurising the system before the sprockets move. There are many video's on the tube showing the pin "search Toyota VVT", but know explanation of it's purpose. John.

went to see this today as looking to upgrade my LS460. It is no doubt great value but service history was not unfortunately complete. The car was owned by Sir Robert McAlpine and the seller seems like a really genuine guy with some really nice cars for sale which all seem to be one owner. However in 130000 there was only evidence of 3 or 4 services at Lexus. It may very well be likely it has been serviced more but unfortunately he did not have any paperwork for it. The last service at lexus was at around the 100k mark so has done 30k miles since. I have to say the car exterior was spotless and the drive was absolutely amazingly smooth. The rear ottoman looked well used though! If someone is willing to look past the patchy service history it is an absolute steal at that price. Bit more service history and I would have definitely bought it as it's probably never likely to break down On a separate note he had some nice bentley flying spurs for sale for a similar price. I've always fancied that car but not sure could risk the repair bills as they are probably very likely to break down as they get older

Thank you all for your replies. We're currently talking to Paul Frost (lexussparesdirect). He has been very good with advice and suggestions and I hope we can do a deal. In addition we'll need the relevant control arms etc. but paradoxically it may turn out to be easier / quicker to replace the whole lot as a unit rather then some bits this year and some next year etc. Tinonline: its beyond just the surface and a few holes have appeared here and there. I suspect the tester may be being a bit cautious, but then it is a heavy car with a fair bit of power going to the back wheels; and next year I don't imagine spare parts prices and availability will be any better. runsgrateasanut: new mot rules "dangerous", I also suspect some places will start incorporating this into their practices; and gov't "unintended consequences" will result in older cars quietly going away - "because their old and dangerous gas guzzlers etc etc." (meanwhile our mechanic tells me of the numerous gearbox failures he's seeing with 'modern' cars that have only done 11,000 20,000 26,000 miles (mainly KA, clio, fiat 500)). Ambermarine: thanks for Paul Frost suggestion, saved me so much time looking elsewhere - which was getting me nowhere. Steve: No photos yet, but will try and get some when she goes back up on the lift. Denis: nice car, same blue as mine ("S" reg), except your seems much cleaner ! I think when the existing parts are off, it will be a good time to underseal everything in sight, before the replacement bits go back on. many thanks,

I can't speak about others, but for me, brought up with terrible French cars (thinking I was doing better than my fathers worse history with British leyland cars 😞 ), I had to learn how to fix them (regularly), and to be fair quite enjoyed the learning experience ... but as soon as I got a taste for the Japanese quality, would never look back. From my experience in engineering, making sure things are designed well, screwed together well, made to be easily repaired/serviced/supported .... I really appreciate the effort Toyota/Lexus put in, the extra bit of thought about choice of metals, fastenings, connectors, simple tooling, (mostly) simple servicing... that's ignoring the horrific fuel filter on my IS200d from (grrrr .. reackon they had an Audi designer doing that design) ..

Streaming? Spotify? Bluetooth? What is this witchcraft of which you speak? Can't we get back to sensible discussions about balancing carburettors and so on? 😉

At the end of the day, you need to do what feels best for you. If a warranty gives you peace of mind, then it's worth every single penny. Now, just sit back and continue to enjoy the IS300h!

Have a look here: http://nice-reg.co.uk/number-plates/number-plates/diplomatic-number-plates-embassy-plates.html. It's for non-diplomatic staff working (in my case) for an international organisation. I'll change it back though as insurers willing to provide insurance are few and far between. Admiral (who I was with originally) said they would but then conveniently changed their mind after I had gone through the process and was confirming the registration plate change, leaving me to find alternative insurance at about twice the cost (just before a Christmas trip to the continent)...

My five pounds is safe... 😁

I'd consider getting a different handset and connecting that via Bluetooth. If it sounds good, then it's an issue with your handset (not necessarily defective, but perhaps some conflict or incompatibility with the car / Bluetooth versions). If same issue, then you can begin to focus on the system. I'd be looking at car software updates at that point.

That is because society wants actions.... whatever bloody thing that means... you know to fight climate change. Planes, trains and industry have strong lobby behind it so they are inconvenient targets, but some scapegoats are needed to kill off blood-thirst for action... yep you guest it right - individual car drivers who all in all contribute ~2.4% of pollution (2.1% diesel and 0.3% petrol) are exactly suitable target to "solve" the problem (as you said easy targets). Obviously, there are no issues with consumerism i.e. cheap clothing which we throw away after single use or cheap Chinese electrical goods and toys which keeps braking and we throw them to landfills.. no that is not a problem - problem is motorists... well you know ... just because!

Great thread.

Having seen a silver car at my local breakers to provide a door and wing i think i may try to fix this. Upon closer inspection only door and wing dented. Just need to get someone to assess what is damaged with the steering and what requires replacing. "GJ02" may return to the road?? The Alfa GTV in the 2nd pic is my other car...also 6 cylinder 🙂

Go to Auto Doc for the best prices. For the water pump get the AISIN. Approx £44. It is exactly the same product as the genuine Lexus item that is sold for around £100 from a Lexus dealer. AISIN make/supply the Lexus water pumps. For timing belt and idler pack get the one from Blueprint. Blueprint make very good products for japanese cars.

Our 2015 IS300H handles much better than my old BMW 335i with stock M sport suspension and nearly as good as the 335i on bespoke Bird B3 suspension kit. Push the car hard and the inheret behaviour is understeer not oversteer which your describing. Infact I've hard ever experienced anything remotely close to oversteer our IS.

Good day out at the hill climb & great to meet some more members. Really good venue with stunning scenery, a great selection of cars & good company👍🏻 Thanks to Tim & Alex at Lexus Cheltenham for taking people up the hill. Watching the LC & RCF (with a Quicksilver exhaust fitted) being put through there paces was also good fun. The new Yaris GRMN was also an impressive car in the flesh as well - proper pocket rocket!!. It was a great day & thanks @Big RatPaul for persevering mate. Fingers crosses for the F 10th Anniversary.

This cropped up last time I was at the dealers, I asked if the newer cars were as well screwed together as the old ones. The reply was (obviously) yes but the guy I spoke to mentioned a few IS300H that came in for service and were used as mini cabs. One guy bought his at 65k and it had now done 200k+. I think the reference to the Prius is probably spot on. I've run older (2000 on) German and Swedish stuff for the last few years and my '02 IS300 is a revelation in build quality.