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Hi some of you maybe aware last year in had my IS paint work fully corrected as it had swirls and marks all over it. Since then I've been on some 1-2-1 course and purchased alot of the kit myself. I've now done a few cars but today decided to go over my 13 plate IS again This didn't take long at all because my washing technique is very strict so very minor scratching to the laqer that's all. Lexus paint is very soft so it's always gonna happen however that makes it nice to work with when correcting. Here are some pictures from today, if any of you would like your paintwork correcting drop me a pm and we can discuss further.

Had a little play this morning... fitted the separate gearbox oil cooler to eliminate the chance of the dreaded cooler failure wrecking the gearbox, as I've said elsewhere this is the preventative measure I am happy with, there are several ways to preempt this problem and deal with it, whichever way you chose is the best way for you... It's a simple process... remove this panel, there are about 6,534 10mm fixings.... You can then see this at the bottom of the rad the two pipes coming out are from the internal cooler They go into two metal pipes and are held on with those constant torque clips, remove the pipes from the metal pipes, cut them short, shove a bolt in the shortened pipe and secure with a jubilee clip, this ensures that should the rad fail internally then you won't lose coolant through the oil cooler... I forgot to take pictures of the next bit so adapted this one, I drilled four holes in the panel below the aluminium crash bar, two for the pipes (Red)and two outside ones (Yellow) for the purpose of fixing the rad. The pipe holes line up directly with the strengthening ribs... Then dressed up the rad with the hose tails, went under the bonnet, plenty of room to get the rad in position, I used a piece of wood to wedge it in position then used these self drilling and tapping screws, they are designed for roofing sheets but are handy for loads of things... Fixed the cooler in place with four of them using a 10mm socket on a 1/4 drive extension bar in a cordless drill... Cooler now fitted very solid and in good airflow under the front number plate.. Then just a case of cutting the pipes to length and fixing them on, then replacing the undertray. The old cooler only had about a quarter of a cupful of oil in it and as I plan to change the gearbox fluid soon I didn't bother topping it up... Job done... I then sorted out the electrical socket for the tow bar, the old one was hanging below the bar and got broken when I reversed out of our drive and up the neighbour opposites drive, there was a van in the way to stop me turning up the road as I usually do, this meant the front was going uphill as the rear was going down hill.. a nasty scrape and the socket was toast... it looked awful anyway.. Here it is before showing the extra reversing LED's I removed earlier... I bought a black one and a stainless steel plate to secure it, the type that sits behind a normal tow hook, as mine is a removable one I cut down and bent the bracket to fit the socket flush with the bottom of the tow bar, i had to remove a semicircle of the bumper edge to get it in, I have mounted it sideways as this meant I didn't have to remove any more bumper as it would start to show... That looks better if I do say so myself..!! I'll probably paint the stainless bracket but I didn't take any paint to the garage.... It's getting closer to where I want it...... Went to visit the IS250 we have just bought for my good lady. It is in the paintshop, ready for primer, it's having a full front end repaint and the rear bumper, it will then be mint body wise... The bonnet looked like it had been cleaned with a brillo pad and acid, the bumper and front wings had a few stone chips and the rear bumper had a scuff on one corner and a ding in the middle.... (Don't people use the PDC...!!) It's difficult to photograph but it looks awful in the flesh ( We got a lot of money off because of this ) You can see it's a different colour, the headlights are very faded as well, I polished them before it went in, came up like new.... It has to look worse before it gets better.... The back half of the front wings will be flatted with very fine grade paper and the area will be used to blend the new colour into the original, this should make the repaint virtually imperceptible... The bumper had a lot of stone chips.... Old wheely bin makes a great bumper stand...!!! Should be finished Wednesday....

Surprised to find a largely favourable review on the TG website which I assumed would be the usual understeer, oversteer, power tosh. And I quote: Should I buy one? This is a moment for you to consider what driving you really do, rather than what you would like to do, but don’t. While TG will go to its grave defending your right to having a drift-worthy V8 that consumes tyres and petrol in equal measure, there are some of us who just want or need to get somewhere in the least stressful way possible. Often with luggage and passengers. For those people, cars like the Volvo S90 and now the new Lexus ES are not just a sensible choice, but the correct one. The new Peugeot 508 also treads its own path by all accounts, wilfully different form the usual (Germanic) suspects. Perhaps there's finally the start of seismic shift in the motoring press, from baseball cap to cardigan? I won't hold my breath though!

Just got back from Lexus Cheltenham having picked up Mrs Rat's car which they serviced and mot'd for her and took care of some MOT failure items, well it is a Ford so presumably it was having one of its ' Frequently Off Road Days'. Anyway great service from them, had a chat with a few of the guys there about what @J Henderson John mentioned about the Grey '10th' Anniversary cars in the UK, well there are 9 here available for sale it's believed to be 6 Rcf and 3 Gsf. They will apparently be available for order in August. The 3 last Gsf's as an aside are 2 Black cars and a Sonic Titanium the Sonic Titanium is allocated to Lexus Cheltenham. @BUG4LIFE made mention of my old isF unfortunately she's gone for auction not sure where, great shame still whoever gets her will be getting a low mileage great overall condition car, they really are difficult car to price and place at times. Big Rat

Noby76, I'd love to know how a 15Kg wheel, directly linked and held to solid chassis with the moment of inertia within the driving diameter could provide any push on a vehicle? There are only 2 ways this could happen, the moment of inertia is outside of the driving diameter (google / you tube how a flywheel works), Or the the wheel is spinning faster than the car is going, as this can't happen as the wheel is mechanically linked to the car and fictionally held to the ground so the only possible way would be with a kinetic energy storage flywheel and clutch system (which I am sure Volvo have actually designed for rear axle mounting). Any 'Push' from interia without a flywheel would only be giving during speed reduction, and even then on a car with say 30Kg of rotating mass vs 1600kg total mass would be insignificant. I really hope this makes sense. Ps, I'm a mechanical engineer, and have worked in Aerospace and automotive design engineering my entire career.

I do like a good scientific debate. If nothing else this thread proves that parallel universes DO exist!

Sorry, but I'm right about the Honda Jazz!

@noby76 John I'm happy to prove you wrong and it's based on the following experience of driving and qualifications so the experience I have is based on the following......... Driving licences held - Car - Motorcyle- LGV1 -PSV- Tracked Vehicle all for 43 years. My driving history is that I was a class 1 advanced level police driver and instructor and pursuit specialist as well as in a civilian capacity taught vehicle escape and evasion for HM Forces and personal protection agencies. I have driven a huge array of all types of cars not just performance vehicles whether they be RWD/FWD/ALWD, prior to returning to the building trade I worked for Michelin in tyre development as a test driver. So from all this im hoping you will agree I probably know what I'm talking about, and have others have said it's the principles that you have are wrong pretty much all vehicles will squat at the rear to a lesser or greater degree when moving forward depending on the amount of accelerative force being applied but if you are suggesting that any amount of drive is being applied by a FWD vehicle during this is time is hopelessly off the mark. I hope this clarifies the matter. Big Rat

Oh dear

I had the option after asking myself if it could go to Lexus when I reported the accident but I had to ask. There was a bit of pressure I felt to take the option to go with Auxilis but i had a feeling the car was going to be written off so I went with the easier option. There definitely is the option to go with Admiral but you will lose part of your no claims and I think your excess but check first. When you are involved in an accident you feel like the companies are firing questions and options at you when all you want to do is get it sorted with no hassle. I guess different situations are dealt with differently from different areas - I had a good experience with Auxilis, was given a year old BMW 3 series M Sport and had it for a month before it went back. I had no real issues other than chasing for the second and final amount from the company. They even let me remove parts from the written off car before it was destroyed so in this case I was a happy customer. Don't intend to be in the situation again but who knows but my no claims is intact and with a renewal quote just through my insurance has not changed.

You can but your own insurance company will push you towards their 'preferred' incident management firm. For third path non-fault claims insurances all want to get as much costs from the claim recovered as possible with least effort, therefore they all rather 'sell' the work onto someone else. Auxillis is probably the biggest incident management firm around, as a result their service can be described as 'impersonal'. I've used them before in a different claim third party non-fault claim and through out the whole thing you feel like nothing more than a number been pushed around. Personally if other choices are available I would look else where.

Don't get involved with Auxillis, they have an awful reputation. They sent me a diesel Seat Leon as a replacemnt car when our Tesla got written off in a third party non fault claim. I was advised to try a company called Novo. Called them up 3pm and next day I had an equivalent Tesla delivered to work. They also than arranged my car to be delivered to Tesla direct, where as my own insurance company(DirectLine) send it to a local garage who called me up as they couldnt even work out how to open the doors!!! I didn't pay a single penny of my excess, got refunded extra compensation for changes in spec/VED rates, and they were 100% professional through out the process. They did all the leg work between chasing the third party insurance company and mine. I've only seen good feedback from them on the Tesla FaceBook forum, I woudlnt hesitate to use them again, only thing am not sure about is if they would take on a IS300H claim. But there is no harm in giving them a call. http://www.nim.uk.com

The normal procedure with a claim is that you pay the excess to the repairer "body shop" when the insures have settled who was to blame the insurance company return the excess payment to the innocent party. This does not mean the money will be returned quickly. I had a no fault claim when I was with Churchill. I had it in writing from the other party that the damage was his fault, but it still took 3 years to get my excess back after many many phone calls. Ask your insurer if this claim will affect your premiums for the next 5 years "you will have to declare the claim for that period". If it will ask how much, and say you wish to claim that if any as out of pocket expenses. John

Thanks for the info. I'm seriously considering doing it, even if I don't keep the car. A good LS will take a very long time to find and there's no rush at all. I'll let you know if and when I do it. Thanks again.

That's my car and yes, there were a lot of wires about at that time but like I said, it was just a dry run/temporary lashup. Annoyingly, the pictures of the neat, finished job were on my phone microSD card that died and the car has now been traded in, so I can't show you the finished article. It really is a simple job to do and takes no more than two hours max. And if I do say so myself, I was really impressed with the job, the lights looked really well. I would certainly do it again if this car didn't already have DRLs. EDIT: Found one photo which may give you a better idea:

Win At last

Mine went to Lookers to be assessed then they came back a week later to say it was a write off. If you go with Auxilis then I am pretty sure it will be repaired through their network. If you go with Admiral you can specify who repairs it but you will loose a no claim bonus. You don't with Auxilis so its kind of a gamble - if you know its going to be a write off then go with Auxilis, if its not and you are happy to lose the excess and no claims then go with Admiral but can have the repairer specified by yourself. On the one hand, like you say, Lexus do not have a body or paint shop, but knowing a good one and using them will come at a cost but maybe a better job...swings and roundabouts and something really your insurer should be on your side about repairing your car as its not your fault.

I was with Admiral - just cancelled with them tonight as their renewal quote came in at £300 dearer than a renewal quote. When I had my accident in February, non fault 3rd party to blame. I used the Auxilis service and was quite impressed - hire car turned up next day - it went back almost a month later. My car was written off and Auxilis dealt with the issue from start to finish. I must say though that two payments were made ... one almost immediately and I have just this week had the second which is 4 months later. I had the excess back and was not left out of pocket. What you will get though are a bombardment of calls from the other drivers insurance stating they will take over the claim as their hire car costs are cheaper... stick to Auxilis as its less hassle and its all dealt with by them. I know what you are going through but at least its not written off but all the same, you will know its accident damaged. Good luck

Feel for you. Good that the van driver had the decency to stop and report it. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Now that's not good at all. Given all the money we pay, the least we should expect is decent service if we ever need it. As an Admiral customer myself, this makes for uncomfortable reading. I can only wish you luck and hope it turns out for the best in the end.

I wonder if stock handing around for 7 months is ok for them? I wonder how the car has been treated during it's 7 month sat at a dealership? I wonder how low they'd go on the asking price...probably not as low as I wanted them to go [and now they'd have to buy my For STi off me] :)

Rayaan I feel for you. Not what anyone needs or wants. Fortunately not to much damage that could cause future problems. I hope you manage to get it sorted quickly. John.

Oh no, from the pic's it looks like you're caught the offender tho right? I hope the damage to your car is sorted with minimal fuss.

Go to an alloy wheel refurbishers. You would be amazed how they can repair wheels. Was in a tyre shop the other day. Guy had hit a pothole and thought the wheel was scrap. No no, said the shop. We can fix that. Specialist have wheel rolling machines that force a buckled wheel back into true. They could refurb it the same colour as the rest, or have all 4 done for say £60-70 each. They fit new valves and balance them, as part of the deal/price.

What maguires stuff do you have? You could use the t cut on a cloth on your finger and would take them out but may leave a haze. Best way if doing that would be to be reducing the pressure as your finishing the polishing to add the gloss back into it. Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Some other French Lakes in the Alps and Pyrenees I have enjoyed. I am planning some further trecks to more distant ones for this trip which is under 12 weeks to go. Lac De Abondonce (September 2017) _DSC0736 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Lac de Fontaine (September 2017) _DSC0828_Rendition 3 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Lac De Vallon (September 2017) _DSC0973 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Lac de Bious Artigues (September 2017) _DSC0691 (1) by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Lac D'Oredon (May 2016). Normally you can drive up but the road was closed due ice/snow to had to hike the last couple of miles for sunrise _DSC2494 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Lac D'Oredon (September 2015) _DSC4813 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Pragser Wildsee (September 2017) _DSC0925 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

Can get a smoother finish with less orange peel and its easier to correct. Start getting swirls on hard paint and you have to pull out the heavy cutting compounds to sort it out. Lexus paint polishes up very well with a fine polish meaning you don't have to remove loads of the clear coat.

Excuse the possibly stupid question but why is Lexus paint made soft ? What is the advantage.? Why don't they use the same as other car manufacturers who I am assume have "hard" paint. Doesn't make sense to me to deliberately use paint which marks at the slightest touch of a passing hedge (or worse).

There are quite a few ads for housings on eBay - mostly from China or USA. But it's only an ally can - the chinese ones should be perfectly OK. Cost about £12. (Look for IS250 ones - they are the same for IS220D) One odd thing - the specified torque setting for IS250 housing is 18 ft.lb - for the IS220D it's 30 ft.lb

I am going to generalise here, what I am going to say is generally, but not always true RWD Advantages: Vehicle architecture allows 50/50 weight distribution, with engine mass within the axles. Engine can sit lower in vehicle reducing centre of mass. Better work load split, front wheels steer, rear wheels drive. Weight transfer during acceleration pushes wheels into ground, increasing friction. Disadvantages, Driven wheels push car straight during cornering (oversteer) Increased cost and weight increased package on constraints. FWD advantages: Reduced Cost and packaging. Reduced overall weight. Acceleration during cornering is in the direction you want to travel (assuming you don't get understeer). Disadvanatages: Poor weight distribution due to engine sitting on top of front axle to avoid need for a drive shaft (although this is why FWD is better in snow). torque steer. Drive train elements affect steering 'feel'. Lift off wheel spin, especially on FWD car's with relatively good weight distribution. generally a higher centre of mass from the engine. The Key however is equal and even weight distribution. Equal weighting balances the work load during corning, makes the car more stable during braking. have a look at engineering explained on you tube, he has a good way of explaining things.

with regards rear wheels carrying momentum, then in real world scenario's then no more than the spare wheel in the boot (if only we had one eh!)

Thanks Big Rat and Paul99. I'll be in touch over PM.

Hi You might find a fuel economy benefit with 0w-20, but you might find that it will burn more oil with 0w-20 than 5w-30. It takes good ingredients to make a good oil that is also quite thin, so 0w-20 will always be synthetic. 5w-30s are generally synthetic, but there are occasional semis. Cheers Tim

Yes the rear wheels have stored rotation energy but their contribution is insignificant. The physics and real world experience can be quite different... but no less real.

I'm in Coventry and happy to assist, I'm pretty sure I can make the meet in July also so could help then.

Perhaps we could discuss this vehicle next...........it could take a while..... Big Rat

On LHD cars it's by the steering wheel on the left of the car. On RHD vehicles the fusebox stays on the left of the cars under the glovebox. If you look directly under the glovebox you should see a removable panel.

Think this is one of those threads where one person digs there heels in, bit like defending an indefensible position.......so all I can say further is........ Big Rat

@Flytvr I'll have Silver no blue no silver blue........ silver....blue.....or its Lexus making a mistake....... 🐀

My wife’s RX450 had a slight leak on a rear damper a few years back. This was only known to us when, upon collecting the car from a normal service, we were told that both rear dampers had been replaced free of charge. It’s that level of service that means she’ll buy another RX from the same dealer when she fancies a different colour one! She’s not interested in even sampling any other manufacturers. On an RCF as new as yours, I shouldn’t imagine you’ll have any trouble getting it sorted.

Hi everyone, I picked up my 1st Lexus today and drove it from Edinburgh to Glasgow. I love it! Honestly, so far I like everything about the car! Here are a few pictures guys, I hope you like it too. I am still discovering all the toys he has and how to use them! I like this forum as well, very easy to navigate (almost identical to BMW forum) and very very interesting to read!

The 'push' force you are feeling is being applied by the seat back, which in turn is being pulled forward by the only genuine motive force, that being applied to the front wheels. Those wheels are ahead of the observer, the driver (and his seat) and so commonly described as a pulling force. But of course as we all know a true 'pulling' force is one that is applied to an object in the opposite direction to that object's direction of motion. A true pushing force is one that is applied in the same direction of that object's motion. So, strictly speaking a FWD car is still being 'pushed' down the road.

It keeps on giving... I am inviting my colleges to check it out, this is almost more interesting the Fifa world cup! Especially that part where you and your mechanic frantically turns the wheels on lifted car just to realise the truth - rear weal are in no way connected to front ones! Your hands in your comparison works as substitute for driveshaft, by turning each wheel by hand you turn it into AWD, if what you saying would be true, then turning front wheels on FWD car would make rear wheels to turn as well without touching them. When you reach some speed on FWD, you are right rear wheels will carry some mass, and because they are rotating, rotating mass = torque. But that rotating mass is dead mass as it is not connected to anything - when you start braking the rear wheels will continue to rotate, when you start accelerating they will resist acceleration - they not acting in any way to support acceleration. In corner the mass shift from side to side, to prevent tyres sliding you need lateral grip, better tyres on the front will grip more then rear ones resulting in tendency of car oversteer first. The reason manufacturers recommends better tyres on the rear is because it is commonly accepted that (for inexperienced driver!) understeer is safer then oversteer. Push or pull depends where you are in regards to driving wheels, therefore FWD can only pull. If you park your FWD Accord behind my RWD IS250 and start pushing me, you car even being FWD will effectively push me, if I attach rope to your car and pull you, my car being RWD will effectively pull you. BTW... I am actually amazed we having this conversation with adult. It almost feels to me like taking toy cars in front of 2 years old to explain what pushing and pulling means.

Weight will be transferred, however that does not make "push" in any shape or form - not only you have some fundamental problem understanding how physics works, but you keep changing the statement you made - you clearly said there will be "push" from the rear on FWD car, which is just absurd. Now you trying to argue that weight transfer is fact .. which it is. In my opinion SUVs are cancer on the roads, but I start to understand why some people like them and the rest are simply forced to have them. Some less confident drivers prefers SUV because they "feel" safer, secondly because our roads becoming really terrible and most SUV provides more acceptable ride on rough roads. Now clearly it is misconception that saloons are inferiour - SUVs are not inherently safer and it is not fault of sporty saloons that our roads are bloody broken like never before. That results in SUV being popular and the rest of the drivers of "non-SUV" have to deal with blinding lights (because SUV lights are higher), not being able to "see trough" traffic and just general feeling of being small and vulnerable. Considering all above I am not surprised that more and more people are switching to SUV. I really hate driving SUV because of high center of gravity and body roll in the corners and I will not be switching to SUV (not to be confused with proper offroaders which have a purpose). Secondly, SUVs have a lot of cons. like increased mass, fuel consumption, aforementioned roll in corners etc. However, as I have said, I understand why people do it - that is because unless you drive SUV yourself it becomes inconvenient to drive "normal" car when there are so many SUVs around.

@Toothy Nice work David a great post with helpful detail for those that want to replicate and all with an added safety aspect in my opion, with a more modern look as well when illuminated. Perhaps we ought to start regional minor modifications workshop meets for this kind of thing ! With coffee and cake thrown in as well 😁 🐀

Impressive work must have been very satisfying - makes me wish I was more handy when it comes to my own cars. I'm reasonably practical person but do not when it comes to the nuts & bolts stuff on cars. Have upmost respect for all of u with the tools, expertise & confidence to do these jobs.

That’s gutting! Obviously I’m not in the market anymore (unless I could sell my Foz for the same price I paid) but I wonder if they’ve made a loss on the car now? I had 18k ready to go but obviously that would of been to low for them a couple of months ago. Bugger 😞

Insurance is a farce. They're saying I have to pay £450 excess, get the car repaired and Auxillis (Admiral's non-fault claim service) will recover costs from the other party along with the excess. Im still in the process of figuring out whether my excess gets returned to me or not..... and it appears nobody can give me an answer

Here is actual figures of whats been 'debated' about, the IS is averaging about 500 sales per month for the WHOLE of western Europe. BMW would probably not even notice 500 3 series been misplaced for a month. http://carsalesbase.com/european-car-sales-data/lexus/lexus-is/