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Having shown up early to collect my car after a service, I remember chatting to the valeting guy while he was finishing cleaning it. I was pleased to learn, never having thought about it before, that his cleaning the ventilator-grilles under the seats was considered a routine part of servicing. I tend to doubt, perhaps wrongly, if his counterparts in other dealerships are all equally conscientious. My conclusion was that formal attention to details of this sort is what distinguishes good dealerships from normal or mediocre ones.

Some excellent responses from you all on this so thank you for that. I think Ben hit the nail on the head with these things. Eventually it will all fail and will be impossible to replicate without a mountain of cash, and even then for what? A 30 year old ls! Ok so change of plan. Run and maintain it with decent preventative work. But nothing stupid like resprays. Enjoy it with its battle scars hope the rot doesn't kill it too quickly. At the moment it's got no visible rust on the body or sills but does have some crusty rust on the subframe and under the boot seal. Which is annoying. Nothing mentioned on the not get about it though

My 2007 40k miler is on OEM exhaust and just passed another MOT without mention couple of days ago! Lots of short journeys will have a far worst effect of the longevity of the exhaust system, more than total mileage done if the system is allowed to get upto a temp high enough to 'burn off' any residual moisture within when engine is shut down. Until recently the choice of exhaust replacement was limited to Genuine Lexus (£1,000's ). Or bespoke one off jobs, but now there are sellers ( notably EBay) with replacement items at down to earth prices. Note, don't be put off by surface rust as they didn't take long to get like that from new ( mild steel and not stainless!) but a failure point is the crutch of the V where the pipes split left & right. Look for black soot staining. paul m.

True that, you have to work the system if you get into claiming - I had my old vectra that I paid £900 written off for £1300, bought it back for £71 and repaired it for another £120, drive it for another year and sold it for £500.

I wouldn't bother claiming, unless the 3rd party has significant damage, most smart repairers would carry out a perfectly adequate job, it's 15 years old and you could run it for quite some time I'd bet. Insurers love to bump up premiums for years for such claims. Hope it ends well for you. Ed

Just parked the car by the toilet and directed the 3 year old.... Mind you. Not the usual thing I google while on the loo 😉

Bought it in August last year from Lexus Sheffield. They did a small service on it before letting me have it and I arranged for this big service and MOT to be carried out before the warranty runs out in a couple of weeks. As we know, these cars certainly can't be described as unreliable but they are showing their age. I've had the O2 sensor, water pump and top mount all done under warranty. And while they're doing the water pump they're changing the timing belt two years early because Lexus are already paying the labour. It'll cost me about 30 quid in parts.

Important RX 400h related news. It seems as if the family bus replacement will not be here before we go on our jollies to Cornwall. The XC90 went back last month and a shiny new S-Max was supposed to replace it but delays on delays. I seriously doubt it's going to turn up at the dealers, be PDI'd, registered and taxed before close of play Thursday. So it is with a heavy heart () that we must go away in the RX. All three children in a row and squabbling for 300 miles but we're going in the Lexus 👍👍👍 I've even offered to do mix cassettes for everyone while feigning ignorance of that Spotify or whatever it's called. Don't tell Freda that I'm secretly very pleased about this. Hell, I'd take us all away in the IS if she'd let me.

I am just SO grateful for air con in my RX. I just could not function without it. Thank you to whoever invented it! ( Good time to buy logs for the winter though - cheap and plentiful! ) ( I have units in our house too - great investment. ) 🔥

Yesterday took my 2006 IS 220d for it's first MOT with me and glad to say it passed with no issues! Always an apprehensive wait while watching him go over the vehicle! The tester was very impressed with the condition considering its 177,000 miles and said there was no play in the front wheels and it's like it came out of the factory. No oil/ gearbox leaks and he could tell it's been looked after. Monday evening I spent 2 hours fitting my new air con condenser and was hoping the same Garage I got the MOT done at could re-gas my AC, but unfortunately man away who uses machine. Went to Kwick Fit and got it done for £59 and took an hour. Works great now! Yesterday was a great day and really pleased it all went well. On Monday when I got the car cleaned I pulled into the car wash bay and unfortunately this one was closed and went to reverse out and no reverse! Wouldn't go into any gear! Turned the engine off and restarted and gearbox back to fully working instantly! First time it's happened in my ownership and I have covered 2,300 miles. Any idea what it could be? James

Not bad for a 2003 RX! ( Just an advisory for a small nominal diff leak - that's been there forever ). 😳

Now I know @Comedianmentioned on another forum about the Lcf on its way...... maybe Is this an Rcf update..... https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-japanesecars/lexus-lc-f-on-the-way/38421 Big Rat

I am looking to upgrade the subwoofer in the booth of my car 4th gen RX; so as to get more thumping bass -: upwards of 200w. My current set up is a ML spec but the bass output is not powerful as I desire. Can anyone suggest which makes of subs will do the job. Also I have seen subs with built -in amplifiers (active subs) can I simply unbolt the factory booth woofer and then plug in the after market examples or is it a complex set up that requires tech wiring knowledge? I will be grateful also if anyone can send me a link to where this topic may have been discussed in the past on the forum. Looking forwards to your suggestions txns.

The P as you described is for the parking sensors

my Lexus is 250 f sport had it's mot last Friday no advisories as with the previous year,always do my home work,check tyres,lights etc before hand,only fail car has had is headlight aim too low and that was before i had it,my IS 200 which i owned for 8 years didn't have one advisories before or after my ownership 😊

Slightly jealous of you guys though. The cars may be (ultra reliable), the tyres may have issues as I found out myself today. Failed MOT because one of the front tyres has a cut exposing cords between treads. Was planning to have both changed anyway given that both fronts were at 2/3 mm, but now considering to have all 4 changed as one of the rears was also recommended by the (Lexus) garage to be changed due to it being slightly perished. This one still has 5 mm left but probably has been on there since the beginning (car has only driven about 26k miles in 5 years). Interestingly, this is not listed as an advisory on the MOT though. On the upside, this gives me a good excuse to get all seasons fitted, which would have been my longer term goal..

and the link as worked all back to normal many thanks

Also don't forget the amount of occasions in recent years you have seen news footage of roads flooded with cars upto their cills in water! not all those cars will be 'written off' by insurance companies and taken out of the system, so unless you have owned the car for a good number of years always be suspicious of flood damage when buying a car, dry silt in any interior crevices (easiest to check boot) is a tell-tell sign of previous exposure to flooding. paul m.

Cheers guys. What a great bunch of people on this forum. Really appreciated Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

The Limit is no more than 10 years old or I believe 100,000 miles whichever comes first , I know as I have just taken out a warranty with Lexus on my LS600 and after research it is by far the best warranty you will get , price for a 2 year Lexus warranty was £2350 or £1450 for 1 year Cant help you with the Nav unit suffice to say I find it hard to believe you cant separate that piece of trim from the rest of the unit , just had a look at mine and its very similar but in my case it's Satinised aluminium , cant see why it would be corroded tho , that seems odd , I would suggest a specialist parts dealer and try phoning around other Lexus parts departments just to see what they say in terms of buying that individual section of trim Don't worry about the Hybrid side it's virtually bulletproof , with it's service history as with all Lexus Hybrids you should have received a Hybrid Health check certificate with the MOT

I would walk away.

Had an accident 3 years ago , clash of wing mirrors on my Q7 with a guy driving a van £600 damage and even tho' I had a witness saying it was deffo his fault plus my dashcam evidence , Admiral only managed to get me back £300 and eventually gave up chasing the remaining £300 of my claim , my quote with them the following year went North by £450 and has gone up significantly year on year even tho I changed Insurers you still have to declare the accident details , your fault or not they milk everyone 🙄

up to you mine are set to 70 cops are a bit keen near me. I believe the p is power mode what year is your car? I do not have drls so do not see that or the p sign. Have a mess about you may not like it, it does annoy when they light up but then you know your speeding. Just use left and right buttons to alter speed and revs.

A good news thread ! YEAY !!!

Drl is daylight running lights. The tach can be set to say 2000 rpm and speedo can be set to 70 mph etc. Only examples glow orange or red when exceeded.

You serviced your air con whilst on the toilet, that's impressive. Which hand did you use? 😁 😉

Any more photos of you car? Would love to see it!

All done while having a poo

It's confirmed. The S-Max is still in Antwerp. Road trip!

Aye, but I have strongly disagreed the idea, in form of 2000 words essay.

I've seen it being tested....

Search is your friend, you can call me search from now on 🙂 Post 8 I think may help.

Don't listen to music in the car. It's so far behind my domestic set-up that I restrict myself to Radio 4. R4 is excellent imo.

Sorry Rayaans but ML isn't the company it was when it 1st started and it's ethics in sound reproduction. What it is now is a marketing tool. Yes now they produce better than most car audio equipment but it's just too different between Lexus models. My current RX is a 62 plate registered 2013 and it's ML system is not as good as the 2nd of my IS300h's whose ML was superb. The ML in my 1st IS was utter shyte. Yes systems now in cars have their bass boosted probably coz it's cheaper to do that than properly sound deaden car body panels. I can make any car sound better than ML for under £1k probably £800. Rockford Fosgate amp £300. Infinity speakers £350ish. Alpine sub £125 and a couple rolls of dynamat plus wires/leads. Yes Comedian some home systems have 2 or more subs running but they'll be run from dedicated sub amps. Before buying my Alpine sub I ran a custom designed by Wilmslow Audio (1980''s original company) 4th order bandpass box which had 2 10" speakers facing each other but in separate enclosures with just one 4" hole for the sound to come out. It was designed for home use. I guinea pigged it for car use as it was only about 2 foot cube. Acoustic Research AR9''s have 2 subs in each speaker making a total of 4 subs perfectly matched powered by BBC grade Quad amps. And yes if you can hear where the sub is then something is set up wrong. You feel good sub bass.

You have to understand that ML is a company aimed at audiophiles i.e. music should sound exactly like it did when recorded and how the artist intended. Nowadays, the bass is heavily amplified in a lot of other brands like HK and Bose to name a few I still haven't come across any system which is circa £1k and has the clarity of ML, at any volume. But, they do need to be played fairly loud to get the full benefit, and with a good source. I tried DVD-A in my previous RX and it was very very good. USB appears to be close enough as are CDs but no point even listening to anything off bluetooth or radio

Based on other releases from the same publication (see below). What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't look at that different from the current LC500 IMO.

It may be able to shake the doors But the issue is its low quality of sub bass. What gobsmacks me is in the RX ML system is only around 300 watts. The ML in the IS300H is a mighty 835 watts. Also the RX has pityful sound proofing. The door skins are so so tinny. Most definitely need treating with dynamat. There's always room for improvement.

6.2 customisations sec_06-02.pdf

Is there no equaliser on the ML version? The 12 speaker setup on the standard RX has an equaliser and once the bass is put to max it can shake the doors.

Could be condenser, connection block, pipe itself even, any damaged seal or hair-crack. Unfortunately AC oil is light and under high pressure, it easy flies like thin mist, especially in turbulent air under the bonnet. Very often is SNAFU like your situation, there is an oily surface around condenser, dryer or compressor, but where is the source, it's difficult to guess. Common practice is to replace orings first, next pipes and connections as John suggested above. It is always reasonable and cheaper way in doubts, better than start with expensive condenser (or compressor, evaporator, etc next time)

Below is the O ring diagram for the AC system, I am assuming that the numbers 1-4 refer to the parts numbers top to bottom so O ring 3 is the third one down etc. 90099-14119 90099-14120 90099-14121 90099-14122

Hi all again. I picked up my sonic red LC500 this week (just over 2k miles). It is a Sport+ with the tan interior. I had test driven this vehicle previously but now that I have a few hundred miles in the driving seat, I thought I'd post this up. Looks - The sonic red colour is stunning and has real depth when seen in sunlight. It does pick up surface scratches easily but I am going to detail it and have a ceramic coating applied mainly to make it easier to clean. Up close, the car has some very interesting angles and it reminds me of various different cars (LFA, Nissan GT-R). It looks a lot more impressive in person rather than in photos. Interior - By far the best put together and highest quality interior compared to any car I have had (including high end Porsche vehicles). I mentioned this in another post but at first glance on autotrader, I was put off the tan interior. Having seen it up close, it is apparent you get nice subtle changes in shading and the contrast between alcantara and leather is lovely. The entire thing feels way more expensive than it is (£150k+ territory of car). No rattles/creaks at all but I recognise it is still fairly new. I don't imagine it will age badly if kept well taken care of. The dash is well laid out and I actually like the trackpad with haptic feedback. You do have to get used to it prior to attempting changes while driving though. Ride quality - Mine has the 21s with Bridgestone runflats. In comfort mode it is quite supple on almost all types of road exept pot holes with sudden drop-offs. There, it still feels a bit choppy and out of curiosity, I'd like to see what an LC500 with 20s (and non-runflats) rides like as I think this will transform the car considerably in terms of comfort. When in Sport and Sport+, it stiffens up nicely but it isn't overdamped and I find that a huge bonus for normal road driving. I would never take it on a track but I imagine it is a little softly damped even in Sport+ mode. I haven't found a way to decouple the drive modes in terms of the individual settings yet and I'm not sure if you can do that - e.g. set it in Sport+ but with a comfort suspension setting? Handling - Very pleasantly surprised at how capable it is dynamically. When approaching the limit in sweeping bends and sharp cornering, you really do feel the rear wheel steering assist and LSD at work and it isn't off-putting. It is always controllable and doesn't require lots of opposite lock unless you are really being silly. Even then, I can feel the combination of TC/LSD working so I don't think it is ever fully off. The steering is as direct as I'd expect suiting a luxury GT feel but precise and not vague. I don't know if it is meant to weight differently in different modes but I don't find the steering weight very different between normal, sport and sport+. Engine/exhaust/gearbox - Probably one of the best features of this car. The 5L V8 is a masterpiece. I can see it getting better over time as it gets broken in and it will become even more free-revving. I love the requirement to rev it to the top of the rpm range to access the majority of power/torque. It really suits the car and I think this is why it is so controllable. The sound is phenomenal both inside and out of the cabin or with windows down. I have had several people commenting already and I've only had the car 2 days! I have owned many V8s (NA and forced induction variants) in the past and this feels the best engineered and the sound department at Lexus have done a stellar job with the cabin noise, exhaust downshift crackles/pops without it being ASBO ridiculous. The 10-speed auto is great with fast shifts when needed and lots of comfort and smoothness when not. A couple of times I have noticed it "thump" itself into a lower gear when pootling around town but I checked with the dealer and there are no gearbox software updates for it at this time. Fuel economy on motorways is actually surprising at between 35-40mpg. Overall, I think it is a great all-round GT/luxury sports coupe. All the dynamic components feel well put together and don't intimidate or frustrate the driver. I think it would be a great car to learn car handling in. It feels so well made and makes one feel special when inside. I know there are a ton of cars out there at similar price-points with much more performance. I don't think many of them can match this car's interior quality, handling dynamics, engine feel and looks. Reliability remains to be seen but I can't see any reason it won't be to similar Lexus standards. I am very glad I didn't go for an AMG GTS in the end. I think the latter would have bored me in 5 minutes. With the LC500, I feel I can easily get a few years interesting usage from it and the fact that my kids fit in it (and they love it) is a bonus.

Hi Fatts. I've just come across your thread. OK it's been a year but have you sorted getting better sub bass? If so how did you do it? I know for the 3rd gen IS300H with ML there is an upgrade c/o our American friends.

I think the two best colours are red and white. I’m not sure about the tan interior though. I have got the white with the red interior which goes together really well. I personally like the 21” wheels. The black and chrome goes really well with the white. I haven’t driven a car with the 20” wheels but the ride on the 21” is fine. The seats are quite soft and very supportive and so it makes it very comfortable.

The man from Costco clearly talking out of his arse there.

Redsteve, MAN, you RULE! You just saved the day! I couldn't believe this could work, but... I unlocked the whole board-computer just a couple of minutes ago! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I spent 3 days searching the web for the solution of this problem with no luck. I tried to go to a local Lexus dealer - no luck too. They said they needed a code that I didn't have or they could unlock it for about $200 asking for the code in Brussel. Wow! I came home, tried to look over the net again and TA-DAA! I got the solution, YOUR SOLUTION and man, it worked! You are great!

I couldn't resist trying it - and it works! Thanks Redsteve, saved for future reference. Jon

When I bought my LS I was told that you can override the need for the code, I am not sure if this is the info that you need but it might be worth a try. I have not tried this myself, it came on a seperate piece of paper in my Sat Nav and Stereo instruction book. Turn the ignition switch to the ON position (combination meter warning lights illuminated) While pressing CLIMATE and AUDIO switches simultaneously, turn the HEADLIGHT CONTROL SWITCH in the following sequence: OFF~SIDE LIGHTS~OFF~SIDE LIGHTS~OFF~SIDE LIGHTS The SYSTEM CHECK will become displayed on the screen. It will take approx. 30 seconds for the check to be completed - the display will change from CHECKING to OK Once all the function checks display OK then press MENU. The DIAGMENU will be displayed Starting with the AUDIO button, follow the sequence: AUDIO~DESTINATION~AUDIO~DESTINATION~AUDIO~DESTINATION The SECURITY menu will be displayed. Using the numeric keys enter 440215. Press ENTER The displaywill return to the DIAGMENU. Switch the IGNITION SWITCH to the OFF position. The security code is now cleared - the unit will operate normally. PLease ensure that a new security code is re-entered with the customers knowledge. As I said before I have no idea if this will work, maybe you can let us know how you get on... Redsteve.

According to my handbook there is no code set at the factory, it's up to the owner to put one in if he wishes, I assume that in the past someone has done just that. The problem is that to turn the security system off, you first have to enter the code-- which you don't have. It appears that you can have 10 attempts to enter the code before the system becomes "completely inoperable" at this point the book refers you to your Lexus dealer, (so they can do something for you, at a price). I can't see the point of setting the code as the system is no good to anyone without a Lexus and we wouldn't pinch one would we! Have you just bought the car and inherited the previous owners problem? If not I can't understand why the previous owner has no knowledge of the code or the problem.