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After 13 full years of ownership and just into the 14th, I stayed with the brand and was seduced into buying a 450h Premier. I've never had a car like the 05 before. The only ever fault was a seized front caliper and everything electrical still worked except for the passenger side wing mirror ( which went cloudy). Never changed a bulb, exhaust was the original one, and she even still had the original starter battery! It's been quite a steep learning curve going from an '05 plate to a '17 plate and there are still things I've yet to understand. No doubt I'll be posting some questions soon ! Alan

Having only recently purchased my first RX (and first Lexus) stories like yours really make me feel super confident in my choice. Glad you had such a great experience and hope to hear it replicated in the new car! A. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry, couldn't resist. I love red interiors....

Nothing wrong with a sweet looking lady in red...

Transpires the 'second ' one is not an RcF but an Rc. Personally I like red interiors, apart from anything else it makes a change from the usual greys and blacks...... 🐀

Can certainly recommend LXMK as a nice place to sit and have coffee while waiting for a walletectomy. Seriously though they were incredibly friendly and informative when I had my 400h serviced there. If it's routine servicing though i'd take it to a good independent, if it's anything hybrid, electronic or more deeply engine related I'd certainly consider a main dealer or specialist Lexus shop. If you find the latter in northamts, buck or beds, let me know as I'd love to give them my business...

Two up those are pretty impressive figures for a standard car. Big Rat

Looks like I can make it to this one 😂

Wow! You were pushing the envelope there! 😈 Sorry couldn't resist 😉

Hello, gents! I’ve been away, again Looks like I’ve got a lot of catching up to do! I will not miss this meeting! See you on Sunday! Looking forward to meeting you guys 😁😁😃😃🙂🙃

White exterior and red interior is one of my favourite. Just needs carbon pack.

What you really want is an IS-F like this! Gorgeous!

@NemesisUK Peter no I like the the light colour I have now as an alternative...... But it's funny you should mention it as I was after a spare set of wheels off eBay but the seller wants far too much but he does have a complete Rose interior for sale from a write off..........for £8k😳........ dreamer Big Rat

Hows about a retrim in a colour of your choice?

Ditto, I had the usual black interior of my silver C class retrimmed in Classic Mercedes red nappa leather. Now, when Mrs Nemesis decided we were having a red car this time I was pleased to see Lexus allowed the selection of Clove leather.

@FTBBCVoodoo Lee absolutely had two E46's a Black / Black 03 Manual and a Silver/ Black M3Csl...... my old Csl sold recently by a specialist Porsche dealer for £76k 😳, people think an isF is difficult to sell I was lucky to get £25k for it in 2005 no one wanted them then, never found that colour combo in the right car though. Looked so right to my eye bit like this....... Big Rat

Seen it and thought it was pretty poor deal at £37k, completely base car no TVD, no sun roof, no ACC/PCS. A year ago same cars were selling for £32k with same mileage. Maybe they made £10k discount.... or RC-F is really in high demand.

@Big Rat snap. Personal favourite is the grey E46 M3 with red interior 🙂

Sounds like pent up demand for decent F cars....

Don't want to insult but could it be that something such as coffee or coke been spilled on it and not been completely removed?

Amazed with that interior 🤮

As per Rayaan’s post but also ask the dealer about the mileage difference when you take it in.

Just pull one off! They are only held on by a single spot weld at the top! Grab Lift Pull Done Very much like another popular activity 😂

Need to make a correction on this post the name of the tyre was Bridgestone not Firestone.

Mine's black as well, is black the new silver? Hopefully see you there. I've printed the token that was earlier in the thread

Well known 400h issue, the battery is minute, seriously, take a look at it, apparently it's the same size as for an MR2 roadster. If you are doing anything with the doors open or sitting waiting with the radio playing, etc. have it in 'ready' otherwise the tiny 12v battery will die and you will get scary 'check hybrid / vsc' messages. Personally when taking mine in for a service I turn off all interior lights and the auto headlights etc. as I've been handed the car back a couple of times with a severely depleted 12v battery causing starting issues. Last time I had to replace the 12v battery.

OP drives a 460, a little different from a 400. Thread has gone off subject imho.

I'm praying mine break so I can justify an exhaust to the wife 😀

You are so right Ben regarding futuristic perceptions ,I had a 1990 LS for 18 years and watched it corrode away in front of my very eyes over the years and apart from the mechanicals being kept on top of the chassis and underframe became so badly corroded that she had to go. The lesson learned on her bode well on the mint replacement in that I coated this one from top to bottom in preservatives and it as paid off, but the trick is prevention rather than cure and to achieve that you need a very good example in the first place.

Foxy said are you sure you have more than 11 volts on both batteries, to me this implied there are 2 x 12 volt batteries. As the hybrid battery runs at hundreds of volts not 12.

Hi Paul, Where in Yorkshire are you? Check out Tony Banks in Leeds. Give him a call and get a worst case scenario price. My CAT-back system cost around £5/600 so the IS250 should be around the same. By the way lots of other folk on the Forum here have used him too :) Cheers, Noman

Get it done at around 55868 - you can go over by 1k miles or 1 month

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=1756237&d=0#seperator this is about 5mins from my house, so despite not having a great track record of making it to these things, I’m not sure how I could not make this one...

mine is a 1999. At 175,000 i have changed all the front suspension almost last 2 years. Loads of stuff to do to make it perfect. Why because it is a legend in the making. Also as I do 30,000 miles approx shared between my work car and Lexus. Ask yourself how many LS400 do you ever see on a road....And when you do you say to yourself "Gosh that's a nice looking car" not realising that you are in one......

This is a valid question but there is also the hidden threat as to how government regulation will effect the future of these early models,with the emphasis on green energy and electric cars will they one day ban these so called monster engines and old tech from the road s which will have the affect of making them worthless. I have the good fortune of owning probably the best example of the mark 4 in the UK and it cost nothing apart from consumables to run and with 39k mileage unlikely to need anything replacing anytime in my lifetime . So to answer your question honestly ,I would not spend any money on yours other than the need to keep it on the road and enjoy it for its being .

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've done it but I found the questions quite hard and may have made a few mistakes with the answers..............🤡 But I'll be there anyway 🐀

Hi Luigi, I knew the cheaper materials and lack of features might cause me an issue but after a month I had enough. Great engine, great economy, good looking car but this car was built to a price. The all wheel drive was great as it was like a go cart but you just know when it's not for you. I had a 2009 X Type, a 2007 XK and a 2008 XJ in the past and none of them made me feel like I do about the XE. I was very spoilt with the LS but a great example of the trim on all XE's is the tiny plastic oblong "cup" for a door pull that screamed out cheap. The squeaks and rattles because of cheap hard plastics rubbing against each other was too much. Regret the purchase and lost money overall. I saw most of the YouTube videos on the R Sport XE AWD and a lot of motoring journalists raved about it but it will never compete with Lexus, Mercedes, BMW and Audi for fit and finish. That said Jaguar's current XJ is a dream to sit in and drive because the quality is there to see and touch. I'm keeping the GS for 2 years while under warranty and expect to change it in 2020 for another Lexus of some sort. I've learnt my lesson leaving Lexus.

The ISF is a great car but the issue I had was that I felt it blended in too much with the other cars on the road. I had to put it in sports mode (which was a pain!) every time I drove it just to make things more exciting. The feel good factor was lacking for me and I started to get bored. It's still early days with the RCF but just sitting in the cabin it fells special and every time I park up I always look back when walking away. Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen I would open the door to the garage just to check on how it was doing!😂

Just bought one for my 400h. Be careful what you buy as some that say they will fit wont because of the battery base having a lip on it. got mine from these guys. https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/ it's a Bosch silver s4021, £67 delivered, cheaper ones are available.

Quite simply, things age and the chemistry changes. You obviously had to drive to Halfords so the charging circuit has been doing its job and the battery was well charged at the time of the test. The age and altered chemistry mean that it no longer holds charge as well as it used to. Maybe if it had been stood outside Halfords for four hours before testing then it wouldn't have looked so good. The trouble now is, do you just change the battery anyway in the hope that it is the age that's causing the problem, or do you spend some money for an auto-electrician* to do some diagnostics first in case something else is causing the battery drain? If you've got a clamp ammeter and a decent multimeter and know how to use them properly you could do some initial diagnostics yourself. * And I do mean a proper auto-electrician/auto-electrical specialist who has done a proper apprenticeship to the job, not a Halfords guy or a 'normal' garage. EDIT: Just to add to the above. When I was an apprentice electrician I worked in a factory that had a mechanic's workshop for maintenance and servicing of their own trucks and other vehicles. I don't know why but they decided it would be good for the apprentice electricians to spend a month in the garage learning about auto electrics, which I must admit, was quite interesting. I remember using a vehicle battery 'heavy discharge tester' and, although I'm going back to about 1976/77, a lead-acid battery is still a lead-acid battery so this should still hold good. My memory is a bit hazy but I seem to remember that the tester used a load to draw about 300A from the battery and if left on for about 30 seconds, the battery voltage shouldn't drop below 10V. If there were any duff cells, they would usually show themselves by bubbling and gassing quite rapidly whilst the good cells were 'quiet'. Now, it's been a long time since those days so don't take that as gospel, but I'm just thinking that maybe Halfords didn't do such a test?

The test that Halfords does only superficially tests the battery. One with very little capacity will come up as good on a basic test just after the car has rolled up on the forecourt and the battery is fully charged. But that charge won't last on an old battery that has little capacity. A deeper/longer battery test would show the true state. The good news is that it sounds like your charging system is working. So it's either a duff battery or something drawing current with the ignition off.

Replace the battery. You shouldn't really expect more that 6 years life out of it. Lexus improved this issue with the series III by using one that can handle being deeper discharged.

If it is circa 2005-6 then with regard the way the battery is used/charged then I would say that was quite good life expectancy and you have had your monies worth! Not sure if the battery you require is 'something special' like a Stop/Start for example which are heavy money compared to non SS. paul m.

Plus 1 for the above. There is a date stamp on the battery, and the strong probability is it will be 2006. John.

Yes but ohh the Luxury....

The 12v battery isn't charged in the normal way by an alternator on the hybrids. It's charged from the hybrid battery via the invertor module. It's possible the invertor isn't charging the 12v battery fully or there is a drain in the module itself. Unfortunately the only way to find out is some thorough diagnosis. The first step is to have the battery properly tested. They get such light use in hybrids that it may be the original battery and is past it's best and has a high self-discharge rate or very little capacity left. After that, if it is a current drain, then it's out with the meters to hunt it down.

Another F newbie😜... first time meeter joining from north london😊

Going to do a Drain and Fill on my Transmission as i think it has started to slip, I know there is some slippage on a auto box but have just got it in my head and prob due a Drain and Fill (come back to that later) I want to make sure that I have the correct level so that when I do the drain and fill I can just measure what comes out to make it easier to know how much to put back in. I am doing the readings with engine running after cycling through all gears (twice) pausing for 2 seconds at each point and outside temp is approx 5ºc each time. With engine Cold (Running for 2-3 Mins before reading) it Seems to barely on the dipstick, so that would mean that I need to top up? Engine upto Temp after driving for 15 mins, 5 miles in daytime traffic, it would read right between the hot marks, so Correct level does not need topped up? Engine upto temp after driving for 1hr, 30 miles daytime traffic, (idling for 3 mins before doing reading), would read over to hot mark by approx 1½cm, so level is to high and need to remove some trans oil? My understanding is that I should do a reading after 15-20 mins of normal driving, but am concerned that I am getting conflicting readings of Under-filled/Overfilled. Would appreciate any advise

Level should never be checked cold, check when engine has been running for 10/15 mins. The following link gives extremely good info on the subject. http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/89