Leaderboard

Hey, I recently upgraded from a IS220d, so without further ado, the pics: A 2013 GS450h Premier Bought from Lexus Sidcup with 71,000 miles and a full Lexus history. I did pay a bit over the odds, but I managed to get 3 years warranty and a discounted service plan. I have only had it 3 days, but here are my impressions so far: THE GOOD: The most obvious one first - performance. I admit I was a little underwhelmed with the speediness at first, but then I discovered I had been a bit silly today; I didn't realise the car had a 'kickdown' accelerator I put my foot down properly and damn did it shift! The acceleration above 60mph is especially good. Next we have comfort. The 18 ways adjustable seats are supremely comfortable and supportive. I also cruised to work this morning and the suspension rode the bumps very well. It does have AVS fitted, but I've yet to try it properly to see if it makes much of a difference. What I can say is that in normal mode it holds the road well. As you can imagine, it has plenty of toys. The 12.3 inch display is very nice although I wish you could have the modes full screen. All the usual refinements, and I find the powered boot lid quite amusing. I haven't gone through a whole fuel tank yet, but it is looking promising. I have been exploring its performance potential somewhat, and it still looks to be on target for high 30's mpg. Not bad for something as quick and heavy as this is. Also, something un-Lexus like for its non F brand, but the noise of the V6 when going full pelt is quite nice. It has quite the growl when pushed. One other thing that occurred to me on the way to pick it up - the rarity. GS's are seldom seen on the roads, whereas I saw countless BMW, Audi's and Mercedes on the trip. I like being different, so this is something that is often overlooked as a nice bonus. THE NOT SO GOOD: Lets get the inevitable one out of the way first - the gearbox. I really wish it had a normal automatic gearbox. I'm sure I will get used to it eventually, but I am not a fan of the drone that permeates the cabin when you accelerate hard for longish periods. On a similar note, the lack of sense of speed could be a problem. Maybe it is because there are no gear changes, but I am having trouble determining how fast I am going without constantly looking at the speedo. So, since the car can gain speed so quickly, it is difficult to modulate the performance. What I really miss is a feature my old IS had - the light ring inside the speedo that lights up orange at a pre-determined point. I found it very useful and it would have worked well here. The heated seats have an annoying feature; they turn themselves off. I am not a fan of the car deciding when they are warm enough. I like them quite toasty, so their performance isn't fantastic. So, in conclusion, it is a brilliant car that is perfectly happy cosseting you to work on a cold morning, and then launching like a scalded cat when you mash the accelerator before refusing to give up grip around the corners on the way home. I can certainly appreciate the lamentation of the salesman at the dealership that there is no 450h variant of the ES. If you are ever in the fortunate position to be able to own one, I highly recommend it.

Hello all, Just a quick update to say that my 220d has moved on to a friend of mine as I have purchased a newer Lexus. So, a quick look back at my time with the much maligned diesel. I had the IS for just under 3 and a half years and in that time I managed roughly 35,000 miles. In typical Lexus fashion, my trusty steed didn't leave me stranded once the whole time. In fact, the Check VSC light only came on once, and that resolved itself without any help from me. It did (in fact does) have an extended warranty for the duration of my ownership and it certainly paid off. Although, a lot of items that were required were things that are relatively simple to fix, easily avoided with basic maintenance or ignorable altogether. In the 3.5 years, the following was replaced under extended warranty: Dual Mass flywheel - Not exactly something you can diy fix, but hardly a Lexus specific issue. 3 x brake calipers - Sticky slide pins that a bit of grease would have prevented, but I admit I didn't bother because I preferred the idea of getting new ones. 2 x wing mirrors - Not lowering properly in reverse. Again, something simple that can be rectified with little difficulty. Especially with the excellent guide IS200 Newbie has produced. Drivers seat - I am still amazed by the fact that this was replaced under warranty on what was a 9 year old car. A new frame shipped over from Japan to replace one that turned out to have nothing wrong with it other than being worn out. Ride height sensor - During the last service it was noted that one of the sensors was seized. Not a big job, but covered under warranty nonetheless. As you can see, nothing wrong with the EGR value, DPF or 5th injector...I think that is down to the fact that I regularly did longer motorway journeys where I kept the revs up for a reasonable duration. That and the fact that I cleaned the EGR valve before it got clogged up. I genuinely loved my time in my diesel Lexus and was quite sad to see it go. It is going to be hard seeing it being driven by someone else. It is now chugging along as good as ever at 10 years old and 145,000 miles. Hopefully the car will serve my friend as faithfully as it did me. So why did I sell it? Simple; I was in the financial situation for an upgrade and I didn't want to change my own gears anymore. As for its replacement, a post in the GS section, containing the obligatory pictures, will be incoming shortly

Ta fella, very much appreciated. Will pass on some if the feedback from above too!

@NothernDan Dan called Lexus Derby today & spoke to Nick & Alex to thank them for looking after us so well. 👍🏻

Hi Bob it was great to meet you both & really sorry you made the run from Buxton to Ladybower only to see us leave. I hope the run at least was an enjoyable one - I made a right hash of it after leaving you at Buxton. Hopefully it will be more successful for us both another time.👍🏻

I'd be up for options 2,3 and 4 Dan. Looks like I'm gonna have to invest in a Gopro now! LOL

Nice that looks nicer than concrete/tarmac as well. If it’s cheaper then even better!

Actually Id be more wary of our cat!

@Stuno1 Yes Stewart it is but it doesn’t travel off it’s contained within..... well the odd one or two make an escape 😂 Here’s a pic of the same drive about a month later.....

Gravel but no grid for our drive. Great burglar deterrent, first crunch of gravel and the dog let's 'em know who's home!

Nice to look back on a positive ownership.

That's a nice account of ownership of a 220d. Good to hear of a happy customer with the diesel Lexus. You have always been positive about the 220d and given good advice to other owners. Your presence will be missed greatly. Enjoy your Auto GS ... I have little doubt you will ...I was much the same when I moved from the 220d to my 250 Auto.

A little update to the Swedish Saga. Scrubs up pretty well. And yesterday I had a run darn sarf to pick up some new boots. 100 quid with 4 decent tyres

Initially I think the best thing for you to do is go to Kwikfit. They have a scanner and will just walk round each wheel to see if the sensor is transmitting. If any are not, they will remove them and give them to you (my local one did this for free, but they may charge you £15 per wheel) and then you can go through the process of refurbing them yourself. Or you can pick a reasonably cheap set off of eBay, but make sure that you buy sensors which transmit at 433mhz. The 315mhz are not compatible (or so I'm led to believe). As you mention, there is a thread on here on how to refurb them and there's a YouTube video as well. If they're still transmitting, then it's a matter of resetting the system. There's a button in a hard-to-reach place under the dashboard and a process for doing this which you can read up on from this forum if you search for TPMS related threads. As you've just bought the car it may be that the last owner had this issue and couldn't be bothered to rectify it. In this case, he probably did a battery reset to clear the code so that the warning light disappeared for as long as it took to sell you the car (the transmitters only communicate with the ECU once every 7/8 hours, so it takes a while for the warnings to appear. They gut I bought mine off pulled this with me). In this case, you may need to reprogram the sensors. This involves getting at them and noting down the code number from each one (i.e not the code for OS rear sensor, nsf sensor etc), and programming them through techstream (Toyota software). A garage with the software (roll up and ask if they have techstream) can do this for you or you can download the software yourself. It's not easy to get it to run though, as you need the right equipment. Hope that helps. All the info is already on the forum but I appreciate that for someone not technically minded (like myself as well), it takes time to learn these things.

Have to say Dan you planning was awesome, between us we made a bit of a hash of it, but when we decided to do our own thing, we followed your route in reverse and it was awesome, by this time the sun was just starting to set, combined with the autumn leaves it was breath taking, so thank you so much really looking forward to the next one!!

Sounds like it was generally a success, which is great. On the subject of radios, I think they are a must for everyone, they are cheap and allow the group to stay together, make safe overtakes , warn each other of hazards etc, The runs I have taken part in or organised with other members on here have always used radios and proved invaluable, we have also found once you get more than 6-7 cars it becomes harder to control, keep people together, find suitable parking and the group starts to fragment with people splitting into smaller groups and the agenda goes out the window, anyway happy planning for the next one.

@Peter P18thanks Pete he’s doing ok - these things are to be expected when your only a few months away from your 90th. Was surprised to see you all parked up after leaving Ladybower - was it for photos? Hope you all had a fun evening & good journeys home via some great roads 👍🏻 @NothernDan Dan hope your wife & son are doing well. Thanks again for all the work you put in choosing some stunning roads. Combination of perfect weather & autumn colours was just amazing. Have driven the Buxton/Glossop/Snake Pass section in the past but hadn’t travelled the roads south of there before so had no idea how spectacular they were. Will definitely being doing that again. 👍🏻 It was good to meet so many people & see so many F’s together yesterday. I thought Lexus Derby did a great job making us feel very welcome. There were bound to be hiccups with such a large group TBO. It’s difficult enough staying together in smalll convoys so I expected it to break into smaller groups anyway. Thought I had planned for that by programming the whole route in the satnav so I didn’t miss any of the roads chosen, except I hadn’t tested how well that actually worked before hand Drrrr!! - so loosing the group then arriving late was entirely my own fault 🙄 Never mind at least I now know what not to do in future & got to drive some amazing roads that were not on the itinerary. Also got to at least do the Winnet’s Pass route on the way back to Buxton with @Big Rat & @Warrington guy which was just brilliant 👍🏻

No worries mate, hope he’s ok..... 😔 As others have said, shame we had some issues early on trying to keep the group together, but it wasn’t a total flop! 😂 Great to put some faces to names, and with no Dan and his walkie-talkies, we did struggle. I’d say you need groups of 5, and a group leader who can make sure his group stay together. We regrouped as a 5 or 6 after leaving Derby, and stayed together the whole time to Ladybower Inn. Opera house was a flop as the first group that got there found it was rammed solid with no parking etc. Weather was truly amazing for this time of year. Had some breathtaking views, and we enjoyed a quiet dinner at the Thyme bar and grill here at Premier Inn. Huge thanks to Dan for his help organising what I hope will be the first of many fun road trips with my Lexus family. 👍😎 Cheers all, Pete 😊

just arrived home, a great day(maybe a little chaotic to start with, but we got there in the end) and really nice to put some faces to some names!!

Arr that may explain why I lost you all, I arrived in Buxton went past the train station and couldn’t find anyone in the town but then saw the orange german car and an ISF behind it. I saw them turn right at the roundabout back towards the station but they had disappeared by the time I had turned around. I also searched the car parks and had the windows down in the hope of hearing one of you but then decided to park up on the A6 just up the hill from Wetherspoons waiting for you to come past....I waited until 3.00pm so guess you went out another way. Nevermind it was still nice to see you all at Lexus Derby and I took the A515 and Via Gellia on the way back as a change.

So, number one, I am “rebranding” the events after some negative press 😎 ( I jest!) Number two, I am already thinking about the next one. Would kind of like to prove the point that the Dales route can be done and is a winner but a great cat burglar once told me never to return to the scene of a crime. Anyhooo, here are my learnings and observations based on feedback so far. Wherever the next one is: Starting at a friendly local dealership seems to be a winner We need Walkie Talkies and nominated sub groups with a walkie talkie holding group leader. I’ve now got 8 Motorola TLKR T80 Extremes with all the associated gubbins. These things are about £55 a pair so should you feel the urge, buy some. More can only help Looks like densely populated and popular tourist hotspots, although beautiful, are a surefire way to split up any groups as parking will be at a premium. With that in mind larger pubs etc on the outskirts may be better end-of-leg rendezvous destinations We all like a nice bit of scenery So with the above in mind I’ve been researching the following potential locations; The Lakes - a very long drive to get to location for some of us though, potentially meaning two overnights Yorkshire Dales - Not as far and some awesome roads The Peak District revisited - Derbyshire MK2 with some improvements as above Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and the Welsh Borders The Cotswolds- I can hear @Flytvr and @Big Rat typing their responses already! Whats your thoughts people? Any preferences?

The brand new 7 Black's look awesome! We can record ourselves getting lost this time!! 😂

Once again Dan, credit to you for stepping up to the mark. Cotswolds - forget it. Roads are busy and rubbish - one of the reasons my car is mainly a garage Queen. Walkie talkies.....you don't need to spend much. Here's an example. Don't forget that the range will be way less than what is quoted by the manufacturers, especially in wooded, hilly, built up areas. Good luck!

@NemesisUK Picture of vicious beast required I’ll use it in my sales feature pitch in future 😂 🐀

@NothernDan I wish they’d invented them 20 years ago matey I’d have an LFA sat on my grids now with a very happy Rat inside it 😂 🐀

That looks great. Is that loose gravel on the finished drive?

+1 on the gravel grids, did ours myself as we don’t have any trustworthy rodents up here. Great stuff, hides all manner of sins, drains away and won’t look like crap when the Mrs R56 Cooper S drops it’s oil quota on there every weekend. Thank god we got rid of that thing, although I do miss the pop pop bang exhaust!

Normally the rear fog lights only come on with the dipped beam headlights on, does the fog light indicator light come on when you select them on? I also seem to remember several other members suffering from a faulty reversing camera which may have been due to water ingress. Finally welcome to the LOC.

Indeed. I was hoping for closer to 1.5k. Hey ho. All depends on the property we buy.

Ooh...can he program them too?

no I have both keys, but recently lost my girlfriends car key (she only had one), after much ringing round found a fella who was super helpful and could get keys faster than the local dealer and was about half the price

Ok, took the plunge and ordered the Vland rear lights, I went for red set in the end, also replaced the gas struts in the boot yesterday, what a difference, was an easier job than I thought it would be. The car is coming along quite nicely.

Thanks chaps. Thanks for the kind words @normski2 Don't worry, since I browse the site via Latest Posts, I will still frequent this forum.

Ok, looking about it seems to be 2-3k for a drive of about that size.

@Big Rat did you use the term ‘twixt’ more than once in your last post?! I must have misread the question, as I thought you meant at what angle of incline would an RCF theoretically run out of grip - I’m sure that someone would be able to work this out...something to do with the surface area of the driven wheels twixt the incline of the slope twixt the weight of the car...

@Comedian Well my wallet is somewhat slimmer now whilst I was up on the peaks blat........ Mrs Rat was in Birmingham- again- with the large sista clan...........😩 A poorer Rat

As someone who as part of my work builds driveways, in my experience it’s not the incline itself that’s problematic other than snow and or ice of course it’s invaribly what’s known as ‘The Crest ‘ which is usually that area between the public area and your property whereby the front or rear of the vehicle on negotiating twixt the two bottoms out or if it’s fairly acute the centre of the vehicle especially on something like a lower ‘F’ car. So to illustrate if you look at the picture above which is my last place my van would easily pass onto the drive and down the slope but not a car, so I had to reduce the angle twixt public footpath and driveway, these things are relatively expensive to do and council permission is needed. Big Rat

I use one like this. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F141935878669 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I was not told by the garage of any sensor changes apart from that the warning light was on so they put air in the tyres. Thank you for replying back, i will have it checked out later this week.

My GS has two rear fog lights and two reversing lights, both either side of the number plate.

Hi Altaf, even if it is the battery you still need to take sensors out of the wheel. Was there any sensor changed recently? When I bought my car, the garage changed 3 rear tires and one rear sensor and I ended up with TPMS tringle on dashboard, apparently they didn't program it well so I had to go to Lexus!

Ta mate, love the new calipers!!

There is only one rear fog lamp, me thinks ?

I got there quite early as they were opening up and was met by the DP and made to feel genuinely welcome, and the unforgettable Alex what a really nice guy....now I know I’m somewhat biased as he’s Greek and I’m half Greek but with that kind of boundless energy if he ever wants a change of direction and join the building trade......😁 Well done to all of them..... oh yes someone mentioned the great sausages I had to have 4 @Warrington guy Dave got caught on the M6 traffic......well someone had to take care of his share.......🤡 Oh and a quick pic of mine sat outside of Lexus Derby....... Big Rat

We didn’t go on your run as we are slumming it in an IS300h, 😂😂, but we bought it from Lexus Derby and know Alex well. He is the most courteous, enthusiastic, eager to please person we have ever met, at a dealership or anywhere else. It’s an 80 mile trip to get there for us, but next service we will probably go, mainly because of the VIP superstar treatment Alex gives to all his house guests.

Thanks for all the posts guys! Did I hear right that Snake Pass was closed! That will have scuppered the plans a bit! So sad that @bobmc had such misfortune. Gutted for you mate ☹️. Will definitely be doing radios for the next one and taking everyone's points on board. The next one will run much slicker. Keep posting everyone, keen to see more pics and get more feedback. @DAW I hope your father in law(?) is ok and recovering.

Was really gutted for you Bob, given how far you had traveled to join us, Definitely, as a lessons learnt for next time, we need some better method of communication, radios would be my preference given how cheap they are, but at a very minimum a WhatsApp Group

TOYOTA LEXUS DENSO RELAY 5 PIN BROWN 9098704004 1567000860 I just googled the above and got them from goaheadparts on eBay, delivered the following day. I ordered two in case both relays needed changing but I only used one. Might keep the other in the car in case it's needed. They look the same as you are looking at, they must be available fom a motor factors over here somewhere. Not sure why the relay failed sometimes they just do, probably high resistance over the contacts. My car is always garaged so sticking to a frozen windscreen was not an issue, could be a poor batch or maybe as it was the intermittent relay and the wipers are always set to auto it may be degradation due to constant use. I printed off the relay tests from the tech site so may see what values I get from the faulty relay and new one. I can connect them to my golf trolley battery to see the switching operation.

The original air suspension is notorious for failing. I'd suggest bc coilovers, they're good enough. If you want air ride they do bag sleeves for bc coilovers (this is what I'm doing next) Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk