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Just taken delivery on of a new RX450H Takumi. Its my wife's car and she has been driving RX's since 2001.Started off with a RX300 and has had every model version since. The improvements over the years have been impressive and thanks to excellent reliability and service she will not even look at anything else. Have just had it fully protected inside and out by our local Valet guy who we have used for many years and is a bit of a detail fanatic. See pictures below.

With a saddened heart and mainly because of financial a financial situation I've had to say farewell to my RX450h today. I didn't want any more car finance so now I'm better off a few hundred quid a month. So I'd like to thank all here who I've encountered chats with. To those I may have helped and to those who have helped me you are a good crowd. I'll keep popping by to see how things are. I've gone back to Ford. Yes I'm a lover of Ford's and I'm back with my 3rd Titanium X Sport model which I know well. Blimey it's got more kit than my RX did. Adaptive cruise is astonishing absolutely brilliant. A superb safety feature. Anyway don't shout at me lol. Take care all and enjoy your fabulous cars.

oh dear, you sold your Mk3 for a £200 fix + labour ......... sad 😢 Malc

Went to Lexus Newcastle today specifically to see a Takumi spec car. There was also a base ES in the showroom and a specced up F Sport for demos. The Takumi spec is brilliant and outshines my NX Premier considerably. I love the exterior styling, almost coupe like. Inside, it’s a tech fest. I love the auto heat & vent seats plus the auto heat steering wheel, rear seat control panel and 10.2” HUD. ML audio is mighty and trim is impressive. The noise reducing wheels are stunning. The new spec steering wheels and interior door handles are very modern. If only it had Apple CarPlay.☹️ I will certainly consider the car later this year, sooner if Lexus resolve the CarPlay issue.

Happy New Year all. Just about to post these in the for sale section but thought I’d let the fellow F-ers know first. My OEM alloys in dark graphite metallic are up for sale, one tiny scratch on one, the others are all perfect. No curbing, cracks or repairs, just nice genuine original wheels. Check the large cover pic in my profile ( click into it for the full view) for what the wheels look like on the car. PM me if you are interested or know anyone who is. Would be nice to keep them in the community.

I used to work for a big major insurer and the reason insurance go up if you tell them you park on a drive or garage is because they think someone will break into your house for the keys and take your car. Also if your car is red, insurance premium go up and that's because they say it attracts thieves. I wouldn't bother with Adrian flux, they are not cheap and sometimes they won't bother insuring you. I went with brentacre but another good one is Chris Knott.

OK, here we go...……..we spend 2 weeks every Xmas and New Year with family in Scotland. After taking the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle, we divide the time between the Loch Lomond area and Aviemore. This is Loch Lomond with Ben Lomond in the background: Loch Morlich (Aviemore) and the Cairngorms: The Strathspey Railway. The steam locomotive, 46512, is an ex-LMS Ivatt Class 2-6-0. The luxury locomotive in the foreground is my LS - which is a 4-6-0 🙂 My LS is almost 12 years old (a mere youngster in LS terms) and I do try to keep it in good condition - outside and in:

Hi Mark. If you look at my fuel consumption figures you will find they are very much in line with those of members "Farqui" and "Royoftherovers". The so called CVT gearbox is actually an ECVT, and is nothing like a normal CVT or torque converter transmission. If you Google Eahart prius PSD and scroll down on the page there is a working depiction of the basic system. You can move the sliders on screen to see how varying engine speed, and or electric motor speed how the system works with details of road speed, engine revs, and the two motor generators speed, and direction. It also shows how reverse is accomplished. From this you will see just how simple the system is in reality. There being no gear ratio or direction changes of any sort even for reverse or neutral. The GS does have one ratio change for one of the electric motors that occurs at about 60 mph. This is to reduce the speed of the motor to increase it's torque. Electric motors "of the type used" generally have very high torque at low revs the opposite to internal combustion engines. John.

O2 sensor replacement Check VSC / traction / warning and engine lights came on recently. It started as an intermittent fault, they would light up on the way to work and go off on way home - it happened for 3 days until the lights came on permanently. I had no choice to drive it - I bought an ODBII reader and it reported back on Bank 1 Sensor 1 failure. I ordered two new sensors - Denso 234-9051 from the USA and they came this morning I am replacing both sensor 1's (Bank 1 and 2) Drivers and Passenger side as it makes sense as they have been in the car for the same length of time and while I am doing one I will do the other. Bank 1, Sensor 1 is on the drivers side / Bank 1, Sensor 1 is on the passenger side. Both are accessible from the engine bay. I replaced Bank 1, Sensor 1 tonight as this was the one reporting a failure. It took 15 mins (if that). Firstly I removed the drivers side engine cover Next, to get to the sensor easier, loosen and remove the fuse box shown in the picture below using a 10mm socket Do not remove from the car - just loosen - there is one 10mm bolt and one 10mm nut to take out - lift the fuse box out of the way as per the picture below You can now see the sensor and its also easier to remove. To remove, I used a 22mm 7/8 socket - open ended sensor socket - place this (or whatever you are using) over the sensor nut and loosen only - you may need some WD40 and a SMALL tap on the socket from a hammer to encourage it to move at first - don't take it off at this point First remove the sensor wire socket from the cars connecting plug - you will see from the new sensor you would have bought before doing this that there is a small securing lug on one side of the plug. Picture below is of the sensor plug still attached to the cars socket - a bit obscured To remove this you need to press down on a tab to the rear of the plug on the car which can be found on the side of the plug facing the bulkhead. While pressing on the tab gently pull the wire and the plug will come out of the socket. In taking the fuse box out of the way there is enough room to get both your hands into the sensor area. Once this is off I secured the wire with a bit of tape to an upper hose so I would not lose it into the depths of the car if I dropped it when the socket come off - I think it would drop through the bottom of the car but just in case it didn't I secured the wire. Next, remove the sensor itself. Doing it this way it will not twist the wire up as there are quite a few turns required to remove the sensor. With the sensor removed - (dead one shown below) Replace with the new one. Place the anti sieze compound on the threads of the new one before inserting it into its location. Put the sensor in first and then once secured fully, plug it into the cars socket. Replace the fuse box and engine cover. Job Done - re-connect the battery and you should have no more nasty lights on the dash. Reset the windows once you are happy with the job. I checked the error had gone by re-scanning the car with the ODB reader again. Noticeable differences. There are obviously a few - quieter running / revs are way down / too early to report on fuel consumption / car is now not lumpy when idling. Next job would be to do Bank 2, Sensor 1 - that's a weekend job as its getting a bit dark now. Pictures below of before and after on engine report Before After

Make sure you drive for 15+ minutes to get the fluid up to temperature Park on level ground With the engine running slowly move the gear selector from P all the way to L and back again. With the engine still running and transmission in P or N, check the level on the dipstick.

Didn't recognize the accent!!!. Still, all me Gateshead mates now think I'm a plastic makem when I moved to Washington.

In old days when I got my Honda Accord 2.2 from 1998 I got constant problems with brakes - sqeiking, pulsating etc. It went away when once on the A10 (Berlin orbital road) some old driver has decided to change lane without checking the mirror. I got occasion to test breakes and ABS efficiency from 210km/h to 90km/h in a very short distance. After that all problems went away.

Thanks Lee. I did do a few stops, but perhaps they weren't hard enough. Next time I am out I will find a quiet area and give my brakes a good workout

I can only say you've been unlucky. I've been driving a Lexus for about 12 years, all of them with some years behind them, and they've all been brilliant. I wouldn't, even if I could afford it, buy a new one, simply because I don't like the look of them.

Before you change disks/pads you really need to ensure you regularly brake hard to keep the disks clean. Mine had this after purchase but the disks were very corroded. I renewed the disks/pads and all was smooth for a few miles. Then the pulsing started again and I wondered about warped disks. Until my MOT, after which all was smooth again. The brake test cleared up the pulsing :) Sitting at junctions with the brakes applied seems to leave friction material on parts of the disks that then causes pulsing when braking. Mostly regen braking under normal driving means that the pads don't clean up the disks sufficiently and will need a few good hard stops to clear the build up. Slamming on the brakes periodically keeps the pulsing in check. It's also easier and cheaper than fitting new disks every few miles ;)

I’d have to seriously think twice before buying another Lexus, I’ve had several now and all have been very troublesome. They don’t really deserve this so called “brilliant” reputation for reliability they have. It always makes me laugh when people say these are the best cars money can buy except for... then you get a huge long list of common issues!!! Yes, they are a nice enough car but let me tell you I’m currently “slumming” it in a V6 mondeo which is every bit as comfortable to me as the LS, in fact more so because after a long drive the LS430 gave me a bad back whereas the mondeo doesn’t. Being the Ghia X it has all the toys too. I also have the added luxury of knowing that if something does go wrong I won’t have to remortgage the house to put it right!!! Think about it, quite often with prestige cars you are paying for a badge not necessarily a better car.

I finally got them done. It wasn’t to bad to be fair. Although my cam covers don’t leak there was still a lot of gunk and muck in the plug holes and plug valley. I did two at a time as one coil pack runs two plugs so it made sense to do it that way. Also cleaning out the valley is easier that way as the plugs are in a kind of box made by casting webs. 2 plugs in each box. I removed the coil pack and lead from one “box”, sprayed brake cleaner around the “box” and into each of the two plug tubes then just blew out the “box” and tubes out with some compressed air. I put some blue tissue wipes over the top to stop all the debris from going everywhere and making a mess. All quite successful. I did have a scary moment when trying to undo number 3 plug. It was really tight and grindy all the way out. I kept winding back in half a turn then out three quarters then back in half and so on until it came out. I put a dribble of WD40 in the tube which helped. I really thought that was going to cost me a re-tap or possibly even a new head. The plugs I took out were Bosch Twin Electrode and not Iridium tipped. It’s a good job I changed them at 165,000 and not left it until 200,000 as recommended. Maybe the proper Iridium tipped ones can do 100,000 but I doubt the Bosch ones would last that long and I’m not sure I’d have got number 3 out after all those miles. Bod

In terms of my economy figures, it’s worth noting my calcs are based on the Fuelly iPhone app and reflect fuel used and distance covered rather than the in-car computer which typically reads more economical by a mpg or two. Also 90% of my mileage is done on my commute where I’m either barrelling down country roads, zooming along a dual carriageway or crawling through awful Cambridge traffic, and I always seem to get poor economy in whatever car I drive (rubbish driver). Latest stats from the Fuelly app are below. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Job's a good'n, very happy with that, no more signs of the pain in the ***** which was Boxing day 😄

I’ve just taken following video after 2 days not starting the car and cold nights. phone was almost under the car. When I listen carefully I can hear that short sound before starting the engine. For sure it is shorter and more gentle than yours. when engine is idling both sounds very similar and a bit rough to get better after a while. short lack of audio is due the phone connecting via Bluetooth 🙂 8021420B-F196-46B1-A5AE-0BCA0B66BC91.MOV

Do you not fancy having a go yourself at any of it? Doing the coil packs is a pretty simple process, only complicated slightly by the throttle body over the top, which is not a big job to remove. It certainly help lighten the impact on the wallet, and gives a huge amount of satisfaction. I’ve just saved £570 by fitting a new air suspension compressor and aux belt on my Merc last night (£130 on parts plus my time, compared to £700 for the garage). Plus the added bonus of finding the underlying issue which cost £1.99 to fix. I dread to think why that would’ve cost me if left at the garage to find and fix. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

PS. Don't forget to make sure all those pins are nice and 'slidey' paul m.

Front upper arms on both sides completley runied: Replaced with aftermarket items from First Line - quite impressed with the quality/price, sold by Parts in Motion off eBay: Also used first line for the front lower suspension arms; these weren't too bad, but were easily replaced with the front of the car apart: Sadly, I didn't get pictures of these parts, but I've also replaced the front 'banana' control arms. These join the front lower arms with two bolts, and then go back to the vehicle body with a bush that sits around a shaft. These are crazy expensive in the UK for some reason - around £130 each for a reasonable quality part. I chose instead to source these from Rock Auto (https://www.rockauto.com/) - along with some AC Delco front lower ball joints (these have lubrication points on the ball joint!) - each arm was about £50, so these plus the ball joints and some other bits and pieces made it economical compared to trying to find it all in the UK. I chose express air shipping and had the parts in around 3 days - from the states! One thing I do want to link to, is a PDF that I've found very useful; it shows lots of the front and rear suspension parts in exploded diagrams - with torque values for bolts - very useful indeed for anyone doing this sort of work on the GS300 - it's hosted by one of the USA lexus owners forums: click here. Off to Ikea - more to come later today 🙂

Around town in heavy rush hour traffic was getting about 19mpg. About right for stop start traffic. On a run though was getting around 44mpg if I stuck at 70. Fairly good for a straight 6. On the flipside I've spent over £500 on ignition coils, £300 on a flip motor, £350 on a rocker gasket. Am anticipating that the Lexus may be a little heavier on fuel. Just my experience but Jap petrol engines tend to excel reliability wise but aren't quite a economical as the Germans. I was getting around 40mpg yesterday at 70mph though.

Excellent news Adam, well done...looks really smart (both inside and out). Enjoy. Oh and I enjoyed your Bimmer comments.

So I have gone for a compromise, and cut the bottom half of the shroud off, which improves the light output, but still covers the ugly yellow bulb from view. And yes, does improve camera view in the dark. Now onto my next mission, parking sensors.

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum. I used to have a Volvo S80 D5 and it was a fine car, but I can understand your desire to move on. To answer your questions the MkIII GS450 is a pretty reliable car compared to the E Class/A6/5 Series competition but there are a few weak areas. The main things to look for are leaking shock absorbers and rust around the Y section in the exhaust. I think battery failures are relatively rare, and providing you have a hybrid health check each year you should be covered. But like you say £800 will fix it and you'll be right as rain afterwards. I've been a 2008 GS450H owner for 18 months and I'm very pleased with it by and large, but there have been a number of niggly issues which surprised me. You can read about these in my post about a year with my car. I'm now 18 months in and in addition to what's mentioned in the post I've since had all the TPMS sensors replaced under warranty. With regard to your questions about spotting adaptive cruise, the other tell-tale is the little extra button on the right hand side of the steering wheel that regulates distance to the car ahead. On the topic of the aux port, I think the usefulness of this is limited. I was lucky enough that mine came with the iPod adaptor, but GROM (and similar) devices are available that connect to the stereo and provide a far richer experience for not much over £100, so I wouldn't let aux or not get in the way. I use a combination of my iPod in the glovebox and a £15 Bluetooth FM transmitter and get on ok. There are plenty of reasons for wanting a facelift but personally I wouldn't include the aux port in them. I didn't really look at pre-facelift GS450s, but I don't think the boot got MUCH bigger with the facelift, but the battery pack may have been packaged differently to free up a few more cubic litres. The boot is small though regardless, so despite the car being fairly large don't assume it's capable of carrying as much stuff as you might expect - think Fiesta sized boot. Don't buy any GS450 (facelift or otherwise) if trips to Ikea feature in your life! The thorny matter of fuel economy is a valid one. Other people on the forum seem to get far higher MPG than I do (annoyingly). On a slow (65-70) motorway run I'd expect mid 30s, and normal driving (like I do) I'd expect late 20s. Over 18.5 thousand miles I've averaged 28 MPG, running on premium fuels with a full Lexus history. In the winter the MPG will suffer and in summer it will improve. Going back to your questions, the GS450H is a good car. Quick, basically pretty reliable, quite subtle, and enjoyably different from the obvious competition. I'd recommend one for sure, but remember you're buying a car that was nearly £50K a decade or so ago, so when things wear out they aren't going to be cheap. Have fun looking and let us know how you get on.

A bit drastic Kevin. A couple of Lemsips usually does it for me 😁

Well my plans got delayed by the traditional Christmas man flu lol. Yesterday I emptied the fluid out of the heater matrix (blowing it out by mouth) into a clear 2 litre bottle and as always it was clean, I then filled it with a full bottle of forte and left overnight. Today I did the same, blew the forte out by mouth into a clean bottle and it was clear 😞 I then reverse flushed it with clean water for 15 mins. So as a last resource before replacing the matrix I put some clean water in it and pulsed some compressed air (40-50 psi) backwards through it (yes I know I probably shouldn't) again into a clear bottle and guess what ! I found some small pieces of debris in the bottle ! I did this multiple times until I didn't get anymore then hooked everything back up and tested it. The cold side is now hot 🙂 and the hot side is REALLY hot so it looks like a matrix blockage was the cause but I suspect the debris isn't corrosion, my water pump failed several years ago and was replaced under warranty and i bet its debris from that 😞 Its not 100% yet so Im going to drive it a couple of days then do the same thing with the compressed air and finally a full flush and replace with new antifreeze. So, now £1100 bill and no dashboard removal so Im a happy chap. Thanks all and have a great New Year. Kev

When you see a waterfall though, you see it as a flow rather than lots of droplets. _DSC3877 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr This is actually with a 2.5 stop ND and a 2.5 stop soft edged grad filter. You can go crazy with ten stops but anything between 1/8th and 2 secs gives flow but also texture. Beyond that it goes too milky. Retaining that flow brings the scene to life - if it was too defined it would look odd. This was just with an soft edged grad for the sky - 1/6th so nice and chunky texture to the flow, but still a flow to capture the drama and feel of the falls. _DSC3054 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr I am not a huge long exposure guy but you can use them to make the shot look, and feel dreamy. _DSC9398 Version 2 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Compared to this (the sea was doing nothing anyway) _DSC1408 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Still texture here but in reality it was dusky. _DSC9422 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Or this _DSC0169 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr Matching the exposure for the mood of the shot is crucial. The way the water does, or doesn't move in your picture can hugely alter the mood and feeling of your picture. If you want to read in depth about how I approach landscape photography you can nosey at this http://www.sftphotography.co.uk/landscape-photography-top-ten-images-2018/