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Hiya, you could chuck away the £ millions spent on research and development and get a real engine fitted by some back street wizard or just accept the nice car as it is i guess, and leave you questioning why you ever purchased the vehicle in the first place. Diesel mondeos make lots of noise at both ends so perhaps swop your excellent vehicle for a Ford. Hope this helps you dilemma.. TIA.

In cold weather my dash rattles like a good 'un, right at the front where it meets the windscreen. I assume that the dash shrinks enough in the cold weather to allow some play between the edge of the dash panel and something at the front, either the dash brackets under the panel or the windscreen itself. Being a cantankerous old thing, it winds me up even though it disappears when the cabin warms up. That 20 minutes of rattling is most of my trip between home and work, so it had to go.... Well, I found a solution: spongy foam cord on eBay. I ordered a couple of meters of 8mm cord and stuffed it down between the dah and the windscreen. It's compliant enough to push in and fill that gap and hold the dash down, but not solid enough to push on the windscreen and cause any problems. It's also black foam, so it just disappears once in the gap. Two metres is enough to run the cord along the full width of the windscreen with about half a metre spare. The cord is available in different diameters so if your gap is a different size, you can order the right size for your application based on the size of the gap. Don't go massive and jam a big thick cord down there, or it could put pressure on the windscreen or something in hot weather. You need a diameter just big enough to slide into the gap and stop that annoying rattle when it's cold. If anyone has the same issue, the sponge cord is here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sponge-Cord-Black-Foam-Rubber-Gasket-Trim-Seal-2mm-3mm-4mm-5mm-6mm-8mm-10mm-12mm/251724620014?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=553228790467&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

No offence meant but you haven't put the bulb in upside down? I know it's possible on some (MB) models, maybe also on the LS?

This is true of the hybrid systems that Toyota/Lexus use, but with a slight modification. The vent has a one way valve built into it allowing pressure out but seals causing a slight vacuum inside the transmission as it cools. This means shaft oil seals are under negative pressure when the transmission is cold reducing the effect of oil loss past them. As the transmission warms up the pressure equalises, and again stops oil being forced outwards past the seals. If the valve is stuck open sudden cooling of the transmission by submerging it in cold water could cause the water to be drawn into the valve, but the water would have to be quite deep as the valve is on the top of the transmission. John.

It's a hybrid so the petrol engine doesn't run all the time. It's a hybrid so the petrol engine and the hybrid system have been finely tuned to work together as one coherent, superb, technological marvel, so enjoy it for what it is and don't mess with it.

Here's the new girl. Currently counting down the seconds until 1pm on Monday. She's coming home a day earlier now.

This is way lexus sell most of there cars to deaf old duffers 😆

After nearly 12 extremely happy, exciting, reliable and fulfilling years with my trusty IS250 SE-L, "that" day finally came today. With a heavy heart, I traded her in for an IS300h F Sport at Lexus Leicester. I had the exact same "I have to have this car" feeling when I got into the F Sport as I did when I got into my IS250 all those years ago. I'll miss her. I'll miss the roar she makes when I push her loud pedal to the floor. I'll miss the smile which is always on my face when I lock her after we have been on a long journey together. She's been a faithful friend over the past 121,500 miles. We've had many adventures together. She's saved my life on more than one occasion. She was Vmaxed on the A1M after my wife had a serious accident at work and I needed to get to her in a hurry, and she didn't bat a headlamp washer. She has been victorious in many battles with German opposition over the years. She is probably the only IS to have transported an HP A0 plotter from Runcorn to Dewsbury. To friends and colleagues, she was known as "The Car With All The Buttons". I hope she's not scrapped but finds someone who'll enjoy her for a year or two more. She's barely run in. Now the wait until Tuesday when I can collect the F Sport home begins.

Very interesting video. Not an F I know but we ran our IS300h on Conti Winter Contact tyres last year and, on the one or two days it snowed, they worked a treat. We could drive up steep slip roads to get off snow clogged main routes and drive out of iced up car parks quite easily. One of my colleagues got stuck in his Merc and had to trudge in deep snow to a hotel overnight. We also live in the South and I still feel that dedicated winter tyres are a good precaution. We have got a set of Michelin Alpin tyres for our new NX this year which should stand us in good stead. As for the LC, well, I could spin the wheels on the salt/grit on the roads last week on the summer Turanzas so I will just leave it in the garage if it snows. ☺️

It's depends where one lives. I'm in the south so summer tyres for now is ok as there isn't much snow in the winter. If I were to move to the Midlands or Derbyshire in a years time then I would be looking to get all season. If in Scotland for sure I would probably run winter all year around unless I have another set of wheels for summer. Very good info video.

Ran Bridgestone blizzaks on my ISF for the 3 winters I had the car. For the past 15 yrs or so have always changed to winters on my car. The ability to stop better in the bad weather is worth the cost alone. Still have the wheels and tyres and am undecided whether to change on the GSF, As I have a defender and the kids cars and my wife’s car all have their winter boots on. So if the weather takes a turn for the worst i have other options.

Lol no offence taken mate haha. I honestly thought I might had done that but the bulb definitely only goes in one way into the housing. I’m going to take a punt at the OEM lights and see how I get on. Hopefully it solves my issue. I’ll post comparison pictures when they’re done.

I have what appear to be identical ramps, and I used them without problems to make, and fit a stainless rear exhaust system to my GS450H. That would be far heavier at the rear due to the hybrid battery than your IS250. I did have to use some lengths of timber at the bottom of the ramps to give clearance for the rear of the car as it was driven back onto, and off the ramps. The important thing is to make sure the area you are working on is both flat, and will support the ramps without them sinking. John.

I 'eard that, pardon?

yup, and what a whole loada pain in the butt it is! Assuming you have the regular 7" screen (and not the upgraded 10" Premium Nav), get into into your dealer, there is a software update that will fix it. I'm a 3D kinda person myself and was very, very, very frustrated that it wouldn't stay in that config. To be warned, the 'home' screen will always be 2D, this cannot be set to anything but. Have a look at this phenomenon!

Got to love fixing a rattle! On my GS I get what is more like a tapping from the bottom of the windscreen on the passenger side. Might try some of this foam.

Turns out it was just the headlight bulb. It has been changed and it now works absolutely fine. Car going in on Wednesday to get the knocking noise investigated along with the faint drone at motorway speeds.

My old IS220d has crossed the 150k mark in the hands of a friend of mine. Still going strong with nothing having gone wrong in the year and a quarter he has owned it. 86k now on my GS, so 15k miles covered, again without fault. Touch wood, long may it continue.

This week I drove past a parked Citroen Picasso 2 days running on the way to work that had the o/s rear window half way down. Dread to think what the interior is like now but I'd imagine they'd have been grateful of the window open warning.

I don't know for sure without testing, but as I repair computers for a living I would be suspecting that the hard drive is failing.

This is something that has been come across before with the Prius transmission. After draining the oil, leaving the drain and fill oil plugs out and removing the HV cable termination covers a hair dryer is used for several hours blowing into the terminal area has cleared the fault. This same code (P0AA6) is given when when the wrong oil is used in the AC compressor or if water finds it's way into the compressor terminals. On the GS450H it can be caused by water in either of the two terminal input covers on the transmission. On the RX450H it can be caused by water entering covers on the front transmission unit or the differential at the rear. Anywhere that water can get to on the HV supply system will give rise to this problem. A pity the OP has not got back to us to enlighten us as to what vehicle he has. John.

i blame the US legal system really.. What!! that car overtaking me was way bigger than in my mirror and you Lexus did not warn me about that so you are the fault of my accident. Iĺl sue you for 20 million!

The current forum favourite is Tony Banks for exhausts but a bit of a trip for you Michael as he's in Leeds. Top quality work though. The stainless system he put on my GS is virtually silent.

It is not that stainless is more noisy than mild steel it is that in general bespoke stainless manufacturers use a series of fixed size straight through silencers instead of baffled units that are OEM fitting. You can specify that you want baffled silencers in stainless that will be just as quite, and last the life of the car. John.

Despite having had Lexus hybrids for our everyday car for years now, I bought the V8 LC500 (after test driving the hybrid version) to replace my Aston DB9. Why? well, you just can't beat the noise and feel of a big N/A engine. Like the F1 guys mentioned, all electric might be fast but is not exciting. I am an old traditionalist though!

I presume you also like to go back to living in caves and hunting for your own food ;). According to my car its -1 currently, yet I cannot remember last time I had to go out in the cold to scrape the windscreen. As for security, feel free to go and download the Tesla App on your phone and see how far you get trying to steal one. Tesla have been using this App since 2012, the cheapest Model 3 in the UK is £42k with a Ludicrous X costing £120k, if you can hack the App you have found your self a money maker, so go for it :). As for battery dying, its an electric car, I've long learnt how to manage battery life on all kinds of products. Oh and what happens if you loss your key, how do you get into your car? I can just borrow anyones phone and be driving again in minutes :). If you find the phone App such a hard concept to get, wait till smart summon is allowed in the UK....... But its all good, because the chance of Lexus been able to implement such tech in the next IS really is 0%, so if you want to be stuck using 1980s UI Lexus has you covered!

187,890 - planning to hit 200k.