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Both sides done now, scraped, sanded and treated with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 ready for painting tomorrow. Don’t know how good it is but the reviews say it is. My body is aching after being a contortionist under the arches but if you run your fingers inside the arches now they are as smooth as the clay barred paintwork😀 well almost! Well chuffed with what I’ve done today and it definitely needed doing. Tomorrow will be painting inside the arches etc, just wish I had some Por15 to use but a few coats of anti chip paint will be more than enough for now and will buy some Por15 and coat it again. Beer o’clock now and will sit in the sun 😎, satisfied that I’m at least one step ( possibly 10 ) closer to making the car last another 24 years.

Had a beer delivery from Gloucester Brewery today. It was brought by a guy with an immaculate black CT200h. We chatted and I was amazed to learn it had 178,000 miles on the clock. Full Lexus history at Cheltenham and apparently running like clockwork.

Last night my IS300h racked up 150,000 miles Im the second owner and have done 91,000 miles in the last 23 months. I have all of the previous service history from new so I though I would share some stats: So far its had 12 services (one every 12.5K) ever since I have had the car I have been changing all the filters on every service and it has only been run on 0W20 oil, it has has 2 sets of denso plugs replaced and is now on its 3rd set. Its had its EGR cooler cleaned out. I bought a secondhand one and cleaned that out, then on a weekend I replaced my original with this one. What a nightmare of a job that was!! But one that I felt was required I have paperwork for 7 complete sets of tyres, although they were not all replaced at the same time and in my ownership I have suffered 2 punctures that rendered the tyre useless, one of them on a tyre the had only done 800 miles. The car has been run on either Continentals or Falken tyres and since i've had the car I've only ever run the tyres at 39psi and they wear pretty evenly. Ive never had to have the tracking or alignment done and the car still tracks true. Ive done 2 diff oil changes and one gearbox oil change, the engine antifreeze has been changed. currently I am considering changing the inverter fluid but I have heard horror stories about getting airlocks in the system and bleeding is supposed to be a it difficult. All of the suspension is original, there are no rattles or squeaks and the ride is still very comfortable, everyone who travels in the car is impressed with the ride quality. Brakes, this is one area where Toyota/Lexus always seem to suffer, and my IS is no exception, its on its 3rd set of front discs, 5 set of front brake pads, 2nd set of rear discs and 3rd set of rear pads. It currently has EBC grooved discs and EBC pads on the front and genuine discs and pads on the rear. in the last 5000 miles I have replaced both rear calipers as they were seized and the fronts have had new slider kits fitted. The interior is spotless, mine is the SE spec so only has the half leather, the seats are still supportive even after a 500 mile round trip to London, on the cold mornings I do miss heated seats though. I know the infotainment system gets a slating but its not that bad, I have the premium stereo with the mouse controller and it takes a bit of getting used to but ive now got the hang of it although the sat nav can be a bit hit and miss with its routing at time, and the stereo gives good sound quality. Mechanically its still brilliant, it uses very little oil between services, it has a very small weep on the crankshaft front oil seal and this is the reason for the oil use. I can still get over 55mpg on a run and 45 mpg around town. It still pulls like a train, especially in sport mode. The Hybrid battery appears to still be in good condition, I have recently acquired techstream and am interested in interrogated the battery to see how well the cells are holding up Air conditioning is ice cold, its never been recharged Niggles/issues: There are only a few niggles I have, one of them is there is a rattle from the passenger seat when there is no one sat in it, I have a feeling there is. wire looks in the seat. The front bumper is absolutely spattered with stone chips and needs a resprayed at the same time the leading edge of the bonnet would benefit from a bit of paint as well. that aside the overall paintwork is in really nice condition. The wheels are typical Toyota/Lexus quality, the paint is flaking and the wheels now need refurbishing. The front edge of the O/S chassis leg was found to be quite rusty, this has now been rectified by a bodyshop after Lexus decided they would not do it under their body warranty. So that's the first 150,000 miles, I reckon I will see 200,000 miles in about 13 months time. Would it recommend one? Yes, Would I have another one? Very possibly, but would prefer a GS300h next time as they have a slightly larger boot which would work better when doing airport/ferryport runs, but if I can't get on e at the right price/mileage then ill happily have another IS300h

On other Posts, I noticed members suffering the same problem as me with unexpected flat batteries after leaving car for a few days without a run. After some investigation, I found that the Smart Key system puts a drain on the Car Battery. The way to combat the drain is to turn off the Smart Key system and only use the Radio Signal on the key to open and lock the doors. To switch off the Smart Key system, go to page 53 on the car handbook and follow the instructions. Its a very difficult procedure, as you have to lie on your back and put your face into the underside of the console on the Drivers side. I was unable to do it because of age and health problems, but my son found the button and switched off the Key System. No problems with starting since that was done.

Yes, looks like it has spring clips on the bottom so it should come up at the end furthest from the socket and then pull out. https://7zap.com/en/catalog/cars/Lexus/brand/10/0/LEXUS RX/LEXUS RX270%2F350%2F450H/Lexus/R1d1N0NrcytEVUZmT1Y1bWlmMzQwd3RSMjVJMFZUb041eWdodDJZRE9WWEJCa3ZTd3I0ZFgwZDlHc1J5Q3UxUGlMdHUzWHVNM1pSY3BNV2ZYaDBVT2JqQmg5dnZiUW1nWHE0WDl6TkZuU0pwMFYwQ09NY0cwR04zT2hXcVNlc1lOczUrYnJvVHVleW1aNVFSR2drVHFBPT0=/6bbffde8b5b8077d2d0a5796da6eea3c:fe2e164e8e3c3195143f5a61b85de3b5/manufacturer/3->5806/5806---583484g

There was lot of investment into VHS and Betamax Roger, but they were overtaken by the Digital age. What if vehicles were constructed of Solar Panels which had the ability to extract and retain and subsequently use stored energy whilst on the move ?

There are a lot of great roadside charging solutions being designed, and in many cases implemented, right now From lamp post chargers, to terminals built into the kerb (Oxford City Council ran a trial on this) there’s loads of things coming to make home charging easier. Armadillo and ConnectedKerb are two such companies with products in use now. As time goes on more streamlined, discrete, options suitable for old high streets will be available. Certainly there’s the option to charge at supermarkets, offices, gyms etc springing up everywhere too. I think there’s a place for both Battery and Hydrogen and I don’t think either is the wrong way to go, but Hydrogen seems less practical than charging a battery right now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm intrigued as to how people without access to easy / or any charging points, no parking at home or close by say, can expect to successfully recharge their EVs I park my cars,( coz I have no other option ) , in the road and would be hard pressed to pop into the local supermarket car park charging point for howsoever long it takes to get a full recharge whereas I understand the Hydrogen fuel cell charging points would be as simple and effective as filling up with petrol ......... at say a BP petrol station or even a supermarket filling station ..... maybe something like LPG is now around the country ? I don't know at all BUT what I do know is that I personally at home, along with the several hundred other houses along my ancient Kentish High Street have absolutely zero ability to electric recharge EVs and i think I'm like many many others in the UK with the same situation Malc

I agree. I know it is probably silly, and I am sure that most days I wouldn't notice if my car was FWD or RWD, but I still do like the fact that my longitudinally mounted engine drives the rear wheels. From a pure technical stand point, I am under the impression that RWD is preferable, and the reasons for FWD are packaging and cost based, so I prefer my optimal layout

with a super roar ?? Malc

For me it's just a shame another RWD car has gone to be replaced by FWD.

Probably dried out lubrication or dirty contacts on the limit switches, remove mirror glass, clean inside the housing and give any moving parts a good dose of WD40. If you need help removing the mirror glass safely let me know.

Thanks mate ! I let you know how it goes (hopefully good lol), although the fit does seem good and not much or any 'force' is needed to keep it in place

Without reading what the other members have answered I figured I'd give you my thoughts on the car and your questions. First of all, the hybrid drive on the Lexus is very very clever. Its built in the way that you have to make very few actions on your own and makes its own decisions regarding battery charge, temperature, mileage and fuel consumption. My regular daily drive is 2km road of varied 60km/h, 6km highway varied 80-110km/h and finally 1km of 50km/h, and the reverse when going home from work. Usually the final drive after highwaydriving is about 90% electric. I live in Sweden so during the winter season the car takes some time to heat up and you cannot drive electric during this process. My avarage consumption during the winter was 6.7L/100km. Now in the summer, the heat of the sun (15C ambient) usually is enough to drive electric from the start. The petrol engine only starts if you make a high acceleration or if the charge is low. (Occassionaly I guess it would start if you havnt used the car for a while just to make sure its good to go if you need to punch in). During the summer season i avarage 5.8L/100km. Note that both of these numbers have other routes included but id say 75% of the cars usage is according to above. Now to your first question. I would say your driving route would most like make a good use of the Lexus hybrid drive. The thing to have in mind is that the hv battery will probaby not have enough charge for doing electric all the time and the petrol engine will run more or less each drive to keep battery level up. In my driving style I prefer to make a quicker acceleration up to the speed limit. If this limit is ~60km/h or less, once ive reached the speed i release the accelerator. This makes the car understand that you no longer need the petrol engine and if its not needed for any other reason it shuts down. Now I press the accelerator again and keep it withing the ECO zone of the tachnometer. This makes sure the car stays in electric mode. If bellow 50 km/h you can engage the EV-mode which forces the electric mode for as long as it can before the petrol engine have to take over, or you shut down the car. During this mode you can pass the ECO zone to some extent and you can actually accelerate quite fast without using the petrol engine at all. If the car thinks running EV mode would not be adequate due to low battery or any other reason, it will tell you so and prohibit the mode. With this said, I think the car is smart enough to last you a long time with the type of driving you do. From what Ive learned the actual worst scenario for a hybrid is long way commute where speeds surpass 70km/h and higher. This eliminates most use of your electric motor and you would probaby do better with a diesel or a regular petrol and save the money the hybrid would cost you. 2nd question: When initiating the ignition button the car starts up all the electric components and the electric motor. It does not start in EV-mode per se and most of the time you cant select the EV-mode at this early state as the car wants to control this until the car heats up. With this being said, you can still, if the car is warm when started, make a long way without the petrol engine starting up. You mustnt expect a hybrid of this kind to make your whole commute completly electric as its not how the drive is meant to be driven. If this is what you are looking for, a plug in hybrid is more for the job. However, the Lexus hybrid will make the best it can to keep your mpg down and as said you will barely have to mind it at all. No external charging, no need to put it in certain modes etc. Finally, apart from the petrol engine, the hv battery gets most of its charge from the ECB (electronic braking). This is probably the only thing you can do to help the hybrid do an even better job. Its hard to explain without trying it out but basically when you let go of the accelerator the car uses the momentum to regenerate battery. Even more if you press the brake to a certain extent, the ECB takes even more of your cars momentum and slows you down while charging at the same time. To this point the regular disc brakes havnt been used at all, and you can deccelrate to 0 using the ECB if you start pressing the brakes very early before a traffic light for example. You can see this process on the technometer where there is a charge zone. If you keep pressing the brake after the technometer shows its charging at maximum, the regular wheel brakes engages and you slow the car down even further (although losing the potential charge you could have recieved and losing it as heat just as regular cars). Apart from this, i feel ive already answered this question above. Your third question is about reliability and although i am the third owner of my Lexus and dont have a complete knowing of the cars history, I do know that the cars feel very sturdy and ive only noticed a few problems so far. You can check my other active forum topic regarding my two issues, one being a weird AC related noise and the other being a strange handbrake behaviour. However these are in my opinion only minior issues and dont bother me. Reading through the mechanics and service history, nothing strange has happened. The HV battery was replaced when the car reached 5 years. I think the 300H is just as reliable as any other Lexus, or Toyota for that matter - but I guess only time will tell as im still quite new with the car. I hope I could give you some insight with the car and please ask me if I didnt answer anything clearly.

Although I have just used GTechniq Crystal Serum Light and use GTechniq C2v3 as a top up on solid black paint (Lexus ES300h) the most important tool in the box for me is a really good LED Inspection light used immediately before any final application is completed. You will never see ultra fine scratches after full preparation and correction no matter what branded products you use without an inspection lamp. I know nobody comes up to your car with an inspection light to forensically examine the paint and all cars detailed really well will look great especially at dusk when the sun is about to go down but applying very expensive wax or a ceramic coating and knowing you left some defects behind before you locked them in would drive me nuts. As one YouTube detailer once said , there is no such thing as a 100% paint correction and you should never ever try to pursue one as the only thing that will happen is that you will chase and chase yourself around the car till you eventually burn through. Always aim for perfection but be realistic. If you had seen my brand new black car back in August 2019 after the Lexus dealer "prepared my car" prior to collection you would have beaten those people about the head with a bat. I will allow the dealer to fit the number plates only next time after the PDI. I will take it away and remove all the white protective film etc myself.

DHP centre caps worth £100. I've got a set in my garage that I'd sell for that.

Thomas, if you had a spare barn or whatever on your estate you could pop it in there unmolested for 20 years and then get Bangers & Cash to lift it out to go to their auction house nr Pickering..... then it will be a true barn find and worth £££ zillions ( or nowt ) Malc

There's a market for the engine amongst the modifying fraternity. It seems to have replaced the Rover V8 as the weapon of choice. Retrorides would be a good start, assuming the owner wants to sell.

Hi guys. I'm new to the page but I don't think my car is! FD13BWM is my car (was once "M3 WTF" how apt), and wondered if anyone knew what it's been up to? If not say hi anyway! I'm in Bridgend, South Wales. Cheers guys I'm loving my F been wanting one for a while.

N Yes but surely there are generators in the brakes. As I understand it all hybrids need a total lift to recover. When many moons ago I was in the police Austin Allegros needed a total lift for a different reason. If towed they bent in the middle 🍌

Except when the fault is not deemed to be inside your warranty, so you have to pay the investigation charge. So, like it my case above, since you won't know if the warranty will cover it or not until afterwards, I had to pay the half an hour.