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I did a quick test today to make sure my caliper slide pins were running freely. If you follow this quick guide there's no need for any stripping of the brakes as long as you don't find one that's seized. You only need to remove each wheel. All you'll need is a jack, obviously, and a pry bar or long flat bladed screwdriver and or, a clamp. Use the pry bar, screwdriver or clamp to compress the brake caliper until it moves toward the offside of the hub, or toward you, then, if the pins are running freely you'll be able to grab the caliper and check that it's moving freely.

Please provide a drawing of the scene of the accident 😀

Hello all, been having a look through the posts relating to the IS300h and found what I was looking for. Basically no horror stories. As I expected. Potted history as to why I am here. Already a Toyota owner MR2 Roadster owner. Had been a VW man but as I had access to a Toyota trained Master tech, I thought I would change my daily for a Toyota/Lexus. The CT200H fits my needs perfectly, but I was not prepared to pay the price. Enter Gen 2 Prius. What a great car. To me they were the anti ***** of motoring, and there I was in one and loving it. Rapidly grasped the concept of the the hybrid tech combined with the CVT. The big surprise, the unexpected delivery of 400nm of torque if asked. The launch was such a giggle. The car itself never missed a beat, Hybrid tech fine and dandy. 120k on the clock. But some scroat stole the cat, so it had to go. Still only needed something like the CT200h. But an RX400h came up at the right money. I wanted an SUV even less than a Gen 2 Prius. Well thats all changed. Bought at 145k miles. Done service and another at 150k. What a great car. Hybrid tech happy as larry and share the same opinion as Ganzoom? I have no fears regards reliability. But I get restless so now looking for its replacement. I still only require a CT200h, but I am looking to replace with either an RX450h or an IS300h. So anyone here looking to dissuade me from buying an IS300h? My commute is essentially urban. Between home and work I do not touch a 60/70 limit road. Now the 0-60 is nothing special. But, is there any carry over from G2 Prius. in that the 0-30 0-40 is dispatched very quickly? The combo of elec torque and the linear delivery of the cvt. I know it's not big and it's not clever. But, there are times when you just need to be up and away. Can or will the 300h do that? I make no bones about, if I find one, it will likely be a higher miler. Will not be from a Lexus dealer. Mileage does not concern me. If its done a 150k that tells me things are working. The engine in my rx400h has got to be one of the least stressed engines out there. And I see that as a carry over to the 300h. A 2.5 litre by todays standard id enourmous. But Iam talking to the converted here. Anyway I am rambling now. So any reasons not to buy a 300h? anyone think I should got for a 450h instead? or the 200h

I think that's the one in Peckham actually Malc

More than you think, my screen wash water comes from Harrods own natural spring, and it's flown from London to my house by pink feathered nymphs!

Hi chaps, After a week of fighting trying to remove the air line from my RX300 SE-L rear strut, without having the £50+ tiny plastic Toyota Special Service Tool (SST), I found a cheap, brilliant alternative! A fuel hose "quick disconnect" tool. Commonly found for £2.55 on eBay (from China) or next day £6 from Amazon! The size you need to use is 1/4" and you put the tool around the air line and slide into the strut and push it in hard till you hear it click. Simply simultaneously slide the tool and air line out of it's connector. PS make sure car is jacked up as you don't want your hand squashed if your bag still holds air! I'm trying a tip found on the LS owners website and am using "Stans Tire Sealant" to see if this makes any difference extending the life of the air bag whilst still searching for second hand struts to refurb. My near side rear bag is the worst of the lot (followed by offside front) at holding air and I have nothing to lose. A Turkey baster (huge pipette, if you will) fits a drinking straw in the nozzle and allowed me to squeeze 30ml of the tire sealant deep into the strut, avoiding the pipe work and any danger of blocking it. Over the last 2 days, the bag is losing air at a slower rate than before but I think I will need to remove the strut to manipulate the goo into the worse areas to seal. Stans tyre sealant is really fluid and smooth like liquid rubber, it doesn't have chunky bits floating around in it like other tyre sealants (OKO for example).

Hi all. just thought I'd share my experience of changing the shock absorbers, top mounts and rubber insulators on my 1998 LS400. Bought all the bits from amayama. Good prices and pretty fast delivery before all this covid business started. I decided to go with the KYB Excel G shocks but oem for the rest as the originals are made by KYB and are twice the price! The removal of each shock was fairly straight forward but the rear was more tricky initially as you have to remove the rear seats. (The 98-2000 models seat base just pulls up rather than hooks on like the early ones) Each of the old shocks showed no obvious signs of being blown but the handling was wobbly and lots of roll as well as crusty rust on the shocks and springs So i decided to change as I've done all the other suspension components pretty much with oem parts. Initial thoughts are that it's made the single largest difference to the ride and handling of anything I've done. it now rides much smoother and more stable and its eliminated a great deal of the body roll! The car feels more planted and turn in is crisper. I would definitely recommend that if your shocks are old to replace them. My car has 156k miles on her. looking forward to being able to get her on the motorway and see if its cured the high speed instability feeling.

Now here’s a novel idea, why don’t insurance companies offer to cover the difference in current market rate of the car vs. any finance shortfall as part of the standard insurance policy. I’m sure it could be a USP. But I guess that would detract from the profits you make selling additional policies 🙄

Sorry off-topic but can I just say, very nice Caldina GT-Four you have there 👍 Never seen one on UK roads.

Hi guys, thank you for your advice! Yes the high Tax is a bit of a put off as it doubles from how much I pay on the GS450h. Thinking about it all gives me a headache. It’s tempting to just get the GS fixed and keep it running for another year and revisit this situation next year!

Hi. Just to let you know that we offer a 12 month product called Total Loss Protection. Whilst it's not exactly the same as your traditional GAP insurance we feel for some customers it can make a cost effective alternative. Please feel free to take a look if you wish. https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/extras/total-loss/ Regards, Dan.

Why don't you phone Adrian Flux for some info, I know you speak highly of them!🤭😇

OK sorted. Had the same issue with my wife's Mini two days after my original post. My son (19), kindly topped up the screen wash in both cars as he was topping up his own. He admitted that he may not have slammed the bonnets down hard enough for them to lock properly, 'for fear of damaging them'. 🙂 No problem since.

My brother once worked at a Ford dealership where one staff member was bashing the boot lid down many times to get it to close, then they noticed the petrol cap had been left on the lip! Back to the paint and body shop! We all make mistakes.....even Donald the disinfectant Trump.

be very very careful the instructions are correct if translated from the Japanese " Toyota terminal ................... removal " .............. to the breakers Malc

... is it me you're looking forrrrr? (Does that help?) 😄

I did mine earlier on this year, I decided to get a more unique colour, and found this paint: ebay link - the paint in the tin was good quality and has held up well. To prepare it, I used these drill wire brush - Cheap and I got a better finish in minutes with them, than I would have done if I had to actually work hard and manually use a wire brush 😛

It is cheap I’ve been quoted £320 for all 4 wheels and it’s done over 4 days, mine are a “Mirror finish.” The guy does all my paintwork and told me that the wheels are first sprayed black then a translucent silver is sprayed on top of that to produce the finish.

It wasn't your fault - whoever parked that CT so carelessly needs a lecture.

I spend 15 years working for a dealership, hardly a week went past without some car getting damaged, most of the time it was staff who were doing it. It seems to go with the territory, and the fact that the dealerships do seem to make the parking areas really small, that never helps

I have managed to track down the technical document created by Toyota entitled "Terminal and Connector Repair - Terminal Replacement": https://www.toyota-tech.eu/wire_harness_rm/RM06H0E.pdf I will add a How to Guide, once I've tried it out. Interestingly, Toyota recommend a simple crimped connection for wire repairs, which should then be wrapped in silicon tape, to prevent moisture ingress. I am now awaiting the replacement connector from the eBay seller.

@pobrown Thanks Phil for the heads-up on this. Successfully installed on my NX yesterday 🙂

Damn, I knew I'd be found out!

The IS has a slightly firmer setup which you may enjoy. I find it, on 17" wheels at least, a good compromise between comfort and sportiness. It's really enjoyable to cruise along in on the motorway or A/B roads. It never encourages me to drive quickly (that's the nature of the hybrid drivetrain more than anything and I do enjoy that relaxed feel), but it is still a joy to take out on any road. I've never had a car where I've been to the dealer for routine servicing and looked forward to getting back into my car compared to the newer loan cars. Usually it's the other way around! Regarding the 400/450h RX versus 300h IS, on paper acceleration is similar, but I found the RX didn't feel as fast and those extra mpg from the IS certainly feel good whilst delivering similar performance to the RX. If you don't regularly need the extra boot space and weight, the IS could be an excellent choice. You can always hire a van for those odd occasions when you need to fill the boot.

Yes, Lexus GAP insurance is not very competitive at all. I would also recommend looking at ALA insurance for GAP. There is a discount code available for gold members, Enjoy your new car !

Hi Jason, I think your reports are amazing and very entertaining to read, well done. As you are using you IS for taxi work it reminded me of my recent holiday in Australia. I was in a taxi in Sydney, it was a Toyota Camry and had 750,000 Kms on the odometer which I saw. There were no rattles or squeaks and driver was also the owner and said apart from normal servicing he changed the engine oil every two weeks. It was a hybrid, and although I can’t remember now the fuel economy was amazing, driving around Sydney. You therefore have some catching up to do, Cheers, Roger

Happens to the best of us keep the chin up

Nobody was hurt, insurance will pay out, you have dented pride. Won’t last long and you move on. Don’t dwell on it there are worse things in life, Cheers, Roger

Aha, right, fair enough.

Sorry to hear that Andre,accidents sadly do happen,don't be too hard on yourself though

I don't believe there is any adjustment, the cable or mechanism must be damaged - almost certainly at the latch end, not at the lever.

I believe they have changed premises and the new insurance company has stopped them fitting customer supplied parts. They were not local, but I do not appear to have a toyota specialist near me.

I’ve run a gen2 Prius and sold that when it got to 170,000 miles and replace that with a IS300h. That was two years ago, since then I have done about 100,000 miles in my iS and have had no problems at all. It does everything that the Prius did but with just a little bit more comfort and finesse. It will cope with the short journeys as well as the Prius did but it will deal with the longer journeys on the motorway far far better. Over my hundred thousand miles I would guess I’m averaging about 45 to the gallon. Would I recommend an iS over a prius, absolutely Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That seems unbelievable - any idea why?

I have owned all 3 of the cars mentioned IS300h f sport 2014, 2015 GS300h Luxury (pre face-lift) and generation 3 and 4 RX450h. Gen 3 RX450h is a great car (and better looking in my opinion than my current version). IS300h is a great car, but if you are currently in a 400h it won't feel so spacious. Of the saloons the GS was my favourite. True there is no fold down rear seat, but if you want a load lugger then buy a RX450h. The GS in my opinion feels much more substantially built, quieter and in the real world just as quick as the is. Also I got great fuel economy with the GS, it has a much bigger sat nav screen and is a lovely drive. I only changed to the RX because we had a new granddaughter and it is much easier to deal with isofix child seats and pushchairs with the extra height and space. I had to drive from Gloucester into London and back in the GS. I did a tank to tank test and the car did an impressive 54 mpg. Certainly worth a test drive and probably as cheap to buy as an is of the same vintage. Good hunting

Personally I would decline the add ons especially paint and upholstery products. There are some excellent DIY products available. I generally favour chemical guys products. Their fabric protector is great for carpets for a few pounds. Externally I use their blacklight nano sealant (it's fine on all colours including white). They now do a white version I believe.

Forgive the fact it's not a RX.. Had these done a matt effect gunmetal and thought it went well with the silver : A lot better than the silver they were before. Also quite a lot easier to keep clean!

welcome Michael, you'll be finding plenty of time for the reading then now Malc

Bit more detailing work today on the taxi...... today the rear lights. Given that the rest of the car now looks so much better and has about 90% of the scratches removed I stated looking at the lights and could see they were dull and had a lot of swirls on them. They were stripped off the car as it was a lot easier to deal with them on the bench This one had a couple of deep scratches on it that always caught my eye With some scholl s30 black a finishing pad and a polishing pad The scratch has been removed And a 50/50, the polished one on the left It’s one of these small differences that no one else may notice, but I know they are done now Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi John, well I can answer that for you, although my Lexus Is an LS. I do indeed leave it on permanent charge, and as I live in an apartment with with a communal car parking area, it is in the open . We have an outdoor certified electric socket and I run an extension to under the bonnet and close it completely and just leave it ...no problems . I would use as thin a cable as possible , mine is thickish and does crush a little but no probs and all safe. The biggest problem is remembering it is there and I did forget recently on returning from 8 weeks away in Australia, but I then remembered stopped the engine and disconnected, no problems. Cheers, Roger

Today I was the idiot you sometimes come across in traffic.... Excited for my is300h's first service since I purchased it a month ago, I set off for an hours drive to the closest Lexus center. Once there I realised the parking space just outside would be too narrow so I started backing out again. Check rear camera - clear. Check crossing traffic to the left - clear. Rolled off and I was looking back again through the rear there was a sudden thud. I'd managed to plant my IS in a new CT200h..... Both passenger doors crumpled on the CT. My IS got off easier, the dent came out and there's just some scuffing to take of.... But man I feel like such a complete and utter tool for causing this. 😟 /vent complete