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Just thought i'd share some recent mods I did. I haven't had a chance to publish it on my blog yet but it's on my instagram. The 4 main mods here are: Hydrodip Interior Panels - I hydrodipped the centre console and steering wheel switchpad cover in black micro carbon weave pattern with a 2K clear coat on top to get a nice deep shine. I had recently wrapped the steering switchpad in gloss carbon fibre but wasn't too happy with the level of shine and depth of the pattern. So I hydrodipped it. I also took this oppertunity to finally change the outdated wooden centre console to the same design. Just have to do the window switches still. LED Upgrade - I took the oppertunity to change the LED bulbs inside the switchpad to blue. LED's are very cheap. I bought a pack of 100 for a few pounds. Plan is to change all the green LED's out on the car at some point. Aluminium Sports Pedals - I've always been after some OEM aluminium sport pedals but don't like to spend too much, so managed to finally source the whole set from a breaker for £20. Hybrid Blue Start Button - I wanted to upgrade the standard start button to the blue hybrid one to match by blue interior and exterior theme. I first purchased a hybrid blue start button from an earlier hybrid lexus for £5 but wasn't happy with the tone of blue and the backlight was yellowish, so i gave up with that. Then I purchased one from a CT200h for £10 and the blue tone of that is perfect and is like a pearl blue and the backlight is white. So in the pics you will probably see both start buttons. Some pics of all these mods below:

Hi everyone whatever your model ,I have whilst browsing the copart fans forum a new to me parts sourcing website. This site actually uses original manufacturers part number lists and diagrams which is priceless when identifying the exact part you need. If you sign up to the garage proviso all you need to do to get the best price worldwide is to first identify the part number on the vehicle put in your vin number and they find the correct part at the best price and availability. I have checked out some of the prices and the variance is surprising and these are mostly genuine OEM parts. The site is www 7zap.com

A little off post but there could be a moral drawn from this story if you thwart your wife. One for the ladies A married man left work early one Friday afternoon but instead of going home spent the weekend partying with the boys. When he finally returned home on Sunday night, his wife went absolutely berserk and stayed in a mood for hours. After 7 days of swearing and screaming his wife paused for breath, pointed at him and made him an offer. "How would you like it if you didn't see me for a couple of days?" The husband could't believe his luck, so he looked up, smiled and said "that would suit me just fine!" Monday went by and he didn't see her. Tuesday and Wednesday went by and he still didn't see her. Come Thursday, the swelling had gone down sufficient for him to see her a little out of the corner of his left eye!

Hi All, I've just become the proud new owner of a Lexus GS 250 (approve used from Lexus Sheffield). It's grey with black interior and only 47k miles on the clock. It's so lovely and different to all my previous cars. I have been finding myself just taking it out for a drive of an evening simply for the enjoyment of it. I can't put my finger on what makes it feel so special I am just enjoying it so much. I certainly love the engine and although it's not the most powerful it sounds lovely and I prefer it to more powerful diesels I have driven in the past. Also just to say thanks to all of you who give your feedback on questions and comments on this forum, it has been helpful in my search for a great car. Cheers!

As my granddaughter would say "you snooze, you lose" :-)

Looks good 👍👍

I was quoted £1,300+ for my GS300 mk3 from my existing insurer! Go Compare - £295.16 from esure! Thank you to Go Compare!

Yes its that time of year when my insurance co contacts me to tell me how much they would like for the following year. I have been with Geoffrey Insurance Co for around 5 years and the premium has bumbled along around the £200 but this year I was taken back when I found the new premium which they hide in these little booklets that lots of insurance company use. When it comes to the price I couldn't believe it £700!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! £700 yup I rang them to see if they had had a computer problem she thought I was rude for saying what I thought about it, no swearing or bad language was used just shock and surprise that it had gone up so much. Well there's only one thing to do and that's "Go Compare" it took just a couple of minutes up popped a figure from an insurance company called Lancaster Insurance had the magic figure of £167 price shown on the web is what I paid. So, yes please only keep you a couple of minutes ,40 mins later we had finished. I just cant see the point of going through on line answering all the questions and then having to go through all of them again. Thank goodness that's over for another year.

Did they all manage to leave ok without the help of recovery services? 😁

Thanks a lot guys for getting involved in this discussion, its been an education ! Great to talk to you guys who have done and got the tee shirt for these jobs! So I will getting this done ASAP , makes sense to me !! Thanks Again Guys !

wow! like the look! excellent work.

40-60k is a very reasonable time. Like i said in between a little trickle change will also help keep things in tip top condition. Best to use a garage that has worked on Aisin gearboxes too. I've used aftermarket filters with gaskets and haven't had any trouble. They are a fraction of the cost. Remember there are O rings for the filter inside, then their is the main sump pan gasket as well as the drain plug washer. I don't think you get out 6L at all. There is a lot of oil inside the torque converter and the housing itself. The entire transmission itself only takes around 9-10L, so it makes no sense that you can drain 6L out of the sump. If i remember correclty, if you are lucky you can probably drain about 3L or just over that. All the best.

thanks Farqui, had a look at Lexuspartsdirect but for some reason never saw what you showed me, My AC condensor has packed up so brought a new one but first time taking bumper off it has been previously damaged and repaired so am looking at getting it replaced but many pre 2008 bumpers second hand for sale but little facelift, recommend and bodykits? mine is the sport with the front lip but again hardly and bodykits about

Acording a repair manager in Lexus Norway a Flushing vil clean the filter about 80 %.

Well if you do head in that direction, I've just started experimenting with bluetooth OBDlink MX+ and It seems pretty good so far. You may know more than I. It only reads the PIDs but the user can set upper and lower level warning points on a display or gauge. Works with Android, IOS and Windows and creates data log files for any of the parameters chosen to be logged. Logging data from many PIDs did seem to slow it down in real time display mode but worth a look if you need the info. I guess you will be headed for a rolling road session for a proper tune at some stage.

I've heard that a lot of dealers in the states are now all suggesting customers have transmission service at 60k which makes a lot of sense. I recently cut open a filter from a 70k on original oil filter and the filter was no longer able to efficiently filter the oil. Every oil breaks down, no such thing as oil that never breaks down. I change my filter every 60k. If dropping the pan and draining and re-filling then I think the temperature dependant fill/level procedure is essential. But in between I do a trickle change just like @ColinBarber suggested where I drain and measure how much came out. Then re-fill the same amount. Then I drive around a bit and repeat a few times just to dilute old oil with new oil. The WS 1L bottles really arn't that expensive so well worth doing in my opinion. Better to dilute it a little than have completely nasty oil inside.

ATF has an easier life that manual transmission oil but still degrades and internal filters don't entirely keep it clean. If you operate a vehicle under a severe service schedule (towing/high load or prolonged very high speeds) then the fluid should be changed every 6 years/60k miles according to the official Toyota/Lexus service schedule. I think it is worth changing even for vehicles not running on the severe schedule. The main problem is just dropping the pan and replacing that fluid only changes 1 litre - less than 1/7 of the total amount. If you measure the amount of fluid you remove and put back in the same amount you don't have to go through the fill/level procedure 🙂

I like the mods! I had the same colour car, a 2006. Basic spec. Head gasket went at 187,000 miles. Got £350 in scrap. Picture of sale advert. Liked the comfort, build quality, standard radio, interior colour. Disliked gearbox mismatch, turbo lag and poor economy. Mine got around 35 winter 38 Summer. James👍

UPDATE: I searched around locally and found a shop that could change the tip and so I did. Just wanted to share some pictures. I believe a second one one the other side would make it look even better, but that's for another time.

Coming from a Subaru Impreza, it makes that thing look like a bargain.

He is still about, don’t think he’s on here as a rule, he sold his RCF, I know he had a few email issues (compromised) so not sure he would be able to access any messages.

A member on here used these. The actual topic is here:

Well done Ahmed,looks cool 😉👍

As @ColinBarber said it's the Aisin A960E. It's written on the side stick when you open your door. The same stick that has your paint code. I think there will be lots of opinions on this. Ive worked with a good few A960E transmissions. Just recently I teared down a 2012 A960E with 70k miles on original oil. It was absolutely filthy and metal particles were of concern. I've worked on a few with that kind of mileage and all have shown similar signs of wear. But I guess it's upto every owner what risk they want to take. I've got nearly 200k on mine while regularly servicing it and happy with that. My first service I did neglect and that's where most of my wear and tear occured.

A960E

I would personally leave the gear box well alone. Even an oil change, can not be done in one go. They have to be topped up driven, then topped up again.

Its got to come from somewhere or someone!🤪

Yes that's correct, when you buy the warranty (not extending it) it needs to be under 10 years old at the time of purchase. In order to be eligible for LexusCare Extended Warranty your vehicle must be a Lexus vehicle, and must be less than 10 years old (from the date of first registration) with less than 140,000 miles at the start of the warranty.

Hello and welcome, I was once the proud owner of this Bathurst X, and of course spent a fortune with Chris and Geoff down at RE-Worx. Loved the car but after a few track days at Castle Coombe decided it needed a V-Mount next, but I'd had it a year and someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse so I sold it.

+1 on the colour - it looks fab.

Hi K! I'd say welcome but I think you've bought the car I've been eyeing up for the last few weeks every time I called to see Russell in Lexus Parts. So you know, YOU BOUGHT MY CAR!! You clearly love it so keep us posted and a grudging welcome...

Hello K and welcome to the LOC. Lovely colour that is, I only mentioned the other day it would be worth checking Lexus dealer stock for a nice part exchange model, even better when it has only locked up 47,000 miles and been looked after.

Don't forget to try Confused.com. The £20 voucher reward works well. I've made use of it twice this year. Once as a lever for a reduction on a premium, and once where they couldn't reduce further so changed companies. Voucher comes through in about 10 days via email. Chose the Halfords one and combine with the LOC 15% discount, result!!

As above but I would use a dry PTFE lube spray (as used on MTB chains) WD40 is rather thin, more a water dispersant. Either way, looks like a strip-down required.

Could be the teeth on the clog or wheel are worn,and therefore causing the clicking noise,try spraying the inside of the mirror with some wd40 and see if this helps

I spent 3 days investigating what might be a compatible alternative to the D23 Panasonic AGM VRLA 12v battery for the 2010-15 RX450h which is located in the boot. My search took me the USA, Europe and Australia and I had discussions with leading brands technical people including Yuasa. The only one a could find that was a very good match in type, size and performance was the Hankook AXS5523L. Unfortunately, Megastore, the UK distributor would not import and stock this unless they could be assured of an order of 100+ batteries. It seems that Hankook retailers in other countries won't supply to compete with the authorised UK supplier Megastore. Actually. Megastore do stock a larger Hankook battery which would be suitable but it is too long at 260mm unless you cut and reshaped the floor pan and repositioned the spare wheel slightly. (I doubt this would be acceptable these days with insurers) The longest size battery that could be squeezed in is 242mm and I did check up to this size. Any battery would do a job of sorts and a standard flooded lead acid could be more readily found though not offering the security of an AGM battery in a crash. Battery manufacturers say any replacement should be of the same type as the original fitted. I detailed this previously in this thread Where there may have been some confusion is that the earlier series apparently had the 12v battery under the bonnet, which meant there was more room for a longer one and the safety requirement was not the same as when effectively inside the cabin as it is in the later models. I did not research what Lexus fitted in under the bonnet versions.

Hi all, thanks for all the replies. I picked up the silver ISF Saturday and to be honest I can hardly remember the RS4. I don’t miss it at all apart from the boot space, and to a degree the looks - it did look good in white - especially from the front, very aggressive. It was rare we really needed the estate levels of space, but I guess we will just have to pack a bit smarter and use the front seat (wife normally goes in back with junior) Swivelling car seat with Isofix is fitted, which was a struggle but not because of space but because I’m an oaf and hadn’t read the isofix instructions. Got just under 33mpg on the way back from Swindon, I could scarcely believe it. Rather less than 33mpg when I’m off motorways though.... The excitement when the noise kicks in is pretty addictive and just knowing that 5 litre is there, lurking under the swollen hood is a rather special feeling. I fancy an exhaust - but I’m out of excess cash for the moment. H&S with an x pipe anyone? Do they make a big difference to insurance?

I assume it was the cat under the vehicle that was stolen? If so I'd run without. The two main cats are in the engine bay which when fully up to temperature will mean your engine would pass emissions, however hybrids aren't even tested for emissions during an MOT. If you do decide to get a replacement, worth getting a price for a genuine product. Toyota GB are meant to be selling cats at cost for owners who have had them stolen.

Thank you @normski2 for your kind words as always. I've done quite a few more recent mods that i will be posting about soon. I'm also very close to retrofitting the 3IS LFA Style F Sport instrument cluster on my 2006 IS. @Matt1280 that guide of mine basically shows you how to wire the the OEM LED headlights to work exactly as it should from factory. It's a simple relay job. If you buy the OEM headlights, you need to make sure the extra piece of wiring loom that connects to the LED socket on the PCB comes with it otherwise it's not too expensive to buy I think. This is how I originally wired mine in 2013 and worked perfectly fine. But in October 2019 I completely changed the wiring because after installing my rear VLAND tail-lights I wanted the front LED and rear VLAND tail-lights to go on when you unlock or approach the car. More details about that here: https://is-250.blogspot.com/2020/01/vland-tail-lights-drl-activation-on.html But for your case the link posted by @normski2 will be just fine. Oh and another thing, if I remember correctly, the black plastic bracket under the headlight has to be changed if you swap out the headlights. This is because the LED headlight wiring needs a little slot. You could probably get away with just cutting the oriignal black bracket and creating the groove required. I just swapped out the black plastic trim. Another option that others may suggest is the VLAND front headlights. I personally love the VLAND rear tail-lights. But i'm not too sure about the front. Firslty, because they don't really have proper projector lens. Secondly, the light output is worse than OEM headlights. And thirdly because the VLAND headlights LED swoosh is only designed with one fixed constant current driver meaning it only powers up the LED at a fixed brightness. VLAND front lights do not dim which is technically an MOT failure. VLAND Headlights just require constant ignition switched power going to the LED. This means anyone wanting to be MOT compliant then has to install a relay to make sure the LED swoosh lights turn off when main lights are on. This kind of defeats the purpose of the nice looking headlights in my opionion. Hence why I stuck to OEM LED front lights and went with VLAND tail-lights

In a hybrid there are two batteries - a 12V battery that basically 'starts' the hybrid system and gets the car into READY mode (which is our equivalent of the engine running) and also a traction battery that drives the electric motors and is around 288 to 300V depending on the car. Conventional cars have a starter motor that, when you turn the key, will crank the engine to get it running. The starter motor can draw more than 300A from the battery to start the car and when the engine is running, the alternator will replace the electrical energy used and keep the 12V battery charged up but it's main job is to run all the car's electrical systems - the 12V battery is only used for starting. Our hybrids don't have a starter motor as such and they don't have an alternator either. Our 12V batteries only have to boot the hybrid computers and one or two other things and it takes less than 20A to do that job, which is a lot different to the 300A a conventional starter motor would need. Because of that, Toyota/Lexus thought they could save a bit of money by only installing small-capacity 12V batteries, which is fair enough, except that the downside is that the 12V battery goes flat quicker than a larger battery would. For instance, it's not unusual for the 12V battery to go flat if parked up for a couple of weeks at the airport while you're away on holiday. Quite a few of us carry something like this in the car just in case it happens. So, that's the 12V side. Remember I said that our cars don't have alternators? Well, it's because the petrol engine doesn't run all the time - the car sometimes switches off the engine and runs on electric motors, which are powered by the traction battery. Anything that would normally be run by a belt from the engine, such as the alternator, the aircon compressor or the power steering pump, are all driven by electric motors so that they can still be used when the petrol engine is off. In fact, once the car is READY then the traction battery feeds all of the car's electrical needs, just like the alternator does in a conventional car. Taking the alternator as an example, the 12V battery starts the car and gets it into READY mode. Once READY, some clever electronics in what's known as a DC/DC Converter (our equivalent of the alternator), steps down the 300V from the traction battery to around 14.5V to keep the 12V battery charged. Different boxes of electronics do the same (albeit at different voltages/currents) for the aircon compressor and other stuff, all run by the traction battery. The other main job of the traction battery is to provide power for the electric motors that drive the wheels when the petrol engine is off. This battery is mainly charged by regenerative braking. The regen braking system takes the kinetic energy that would normally be wasted in heat by friction of the brake pads against the discs and turns it into electricity to charge the traction battery. Every time you lift your foot off the accelerator you'll see the power meter needle drop into the 'Charge' zone of the meter, but maybe not so far. When you actively press the brake pedal the needle will drop right down to the bottom of the 'Charge' scale, indicating maximum rate of charge. If the traction battery is dropping low on charge but no braking is taking place to charge it, the hybrid system will run the petrol engne, which in turn runs one of the motor/generators (MG1 and MG2) in a backward rotation to act as a generator and charge the battery. I often get MG1 and MG2 mixed up so that may not be strictly correct but you get the idea - it's one or the other. It can be quite noticable if the car isn't moving at the time, which is why I think that this may be what you're feeling. However, as I said above, if the car is in neutral then this won't happen, which is why you need to keep it in drive. Something else to bear in mind is that these are hybrid cars, not electric cars. If you run out of petrol, the most you'll get on battery alone is maybe a couple of miles, no more, and it also opens up a whole host of other problems. To be a fully-functional car, three things are needed as they all work together - the 12V battery, the traction battery and the petrol engine. Hope that helps, Herbie

This was my experience too on the IS. I gave up for about 18 months before investigating again. I hope I can help you avoid the same experience. The thing is, you were expecting voice recognition (as I was) and it doesn't have this feature. To do decent voice recognition you need a biggish computer or Google's servers. These cars don't have this, though perhaps some other Lexus models do. You may have experience with dictation software like Dragon Dictate or similar. With these, you can train it to recognise your voice and then it types what you say increasingly accurately as you correct it over time. This is also how live subtitles are done on television. The computer can't cope with the range of voices heard on the television so a subtitler trains the computer with his or her voice and then re-speaks everything that's said, using a single voice that the computer is then familiar with. But the IS and as far as I can see the CT don't do this. That's why I ignored this feature for 18 months. However, it does have a much more basic feature, which despite being limited is nonetheless quite useful. This is that you can record the names of people on your phone contact list. When you've done this, it's actually quite convenient to be able to call them just by pressing the voice button on the steering wheel and then speaking the person's name. The number will then be dialled. It's actually a nice and useful feature. But it's not voice recognition as generally understood and there's a maximum of 50 names that you can record. These recorded names are called "Voice Tags" which isn't very intuitive if you're trying to find the feature in the index of the manual and you don't know what it's called. So as so often with manuals, it's not very useful if you don't know what they call the thing that you're looking for. As I say, it took me 18 months to work it out. It would be nice if Lexus had a Documentation Testing Department but it looks as though they don't. So although the manual looks as though it ought to be able to help you, since they don't seem to have tested the manual on real customers, as often as not it doesn't.

Sit down when they tell you, an have smelling salts ready.

Milage on my rx450h from 2011 is 122k but in my opinion is that the overal condition and history its more important than the milage

They shouldn't be. The whole idea of a Toy/Lex hybrid, is to anticipate the road ahead and brake gently so that you make the most of the regenerative braking system, which does all the braking down to about 3mph and then the conventional hydraulic brakes take over. This is why brake pads and discs last a lot longer than those on a purely hydraulic system.

My catalytic converter was stolen some days ago, I have decided to leave it until I can find the best solution for it. Someone please help with the right decision as I am confused: 1. I reckon fixing a Lexus recommended option will be too expensive and even at that, I am aware it will still be stolen again even with Lexus recommended CATLOCS or CATGUARDS 2. After market options are way cheaper, do I risk another theft or the scum bags only go after manufacturers options 3. How about running it directly (without the CAT), what risk does this pose and will my car pass MOT. Thanks

I don't think that you will have any problems not changing the plugs at exactly 120,000 miles, especially as you are only doing circa 6,000 miles per annum. It might, however, reflect on the price that you get when you trade it in.