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Morning, Just in case anyone is interested 🙂 Just over a month now since I sold my beloved ISF and bought an FK8 Civic Type R so thought I would post a quick things I like, dislike, miss, regret and so on.... Historically, I have been a massive Honda fan which started when I was a kid in the 80's... Senna in a McLaren Honda, the dirt bikes on Streethawk (and Streethawk ofc) and then sat in a Honda NSX in 1989 as a 10 year old at the motor show with my Grandad which sealed the deal... At 21 I bought a 1998 DC2 Integra Type R which started my Honda ownership journey... I replaced the Integra with an S2000 at 25 which went well but didn't handle anywhere near as well as the Integra. The S2000 was replaced by a DC5 Integra Type R which was ace but I sold it to raise funds to move house and swapped it for cash my way plus my friends 1998 DC2 Integra Type R which reaffirmed what a great car the DC2 was (I was too young and not a good enough driver to appreciate my 1st one). Eventually, I went for something different, a Nissan 350Z. I loved the looks and the noise but it wasn't fast enough. It handled well but always felt like it needed another 50 - 100bhp to make it the car it should have been. A baby due meant the time for a bigger car... Queue the BMW 335i M Sport. Great car when it worked. Unfortunately this "Approved Used BMW" spent 11 weeks over the course of 12 months at BMW having turbos, injectors, fuel pumps, waste gates & lambda sensors replaced. Suffice to say, I am weary of BMW's. Went to replace the BMW with... shock horror... an FK2 Honda Civic Type R... Took the Mrs to see it and she wasn't happy... "You can't spend 33k on a Honda" was the response... queue my friend mentioning the Lexus ISF which I hadn't thought about and found one for 22k (I think it was) which the wife said was "much more reasonable" until she found out it was a 5L V8 but deal was done and it was on drive so 1 nil to me. 4 and a bit years and some 50k miles later, I longed for an FK8 Type R (possibly to do with Honda winning in F1 again) and one turned up at the dealer I purchased some of my previous Type R's from. A quick phone call and a socially distanced viewing at my house led to me placing deposit on an FK8 subject to test drive (I had driven one on an extended test drive before lock down so just had to make sure it drove and stopped). Put my ISF up for sale on here and Facebook for a fairly low price which took into account the TLC she needed. A pleasant chap from the Facebook Lexus group was in contact with me from the start and when I mentioned when it was due to go sooner rather than later, he drove down down about 260 miles the following day (in a pimp old school LS400 I might add) and bought my ISF for £200 more than Honda offered me in part-ex which I didn't mind as genuinely wanted it to go to an Lexus fan (he has an SC430 as well). So... Cutting a long story short... Few I like about the FK8 1 - Looks - I know they are subjective but I really like the look of it and always find myself looking at it when it's near 2 - Reaction - Good or bad, it turns heads. 3 - Handling - For a car that is the same size as the ISF (I think it's 5 cm shorter but wider than the ISF) it's a lot lighter and changes direction superbly. The diff is a masterpiece and I know it's a bit of a cliche but it feels more like a 4wd car than a Fwd car with the amount of grip it manages along with how it gets the power down. The adaptive dampers are great as well, comfort for when the wife and kids are in. Sport day to day. R for a track day 4 - Braking - The ISF brakes are great... the FK8 brakes are another level. I have also got the floating discs from the 2020 model to go on it before the annual Ring trip next month 5 - Tech - It's got all the gadgets being a GT. The head unit gets some bad press but using Android Auto it is fine - Spotify and Waze on main screen plus Google Assist works a treat 🙂 6 - Performance - Once moving.... it pulls and pulls and pulls. Not as quick off the line as the ISF but once moving, it is very rapid 7- Seats - They are great and the driving position is perfect. One thing I didn't like in the ISF were the seats. They weren't racy enough for me compared to an M3, RS4 or C63 that it was competing with. 8 - Running Costs - Tax is £150 a year compared with £580 or so, Insurance for me is £200 a year (ISF was 290) and obvious one is MPG (25+ around town and 40+ on motorway) 9 - The rear seats fold down so managed to blag it as being practical with the wife 10 - Best until last... The Gearbox... It's obviously a manual but it is a joy to use. Things I dislike about the FK8 1 - Noise (or lack of). The turbo spool and dump valve noise is quite cool but nothing compared to a V8. Exhaust note is non existent which is disappointing as there are plenty of cool sounding 4 pots out there (i30N, RS Megane, Golf TCR and so on). Exhaust on the shopping list. 2 - Niggles - Luckily under manufacturers warranty but she is going back in soon due to a few faults (all rain related). The auto wipers don't work, when it rains heavily the collision warning sensors can go off and I noticed condensation in one of the side lights by the front. 1st 2 issues are common faults. She was probably built the day they announced Swindon closing 3 - Interior (seats aside) - Not as plush as the Lexus in terms of materials and feels a bit more fragile than my ISF did. Also not sure I am a fan of the digital dash yet compared to some good old dials . Only one cup holder as well.... I am starting to sound old 🙂 4 - Wheels - 20 inch wheels look cool, but you have to avoid potholes like the plague for risk of cracking a rim. May have to invest in some smaller wheels in future 5 - Engine - It looks like a lawnmower (as in the actual engine). Did I mention lack of noise? It sounds like one as well Regrets 1 - Probably let the ISF go for too little money bearing in mind the price they are on AT but still got a fair amount more than WBAC 2 - I wasn't as bowled over on day 1 with the Civic as I was with the ISF but that was probably due to relief from getting away from the BMW. This was cleared up at Thruxton though where the Civic came into it's own 🙂 3 - The RCF - My buddy with an ISF keeps sending me links to RCF's which are now in budget.... I can't return yet surely 😉 Anyhow... it has been an absolute pleasure owning an ISF. I would buy another one in a heartbeat. In fact, a late one is on my list along with the RCF and GSF as things to replace the Type R with 😉

I've never needed to have any aircon work done so I can't give any personal recommendations, and I know you said you prefer Manchester or Liverpool but, given your lack of suitable places so far you may have to widen that out a bit. I live in Preston and there's a specialist near me that gets a 5-star rating from over 50 Google Reviews http://www.mrsheattransfer.com/ so might be worth a call if you're willing to travel that far. There's another one in Leyland that gets 5-star ratings from 13 reviews https://www.chillout-airconditioning.co.uk/

See https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/vehicle-service/#servicing - scroll down and select your car and you will see prices for all services - add up what yours will cost for the next couple of years. The service plan allows you to spread those payments over 24 months Interest free.

Auto Trader has announced the Lexus NX as the best hybrid car in their New Car awards 2020. Well deserved.

Well after being away from the Lexus fold for the past 18 months I'm back. My 4th Lexus. This time im in a 07 is250 SE-L which I swapped my diesel mondeo for. The Ford had to go because the diesel market is dying at an alarming rate. To put it in perspective. 6 weeks ago the mondeo was valued at 6.5k. In the past fortnight I've been offered between 4 and 4.5k. Well my 250 was up at 5.5k and a straight swap was made because the vendor saw my car and knew its potential. Anyway I've been looking mainly at RX400h or RX350 but the ones I saw were poor. My 250 yes is a 07 plate but a one owner from new and 78k with full Lexus history. It had to have Nav and ML. Its amazing how many is250's there are out there for sale but very very few with Nav and ML. I struck lucky. Mines Bkack with Ivory leather. Love how it runs. Ive been thinking of the 250 for a number of years but got either hybrids or Fords. I've a couple of questions. 1st is is their a recommended updated Nav disc? If so which is the better and suitable one? 2nd is the drivers seat electrics work but the seat memory doesn't. Passengers side works so I'm wondering if its a faulty bank of switches. Any ideas? I was going to put a Bluetooth adapter box in this 250 but I was very surprised to see it has an aux socket. The ML is outstanding. Just as good as the 14 plate is300h premier premium (that's how lexus dealer described it) I had a few years back. I know about the sticking brake caliper saga with these cars. Mine had new calipers fitted in 2016 20k miles ago. Pads look like new front and rear. I am however going to remove the calipers and de rust them and treat with a rust prevention liquid then paint them gloss black. Ive got Liv-Moly grease for the pins etc. So to anyone who remembers me Hiya and to those that done well you'll be seeing a lot of me. It feels great to be back. Do I miss that superb mondeo? No. Thanks for reading and I hope to get responses and answers soon. The Nav disc really really needs replacing with an up to date one.

A lot of info here inc list of specialists (at bottom) https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/air-conditioning/

It takes very little current to 'start' a hybrid. So little, in fact, that you could almost use a pack of 8 AA batteries to start the car (although that's not really advisable) so I doubt that it's the battery not being up to spec. By the sound of it you've not had the car long so I'd go straight back to the dealer and get them to investigate it. Having said that, if you're new to Lexus ownership is it safe to assume that you're also new to hybrids? If so, it may be worth having a look at post number 4 in the topic below, which gives a basic idea of how hybrids work and their particular foibles regarding the 12V battery:

I joined LOC in 2004 and think there was a proper in house search facility that Google then took over. May be wrong. My 2005 RX300 SEL original Panasonic battery was still working fine when I upgraded in 2018. Given that it was probably put in the engine bay in summer 2004 it did remarkably well. Now I'm reading all these threads about 450h 12 volt batteries. Clearly they're not lasting as long ? When I went to Milton Keynes to take my first look at the latest RX, I remember asking about the battery. Salesman had no idea where it was ! Alan

Hi guys and thanks. I've googled fir maps and seen on ebay TNS600 TNS700 which I'm unsure what they are. Also what ive seen is that all the discs I've seen are suitable only for gen.3 and 5. Now are these OK as my car is a gen 2. Pics of car below and last one I think shows the nav headunit.

‘OCD’ I prefer ‘CDO’ it’s a lot neater alphabetically!😂

Please don’t get the IS220 with your expected usage profile!

I can't help it. MY2005 V70 2.5T SE. 150k miles, not been particularly well looked after, £1k. Let the fettling begin

Probably a safer choice of the two.

these maybe? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEXUS-IS220D-IS250-05-12-REAR-DIFF-ARM-BUSH-BUSHES-FOR-DIFFERENTIAL-/180953613044 https://7zap.com/en/catalog/cars/Lexus/brand/10/0/LEXUS IS/LEXUS IS250%2F350%2F2%23%23D/Lexus/NUdPdWgreTV3VG9ZUGtTUlU1cHgvNm1GNnJqelpleE5CSFRvK2tYUGZNd253T1FSbjFaWnhUZ09YeFNhQzlYWGdxUVRzMG1US2pmdWdwL2JDNHBmMHVRQW91SXYzUm9qMlI4Z1R1SGhFYWZXdFRvWkVVbVpWUkhYN1kvZFNYYVdJMUR3Yzc2QjdTWU1hR0dVeThtK0pBPT0=/6bbffde8b5b8077d2d0a5796da6eea3c:6bab1c2b889c5ce59f54e9febd160e41/manufacturer/2->4101/4101---413952a

Thanks guys for the feedback. I have declined the wrapped car and gone for the slate grey 2008 plate. I’ve paid a little over the top but it is being sold By a Lexus Main dealer with low mileage. Picking up on Wednesday.

Apparently yes.

It has arrived although their van tracker showed the van 20 miles away.

I had a Water Pump go pop 5 years ago on a French Autoroute en-route to Spain. Nationwide performed admirably and then reimbursed me with every penny of my reimbursable expenditure Malc. One can only speak as one finds.

in all fairness it's only 30 mins Main Dealer labour plus the cost of one plug plus vat Malc

A great write up William. I must confess to casting my mind back to Tony Hancock`s "Radio Ham" as I read it !

Thanks James. I`ve had a 240GLT Auto Estate too, with Brown Leather seats and Electric Sunroof. A great car. It was followed by a 2 litre 460 GLT which was also reliable, comfortable and surprisingly economical. I always wanted a 940 Wentworth, but never went there and moved to Nissan Bluebirds which had 2 odometers and were ultra reliable.

same here I wouldn't say no either 😉

I think your type R looks great, especially in white, the wing at the back is a little OTT but that’s all that’s holding it back looks wise, but if you need the downforce on track then it’s definitely needed!

If you have stations stored on presets you don't have to switch multiplexes yourself - the radio will switch to the new multiplex automatically. This is the advantage of putting favourite stations onto the presets - you then don't have to bother with all this multiplex/ensemble business. I've noticed, though, that if I switch one preset station to another preset station that's on the same ensemble, the switch is instant. But if I switch from one preset on one ensemble to another preset on a different ensemble there is a brief pause, presumably while the radio tunes into the different ensemble. The radio is fine if you have the stations you want on presets. But, no, it isn't user friendly at all if you just want to browse stations. You can also easily cycle through your presets using the steering wheel controls.

Thanks Herbie - we had a Kia Nero before the Lexus, but very different beast.. just trying to get my head around it all so very helpful.

I like older Volvo's. The phase one V70 though is quite good I have heard. Had a 1989 240 GLT auto estate for 10 years, 8 as only car and daily driver. Excellent reliability. Recovered once in that time as gearbox output bearing went. £400 to sort. Sold the 240 for £500, only paid £350 for it so got my moneys worth and covered 76,000 miles with me. Sold with 234,000miles For the last 4 years, I have a 1996 Volvo 940 SE LPT auto estate. Again great reliability and just keeps going. Now on 203,000. Used as my works van. Last week been tidying up the body and fitted some new AC O rings and replaced AC condenser clamp for a better condition one, so now have working AC. Looking for a 960/V90 grey leather interior as fancy electric adjustment front seats with memory function. James.👍

I see what you mean! By faultless I mean mechanically its never missed a beat, we always take it on our Cornish trips.

Is it strange that my first thought on seeing the price is that it sounds quite reasonable? Has the Lexus brainwashing succeeded? Having said that, considering the potential issues that might come up, I would personally pay the £93 and get it over with.

Useful review. Thanks. The Type R is on my (very) short list when it comes to change

GF is good value, but cover is free with certain Bank/Building Society accounts.

I've had my 2008 V70 for over four years now and still only on 62k. Such a practical car. Mine has the 185hp diesel and it just has so much pulling power. A great car for me being a dog owner as well, plus I can get 3.2 lengths of timber in it!

Well done Richard. It just goes to show that there is incredible value out there if you are prepared to get stuck in. Enjoy.

These V70s are heavy at the front and do like suspension arms. When the bushes start to go it has an effect on tyre wear. This is actually my third V70 but the first one that doesn't have the characteristic knock knock from the front. And the cambelt isn't due either. I should buy a lottery ticket!

Having recently completed a transmission fluid and filter change on my IS250C perhaps I can share my experience. When doing a transmission fluid drain I always like to leave the car standing for 24 hours or so to enable the fluid to drain down into the transmission pan. After first draining and then removing the pan, followed by the filter removal, I managed to get roughly 3.2 litres of fluid out of the transmission. I followed this with two further drain only sequences, again leaving the car stand for a day or so between drains, and managed in total to get 7 litres of new fluid into the trans. I sourced the filter, gasket and crush washers - all original Toyota items - through MegaZip ( https://www.megazip.net/zapchasti-dlya-avtomobilej/toyota/lexus-is-42401/gse20-57089/gse20r-aktlhw-9261920 ). I used the Toyota WS fluid from my local dealer. My car is only at 50K miles but is 11years old so I figured it was due. Hope this may be helpfull. Dec.

Mine was also written off many years ago for a broken headlight, cracked bumper and bent wing and bonnet edge. Had it not been on the insistence of my insurers it would not have been recorded as cat C. Around £800.00 to get the repairs done and still going strong.

I shop at Aldi this is how I save money to run my Lexus lol

Lee, Great. Thanks. Alternator coming out tomorrow so will look into these also. Cheers.

I see Steve has now replied with an update, no problem l’m always happy to help a fellow member, my commission rate funnily enough is 15% 😀😀😀😀😀 Pretty sure you will recoup more than your membership cost on your first service.

Another thread with the same issue ! No one has ever got to nail this one 😞 Hopefully someone somewhere can after all give us their 2 pence on this somewhat unique but not totally rare one. Cheers 🙂

So since picking up last Thursday two new tyres on the front cleaned the thoroughly gross interior new battery oil, oil filter, plugs, air filter, cabin filter (done today, knackered!) sourced luggage cover, fog lights, driver and passenger mirrors Currently about £1500 in, which isn't bad at all. A little bit of bodywork needs doing (£250-£300) and rear sensors then it's handed over to my wife. So a big, comfortable, safe family car for less than £2k. So long as everything goes to plan I don't think that's too bad.

No not really, I'm still 'trialling' 'erroring' at the moment. I can get it all ok on my pc and on Hik-Connect when I am using the Wi-Fi at home.

A really smart move Vlad. Do not go there as £93 could be a really small amount to pay in the context of a big mistake.

Got both front headlights replaced under warranty, however started noticing gaps under the headlights where the front bumper connects. Not sure if they were there before but could someone post a front view of their ISF OEM headlight please?

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?

£83 from lexuspartsdirect.co.uk but you also need gasket and o-ring.

Small update, managed to get the gauges finished in the nav unit and it turned out really good! Over the moon with it, just need to see if i can get the proper plug connector from Toyota for the unit. 20200622_002212.mp4

Looks ok from what is difficult to tell just from photos. It seems to have had quite a lot of rework in the past, I wonder if chasing the same fault or something different. I think the fact that you can make the fault occur by touching the wiring is probably the best place to continue the diagnosis. I'd remove a section of the black wiring shroud back to where you were moving the wiring so you can move each individual wire to identify which one has a problem. It could well be a break in a wire if the harness has been moved a lot in the past, or it could lead to a problem at the connector/pin - especially if the wiring is a little tight when fully assembled and there has been any strain.

Another little side project ive started was this.... I got my hands on an old nav unit, pulled the screen out and set about making it work to house my AEM gauges. TBH it was pretty easy, just needed permanent 12v, ignition 12v and a ground. Just need the find something nice to mount them into then bond that to the nav housing, also just need to make me a little loom and hook it up to the radio wiring for the feeds. 20200605_144243.mp4 Also got a short tease video of the exhaust.... GOPR0089_1.mp4

Yes I had a nearside headlamp assembly replaced on my IS250C under the extended warranty. This was early 2016 and it was £700+.

Servicing basically will follow: Lexus-Essential-Care-Service-Content-1014_tcm-3066-448394.pdf Your coolant change interval will depend if it is pink or red.