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Hi all, I replaced my radiator and water pump with a friend over the weekend at home on axle stands. Wasn't too bad, there is plenty of knowledge and diagrams across this forum, YouTube and the American forum. My radiator looked worse for wear, I think the transmission fluid lines were not far off from snapping off the radiator. That's on a 2008 with 66k miles for reference.

I quite like the idea of an SC440, that must be the quicker one.🙂 It's so long since I actually used the standard head unit I can't remember what it did and sometimes we mad SC owners forget to state the obvious. So checking my archives, I think the confusion is in the fact that the facelift doesn't actually have an external CD multi-changer. The 6 disc CD unit is part of the head unit itself. It should say 6 disc on the front of it. Apologies I didn't add to the discussion on LW as I thought the others had explained but clearly they can't always be trusted with audio questions despite the fact that some are indeed highly qualified in these matters. Probably too busy debating less important matters like politics, the meaning of life or the weather. We wait ages for a fault to appear on an SC430, Usually it gets dealt with in a couple of sentences and a picture or two and we all go back to the waiting room. I took mine apart just to see how it worked after replacing it with an Alpine. You load the 6 CDs into the head unit one at a time slowly until it's full. Hope that clears it up.

Sort of, but the breeze higher up won

Going on the plate it will have been not long after I bought it. It's now on 68k and still mint. My father runs it now because I couldn't part with it. Here you go Granite Sky if I recall. Yes. Sorry. A friend. Because having five cars would be silly.

Unless one has a GS 450h that is, Sir.

That looks amazing. I am not keen on modifications but your work looks very good and not too OTT.

Now, had one switched on autopilot ?

Anything to do with flying is also not on my list of achievable things, last week I flew my little drone in Cornwall, it's still there buried somewhere in the undergrowth waiting for a future Tony Robinson and his team to find it!

When I test drove what would become my IS250 after having had two IS200s, I didn't think I was ready for an "Old Man Auto". By the time I'd covered the distance from the dealer to the main road though, I was convinced. I wouldn't go back to a manual. Those memories of being stuck in jams around the M25 and all that stop start 1st gear clutch up clutch down stuff are best, for me anyway, left in the past :-)

Just a few minor updates as I haven't posted here for a while. New wheels, extended rear spoiler, newer head unit, Sprint-Booster, paintwork re-fresh where required. Otherwise nothing too radical apart from the OBD/Ipad install which got a mention in another thread. I did try to sell it a while ago but it's a bit too much of a scary proposition for most sane folk so I've carried on with a few more minor tweaks and changes. I like the addition of the Ipad and the OBD2 info in real time so the next task is to improve the quality of the screen surround.

I really hesitate to ask but there is a very obvious question here. Did they not come with a manual? If not, I expect PCM is right - I'd guess it's a plant cloche.

Feeling fulfilled and, if I'm honest, slightly smug - first let me tell you a story... It was a dark and stormy night, well actually it was last November when I bought my LC, just couldn't wait for the good weather, just had to buy it! We always enjoy a great road trip and our favourite destination is Scotland. You can imagine how much we were looking forward to talking the LC for a tour. Finally, last week we managed to get away, I have to say it was amazing, taking a true GT across mountain passes and straight open roads. We covered just over 1200 miles, not quite the NC500 but all the places we love none the less. As you can imagine, with a car needing regular fill ups, we planned a little to make sure we weren't caught short. Previous we hadn't bothered so much as we've toured around in a diesel BMW.... So we planed for 20/25 mpg based on fairly spirited driving, which we did. Imagine my surprise when the final average for the whole trip came out at - wait for it - 35.5mpg, even reaching 39.1mpg on one of the days. So, as well as having a wonderful time roaring through the Glens in a big and soulful V8, we even saved on our fuel budget - can't wait for our next road trip.

Bought my first ever Lexus yesterday from Lexus Leicester a LC500 Sport + and drove the long way home to Cheshire, a very enjoyable experience. Love the car but surprised it didn’t have wireless phone charging.

Don't forget that the extended warranty also includes UK breakdown recovery, European breakdown recovery and, I believe, MOT tests which when taken into account makes the £900ish for the two years a bit more of a bargain! JBP

This is apparently also true on the 3rd Gen GS (which I discovered after struggling with changing mine). Here's a photo from the manual:

Actually the Philips V2000 was the best quality, but it got nowhere against the Japanese players

You could have a point. But also take into account replacing it via Lexus (I was quoted in the region of 2k with a wait of 2 months) Then the thieves come back for round 2 then round 3. Just as a note The garage at the time I had mine done had Prius come in that had the straight through pipe fitted after have the initial one stolen. They came back and before realising it had no CAT and cut the straight through pipe.

mine was cut off welded on straight pipe passed mot

🙂 Most Porsche owners tend to think there is only 1 brand of car - I am not in that particular gang and even though I think the 981 is a wonderful car, it is certainly not without its faults! Every car needs to suit an individuals needs - for me, this one was about running costs, size and specification and it ticks all those boxes. I can see why people stay with the German brands to a point, and I was guilty of that but this car has definitely changed my outlook. When it is time to change, another Lexus will ceratinly be on the list, but it will all depend on circumstances/needs at the time of course. Best advice I can give is ignore the press on any car you re interested in buying and try it for yourself - they have very different needs/expectations to those of us who drive them daily.

Read this Mr X. Only accept minus points from contributors to this Forum. Do not believe all that motoring journalists might write. Good hunting. https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/lexus/ct200h-2011/

Yes

Today they recalibrated the VGRS and configured the horizontal position of the steering wheel. It seems to be good now.

The flight deck of Concorde ?

No doubt they are operating in SE London at this time. Am sure you and me are not the only ones. I hope that the generic metal CAT stays on the car, It may be that they realised it was worthless to them. Somewhere in this thread I posted where I purchased from (EBay) and a fitter in East London whom specialises in exhausts so any additional bits for pipes he needs will not be an issue. There was a ceramic and a metal Cat, I opted for the metal which supposed to be the better performing unit. Fingers crossed they don’t come back!

Neil, That is brilliant, thank you very much. Yes I have been doing some digging and it looks like they started fitting the P3933 model in 2004 in the last of the 2001-2005 models and to MOST of the facelift models. Rich posted a pic of the unit from his facelift and that was a P3933, I think most were. I can't see the model number on yours but the 2 plug (6 pin + 20 pin) arrangement leads me to believe it must also be. I appreciate it may be worth a more modern unit (what did you install, out of interest?) but I do like a stock look inside and the only things I really want is Bluetooth streaming and maybe a reversing camera, both of which I can do and keep the stock look. On further investigation I do believe that this may work as it has a splitter cable for the 20 pin plug and I know that the Yatour units are the only ones that work properly on the RX as I installed one on mine. Once this is cracked, it's operation reversing camera! Thanks again, I really appreciate it David

I have fitted a generic cat and I am relying on the fact its worthless ... in my opinion a cat fitted from Lexus is just not an option as this just perpetuates this crime so either this or fitting a straight pipe (if you can) appears to me to be the only way to ensure that these thefts will ever come to an end at least for the Rx ... cat locks cost way too much and have a large variety of problems ... Although the police appear to be doing absolutely nothing about Catalytic converter thefts, these thefts still need to be reported by everyone , It appears its a big ask of the police forces to do anything about these thefts and increasing the number reported might eventually embarrass them into actually doing something, how else can we drag them away from making sure we all wear a mask and investigate real crime... lol

Looking good Neil, looking smart well done.

Yes I think it passed away - it had had a good innings though judging by the final MOT mileage reading. Someone may have bought it and put a new reg on it but that's asking a bit much! Its successor hasn't done much recently, it was still SORN'd last time I looked.

I did the plugwires and the caps , rotors and one coil where I could get to all the screws . A few bits to take apart and Very many wires and fiddly to get everything nicely in place. It was a full weekends reasonable dose of car work for me to be honest.

It is quite a lot of fun actually David. I did not expect it but I can see that it is deserved in a tangential sort of way. At least it tells me that my message is being received ! Back to the point.....we really need to find out what it is or might be. Piers is the only one in the running at the moment for the prize of a Betamax videotape of old Hitchcock out-takes with Bob Newhart !

Sorry, only just noticed. The V6 was a solid performer with averages 28MPG per tank, regardless of how i drove it. It as comfy as my IS300h, there were newer cars available from abroad, but they stopped producing them in the UK around 2001. The one big draw back is the CVT, it has a tendency to not engage sporadically, aside from that, I’d have another for sure.

I am nearby in SE9 and mine got cut off this week. I wonder if it's same gang - 2 white men with a Blue Audi. Apparently there's also an "Irish looking guy with a white pickup" caught on camera stealing one from a CRV. It's a plague around this area, multiple thefts recently, thieves caught on camera, including faces, their cars and registration and still no results from police. I am also thinking of getting a cheap metal one and relying on the fact it's worthless. Has anyone had their aftermarket/generic cat stolen yet? Is it worth putting a plate to protect a generic cat, or relying on the professionalism of the thieves enough?

Hi Jonny. They're asking £6200? I'd offer 5750 stating the issues with the car. Oh the panel gaps look ok. Theyre just like the gaps on my 2007 is250. Good luck pal in your purchase. If you have any doubts tho then don't despair. There will always be other is250's that turn up.

Just a bit of fun John! No offence!

A cage for people who do read their manuals?

A cage for people who don't read their manuals?

No, not the same thing at all. It literally allows screen mirroring but even that doesn't allow some things to display while in motion, even sat Nov! Miracast is a bit of a pain to use in honesty. Android Auto is much much better.

It's a different thing really. It will let you display the phone screen on the vehicle's screen but you perform all the operations on the phone. Android Auto gives you a display that is more suited to a vehicle which you operate from the vehicle's controls.

There are different refrigerants out there and the correct one must be used however it is the oil that is extremely important on a hybrid as the compressor is electric and conventional oil is conductive which will cause energy leakage and a shock hazard. ND-OIL 11 must be used.

I am the original poster and unfortunately these thieves were back outside my house last night. My neighbour noticed these guys and went outside, this was 3:30am in the morning. They were under the car. What I don’t know is if the fact that I have a generic replacement had stopped them from taking my cat or the neighbour disturbed them. I am located SE London in Bromley. Beware!!

Not as prevalent, in fact it is unheard of at this time but whether that is because it is too difficult or just because cats from older vehicles are more valuable, and therefore are targeted, isn't really known. We know the cat is further forward on the series IV, but we haven't seen pictures to tell if the front is still accessible or not. Heard of a few cases with it happening on the series III but no where near as bad as the series II 400h.

No problem. Yes, I have fitted the coilovers. Feels like driving with sport mode. Not too hard with softest selection.

OK, this is coming along I'll try to find time over the weekend to finalise Malc

I could not disagree Lee. Your willingness/eagerness to get to the bottom of matters has undoubtedly sparked the imagination of some and made others (like me for instance) marvel at your approach. It`s what makes the World go round !

Unfortunately, Lexus Cheltenham tell me that the parts went in the waste bin the same day which was collected and no prospect of receiving but they will support my request to Lexus Customer Services for Goodwill. Apparently, top mounts were needed and charged for as well as the struts which were worn and come as a complete unit. So I now await a response following discussions between Customer Services and Cheltenham. I can confirm the car has not been used off road during my ownership and I doubt the original lady owner did so. I should of course have asked for the parts to be set aside but the call came while we were lunching and I overlooked doing so until it was too late. Go to school on my oversight folks! I will report outcome. I am inclined to opt for the 2 year extended warranty, as it seems to me that although the cars are among the most reliable, some parts can and sometimes do fail earlier than expected and in such circumstances the cost of some are high when the labour element is added.

My point exactly, Piers.

Website displays a very wide range of high end vehicles.They may know something about many, but cannot be specialists in all. Reviews on website and Internet appear to be very good. If prices are close to used Lexus Dealer prices, then it is a nonsense to buy from them rather than buy from Lexus. Boss does not appear to warrants its vehicles,but instead uses a 3rd Party warranty eg, RAC. The small prints in such a warranty will include caveats which are not included in Lexus warranties and should therefore,in my opinion be avoided. Caveat Emptor.

Life is a one way ticket Phil. No return trip. :):):)

Hi Phil they are quite different to an LS, more like a GS430 in handling terms, just a little bit more fun and it's a different experience with the roof down too. As a Soarer fan I was less interested in the open-top side of things and thought the roof would stay on but I confess if the weather is good, I do drop the top.