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Well ive hit another big milsetone in the journey today....... MOT is done and passed! Was a bit of a spur of the moment decision as i was given the day off work today so i took my car in for an mot instead. Have a couple of pics of it on the ramp and a cheeky video of it sounding nasty. 20201114_105608.mp4 Only done just over 3000 miles in just over 4 years, was gutted as i ended up driving it in the rain but i guess once wont hurt anymore than it already has.

James May owns a Mirai, plus a Tesla. He compares them both in this video. Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

The only site that matters is the .gov I linked to above. Follow some of hyperlinks on there to get the info on CO2 for the car and then the banding and tax rate..

As Dell Boy would say, "You know it makes sense!"

Not sure - rain stopped play - will have to check when it's dry outside.

Hi Yusuf and welcome to the best Lexus forum. Yes I'd say 10k is rather high for that car. Possibly 8 to 8.5k tops. I paid top price for my car. 2007 is250 SE-L 76k miles one owner from new and full Lexus service history. I paid 5.5k. If you really like the car you should offer 8.5k. 9k if they offer a 1 year warranty. If they say no then walk away. There are quite a few is250 cars for sale out there. I know you'll find a suitable one. For sure once you do you will soon fall in love with it and use it yourself. They are a superb car. Good luck with your search.

Daughter's car would not start this morning - totally dead. Took out my trusty portable starter and started it. ( Had to use its force-start feature. ) Brilliant. Top tip - keep it charged and in your car, not the boot. Boot would not unlock with a dead battery.

My car back in the day...

I had 2 Soarers but I think you already know about them. One was a UZZ31 V8 Limited on air, a rare version without the navi screen which is the best one to have in my view. Awesome car, very comfortable, composed and fast but it isn't cheap to keep in very good condition. Most decent examples will have had regular maintenance and all of the usual faults attended to by now but few will have been kept in 'tip top' condition. Because they didn't receive the attention the lesser Supra did, they fell prey to those who couldn't afford to either restore them or maintain them for very long and so only the fortunate few survive. I would try to find a nice one and then budget perhaps £4k to get it just right. I've been tempted to take on one more Soarer as a project but it would have to be a V8TT or something equally 'wild' when really more effort should be made to restore and preserve them. Check the AC, power steering pump, alternator and door hinges, door cards, all suspension arms. bushes, air suspension if it still has it. Fuel pump ecu is a common failure, coil packs too but don't let my knowledge deter you as these things are easily fixed if you can find the parts. I sold mine with way over 200k miles on it and it was still in good order with no loss of power or poise. De-cat it to release a little extra power. The key to the full V8 Soarer grand tourer experience is to glide in one at high speed with all of the suspension in a perfect state. It's a coupe LS400 afterall.

The owner could still accidentally switch the charger to 24v mode, if it has one, which is another reason why they cover themselves by stating you need to disconnect the vehicle. Even using a desulphation or repair mode which outputs close to 16v isn't desirable, although it is unlikely to cause an issue with Toyota electronics.

Thanks man, yeh im kinda glad i stayed with the oem look now. Im thinking of maybe trying to get hold of the trd side skirts. I do like the look of them.

Love it. [emoji7] To the casual observer it looks like a nice clean, tastefully-modded 1st-gen IS - something to be appreciated on its own, but fellow petrol heads will recognise those RPF1s and wonder what else is hidden under the skin. [emoji106] Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

I just paid £115 this month on my 2017 RX450h Premier (registered January 2017).

Correct. I didn't pay the extra tax on my 2016 RC300h

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables You pay £325 a year less VED after 5yrs

https://www.parkers.co.uk/lexus/rx/suv-2016/car-tax/

If you're a desktop user and are happy manually installing Chrome extensions: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome

Agreed. I've seen the car on the Lexus website and the price isn't outrageous for what you're getting. The used car warranty is bullet proof and I very much doubt they'll budge on price. Best bet as John says is to try and get something thrown in. They might be able to sort something re: the transport costs but they know they don't have to try because it will sell on its own. Personally I'd pay the money, get the train down and very much enjoy the drive back. London to Glasgow? Yes please! Get it bought Yusuf. Once you've had a Lexus you'll wonder what you've been doing all these years

Eliminate the battery as a cause first. Can you put another battery on temporarily to see if it makes any difference?

I just got the part fitted as recommended by Dr S, I asked the garage this question, he showed me underneath the car the cat is extremely exposed in the stock format. I was going to originally go down the main dealer route but was put off by the lead time + the ground clearance with the catloc. The supply and fit was £70, the plate looks thin and flimsy but I can assure you is not. Also I asked about rattling they introduce a small bend at the end of the plate and I can having driven over a few rough roads, on a few fast roads and over a few speed bumps faster then I should I can't hear any rattling. Pictures before and after:

Take a look at this thread: The "fix" is about half way down page 1. It's very simple. you dry off the sensors and you just smear a very small amount of Vaseline over them. Wipe off any excess. It's still working for me (fingers crossed).

If you fancy a day in Brighton give grove garage a call, they make Powerflow systems and are very good, and with much Lexus knowledge.

Continuous use of WD40 on wiper blades will cause them to wrinkle making the useless. John.

Apart from the drivetrain, i do like the car itself. Great design, Rwd and apparently on shortened chassis from the lexus LS. Interior looking spot on as well. This car could have been badged Lexus in my idea. Wasnt there a study of an hydrogen LS some time ago? I wonder why they badged it toyota. It is shorter/smaller than the LS maybe an LS Hydro to follow?

Just been out for essential shopping and glad to report that I still have wiper blades that work ! They seem quieter ( unless I'm imagining it ) and no problems with any smearing on the windscreen. My blades were only just over a year old but had accumulated a lot of crud that the WD40 removed. I'll use it again ( now I know how to get at the blades ) and report back if anything goes wrong. Alan

Many thanks Herbie. I should realise by now that the most obvious solution does not always work !

( A Toyota Aygo! )

Depends which car his daughter has John. If I remember correctly our 2005 RX300 had a key barrel in the tailgate but our 2013 RX450h doesn't.

Many thanks, Rob.

Yes I thought so too. What was really noticeable, and JM points it out, is how noisy the Tesla is compared to the "Yota". Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

Wonderful John.Very enjoyable and really informative too along with super humour. Many thanks.

Pretty sure they're the same size on most, if not all Lexus wheels - 62mm One from an IS should fit. Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk

Key will open Boot Piers.

Just tried this on our UX. Works!!! Haven't been out in our Gen4 RX to try it yet so will have to wait to see. Thank you. JBP

Nice work! Always nice to get things done especially things like the brakes and how bad they was. As for the garage not wanting to use parts supplied by yourself even though they was genuine.... i suspect this may have something to do with them not being able to make much profit in the job. They may have wanted to use none genuine parts and made money off the parts themselves by bumping the price up. Top work, love the attention to detail 👌

i wouldnt believe what the catalogue is saying as this reffering to a level of trim and not what can / can't be fitted. i would remove your back seat and see what mounting points are present obviously where the split is you should have a mounting for the 2 pivot points, a pivot point either side, and the locking hooks at the top on either side. if you dont have the needed mounts you could have a trimmer stich the 2 pieces of the rear seat cover together to make one cover for the back and then fit it onto your fixed back.

Nice write-up. Got the same bulbs in my car, been in 2 years and counting.

What a Toyota you got as this if for the current or ex Soarer owners😄 Celsior nice.

Well, it seems I've not posted any updates to this thread for more than 2 years... Anyway, now that I've recovered some pictures from my old phone, I'll try and fill in the blanks and get back up to date again. 2018 As mentioned a few posts further up, the OEM Panasonic 12v battery finally gave out in August 2018 and had to be replaced. A new one from Lexus could be had for a reasonable price, but I opted to go for a Bosch S4 from EuroCarParts. The battery type is "068" for any fellow IS owners who also need a new one. Also around this time, I upgraded most of the exterior bulbs on the car. There was nothing particularly wrong with the OEM ones. I just felt like upgrading them with brighter/more effective units. For the headlights, it was a like-for-like switch to a set of bulbs with a higher Kelvin rating and a bluer/whiter hue. Replacement is pretty straightforward, although the airbox and the filler neck of the washer bottle need to be removed to provide adequate access. Here's how the Cool Blue Intense high-beam bulb compares with the original. A nice side effect of having aftermarket bulbs like these, is that they will "tint" the reflector inside the headlamp. Onto the rear end.... Most bulbs in the tail lamps are already LEDs, but the reversing lamps and indicators are not. As with any other bulbs I replace, I stick with my brand of choice - OSRAM. Fitment is easy enough, but a trim removal tool is recommended to pop the fasteners of the boot lid lining free as they are a ribbed design and pretty sturdy. Once the lining of the boot lid can be peeled back enough (no need to remove it entirely), the bulb holder can be found. After giving it a small twist, it will come out. New bulb in place and tested before fastening everything back up. Yes, these "after" pictures were taken on a bright, sunny day... Onto the indicators then... These bulbs were even easier to change as you don't need to remove any trims etc. They're accessed through a small panel in the boot lining. Test fitting... Because LEDs draw less power than a conventional bulb, the car thinks there's a fault which causes the indicators to hyperflash. The solution is to swap out the OEM turn signal relay with one especially designed for LEDs. The relay is found under the lower dashboard, on the driver's side. Overall impressions... Headlamps have been improved slightly. The packaging claims the bulbs are 20% brighter than standard and that sounds plausible. My main motivation for changing though was to have the high beams more closely-aligned with the HIDs in terms of colour output, and this was achieved. The new bulbs in the reversing lights are also a nice upgrade over OEM. The most noticeable change however, was swapping the indicators to LEDs. Now they have a nice modern look with the signature instant on-off blink which matches the cadence of the side repeaters (which are also LEDs). I also have a matching pair of bulbs for the front, but swapping them requires the front bumper to be removed.... 2019 Nothing much to report until April, which was when the IS was submitted to Lexus Edinburgh for the annual (Minor) service and MOT test with the odometer reading just under 55K. A new set of wiper rubbers were needed, which was my bad as I hadn't noticed this and had a brand-new pair of Denso blades sitting at home... Anyway, this pushed the bill to nearly £300. Ouch! Anyway, another clean bill of health and no advisories. The cabin filter, however, is not changed during a minor service, so I sourced one myself and swapped it out. Old vs new. Prior to fitting the new filter, it was spritzed with an air freshener (Freshly Juiced by Dodo Juice). A good idea at the time, but the fragrance only lasted about a day or so, so I won't be bothered to do this again. A couple of months later I picked up a set of spark plugs from Lexuspartsdirect with the intention of installing them myself once the mileage was closer to the recommended 60K interval. By the time I did get close to 60K though, it was late in the year and the weather wasn't great. Also, despite reading various how-to tutorials and YouTube videos, I still wasn't confident I could do the job without screwing something up, so I postponed it until my next service was going to be due... July saw me finally do something I had wanted to do for ages, which was to get my windows tinted. I went with 18% on the rear screen, and 35% on the side windows and was very happy with the result. Being honest though, they turned out slightly darker than expected due to the small amount of tint already inherent in the factory glass. No regrets though, and this picture definitely makes them look darker than they actually are. In fact I went back a couple of weeks later and got the glass on the front doors tinted too, in an attempt to try and lessen the stark contrast between front & rear. Now, tinting the front windows can be something of a minefield, so I took the safe option of a "legal" 70% film. The contrast between front & rear was lessened, but to the casual observer it's probably not even noticeable. For example, the front windows are tinted in this picture but not the one posted earlier. Granted, they were taken over a year apart, at different times of the year, with the car in different levels of cleanliness, but it illustrates the stealth factor of the mod. The work was carried out by Scot Tint in Newbridge, a stone's throw away from Lexus Edinburgh. As per usual, during the dark winter months I tend do nothing much on the car apart from switch onto winter wheels around November, plus change out the floormats for rubber ones. So that was it for 2019... 2020 60K milestone was reached on January 6th, which reiterates what I said earlier about not wishing to attempt the spark plug change at this time of year. Fast--forward to late March/early April and I had noticed that my brakes were starting to judder and feel ineffective. After a quick visual inspection, I deduced that the cause was possibly one of the rear calipers being seized as the tell-tale signs were there - the NSR disc was always covered in rust and never cleaned up after a journey like the others did. During the winter to summer wheel swap a few days later, I had a closer look at the brakes and my suspicions were confirmed - the NSR caliper was seized solid. After making a few fruitless attempts to loosen the slide pin bolt, I thought to myself "screw this" - I'll just order a new pair of calipers, new discs, pads etc and refresh everything for a trouble-free future... A great idea on paper, but there was a problem. This was happening at the worst possible time - the absolute zenith of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, and no-one was open for business apart from supermarkets and petrol stations. Not even eBay sellers would let me purchase any brake components. As a so-called "key worker" I was left with no choice but to keep using my car until some of the craziness had subsided. Luckily for me, the roads were virtually empty so it was relatively safe to do so. It was actually kind of eerie heading to work each night and seeing absolutely no-one on the streets, the roads or anywhere else. In addition to this, the car was due to be serviced and MOT'd in April, but Lexus Edinburgh was going to be closed for the foreseeable, so that wouldn't be happening. Thankfully, the government granted an extension for cars due to be tested within a certain timeframe, so I was at least still legal to be on the roads. Albeit with dodgy brakes. Eventually, in July, I was able to order a new pair of rear calipers off eBay for £220. It seems I didn't take a picture of them, but they were genuine Lexus items, and brand new, so that was a very good deal I thought. An order was also placed with lexuspartsdirect for a new set of discs, pads and a shim kit. Once everything had arrived, I installed the new brakes at the earliest opportunity, but much to my dismay, the brakes were still juddering when I test-drove the vehicle afterwards. Damnit, the fronts are also shot! This surprised me as the front discs had always appeared to be perfect - the disc surface were always spotlessly clean, with no apparent heat build-up, plus the calipers were a monobloc design with no separate carrier and slider pin setup that is prone to failure. It would later transpire that the inside surface of the discs was where the problem lay. So, another order placed with lexuspartsdirect for new discs & pads. Also, at this point I'd decided that i was no longer going to be taking my car to a Lexus dealer to be serviced, so a 60K service kit was also ordered, becuase not only was the service overdue from a time standpoint, it was also getting close to 10K miles covered since the last one. Once everything was delivered, I boxed up the parts, put them in the boot and visited a local garage to get a quote for them to give the car a major service including spark plug change, and also to fit the new front brakes. Much to my surprise, they refused to entertain the idea of doing any work whatsoever involving customer-supplied parts. Despite the obvious fact that the parts were all genuine, and had been purchased from a Lexus dealership. The owner cited some BS reason about being unable to guarantee safety or something, so I thought fine, whatever, I guess I'll never be coming back here again! This was something I had never come across before, so i googled the subject when I got home, and sure enough, it seems to be a thing nowadays with garages often refusing to fit parts that they themselves don't supply. In this age of cheap Chinese knock-offs and fake goods, I can definitely see the logic, but in my own case that shouldn't have been an issue. Oh well, every cloud has a silver lining as I ended-up discovering another garage about 10 miles away, who it turns out has a reputation for having a wealth of Lexus knowledge and they were happy to do the work. indeed, there was a LS460 on their ramp when I paid them a visit to discuss my requirements. Anyway, service, plugs, brakes etc all done. When I collected the car again, I chatted with the mechanic for a bit and he showed me the old brake discs that came off the car, and I was in absolute disbelief at the state of them. They were literally crumbling and falling apart with huge chunks missing, but bizarrely, only the inside surfaces were affected. When they were still on the car, they looked perfect. The mechanic informed me that he had seen this happen on other Lexus cars a few times. It totally knocked me for six that I had been driving around with brakes that were in such a state and I regret that I never took a picture of them to show just how bad they were. Throughout this whole time I had been driving extra carefully to avoid having to brake hard etc simply because the noise and vibrations were horrible, but it looked like these damn things could literally have fallen apart at any time. I've tried searching on google images for discs that look to be in a similar state, but I can't find any that looked as bad as the ones off my car! I did take a picture of the old spark plugs though and here they are. The mechanic reckoned they would've been fine up to 100K miles, but I'm glad that job is ticked off the list. I'm also glad that I can hit the brake pedal with confidence again instead of trepidation. A couple of weeks later, I had to get a new rear tyre to replace one that had suffered sidewall damage that was almost certainly caused by a pothole. It was just a tiny nick, with no bulge or air loss, but it would never pass an MOT, so once that was replaced, I got the car tested and gained a fresh certificate with no advisories. Throw in a new tax disc in amongst this recent work, and it's safe to say it's been an expensive past few months, but the spending wasn't quite over. I had noticed my winter wheels were now starting to show signs of corrosion in places. Nothing major, they still looked pretty good, but I wanted them to be flawless again before I put them back on the car, so I submitted them to the fine people at We Restore Alloys for a full refurbishment. I requested the same shadow chrome finish as before, but slightly darker this time to more closely resemble the dark-coloured wheels that are fitted to the recent limited edition F-Sport IS. And here's my actual wheels after the work was completed. Black balance weights are a nice touch. Total cost was £312 as one of the rears had a buckle that needed taken out. Just this teaser pic for now, until I get them on the car and give it a wash. And I think that's my build thread just about back up to date...

It's possible that there may be a high-resistance break in the track. This is for a 450h but should help:

SUVs are more comfortable for a lot of people. I’ve mostly had sports saloons in my life with quite a few hot hatchbacks in my twenties. I’ve had three SUVs now - a V8 X5 in 2007-2008, an NX300 in 2017-2018 and another NX300 for the last 4 months. I’m older now (57) and I care less about handling and roadholding and much more about comfort and retirement. I have no ailments or mobility issues but my days of getting down into a low slung sports saloon are gone now. With the ever increasing move to larger wheels and ultra low profile tyres they just feel uncomfortable to me and round where I live the roads make them horrible to drive. I occasionally still drive my wife’s Mini Cooper for a bit of fun but an SUV better fits my life in lots of ways.

After a couple of attempts I have finally sorted out the leak. I double checked the scuttle/pipe from the sunroof with a piece of copper wire and it was clear, I do not know why I could not get the strimmer cable down there in the first instance. As per my previous photo, I pulled off the lower large connection block to access 2 holes that are used to hold the block and just fiddled around inside these holes with a huge straightend out paper clip. To be honest I didn’t feel anything move, no debris etc I was just about to give up but asked the wife to pour some water into the sunroof drain bfore I put the trims back on the car and low and behold the water didn’t enter the car, it fell from all the correct places underneath. Must say I’m very happy Thanks to all for the advice

Awesome, thanks a lot guys. This forum is great, you always come up with ideas I'd never think of. I had no idea I could buy that on Ebay. I looked at the listings but all seem to be LHD and I'm in a RHD country...probably will be harder to find. I think I'll see what a trim specialist thinks seeing that the trim is in very good nick otherwise and I'm not sure if a used part of ebay would be. Will update

Looks like a DIY repair might be difficult due to its position. I’d be tempted to take the armrest off to see what I could do though. A replacement door card for £70 sounds a decent result too. I think a trim specialist would look to fit new trim, I can’t see how it could be repaired.

There are much cheaper options. These are tailored to fit the vehicle and good value. I bought the heavy du https://www.carmats4u.com/tailored-car-mats/lexus-car-mats.htmlty rubber set for my RX 400h

Theres quite a few 2nd hand door cards floating about on ebay for about 70 quid maybe consider that option? I'm sure a leather trim specialist could repair but it would be down to your convienience of going there/posting out etc and probably will more or the same cost..

My dog hates cats......

Didn`t he play for Holland?

Love the colour. I will probably get mine wrapped to protect the paint as best possible. This is a similar colour to what I'm thinking of 👍 Subject to me being able to hang onto her, thanks covid.

I appreciate that in these strange times 'every little helps' as Tesco are fond of saying but it's just not practical to micro-manage fuel consumption like that. It's a vehicle that weighs in at 2 tons and has a 3.3l V6 engine. Just enjoy the drive