lexicon

Realy? I didnt know that? There was a story a while back, I forget the details but along the lines of: a woman got done for eating a kitkat and hence not being in control - she was stationary in traffic at the time.

Don't forget that a US gallon is about 20% less volume (about 3.8 litres), so 29 US mpg is close to 35 imperial mpg. The new figures are supposed to be more realistic in terms of cruising speed, using air-con etc.

That works out about 23mpg (@ 85ppl for unleaded) - which isn't great, but for what sort of driving? If you only do a few town/urban miles at a time then it's about right. On the other hand if you're cruising on the motorway it would be bad. compared to what? The IS200 is no ball of fire in the performance stakes. If you genuinely have poor performance and rubbish consumption you should consider a service, new air-filter, MAF sensor clean and ECU reset.

It's repeated on BBC2, Wednesday 7PM.

In a word, no. It makes it slightly easier to control the throttle but that's all

If it's vertical then the internal release lever should work - horizontal would mean it was disabled. The boot lid isn't just "stuck" on the seals is it? sometimes I have to give mine a good tug to open it. Not having a master key is not good news though.

Yep, the petrols have electronic throttle control and the diesel doesn't, so no Snow mode. Snow mode just reduces the throttle sensitivity - I'm pretty certain it doesn't affect the TRC (on the old IS at least).

I doubt you'd hear a hose clip if it was just rattling about the engine bay - they only use the sprung metal type and there's hardly any mass to them. Hard to see why a short overheat would give you those symptoms though - was it OK just prior to the "incident"?. The thing that would be bothering me was did the same mechanic do the cambelt? If you can, take the mechanic/service manager out to demonstrate the problem and make it clear you're not very happy. A numpty mistake like that should be worth some goodwill on their part.

The door mirrors barely dim on my IS300, almost unnoticeable - I had to check the manual to see if they were fitted! I had an RX350 loaner and the door mirrors went very dark - if anything a bit too dark.

I think you need to try that monitor on a different pc (or borrow another monitor) to isolate the fault, but it sounds like the monitor is going to sleep because it thinks there is no signal from the pc. If it comes to life just by switching it on and off without doing anything else like moving the video cable about, then I would suspect an internal problem with the monitor.

Hi and Happy New Year. The only new IS petrol model available in the UK is the 2.5 v6 (hence IS250). The old IS was only available with 2 litre (IS200) or 3 litre (IS300) i6 petrol engines. All UK IS300s are automatic and they are pretty thin on the ground - even the 200 is still relatively rare given how long it's been around. Not sure what you mean by the height of the car - all 300s have the sport suspension but so do 200s depending on age and model. Check out the model specs which are pinned near the top of the IS forum section. Edit: just noticed you are in Singapore - not sure what the differences will be there!!!

Sort of - dual core is basically two processors in one package. To benefit from dual cpus, you need an operating system and/or applications that are designed to be multi-threading. This means that an application can be shared across cpus (spread the load), or one app can run on one cpu while the other does something else - true multi-tasking. Until multiple cores, multi-tasking was a misnomer - the cpu just hopped from one task to the next

you have the relay diagram the wrong way round ;) so the "missing" ones are for the fuel pump (you would know about that!!) and dimmer/fan 4 - it's probably a generic relay box and these sockets are not used on the IS. Lots of cars have unused plugs/sockets/fuses.

Working this week AND on-call over New Years Eve/Day. Do I win a prize?? . . . . . . . No, I thought not!

As always I guess it depends on your style and type of driving but that seems pretty poor - I average 26-28 (90% motorway) and have got 32ish on occasion (was really trying coming back from Scotland). Might be worth getting your Air filter, MAF and Oxygen sensors checked/cleaned/replaced. Also an ECU reset is worth a try. There's not much difference between the 200 and 300 - I only get about 2mpg less than my 200 managed.

I recently got a 2Gb Datawrite card and had no end of trouble with it (and it's replacement). I had to send it back in the end - it just would not work with any device I owned despite latest firmware etc. It was OK in a Toshiba laptop card slot but that was it, everything else hung or couldn't see the card at all - I guess sometimes "standards" are not as standard as they should be!

There's some stuff of theirs on GoMusic; GoMusic - TSO

I know that. You know that. I think 86 needs more basic assistance given that his 1st Q was what bulbs to use. @eightysix: you need to use the brake mod given above connected to the 21watt filament of your dual filament holder AND also connect a direct feed from the number plate lamp to the 5w filament. Maybe someone else can tell you which is which if you can't figure it out.

In post number 11 - but that's for Fog-to-Brake, eightysix already looked at it but wants Fog-to-Tail.

OK, I will admit it was "a few" years ago when I took my test - I can't say that I've noticed an improvement in mechanical understanding. I seriously disagree with that - and so will you if a loved one is killed or injured as direct result of a poorly maintained vehicle being driven on the road.

You have to consider that MOST drivers are not car enthusiasts like here on LOC, and don't give the maintenance & safety of their car a second thought as long as it gets them from A to B. I think it should be included in the driving test to have a basic understanding of the mechanics - not to fix it, but just to know what's what, rather than bumbling about in blissful ignorance. I'm sure most are mechanically clueless but still quite willing to trust their life to it.

Read it in the Times instead then; http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2477478,00.html

T'was on the radio the other day and it would bring us in line with euro testing. Personally I think it's step backwards - there's already too many heaps of junk I see with misaligned & defective lights, duff shock-absorbers and bald tyres without letting them run around for an extra 12 months. They're not all OLD heaps of junk either. 4 years from new is too long as well - I would do 100 thousand miles in that time and there's plenty do more than that.

and clean or replace the cabin pollen filter (behind the glovebox).

I presume it doesn't work so well if the screen gets a good dose of road grime, or does a few strokes of the wipers get rid of the crap and leave the Rain X to do it's stuff? It was definitely clearer vision even in such heavy rain than an untreated screen with the wipers working at top speed.. I use it on the rear and side windows and it's great. The problem with using it on the windscreen is that when it deteriorates (due to wear from the wipers or whatever) it smears shockingly. This can catch you out if it's not rained for a while but when it does you can't see a damn thing! I'm currently using a set of PIAA wipers which are silicone impregnated (and you get some to apply to the screen) and it works almost as well as RainX but doesn't deteriorate.