ewans_dad

I had an engine rebuild just before Christmas as it was totally coked up. Garage said thet I had to now use premium diesel every other tank as the engine needs a detergent. As the priemium diesel can cost about £8 per tank, I have chosen wynns supremium as it gas a detergent in it replicating what the premium fuel does. It costs about £6 eBay and you only add a small capful per tank, on bottle will treat about 500litres. It only add on a little more than 1p per litre so rather have it than not.

Hi, I hope things have cleared up for you without too much intervention. Just before Christmas my nightmare began, let me tell you my story about by 55 plate IS220D! Driving to work one day, engine warning light, check VSC and the traction control lights came on and the car went in to limp mode. Got to work, called Lexus who said to take it in and called the AA. AA did diagnostics and said the problem reported was the particle filter. His normal suggestion would be to give it a long hard blast on the motorway but did not want to suggest doing this as there was a chance that it could cause more problems and cost more to fix. Instead it should be taken to Lexus who can clear the filter without having to race the engine. Took it to a Lexus dealership who quoted me just over £1000 for a new cat (not much diagnosis), got a phone call with a revision telling me that there was clearly something else that caused the problem and it would cost me £1200 to have the engine stripped to investigate. On top of that, there would be the fix and then another £1200 to put it together again. I was now faced with a bill of £4000 inc vat with no assurance that they would be able to find what was wrong in the first place. The good news for you could be that Lexus said they were confident that they could get Lexus UK to fund the full cost of the repair, my luck ran as it missed a lexus service and the goodwill ran out. I got the car dragged to a garage in Essex for a strip and clean and a new cat. Total cost was £3700 inc VAT. Engine was full of soot and grime which needed to be cleared and the cat was shoot. Car is back now and I need to have 2 services 500 miles apart and not drive over 70mph as a precaution. On Friday I have the final service and then it should be back to normal. All in its probably cost me over £4200 including rebuild, cat, hire car, servicing, etc. Garage have told me to do the following to help avoid it happening again: * Use fuel with detergents (or Wynns 'Supremium' fuel additive (about £5 for a bottle that does 5 fills)) * Add a cleaning additive to the fuel every 5000 miles (I have chosen to use "Wynns Diesel System Treatment", seems to be quite comprehensive) * Increase oil changes (I will stick to the 10k garage services but also add a home drain and fill between services) * Use fully synthetic oil (service manual says to use semi synthetic but apparently this is a now brainer) * Try to keep the Revs over 2k, I used to drive 100 miles on the motorway per day and was in 6th gear for most of it barely doing 1500 rpm which does not get the particle filter hot enough to burn. * Every month or so, drive over 3000 rpm for about 10/15 mins to help burn the soot out. I had two hire cars whilst my Lexus was being fixed, reading the manual when the particle filter starts to get full, it automatically increases the revs and burns it for you as a precautionary measure (Saab 93 and Vauchall Insignia). The first thing you notice in the lexus is limp home mode, the second thing you notice is £4200 being extracted out your bank account. Hope this is of use to you and anyone else that has similar problems in the future. Let me know if you need the garage in essex that sorted me out and avoid any engine reconditions around the Heathrow area. Stuart

I use the ones in the pictures on the listing, they are EBC fronts, both grooved and drilled. They look good and perform well but they tend to add a fraction of noise. I was looking at the stats and they do help you stop faster in an emergency, stopping 1m sooner could be the difference in a new bumper! Just be careful, with this, they are giving the pictures of EBC breaks but they say variety of sources. A full retail set of front rotors will cost £198 inv vat and delivery. So not sure what you may be buying here. Would suggest paying the extra and not having to worry that is standard discs with some guy in a garage with a drill and angle grinder adding paterns for you!!

Its been a while since starting this topic, thought I would update any future readers on the progress. from research, it would appear that the best option to go for was one from a company based in Bath with national garages, they seemed to know the most about it, fit flashlube, give courtesy car, and use the latest versions that apparently work best with the IS200, the only thing is the cost of £2326 including VAT. Other systems are available at a lower price but it was my opinion that they were the only ones that I felt I could trust with my car. I asked if I could speak to a IS200 customer that they had carried out a conversion for and they put me in touch with Brian. Brian was a real gent and did not mind speaking about the conversion and in all honesty the only down side that he could find was that he could not take a LPG car on the channel tunnel! He kept a rigorous diary about his mileage and costs and I trust his figures without exception. The economics were as follows:- On Petrol he got 30mpg On LPG he got 22mpg (this works out at today’s fuel cost) Petrol 14 pence per mile LPG 8 pence per mile With a 6 pence per mile saving and a cost of conversion of £2,326 the break even point is 38,775 miles which would take me approximately 3 years to break even. There are obviously other reasons to convert (environment, etc) however, with such a slow pay off, I will not be upgrading to LPG unless either the cost comes down or the petrol prices start increasing much above £1 per litre. This may well me more attractive to those of you that do high mileage, if it is and you want the rest of the my information, PM me and I will gladly let you have the rest of the details.

I bought my IS200 a few weeks ago and I only have one master key, If I bought a key fob off ebay and had a blank key kut, would I be able to re-probram the key fob using the above method? I have been quoted 200 for a new key and would rather find another way!

I take it we are talking about the email that starts.. "We have made a small tool for our site, I think you will guess what to do with it...." and then gives a web link starting "www.lexusownersclub.com............" I would have thought LOC would be more secure with our data, no harm done (to me anyway!!). Anyone know what would happen if the link was clicked? Just wondering, its like I have a big red button in front of me saying 'DO NOT PRESS' I will send it to a mate and find out what it does to his system, will let you know when he calls me to tell me all about it!!

George Bush

Stuart Nicholson. Divorced father on one, lives with me ever other weekend Live in Nothants Bought IS200SE 2 weeks ago and so far have dome all the easy mods (car mats, car tax holder and bought a tin of Hammerite smooth to do the calipers this morning, no mods that require a screwdriver yet). Since the split, bought the IS200, started on the golf after a 6 year break Started at the gym Started to learn SCUBA Having a great time! Work for an IT reseller as a Tenders and Frameworks Manager, will be going to JAE for a look around!

Great, glad to see that I will not be breaking new ground here! How many miles do you get out of a toroidal tank? Are the quoted savings real and have you lost any performance. Apparently you save a whapping 10 quid per year off your road fund license! Where is your filler cap and does it look okay. Sorry for the rapid fire questions, I am excited to find someone that has already got a system!

Brilliant, my next MOD was going to be HID's. What better way of getting noticed. Next time I pick my Kid up from his mums, she won't hang around. She'll throw him in the back and slam the door! If I give her a toot about a mile away he will be waiting on the kerb... Brilliant.

With Bush threatening to nuke Iran (the 4th largest oil producer) , African oil producers breaking out in civil war , the UK having to import oil due to the North Sea fields becoming more difficult to exploit , hurricanes from last year in the US knocking out US oil fields it is not looking too promising for low oil prices and consequently low petrol pump prices. I believe that this weekend we are expecting to reach an all time high of (an average of) 95.9p per liter based on an oil price of $78 per barrel. Now the really bad news… The futures market for oil in 12 months has been trading over $100 meaning there could be a 20% increase in pump prices in the next 12 months … 115p per liter I hear you cry?? I am sure that this means that most of you may stop buying the premium unleaded and buy regular, I have been considering something a little more drastic and would appreciate some guidance of people that have considered or converted the beloved IS200 to LPG. The general consensus (from the people promoting LPG) is: * Almost no difference in performance * Save 40% on your fuel (full payback within 20,000 miles). * Duty will be kept at the same low rate by the Government for minimum of 3 years. * No real difficulty in finding LPG garages. * No difficulty in converting an IS200. * A can of ‘Tyre weld’ is a suitable replacement for a spare wheel. * Service the car as normal and then get your LPG system checked over by a specialist. * No difference in the insurance premiums. * Oh. and its good for the environment (not really bothered about this one, if I did, I would be on a push bike). If anyone has any input (apart from a NOX kit being a better replacement!!) or done a conversion with good points and bad points would be much appreciated. I have been quoted 1500 to 2200 inc vat if someone has any pictures of a conversion and what to look out for, I would much appreciate it. Ewan’s Dad