The Transporter

Having grown up on a diet of Ford Cortinas, Vauxhall Firenzas, Dolomite Sprints, Rover V8s and heavy trucks... Is there a problem with rear wheel drive that I'm not aware of??

The boot can be a bit limited as it suffers from the boot lid hinges impinging in to the storage space so check that it will take all of your kit before you buy.... or get the estate

The oil filter is in a silly place but always unscrews by hand... Yep the under tray needs to come off

Like Mincey, I am an old git but I totally agree with Janet... The IS250 is technically better in every way... But my IS200 has more soul.. 3 litre engine? yes please.. Sod the fuel

I guess that it all depends on your trips, I do a very low milage, my 05 Lex has only 26k on it but my trips are always pretty long ones, so the engine has a chance to get nice and hot, minimising condensation forming inside the engine, so I have left my oil changes at 10K.. If I did lots of short trips and lots of cold starts, then I would consider more frequent oil changes.. Changing the oil on the Lex is a doddle but do remember not to over tighten the oil filter as it is quite tight to access it and could be a pain to remove if too tight. An oil change on a Lex is a pretty cheap job with parts and quality lube from a decent motor factor

Yep... If you allow the car to coast, then the engine management still needs to inject fuel for the engine to idle, if you simply back off the throttle and leave the car in gear, then the fuel supply will be cut off all together as the momentum of the car keeps the engine turning.. Every little helps

The colour of lights are used to determine in which direction a car is traveling. White or blue indicate the effective front of the car (Think about it, why are reversing lights white?) So red lights on the front of your motor could suggest (In poor lighting or conditions) that you are traveling in the other direction or applying your service brakes.... This is important information to other road users who tend to read the road to decide what actions they must take. Lights are different colours for a reason, not just to make your car pretty If you need fogs to see so closely to the front of your car, then where on earth are you looking? You should be looking well ahead of you, not two feet in front of your car...

It's not a silly question at all.... Anything that is electrically operated will cause a drain on the cars electrical system which means that the alternator will have to work harder, since this is driven by the engine then the engine will require a little more fuel to overcome the added resistance of the alternator..So yes the heated seats will cause you to use a little more fuel, as will the HRW, lights, blower fan, engine fan.... You don't get 'owt for nowt.... In the dark old days of carburetors and ignition points, the added load of electrical equipment was much more apparent as the engine would slow down almost to stalling when at tick over because there was no means of automatically compensating for the engine slowing down due to the extra load

Although it is hard to tell from a photo, the first picture of the belt appears to be delaminating... If it is, then the job was well worth doing and in the nick of time.... It is scary when you consider jut how hard a cam belt actually works in it's life

The driving lights on any car should extinguish when the main beam is switched to diped beam... They are an extension of the main beam... From memory you may only have six forward facing lamps, but this rule may have changed. There are also issues of positioning of the lamps, both in terms of distance from the centreline of the vehicle and hight from the road. Any decent auto electrician should be able to sort your lights out, there is nothing special about a main dealer...

226 You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves (see Rule 236). [Law RVLR regs 25 & 27] 236 You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves. [Law RVLR regs 25 & 27] I take it that you read the book that these chapters have been taken from? If you have problems driving with just your normal headlights on, then It might be a good idea to either have your headlights looked at, or for you to visit specsavers, it is an offense to drive with defective eyesight that has not been corrected. Personally speaking, I'd like to buy that copper a drink.

Why on earth do the manufacturers bother to fill the dash with clocks gauges and idiot lights if no one takes a blind bit of notice of them?

THATS the beasty Stav..... But what a dull application

Talking of turbos and superchargers, has anyone seen a vehicle fitted with a "Comprex pressurewave" supercharger, I seem to remember mention of them many years ago, but have never seen one in use... They were both belt driven and exhaust driven, giving the instant effect of a Supercharger and the efficiency of a turbo supercharger... Yep I still call them that just to confuse young people... I guess that they fell by the way side, just like 42 volt electrical systems

What nonsense! The gearing is tailored to the characteristics of the engine... The IS200 needs to be quite low geared otherwise it would be very slow from rest, the gear spacing is to allow a driver to maintain the engine speed in it's power band... The dictating factor of how high or low a car is geared is governed by the final drive (differential and wheel diameter/ Tyre diameter) A 2.5 V6 is a totally different engine to a 2.0 I6 and do the gearing is obviously going to be different to suit each application

He He He... Yeah but half way through the race you have to stop and put a new cam belt on the vectra

Flat out in an IS sounds great... The engine makes a lovely noise. I red lined mine on the A'Bahn a couple of yeas ago and the top speed is just short of 140 but to be honest I was paying more attention to what was happening on the other side of the glass than to the speed reading on my Tom Tom, the other German drivers are pretty good and use their rear view mirrors and are polite enough to move over for faster moving vehicles. The only way to go faster is to gear the car up but then you may lose a little on acceleration, so then would be the time to fit a supercharger

No problem going with synthetic if you like, but what do you hope to achieve by second guessing the oil viscosity stated by the manufacturer? When I was a kid I had a Vauxhall Viva with worn big ends, so i decided to shut it up a bit by using some EP90 that I had been given free, well it quietened the big ends down and ran for many thousand miles before I pulled the engine and swapped it with another so I could conclude that using EP90 in the engine did no harm whatsoever... But I think that we all know that this issue is a little more complex then that.

Is your aircon on? the fans will cycle on and off to cool the ac condenser also

Passenger seat... because the air intake for the air recirculation is on the passenger side... You did set it to recirculate? The air con doesn't work if the key is turned on... you need the engine running to drive the ac compressor... The ac needs to be on so that the cleaner will condense on the evaporator coils, mix with the moisture on there and help kill the bacteria that forms the odours... If the ac is off and the evaporator coils are dry, then it won't work. Use the full can....the button should lock down if you give it a good shove... Try not to breathe it in...

Unipart 5w30 synthetic... Good quality oil to manufacturers spec without the overpriced fancy bottle... As long as the quick lube/ tyre bay oil meets manufacturers spec then it will be just fine for an unmodified engine. Engine oil is 9/10ths BS marketing.. An NY taxi engine should be running almost 24/7 meaning that it never gets cold.. good working conditions for oil and engines.. if they need to change their oil at 3k mile intervals, they must be using cooking oil in their engines... NOT a convincing or credible test if you think about it. If the car takes a long time to warm up, then I would look at the thermostat.... Lots of cold starts, then adjust the oil change periods accordingly as the oil will have to cope with lots of condensation and other contaminants..

Technically speaking, the little Pug has a better power to weight ratio but when you add around 300Kg for all the "Stuff" that girls always have in their cars, spare shoes makeup clothes, Vodka bottles, and a handbag full of house bricks then there is a much closer match.. Just to tip things in your favour, don't forget to spray a little Armourall on to her floor mats so's she is all over the place in her heels :winky:

The MX5 is such a pretty little car and so chic... Ugly women and blokes should be banned from driving them.. For a small saloon you would have to go Italian before you found something as good looking and as unpretentious as the IS200/300... Its the slim lady in the little black number of the car world....Grrrr

Not heard anything bad about the IS220d aircon and I would expect it to be reasonably reliable.. Are you sure that it is the compressor that is shot or could it be the cooling fan that will come on with the ac? My suppliers still do not list anything for the 220 aircon systems so it may well be a trip to Lexus for the parts, but is it not still under warranty? First thing to do is to be sure where the noise is coming from

The integration of the electronics to run a modern common rail or PD diesel would be an absolute nightmare for most.. You would really have to be in to all that kind of stuff.. then would be the issues of mating the engine to the gearbox (Don't forget that the IS200 has quite low gearing so a diesel would have to be geared up... new diff and also there would be the issue of engine mounts, ancillary components, exhaust... It could be done with enough know how, patience and cash, but I'd be inclined to buy one ready made.. I'm old enough to have owned a Rover 3500 producing a huge 155Bhp