The Transporter

The aircon will only run and demist your windscreen in temperatures above approximately 3 Centigrade, lower than that the interior will need to warm before the ac clutch will engage. Not sure about the candle thing as the products of combustion (IE burning a candle) are Carbon Dioxide and Water which would only make your condensation problem worse

As Rob and Wozza have said, it is a smell caused by bacteria on the coils of your evaporator, Generally the Hafords stuff will sort it out but if the smell is persistent, then a stronger cleaner can be bought from Brown Brothers and is sprayed in to the evaporator coils, It does pay to keep an eye on the sight glass, you will get the odd bubble in it whilst the ac is running but a lot of bubbles will mean that it is time to get your ac checked, the ac systems on the IS200 is a bit antiquated but very reliable, I have never needed to repair the ac on an IS. Just as a side note, as we go in to Winter, always remember to hose down your condenser (The radiator in front of the engines radiator) with clean water to remove road salt whenever you wash your car, it will help prevent corrosion

GIST (Formerly BOC) do have a good reputation and should take such allegation seriously if you were to contact them. If their driver was abusive then this is a serious matter indeed. When you take your HGV test, the examiner is not only looking for the ability to drive safely but also looking to discount aggressive drivers.. British truck drivers are among the safest in Europe, though that is not to say that some bad eggs do slip the net. It is possible that the drivers poor driving is down to him being inexperienced, this is the time of year where many supermarket delivery companies (Gist deliver for Marks and Spencer) are busy recruiting temporary staff for the Christmas period, many of these agency drivers are not as conscientious as company drivers but are sadly a necessary evil Speak to GIST and tell them your side, it could be that he has given them problems before For what it is worth I would have taken both lanes on the entrance to the roundabout to make sure that no one would have been where you were, some of you may have noticed truck drivers doing this, they are not being belligerent but are making sure that there is safe space for the trailer and that car drivers cannot get where the trailer could hit them..

My money is on an airlock in the heater matrix / cooling system.. The aircon system should have absolutely NO air in it at all, only refrigerant and lubricant.. I have heard a/c s that whistle (No it wouldn't do requests) or a more common noise from the ac is a pronounced hissing noise which indicates that refrigerant gas (as opposed to refrigerant liquid) is being passed through the expansion valve which suggests that the system is low on refrigerant. A simple way to eliminate where the noise is coming from would be to switch off the air con system and see if the noise stops.

I run both an IS200 and a VW Transporter, I love both to bits and both my dealers know my name but for different reasons.. Lexus Stoke see me every 12 months for servicing and remember my name because they can... My VW dealer remembers me because the damned thing breaks so often. VW vehicles used to have a good reputation but their quality has slipped... A long way. The VW will be replaced with a Toyota, the IS I want to keep for ever.. Ultimately the choice is yours, you have to decide what you want from your car.. My IS suits me just fine...

Thanks for that Fluff, I must say that for a filter not to be changed as a service item than I am very surprised indeed. Although we are comparing totally different fuels, I was shocked at how much black crud came out of the diesel filter of my van which I have changed at every 20000 mile service, but as I said totally different fuels.. I'll keep an eye out for the fuel filter , my car is due its 20000 mile service shortly and feel that if it is a reasonable price,then would have it replaced as a matter of course.. It has always been my belief that if a filter is there then it will need replacing or cleaning as part of a decent service.. I don't drive my car much but like to know that if I need to drive it to the other end of Europe (As I did need to last year, well Munich) I like to know that it is ready to go with no problems

Firstly i would have done this myself but dont have a hydraulic press avalible as im sure 99% of people dont. I replaced the ABS sensor about 1 year ago and is very easy to take out and put to one side, whilst changing the bearing. this was a part from lexus so not a "cheap junk sensor" Secondly i did warn them about the sensor and advised them to be careful. Thirdly no matter who you take the car to they will do a test drive, considering mine is turbo'd just gives them more insentive to give it a trash, which is something i doubt i will be able to obviod. Forthly I have never had any problem with the fuel gauge before if that is a new fault i will deal with that asap I dont know who the hell you are but your saying if you took your car in to get A done then pick it up and B and C had gone wrong which had never gone wrong before would you be happy, when you dropped it off B and C where working fine ???? Also where he got towed from was miles from the garage I see no reason for a 15-20 mile test drive. The reason i chose this garage is they have done work on it before (when it was NOT turbo'd) and was happy, the reason i didnt take it to lexus is they charge £96.50 an hour PLUS VAT which i think is a effing joke. And no i dont feel silly if you can do all the work on your car then fine or if you can afford to pay out on bits and bobs that you havent broken then your a mug with to much money. My comment about you feeling silly referred to you jumping to conclusions about how your car was treated and that the garage was responsible for its breakdown when in fact it was simply an issue of not enough fuel...Hardly the fault of the garage All automotive components and electronic sensors are cheap junk.. the components are all made to very tight prices and naturally quality is shaved.. Japanese components seem to be less bad than European Bosch / Valeo garbage but make no mistake that they are all cheap and nasty. Naturally I would be concerned that my car had developed a problem whilst in the care of someone else but to automatically assume that they had damaged it and that they must pay is bizarre to say the least, especially since the vehicle had been fitted with a new throttle body and the job hadn't been completed, and also the fuel filter had not been changed for some years... This to me suggests a poor maintainance history, what else is on its last legs? Both my car and my van are serviced by a local garage who I trust implicitly to give me good service and to take all reasonable care of my vehicles. There is no job that I cannot do on either my car or my van but my free time is scarce and quite frankly it works out cheaper for me to pay a garage than it does for me to do the work myself. I love my IS200 and feel that there is no other car that I would rather have and yes, when it is out of warranty would rather enjoy fitting a super charger to her, but lets be real here an IS is hardly exotica and I am sure that the mechanics see many turbocharged cars pass through their doors, do you think that yours is different to any other turbocharged car that they see? Most mechanics see a car as just another metal box, I know of very few mechanics who get exited about cars..Its just a job so I am a little mystified as to why they would make a point of ragging yours. In short I would say that you are all wound up about nothing, your car developed a fault (Run out of petrol) through no fault of the garage and has an issue now following this incident which now needs further investigation, I really do hope that a new fuel filter sorts your problem but it sounds like it may be in need of a new filter anyway it is strange that you should ignore a service item whilst fitting an expensive turbocharger By the way, NO I'm not a mechanic...Just in case some of you felt the need to jump to conclusions..

Ha... You guys are amazing... A car is a complex machine and as such from time to time will develop faults.. 99% of the time they will develop in your charge where you will simply take it and have it repaired but have you ever considered that your car could just as easily develop a new fault whilst it is being repaired at a garage through no fault of the mechanic? It is not uncommon and indeed sometimes required that a road test is carried out on a vehicle, a road test can show problems that simply spinning the wheels cannot show...So if the cam belt was to fail whilst under such a road test, then why is it the fault of the garage?...similarly ABS sensors can and do fail.. consider where so many sensors are and how they would react to being disturbed.. I have seen cheap junk sensors fall apart in my hand when they have needed to be removed for other work.. the sensor was old and there was no way to do the work without its removal, it is just another expense that needs to be incurred it certainly isn't the fault of the mechanic, the majority of whom are professionals who know their job well..Remember that YOU are the one who chose the garage and if you feel that they would "Thrash" your car then why the hell did you take it there?? I would suggest that it is the culture of "Blame someone else" I would strongly suggest that all those who have responded here in a negative "Yeah sounds like the gits ragged your car" type of response should learn to work on your own cars as clearly you are incapable of trusting anyone else to work on them Well after the garage broke the car it seems that it had simply run out of petrol...It is down to the customer to ensure that there is enough fuel in the vehicle....Perhaps you should have had the gauge fixed before they started on the bearings...So it wasn't the fault of the garage at all...Do you feel a little silly? Please don't measure others by your own lack of standards.

Since you are in Wolverhampton, then MotorClimate in Bordsley heath are very good indeed..Car aircon is all that they do and really know their stuff I think that last year they were charging around £55 but do check with them first. If you come up to the Crewe area then give me a shout, I have packed in car aircon for the masses but do the odd one on my drive in the evening

There are a lot of similarities in the body shape but where the IS has a pretty nose, the Merc has a pigs snout....Squeel little piggy

AC compressor locking up causing momentary loss of drive to alternator / ps pump? The GS compressor should dissengage if the speed of the compressor does not correlate to the speed of the engine and cause the ac light to flash. The correct compressor has a speed sensor built in to it. Just a thought

Don't forget to invest in a new drier, expansion valve and to have your pipes flushed too otherwise you will be back at square one very quickly indeed. Although the system could have a leak almost anywhere, a common place that I have found on the GS is the alloy refrigerant pipe that runs on the right of the car(As you look at it) low down in the engine bay. It is secured by a couple of steel clips and salt water causes corrosion of the pipe. Have a gander at this pipe and see if you can spot any oily deposits in this area, especially by a clip. The pipe can have the corroded section cut out and have a new section brazed in if it is dear from Lexus. It's been a long time since I have worked on any Lexus so I am a bit hazy on the precise run of this pipe.

Just topped up my 1997 GS300 mk1 (123,000 miles) with an 18 oz can from halfords - cost £40. Easy to do - took me about 5 minutes. I know it isn't ideal but it seems to have done the job - so far so good. My compresssor made a loud whining noise above 2,000 rpm - this noise has almost disappeared after just 10 miles of driving. The GS compressor is the dear one. Because everything is driven off one belt, Lexus (Or rather Denso) fitted the ac compressor with a speed sensor to compair the speed of the compressor to the speed of the engine, if the compressor falls out of tolerance, then the HVAC system decides that the ac compressor is starting to sieze and so suts off the ac compressor. This prevents the compressor locking up and burning out the drive belt and stranding the driver. The noise suggests that the bearings are on their way out but the compressor will run untill the noise becomes intolerable or it starts to lock up and gets shut down. Excessive head pressure can also make the compressor make funny noises. New compressor should be around £500 +VAT for the part if you shop round. Why did you need to charge the system?

That would be a shame, if there are no leaks in the system then £50 could see it up and running, especially nice if your car had rear aircon too

Its a bit radical to remove the ac system just because it doesn't work. If your system isn't working, then there will be air in the system and so the system will need to be evacuated with a vacuum pump. The refrigerant can be drawn in via the low side port but as a vapour, not a liquid otherwise you will slug the compressor with liquid refrigerant. I have already commented on system sealers and universal oil but it is your car and your money.

If your fridge loses pressure, then it is defective... It should be sealed with no leaks, same with domestic air conditioning. even the flair nuts at each end of the system should not leak though can suffer from thermal fractures On cars it is normally the compressor shaft seals that dries out as it relies on the lubricant to retain the refrigerant. This was less of a problem in the days of R12 as the molecular size of the refrigerant was larger and so tended not to leak at such a high rate

Most folk only consider their cars aircon system when it stops working which means that it is practically empty and so air could well have entered the system. The DIY kits come with a little hose which when you connect to the car is full of air and so unless it is purged or evacuated, every time you connect this pipe you introduce air. There are huge differences between your fridge and your cars air conditioning in the way that it is constructed. Your frige uses a sealed hermetic compressor, all of the pipework is brazed copper with no mechanical valves or gasketed joints and so should never leak. Take a close look at your car. So that it is easy to assemble it is built up in sections, each section is linked to the next and is sealed using a flexible "O" ring. The service ports themselves are nothing more than glorified schraeder valves with plastic caps and the compressor itself is under pressure with a shaft passing through to atmosphere via a small flexible shaft seal, this shaft seal constantly rubs against the shaft as it rotates and so will eventually wear. Even the flexible hoses are the thinnest and cheapest that the manufacturers can get away with and R134a can and does pass through the walls of the hose. Bizarely enough moisture can pass the other way in to the system even with the system under pressure though this is such a small factor that I tend to ignore this. So we can see that there are plenty of opportunities for refrigerant to escape from a cars air con system and it is very easy to introduce air to the system without you knowing it. Add to this that the car could well be second hand and its history could well be unknown, you just don't know what has been done to your car before you got it.....I know of one guy who serves the less than quality used car dealers who simply blows in a bit of refrigerant, no vacuum, no gauges, no care for a tenner. Last month I checked my 05 IS200 and my 54 Transporter and both were within manufacturers specifications and so had lost very little or none, so if you are losing pressure every 12 months or so, then this is not natural waste, this is a leak though I do warn you that some leaks are very difficult to find Have fun, stay cool

Is that £20 can big enough to charge your car? Do bear in mind that a new ac compressor from an after market supplier for any Lexus will set you back between £400 and £700 plus VAT, plus new drier, expansion valve, flushing and labour. I cant think of a better way to kill a compressor than to charge your system without applying a vacuum. But then it is your car and your money. Don't get me wrong, If someone wants to DIY their own aircon system then that is good but do please make sure that you do it right because Halfords are going to give me a good income this Summer. Why not check out these guys? their hints and tips section have all the info you need to do a top job if you want to AC Kits forum

A lot of people on LOC use Mintex pads, including myself, and the subject has been posted a zillion times...need to learn how to use the search facility :) I've told you a million times, stop exaggerating

Owch... Typo noted Many years ago I used to use Megs Mirror glaze 16 on my Rover SD1 It was a blue paste wax that we used to use for waxing the tooling for epoxy/ carbon fibre/ aramid fibre mouldings. It was used because it could withstand the temperatures that the tooling was subject to. Don't seem to be able to find it any more. Made even a Rover look good and feel oh so smooth

You either love yellow or hate it and I love that yellow Lex

I used the Megs Deep Crystal system at the week end. The first bottle is really wierd as it leavs the paintwork squeeky like something has been removed. The Carnuba wax itself is so easy to use and leavs a beautiful finish. The paintwork had been neglected last year and had developed a slight blue haze on the black paint but I fell in love with my car all over again, it looked just like it did when I first picked it up By the way, Halfords had a special on the Meguires three stage system as you bought three bottles and paid for two so I think that I shall splash out on some Megs leather cleaner

Interesting thread, These kits are what the professionals.....Professionals, not greasemonkeys with charging stations, call death kits. I wandered in to Halfords a few days ago and noticed a large selection of cans filled with stuff for all kinds of air con ailments. If your car has a leak, then why not repair the leak with "Stuff in a can"? There are two kinds of sealer on the market, one kind causes the flexible seals to decompose and swell, great for a short term fix, but you will be replacing rotten o rings for ever more, the other kind is designed to set on contact with moisture... good idea since in theory ther should be no moisture in there but if the system has been empty for any length of time, then there will be air in ther and hense moisture... once set, this crap is ther forever and you are looking at major component replacement. I noticed that the vast bulk of the refrigerant with lubricant is lubricant, how much lubricant does your car need? does it need any at all? what kind of lubricant are you putting in? is it compatible with the lubricant in the system and if you shoot this crap in to your car every year, then how many cans do you have to put in before the lubricant "Slugs" the compressor and breaks something expensive? They even have refrigerant with system cleaners!! so if it cleans the inside of your system, then what does it do with all the crud then? does it float round untill it clogs up your reciever drier? or bung up your expansion valve? Or does it just majically float away to the land of Narnia? As for the refill kits with those daft gauges, how does the gauge know when you have enough refrigerant in the system? What would the standing pressure be if the system had 30 grams in it? how about 300grams? or even 1000grams... The answer is exactly the same for any given temperature, so what does this gauge tell you? I also notice that there is no mention of applying a vacuum, if air is present in the system, then the system will run at a far higher pressure, not only stressing the compressor unduely, but reducing cooling efficiency and needing more fuel to drive the aircon compressor than is normally needed, the aircon on the IS is pretty inefficient in European weather at the best of times. By the way does anyone know the weight of refrigerant that should be in the IS200? Well, one of those cans just aint enough, sure it will blow cold, but is it blowing cold enough? are you burning more fuel than you need? and is there enough refrigerant to ensure that your compressor is getting enough lubricant? Oh silly me, of course it is you've half filled the system with junk oil...... :winky: Just remind us why you bought a Lexus and then explain to us why you are determined to bodge it up rather than repair it? PS about 50 quid is a fair price for a straight recharge.

I think that I have spotted a gap in the market, surly these little gizmos could be reprogrammed to produce any noise that you wish and fitted to a wider range of vehicles... Say a builders Transit that breaks wind every time he changes gear...Just like the driver does or a family car that says "Mmmmm, Doughnuts!" in a Homer Simpson voice.. Anyone else got any suggestions?

In the 1970, 100,000 miles marked the end of the life of the car. These days 100,000 miles is just a number on its way to 2-300,000 miles. Although my 200 has only done 20,000 miles, I see no reason why it should not last for a very long time indeed which is lucky because I cant think of anything else I would rather have. The key is regular maintainance... Say you sell your car just as you get it how you want it and go and buy a car with less miles and more issues because the car hasn't been looked after.. Find a good independant garage. I understand that the 100K service is a biggie but that is life.