Alex JB

All good points but do Lexus fitt the same tyre for the USA and for Japan? There may be alternatives that Lexus use. However, You have a fantastic luxury car, it may be false economy to try anything other than the OEM choice and spoil the ride. Don't get Lexus to fit them though!!! Lexus Leicester and the BMW dealer and the Merc dealer us 'National tyres', they sling them in a van take them to National, and when fitted bring them back and charge you 10-20% for the pleasure. Why not get a quote from black circles or etyres, both offer mobile fitting services so it's all done while you are parked up at work!

Hi Fellas, The wheels were an e-bay special, no Idea what make, the guy had them listed in the ford spares section, hence little interest in them so I got them V cheap! A bit curbed but you can't see that in the photos! tyres are 235x40x18, I just got 2 new ones on the back, 150quid for the pair fitted. The HID kit was from e-bay too, a company in Sheffeild that import them from Malaysia. They were adamant that the kit was made by 'Bosch' but it turns out it's branded 'Bosch HID', typical eastern copy of someone elses reputable name and logo. Not that I mind, it's very good and fitted easily, pigeon english instructions and guarantee aren't worth the paprt they are badly printed on though! I think I noly average 19mpg during my normal commute to work as it's 10miles from one side of leicester to the other, all stop start and big heavy cars are always going to get rubbish mpg in that situation. I averaged 28 when I recently went to Cardiff and back and I wasn't hanging about eihter.

Brilliant Chris thanks! :) :) :)

Hi Kazi, I'm about the same, 19mpg is good for a 4.0 V8, but not good in the big scheme!

I took a pic with my fogs on, these have the typical H1 fleabay blue light bulbs in, it does show that they are quite white/blue if you compare them with the side lights. http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j146/alex_jb/Img_0519.jpg Then I took another with the 6000 rated HID's, the 6000 rating is supposed to be white not blue (7-8000) or purple (8000+) but you can see just how white they are! They are so good that when I turn on my high beam you can't tell the differece! http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j146/alex_jb/Img_0520.jpg The front end looks just how I wanted now :D just a pitty the fuel bill is killing me and I'm craving something old and custom again...

I put my aftermarket head unit in my LS now and I don't have the code for the factory unit. How do I get past the code thing if I put the factory unit back in? I ask as I love the LS but the fuel bill is killing me and a friend from my lowrider days has a 230ce for sale so the big girl may be going. :(

Thanks fellas, I will try jacking her up and spinning but I haven't heard the noise since, I think it may have been a combination of my slightly road noisy 18's and a road I don't normally drive on, my usual way home from work yesterday at a similar speed and I could not hear it.

anyone had a front wheel bearing go? what are the symptoms and what's it sound like on an LS. I was wondering as I have a bit of a grumble starting that seems to come from the front left. I have anti roll bar bushes ready to fit but that's a different creak that happens on speed bumps ect.

That's a flaming good job on the bushes ;) You doing the anti roll bar bushes too? How do your lower control arms look? I ask as I think mine are on the way out and I'm dreading the job and the cost!

don't know about blutooth but I use a pda phone for calls & music, I tee's into the CD changer lines and that worked fine if you don't mind not using the cd changer as you have to empty cartrige of cd's.

did the poly bushes take mutch fitting? did you need a press or anything?

do all the other movements work ok? they may be on seperate fuses.

If I lower the car though I will lose ride quality. You are right, but do you think you already lost some? I realy felt the difference from 15's when I put on my 18's. Tighter response but more road noise and I think it has helped along the demise of the anti roll bar bushes. Lowering looks great on these big cars but it will undoubtedly accelerate the wear of the upper and lower control arms because they will be working all the time at an angle and pre-load they were designed to go to momentarily then spring back to neutral from. I had the same thing on my Ka (don't laugh it was long ago ) with the lowering of the front making the bushing in the U/J on the front wishbones last only just over a year, standard ride height Ka's would last 3-4 years on one set. anyone else seen accelerated wear from chaging ride height?

Just incase anyone wanted to know, I found a place called caraudioplus.co.uk that stock a great range of acoustic carpets and vinyl's :)

does it get worse when you are at wobble speed and push the brakes? I have a woble over 70 and I'm convinced it's warped brake discs as it's more prominent when braking

sweet RX8 rims! you considered clear indicators? Don't know if the link things worked but I just put clear corners and dised on mine an I think it brings her up to date some.

Just kidding! Feel sorry for anyone that has had it... :( compensation is in order, 1 bilion club card points?

Don't know anyone in the east midlands that has suffered, seems to be only south east that's had it. Bad news if it is fuel grade, but if it's parficulate contamination, serves em right for buying cheap cars with crappy fuel filters! ;)

If you are ditching the OEM head unit and adding a box in the boot I'd suggest doing as the other guy said and sticking with quality components in the fromt doors in the stock positions. Take a look at MB Quart reference series (aprox 150quid) or Rainbow (150 -500 quid dependant on range), I have used the Quarts in a custom build and there was no need for rear door / shelf fill in speakers, they were that good on there own, plus anything in the back is getting too far away for your (drivers) ears and will be drown out by big bass. To get the best out of any high end component speakers you want to drive them with a quality amp (not from the the head unit) and for not a lot extra you can buy an active crosover network to help keep the dB level constant through the frequency range. Lots of prize winning instalations use only one amp (4 channel with 2 channles bridged to 1 for the sub) a head unit that only has pre-out RCA (like Nakamachi or top end Clarion) one set of components and one correctly tuned sub in box. This can work if youwant lots of bass too, I used to run a single 15 with the MB Quarts and it made over 125dB at a sound off.

Hey folks, Does anyone know where I can get some brown or cream acoustic arpet from? I'm removing the rattly sub cover from my rear parcel shelf in my LS and as all my interior is cream / brown I don't want to use grey. The Soundstream spl15 didn't fit in the hole... so a lot of fibreglas and MDF later it's in a box with rack for the amp. Only problem is itshakes the crap out of the boot and especially the old sub cover, hence the need to re-do the rear shelf cover. :D

Hi there, Steve is right, I took of my standard ones for clear indicator section ones, but both my old ones were cracked. Can lend you a cracked one till you get a good one if you like! ;) I have also bought from the guy in Leicester that breaks LS', he's not far from me so if he doesn't want to post I could pick up for you and post it down. We're a friendly bunch here ! Alex JB

Glad you are enjoying it! Sorry can't help with your problems but let us know how you get on with the gas kit, I didn't fancy fitting a kit myself and most places don't want to fir anything other than multi point = 1500quid cheapest I've come across in Leicester.

My aftermarket head unit was in a Celica last and it just slotted straight into the Lexus... hoorah for comonality with parent companies! I have bought a facia for $60 inc shipping from fleabay, was a little supprised abotu the cost but I supose it is quite a space to fill up. the single DIN floats around V loose in there at the mo. Any one any idea how to uncode the OEM radio?

No probs Steve, Let's have our midlands LS meet and you can check em out!

Q1. Anyone know where I can get one from? I tried Autotoys but can't find anything Q2. Any one know how to get the standard stero working again aft unplugging it... I don't seem to have the code in my book