BarneyTT

Cheers Ian.

Very much appreciated Ian, I owe you one, club spirit at it's best.

Ian your a star, PM with address sent. Can I sort you out with some cash?

Ooh, sounds promising Ian.......................

As title suggests, I'm after four, good condition, genuine Lexus locking wheel nut caps that fit over the locking wheel nut itself.

My mechanic friend said the same Tony but I'm just being a bit fussy I suppose. Not sure when I'll be getting it done, hopefully later in the year as we have a fair bit going on right now.

Welcome to the club Stef, car looks great....enjoy.

Hi Martin and welcome to the club. Pleased to hear you are already enjoying your IS200 and trust you will continue to do so for many years to come. Can't say that part looks familiar, at a guess I would say it's from a sat-nav holder or similar rather than the car itself?

Agreed, but as I intend to only replace the front shocks and mounts it's something I'll have to take a chance on, money no object the best bet would be to fit new after-market shocks all round. The other option is to have different make shocks on the front but I'd rather have the same all round to be honest.

Probably KYB, the same as fitted by Lexus originally. I looked into other makes but it's a big step up in cost and as I love the standard ride they seem the obvious choice for me.

I've been involved in organising meets and shows on a couple of Supra clubs in the past and it's not the easiest of jobs getting these things off the ground, having said that I would welcome the chance of attending some club meets within reasonable distance, it's always nice to put faces to names, so anything that would facilitate this happening is fine with me.

Tony, as you have found out, this is a difficult problem to solve/cure. I have replaced virtually all of the caliper parts and the knocking remains. Having had everything checked twice by an independent garage and Lexus Bristol I'm convinced, as are Lexus Bristol now, that my problem lies with either the suspension top mount or the shock absorber (these are known for having a noisy inner valve on some cars) I'm going to get both the front top mounts and shock absorbers replaced this year. Sadly, no hard and fast fix as each car seems slightly different with this problem. I even wrote to Lexus head office to see if they could offer any advice, they replied but sadly could not offer any further help or suggestions beyond what I have already tried and proposed for the future. I bought all my caliper parts from Lexus and it wasn't cheap (approx £300). On the plus side all my calipers have had a complete overhaul, on the downside it didn't cure the knocking noise! It's a really annoying problem and can spoil an otherwise fantastic car. Once I get the mounts and struts replaced I'll post an update.

Welcome to the club Martin, if you enjoy your Sportcross half as much as I do mine you'll be fine......enjoy.

I have had all the calipers overhauled, just about everything replaced (parts alone from Lexus set me back £300) and greased and the knocking is still there so my next port of call is to replace the front shock absorbers and top mounts, will probably get this done later in the year as I want to get my alloys refurbished first due to the possibility of not having a suitable garage in the coming months due to a possible house move.

Trouble with ebay now is their feedback system is suspect as they remove some of the negative feedback at the sellers request which doesn't always give a true indication of the person your buying from. I recently had a complete nightmare with a buyer and whilst ebay found in my favor, they said I was not allowed to leave negative feedback and if I did they would remove it. All of which hides the fact that one ebay seller had a problem with this person, in fairness it might have been a one off incident..... but then again it might not.

Thanks Barney. It is hard-earned as well, and I should be able to ask more than just 2 or 3 questions about a car. Even if it's not much money to them in profit, they shouldn't treat people that way. If I ring a seller regardless if it's trade or private, the first thing that makes me walk away is if they can't be bothered to talk to you about the car, in all probability they are not the best sort of people to spend money with in my opinion. Some of these traders seem to think you are just going to turn up and put the cash in their hand. Any decent seller would afford you their time and hopefully make you feel they are the sort of person you would wish do business with.

Looks really nice David, your hard work has paid off.

It's very easy to burn any paintwork with standard polishing machines if you don't know what you doing, I would suggest looking for a Porter Cable random orbit polisher. You may find this You Tube video interesting:

Chris, a nasty experience indeed but he did you one hell of a favor, like you said it was better to find out before parting with your hard earned rather than after, no wonder he can't sell it if he treats every potential buyer with that sort of attitude. Keep your chin up, you'll find a nice LS with hopefully, a more professional seller, I'm sure.

I'm like you Pete, this type of thing get's to me as well, stupid I know as s**t happens every day but regardless, it's good to blow of steam. My personal theory is these people drive like this most the time, basically bullying their way through, the moment someone challenges their behavior they get aggressive. Sadly, some people simply can't bear to be challenged or shown the error of their ways. Glad your ok fella, which is the main thing.

Sadly, you have to book club stand space at Japfest really early as it goes very quickly. After years of attending Japfest on various club stands I gave it a miss last year as most of these shows now have moved away from "classic/ modern classic car" type shows into pure modified/tuning shows, with little in the way of really nice, original cars. Ford Fair is the same, a once great show is now mainly Fast Fords rather than Classic Fords. On the other hand I'm probably just getting too old and grumpy

You can buy a replacement from Lexus, think it's around £40ish.

Should be 215/45/17 all round but 205's on the front will be ok.

Cracking install guide Ray, I'm sure it will prove really useful over time, thanks for taking the time and trouble.

Hi Robert and welcome. This weeks 5th Gear on Discovery had a feature on the IS300H, looked lovely, enjoy.