Bratman91

My IS250 suffers from much the same problem and I am sure that it is caused by glazing of the brake pads because of a very low mileage and gentle use. I endorse the advice from others on this thread to give the brakes a hard work-out (taking precautions to drive safely). You have nothing to lose!

I second the recommendation for Reinventing the Wheel at Tewkesbury and, from memory, £70 was about the price per wheel.

Have you had them refurbed and, if you have, what was the cost per wheel?

Miele are or were made at Gütersloh where I was stationed in the early 1970s. Herr Miele, the founder of the firm, was often a guest at official functions and gave generous allowances off the list price of his products to Servicemen in the area. Miele products are not cheap but they certainly are designed to last and it is very easy to get spare parts which can often be replaced easily.

I bought a new IS250 a few months after they came in the market. It wasn’t a top-of-the-range (TOTR) model and I was persuaded by my wife to upgrade to what I think was a 2nd Generation TOTR IS250 - an absolutely superb car in every respect. After three years, a drunk driver (not me!) hit me head on and severely restyled my car. He paid with his life. I needed a replacement quickly and the 3rd generation IS250/IS300H had just been introduced. I was offered an IS300H at only slightly more cost than a TOTR IS250 (presumably to kick-start purchases of the hybrid) but, having been so satisfied with the 2nd Generation IS250 and somewhat underwhelmed by the IS300H in comparison, I decided to stick with the 250. I have never regretted it. However, I must be honest and say that, after 7 years, the car has just clocked 25,000 miles so fuel costs are not a significant feature of my analysis.

Agreed, although the picture is pretty poor and almost invisible in anything other than darkness.

I tried this today as the temperature was pretty high but I didn’t detect much difference.

The seat cooling on my IS250 (Third generation) has been pretty poor from brand new.

My Series 2 IS250 had speech commands to suspend or resume guidance, eg “suspend guidance”. I can’t find anything similar on my Series 3 IS250. Is there a better way to stop the woman nagging me when I have changed my mind about where to go other than the rather dangerous method of using the screen and cursor?

When I were a boy and the roads were still clogged up with horses, the dipping control was to the left of the clutch pedal. It meant that at speed and at night (conditions when you really need to be in full control) you could dip or un-dip headlights by a simple foot press without having to use your hands. Now that automatics are so common, it would be sensible to re-introduce this .

In principle, the OP’s idea seems a good one. Many years ago, I fitted such a system to my brand-new Austin Montego; it consisted simply of routing one of the low-voltage cables to the coil via a switch under the dashboard. Unless the switch was made, the engine couldn’t be started. Actually, it probably wasn’t worth the effort because, after 7 years, the car had completely rotted away, leaving just the switch on my drive! I would assume that a similar switch could be used on a Lexus but perhaps it would cause the car’s computerised self-diagnosis system to complain. OK, OK, I suppose that this wouldn’t prevent a hybrid being driven away but how far/fast would the getaway be using just the electric motor?

Many thanks scudney and Herbie. I feel a bit more comfortable after your comments and will check out the voltages as you suggest, Herbie.

I have an IS250 which is now 5 years old. About 9 months ago, I went to start it and there was almost no power whatsoever in the battery. The AA got me going with a jump start and, the next day I took it to Lexus but they could find no fault. Since then, the car has worked flawlessly. However, two days ago, I found the battery so flat that even the clock had stopped. Once again, the AA got me going and said that the battery was probably bad as the voltage was low and the ampere-hour reading was about a third of what it should be. I had the battery replaced at a specialist company and they also said that the battery was bad. I do only about 5000 miles per year and the battery specialist said that a very low mileage often resulted in batteries not being fully charged and this caused decay. However, I am concerned that, on both occasions (when no lights or accessories were left on), the battery was discharged fully albeit after a few days. I am worried that a very intermittent fault might be causing a severe drain on the battery. Any comments?

That’s a good suggestion and I tried it. I am now back “home” and conversing in English. Many thanks.

When trying to log into the portal, I inadvertently selected some region that uses a cyrillic script and for the life of me can’t get back to English. I seem to be stranded in Uzbekhistan or Mongolia or??? Any advice as to how to get back home?