John Edgar

Thanks for the help. I was worried it might flap about and thereby reduce fuel consumption somehow. I will try the blue-tack option and see where that goes. I asked Toyota what the price of a new one is. They said they have to get it from Japan and it would be £250 - a bit of a joke. I did find one on eBay for £50, but will give that a miss too.

John

I am the proud owner of an IS250, which is great. A problem has arisen with the central engine cover, the bit that goes over the top of the engine with the L on it and a hole for the oil filler. Two of the clip sheaths on the bottom have broken off: these are the sheaths that clip onto the pins on top of the engine that holds the cover in place. It is now only being held by the rear clip. Does this have any implications, or is it so close to the underside of the bonnet that it really does not matter, and so will not flap about at 85 m.p.h.? Thanks for any info. John.

Hi John,

The only fault could be a thermostat failure - this might be worth checking, or the electronic control function changing the heat exchanger/fan setting i suppose.

In your mail you don't mention just putting it on auto (don't have it on dual) and setting the temp to say 21. You'll need to leave it a few minutes to get settled but this should sort itself out. The only button to use then is the window one if you get steamed up/cold morning and then press this again to get back to normal. I only have trouble with mine when my wife puts the temp on her side to about 25 when we first get in because it's cold thinking this will warm it up quicker, when she only wants it on 21 in the first place

Rich.

I have tried every setting under the sun (and moon as well) with no effect. Yesterday we went out for a trip. We were warm for 1/2 hour and then cold air started issuing forth from the face level vents, even though the system was set for lower level only - no air to face level. That's with the little arrow pointing downwards - nothing else. So we turned up the lower heat only to get boiling hot feet and still cold air at the top. In fact the hotter you have it at the bottom - to get warm - the colder it gets at the top. It does this whether it is on auto or not. I just want to be warm all over! Anyway I have booked it into Lexus Brighton on Friday. I think I am going to get them to disconnect the top sensor so that we can just have 1 zone with the same temperature air being delivered all over.

I really do think the system, at least on my car, is too clever. As I said this is technology for the sake of it.

John

If you don't like the auto settings, why not just turn the auto off, and control it manually using the mode switch?

I don't understand why you had to tape the side vents shut.....I'm sure mine has little roller switches to close them....in fact the roller switches even light up in the dark!

Colm

I am talking about the window side vents which have no switches, unlike the face level side vents, which do. The window vents cannot therefore be switched off and after about 30 minutes driving will only deliver cold air. That is why I have taped them closed as I can fine no other way of stopping the flow of cold air.

John

I have owned my is 250 from new for 11 months - since Jan 07. At first I struggled a bit with the heating system but then it became warm and the issue went away. Now I find that once again I am unable simply to get the car at the right temperature. Either I am boiling hot at my feet and cold at the top or vice versa. It doesn't matter what I have the system set to, with or without the A/C on. Sometimes hot air comes out of the rear seat lower vents and at the same time cold air comes out of the front lower vents. Whether the eye level vents are on or off, either on the setting panel or directly turning them off, somehow we are still cold on top, especially at knee and lap level. Nothing we do seems to change this. Cold air always comes out of the top side vents (to the side windows) and these cannot be turned off. I have covered these over with insulating tape to try and improve matters and warm us up a bit, but still we get cold. Should I have to do this in a £30,000 car?

Does anybody know how to get this sytem working correctly? If you ask me it is too complicated for its own good. This is automation for its own sake and is completely unnecessary. I am thinking of asking the dealer to disconnect all of the automatic stuff so we can adjust it as we want it to be, and not as the car says it should be - wrongly.

Any help welcome with this.

John

I have an IS-250 with the all dancing all singing moving headlights. How does one adjust these for Continental driving? There do not seem to be any marks on the light covers for aligning blanking tape. Or do you just turn off the swivel with the satellite switch?

Any advice welcome on this one please.

John

I bought my IS-250 in Jan 07. I think it is a really great car except for one thing, which is the heating/venitlation system. It leaves me utterly bewildered and unable to get warm air where and when I want it. We can have warm bottoms and cold tops or vice versa, but NEVER together. The trouble with it, I believe, is that it is so automated and so programmed according to what Lexus think is right, that in the end I find myself continually fiddling with it to try and get it right for me. No success so far. I am sure it will be fine in the summer when we will be able to get cold air where and when we want it. Winter time is a different story though. I took it back to find out if anything can be done, and it seems that the problem is a sunshine sensor in the windscreen. When this picks up sunshine, it lowers the temperature by 3C and it cannot be disconnected, which would clearly be the answer. Why do they find this a good idea? What about sunny days in winter? The whole thing, at the moment is far too clever for me.

Any other thoughts on this?

John

I have had my IS250 since September and haven't noticed any of the problems that you describe. I was unaware of any windscreen sensor. Have you found a reference to it in any Lexus literature.

No. I was told about it by the service engineer at Lexus Brighton.

I had to do the usual fiddling with outlet grill settings to make sure that I didn't get draughts on various sensitive spots and I have had to set it manually occasionally to do a quick windscreen clear, but apart from that, the system is set to auto and 19 degrees and has been virtually fiddle free.

I haven't yet driven it on any seriously hot days, so it remains to be seen how effective the cooling system will be.

i have had my is220 for 5 months after having the old is200 for 3 years, although i am very happy with the new car iam slightly dissapointed with a few things on the car such as-

poor fuel consumption

rattles

quality of the paintwork

any body else got anyting to add?

I bought my IS-250 in Jan 07. I think it is a really great car except for one thing, which is the heating/venitlation system. It leaves me utterly bewildered and unable to get warm air where and when I want it. We can have warm bottoms and cold tops or vice versa, but NEVER together. The trouble with it, I believe, is that it is so automated and so programmed according to what Lexus think is right, that in the end I find myself continually fiddling with it to try and get it right for me. No success so far. I am sure it will be fine in the summer when we will be able to get cold air where and when we want it. Winter time is a different story though. I took it back to find out if anything can be done, and it seems that the problem is a sunshine sensor in the windscreen. When this picks up sunshine, it lowers the temperature by 3C and it cannot be disconnected, which would clearly be the answer. Why do they find this a good idea? What about sunny days in winter? The whole thing, at the moment is far too clever for me.

Any other thoughts on this?

John

I drive on the Continent a lot & just use my lights as normal & have never had a problem given I dip them

immediately I face on-coming traffic.

Also remember our h/lamps are designed specifically not to "blind" the driver in front.

Tel

OK, thanks a lot I'll give it a go without any tape on the lights or switching off AFS.

John

Well my IS250SE got it's first thorough clean inside and out at the weekend and I can't stop swooning at it ever since

Anyway, I have a couple of things I can't figure out with the Satnav, so I'm hoping some of you experts can help.........

1. When I picked up the car at Lexus Leicester the voice activation for "I'm hungry", "Chinese restaurants" etc. worked fine. (I know this cos the dealer wasn't aware of the "I'm hungry" one and was most impressed when I showed him it - I'm sure he'll be using that one in his future demos to customers!). However, whenever I've tried it since I got back to Aberdeen it never works. Now I know it has understood the command as the map displays "Restaurants" in the grey box at top, but it also responds "Unable to display. Please delete a selected POI". And before you say maybe there's no nearby restaurants in the wilds of Aberdeen (!!!) there are, and if I just go through the POI options in the Destination menu it lists plenty nearby. Same problem if I say "Hotels". I added quite a few memory points on the way back from Leicester (see Q2) but it shows I've got lots of spare memory points left, and anyway I don't think the "memory points" have anything to do with the POIs. Only other thing I've done, which might be significant, is selecting various categories of POIs to be displayed on the map. I selected: All restaurants; Hotels, Petrol stations, Lexus; and I think that's about it.
   Has anyone got any ideas why the voice activation feature for POIs is no longer working for me
   
2. From reading another post recently, I understood you could enter speed cameras, by using the "mark" command when you pass them, and then subsequently going back and editing your memory points to change the description/icon etc. So on my way back to Aberdeen I marked most of the many Gatsos on the A90. I've since gone to edit those memory points. I've changed the title to say "Gatso 70MPH"; have added a new icon, and set the audible alert option. I have tried the standard audio alerts (e.g. xylophone) and also tried the directional audio alert which allows you to choose the direction - which sounds like it would be the ideal one to use for speed cameras. However, whilst the memory points are displayed on my map with the icon, whenever I pass the locations there's absolutely no alert - no audio - nothing
   So what am I doing wrong, and how is this supposed to work? And how close to the memory point should the audible alert sound
   

Cheers.

Hi,

I wonder whether there is voice recognition for the following instruction: "This satellite navigation system is so much crap. Please turn yourself off for ever, otherwise I am going to have an accident. I will continue to stop at the kerb-side and use a map that will not send me in the wrong direction. If I want to find a restaurant in Aberdeen I will ask friends or look in the yellow pages. Thank you very much. Now close down for ever." Would it respond to that do you think? It may be the your best course of action.

John

Can you programe the key fobs, so when you approach the car the memory seats are automaticaly adjust itself instead of you have to press the memory buttons on the door. eg: when i approach the car with my keys the seats set it self to my preference and when my wife approach the car it set it self to her preference.

Yes you can do this but only for for one person, which I think has to be seat position 1. I have set it up for my new IS-250. It is explained in the manual how to do this. Once it is done everything will automatically set for that driver. The only thing which is not progammable is the rear-view mirror. Very annoying as I am sure you will appreciate.

John

I have owned an IS-250 for 2 months and it is really good. At the end of March we are taking it over to Belgium for a few days and I wonder how to turn the lights over for driving on the right. I know you can turn off the swiveling bit, but that does not alter the low beam direction. On my last car (a Merc) there were marks on the light covers where you could put tape and it would adjust the low beams for right-hand driving. How is this done on my IS-250 please?

Any advice most welcome.

John

Just bought a new IS 250 SE-L. I would like to see what the engine looks like, but there is so much cladding around it it is completetly hidden.

Is there any way of temporarily taking it off, especially the central cover - the one which has "V6" and the Lexus logo on it? It doesn't seem to be held very tightly so I wonder whether a good yank would do it (unlike a bad yank like George Bush): it then presumably just pushes back on. The rest of the cladding, fixed with little poppers, is explained in the book.

TIA

John

John,

I think you have the heating on "Auto".

When you notice the cold air, you will see that the display shows arrows showing that the "heat" is not being delivered to your face as well as feet.

What is happening here, is that your car realises that the upper part of the cabin has a temperature higher than the set level and the lower part of the cabin still needs heating (because the hot air rises). So it pumps cold air to the top of the cabin and warm air to your feet for a minute.

There are only two ways to stop it.

1. Don't use the auto mode, so that you can select only your feet.

2. Close those airvents with the slider beside the airvent.

An alternative (which is what I've done) is simply point the vents in a different direction, so the car can manage the temperature like it's trying to do, without me getting a blast of cold air in my face every so often!

I hope that helps!

John,

I think you have the heating on "Auto".

When you notice the cold air, you will see that the display shows arrows showing that the "heat" is not being delivered to your face as well as feet.

What is happening here, is that your car realises that the upper part of the cabin has a temperature higher than the set level and the lower part of the cabin still needs heating (because the hot air rises). So it pumps cold air to the top of the cabin and warm air to your feet for a minute.

There are only two ways to stop it.

1. Don't use the auto mode, so that you can select only your feet.

2. Close those airvents with the slider beside the airvent.

An alternative (which is what I've done) is simply point the vents in a different direction, so the car can manage the temperature like it's trying to do, without me getting a blast of cold air in my face every so often!

I hope that helps!

Thanks a lot and I thought it was something like that. With the vents though, there is no slider on those that blow at the side front windows. They appear to be always open which has seemed to be most of the problem. Also, one last thing. With auto off, does the automatic temperature control still work? In other words, if I switch off auto, and select, say 22, will the system then continue to detect the cabin temperature and hold it all at the selected temperature?

TIA

John

Just bought a new IS250 SE-L and very lovely it is too. I have one gripe to do with the heating. Is there any way of turning off the cold air that seems always to come out throught the side window vents and the windscreen vents even with the heating set to 22 or 23? It is quite annoying and I would like to get a bit warmer than the system is letting me at the moment.

John