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So are snow chains any good? To be honest i would rather put on the snow chains as i need it then change tyres/wheel. As i only drive around 6 miles a day and really only come into a few road that has not been salted, so theres a mixture of good and slippery roads. Whats the maxium speed you can drive with snow chains and do they end up scratching the alloys? What about these, as they can be used to help someone else out in the snow? HERE

My lexus couldn't even leave the spot i was parked in! Wheels just kept spinning and going nowhere with the sliding warning light on. Other cars left with no problems. This happened to me twice and the road wasn't even sloped, it was on a flat plain, the only curved was towards the edge of the pathments, where it would curved down a bit. Absolutely useless, tried moving in second, third, TRC off, snow on etc etc. In the end, i had to buy 3 bags of table salt to melt the snow and ice to get it to drive away (no road salt left anywhere as it was all sold out)! It's almost embrassing, even on the road, i was driving at 10-15mph at most and cars were lined up behind me and whenever i tired going a bit faster i could feel it drift sideways. Other people even over took me. Maybe it's the type of tyres i had on, they're not worn, they have at least 5mm tread but ***** im dreading driving the lex when the conditions are like this compared to other cars i've driven before. p.s i've got goodyear F1 eagles all round, inflated to 35psi and been WIM'ed.

Excellent weather to fly my kites! let me get stonger strings!

what snow....

Aye, glad u r ok. Same here, i also have to drive down a hill to get to work and its not been salted so i was dreading going into work 2day. But luckly just as i went out of the front door, project manager phoned me and said not to come in. So went to the park and started building a snowman, but the snow just would not pick as i rolled the ball of snow, so ended making a small one instead lol. Just been out in the town, just got back infact and i really don't know why women still wear high hills!?!? I mean most of the clubs are on this stretch of road which is downhills, so soon as u step out....owned! Just saw a girl fall over and smacked her head on the pathment, think she was knocked out cos..well...she didn't move afterwards. Silly Billies...

Wow, nice find! I've been looking at ebay for months for a spoiler like that. Good find, how much did u get it for just out of interest?

Found this on youtube, most of you will probably have seen it already as theres been so many hits since its been posted on youtube while ago. It will be more to the people whos seen the movie snatch. I have only post the link so you don't play it by accident on here, as it contains swearing, no nudity thou. Best to watch it in hd form. So i will repeat, NOT WORK SAFE.

You are kidding about the £144.55 for fitting it right? I didn't even consider letting anyone fit it, just did it myself, never thought they would charge that much!! I got the oem battery just like you did for about the same price too.

Thats nothing, its the blue smoke from D Robbos lexus..thats all HERE. Everyone put yor camera down, no UFOs here

LOL i had this problem, but it was some cheap windscreen wash i put in the bottle...smelt like, well...bird poo! Now im using autoglym and smells like it suppose to. But do what the others have suggest, empty it first then refill and tips the new windscreen wash in.

Anyone here joined Spotify? Only takes a few seconds to join and a quick download and u basically get a very simple interface that you can use to play music which you find/choose through their database. But theres more, you can save songs to your playlist and shared them withsome one over the internet. Although you get adverts like once every 10 minutes or so, but they are just like a radio would and are not really noticable if your just doing your thing. But if you join (£10 a month) you get other benifits like no ads better quality sound etc. I'm just using it now as background sound at work and i really like it for what it is. You also discover loads of other songs like as its got a system where its chooses simlar songs in your playlist etc. Should give it a go, if you don't like it just uninstall. BTW im in no way associated with them, just thought i'd shared it for anyone who like steaming music. Let me know if you try it and tell me what you think. LOL, just had lexus ad...now if this isn't worth downloading, i don't know what is!

Take it to dragons den and say you need at least £140,000 investment. lol Nice idea, BMWs already have lights that show where the car handles r at night. Next you need to wireup a hot air fan that will dry the puddle up...lol

You saying your wifes old? lol. I've drove a few autos and it only really comes into play when you are stuck in traffic or in country roads where you have to constantly change gears round bends. If only the gear box on the IS200 from first to second and back to first was smoother than i might not mind it. Been given some helpful advice to what gear oils to use, so i will post up if it makes a difference. Will be changing both gearbox oil and axel oil at the same time.

Aye, captain slow said that lol

I would advise changing the idler and tensioner at the same time. Why not as it's not much more parts cost and saves labour if it needs to be done within another 60,000 miles. I have seen other members on here that has seized idler on here before. When i got my cam belt done, i changed both the idler and tensioner. I should have really changed the water pump too but mech said it was fine when he had the belt off.

There you go, images! Hope it helps!

Thanks for the quick reply Ormi, my own myth busted! Cheers!

Just wondering, does it do any harm (starter motor, battery etc) if a car is turned for say 5 seconds and longer? This is nothing to do with wether it starts or not, it's just that I ask this because i always been lead to believe that it can be bad for a car. Just want to know the truth. Thanks!

If you look at the rear speakers when you open the boot, you will also see Toyota stamped on it. When i used to live in south east, your lexus will just be taken down the road to a toyota garage after being booked in at a lexus showroom. If you try and phone the toyota garage directly they will also tell you that you have to book through lexus?!?! I personally have nothing against toyota, they are japanese and are as reliable as a car can be. My car before the lex was a civic and b4 that was a corolla and i sold that to my parents like 6 yrs ago and it still going strong, its way over 12 yrs old!

People here will disown you if you do and you will end up being on barryboys...so no no no.

I've never drove the is200 auto, but after driving a manual for 4 yrs, i fancy a change because i change gears quite a bit everyday and feels like im just wearing down the gears. Wonder how long an is200 gear box gererally last before a new one is required? I still remember how much i enjoyed driving my old mans Merc 230E auto...so good without having to change gears all the time. My next car will almost certainly be an auto, but the down side is getting back to using gears again lol

I've not got my pin to work with my credit card for about a year, total of 3 new pin requests, even phoned them up and they said they have record of it being used (pin attempts by me) and its not locked etc and said it should be fine. But when the new pin arrives it still doesn't work. The thing is it doesn't tell you you've got the wrong pin in, just says service not avaliable after you pick an option. It doesn't matter which option you pick after the pin is entered it just doesn't work. Think i will close the card, as it's no good to me at all.

Its part of a tatic, they've done this before time and time again. e.g about raising the road tax two fold but after a while they lowered it, just so it seems fine to raise it by 20% for no good reason. What will happen is a few months down the road is say you only have to pay 40% of the court fees, as to say they are doing you a favour by them paying the rest of the 60% of the fees. Trust me, that is what they will do, if not they will suddenly invent a new tax...tax air.....i best not give them ideas.

I don't want to pay tax cos its costing me too much, infact where and when in life did i sign up for this agreement? This new legistration is just pure BS, plain and simple. Why should the innocent pay? So now they can randomly convict people and either way they get money out of you, win win situation, thats all the goverment is about. It ok when you can change and make the rules to suit yourselves! We all know its currupted...expenses *cough*.

I also agree the fact why i use an independant garage mostly because i like to supply my own parts, which usually is equal or above OEM lexus specification. A lexus garage themselves won't fit for political reasons even if it is brand new. This is what i stick to and the advise and knowledge in this forum as far as im concerned is all i need and im greatful for this, i mean who knows better then the people who actually drive the car with tried and tested parts. So far everything i have asked about on different aspec of the car has been correct, in some cases even lexus themselves got it wrong after the advise answer was given to me from this forum! I remember the reason why i personally stopped using my local lexus garage in the first place was the fact they would not give me a courtesy car when i took my car to their garage for a £400 service and found out a caliper had to be replaced and i had noway to get home (17 miles away, 6pm in the afternoon) and i was basically left stranded and ended up phoning a friend from further away to pick me up at a very short notice. Final bill i paid was over £1000 and car was not even cleaned, i expected a bit more from lexus as i did ask for the car to be cleaned when i took it in for a service. When they phoned back for a feedback i basically told them what had happened and i won't be using them again. I have not used them ever since then over 3 yrs ago, about same time i joined this forum infact. I remember lexus wanting to charge me something like £400 (inc VAT) for a cambelt change, so i took it to a garage and they charged me in a region of £220 (Inc Vat). But i have to admit a good garage is hard to find and there will be cowboys out there, but you can spot them a mile off, just take a look into their workshop and if it's a mess then i won't take my car there. But this is down to my own opinon and as you say if there is now a good garage guide than that will be a good indication which garages carry the job correctly with good customer satisfaction. Please note im not saying everyone should go and use independent garage because you know by taking it to a lexus garage the staff there will be fully qualified and it's that peace of mind and reinsurance. I can never understand why different lexus garages charge different prices, maybe living cost in the area perhaps? I can think of another reason why people use lexus garage is for re-sale value, a log book with lexus approved service will be more attractive selling point than one without (again my opinon). A lexus with any more than 60k on the clock is not really worth having further service by lexus themselves as the price and replacment parts will get higher as time goes by.