Nutshell

Dave from Romford (Not quite East London but not quite Essex), but originally from Dagenham (So I'm Dagenham Dave!). Moving to Hampshire with the job sometime soon. Fifty so probably the oldest one here, but young at heart - Jane says I'm seventeen really. Married to Jane for 26 years!!!!! (She complains she has three big kids to look after!) :winky: Persuaded to buy my IS200SE by my kids Rich (20) and Matt (18). Hated the car for the first year, especially when the gearbox went, but now it's running well I love it! Electronic design engineer by training, so it's interesting to see some of the mods going on. I'm amazed at the things some of you guys are doing with ECUs and stereos. Wage slave working for air traffic control (NATS - Hi to the chap from SITA!). Shirt and tie kinda job except when I'm working at home when it's pyjamas. :mat: Like helping the Air Training Corps (Hi to 2408 Squadron and London Wing) 'cos I get to go flying and gliding for free! Learning to ride a motorbike. Otherwise like riding the human powered type, especially somewhere muddy!

Sounds like a good deal, Matt! Enjoy the experience. You should be Ok with the CD player, it's the one with the slot at the bottom that's troublesome. Careful with the warranty, many are virtually worthless. I wish I'd taken out a Lexus warranty instead of the one the dealer "gave" me which only covered work up to £500, and then only if they were in a good mood.

They are available, I remember seeing some postings about them about a year ago. I think the manufacturer is Autoleads. Halfords can get them if not in stock; might be the same as the Toyota MR2.

This is a bit . How about another thread on this subject? Don't be put off - they are superb cars, and I'm speaking as one who has had more than my share of problems with mine... Reasons to buy an IS200: Excellent value for money to buy new. One of the best for holding its value, depreciation not a problem. Smoothest engine I've come across (A friend bought a new Merc C class and the engine sounds like a bag of nails! Mine is smooth as silk after 80k!) Lots of extras. The big smile you get just driving it... Dealers...at mine they give you coffee in a china cup, sit you on a leather sofa, give you the papers to read or let you watch the widescreen telly. Service charges are reasonable (if you get a good dealer). Who else but Lexus would extend the radio/CD warranty to five years because it's a bit of a problem? Buy an auto gearbox and have cruise control!

My car is on its third head unit that in a year of ownership. I'm not impressed with the CD changer.... The head unit can be reset by removing the main audio fuse or disconnecting the battery for a minute or so. Once you reconnect the unit will start buzzing and whirring as it trys to get everything in the right place. With luck it will recover from the ERR3 condition and you will be able to eject the CDs as normal. If it doesn't work first time try again! I wouldn't really advise poking anything into the slot - it's hellishly complicated in there! In my experience, once the CDs are stuck in there that's it unless a reset works. My last unit was replaced because it just died completely, not the usual ERR3 problem. Then 2 weeks later it reset itself and worked perfectly, by which time I had visited Motorline Lexus at Tunbridge Wells and they had ordered a new one. They replaced it anyway last Monday and it only took them 10 days to get the replacement. :D at least until the next ERR3! My opinion of an in-dash CD changer that fails with all you favourite CDs inside and gone forever is unprintable, so now I only put one CD at a time in the thing!

Ah, OK, I won't go looking for a bad solder joint then! :mat: I've just been trying to remove the lambda sensor after the main cat to check it's OK but can't find a way to get it off. The cable goes into the body in the tunnel somewhere around the passenger seat rear mounting. I thought it went into the center console and I've had all that out (thanks LOC, I couldn't do it without you! :D ), but I can't find the cable anywhere. Does anyone know how to disconnect this lambda sensor so I can remove it? I also checked the air filter and it was full of rubbish. I'll replace it anyway (it's not due for another 12k miles) but could this have been the cause of the warning light? It's ages since I've had to tinker with a car as much as this one, but it's really well designed and I'm quite impressed!

How did you work out it was a bad solder joint???? Was it just by inspection? I've checked the two front lambda sensors and they seem to be doing their stuff, but the one behind the main cat means jacking up the car so I haven't checked that one yet. Lexus want around £140 for a new sensor. Are they the same as Toyota's? They have the same wires.

The handbook calls it the "Malfunction Indicator Lamp", it's the one shaped like an engine and tells you there's something wrong with the Engine Management Unit... It came on around 70k miles and my dealer switched it off when I had it serviced. It came on again at 74k and I paid him to switch it off again. It came on again today and I'm fed up with paying to have a light switched off! The car is running fine, fuel consumption is OK (30 - 32 mpg). The only clue that something may be wrong was at the MOT test when the exhaust emission was just in limits when it should have been well inside. The oil level warning light also comes on and goes off at random. I check the oil level and it's full, hasn't used a drop. Has any of this happened to anyone else? Any clues about what the problem might be? Is there a way to switch the engine warning light off without paying my dealer to do it?

This isn't the first time this subject has come up, and it's always the steering geometry that gets the blame. I'm not convinced. When I first noticed excessive wear on the inside of the front tyres, I had the tracking checked by a good local tyre supplier. It was as good as it can be, he said. Then he told me that it is a common problem with cars with power steering fitted with fat and low tyres. It's too easy to turn the tyres when the car isn't moving, or when it's going too slow, and the result is wear on the inside edge. This made sense - I have to reverse into my drive and it involves a few tight turns. Since then I make sure that the tyre is rolling as I turn and I haven't had the problem again. It may not be the answer in all cases but it worked for me. B)

73,600, not much really for a Lexus, so I'm told. The guy from the rescue service was really pleased, he'd never had a Lexus on his truck before!

Mine is a 99V IS200 SE Auto. Has anyone ever experienced a failure of the auto gearbox? It happened to me and I wonder if I'm alone!

I know I'm over a year late with this reply, but it's my first posting.... I've had my IS200 for a year and it's always had water in the fog lights. After reading all the postings on this problems I kept putting if off until now. Having spent the weekend under the front wheel arch trying to peel back liners and all sorts, I found the easy way to do it... Undo the two bolts in the vent hole in the bumper, as it says in the handbook. What the handbook doesn't say is there is a lug holding the other side of the fog light to the bumper, so you have to rotate the lamp as you withdraw it. You pull hard on the side where the bolts were, the side of the lamp nearest to the middle of the car comes out and you can pull the whole thing out. Easy when you know how! :D Now I've got an IS200 with a hole where the fog light should be... Next problem: How to get the rotten thing apart...