finest1

thanks for your replies what or where is WIM?

thanks no the car does not wander and no knocking sounds i thought it might be the balancing. someone recommended me to a good place so i'll take it there thanks

hi all, i noticed that around 50-60 mph my steering vibrates/wobbles. i took it into kwikfit and asked him to balance the wheels. he said to me to come back once i've got it confirmed that the wishbone is fine and the ball joints. is he just turning me away, or is it a genuine tip. also, can i do this myself? if so, how, or do i need to get a garage to look at it. problem is, a garage may say yes the ball joints are shot, and i wouldn't know if that was true or not! many thanks finest1 :)

hi all, today in london it absolutley pelted down today! while i was in my lexus gs300 sport, the windows misted up. i put the heating/fans on and it only shifted it slightly from dash upwards, but not enough for a clear windscreen. i then pressed the front windscreen button to direct all the air to the front. it still didn't work, although i felt the air coming up from the windscreen. i tried turning the thermo up to 26 degrees and it didn't shift all of it. i tried the air con. and swithced from fresh air intake to recirc, still nothing. ok, although i was in the back streets of north london and pulled over. what if i was on the motorway? scary ! so i need tips on the best and fast way of clearing a windscreen. btw, i did consult manual but it wasn't that informative many thanks finest1 :)

yes you need petrol to initially start the engine. it then should convert to lpg after 2 mins from cold start. once car is used, lpg kicks in after 30 seconds, sometimes quicker.

thanks guys, where and how do i clean the pollen filter? ;)

hi i have a mk1 gs300 sport. i converted it to LPG straight away. i did my research first to find the best kit. you will get lots of people telling you different things. i ended up speaking to a guy called gary who is the director of the company called CLS fuels. great guy! very knowledgeable. the garage he sent the car to was great. don't think about doing the conversion, DO IT !! there is no lack of performance to the car. do ask if they can give you a bigger tank than 55ltrs, in hindsight i should have asked. you can see pics of my motor on the detailing section of this forum. its a blue one call gary and see what you think, i recommend him highly. all systems are different to different cars. my one cost £1900. sounds high, but i've nearly made my money back! at the moment im getting 140 miles out of a tank. this costs me just over £30. thats also town driving so im usually in the first 3 gears. on motorway you will get more http://www.agpl.co.uk/contact-us.htm good luck :winky:

great pics! good luck with the project. send some pics of the interior. i heard gliptones leather interior conditioner is supposed to be the bomb! im using renapur at the moment and that looks like its gonna last a while! your body work is great! did you do any body work, ie swirl removal etc. thats my biggest bug bear at the moment. keep at it ! finest! :)

thanks

hi all, 1) how do i know if my air con is running at optimal level? reason i ask is if im driving in hot weather, like we've had lately, the car is exceptionally hot, maybe because of the size. anyway, the air con feels cool rather than cold 2) how do i recharge/service it? can it be done, or do specialist equipment or garages can only do this? many thanks finest 1 :)

another update, whilst at work the sun managed to peep out of the clouds and the car managed to catch some full on sun. after the second coat of AB i was astonished at how much it masked the swirl marks! it has made a dramatic improvement. the paintwork is more pronounced and i am very very impressed. i think that this is the way to go if you don't want to use machines or pay for someone to remove the swirls. definatley the cheaper option. conclusion the second coat makes all the difference! thanks finest1 :)

hi all, just to update you. as the weather was good today, this evening i added my second layer. i had to wash the car first, but then i cracked on. i was forgetting to add the AB lightly so i think i applied it lighter than i thought i did before, anyway i think i did! the gloss was apparant. i finished the car after sunset, so i hope tomorrow is a nice day so i can see the results. i've parked it under the street light and went and had a look at it. the swirl marks have reduced but are still there, so they must be deeper than i thought, especially all those years the previous owner cleaned it and buffed it with no attention to the way we do it here. can't blame them really. hopefully if the sun's out tomorrow i can see just how much it masked but im not counting on much. again the product was easy to work with. it did render my applicator very very dirty and the MF cloth i used for buffing is also dirty! thanks for reading the post finest1 :)

thanks guys, just to add an update. i just went to see the car under the halogen street light. although the paint is a much much deeper gloss, still swirl marks. it had reduced but im wondering if i put enough AB on it. it definitely needs another coat. i hope that will reduce it further. to answer the question as to why i chose Bilt Hamber: the main thing is that a lot of people have been using it with very good results and feedback. please see my posting i put around mid april 08, you will see the entire transcript. having the experience of using it, it was easy to apply, easy to buff off, the more you use it, you will be more experienced to get better usage out of it. main thing is that preparation is the key! also, i chose BH because i usually support the underdog! and done enough research to be convinced they were definatley worth a try. i think i made the right choice. im not the best person to ask, because this is the first time im detailing cars. there are many others that have used many various products, but im happy with this purchase. i will give it a go on my dad's avensis soon, and post the pics up. my other main reason, is that i needed a product that could reduce the appearance of swirl marks, without using machined or excessive manual labour!! many thanks :)

Hi all, Some of you may have seen my posts over the last 2 months where I was discussing car detailing and products. My research ended with me purchasing and using the Bilt Hamber range of products. So I now present to you, my car detailing weekend ! Here’s the pics I tried to do with my car dirty. The wheel shot should hopefully highlight how dirty the car was. I wanted to try and take pics of the swirl marks that the body work has. I didn’t come out well ! The Bilt Hamber (BH) products I used were as follows: Auto-Wash (AW) Auto-Clay (AC) Auto-Balm (AB) Day 1 Ok, so I washed the car with AW. I actually used a tablespoon (10ml) in 5ltr water ! oops! To wash the whole car I only used 2.5ltr ! I was worried about the fact that I had a lot left, but it worked out in the end. see day 2. Once I applied the shampoo with my lambswool mitt, I left it to soak for no more than a minute. I then hosed off and dried with my large waffle MF cloth. Took me just over 5 mins to dry off !! here are some pics after I used AW and dried. Later I went to “feel” the body work. It did feel bumpy and grainy. So I took out the AC. Good job I cut it into 5 pieces, because one dropped on the ground after 15 mins!! Straight in the bin ! Ok, so I was getting used to the clay. The AC is great as I only used water in a spray bottle. I sprayed the bodywork and the clay. When using, you will feel a slight resistance, but once that part has been done, the clay glides effortly over a wet surface. This is good because you will easily know where you have clayed. As it was getting late I decided to call it a day. I had only the driver door, rear passenger door and rear panel left. Here are some pics of the clayed body parts. Photos were taken in low light. Later that night I went to move the car. I noticed that the halogen street lights showed up the swirl marks. The marks looked even more pronounced as I think the clay may have removed any deposits. By the way, the clay looked absolutely awful when I finished with it !! Day 2 I was worried about the weather, and hoped it would stay overcast. I had hazy sun and lots of overcast. It had only rained a little overnight, so I cracked on with claying the remaining panels. When I finished I decided to rinse off the dust the rain left and any clay marks etc. which is where I found use for my left over AW ! Then came the Auto Balm ! lets see if it lives up to its reputation. I used all the tips from the forum members as well as the tech sheet provided. I used the product very thin, its hard to tell what is thin, but I was literally dabbing the product. As the weather was warming I put it in my mind not to leave it on too long. I worked on body panels at a time. I imagined 2ft sq blocks and applied the AB. You can tell when it goes on because it smears. As I was filling swirls I applied product as recommended on tech sheet and website. One important detail I want to mention, is that I used very medium pressure to apply the product. There is no need to apply lots of pressure, plus you would tire out early! Because of the warm weather, I left product on for 1 min max. the buffing stockinette roll was working out ok. But as I got to the next half of the car I was tiring out. The cloth started to fray and fluff was attaching it to the car. I remembered I had a clean MF cloth in doors so I started to use that insead. What a difference. The cloth has more power and 2 wipes and you can move on. Maybe BH should get rid of the roll and provide a MF in their kit. When I got to the bonnet, I had a spell of hazy sun and that heated up the bonnet. I had no where to put the car and was not going to give up. The bonnet was hot (if you left you hand on the bonnet after 3-4 seconds the heat would cause pain). So I applied the product, shortened the working area, and buffed off after 30 seconds. So here are the pics of the car with one coat of AB. Because of the overcast weather, I never got to see the effect it had on swirl marks. Although I did have a very very short break in the clouds and the sun shone on the car. The glimpse I got was very exciting, but I will reserve judgement for now. One thing I didn’t do in hindsight. As the applicator was getting dirty, I didn’t wash it. I now have a very dirty applicator, and im trying to clean it up, but the AB is repelling the water! Any ideas how to clean it, and why it became dirty? Its in a bucket of car shampoo at the moment ! A few hours later I went to look at the car. The gloss is amazing! I wonder if I can get a wetter look, or maybe that’s the best it will get. It does make a very big difference in claying the car and using AB. AB was very easy to apply and take off. Running my hand over the body work, it feels like the highest polished glass ! a very strange sensation. Unfortunately the pics don’t do the finish justice. I just wonder what it would look like after 2 applications. Hope you enjoy my post, feel free to comment

hi arty, first try all the simple stuff 1st. my tyres seemed ok but in fact they was not. i experienced serious steering wheel vibration on the motor way and the car kept straying to the left. when i bought the car, it did not do this so the only thing i remember is when my sister tried out the car and she scraped the front left wheel on the kerb ! this probably affected the balancing. anyway, i eventually changed the tyres (see my thread on advice on tyres), and now the car drives excellent. you can really feel the difference. wheels were balanced too. im thinking of getting it laser aligned, not sure if i need it. kwik fit can do them. if you need tyres, check out the following: www.valuetyres.co.uk www.blackcircle.com www.mytyres.co.uk don't get caught up in the brand names too much. hope this helps finest1 :luck:

no apologies needed ! thanks for taking the time to respond ! its appreciated very much, and for others as one day im sure they will come across the same thing thanks finest1

just to let you know that i managed to find a site that did the brakes for £23 inc postage and VAT. unfortunatley it did not come in time so when i went to get my new tyres, the mechanic was unable to change the brakes. hopefully tigerfish can find some time to do a picture tutorial

yes please ! i'd be up for that too! :D

thanks for all your advice guys, i've made my choice tyres the money i am saving from that is going to get is laser aligned. i picked up these tyres at £94 each fitted with a garage 1 mile away! fitting is due friday so i hope it goes well. i'll start up from these tyres and judge next time round. there is so many opinions i feel i have to eventually work out mine. i can't justify spending £150 per tyre seeing i cant speed on the roads anyway!! see ya! B)

Tigerfish, that would be great...for everyone in fact ! i need to source some brake pads first. the garage that is doing my tyres said he could do them for £20 but i must provide the pads. i don't think i will be using the car on the weekend so i suppose i can wait, but i need them done so i don't cause any damage. many thanks, look fwd to the tutorials :zee:

hi all, i've noticed a scraping noise on the passenger side of the car. i checked the lexus manual and it states that it is designed that way to indicate that the brakes need looking into. i assume at this stage that it is just the pads. can i change the pads myself, or should i get someone to do it. i'm actually getting my front tyres changed so i was going to ask the mechanic to do it for me. my friend told me i can do them myself, and it will be good experience for me. has anyone done this themselves? if so, would you recommend it, or get a pro to do them. i fear lexus will be expensive for just the brakes. my car is a lexus gs 300 sport with 18" tyres at the front. lexus websites states the brakes are 296mm ventilated discs. many thanks in advance finest1 :winky:

thanks i have a toyota jemca a mile away from me. do you think they're good enough to work on the lexus? i know its toyota but it may be different thanks

does anyone know of places that can offer servicing repairs on lexus cars other than going to the main dealer? what are your experiences. there is some work coming up for my car, so im pondering whether to go to the main dealer thanks in advance :D

hi all, i have a Mk 1 gs300 sport. the 2 front tyres need changing. at the moment its pirelli p zeros. im not too fussed on brand, just as long as they're good. specs are: 245/40/ ZR18 any suggestions, advice? thanks in advance unsure.gif

hi all, i have a Mk 1 gs300 sport. the 2 front tyres need changing. at the moment its pirelli p zeros. im not too fussed on brand, just as long as they're good. specs are: 245/40/ ZR18 any suggestions, advice? thanks in advance