Cotswold Pete

I think Poly Bushes need to be re-greased every few years, otherwise you get a squeaky car.. Rubber v. Poly My nephew who is forever fiddling with his cars, reckons rubber is best unless opertating in extreme environments that eat rubber (whatever they are)

Had front bushes done just before covid and rear a few weeks ago (along with new drop links all round), and it make the car a lot quieter (way less background rumble), and also rolls a heck of a lot less. Still got a slight knock on front, but not sure if that is upper or lower control arms needing a look at. Need o get my service records out and see when the control arms last replaced, but car is on 215,000, and not as 'tight' as my wifes 4 year old Mazda 2 By the way be interested to hear whether transmission mount makes that much difference when you fit, as I cannot detect any difference in creaks and rumbles from being in gear or coasting, so assume mounts okay(ish) for now

They are solid guys, ex Lexus folk who know there stuff

Totally agree, my LS roof works a dream, gets used most weeks including winter. I check drains every few months as well. I find cars without sunroofs a little gloomy, and I like getting a sunburnt bonce now and again

Good God - reading this thread makes me think I will stick with my pile of OS maps on back seat and a head turn every now and again to check the OS.🤣 Only times I have ever got truely lost is when relying on Sat Nav (inbuilt) or relying too much on Google (which is better, but too much for an old g*t like me). I would add (in support of LS400 satnav) it did a better job of getting me to Cadbury World then my brain, but that was a one off IMHO

I get my wipers from Blades direct. Last lot I had seemed better than Bosch, and cheaper. Just ordered new ones for my LS400, so hopefully as good as before LS460 (wiper set)

I did a proper switchback run yesterday, and made a note of MPG as follows. (Running on E10) Steady 55mph (nearly a full tank) - From M4 Membury Services to A34 Sutton Scotney Services - got 38.5mpg Steady 65mph same trip in reverse - got 34mpg Reason for this is this drive is up hill and down dale, but you can keep constant speed (apart from J14 change of M4 to A34) I have new plugs, just had new oil filter and oil change, so in theory as good as it could be I know fully loaded up the M5/M6 from Glos to Manchester (not uphill land down dale) at 75mph I can get a smidge over 30mpg Comfort levels and relaxed driver a given, and I found driving at 55 so brilliant that maybe this should be my default speed, and on 100mile run does not add that much time. Maybe 4litre beasts will be a steal while people try and off-load them

I used Little Trees (the trees), they look a bit odd dangling with their plastic wrappers, but on the way home every day I come around a certian bend and I get a waft of lavender. Never worked out why that particular bend, but when the waft goes, I knwo it is time to break out a new Little Tree

Spot on

As one of the Youtubers commented Once you have had a UZ, you cannot live without one. I second that motion

One other thought, not that I have had this on lexus, but on other cars have had lumpy engine at speed and idle. The petrol filler cap, which if the seal has gone might be a problem. It is highly unlikely but worth a check. My money would be on leads or distributor playing up.

Just got car back from garage, where I had new front and rear drop links fitted, and new bushes on rear anti-roll bar. (They had to grind the original drop links out, rusted to heck). Car feels much much better, not totally sorted, I think maybe offside lower control arm is getting tired, but need to through my service history to check which control arms were done since I owned. Also realised I have had the car for 100,000 miles now, never had a car that long, mighty pleased. Next work is new cover for steering wheel, complete flush of autobox (going to cost £234), get aerial sorted, and save up for cambelt change. A few niggles, like leaky nearside indicator and cabin boot release not working, and minor leak in rear arch (just needs patching when weather is good enough to get under the car) Only two more years I could retire and spend my days wafting around a bit more, rather than commuting to work, but maybe petrol will be more expensive than beer by then?? With early 15 years of Lexus driving under my belt, the only way to be is happy

It makes me sad all this stuff with a little bloke and his Napoleon complex, I was wanting to goto Lviv, was planned for 2021, but Covid got in the way. I have got way too drunk with Bulgarians in Bulgaria, with Romanians (not in Romania), with Russians in Russia, hated their politics back then, but loved the people I worked or holidayed with. Time to do the same with Ukranians in Ukrania when I am allowed, and try whatever the local rocket juice is.

Technically the Vodafone network is near true 4G, so where available gives better data speeds. The others have 4G masts, but a mix of 3G and 4G backhaul links, which is why you can get good signal but naff speed. So EE, O2 and 3 going about upgrades slowly but surely.

The future has to be a nuclear fusion powered car, might need a big trailer to contain the chamber. The trick as I understand it is energy storage density, with fossil fuels benig very dense (they have had several million years to be compressed), and all other options less so, meaning more space required for batteries, hydrogen tanks etc. to achieve same output for same length of time. I think the future will be driving will just get more expensive and we will all learn to commute less. The production of energy takes energy, so I still think our race to utilise more energy consuming devices (cars, dish washers, etc) is a bit of a challenge until fusion is sorted (maybe)

Useful links EE Mast Maps Vodafone Mast Maps O2 Mast Maps 3 Mast Maps if you go to these it will show you where the cell masts are, and if you click on a green dot (mast), it will show you how the cell radiators beam. It is not totally accurate, but I use it at work to gauge where to point 4G routers aerials towards. We had one client near the M5, and only half mile from the mast, but this site showed me that the mast in question was beaming up and down M5, not across it, so we ended up point the 4G across the river Severn to Lydney and got a better signal.

I assume that if your mobile contract does not allow tethering, then this would not work. Being a cheapskate my contract does not support tethering even though my phone does.

Update. Thumb lock works a treat, no more filthy fingers (or language). Just screw the lock onto end of pump and locks on tight as you like, and tyre inflated like the good old days. No need to over inflate. Going to buy a lock each for the missus and my son, save them faffing about. Finger tight fit means you can take off the hose if you need to store inside the tight fit pump case. Thank heavens for e-bay

So it seems to me if your car is noisy you either get an old g*t like me to test it, or a youngster who appreciates a bit of noise (and some of them may even like a Fiesta fart-cannon. Though seems to be 50cc beasties are the main problem around where I live

Totally agree always check with proper digital meter, been doing so for last 20 years, makes a big difference to handling having all 4 corners correct

How about super punative tax for any off-roader, on the basis roads will be so bad only thanks would survive. Thereby meaning us mere mortals would not risk wrecking our cars, we would end up working and shopping locally, and the government then hammer us with a boot tax. Hey presto money to waste on any pet project. Only problem is can inter city rail handle all the goods, and maybe need a lot more stations that we can hire a tank to drive to so we can pick up our orders from Amazon

To encourage people to buy EVs they need tax breaks, but to get everyone to drive EVs you have to tax electricity to the same degree as petrol. Problem is electricity cannot be divided into super-expensive to the car and less expensive for the home lighting etc. In the past we moved to Lead Free with incentive so aggressive it made no sense to use leaded, same principle no matter how painful would surely apply to encouraging EVs - which are not carbon zero or non-polluting, just differently damaging the planet.

74db is permitted as okay, anything more and it is a fail. I assume this is from 1meter away, from end of pipe. A conversation is typically 60dB and truck is 70dB (that is the noise of the truck engine, rattles and bangs (not it's exhaust) 80db is a freight train at 100yards. So 74dB not that loud in the scheme of things, but sure as heck hear many a car/bike exceeding that. There are ideas that speed cameras for the future would listen to noise, but given they are not at ground level not sure how that would work

Totally agree. On my wifes car the screw-on looses about 1PSI where as on LS it is about 3 to 4PSI Going to try an adaptor and see it it helps. It does mean the cable will not store as neat, but heck, plenty of space in the spare well (where pump is kept) to not worry about that

So getting really annoyed with these screw on tyre inflators, just spend 30 minutes wasting my time by inflating the tyre (just one) and then finding while unscrewing I loose as much as as put in. Tried over-inflating to compensate, but that was no use. Should have kept my old but slow inflator with thumb lock So looking at using one of these little beasties - Ebay - thumb lock Has anyone tried them, cannot see how the the valve core gets pressed down to open up the valve. Any thoughts