Cotswold Pete

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

Have a mate who is a fireman, he tells me that when EVs catch fire they have to either let them burn out or lift them into skip and fill the skip up (I cannot recall whether he said water [dodgy IMHO] or earth). Did not get into a discussion about age of cars he deals with - Liverpool area, but I think newer models the batteries are better at not catching fire, but I assume once a EV or hybrid is on fire lots of toxic gunk floating in the air

Had a dipped beam HID bulb blow after 7 years (not too shabby a life then). So was preparing to spend £70 (or so) on two new bulbs. Still uming and aahing about 4300k or 6000K or maybe 5000K However came across this site https://xenons4u.co.uk/hid-d2r-xenon-bulbs.html with cheap as chips for a pair, well almost cheaper than chips Anyone ever had any experience of Lumor, almost seems worth trying even if they only lasted one year.

Today I will be moaning about managers who cut you off at the legs just as you are about to get the client over the last hurdle

Satnav disc holder is the black box. Water ingress unlikely to be the cause of it whining, but sounds like something not quite right. When I got my motor the boot had more water than Tom Daleys practice pool, and had been that way for a while, but the Nav was (and is) fine I assume your satnav works, but maybe it will fail at some point if the fault goes seriously yuck. Only other thought is aerial is whining, but that usually stops after 15 seconds of doing its 'thing'.

That is well looked after Mk4. But must have internal aerial, as not seeing anything at the trunk end.

Cold not usually a problem, though if your garage dropped below -10 then maybe some of the fluids would de-homogenise (for want of a better word), or have a slightly shortened life. Usually time is the enemy of waxes and foams Only thing is making sure micro-fibres etc, are dry as can be before leaving in shed (or in my case cellar). Photos of your foaming nozzles (now that might be worth a peek)😵

Well is that how a Lexus tractor engine might sound

So in 20 years time dealers will no doubt be much diminished, but I wonder if the only ones around will be the specialists, whether that be the ones only selling those good old fossil fuel classic cars, and the ones who have an audience that want to be pampered to death while wandering around a marbled hall in Knightsbridge in their cheap as chips Loake brogues. Mind you if I had money I might feel paying the extra to be pampered once in a while. Having been a user of the Internet since day 1, of the first web browser still feel the need to touch and feel, though my kids less inclined they just do hours of internet research. BUT strangely enough got me and the wife to go with them to suss out cars in the flesh, even though one of them lives 200 miles away. I would add that having driven many a car, test driving a range of cars for the kids was illuminating in that some cars were just plain awful once you drove them even for a 100 yards, and others were plain awful once you let the dealer go back to his hut so you could have a real good poke about (or poking through the rust)

I would always miss that V8 roar when putting your foot down Though maybe if I could afford a chauffer it would be a choice for those trips to the supermarket, and I guess if I could afford that then a grill re-build would be an option. But my Mk4 would be for me to drive Time to check last weeks lottery ticket!!

Looks like it just came out of the factory. I dare not show my boot, had water ingress from the seal, and from rear arch rot. However as I do not keep my sandwiches in the boot, I am okay with my 'messy trunk'

V8s once tried never forgotten. I know they are gas guzzlers, but with my (maybe retirement) in a few years, to me it makes sense to keep my 400 going as I will not be doing that much driving when retired, but a car that can do 400+ miles on a tank will mean I can get to Dundee in comfort and silence. Not quite sure about hybrids, been in a few, Honda and Lexus, just seems to me not so good when milege is low and you are lugging around a lot of battery. If I had to leave Lexus it would have to be another Jap car, or possibly Volvo but 13 years of LS driving is hard to give up.

Is also possible someone has perked up their WiFi, when we did this at work it created merry hell with my Mk4. I did find with the WiFi keeping anything metal (keys, screwdrivers etc) out of the middle compartment usually helped. Had my car in a garage car park for a week just recently, well away from any possible WiFI, and not a squeak out of the alarm.

My thoughts exactly

Under headphones I can hear what sounds like hiss, with a very (very) slight break-in from an actual FM channel. The hiss implies the Pioneer is seeing an FM signal but nothing to really tune into so it just plays noise. It could be the modulator is at fault, but without a scope not too easy to know. Maybe try the modulator on the Home stereo tuner which will be a bit of a pain because of different connectors and 12volt. What DAB unit are you using, I use a Sonichi S100 (but not sure if it is Dab+) it was useless via casette adaptor, but fine via it's own FM transmitter with external aerial. (Make sure you have a high quality USB adpator in the cigarette lighter - some inject noise into the FM system)

Is the noise a hiss like white noise or more like pink noise, or is it some kind of warbling. Any chance you could capture the noise on mobile phone and put MP3 file up here. Does sound odd that it happens when engine off, but possible that some electronics in the is still sending junk up the voltage rails which the FM head end (or the FM modulator) is picking up. The pioneer unit is not the quietest in terms of it's noise floor, but I only notice this when stationary and quiet music (really quiet) and volume cranked up.

But so far no one has woken up and smelt the coffee🍮

I have a had a few of those, and the ones that do eventually turn up for the free goods, and make you feel like it was your fault they could not turn up at a time better suited to the giver. But most freecycle bods are fine its just the odd one now and again that make me think 'Would have been easier to have taken to local tip'

Amsterdam seems to be a case of bike-overload, which is as bad a car overload in other places. I used to like Amsterdam but became more crowed than ever with tourist and much preferred Antwerp - plenty of bikes, but less busy/mad/urgent but walking the pavements you do have to dodge the bikes hanging off drain pipes etc. Have cycled around Paris on one of their 'Boris Bikes', now that was an adventure not to be repeated in a hurry. But my moan of the day (given the high number of local roadwork traffic lights) is people who seem to wait for the green light and then spend 5 seconds selecting first, meaning if you are the back, you get the next red light and a unnecessary delay.

Just got back on-line after a break up north, Stroud to Chester, then on up to Ambleside. The wife drove her Mazda 2. Economical (not so quiet at 60-70). Got in the LS400 to go to work, and just lovely, silence, power, comfy. we are privliged. Only reason wife drove is due to my long covid means after about 2 hours driving my body just wants to go to sleep and she hates my car for being big. I did make her go over Wrynose and Hardknott Pass, she was not impressed. I was; she did it 10 minutes quicker than Google traffic said was possible. I suspect my trip to Rannoch in Mar 2022 will be in a Mazda, but hey it does over 60 the gallon

Well going back to the original question, I found this web site that implies that to build an average car takes the equivalent of 31 full tanks of petrol. So maybe we extrapolate that to a Lexus as being 2 time more energy intensive. So 61 tanks of fuel. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/how-much-energy-to-build-a-car/ However this does not take into account the energy required to make the sheet metal, the number of cow farts that helped create the leather for the seats (or the energy input to the cow - I know you could then eat the cow, but not if you are a veggie like me). But it does seem like within a few years your new car has paid it's eco-dues. But none of this takes into account the energy required to build the original car factory, and the energy used to re-config the production line when the model comes to end of life and new tools needed make the next model. So this to me suggests the view ( I heard somewhere in the mists of time) that a new car will take (for the average driver) about 7 to 10 years to use the same amount of fuel that was used to dig it out the ground and then turn it into a car. Given cars do last more than 10 years, then might make sense to recycle them at that point. I think if cars were newly invented today they would be banned as 'not good', just like cigarettes and alcohol would be banned, but the genie is out of the bottle, and he ain't going back in any time soon.

Well done Neil Oliver for pointing out the hypocrisy, but we all hypocrites, and thinking that going EV is the answer is a falsehood. IMHO the answer is to work local, buy local and maybe use the car for highdays and holidays (but not too many). However that is not gonig to happen, not because politicians are ineffective, but surely the masses are not to keen on going back to walking to work in clogs and eating bread and (veggie) dripping every day. I know I am not to keen on going back to the middle ages (or the pre-industrial age), but industry will always make and create energy, which will surely (no matter what) have a less than postive impact. If the Persians could easily turn their grasslands (Eden) into desert so easily 5000 years ago with with their low tech water screws, and the Phoenicians could destroy Pheonix (Arizona) many centries ago with their low tech farming techniques, then anything more 'intense' is surely - in the long run - on a hiding to nothing. BUT being a hypocrite I am not getting rid of my 4litre beast just yet, and I will keep it gonig as long as possible to extract maximum energy input from that original build back in 2000.

Yep, Osaka in Newport I have used them a few times, chap who runs it seems to know his stuff https://osakanewport.co.uk/ About 15 min drive from J24, just off A48 right by the old Transport Bridge

I wonder what state the original Lexus wheels are in. Seems darned dodgy driving as is. Also it looks far too tidy a car in the photos, and if I lived in Stoke On Trent I would be curious enough to look. But have put it on 'Watch List' to see if it goes

I am thinking that anything that making the lens surface as smooth as possible is the trick to having the cleaning work for longer. Any micro-scratches left act as little gutters for water to sit, and then bacteria to fester, and the lenses go cloudy. Not quite sure what the UV protection adds, but I know they work. Maybe it protects the lens from being chemically ruptured by sun light, which would then stop more un-eveness being created where water and bacteria could do there thing. I agree Mk3 headlights the best, and the foglights way better than the Mk4, but I think it was the law that said glass headlamps need to go because of injuries caused in a collision, I assume with a pedestrian, but would welcome someone who knows more about this than me.