NEV72

I had my 2000 IS 200 converted approximately 18 months ago. I had a multipoint system installed with an ECU link. The car had covered 58000 miles when converted. Flashlube was not recommended by the installer and so was not fitted. Within 20,000 miles the engine began to missfire. Whent into my local dealership who said that the valve seats had burnt on 3 valves. Luckily there was enough adjustment on the shims to bring them back into tolerance. The LPG installer said that the reason that only 3 valves had burnt, not all of them was because often the car leaves the factory with the valves within tolerance but not equally adjusted. Once the valve seat begins to burn it deteriorates rapidly. I now have flaslube fitted and the car has now covered 166,000 miles with no further problems. Hope this helps! :) :)

Hey That is great to read. I had my 2001 IS200 converted 3 years ago. Had huge problems with stalling eventually always when cold, plus big loss of power, and last year they fitted new valves and valve seats, which in addition to fitting 6 new coil packs, due to incorrect diagnosis of the stalling problem cost me the thick end of £3000. I therefore thought I was being super cautious when I took the car in again yesterday, but sure enough there is wear on at least 2 valves....they are now doing the repair under warranty, and fitting a FLASH LUBE KIT. It is great to know that yours has done nearly 90,000 miles since the flash lube installation. The problem on mine got chronic probably after around 20,000 miles. I was thinking I would have to get rid.

Quite a few people it seems who are are thinking of converting to LPG, have the dilemma of whether or not to fit a Flashlube system, some LPG conversion centres reccomend it and some don't, personally after spending nearly £2000 having mine done, an extra £60 to add the Flashlube system protecting the valves and valve seats is a no brainer, and certainly gave me peace of mind.

For those who are thinking of, or who have had the Flashlube fitted though, I found this bit of info which came from Prins, makes for good reading.

"Re: Flashlube

System: VSI – Autogas

Flashlube:Regarding the effects of to much Flashlube and the effects on Lambdas.

From field experience appeared that a wrong Flashlube dosage can lead to an incorrect lambda

signal.

A too high dosage of Flashlube can cause a slow working or even a not at all working lambda

probe. It is possible that the lambda probe shows a wrong mixture (lean in stead of the actual

mixture). In this case the self learning values (fuel trims) will go out of range. It is even possible

that an error code will be set (mixture too lean) or that the catalytic converter will be

damaged.

This phenomenon appears mostly after starting with a warm engine or in case the engine has

been on idle for a longer period (highest under pressure -> biggest amount of Flashlube).

Prins advises, in case Flashlube is fitted, to guard the quantity (dosage) of Flashlube attentively.

Adjustment regulation manufacturer:

At idling speed: 12 drops per minute.

Average consumption should be 1 ml per liter fuel (compare, after

filling up with fuel, the used amount of Flashlube with with the filled up

amount of fuel)."

Funnily enough a couple of weeks ago my VSC light and Engine light both came on together, took it to Lexus who banged it on their diagnostic comp, told me it was running lean but on the LPG side, so I took it back to the LPG lads, 10 minutes and it was sorted.

Hope this helps Nev :winky:

:( saw the topic and thought it was going to be the original Ford Capri

Reminds me of the van from Dumb & Dumber :D

Talking of the van from Dumb and Dumber, I came across this today.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m10/NEV...to_292281_7.jpg.

A virtual pint goes to the first person that recognises what the car is, Nev :winky:

the two pictures of the ones he has for sale should seperate the type one you have ?

The one you bought

The other RX mirror

Surely a glance at these pics & a glance at the car should clarify ?

The mk2 mirror is a tad smaller than the mk1, as shown in the pic, also the mk1 is more square than the mk2, I reckon you've cracked it, (lol) with the rx400 mirror mate. :winky:

Wow, suprised that it's a problem on the RX, that's a shame

Aye tell me about it, I've heard so many conflicting reports about changing the lights, I was hoping that maybe someone who had succsesfully done the Halogen to Xenon conversion to an RX might post?

Driving back down from Derby last week, I noticed that on some of the very dark and unlit rural stretches of the M5 I managed to "lose the road," when putting the lights from full beam to dip so as not to dazzle oncoming cars, this is something I don't remember doing in my old Omega Elite, due to the fact it had Xenon headlights fitted as standard, and were much brighter both on dip and full beam (IMO)

So I'm now thinking of converting my RX halogens over to Xenon headlights, and was wondering if anyone in here has done this for theirs, how they went about doing it, and what they had to buy to convert. Any help would be greatly appreciated.Cheers Nev

There are lots of people who will do cheap LPG kits, that’s not what is offered above, these are good value prices with all new equipment, fitted by an LPGA approved fitter and with a certificate that you will need for insurance purposes, using second hand tanks etc will mean you cannot get a certificate.

Also note that when you've had your conversion done, you need to send off your certificate to DVLA ( I advise you do this by registered post, as they lost mine and it cost £30.00 for a replacement one.)so they can add LPG on to your v5, making your car duel fuel. Funnily enough my insurance company didn't request my certificate, I just told them over the phone when renewing my policy, that I'd had LPG added.Nev :winky:

Hi All,

I'm about to buy a Mk1 RX 300 and have a few questions. Firstly, I took one for a test drive, and noticed that there was wind noise around the mirrors at high speed. I have looked at old road tests, and see that this is a design fault, but is there any easy way (customised wing mirrors or side window wind deflectors) of correcting this? Minor problem I know, but I'm a perfectionist!

Secondly, on cambelts and plugs. One specialist I spoke to said that the plugs and cambelt should be changed at 60k miles, but a Lexus dealer said that the cambelt can wait until 100k miles. Who is right?

Finally, I have around 4 RX 300'S lined up to look at over the next few days. Any general things/bugbears I should look out for?

Any advice appreciated. I'm looking very forward to RX 300 ownership.

Thanks

Ligier

50-60K For the cam belt to be changed sounds about right, I've just had my 40k service and was told it'll be done on my next service, it's a biggy mind, I've been quoted around £550 by my local Lexus dealer, you might want to enquire about the pre-paid service plans Lexus do.(check out the recent "pre-service plan" threads for more info)

As for the noise from the wing mirrors, I can't say it's a big problem, and with the windows all up you hardly hear any outside noise whatsoever.

Look out for corrosion on the alloys it's a common fault with most Lexus models not just the RX. The fuel economy isn't too bad either, although I added LPG to mine and I found it better still, and no difference in performance. Hope this helps Nev :winky:

EDIT

Have found some info on the cambelt change, on another site it seems that 90k or 72 months (6 years) is the reccommendation for inspection and change if needed, and seeing as mine will be 6 years old at the next service is possibly why my Lexus has told me mine will be checked.

"I checked my Alldata database and found that Toyota/Lexus recommends replacing the timing belt on the 3.0-liter V6 engine in your '99 RX300 at 90,000 miles, as the dealer suggested. On '97 and earlier models, there's no routine replacement suggested, but on '98 models the recommendation is 90,000 miles or 72 months if the vehicle is operated under "severe conditions such as extensive idling and/or low speed driving for extended ranges." On 1999-2003 models, there's no "severe condition" standard, and the recommendation is to replace the timing belt every 90,000 miles or 72 months.

Since the V6 in your truck isn't an interference engine, meaning the pistons won't hit open valves if the belt breaks, a belt failure will only leave you stranded and needing a tow and require the installation of a new belt, but it won't destroy the engine." Hope this helps Nev

Airmiles T&C's

4. Using Airmiles

a. When Airmiles have appeared on your account, you can spend them by booking our exclusive offers. Airmiles bookings are subject to availability, some routes may have limited allocation especially during peak periods. The total number of seats available for Airmiles bookings will vary from route to route and from week to week depending on commercial demand Your first choice of one of our offers may not always be available so please have alternative offers in mind. Please do not make any related arrangements until we have confirmed the offer you are booking.

b. You may use your miles for anyone as long as you, the account holder, contact us to make the booking. You may use miles for up to nine people in any one booking.

c. You cannot transfer, sell or use miles for any other purpose except as we allow under the terms of any offer. If you die, miles may be transferred to an account in the name of one of your beneficiaries. We must be shown a copy of the will and the death certificate. If you try to transfer miles in any other way, we may take action against you.

Cheers Mark, Mike

Much appreciated! Nev :winky:

The wifes uncle has earned a load of air miles from somewhere, and because he hasn't any need for them, he wants to give them to us, does anybody out there know if they are transferrable from one person to another? as I haven't got a clue, having never used them before, and seeing as I have 2 trips to Spain next year to sort out, I was hoping it might save a few bob. Cheers Nev. :winky:

a key difference here being that if you buy the LEXUS plan you can go to ANY Lexus dealership for the work - buy a dealer only one and you are tied to that particular dealer group.

Cymro, If it's right what you say, then Estherjon can take out a pre paid service plan with Lexus Exeter who quoted me £766.49, but get his local Lexus dealership to do the work?, even though my quotes for 3 services and not 4, I reckon he'd still be saving in the region of £1000 quid.

I'm definately going to take them up on it, seeing as I was quoted around the mid £500 mark for my next big service.

I hope everyone attending has a great day :D

Hope you lads don't mind, but I was Just reading through this thread, takes me back to when I was single venue rallying back in the mid eighties, under the R.A.C comp regs, and remembering how the scrutineering goes, I recall that the helmets required a clover leaf kite mark sticker on our helmets, is this not the case with sprinting? as it would be a bleeder to get scrutineered out cos of your helmet not being up to scratch.Just a thought Nev. :winky:

To be fair, the OP did say he was getting a *CLUNK* from the rear of the RX ...

However, the issue of the handbrake cables, they do apparently corrode. Our RX (MKII 2003/03) recently had its 60K service and we were advised that the N/S cable was seized (Part # 46430-48090) and quoted £250 to 'fix' - we have the Lexus Extended Warranty so it was covered. Not sure where you can get these parts from but this is precisely the reason why we have the Warranty - these are expensive cars to 'fix' and you cannot always source parts needed freely.

I'd give Toyota a ring and see if the cables in the Harrier are the same as the Lexus MK1 ones, maybe the MK11 also, possibly getting them at a cheaper price. Just a thought :winky:

My local Lexus dealer has (unprompted) sent me a letter giving me the opportunity to pay for my next 4 services (70k-100k inclusive) for a price of £2,287 (inc VAT). This seems an extraordinary amount and has got me thinking about what a reasonable cost might be. Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Jon

Jon,

Just found my Lexus service plan I received last week, must say yours does sound a little high compared to mine, and thats allowing for the fact they've quoted you for 4 services compared to my 3

Benefits they're offering me

* Fixed labour costs for the duration of your plan protecting you from inflation

* Your first M.O.T free of charge

* Free puncture repairs

* Free wheel balancing

* Interest free affordable monthly payment plan

* Free transfer of your existing plan to a new Lexus vehicle

* Additional discounts off all our services and products

The service plan will cover me for 3 services, starting 60,000 miles / 6yr for a total of £766.49 inc VAT, must admit it's rather tempting.

2 errors I've noticed though, is that I had my 40k service with them a couple of weeks ago and my next service is next year for the big 50k service, (timing belts etc,) and they've got my model being a 2003 onwards model, whereas it's actually a mk1 2003 model.Hope this helps Nev :winky:

tesco all purpose cleaner,less than 40p a bottle it is very good but don't use it on the paintwork.

Old detailing clay can get off specks of brake dust thats got onto the wheels, might be an idea to try the Blu-Tak that everyones been talking about using instead of detailing clay, still using some type of lubrication mind. :winky:

Anyone got any info on an LPG converted LS 400/430??

I wondered about it for my GS. not sure yet. have to see what I'm doing work wise first.. it would be a good investment if I could get a great job donew on it for a grand.

Any thoughts?

Loz

Hi LOZ -- I have had my ls400 put on LPG the cost was £2500.--a litre of gas is -49/56ppl compered to the price of petrol, the fuel consumption is the same as when on petrol, if your milege is 10,000 a year you can save over £1400. you must inform you Insurance Company and the D.V.L.A. of the change

I have seen R.Rovers/Jags/Volvos/Mercs/Bmw's/and many more being converted,so your G.S. will be ok

shelldrake

Hi Loz, I recently had LPG put onto my RX, very impressed so far with the economy, and performance so far, I've done some calculations to work out savings you should get from converting to LPG based on 10,000 miles per year.

AVERAGE DRIVING MILEAGE PER YEAR 10,000.00

AVERAGE MPG ON PETROL 26.00

AVERAGE MPG ON LPG 23.00

COST PER LITRE OF PETROL £1.00

COST PER LITRE OF LPG £0.55

PETROL

COST PER GALLON OF PETROL £4.50

PETROL PER YEAR ( GALLONS ) 384.62

PETROL PER YEAR ( LITRES ) 1,730.77

COST PER MILE ( PETROL ) £0.17

ANNUAL COST ( PETROL ) £1,730.77

LPG

COST PER GALLON (LPG ) £2.48

LPG PER YEAR ( GALLONS ) 434.78

LPG PER YEAR ( LITRES ) 1,956.52

COST PER MILE ( LPG ) £0.11

ANNUAL COST ( LPG ) £1,076.09

Monthly saving £54.56

Annual saving £654.68

Three year saving £1,964.05

Five year saving £3,273.41

Saving per mile £0.07

Hope this helps Nev ;)

Break off about a third of the bar and work the clay into a disc shape. Using light pressure, and while running water onto the panels keeping the paint and clay wet, use the disc like applying wax to a car. With a slow circular pattern, you can feel the bonded particles on the paint being lifted off and the clay just glides over clean paintwork with no resistance. On the sills where the most adhered dirt is found, the clay will need to be worked much harder especially over the oldest tar lines snd spots. As long as the water is constantly applied, I had no trouble lifting off the most stubbon spots.

Check the clay surface regulary and just fold over and work into another disc when it looks dirty.

There are videos of people using clay on u-tube....check the technique....

Hope this is of help!

A little tip I found useful is to keep a container of warm water handy, this is for when you need to reshape the clay so that you have a clean area for claying the car. Mainly because when its a cold day it's a pig to reshape, plus ice cold numb fingers don't seem to work either.

Another tip I found to be handy is that when you are trying to mould the clay into shape, do it over the bonnet, because there's less chance of it accidently dropping it onto the floor, you might as well throw it away if it does, or if you're luckily it might be salvageable to clean burned in brake dust off alloys.

Personally I prefer Bilt-Hamber Auto clay,and they say you can use normal water to lubricate it, although I do use Meguiars Quik Detail when I can.

Hope this helps Nev ;)

On a heavier (and larger) car like the RX, I think they would be too soft (not up to the job)...and IIRC even EBC don't recommend them for SUVs as they do their own dedicated SUV brakes (YellowStuff?). The red I would suggest for fast road use - but I have generally found the OE Toyota pads to be very good. A bit eager to dust, but they have never let me down or given me cause tho think they are fading too early etc.

Having been doing a bit more research on the Green Stuff for my RX, I've found a place that sells EBC Pads, the colour coding for EBC starts with Black going up to race performance Blue. I'll post up the info regarding the colour coding it may help some.

EBC BLACK

EBC black coded brake pads are a high friction premium quality friction material approved to ECE R90 brake safety regulations and as such are an exact equivalent to original equipment pads fitted to your vehicle from the factory.

When you buy EBC R90 replacement pads you are getting an exact equivalent to an original equipment pad for far less money. Don’t let the lower price point cloud your view of this superb quality product, these pads will stop your vehicle as fast as any original equipment pad and faster than most aftermarket pads. One brilliant feature of EBC R90 pads is their ability to completely eliminate brake judder and these pads will actually COMPENSATE for mild brake judder after 300-400 miles of use.

Ultimax R90

Now also featuring EBC's unique Brake-In bed-in coating these pads offer superb brake effect up to normal motorway speeds and are a perfect replacement pad for cars and light commercial vehicles. As with all EBC pads, centre line slots to prevent cracking and noise, edge chamfers to further offfset noise and vibration are a standard feature of this quality pad.

DPC Carbon for Light Commercial Vehicles

For longer life in fleet type applications, EBC now offers more than double the life of standard pads with its new DPC range shown in the second upgrade column.

GREEN STUFF

EBC Green Stuff 2000

Designed for premium street driving offering better brake effect at loads and speed. EBC Greenstuff has a high initial brake effect and gives drivers confidence from first application of the brake pedal. There is no such thing as a NO DUST pad. The very nature of how a brake works requires that some dust be generated to avoid rotor vibration (shimmying). The EBC pad creates less dust and dust is more easily washed off than most. All pads create more dust as they are bedding in especially if rotors are worn. Features EBC Brake-In™ surface coating which conditions rotor surface and accelerates pad bed-in.

EBC Description of Green Stuff. - "Greenstuff" is the name coined to describe our current sport automotive pad. A high friction Aramid based organic pad with very low metallic content that comes on strong from first application of the brake pedal, without disc damage and minimal brake dust. Recommended for road use and hillclimb only.

Fast/Heavy Street Use - Brake well from cold - Effective to above 650°C - Lower dust formula

EBC Green 6000 Series

An excellent solution for 4x4 use, this heavy duty Greenstuff formulation has slightly lower friction than its 2000 series counterpart but has the benefit of longer life and better resistance to offroad conditions of dust and sand etc. It has an extremely low rotor wear factor and medium-to-good lifetime.

EBC Green 7000 Series SUV Supreme

For a small price premium over the 6000 series these pads are THE ULTIMATE SUV FRONT END PAD These pads will stop faster and last longer with almost zero brake dust and are EBC's premium offering for heavy 4x4s. These pads are GUARANTEED noise free.

The features and benefits of this new SUV Supreme Range include.

Chamfered and slotted.

Factory shimmed with triple layer Wolverine shims.

Coated with friction accelerator for fast bed-in.

EBC Red Stuff

Our semi metallic high performance road material made a flying start in saloon car racing, having clinched the Slick 50 Saloon Car Championship with the Honda of Ian Mitchell in 1997, with extensive use by many race teams going into 1999 on the Porsche 924 Championship cars and on European Citroen Saxo and BMW class racing. Now only recommended for road use in cars with 200BHP+.

Nominal friction coefficient 0.5 with approx. 50% dust reduction compared to other pads.

Since this material was introduced in late 2003, it has received many positive write ups from performance drivers of faster cars. This is a truly impressive fast road pad for repeated heavy braking. It emits far less dust than semi-metallic pads and has been proven to stop a saloon car 13 metres quicker than OEM pads from 100mph/160kph. Features EBC Brake-In™ surface coating which conditions rotor surface and accelerates pad bed-in.

EBC Yellow Stuff

“Yellowstuff” is the name for EBC’s latest full race formulation which is currently in race use in Europe and was the choice of 1999/2000/2001 series winners Nick Reynolds and Martin Bell in the BMW Class, Westfield and S2000 Championships in 2002.

Yellow Stuff is now the official brake pad of the Subaru Challenge.

Although a full race material and capable of high temperature use with very good wear life, this new formulation sets a new trend in race type brake pad compounds. The “bite” from cold is superb which is uncommon with race materials (normally requiring warm-up) and makes this a pad which can be safely used on the highway as well as on the race track. This new formulation was used by numerous championship race and rally drivers in 2004 and is truly a milestone in brake pad material development. Nominal friction coefficient 0.6 with zero rotor damage

EBC Blue Stuff

Our endurance grade, longest lasting material "Bluestuff" has a slightly lower friction coefficient than its counterparts Green, Yellow and Red but delivers far longer life and is suitable for endurance races up to six hours in duration on most types of saloon cars. It is obviously the drivers responsibility to evaluate the lifetime before undertaking any types of race use.

Endurance Grade - Closed circuit race only - Longer lifetime - Effective to over 800°C

EBC Bluestuff is the longest lasting of the EBC brake pad materials family and is designed for heavier and faster sedans/passenger cars/muscle cars in track use.

EBC Brakes has had great success using this material in longer races with the Australian touring car champion Peter Brock and in the UK on the Vauxhall Monaro driven by Matt Griffin and Phil Andrews, and in France on the Porsche 911 series.

Bluestuff has a nominal friction coefficient of 0.55, good temperature stability up to 1000°F and higher, with significant lifetime making it capable of withstanding 3-5 hour duration races.

So then I've now decided to go for the Green Stuff pads for mine, but as you can see there are 3 types the series 2000, series 6000 and series 7000 which are specially made for 4x4 SUV vehicles.

I asked the chap at the shop if because I had the RX300 whether I ought to go for the 7000 series, but he told me that the 6000 would be totally adequate and I'd be wasting the extra money on the 7000's.

The problem I do have though is that there is a choice of two types of pad for the rears. the type that is retained by a pin at the top (DP61397) or the type of pad that is retained by the left and right "ears" (DP6628) The front pads are no problem as there's only one type (DP61634)

I'm thinking that the type I need are the ones with the "ears".

Cheers Nev ;)

The wife did this a few months ago in the Omega diesel, luckily she realised her mistake before starting the car, unknown to most people you can drive with petrol in the diesel tank and most mechanics say its around the 17% - 20% mark, so what I did was to syphon all the fuel out and filled up the tank with diesel, started and ran no problem, something that the garages wanted to charge me about 400 quid for. A daft question I know but have you tried emptying the fuel tank, banging a couple of gallons of diesel back into it, you'll need to bleed the system before you try and start it. I doubt you could cause any more damage than you have done, and you never know it just may work, after all my mates running his diesel at the minute on ex cip shop cooking oil.

Our Lexus garage doesn't have enough courtesy cars but as long as you are happy to wait a couple of extra days you will always get one. No problem if it's a service etc, but in an emergency you have to go with what hey have.

When I blew up our first GS300 sport ( ) Lexus were so good. We hadn't bought from the dealer but my dad had bought from them before. They let us have a Yaris at 1 hour's notice for close to a month while we tried to get our car sorted all to no avail. We ended up buying an IS200 from them in the end so it worked out well for them but they were brilliant.

Wouldn't call myself a snob but I wouldn't accept a Yaris under normal circumstances ;)

I'm guessing you used Lexus Exeter Bonita?

The wife dropped the car off at Exter Lexus last Friday for it's 40k service, like you say they don't have that many courtesy cars, but listen to this, she was given the return bus fare to go into Exeter while she waited the 3 hours for the car to be serviced, I must say I've never heard of that happening before.

I have Red stuff on my BMW and they are very good once up to temperature, but I wouldn't buy them again due to the time it takes, especially in the winter. They are half-worn now and performance is noticable worse then it was before. They are noisy too, but it might be the grooved and dimpled discs I have.

When I got the Aristo it had EBC Green Stuff pads - they were okay but still nothing special. Personally I would just look at getting some decent pads from Toyota, Mintex or Delphi. They will be fine for most normal use and cost about the same or less.

Thanks for your reply Anees

Interesting what you say about the Red Stuff pads mind, considering this is what the seller reckons.

"THE RED STUFF brake pads, ALTHOUGH A FULL RACE MATERIAL CAPABLE OF HIGH TEMPERATURE USE WITH VERY GOOD WEAR LIFE, THIS NEW FORMULATION SETS A NEW TREND IN RACE TYPE PAD COMPOUND.

THE BITE FROM COLD IS SUPERB WHICH UNCOMMON WITH OTHER RACE TYPE MATERIALS WHICH NORMALLY REQUIRE WARM UP.

THEY PROPERLY GRIP THE BRAKES AND LAST A LOT LONGER!!!! THEY DONT EVEN NEED TO BE BEDDED IN BECAUSE THEY WORK AS SOON AS THEY ARE FITTED,SO YOU CAN SLAM YOUR BRAKES WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT THEM BEING JUST NEW!!!!!"

By the way I've been told to avoid Mintex stuff by a chap at Kwik-Fit as he reckons they're total crap.

I'd like to hear from other RX members in here so I can get a better idea of which pads to go for.

Cheers Nev

Been a member of this site for quite a while now, thought I'd post it up for any members who might be interested in joining up.

www.f1competition.com

Nev ;)

Just had the car in for a service today, and it was noted that the brake pads, front and rear have worn down a fair bit and will soon need replacing.

I've been looking at buying the EBC Green Stuff pads, also saw Red Stuff pads too. I want to try and upgrade from the OEM pads if I can, and was wondering if anyone in here had had any experience in using Green Stuff, I've also seen on eBay on their American sites, ceramic pads. any views on these also?

Cheers in advance Nev

Hi Anees - hows your 330d Sport? ;)

I did consider the Verdstein (sp?) - but my thoughts are like those for the Kumhos TBH...

However, I am always a little wary of US reports on tyres because the compounds tend to be different to those sold here in the UK/EU. I would consider them for say my PUG, but not the SUV. I am a firm believer however of paying for consumables like tyres and brakes (IE: not skimping) as these are safety critical items. if in doubt, I'd stick with branded/OE.

I really do appreciate people's contributions as I hope others in the future will find this thread useful.

I am curious to learn how people find the road noise and [wet] handling in the Pirellis and Dunlops? I know they should have a softer compound and therefore be prone to wearing out quicker, but thats the trade-off you make for grip vs. wear.

There ya go mate, this site might help in your quest it is an American site though, so ratings could be different to the ours in the U.K. http://www.1010tires.com/tirereviews/Pirel...re_reviews.html

Hope it helps Nev ;)

P.S that little yellow fellas got to ya hasn't he lol

I am getting really hacked off with consant battery failure. Tried to start the car this morning after 24 hour not used following a long motorway trip - battery completly flat and would not even work the central locking.

My dealer was not interested last time I approached them but am going to try again. Has anyone tried persuing 'fit for purpose' claim is there is clrearly a design fault? Has anyone approached watchdog or something similar - trading standards?

Thanks

Steve,

Whilst trolling on another site I noticed this, http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/Store/P...x?ProductId=104

Looks like what your looking for, hope it helps Nev ;)

Hi

to all the lex heads!

I would like to ask if anybody in the forums can advise of the best polishes you can use on your Lexus. I don't mind the cost :shutit: as long as my car comes out shining, I have used a variety of different chemicals but nothing gives me a shine that I long for! A really deep shine, that lasts for absolutely ages

I have come to the conclusion that the best product is auto glyms super resin polish,Please quote me if you think i am incorrect....

My car is a IS200 sport v reg the dark Grey type...

With all the Lexus know how in hear, I'm sure we shall get the required info

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Manny,

My preferences on car wax/polish at the minute are for the Bilt-Hamber Auto Balm,after first washing the car with Bilt-Hamber Auto Wash, it's easy to apply easy to buff up and polish, leaves a deep long term shine.

The only thing to make sure that you do is to make sure the applicater you use is kept moist whilst applying it, I usually spray some Meguiars Quik Detail onto the applicator, which in my opinion adds to the finish. Chemical Guys Wet Look Mirror Finish, has been getting some good reviews recently, and I'm looking at adding that to my growing collection, as a sealant/glaze.

Have a look in some of the detailing forums such as cleanyourcar.co.uk, detailingworld.co.uk, ultimatefinish.co.uk and read some of the reviews in there, not that it will make your choice any easier, as it will introduce you to even more different types of detailing stuff that's out there, plus the lads in here will no doubt let you know of their choices too. But at the end of the day it's what you find you're happy with that's important, here's hoping you don't fork out too much dosh before you find it.

Cheers Nev ;)