dougie175

Well today I did what any normal man does on his day off when he works 6 days a week usually, I went into work! But this time it was for modding purposes, the mod I have done today is possibly my favourite mod on any vehicle I have owned. It wont be for everyone this mod but that's the beauty of it, if you don't like it you turn it off if you do like it you turn it on! I fitted a QTP slimline exhaust valve, basically what this does is make a great big hole in your rear section of the exhaust system and makes as much or as little noise as you want...... like I said not for everyone. After several hours of work it was all welded in place with a nice tidy power feed and switch at the drivers fingertips, quick flick of the switch and the exhaust valve opens up and the last 2 rear silencers are bypassed, press the switch again and the exhaust flap closes and the system is completely stock, refined and no one would ever know. The inspiration behind this mod was that several times previously I have put fancy stainless systems on cars, some very loud some very subtle but all of which I have eventually regretted because there's a large amount of time I just want to sit in absolute silence or even have the ability to use the power without making lots of noise. However there are also scenarios where I just want to enjoy my car and make lots of noise, this mod wont make my car any quicker but it does put a smile on my face when open the exhaust valve. All in all it is the best of both worlds for me. Freshly welded valve mount this picture probably does do justice to just how long it took to get these 2 pipes to butt up together so nicely, from the point of taking the mounting kit to actually having it welded in place was about 2 hours Valve mounted Wide Open Closed and silent again This is the switch to control the valve, it is the only this you can actually see about the entire system, all the wiring is hidden behind the dash from the feeds I have taken, the wiring then going through the floor via a grommet that is already there from factory, hidden underneath the car by all the plastic trims, over and around the back axel then to the valve, so other than this switch which I am looking to an alternative more factory looking version you really cant tell the system is in place Adjusting the valve, although the switch doesn't look quite factory, you don't actually see it when driving as it is hidden behind the steering wheel, I am looking at a more OEM solution though that looks as though Lexus installed it And the all important part how does it actually sound? Amazing it actually sounds better than I expected I really didn't know how it would sound and was worried I would have just wasted lots of time and money but it ha an excellent sound to it, also because the valve is adjustable you can actually adjust the volume and even the tone of the exhaust by opening or closing the valve, it isn't just a case of fully open or fully closed you can adjust it to where you want. There was a couple of lads in the workshop today 2 of which were shaking their heads as I was doing this mod going what are you doing, what is the point in that, but both of them admitted it sounds superb when it was done they were really shocked and how nice it sounds. By the time I was finished installing it they actually got it so was pleased the system didn't make me look a complete numpty..... I'm sure some of you will still think I am for this mod hehe I haven't managed to do any recording of the sound yet so you can all hear it but I will do in the next couple of weeks, I am also waiting for my sound creator intake to arrive from Lexus which compliment the exhaust system also I think as the exhaust has lots of volume low in the rev range and seems to go quitter at the top end, but then from 3.5k in intake volume really kicks in, so hopefully once the new intake volume is present I will have a sporty great sounding car, that can also be driven day to day silently

From what you describe and the fact it only happened since the dpf change for me the first point to look at would definitely be the exhaust touching on the body. This does create a repeatedly knocking noise as you describe and would make perfect sense. You need to get the car up on a lift and see if the exhaust is now slightly too close to the body somewhere its amazing how much the exhaust actually moves, especially towards the rear of the vehicle, I have seen exhaust be a good 15mm away from the body and still touch when turning sharp corners and such.

Great review style! Was a pleasure to watch good work

Is it a single knock or several knocks? My first thought especially being the rear would be exhaust touching the body (especially with the DPF being done!), often turning corners causes flex and makes an exhaust touch if its a bit too close. However if your mechanic has had the car in the air he would have noticed this I'm sure.

Great info that's, didn't realise mine was the 2nd phase on facelift! No idea why they decided to remove equipment, I have the Sat-nav but don't think I have the Mark Levinson system, still the audio is superb anyway

Honestly its not that hard, if you can follow instructions you will be fine. Yeah it comes as standard on lots of cars, I however doesn't come as standard on the facelift F-Sport as that is what my car is

Its as easy as it gets really mate you need one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231854630599?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT And this guy has made a very simple video on how to link into the power supply https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ9emEb6R6w

Looks very tidy and will work well. Bargain at that price I imagine if Lexus do a genuine one you can add at least 1 zero the those prices!

You get a complete guide with the module to be fair mate, its just a case of splicing into wires, if you can solder you will be fine with it. Only thing wrong with the guide is some of the colours used on the US/AU cars are different to the UK cars and I had to swap a few of the wires round but its not a problem if you have access to a multimeter Hardest part is pulling the door card off, the clips are so strong! Worth trying yourself though mate you cant really do a lot wrong, worse thing would be blow a fuse or mess up a bit of wiring but it would be easy enough for someone to just solder a wire back up and fix it for you, the people who sell the kit offer full skype support as well was quite impressed with the service to be honest! This is part of the guide you get with the module should give you a good idea if you can do it http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi_o9i_0tfLAhUCvBQKHYHABl0QFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.lexusforum.nl%2Ffiledata%2Ffetch%3Fid%3D133633&usg=AFQjCNEOVmznzGJ4B-pph2u5DR6hstmCrw

Yeah this is easy to overcome with this module, as there is no risk of anyone hitting my mirrors on my drive I just press unlock first and then lock within 3 seconds and it stops the mirrors folding in but still locks the car. If you have forgotten to do this and come to it in the morning and can see it is frozen, just do the reverse, press lock and unlock within 3 seconds and the car will unlock but leave the mirrors where they are without folding them out, once mirrors defrosted just press the button to unfold them, no issues with breaking anything then!

Thought I would also upload a quick video of my auto folding mirrors which I imported the po-40 module from a company in Australia, I know on some IS250's this option actually comes as standard however it doesn't seem to be many and isn't on the F-Sport for some reason. Due to the size of the mirrors the first week I had the car I found people kept knocking the mirrors when it was parked up and I thought its only a matter of time before someone forces them banging them and ruins them so found this module to fix the issue. Never have to worry about it again, works a treat

Another quick update, I actually installed this a couple of weeks ago however the new mini windscreen bracket only arrived today so didn't upload pictures until today. Picked up a Nextbase 402g on ebay brand new for a bargain on a wrongly listed item, so decided to install it, can highly recommend this until if you are thinking about getting a dash cam it does a superb job in any light and the image quality is superb. I have wired the Mini USB power supply straight from the power in the mirror and the control module is hidden up in the roof lining, this is really simple to do and saves have wires trailing all round the vehicle and using one of the 12v sockets. This picture shows the power cable coming through from the roof lining This is where the dashcam was siting with the original mounting, it sat a bit low for my liking and I found it slightly distracting when driving, you can however set it to go off, but I still wanted to get it out my way so I still had full visibility of the road So I bought one of these little bad boys from amazon, didn't realise it was coming from China, so 2 weeks later it turned up, fits perfect and makes the whole setup much much neater! Now when driving everything is hidden behind the rear view mirror and I full visibility of the road as if the dash cam wasn't even there, quietly sits recording everything without any need for me to touch it and does everything I wanted

Enterprise only charge us £10 a day for the insurance and the car! £15 a day for each courtesy car is robbery in my opinion. Don't get me wrong trade insurance isn't cheap but it isn't that expensive, we don't charge any customers anything for a courtesy car I have no idea how dealers get away with it, especially when they charge over £100 an hour! For example we are Toyota approved and Audi approved and charge customers £26 an hour, yes both dealership Audi and Toyota uo the road charge over £110 an hour!

Never fitted a none genuine sensor at work, but we have fitted several after market kits which I assume originate from China and have never had a come back with a fault so cant see too much issues. Providing it is compatible and the system recognises it correctly I cant see a problem, at £10 its worth a chance anyway, you can replace the faulty unit, easy to diagnose which sensors isn't working with your finger. Make sure the system works with the Chinese sensor then have it painted, got to be worth a £10 punt!

Yeah may be the case for others can only speak from a repair point of view, I think its awful for a dealership to charge for a "courtesy car" its not very courteous to then charge you for it!

This was pretty much what I did this evening to un-seize one of my rear calipers. Good bit of penetrating oil and slowly break the corrosion free and it will crack and open again, then lots of grease and it'll be right again

Yeah I have seen the BMW system, this is a better system in my opinion though, parts have been ordered to make this work anyway. Replicating the BMW system would take some fair doing! Toyota/Subaru have what appears to be the same setup on the GT86 and they pipe the sound pipe through the bulk head into the drivers feet, presume it is a lot louder as most of the sound will be lost getting through the bulk head on the Lexus system

You may find your own insurance policy transfers across to any vehicle provided to yourself free of charge by a garage. So you will actually be driving the vehicle on your own insurance with exactly the same terms as your own car i.e. if you have a £200 excess that would be the same for the courtesy car. That is how our insurance works anyway on courtesy vehicles, we have 32 of them and 95% of insurance companies work this way. The only reason this may not apply is that you are not making an insurance claim to get the courtesy vehicle, but it would definitely be worth giving your insurance company a call to clarify if you are covered on your own policy when given a courtesy vehicle from a dealership

So basically anything German and Fancy is a thief magnet!

Another quick update for anyone who may be interested in progress. Bought myself a wedding anniversary present today in the form of a new set of wheels! They have to be custom drilled for 5x114.3 but should be here in 2 weeks or so... cant wait! Also stuck some new rear brake pads in this evening and un-seized one of the sliders, so the rear brakes are now working beautifully again! The new electronic exhaust valve also arrived yesterday so will be looking at trying to get that in over the weekend, I need help with that though as my welding is nothing special, however once welded in I can soon sort the wiring and rest of the installation.

Top advice thanks, going for the 225/35 255/35 combo Just need to decide if Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 are worth £30 more than Hankook Ventus S1 EVO2 K117 now

Thanks mate really appreciate the feedback I'm thinking Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2's as they are very well priced for this sizes and rated at C for fuel A for wet grip and only 69db for road noise Any ideas what sort of shoulders the Goodyears have? What would be a better setup on the rear 225/35-19 or go for a 235/30-19? The 265's will be a massive jump up in price, but will it be a huge improvement I'm guessing not at only 10mm wider?

19x8.5 ET35 225/35-19 Front 19x9.5 ET35 255/35-19 Rear That seems to have minimal difference to the impact on the radius for the speedo and such, will these sizes be ok with no rubbing and safe to use?

Thank you very much confirmed my research! I'm really struggling to work out what size tyre I can fit though without rubbing. My setup will be: The alloys I am looking to run will be: 19x8.5 ET35 Front 19x9.5 ET35 Rear Will be looking at very slight drop on the suspension when the coilovers go in but far from low. What size tyres can I run safely without the need to do any arch work, ideally I would like to avoid too much stretch, but understand due to the difference in rim width and offset some may be required.

Thanks mate, you don't know what width the standard F-Sport 18" alloys are do you so I can work out what my original setup radius is?