The Swede

ps, , don,t expect the sportX to be any use in the snow , , the 1st whiff & its sideways only , , got a set of 16,s on mine with winter tyres now after struggling to make it 50 yards in 30mm , , , , ,just need some snow to test it out

An IS on wintertyres works perfectly. I'm climbing a 1 in 5 gradient here in ice...

I'm looking to get a 2002-2004 GS300 or GS430 and I was wondering, if I buy one without the Navigator unit, is this simple to install afterwards?

Also, any clues on cost?

Cheers.

No clue. Why would you swap them? In the end, only thing you want to do is swap 2 5W bulbs every 110000 miles... which DOES prove to be a nightmare.

Anyway, hope it will be useful for others and save them the money of a mechanic.

the ones on the 2 generation IS produce a white light rather than yellow. but I won't be replacing them unless they go.

Well, I don't know if you noticed, but the UK numberplates are a tiny bit yellow too... And I am colourblind ! :D

Solution can be to use blue bulbs in your numberplate lamp. They'll give a white light.

That being said, you don't often see the rear of your own car when you drive around in the dark

Thanks for the write up :) very useful.

Do you thing the numberplate lights from the newer is would fit?

No clue. Why would you swap them? In the end, only thing you want to do is swap 2 5W bulbs every 110000 miles... which DOES prove to be a nightmare.

Anyway, hope it will be useful for others and save them the money of a mechanic.

Typical problem: the alloys will be flaking !

Otherwise, only needed a new Battery due to the low mileage we do. It does pretty funny things once the Battery is low (you get all kinds of warning lights lighting up).

Oh yes... make sure the numberplate lamps work ;)

It's well screwed together...

Replacing the numberplate lamps should be about the simplest of bulb replacements one can perform.

Driving without working lamps can result in a MOT failure.

Mine were gone and I set out to replace them. Just to notice that there is NO WORD about this in the car's manual and that it is a bl**dy nightmare job.

Might be that I used the long way and missed a trick, but at least, it will show that Lexus wants you to go to the dealership and spend money :megaangry:

Find below the "how to":

Step 1: Loosen the trim of the bootlid by prying the plastic pins loose with a screwdriver.

Step 2: Undo the four screws that keeps the strip in place that sits over the numberplate lamps.

Careful, you also need to undo the two middle ones that keep the lock in place.

Step 3: Now gently pry the strip loose. Bear in mind that it's still held in place by two more plastic pins which are pretty stubborn. Careful, the strip is pretty brittle !

You might not need to take this strip off, but you'll struggle to get the housing of the lamps out and you will need to be a smurf to get to the bulbs.

These are the annoying pins.

Now go and get a cup of tea... you're only half way.

Step 4: In normal circumstances you'd now assume you can take the transparent cover off the bulb, swap the bulb and fit everything back...

Sure, well our Japanese engineers seem to like SM.

First of all, the bulb is in a closed housing which is clipped onto the bootlid. It would be easy to unclip... if someone at Toyota had not had the brilliant idea to cover the housing at the inside with a metal cover / tunnel. WHY ?? God knows !! It's an absolutely useless !

So you have to slide your fingers into this metal "tunnel" and push the plastic clip so the lamp housing pops out.

Narrow ! Better ask you wife for help.

Step 5: Take the lamp holder out of the back of the housing, swap the bulb... and reassemble your Lexus with Japanese attention to detail !

Good luck !

Welcome !

Not interested in an IS300 saloon instead? Selling the wife's to get a GS ;)

Economy is actually really good with these engines. We use our mostly either on fairly short journeys or on mountainous roads and I tend to use its power well. Still, it does return an average of 26-27 mpg.

Thanks for the reply ! :)

No skihatch in the GS ??

As said in another topic, I'm looking to swap the IS300 we have for a GS300 just to get some extra room and comfort.

I'll probably look for a car of similar age and mileage (2002-2004 with 80-110K miles ).

What should I look for when sarching for one?

Some people warned me about the master cilinder, the rust around the windscreen,...

Other things?

Cheers,

Thought I'd give an update on the car.

Since we had it, only costs were normal service, a set of wiperblades, a bulb for the interior light and recently front discs and pads... Most uneventful 3 years of car ownership I've ever known

It's got 119000 miles now and looking to part with it soon and get a similar age GS.

Got to eat my words on the IS not being good on snow. Nowadays using it as our car to go skiing.

1/5 hill covered in compacted snow and ice, empty boot, TRC off :D

Made this video to demonstrate

This beast is really rare as hen's teeth :(

I live just between Nice and Monaco and there are "quite a few" exclusive cars in Monaco and in the villages around here, I've seen everything, even 3 Veyrons parked next to eachother... but still trying to spot my first LF-A on the open road.

My lady currently drives a 2001 IS300. Orginally we bought it as a car for her to do some local driving, but currently, we also equiped it with our wintertyres and use it for weekend skiing trips (we live just an hour away of Isola 2000 in the Alps).

In order to have some more space, I am considering swapping the car for a 2002-2004 GS300.

Reason: Cheap and I know the engine (reliable)

Two alternatives I consider though and I would like feedback / thoughs / warnings / experiences. Thanks !

1. A GS430 Mk2. The extra power isn't of interest (other toys in the house for that) and extra fuel consumption isn't an issue as we do few miles. Only reason I'd get one is if I find a really good and sound GS at a good price and it turns out to be a 430 rather than 300.

Fear: Reliability.

2. GS300 Mk3. Looks that, if I spend £7500 instead of £3500, I can get a Mk3 GS. Sounds more modern, worried about reliability vs Mk2 straight 6 though. And as I would have an early model, I assume I'll have the teething issues.

Thoughts?

Back from the dead :D

Moved abroad, changed jobs, etc so been fairly busy for the last year and since there is actually never anything going wrong with the Lexus... you're not always driven to come to talk about it ;)

Still living abroad, but starting to look at replacing the IS300 by a another Lexus, so time to start routing around again.

"I would say dont forget these cars were 40K+ when new so although they can been picked up for 15Kish, they still cost 40K car money to maintain. "

Disagree with the above......and I use Lexus for all my servicing, Tyres, etc. Compared to my Brothers Vectra (UGH!), I pay about a Third more for servicing, So it probably costs me another £300 a year......Lexus even did me a great deal on a new tyre last time £90 + vat............not alot more running cost's for driving a reasonble car........and 35mpg+ on a run.

Well, a Lexus V6 (or any other V6 family car) will never be disproportionally more expensive in maintenance than a 1800cc family car. Luck and dealer (mis)behaviour will affect it more.

It's only once you get into exotic machinery that you get hit badly.

I had a Merc S320 petrol before and servicing was not different to an E class or a C-class. Same goes with parts. I then got my S63 and when I swapped the front discs and pads there... I understood why they invited me to "sit down to go through the bill" : 2800,- GBP !!!

The explanation was "You got to understand, once it's got "AMG" on the part, Merc seems to trebble the prices".

I now understand why you can pick up an M5, AMG or other for such little money second hand and why so many seem completely neglected after few years. :(

If you still need these, I've got some rear IS300 shocks for sale cheap.

New or used?

Can I still get the stainless steal dials for an 2003 Sport from Jason?

The group buy is now closed I'm afraid, we will keep you posted as there will hopefully be another one soon

Who supplies these ? I assume they're also for sale outside a group buy.

Can you tell me how the rear lights noy differ from the standard ones?And where did you get the dials. Quite like themS.

The lights differ in that as standard, only the outer two lights work as sidelight and brakes (twin filament bulb) and the inner two are just foglights. But he has modified the foglights with a twin filament bulb, so as well as being foglights, they now come on with the sidelights, and also with the brakes.

And I would assume he got the dials from the forum, theres a thread in the group buy section for these. Although there isnt currently one running at the moment. Theres a few different styles available too.

Thanks.

I'll have a look.

Are the new dials hard to fit?

On water-displacement, the reason a winter tyre does not perform as well on normal dry (warm) tarmac is exactly at the basis of its qualities in the rain.

1. Winter tyres generally start life with 11mm of tread depth vs 7 or 8mm for a summer tyre. That means the rubber blocks on the surface "flex" more but also that there is about 3-4mm to evacuate more water. That might sound little, but it does represent 50% of volume.

2. The treads are generally also wider and the rubber blocks themselves are not "solid" but have small sipes. So in general, there is much less surface of rubber in contact with the road, but that means more space for water to be evacuated.

As the tyres wear, the 3 to 4mm difference becomes relatively bigger. Your average tyre on a car will be 4 to 5mm, your average winter tyre will be 8 or 9. That is at least twice the ability to evacuate water.

Hence why a car feels more stable with wintertyres when it's pooring down or you drive through standing water than when you use a summer tyre.

I actually have a Merc and a Lexus.

I can't compare the cars as they are of a totally different category (S63 vs IS300), but I can compare the service.

And in simple terms, the MB dealers in the UK are AN ABSOLUTE BUNCH OF USELESS PLONKERS. They are mechanically illiterate. The invoicing department DOES know its job however... They're nearly as bad as the Audi dealer network in the UK :tsktsk:

I hence have reverted since 12 years to taking my Mercs to a dealer in Belgium for maintenance (costs 1/3 and is done properly).

With Lexus, I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of the work and the clear communication on cost of the maintenance in the UK. Will be a breath of fresh air for you.

Hi Dave and a warm welcome to LOC, I think you will be surprised by the consumption of your GS, they are not juicy if driven well. The only issue I know of for this year is the ECU seems to fail with horror stories of £2K to replace, please check for re calls on steering rack and rear brakes having been completed but if not I think Lexus will still do them but the ECU was not a re call so beware.

Enjoy your new motor and forget those hard seats, peaky motor frequent problems and smelly re fueling stops.

Sure, a Lexus is not super thristy, but if driven sensibly, no 3.0 petrol is. My mother drives a W211 E280 and does about 28mpg while not hanging about either.

The question is whether it makes sense to buy such engine to then drive like a retired diesel driver.

The key difference a V6 3.0 will make is the effortless drive and comfort. I wouldn't worry about consumption.

My first reaction would be that some people really need to find something interesting to do in their life

Thanks for your advice.

But here (in Brussels) snow and ice on the road are also very temporary situations. I suppose (my IS250 will only be delivered next week ) it is just for those gentle and not so gentle slopes that I would really need them. On the flat snowy stretches in between I figure they would just come in handy.

Also, if you believe the publicity, they are very easy to put on/off. So you could use them only on snow/ice and take them off once you have the chance to find yourself on a cleared road.

Any idea how long these socks would do their job on really snowy/icy roads?

Hi,

First of all congratulations that you are moving away from the :tsktsk: "mazout-burner". That is one less on the infested Belgian roads.

Knowing Brussels very well, I wouldn't do socks (I'm Belgian too). The roads are just in too bad conditions and if you use them on snow, you will tear them straight away on one of the many tramrails or potholes.

Considering how wet Belgium is, I'd get a good set of winter tyres and you will not need any socks.