is200 Newbie

A related question... If you have an accident and you call the police to resolve or take statements etc. The other driver cannot wait and does or does not leave contact information before driving off but has actually stopped after the accident to see if everyone's all right or to see what damage is done, would this be classed as leaving the scene of the accident?

I do this with a small steam cleaner twice a year when I am doing the caliper slide pins - also coat all the moving parts and rubbers with WD40

Cleaned today - pic below Also went to garage to check the pressures and they were way down - have used 35 front and 38 rear - does this sound right as its the same as the 17" ones I had? It matches whats shown on the inner door regarding the tyre pressures.

Yes ... I was told that they would usually cost around £1400 (alloys and tyres) I saw this set of alloys only when I checked what I bought was actually for 4 tyres as it seemed too good to be true - these alloys were listed just before the original auction finished

Spot on with what I have just bought

Just looked at the pictures posted to the forum and then look like the car is clean but it actually has a film of dirt on it (the wonders of photography !!)

OK So the details of the purchase: They were bought from Ebay – they were actually purchased from Inchcape Toyota/Lexus in Nottingham. I was told that the alloys were purchased in 2016 by the dealer to meet the requirements of the spend required for the dealers accessories for the annual budget. They were purchased by the dealer to sell via their showroom but did not sell. The result was that they were put up for auction a year later and hence my purchase. They were a part of a 3 set of wheels put up for auction – one was the spider wheels which I purchased, one was a set of Hoshi wheels which sold for £450ish and another for a set of Toyota Hi Ace wheels. I picked them up today and they are spotless – a genuine bargain from Ebay (for once) – Alloys and Wheels. All I need to complete them is some wheel centres which I have on order. I fitted them to the car today to get an idea of what they look like - put the car to shame as it needs a wash!! - mainly because of the distance I done today to collect them. Will get it washed tomorrow and post 'clean pics'. Below are some of the pics I took today. I intend to get the wheels treated, probably next weekend, when the compound is delivered but for now I will run them for a week. Will fit new brake pads next weekend so an ideal time to protect the alloys. Picture below is of the Ebay listing Below are the shiny wheels on the dirty car !! Well impressed with the wheels One question - 225 is on the front and 255 is one the rears ?

Same in the IS except its in a different location in the boot

You will have the obvious symptoms of oil in the coolant - eggy smell from coolant / creamy (mayonnaise type) on the oil cap and in and around the oil cap screw in the engine / oil stained and discoloured coolant Your exhaust tips will be more sooty that normal - place a bit of white A4 paper against the exhausts when the cars running (get some one to lightly rev it a bit) - if it leaves a dark stain on the paper then theres a good chance its burning oil, does not matter which one you do this against as they are fed from one exhaust pipe Breather pipes are a good sign also of a gunked up engine but can also indicate, especially in summer, when the oil cap is creamy that its has condensation in the engine. If it was burning oil I guess, then it would throw up a fault code from the down stream sensor on the exhaust as the car cannot correct the issue as this sensor would relate info to the pre-cat sensor telling it to adjust fuel/air mix and so get into a loop that it cant fix and throw a wobbler ...! - so, thinking about it I don't think it will be burning oil but good to rule out. Is the correct oil grade being used? I had an issue a while back with Castrol Edge. It was the correct grade and I had only bought it because it was on offer - I had always used Magnatec but swapped this one time to Edge and it did over the 6 months noticeably use oil as I needed to top it up a couple of times. I changed back to Magnatec and have used this since with no issue whatsoever.

Seems to relate to what I thought in a post above regarding the P0019 being the one throwing up the other codes - but looking at the page it does give you some steps to rule out certain components like the sensor etc - would be worth the time before going down the route of replacing parts... checking out the sensor first would be a good start.

The fact that you have mentioned the drop in oil levels may be an indication that this has been the issue - with some VW engines the belt tensioners are pressurised by the oil, lack of oil can loosen the tension on the belts and they can fail or look like they have stretched due to the 'failing' tensioner (unpressurised) and also if there's not enough oil getting around the engine - specifically to the cams, then these can strain to work as they should, again adding pressure to the tensioner and belt / chain. Not sure if the same principle applies to the Lexus engine. I don't think the chains would easily stretch as my thoughts are that they would throw more issues your way, rattling and noticeable rough engine running, they would more than likely break before stretching due to wear (but that would be excessive wear) - Pretty much agree with the garage that its the tensioner but if you get this replaced then the chain I would imagine would be checked at the same time? But you have an issue with where the oil is going - no leaks seems to suggest its being burnt if its not entering the coolant?

I would have expected to have seen a reduction in the MPG due to the ecu compensating for the "out of line" firing positions due to the cam/crank but not extra usage of oil as the engine will not compensate for this by burning the oil It sounds like you have a couple of issues on the go here - do you know the history of the car?

P0019 code seems to be the important one here - it looks like this one is controlling the outputs of the others I am not an expert in this and others correct me if I am wrong but the sensor will detect the position of the cam and therefore if its out it will throw up the other faults you are seeing - if the chain is stretched which the dealer has indicated then the codes will be the result of this. But like I say, its not been mentioned on this forum before that I am aware of so it could be an ancillary pulley that's failing?

While the wheels are new, would it be an idea to use this coating on the inner alloys?

Will post some pics weekend... Any issues in replacing 17" wheels with 18" ones ? Sensors / lights etc

I have been looking for a set of wheels for a while now as the ones on the car are bubbling on the inside causing slow punctures. I could have had them all cleaned but decided to get new. I have just bought a set of G Spider 18" alloys (Brand new alloys with brand new tyres) from a Lexus dealer for a total cost of £530 !!! I think Christmas has come early as I have seen the alloys on their own selling for £700 so well chuffed in buying them. Has anyone got these on their car - any pictures ??? My car is Cardaxon Slate 1G0 colour. Happy Days

90k is around the time that the air/fuel mix sensors will fail (usually around 70k to 80k) - buy an OBDII reader )£10 from ebay to give you an idea of the fault if the errors have not been read yet. If they have then what are the fault codes - surely the garage has checked this? Never heard of the chain stretching although I suppose it can happen but very very rare - certainly not been reported on the forum before by any member but theres a first time for everything I guess. It should not rattle on acceleration - it can rattle for a second or so on start up which is not a big deal, more annoying but can be resolved with regular oil changes and engine flushes. I would recommend getting the error codes read - buy an OBDII reader then post back what the codes are. If its your sensors then its relatively straight forward in replacing them.

After I took the stainless one off I made my own - used Rover back boxes and an IS200 centre box - along with pipe I bought - the car is back to being quiet again. Each boxes are twin outlets - the tips were found on the web. To be honest, if you like to get your hands dirty and can weld a bit then its not a hard job. Picture of mine below. I still need to do a diffuser or mould round the bumper exhaust outlets but just not got round to it yet. I put it together so I could replace each section so when it goes in the future I will change the whole lot or just the individual piece.

Sounds like they are shirking the cost of the repair ....

Is the battery getting warm/hot? There is a battery sensor attached to the side that I think may shut the system down if it thinks the battery is getting hot - or something along those lines.... anyway it wont cost anything to check and will rule out one scenario.

That's ridiculous - its not even two months overdue if you factor in that 12k is an annual mileage There's no service undertaken on the gearbox at service intervals so what's the basis of them thinking that the fault (or any fault) could be spotted at a service? As far as the box oil goes Lexus themselves state that is a sealed box - no need to change the oil - some will, some wont. I would consider another dealer to see what they say regarding the warranty work! SHAME ON LEXUS - especially as you have the warranty

Try this for a bumper protector http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-IS-250-IS-220-2006-Bumper-Protector-Lip-Guard-Cover/371846484338?fits=Car+Make%3ALexus|Model%3AIS|Cars+Year%3A2006|Cars+Type%3A250&hash=item5693c71172:g:-CMAAOSwnHZYhdIR

Also - check the coolant level Is there a "gurgling" sound in the cabin by the drivers foot well when the cars running. If so it could indicate the coolant is low and needs a top up.

I am sure in deleting the cats it will be an MOT failure. Removing the sensors will certainly throw up errors and give you issues with running the car as, if I am not mistaken, these down stream ones act to adjust the running of the car to ensure the gasses coming from the cats have been reduced to an acceptable level - this wont be possible if there's no cats and it wont run correctly. The existing sensors can be fitted to a stainless system with no issue - the issue I had with the stainless one I had fitted was the noise generated by it, especially in the cabin. The issue on mine was a very loud drone at 70mph. I had a cat back on mine (centre and boxes) after the centre box joint went. Got rid of it due to the noise it created. If you going down that road, make sure the garage keeps the old system until you are happy with the stainless one as it can always go back on until a quiet exhaust can be sourced. As mentioned above, look on ebay for good used one as in my opinion it may be the better option. It seems the OEM ones are made from a better steel than mild and do last a while (in most cases !!)

From a post I made in May - I had what I thought were issues with the torque convertor (turns out it was alloy wheel issues - inner corrosion, figure that one out !!) The issue presented was the exact description of a failing convertor and after a lot of digging on the web there was a good chance as the fault was not too severe (vibration) would be cured by an oil change. Bit the bullet and had it done by a local garage who I trusted and he said it was a relative easy job - I asked him to keep some oil back for comparison - he did not change it but he said he topped it up - drained a bottles worth of old (I think a litre) and filled back up with a litre of new. I had it done again a few months back and was planning to get it done again but the garage is closed down now. He drained through the box and filled through the cooling pipes I think? But to your answer - Yes it can be done but I would not attempt it myself but looking at the comparison, it needed it - car was on 101k and now on 105k