coneybiller

Oh and the side I struggled on, I ended up annihilating the lower slider dust boot, so there's not one on it at the mo. I've ordered a new 1 from Lexus so I shall have to dismantle it again to fit it. If anyone wants some more pictures of the whole assembly and dismantling procedure I shall take some then, probably next week. I faffed about so much that I didn't even get to fit the front pads! So that's going to be tonight's task!

Right, rear calliper issues. I'll just start by saying that if you are a complete novice and fancy a go at replacing your rear pads and discs and your calliper has been reported as "seized", STOP. It can get a little technical with plenty of profanities, large hammers, lots of tea drinking and finally when I plucked up the courage, a blow torch! I can actually see why Lexus replace the whole calliper as its not an easy/quick job!!! As you probably know I had bought some Mintex rear brake discs, (£60) EBC RedStuff Pads Front and Rear (£144). I checked for likeness and the Mintex discs are practically identical to standard so that was fine! pads were perfect fit. As you can probably see from the pics the discs are not marked as handed in any way what so ever! Now my pics start lacking a little as was on a tight schedule to get finished so missed the brake disassembly part out. Anyway, I removed the calliper top slider which is a 19mm bolt head which then slides out of the calliper altogether. This wasn't corroded at all and came out easily. Once this is out, the bottom slider (if in perfect lubed condition) should allow for the calliper to be folded over(pivoting on the bottom slider) away from the disc and then pushed backwards(towards the car), it will only be connected to the car via the flexi brake pipe which will allow you to move it out of the way on top of the hub/suspension assembly. You then need to spin the hub around to find the brake shoe winder (star shaped thing inside the hole on the disc front) You need to wind this (in whichever direction makes the brak disc/hub easier to spin) with a flat blade screw driver to release the brake shoes from the drum. The disc should then be removable (with a bit of prying and brute force and ignorance, ie. big hammer to the disc face but NOT the braking surface, just in case you need to put them back on) Disc and calliper removed it should look like this! Now, if like me your slider is seized, then you may struggle to remove the calliper! I can imagine in many cases where the rear discs and pads are replaced, that they don't actually remove the calliper from this lower pin, as you can remove the disc without taking it off completely. This is probably a reason why they get so corroded in the first place as they are not being removed and lubricated properly. In the picture you can see the lower slider is where the calliper sits, it becomes heavily corroded thus stopping you from removing the calliper. This side in the picture came off with a bit of a tap or two with a hammer, the other side I spent over an hour faffing about with a hammer and WD40 to no avail. If you can imagine the calliper sitting there folded over to the side, I had to then get a blow torch and try not to melt the brake pipe, rubber boots and piston seals. (not as hard as it sounds) I then gave it a few whacks with a hammer and it came off! Like I said took me over an hour to pluck up the courage hehe! You can also see a blob of copper grease which as Steve2006 said, has dried out which hasn't helped the issue! I took some emery cloth and a wire brush and thoroughly cleaned up the slider and then applied a good smattering of Fuchs EP grease (molydisulphide) to the slider and also the hole in the calliper where it slides into. I then put it all back together with new discs, squeezed the piston back with a pair of pipe grips (on the old pads) and replaced the old pads with nice shiny redstuffs, made sure it slides back and forth nice and freely and that's it! Not too bad to do, but if you do get into trouble you'll be stuffed, as you wont be able to move the car with the brakes in bits :eerrrmm: I hope this helps anyone with this common issue in some way or form. Cheers Ben

A hive of information from matt-c there! Nice 1 I presume the GS will be the same as the RX and use the dry gel pad, as mine wasn't swapped over and had to buy a new 1 from the stealers uh I mean dealers!

Mintex Rear Discs and RedStuff pads front and rear arrived today, shall either fit them tonight at work or tomorrow night depending on work load! Shall let you know how I get on! Cheers Ben

Not got an android phone myself but have the Lexus iPod integration and it works pretty well, I keep my iPod in the car and change the tracks occasionally when I get bored of them! my disc changer is redundant hehe! Don't know about the luggage option, I just use standard sports bag types when me and the Mrs go away, we went to Portugal recently and had to put the large suitcases on the back seat which was a pain but not a big problem for me really! Service wise they arent the cheapest but the dealers seem to fall over themselves to help you out! 60k/120k service isnt cheap £600+ if I remember correctly! They offered me a 5year+ service at my interim oil/filter change which was cheaper at £160 inc VAT, they offer this on vehicles that are 5years or older! Enjoy

Just ordered new pads and discs for the rear of my GS, should arrive wednesday with a bit of luck! Will keep you posted regarding the sliders and perhaps take some pics if I remember!

Cheers for a reply, hasn't anyone use after market brake pads before?!? Anyway I've opted for EBC RedStuff pads front and rear, quite expensive but hopefully worth it, £76 front and £68 rear!

A windscreen was replaced on my 450h before I bought it and the windscreen fitters never swapped over the rain sensor film or pad whichever it is and my wipers didnt work very well! I don't know if its a part that is swapped over or if its a single use item and that you need to have a new 1 fitted to the new screen once in. If I remember correctly it's not an expensive item circa £12ish but don't quote me on it. It may be swappable anyway! Just ask the windscreen fitters! :) Oh and I would of thought that the screen will be pretty specific to your vehicle so you would need to ask your lexus dealer really regarding heat reflective ect. they will be able to see any specific codes that are fitted to you car!

Hmm I may well of done, I can't really remember, I was probably the same and decided to be tight an not heed the warning!

I believe they have a dust boot on but until I've looked personally I can't confirm this. Even though they have a dust boot it probably means water can still get in and cause corrosion, seems to be a common problem across the GS range!

Hi all, Time to replace my rear pads and discs on my '06 450h, I shall be replacing them myself but wondered if anyone had any recommendations they would put forward if they've tried different pads from OEM? I replaced the front pads and had the discs skimmed to pass the MOT a few months ago. The only downside is that I went to Eurocarparts to get my pads as apart from lexus, they were the only place to have them on their shelves. They were allot cheaper and were made by Pagid which is a reputable brand, BUT the bite on the pads is horrible, they are nowhere near as bitey as the OEM pads and just seem that you need to apply more force on the pedal to stop as hard. I'm going to replace these at the same time so ideally I'd like the same pads all round! P.S I've ordered some brembo pads front and rear but been told there is a 2 week wait as brembo have a backlog or something which seems excessive and I'd rather replace ASAP but heyho! So if anyone has a good alternative or experiences with other pads then let me know :D Cheers Ben

I really Struggle to get more than 30 out of mine usually around 27ish I work in reading and live in cheltenham, so when I decide to drive (instead of train journey when weathers cold/bad) its a 75mile trip each way, could be the hills perhaps, but I always expected a little more? When I fill the tank the readout claims 337miles to next re-fill. What do you get?

My 4s works fine so would imagine the 5 would work, only downside to the iphones is that it wont allow you to export your phone book to the car, or so I'm lead to believe. You have to enter the names and addresses in manually! Unless someone knows how to do it and I'm still in the dark ages lol!?!?

Really? I had tyres fitted recently and 1 of the fitters drove the car back out of the garage round the block and into the car park yet 1 of the other fitters had the key on him and it was fine! It says "key is not detected" as soon as you leave the car or have the key too far away from the actual start/stop button but doesnt cut out that I'm aware of anyway! Fun and games when your key battery dies, ie, xmas day with presents to put in the boot and relatives that are freezing waiting for me to open up the car. Alarm blaring and lights flashing and all the neighbours looking out of their windows as I had to use the key blade to open the door, then spend 5mins+ reading the manual working out how to start the car without the remote (hold the remote up to the button until light goes green then push it)! I was not impressed, especially when nowhere was open to buy a new battery! :tsktsk:

Yea perhaps coppper grease isnt the way forward and EP grease would do a better job! Good thinking! As said I'lll keep you posted... I'm having a bit of a faff trying to get hold of my pads at the mo, as apparently brembo are low on stock of GS450h brake pads, front and rear and will be around a 2 week wait! =/

I was told the same thing on my '06 GS450h, but as I'll replace them myself they said that I would probably just get away with sanding down the sliders with emery cloth and adding copper grease to keep them lubricated (which I will do soon as the rear discs and pads require replacement!). I'm hoping its as simple as this anyway! I shall keep you posted on my progress (if I can get my pads and discs sometime soon anyway as not in stock )

Hi all, Just having a quick browse on the tinterweb and stumbled upon a website called Amayama Trading Co. Now I've never heard of this company and am a little intrigued! I'm after a N/S/F Headlight level sensor for my 06 GS450h (after Lexus wrongly diagnosed it and I found the fault myself... Long story). Anyway, this company appears to be based in Japan and ships the parts directly from manufacturer! I entered the part number for the sensor and it came up with a price from Japan @ £268.69 + shipping (same price I was quoted from Lexus UK). But then there's another price for the same part but from the UAE @ £95.27 + shipping, but a longer shipping delay! Now im a little sceptical as to how the price difference can be so dramatic?!? Is this due to tax of the different countries, or something else all together? It clearly states on their website that all parts are OEM equipment from manufacturer so I'm a little stumped! Does anyone have any dealings with Amayama Trading Co. and are they a genuine company? They take paypal so theoretically I should be protected? Any thoughts or opinions would be much appreciated!! Cheers Ben P.S heres the link to their website HERE and a code to the offending sensor I require from their website HERE

Not to put a poo bar on what you just said there wendle, but I recently went to London and through the congestion charge zone, I thought I would look it up just in case when I got home and to my horror I found that our beloved 450h's are no longer on the list! Electric cars and cars with 0 emissions only ie. CT200h or the Nissan leaf! 10 English pounds to you and me I'm afraid Cheers Ben

I've found that if your struggling to use battery only power, you need to accelerate (as wendle says) up to say 30mph, then let off the accelerator and then back on after a sec or two! When you go back on the accelerator try to keep it on or under 2 dashes on the Kwh gauge (2 small marks above the 0 mark) This allows you to keep the engine from running and keeps it running on battery power (stealth mode as its been affectionately called hehe) =) Seems like absolutely nothing and quite difficult to master at first, and also makes you feel like a grandad/snail when doing this, but your emissions and fuel free so not so bad! I find it gives an extra challenge to driving which I personally like! Best I've ever seen out of my 450h is 34.6mpg tank average and that was on a motorway speed journey, on cruise control, 200 miles to Newquay! Pitiful I thought, But then you have to consider it is a 3.5 litre 280+ BHP engine, what do you expect? Better than a similar powered V8 engine could put out I'm sure! Anyway, I hope that despite your gripes that you are happy with your car! I still love mine a year into ownership Cheers Ben

Thanks for taking the wind from my sails grizzly man Unfortunately your right, just had a double check of my clusters and they look crap in comparison!! May still take a look and see if there is a bulb holder in the light anyway and if there is, to get a bulb and try it! As they say, 2 chances! :P

Hmm I may have to have a look into this and see if its something that can be done, I mean surely if the bulb holder is there, then it theoretically should be live and be able to use it! Obviously to save money the wiring looms on certain parts of the cars are all the same just some multi plugs are taped up for certain markets or for vehicles with/without certain parts. I wonder why lexus decided against using the extra lighting in the UK/Europe???

I've just had a browse on the web and found that in the US the MK3 GS series has both inner and outer clusters used for tail lights, where as on my 450h its only the outer's that have the tail lights and inners used for fog lights! I saw another 450h the other day and that was the same as mine! Now I've just checked the EPC for the inner cluster, and the wiring loom appears to have 2 bulb connectors with bulbs listed for the UK version, and only 1 connector and 1 bulb listed for US version (as they don't need fog lights). Now the bulb on the US version is the same part number and wattage/voltage as the 1 listed on the UK version and the the other is different so clearly the fog light bulb. So what I want to know is, why don't we use both clusters for sidelights? It looks miles better with both illuminated and if we do have the bulb holder do you think it would be possible to get it to work???

When I first bought my 450h it had a sidelight bulb out, but I had no warning on the dash! A friend of mine gave me a pair of "max power" ( :yack: ) LED's that he had kicking around, they work fine with no warnings and they aren't can-bus friendly bulbs! Kind of wondering if my 2006 GS450h even has a bulb warning system fitted! But hey ho

Well you can get them on eBay for £20 but im not 100% sure on the bulb fitment type! I believe they are "D2R" fitments but as said I'm not £100 sure and wouldn't want to waste money on them if it's wrong! But yea, I don't think they ripped me off as such as they do tend to look after me in there, but I'm still a little taken back by such a price for a bulb! When I used to work at Mercedes they seemed to be around the £130 mark + VAT + Fitting but it was quite rare that they ever blew! I kind of had my fingers crossed on the control unit (igniter) myself but unfortunately that wasn't the case! I just hope the other 1 doesnt blow, but if it does then I think ebay shall come to the rescue! What sort of bulbs did you buy? D2R? Cheers Ben

Hi all, I had my car MOT'd last Friday and to my surprise it failed! It failed on rear handbrake adjustment (which was my mates fault for not re-adjusting it after fitting my wheel bearing) and the offside headlight bulb. Now Lexus told me that it could possibly be the igniter pack that lights the bulb or it could be the bulb, If it was the igniter it would be covered under my warranty. So I said yea that's fine and they went ahead and ordered both bulb and igniter. Phoned me up the next day and said unfortunately it wasnt the igniter so we replaced the bulb! which i thought "great" thats gonna cost me! Then he dropped the bomb shell....... £174.64 + VAT For the bulb!!!!!!! He did ease the strain a little by not charging me any labour whatsoever for fitting and handbrake adjustment, but I couldn't believe it! £260 for an MOT and a bulb! I think Lexus need to take a serious look at pricing of these bulbs! That's frankly an absolutely hideous price to pay for a simple bulb! Lets just say I walked out of the dealership with my wallet in tatters, shock on my face and a walk similar to that of John Wayne! Ouch! Cheers Ben