J Henderson

Time for another update...

2022

As mentioned a few posts earlier. Just after this odometer milestone was reached, my 2nd set of OEM front brake discs failed prematurely, resulting in an MOT failure and tarnishing my car's previously clean test history.

I was actually dubious about the car failing, as the brakes didn't seem too bad to me, so got it tested again somewhere else, and what do you know, it passed.

Still, I could tell the brakes weren't quite 100%, so I sought out some replacements.

At this point I was done with buying OEM Lexus discs, so I was looking for a quality alternative and decided upon a set of slotted discs from EBC, and paired them up with a set of their Yellowstuff pads.

Apparently these are the pads favoured by the Police in their pursuit vehicles. They're overkill for the majority of the driving that I do, but there's no real downside as they perform perfectly well when cold, and its good to know that they're up to the job, should I feel like a spirited drive.

2023

At the same time the brakes were fitted, the car recieved a service and I also had to replace the driver's side front wheel bearing as it had been grumbling for a couple of months. This meant I've now had to replace both front bearings since the passenger side one had previously given out in 2021.

Still, as far as unexpected costs go, that's not bad during 7+ years of ownership.

Next up was a wee visual mod when I jumped on the bandwagon and bought a set of those fancy door lights that everybody else has.

Gotta love the Engrish description on the box.

I had resisted the temptation to get these up until now. Anytime I had seen pictures of them on other people's cars, there was something that kinda put me off.

But I guess the technology has improved since they first appeared on the scene, as the ones I got produce a lovely sharp and clearly defined logo. Could easily pass as OEM.

Throughout the year I had noticed that my exhaust had sprung a leak and was gradually getting louder with each passing week.

And with an MOT coming up in October, I was going to have to do something about it. An OEM replacement costs literally thousands of pounds, so that was off the table. An aftermarket one was a possibility, but would probably have to be imported and I was concerned that it would take too long to arrive.

So, I kicked the can down the road by having the exhaust welded at a local tyre & exhaust centre.

Not the cleanest looking repair but it did what was needed to earn an MOT pass, and tide me over until a long-term solution can be found.

Into December, and this is when I made the annual switch to my Winter wheel & tyre package.

I convinced myself that, come springtime, when these would be coming back off, they'd be getting replaced by something new & shiny.

For a long time, like 3 or 4 years at least, I had been searching for a set of the 19" F-Sport wheels that the 2016+ facelift GS came with. I felt that these would've looked really good on my car, and would've fitted with the whole "OEM Plus" theme. Alas, it was to no avail. I did see the odd single wheel come up for sale now and again, but never a complete set.

I guess those cars are just too scarce in the first place, and the likelihood of an owner wishing to swap the wheels for something else, even more unlikely.

So, I would have to take a dip into the aftermarket world for my next set of wheels. And with a Black Friday discount code available, I took advantage and committed to placing an order for a set of WORK wheels.

2024

They were made to order and had to be shipped from Japan, but the whole process from start to finish, was only around 8 weeks and they arrived at my door in late January. Shout out to Driftworks for the great service.👍

As well as the wheels, I also picked up a set of wheel nuts, centre caps, valves & valve caps.

And these are the wheels in question. Work Emotion ZR10 in "Glim Black" with polished lip.

I considered going "square" as I believe these 9.5" wheels could also fit on the front no problem, but that would probably involve running a stretched tyre, and I'm not really a fan of that look. So, I kept the staggered setup with a more conservative 8.5" front wheel.

19" wheels were also a consideration, but I think I prefer the smaller wheel, chunkier tyre look. Reaffirming this, I've upsized the tyres to 235/40 & 255/40.

Getting decent rubber in these sizes was somewhat limited, with the rear 255/40R18 fitment usually being the bottleneck. Michelin is my usual go-to choice and the latest Pilot Sport 5 was available, but I fancied trying out a different brand for a change.

I also liked the idea of my new JDM wheels wearing a Japanese tyre brand. But, with the offerings from Yokohama and Bridgestone being a bit uninspiring, I opted for the recently released Proxes Sport 2 from Toyo.

They have the all-important "A" rating for wet grip, and a local independent tyre shop hooked me up with them for a very reasonable price. Once I got the wheels back home I wiped them down and gave them a coat of Gtechniq C5.

This was my first experience of using a ceramic product of this type, but it appears to have gone well despite the coating being applied in fairly lukewarm weather.

I love how the colour of the spokes can flip between looking silver or black, depending on the viewing angle.

Before I put the new wheels on the car, I flushed out all the crud and crap that had built up in the wheel arches during the winter.

Here's a few pics of how they look on the car.

I'm delighted with how they look and the fitment is very nice. The stance should look even better in a couple of weeks when some of the wheel arch gap is eliminated... 😉

Watched the new 4K UHD version of ALIENS last night.

You can buy a product, like This One from HKS that will disable the speed limiter.

The centre bore can be larger than 60.1mm, but not smaller.

Most aftermarket wheels have a bore size of 73.1mm. In this case, you can fit a set of hubcentric spigot rings to reduce the bore size down to the required 60.1mm.

Also be aware you'll probably need new wheel nuts too, as the standard (flat seat) Lexus nuts are no good with aftermarket wheels.

As for sizes, 8" wide with an ET around +40 is a pretty nice and safe fitment. I personally had this setup on my IS200 thanks to IS250 wheels and 5mm spacers, and was pleased with how it looked.

1 hour ago, Kalpesh said:

I was hearing a mild rub/knock like sound on reversing out of the uphill drive/sometime on full lock when its cold outside, it last milliseconds.

Sounds like the tyres hopping/skipping. Quite normal and nothing to worry about.

With lots of steering lock applied, the front wheels on these cars are in a positively cambered state, and effectively only using the outside edge of the tyre. Almost like the car is tiptoeing.

Cold tyres are typically not yet pliable enough to cope and tend to hop & skip when performing a full-lock manoeuvre.

This is more likely to happen with "sporty" tyres which have square-ish tread blocks on the edge. I think having larger wheels also exacerbates the issue as I suffered this a lot when I had 19" wheels.

Does a screen replacement also not require something else - such as the plastic trims either side of the glass, or some clips or whatever to be replaced too?

I'm sure I've read on here about people having issues when a windscreen was replaced and the old stuff was re-used?

In any event, John. Check your insurance policy details. You might be able to insist on a Lexus windscreen being fitted. I know my policy has a separate excess payment for a "non approved" glass replacement.

4 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Wow- that looks horrible! I had my disassembled my mirror in the past and I can't remember it looking that bad.

Full disclosure - not my mirror! The picture is off the Internet.

Who knows though, mine might actually look similar as I also suffer from this issue. Haven't had my mirrors apart since 2017 though to confirm.

I find the streaks clean up quite well by going over them with a clay mitt. Having a silver car, I can get away with doing just this without having to polish out any marring caused by the claying process. 

This is caused by corrosion on the aluminium parts inside the mirror.

Any water inside the mirror casing interacts with it and causes those milky deposits to develop.

Unless there's a product that could somehow "seal" the metal to prevent it from happening (maybe painting them with something?), I'm not aware of any possible fix outside of replacing the parts in question.

In the fusebox under the dashboard on the driver's side, there's a 15A one labelled CIG.

Make sure you put the AC into recirculation mode before trying to replace the old cabin filter.

Welcome. 

Certainly looks like Windsor Blue. The paint code 8U0 on your VIN plate in the passenger door shut will confirm.

6 hours ago, MartinH said:

Does this differ in any significant way — most importantly in the attachment points and the foglight mountings? It's certainly a possibility, though my insurer might consider this a modification, and prefer the car to be standard.

Very subtle changes, mainly to the upper and lower grille having a slightly more aggressive "V" shape. Shouldn't matter if you replace the complete bumper/grille package that McSchmoopy is offering.

Yeah, the two opposing surfaces (aluminium & steel) bond together pretty good over time.

I got a garage to replace mine. First one went in 2021, then the other side lasted until 2023.

HKS Super Sound Master looks pretty distinctive.

Limiting the top speed to protect the MGU seems plausible, but Lexus doesn't appear to do this with "bigger" cars like the GS450h or LC500h. They'll do 155mph if required.

On a related subject, I caught the tail end of an old Top Gear episode the other day, where Clarkson was driving the then-new Nissan GT-R, in Japan.

That car was also limited to 180km/h like everything else, but interestingly, the limit was removed when the car knew (via it's navigation system) that it was on the Fuji Speedway racetrack.

I fitted tyres for a while when I was a lad and plug repairs are perfectly fine.

I would actually prefer this repair method over a normal patch since the stem of the plug also fills out the entry wound. Meaning there's less chance of the steel belts inside the carcass getting corroded from water ingress.

Same price as last year, no?

I renewed mine in August last year for £365, and according to what I've read, the price on April 1st, will also be £365.

I agree though. The money should be spent on the roads.

Mental how JLR themselves didn't even want to insure one of their own cars. 🤣

The fuel pump, or parts of it are more likely to corrode or fail due to the higher ethanol content.

Have a read through This Thread for the specifics.

Just press NAVI button, then Suspend Guidance. The 2nd option.

Just renewed mine a few days ago. Price had gone up by 14% to £279, which didn't seem too bad compared to some of the shocking quotes I've seen mentioned on this forum recently.

4 hours ago, Linas.P said:

You may as well buy the parts at 30% of the cost from US or UAE and bring them to your independent?

Good advice, but before ordering anything, you'll have to make sure you have an independent garage that is willing to fit customer-supplied parts. Many will refuse to do so.

Welcome 🙂

Do you have 2 keys or just the one?

I'm sure you're worrying over nothing, but you could maybe put the key in the centre console and just watch the person whilst they work. Should only take about an hour at most.

£410 to update the maps? Sheesh, I would put that on hold indefinitely. When I first got my car I was told it would be circa £200 and I was loathe to pay that much.

Better off using free apps like Google maps or Waze.

Sure, the fronts are definitely an upgrade.

4 piston monobloc AVICS calipers & 334mm discs vs single piston caliper/carrier setup (slide pins) & 296mm disc.

But the rear brakes are the same on IS250/IS350/GS300 - 310mm vented.

You mentioned sourcing GS calipers for the rear, hence why I said you already have those.

"GS brakes" on the rear would only be an upgrade on an early car with solid discs.

Edit: beaten by Colin 🙂

44 minutes ago, McShmoopy said:

I was wondering if I sourced GS MK3 brake callipers for the rear is it worth doing the front at the same time, and will I need a whole set of new pads and discs when I swap them over? 

The rear brakes on a GS are exactly the same as what you already have on a 2010 IS250, so that wouldn't be an upgrade.

As for needing new discs and pads. You might get away with cleaning the disc up, but new pads will probably be needed. Usually, when a caliper has been sticking, one of the pads gets heavily worn down compared to the other.