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jeffreyt

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Everything posted by jeffreyt

  1. hmnnnnnn interesting,and worrying, thread. Both chrome end pieces held on with extra screws after I found they were loose.Luckily there is enough sound metal left to screw into. The whole of my exhaust is really scabby and showing its 12 years of age,but so far no holes have appeared. Been wondering about the cost of a new system so now I know.I was not planning on 700 quid though! Will probably go for the SS option
  2. here is the US club link us.lexusownersclub.com
  3. whoops,should have been a bit more specific.When I said 'ride'I meant the whole comfort/roadholding/cornering bag of tricks. I was recently following my son in law round a twisty stretch of road with not a good surface and was really struggling to keep up on the corners and being jolted around.He has a newish BMW 3 series diesel. Now I know these SC's are not sports cars but with that V8 under the bonnet I would expect to be able to keep up with a stock family saloon and be reasonably comfortable in the process. Thats the benchmark for me. I will look up the link for the US forum later today,just had a summons from the boss to sort out the hoover which apparently won't suck!
  4. I went onto the US forum to pick their brains and one of the posts back put me onto a site that lists all the Toyota/Lexus suspension parts and their part numbers for each year. When I get some spare time I will compare the part numbers for my 2001 model and say a 2010 model to see what is different. I have also found out that H&R Springs do a set of springs for the SC430 but I suspect they will lower the car a tad which I am not necessarily looking for but if it improved the ride and is not too drastic it could be acceptable. Anyway,I am going to get my new wheels and non RF tyres on after Christmas,see what difference that makes and then get the car up on a ramp and have a real good look at the state of all the suspension bits and how worn it all is. Will post up how the new wheels perform and what I find when its up on the ramp.
  5. Food for thought here,thanks to all. I forgot to ask the other part of the question:is it normal to put in a new water pump with the cambelt change,this seems to vary from engine to engine. Thanks
  6. welcome Rich,looks like a minter.Love the wheels
  7. thanks John. Interesting to see your comments on tyres.I recently bought a spare set of wheels and am currently having them refurbed and standard ie non RF tyres fitted. I hope the difference is as dramatic as you say. I have always been interested in suspension tweaks but they have to work and not be too expensive. I am not that unhappy with the current set up but I do think it could be improved. Will wait for the new wheels to go on before I do any more on this.
  8. have an hour to kill and been reading some of the learned journalist's reviews on the SC. It seems there was a suspension upgrade on the later models ( around 2007 ?) to improve the overall handling. Can't seem to trackdown the details of this 'upgrade', anyone have any specific parts details and more importantly anyone know if it made a significant improvement ? Mine is now 12 years old and the suspension must be getting a bit tired so if anything needs replacing I will get the upgraded bits if it makes the ride better. Thanks
  9. I'm with you on the main dealer aspect.Haven't been near a main dealer since I retired 10 years ago and the cost of repairs/servicing had to come out of my hardearned pension rather than simply signing off on a worksheet for the company car and never seeing those horrendous dealer costs. I use a couple of independents that have experienced and trustworthy people AND their labour costs are still around £40 an hour ( ex VAT) which I think is acceptable. Have not come acrosss Lexus parts being expensive but TBH have not had that much done,most recent were front brake pads which didn't seem that much different in cost to the Volvo front pads. The exhaust is original and the back half looks to be getting very scabby so I think it is going to need doing in the next 2/3 years and will be interesting to see what that costs at the indie verses the main dealer. I think I have hijacked this thread,apologies chelle.
  10. chele, that's a real bummer. I am not in a position to question the integrity of this diagnosis but I would love to get your 'faulty' alternator on the bench and examine it to find out just why it failed. Hope it doesn't break the bank.
  11. got caught out exactly the same when I first got the SC,car stood for about 6 weeks ,just started it once a week but battery finally went totally flat and I mean FLAT. Luckily I keep a spare battery charged up in the garage and I put it in and the car was fine. As your battery is fairly new it should charge up again if the garage put it on a low charge for a couple of days. The chances of it being your alternator are close to zero. I am afraid you have found out the hard way this is the Achilles heel of these cars.If you leave them for more than a week the battery drain means you could have a non starter. I now disconnect the battery if the car stands for more than 3 days,its a pain in the .... but I don't have any more flat battery problems.
  12. took the car into Lexus dealer this morning and they have told me that it needs a new airbag activator so its booked in for that in a couple of weeks. I asked if the airbag was likely to go off accidentally and the chap said no just the opposite but when I pressed him for details he said he didn't have any technical details which I found rather strange.Anyway,I am pleased its being fixed. The mechanic also gave the car a quick checkover presumably to find problems they can tell me about/quote on. Surprise ,surprise 'your back brake pads are getting dangerously low sir, would you like us to renew them when you have the airbag activator done ' and your quote for that job would be : ' only £150 sir ! '. Now I have just had the car MOT'd and the front brake pads replaced and the verdict on the back pads was that they will probably need doing at the next MOT but not critical at present. And as for 150 quid for a set of pads and at most 1 hours work...................although it does explain why they can afford such oppulant showroom and offices. Perhaps I am just an old scrooge but can't help feeling that telling me my brake pads are 'dangerously low' was a bit naughty. .
  13. I second that.Thats the first red SC I've seen and it looks fabulous. Assuming your new tyres are not RF's just out of interest what are you doing about a spare wheel,or aren't you bothering ?
  14. not planning to sell the dinner plates at the moment but if I do I will put a post on here first
  15. went into Reading Lexus this morning ( the plushest carpets and decor I have ever seen in a motor dealer,most impressive ) and presented my recall letter. Processed very efficiently and booked in for an inspection. Its a 2 stage job,inital inspection which takes about 40 minutes and determines if you have a fault on the air bag activator ( I think thats what he said) if you don't end of story. If you do ( have a fault) then car gets booked in again to rectify. Will keep you all posted.
  16. nice one Mark,I thought that was really funny but I don't suppose your friend did. The potential cost of fixing an old Boxster was a major consideration in whether to get one or not. As it has turned out I am now totally sold on the SC430 and the Lexus marque as a whole but I did have my reservations at first mainly from reading what Clarkson said about them.How wrong can you be ?
  17. just been looking through ebay at the Lexus RX400/450 cars as a daily runner to replace the aged but very reliable Volvo V40.It seems you get a lot of car for the money and the owners I have spoken to rate them highly so might be time to splash some of the kid's inheritance methinks. Anyway,I thought I would see how much money I have lost on the SC430 over the 2+ years I have had it ( purely academic as I plan to keep the car for a few years yet) and went into the SC430 section. Surprise,surprise, the early ones don't seem to have droppedmuch, a good condition ,low mileage early one looks to be still worth somewhere around 7K which is very close to what I paid. Hmnnnn, are our gas guzzling but beautiful cars becoming more popular ? I would love to be able to say that to one G.Clarkson seeing as he branded the SC430 one of the worst cars of all time but probably best not to jump to that conclusion too quickly. Still pleased I got an SC430 rather than a Boxster for my 'Sunday' car and nice to know its value is not going through th floor.
  18. As it turned out I didn't get these cheap wheels,at the last minute the bidding went way too high for me. Winter tyres were never on the agenda,they are simply a gimmick for 99% of the time. The idea of a spare set of wheels was simply to save my nice shiny newly refurbed wheels from having to go out in an English winter. I still have the original 'dinner plate' wheels with the RF tyres on them so will probably put them back on for the winter. I was planning to sell the original wheels ( assuming there is a market for them ) but will shelve that for the moment.
  19. got the opportunity to acquire a set of wheels+tyres quite cheap but they are 17" wheels . They would simply be a spare set and probably only used in winter so not concerned with the looks. I am not sure if there is any mechanical downside to fitting smaller wheels hence the post. Any of you folks tried running this car on smaller wheels or know of any reason its not a good idea. Thanks
  20. as the car is due for an MOT soon I thought it time to get rid of the flashing light and buzzer and disabled the TPS yesterday .It really is a 5 minute job and very simple. I have a new set of wheels and will be fitting standard (not run flat ) tyres + a spare wheel so am not replacing the faulty tyre sensor. The disable procedure is described elsewhere on the forum ( sorry I'm not clever enough to provide a link) but if anyone has any concerns about tackling this job,I will be happy to help.
  21. I think the battery drain on mine must be similar to Bil's wife as my battery goes flat in about 5 days without use. I disconnect the battery now whenever the car is not going to be used for a couple of days.Its a pain in the backside but easier for me than putting it on charge. Lexus are never going to admit there is a problem so its unlikely any data sheets ( or whatever equivalent is in use these days)have been issued to the dealers on this subject so talking to them will be a waste of time which means its down to us to sort out the problem. I shall be looking at this further over the winter and if I find anything of interest I will post it.
  22. whoops,perhaps I gave the wrong impression.I don't intend to simply ignore my aging cambelt following Peter's post. I only do about 2k a year and that's mostly summer mileage so I think its safe to leave it until next spring as it will still only be about 83K or less by that time.
  23. thanks Peter ,your post on reliability was very informative .Coming from an insurance background the subject of reliability and probability of breakdown are close to my heart. I looked at the cambelt this morning and was surprised at how good it looked, no marks or any visible problems.Perhaps I will not be rushing to spend money and get it done . Previous to the SC430 I had an Alfa Spider and the Alfa OC forum is full of people absolutely obsessed ( and I mean obsessed ) with cambelts. It is regarded as an inherent weakspot ( along with all the others) and the subject is discussed endlessly. My thanks to all for your responses.
  24. thanks guys. Mine is a 2001 car with 82K on the clock so its ready for a change.
  25. I saw reference to the cambelt on another thread and realised I do not know what the recommended cambelt change mileage/period is on the SC431 engine. Can anyone enlighten me and let me know what the Lexus dealers charge for a cambelt change. Many thanks
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