Exdee

Lexus do low dust pads for the Is250. They are also a lot smoother in operation than the normal ones (less aggressive compound) I can't see any brake dust since I had switched to these.

Difficult to come by as the GS is a rare care. Getting the parts from the dealer will probably cost too much. I will try to get a quote for all the parts that are needed from my local dealer.

Rear brakes contribute about 20% to the overall braking force a vehicle generates. Front brakes have more bias, irrespective of whether the car is FWD or RWD. If you are looking to upgrade you should consider the IS350/GS300 front brakes as you can still use the OEM low dust pads.

Yes, I think you are right. Link (# 15)

Bummer. All that kit is not necessarily a good thing.

The tools to remove the clock to access the sat-nav disc are in the boot inside the black tool kit.

All accident repairs are warrantied by the repair company. The manufacturer will not warrant items that are accident damaged even if genuine parts were used but the rest of the car will have warranty. I expect the non-genuine parts for this car to be pretty much non-existent so I reckon you have nothing to worry about. Just enjoy the car!

Carrier: 4772153060 - Right Side 4772253060 - Left Side Sliding Pins: 4771552190 x 2 4771522070 x 2 Carrier Clips for pad gliding: 0494753010 Ring your local dealer for prices. I can't see why you would need a new carrier but the rest of the items may be needed. The carrier must be rusted so it just needs some good cleaning.

Turn towards the center of the hub to tighten and in the opposite direction to slacken. It's good practice to slacken them to the max (make sure you count the clicks as you will need to reverse it). This way you can tell if the brake distribution to both wheels is balanced or not. Going by memory here, as I did this a long time ago but I think I have mine set to 27 clicks from slack.

8mm bolts to get the discs off using the holes threaded into the disc. Don't know about the hub. Most new hubs are bolted on from the rear so hopefully you won't need to buy new kit to get the hub off. Your normal 17-20mm sockets should be okay. No idea about torque specs. You can get access to the lexus tech website for a small fee to look up all the information you need or maybe someone here who already has access may help you.

I was browsing the internet last night as my MOT was due coming week and I wanted to know if it was possible to get it done on a Sunday. Kwikfit seemed to be the most popular search result for 'Mot on Sunday' and I booked it despite hearing/reading about bad experiences people have had with them. Woke up this morning and had a quick look round the car to make sure all the bulbs were working. Checked the tyre tread using the 10p coin method and was pretty surprised to see I had plenty of tread left. (17000+ miles on Dunlop SP01). Took the car in, nice and clean reception area with friendly staff. I was told it would take 45 minutes and offered tea/coffee while I waited. My initial intention was to sit in the viewing area to observe the MOT being carried out but the nice weather drew me outdoors. Found a nice spot and just sat there listening to music and daydreaming. 45 minutes later I went indoors and got my new test certificate which was advisory free as expected. :) I usually pay £55 for the MOT and this one was £30 because I booked online. So I reckon it was a good punt. I suppose the level of service may vary from branch to branch but Orpington (Kent) could not be faulted today.

Yeah they do come off. It will take some effort though. If you want to replace yours because they have a lot of grime on them, try Autosol or Brasso (with wirewool) before replacing them. Autosol first as it will retain the chrome. If autosol doesn't work you can try Brasso.

It's difficult to decide. There is so much choice. lol

Oh bummer. Was looking forward to this. Maybe another time. :)

Recently discovered somebody has hit me and the impact broke the headlamp washer actuator. The part alone is £180 and the car will fail MOT without it. I too am interested in a motion detection camera that can record such instances. It's really annoying.

Phew! :) I think Start-Stop primarily helps brings the CO2 emissions figures for the car down. If the traffic has a lot of tendency to creep where you live (such as London), then the constant re-starting will use more fuel than leaving the car running but if you live in an area where you don't have to creep a lot and only stop at traffic lights it should help with fuel consumption but only marginally. A traffic jam is the only scenario I can think of where one can benefit significantly. Every now and then whilst travelling on the motorway some incident happens, the traffic stops and you don't know how long you will be stationary for. You wait and wait and then turn your engine off after 15 minutes or so whereas with Start/Stop the engine would have cut off immediately.

I hope you are joking. There is so much that could go wrong especially on an ageing car. Low oil pressure, low air flow are bad for the engine, not to mention the CO2 (which could harm you more than others if there is a leak somewhere). Sure, you can do it for a night and hopefully your partner will have a change of heart ;) But don't do it on an ongoing basis. Can't help with the fuel consumption but the running cost will be more than an electric AC unit.

The link you posted is that of an amplifier so it is difficult to see what subwoofer you are referring to and if it will fit in the stock location. If you referring to the TS-W841D then you are in luck as there is a whole thread about it on the US forum: Mark Levinson Sub DIY One thing however to keep in mind is that the subwoofer port on the mark levinson range has a limited frequency response. This means that the bass can get weird, especially if you have tracks with a lot of bass variation as the subwoofer will only play parts of the bass tunes. If you upgrade your subwoofer this may become more noticeable. The way around this is tapping into your front speakers and running an aftermarket amplifier and subwoofer from there as they are allocated a much wider frequency range.

The boot is useless. You can't fit a normal 25-30KG travelling suit case in there. The rest is beautiful.

Found the F Sport Exhaust on French Ebay - Link May interest some of you :)

Who is refurbishing your wheels? Lexus use 'Pristine Alloys'. It might be a good idea to speak to them as they would no doubt have dealt with GS alloys in the past.

The picture is quite out of focus. I think it would be a good idea to remove the wheel and retake the picture.

No, arches were not rolled. It will be ET30 with the spacers. The offset on the rear wheels is 50mm in comparison to 45mm on the standard ones. The sports wheel is 0.5 inch wider in the rear and 0.2 inch of that is towards the hub. So basically you need further clearance of 0.3 inches towards the fender. Just measure the gap yourself. It should be good. The car has some negative camber from stock. You would have got even more negative camber with the lowering springs. I will be very surprised if it rubs.

VSC has nothing to do with front brakes or engine shaking. The warning lights would have logged an error in the ECU so it's probably best to have the error codes read and take things from there. Re brakes, A stuck caliper is a very general term and dealers like to replace things even when they are not necessarily needed. There are plenty of 'How to's' on youtube and the US LOC site that show step by step instructions on how to strip the brakes so that you can investigate the braking issue.

These 'sports wheels' have an even more conservative offset. You need to go a lot wider than 8.5J before it starts rubbing in the back. I had ET35 20x10J in the back for a few weeks and there was no rubbing. (stock height)