johnatg

Vauxhall dealers do a trade deal - strictly (?) trade only - then it's roughly that price, but if you go in as a punter it is much more expensive. Incidentally, AutoVaux is not a Vauxhall dealer - it is completely independent. There are sellers on ebay for 4 x 5litres for less than £60, with free postage. I think they are mostly pretty closely linked to Vauxhall dealers - either actual dealers or mechanics or other employees doing a moonlight.

I doubt that it makes any odds. 0W-30 might theoretically give you slightly better lube on a cold start but they'll both be effectively the same when warm. And now your car is 7 years old you will really not notice any difference whatsoever.. I use Dexos2 - a GM 5W-30 oil - meets the specs of lots of major manufacturers including GM and all the German makes and I presume the Japanese manufacturers, who seem to be less fussed about all the ridiculous variants. I use it in all the fleet I look after at the mo - my own IS250 and MX-5, my wife's Seat Mii and daughter's Mazda3 (and a Peugeot 306 until recently). Perfect in all of them over many years and it's dead cheap on ebay. The key is to change oil and filter regularly - at least twice as often (half the mileage) as the manufacturers service specs.

Well, it's a GReddy 10117200 SP Elite Axle-Back Exhaust System 2006-2009 Lexus IS250 IS350 GSE20 GRE21 4GR-FSE 2GR-FSE 60MM Dual Mufflers w/ 102MM Tips Stainless Steel SUS304 - normal price $890, now on sale at $867.75 - + costs of getting it from Texas! http://store.outperformance.com/product-p/greddy-10117200.htm Looks nice, doesn't it? And actually probably cheaper than Lexus silencers etc! Even if it comes with a dent! :-)

My sympathies - that sort of thing makes you feel really gutted, especially when it's not your fault. Keep us updated

Not worth the effort at that price - you'll buy a similar car in UK for round about that. Does the price include duty and VAT? Don't know if you can change the odometer electronically and you'll need to change the physical speedo too because it won't have mph markings. Or at least the dial face but where will you get that from? OK a scrapper but do they need electronically coding? Dunno. And many insurance companies won't touch 'grey imports' so your choice of insurer will be limited and may cost more. You may have problems proving it's emissions compliant. (For the inspection which you have to pay for) And you'll get no help whatsoever from Lexus with things like part numbers - they'll just say they don't have it in their database. And there's a very high probability that it's been damaged and repaired - such cars are unsaleable in Japan. I know the Shaken seriously depreciates a car of that sort of age in Japan, but it's often down to more than that that these cars are available for export. I did once import a Jap-spec Eunos Roadster (aka MX-5) from Ireland and that wasn't much trouble. But Jap ones were effectively identical to UK ones and since so many were imported things like the speedo face were very easy - all mechanical too. (Even then the odometer stayed in Km.) Insurance companies and Mazda tried to be as obstructive as possible and that was when every other MX-5 was a Eunos. Imported IS250s will only be slightly more common than the proverbial rocking horse droppings.

Get the battery checked with a proper tester, but I'm afraid it's more likely that the alternator has failed. 13.3v is nowhere near enough - it should be charging at 14.2 volts or so. It's just possible that the battery is pulling it down but not likely. It's most likely that a diode has failed - this can be caused by poor battery connections, a poor (corroded?) earth or accidentally disconnecting the battery whilst the engine is running. Or welding with the alternator connected.

Ah yes - they're not really running lights then - just fancy side lights. What about parking - you'll be lit up like a Christmas tree when parked where you need side lights (ie not under a street light or where the speed limit is more than 30mph.) Oh - I forgot - no-one parks with parking lights on anymore (for that is what 'sidelights' are!!!) For the headlights - just like fitting an aftermarket HID kit then - in fact you might as well buy one of them as well as these lights.

Ah I see - this is replacing the whole headlamp unit. Well, if you don't currently have LED strips (and your year doesn't) the wiring loom is definitely different - there's no wire in the current loom for driving the LEDs and no programming in the ecu to switch them on when the engine is running. They can only be plug and play in cars with LED running lights - and then why change? The headlights should work OK - but do these include transformers/ballasts? - you'll need them if they don't for HID headlights.

Re the LED running strips - I can't see how they would work straight off on a car without the running lights - you would have to get power from somewhere (not difficult though). The wiring loom and ecu program settings are different for cars with standard led strips from cars without. But you presumably have to dismantle the headlights (ie remove the glass from the shell) and reassemble (and in particular reseal) with the strips in place. Possible, but not a task to be undertaken lightly. Re LED headlights - agree they are fine with oem fitted ones. But you can get LED bulbs to afterfit in ordinary headlight shells. They are completely and utterly useless. They look quite bright when you look from head on, but sitting in the car it seems as if they project hardly any light at all.

The 'solid' bit doesn't apply to the disc faces - vented discs are kind of two discs stuck together with air vents in between. The actual faces may be unbroken or drilled, dimpled or grooved or a mixture of these (my MTEC discs are grooved and drilled). Solid discs are just one disc, plain and simple. Virtually all cars have vented front disc brakes these days - even my wife's Seat Mii. But many cars have drum rear brakes or solid rear discs - ie just one disc - that's what IS250s had until sometime in 2007. Then they changed the rear discs to vented (with plain faces, like the oem fronts)

I guess you're going to have to get out there with a stopwatch - then tell us! :-)

James - your quotes might imply that D is somehow superior to S. I don't think that's the case at all - for example 'optimal position' means the gear for the best fuel economy and to reduce emissions (see the OM for use of D - note 1) (which I suppose some would count as superior!). I suspect it also implies the best gear for smoothness and comfort and general passenger experience in normal driving. And 'Shifting the shift lever to the S position cancels the function' doesn't mean that you lose any performance benefit of D - it just means that the driver is making (some) decision about the gear to be in and the car is not taking account of the best fuel economy etc. And 'When you want to press on, the changes become quicker and crisper' just means 'than they normally are in D' It doesn't necessarily imply any advantage (or disadvantage) over S. S-mode is especially valuable if say you're following someone at 50 or so on a road with limited overtaking opportunities. The AI-shift function would probably want the car to be in 6 but by using S you can hold it on 3 or 4 so that when the opportunity comes up you can start accelerating instantly without waiting what seems like an interminable time for the box to sort itself out when you floor the throttle.

I agree that Lexus are pretty vague about what 'S' means, but certainly for other car brands S means 'Sport'. (To wit - see the Owners Manual for a '64 VW Passat - in the section about gear changing it unequivocally says 'D - Normal programme, S - Sport programme (you can find the manual on line if you can find a reg number - see Autotrader or Google images)) But 'Sport' is a much misused and abused term in motoring circles and it's pretty irrelevant anyway. What S-mode does do is make the box change faster, change up at higher revs and change down more readily when braking. It makes the box less 'slushy' and slightly less comfortable ( ie detectably 'jerky'). I'd agree that flooring the throttle in D will take the revs to pretty much max - the change might just be a smidgen faster if you floor the throttle in S (without messing with the paddles) As for the ECT switch - my owners manual (P109) says 'Power mode - for powerful acceleration and driving in mountainous regions'. Might make a difference - might not. Of course, it would be interesting to find out if either S or PWR makes any detectable difference in real world conditions. For that, someone will need proper instrumentation and controlled conditions. The key to minimising 0-60 times is to change at a point where the next gear up (2nd) is selected to leave the engine well up the torque curve. That means pretty close to max revs. (the change, not the torque curve). I suspect that what would be a better comparison to sort the 'fast' cars from the rest would be a comparison of 0-70 times. Most cars will just about do 60 in 2nd, but not in 3rd. So 2 changes required (probably not for a IS250) and so many cars have a great gulf between 2nd and 3rd so that when you select 3rd you have fallen right off the torque curve. No names, but I've been pleased to see the back of cars in the past just for that characteristic!

All that will certainly help to reduce rolling resistance and weight - apparently, pumping up the tyres to 3.5 bar (~52 psi) and diluting the engine oil with diesel were what VW engineers did to 'improve' CO2 emissions/fuel consumption. Remember they were setting up to be on a rolling road for half an hour though. Whether it will make a measurable difference to 0-60 I don't know. How are you going to measure the time? A few runs in opposite directions with a stop watch and the speedo? Hmmm..... I can never find anywhere that's quiet and level enough. I find what I think is a deserted straight road and blow me - there's traffic coming along every minute! Same if we're having a picnic (or in my younger days a bit of hanky-panky) - you think you've found a quiet field gateway and you can guarantee the farmer will turn up with his tractor in 5 minutes!

Hey man! You might not get the same respect from the 320 driver behind! :-)

I would think sport mode with PWR switch on. Start by paddling down to 1, go! ,paddling up at max revs (just before, but not into, the cut-out). I think it will probably get to 60 in 2nd - might need 3rd. It won't do the car much good to try it too often!

They don't cause any damage. They only squeak for a short time, then they break off. (Bit like a bomb ticking - when it goes silent, you know it's really time to act!) Anyway - you should change the pads before you hear the squeak - it's more than a squeak - it sounds as though the wheel is about to fall off (I understand....!). It's a last resort - if it goes that far, the least of your maintenance worries is a scrape on the discs!

Yes. Diesels need a much bigger battery (higher capacity (more amp hours), more cranking amps and bigger dimensions). Apart from costing more, I don't think a diesel's battery will fit in the petrol's battery space. And a petrol battery will not last long in a diesel.

Bosch from Euro Car Parts or Carparts4less (same (ie it's the same place!) as ECP but cheaper and may not sell as wide a range). Sorry - don't know the code for the IS200 fitment.

You can get in with the mechanical key - remove lock cover and key from fob. I assume you've done that if it's now unlocked. You can lock it mechanically too. Does it detect the key once you're in, and start normally? Or will it start with the fob held against the start button? Or is it just the central locking which isn't working?

Looking at the Rock Auto site in more detail I see that the 'wrong' guide pins are listed for most years of IS250, up until quite recently (when it appears that the rear caliper fixings are now more like the front ones). Maybe US models had pins with the smaller (8mm) threads? Anyway, it's the Carlson 14208 kit and it's wrong - at least it was for my car. But for GS460 I see that this is listed: http://www.rockauto.co.uk/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=3463629&cc=1445203&jnid=897&jpid=0 - Carlson 14246. That looks more like the pin with the 10mm thread. But I can't be sure. No wonder the rear pins/boots are hard to find!

Since we're on the subject, I've been looking a bit more closely at the boots and pins for the rear caliper - I think the situation is even more complex than I had realised. It's a bit lost in the mists of time but I originally intended to replace my pins and boots and ordered what I thought were the correct parts from Rock Auto. However, when it came to the job one of my caliper pins was well and truly seized and being less patient than Jack I replaced the calipers. That was because I called in to a Lexus dealer to buy new pins after I realised that the ones sent by Rock Auto were wrong (see below) - but I was offered new complete calipers (including mounts) for £120 for the two - bargain. So I have the Rock Auto parts still and I've compared them with the instructions for the Special Service Campaign 9LB I mentioned before. The pins are 12mm diameter (Dec 2005 on) but the threads are M8 - my car has (I think) M10 threads on the pins - that's why they were wrong. The pins look like those for Dec 2005 on cars shown in the SSC instructions - they don't show the thread. The boot kit from Rock Auto is the Wagner H18053 (http://www.rockauto.co.uk/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=541652&cc=1444563) which looks similar (but not identical) to the boots shown in the SSC for 12mm pins. But I'm pretty sure that my car has (and had before I changed the caliper) these boots: http://www.rockauto.co.uk/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=3463389&cc=1444563 - Carlson 16198 or similar. These are not like those shown for either type of pin for the SSC. But I believe my car was made in Dec 2005 (first reg March 2006). Are the boots interchangeable? - dunno. But I'm now aware that there are at least three types of boot for the 'blind' rear caliper pin! And probably three types of pin (M9, M12 with M8 threads and M12 with M10 threads) It seems that Lexus have changed the design several times. I suggest that if you need to change the boots (and if your car still has the originals since before 2010 or so I guess you do need to) - get them off the car and go in to a Lexus dealer with the chassis number and the boots and the pins! BTW - re the grease oozing - I reckon you can just wipe the excess off. The SSC instructions say to use Toyota White Grease or lithium soap base glycol grease and the grease shown is pale pink. I use Corrosion Block - an aircraft grease which is popular in motorcycle circles and is rubber compatible - it works well and is available on Ebay. It's solid (rather than translucent) turquoise in colour. There's also a spray version (ACF50) which is loads better than WD40 etc.

If the rubber boot has slipped off, or isn't a tight fit in the groove, or has generally deteriorated, replace it/them. You should be able to get them from Lexus or Rock Auto sell them. Be careful to get the correct parts - very early cars made up to Nov 2005 have M9 pins and Dec 05 on have M12 ones and the boots are different. The two boots - top and bottom - should come together in a kit. The grease is supposed to ooze out from the edge between the boot and the caliper - if it doesn't, you haven't put enough in (I put a good big gob of it into the hole before pushing the pin in). That comes from the US Special Service Campaign (SSC) 9LB instructions issued January 16, 2009. They say that the excess grease helps to keep water out. Be careful not to get grease on the pads or disc. The rear boots seem to be harder to find than the front ones. Front caliper 'rubber' kits (contain all the rubber parts for a front caliper refurb) and individual rubber boots are available from AFC Parts Ltd - http://afcparts.co.uk/home.php?cat=2388 A note about the front caliper rubber kit from AFC - they are made by Febest (a German company) - at least, I don't know if they actually make them or they probably just assemble the parts from somewhere else. Anyway, they are confused about the contents - it contains two of parts 'Front Disc Brake Bushing Dust Boot' whereas four are required on the car (two for each side). But the kit contains four of part 'Front Disc Brake Cylinder Slide Bushing' (that's the little rubber band thingy which fits in a groove in the top pin) whereas only two are required on the car (one on each side). I've emailed them about it but haven't had a response. If you buy that kit you'll need two extra dust boots.

Brake pads are specced by 'Regulation 90', which means pads must perform to at least 90% of oem (whatever that means). There's no such thing as a bad pad these days. Rear pads do relatively little and all those you mention will be fine. You can do better than oem for front pads though. Refurbished calipers are effectively just the same as oem and will perform (and seize) just the same. Anyway its mostly the pins which corrode and seize - grease and the rubber boots are the most important factors there. Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

"Historically Hondas have always benefitted (sic) from higher octane" Absolutely - because they were pretty much first with VVT and 'smarter' ecus. "the US and they have crap fuel" Only partly true. First off, the USA and Canada use a different octane measurement to the most of the rest of the world. We use RON - Research Octane Number. USA uses AKI (anti-knock index) also known as PON (Posted or Pump Octane Number) or RdON (Road Octane Number) - all the same thing, and the number is a mean of MON and RON. MON (Motor Octane Number) is measured under a more severe regime than RON - in the UK it is rarely encountered and then only in motorsport applications. It typically comes out at about 10 points less than RON for the same fuel. Therefore AKI etc ((RON+MON)/2) typically measures about 5 points less than RON for the same fuel. So - there is an equivalence: 91 AKI = 95/96 RON and 93 AKI = 98 RON Gas stations in the US usually sell 3 of the 4 grades typically available - they are Regular (87 AKI), mid-grade (89 AKI), Plus (91 AKI) and Premium (93 AKI) (although you can find variations on that theme - and different areas of the US have different common grades). In mountain areas Regular may be only 85 AKI as you can use lower grade (lower octane) fuel at altitude (for reasons I won't go in to). You are more likely to find Premium on the East coast. Regular is intended for older engines and eg agricultural use (note - diesel only became usual for US farm tractors in 1970's) If you consult the US Lexus fuel guide (http://drivers.lexus.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM53839U/pdf/sec_06-01.pdf) (page 4), you will see that they recommend minimum 91 (AKI) - 96 RON. Read on - to page 18: Quote: Premium unleaded gasoline with an octane rating of 91 (Research Octane Number 96) or higher required for optimum engine performance. If 91 octane cannot be obtained, you may use unleaded gasoline with an octane rating as low as 87 (Research Octane Number 91). Use of unleaded gasoline with an octane rating lower than 91 may result in engine knocking. Persistent knocking can lead to engine damage and should be corrected by refueling with higher octane unleaded gasoline. (end q) And on to Page 19: Quote: n. Lexus recommends the use of gasoline containing detergent additives Lexus recommends the use of gasoline that contains detergent additives to avoid build-up of engine deposits. All gasoline sold in the US contains detergent additives to clean and/or keep clean intake systems. n Lexus recommends the use of cleaner burning gasoline Cleaner burning gasoline, including reformulated gasoline that contains oxygenates such as ethanol or MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) is available in many areas. Lexus recommends the use of cleaner burning gasoline and appropriately blended reformulated gasoline. These types of gasoline provide excellent vehicle performance, reduce vehicle emissions and improve air quality. (end q) So - no different to UK But 'gasoline containing detergent additives' and 'cleaner burning gasoline' = V-Power (or BP Ultimate - very expensive) or Texaco Supreme 97 in my book. And now: " and don't have any issues " Absolutely not so. US Lexus forums are full of reports of carbon build up - much worse than here. And also many people asking if they should use Plus or Premium 'if the car has been run on regular'. Also Premium is often not available, especially in the mid west. I suspect that many US IS250s are run on regular gas on a regular basis and consequently do suffer from carbon build up.