johnatg

That will work fine. As long as the saddle is located centrally ( fore and aft and left/right) on the cross member it won't slip.

I have a 2 ton hydraulic trolley jack - 'Master Mechanic' brand - which I've had for a long time! I usually run the car on to two planks of wood first to give a bit more room. I do have ramps but since I had my (imprinted concrete) drive refurbished a little while ago it's too slippery (even with long straps which reach to under the back wheels) and the ramps just slide if I try and drive onto them. I do it from the front. Most garages (when they use a jack - these days they usually have a lift) use a much heavier duty jack which inevitably has a higher saddle at minimum height so they would find it difficult to get in from the front. I see nothing wrong with doing it from the front if you can. And you can do it from the back - saddle under the diff. Machine Mart is a good place if you want to buy a new jack. They have a 85mm min saddle height one, but it's expensive (£102). And an el cheapo 130mm min height one for less than £25.

Here's a sketch of the official jack points: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpvwkq2ykohmd2n/jack%20points.pdf?dl=0 You need quite a low trolley jack to get under from the front - or run the car up on to ramps or blocks of wood first. BTW - ramps are much safer then a jack - never venture under a car supported by a jack only - at least put axle stands under the side sill jack points

I don't agree that it's primarily the sun which yellows plastic headlamp lenses - not over 9-10 years anyway. It's mainly UV from headlight bulbs which don't have a UV filter (typically cheap high power ones). And I guess the yellowing is more intense on the insides, which means that to restore them properly you need to get the lenses off the light units and reseal them afterwards. Good luck with both of those. Always use branded quality bulbs of standard correct power rating incorporating a UV filter.

Since posting my reply above, I've been reading the current issue (Sept 2015) of 'Car Mechanics' - their resident "Diagnostics Doctor" mentions the walnut shell method as a potential remedy for an intractable problem with a Mitsubishi. Apparently it was developed because it does not need cylinder head removal - the inlet manifold is removed and that and the valves cleaned with the shell abrasive. So it may not be catastrophically expensive. The "Diagnostics Doctor" is a Dave Peacock and I suspect he is half of Peacock and Purvey operating out of Nottingham - might be worth a call. Search with Google!

I think this can be caused by carbon build up on the back of the inlet valves. Thing is, with direct injection engines the valve backs don't get washed by fuel, or by anything you introduce into the fuel.The carbon comes from combustion gases which escape from the cylinders past the valves, and by oil leaking down past the valve stem seals. Opinions vary on whether it's mainly caused by fuel or oil - probably both. The only advice I can offer is to use the best (clean-burning) fuel (Shell V-Power) and change the oil (fully synthetic of course) every 5000 miles. Getting rid of the carbon directly is a very expensive exercise. (It can be done by blasting the valves with ground up walnut shells). Water injection is another possibility - various youtube videos show how to clean engine internals with water - at your own risk! (But my 24 year old MX-5 has water injection (primarily for charge cooling) and it keeps the engine internals spotless!)

Are you sure it's actually broken? It doesn't have a hinge - it just comes off. It is a bit fiddly to replace - on the one occasion when I took my car to a dealer for a catastrophic electronics problem which prevented the central locking from working, the dealer didn't get it back on correctly!

Welcome back! 4T5 is known as Sable (metallic) in UK.

The alloy under where it's flaking will be corroded. You could clean it back as much as you can and repaint, but I wouldn't lacquer it (you won't be able to remove enough corrosion to stop it breaking through again - that needs sandblasting). I don't think it will last long but it would be a stop gap. The only long term solution is to get the wheels refurbished 'professionally' - ie at least some outfit with a bit of a track record and reasonable reviews for refurbing. Watch out for cowboys!

I have 2 - one about 9" and one about 18". And a short (18") length of scaffold pole for rare emergencies - comes in handy for semi-de-staked hub nuts etc.!

I don't think oil on the gasket makes much difference. There will be some there anyway unless the threads on the housing, and the seating, have been thoroughly wiped. Even then, it can't really apply much glueing! But you should of course oil the gasket (rubber sealing ring) when reassembling. The Sealey wrench referenced (VS7112) (and the Draper 22490) are the ones described as being for the 4 cyl engines - I am pretty sure they fit the IS250 housings - they just have extra slots. It's just a matter of applying enough torque - use a long breaker bar if a short one or a ratchet drive won't cut it.

The eBay item referenced by Noobie looks like the Laser 4880 and £22.95 is the usual price (rrp) for that. The Amazon offer I saw for it is good value! (But you'll need to buy something else to get to £20 for free delivery if you don't have Prime). Other brands (eg Sealey) are available! Re Jack's question: No guarantees! But it gives the best chance. There do seem to be some Toyota filter tools on eBay which mention they are for 4 cyl engines and they are much cheaper. They are the correct diameter (64.5mm) and number of flutes (14) and I think they have 3 cutouts on opposite sides. The 6 cyl engine ones have 3 cutouts on one side and 1 opposite. But they could work OK - I don't know if the cutout spacing is the same. The extra ones won't matter. Anyone confirm that they are OK? Or not? Meanwhile better to be safe than sorry!

Or there's a proper one (Laser 4880) for £15.14 on Amazon UK. There's a cheaper one on eBay but it doesn't look very substantial. D-I-Y is fine in it's place and I am all for it. But for this job I have a Laser 4880!

The base of the oil filter is ultimately part of the sump (oil pan). The chap referred to in a previous post said he'd removed part of the assembly to a bench and got the filter housing off there (having bought some new parts) (as I recall). But I don't know if you can easily separate the base of the filter housing from the oil pan - it doesn't look like it on the assembly drawings.Maybe he took the whole oil pan off. I hate to think how much a new one of those costs - multiple hundreds at least. With the correct tools (the proper cup wrench rather than a universal cup wrench or other generic tools) the filter housing should come off with a long enough breaker bar. I don't think heat would help much because you're not trying to break a rust weld - just tight threads. You mention that your brother's cup wrench was stuck on the housing - makes me think he was using a tin one (which may distort) - even if it's the right size (64.5mm) it is not really adequate - the proper ones are made of alloy and because of the tabs they won't get stuck

The filter housing should be done up with a torque wrench to 18ftlbs - that's not very tight at all - most people should be able to more or less reach that by hand (maybe not in the confines of working through the little hatch). But these housings do seem to tighten with time - it is why you absolutely must use the correct filter removal tool - a substantial cup wrench with cut outs to match the tabs on the filter housing. And it should be used with a torque wrench to do the housing up with the new filter installed. Don't really understand the post about wodging a screwdriver through the filter. That's a common technique with disposable canister type filters - but you ain't gonna get a screwdriver through a Lexus housing - and there'll be a lot of expense if you did manage it!

tyreshopper.co.uk lists 245/45/17 Efficient grip performance at £110.90 each (fitted) - BTW - they seem to be somehow related to National Tyres, and their fitting 'partners' are usually National - prices quioted usually same as or cheaper than National. Usual disclaimer!

You can see the discs through the wheels if you've got standard (or most other) wheels - see if the rears are similar to the front (ie two discs separated by a whole lot of fins) or if there is just one disc (similar to most other cars' rear discs - check on a neighbour's hatchback!) Then report back!

The higher the light temperature the more blue and cool they look...and the less light they emit!

When you switch to 'S' the box automatically selects highest gear available as 4. If you were stationary, the actual gear you were in (1st actually) would not be shown in the top 'strip' display (if you have current gear displayed there as opposed to outside temp or average fuel consumption or whatever) but the red led indication of the highest available will be 4.

I'm pretty sure that there's no direct access to the rear light wiring just by removing the bumper. And have you got rear parking sensors? If so, removing the bumper is pretty involved, at least by the official method (eg it involves removing most of the boot trims). He's maybe realised that this is a lot bigger job than he'd imagined - or maybe he just couldn't be bothered! You're gonna have to ask him what's going on!

Yeah - it's actually the whole track rod - there's a ball joint built in to the inner end. Here is a pic of the assembly. (Edited to a single jpg) https://www.dropbox.com/sc/926yad7vxaevxic/AADzQC4yZOYBRDwc6af_202ma It's that ball joint labelled with the square box with numbers (torque settings) in it which wears.

This play is due to wear in the inner joints of the steering arms - you'll have heard of 'track rod ends wearing' - the inner joints are (obviously) at the other end of the track rod. The units are the track rod/steering arms (less the track rod ends) and they just unscrew from the rack and are fairly easy to replace - don't know how much the parts cost but shouldn't be huge. Lexus call them 'Steering Rack end sub-assembly' - other manufacturers just call them ball joints. Probably a good idea to change the track rod ends too when doing the job. Incidentally, the wear is caused by turning the steering wheel when stationary - easy with power steering - I see it all the time when people struggle to park and it's horrible. Often women do it (oh - sexist remark!) but they're not alone - (put your hand up!). The car should be moving, even slightly, when you turn the wheel, otherwise it puts huge stresses on the steering and particularly on these inner ball joints. If you drive a car without power steering you'll know how much difference there is in steering effort between being moving and being stationary.

Hmm - that's somewhat different from operation on early cars. On them, put it in S and it stays there, but it limits highest gear to 4 unless you 'paddle up'. It still works in full auto except that you can select the highest gear the box will go to with the paddles. That effectively means you can change up manually as you accelerate, taking it to high revs in each gear before using the up paddle to go to the next one. And you can change down as you approach a corner to be ready to accelerate out. ECT PWR makes it more likely to change down as you approach a corner but you have less precise control. And it hangs on to lower gears for longer during acceleration. You can of course use both S and ECT PWR together.

A rubber strap (or any other generic oil filter removal tool) is utterly useless for undoing Lexus/Toyota oil filter housings. You need (more or less must have) one like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOR-LEXUS-GS250-GS300-GS450H-IS220D-IS250C-IS250-2005-OIL-FILTER-REMOVAL-TOOL-/291062390949?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43c4aba0a5 Note the cut outs in the rim - they engage with the filter housing tabs. (PS - Time to start a new thread, methinks!)

They (Scoobies) cost a fortune to maintain properly and they drink fuel - lots of fun though. Not a medium distance commuter. More mundane choices abound - I hate to recommend anything in particular, but cars like Toyota Auris and Mazda 3 come to mind. I certainly wouldn't contemplate a £5K 220D - got to have problems at that price level.