matt-c

Do you have children at all, OP?

Well I certainly learned something!

They do? Guess I should have paid more attention in chemistry!

That's very interesting. I'd be surprised if the caps were anything but aluminium, and of course the valves should be brass, so there should be no way they could rust enough to bind that tightly unless it was steel on steel (and mild at that). My guess is they got cross threaded?

So are they hex shaped? Did you try a spanner/key/pliers?

Pic of said caps? Most are hex shaped, and often come with a key wrench, but in a pinch any suitably sized spanner or even a pair of pliers will fit

gromaudio.co.uk

I don't understand the question.... :eerrrmm:

Just like car stereo thefts, sat nav thefts are way down on what they were when portable sat navs started becoming popular. I'm not suggesting you leave one on the screen 24/7, but it's far less common to have a car broken into for the nav than it used to be. Most have quick release mounts so you can remove it in a flash. Me personally, I like the OEM built in look, but just not the OEM built in product ;) Hence why I ripped the screen out of the OEM motorised nav housing and put an aftermarket touchscreen in there. Although I'm guessing that's probably not an option for you new-car guys! :D

There's a host of other things you can do with it too, than just navigation. Video screen for TV/DVD, car computers, ECU/state monitoring (for example, Torque app on an Android device linked to an OBD2 reader), reverse cameras, forward facing cameras, gauges, media player for music and video, etc etc... Currently mine if just navigation, as I need to upgrade the cheap tablet I put in there, but the plan with mine is to add reverse camera and bluetooth functionality, and if I go Android, link up for the Torque app.

That's extortionate considering you can buy a TomTom (for example) for less than half the price and have free lifetime updates...

MUCH better idea ;)

I'd wager that with that messy electrical taping, it's not standard

They're pricey. but not that pricey. Expect to pay £1800-£2k for one. Anyone that pays over that is a bit mental. I doubt very much the eBay one will sell for £2.5k, and the £3,500 IS200 on Gumtree is dreaming if he thinks it's going to sell for that (or very lucky if it does!) On paper it works, as he's thinking the car's worth £1500 and the charger kit is worth £2k, but in reality they don't sell for that combined. He'd be better off removing it, selling the car as is and the charger separately. There was a kit on eBay recently for £1850, and looks like it didn't sell...

Album artwork! I knew I'd forgot something!!

No problem Geoff, happy to help :) So, as I said before - MP3 is the industry "standard" - it's pretty much universally recognised and understood. WMA is Windows Media Audio, and is a proprietary codec developed by Windows, and AAC is actually Advanced Audio Coding (but commonly misreferred to as Apple Audio Codec) that was developed by Apple (actually not 100% true - AAC existed outside of Apple, but Apple were the ones to push it and make it mainstream, and it's nowadays only used by Apple in the mainstream), and is the "engine" that iTunes uses when it encodes (or rips) your CD's (which is what the "system can play AAC files encoded by iTunes) means. M4A is an extension used by Apple for it's music files. An extension, as I'm sure you're aware, is basically a "container" - it's the codec inside that container that is what's read by the player. So your system can "read" .m4a files, but if the codec inside is not one that the system can decode, it can't play it. Likewise, you might have a file which is written in the AAC codec, but it has a file extension the system can't work with, for example .ogg (another media type). ID3 tags are the industry standard for encoded written data within the file - think of it like RDS on your radio. It basically tells you 3 things - Artist, Album, and Track names. It's expanded since then (started out in WAV files I believe) and can now load a host of additional data such as year of recording, track number, composer, disc x of x number, genre... But in basics, this is what will allow your mp3 files to be displayed on the stereo's screen with the artist name, album name and track name, rather than just "Track 001" and "Track 002" Now for the fun part - ripping your CD's. There are a number of free audio rippers out there, and Windows and Apple both build their own ones in as standard to their operating systems - Windows uses Windows Media Player and Apple use iTunes. For ease of use, I'd use either of these, as they will not only rip your CD's, but also tag/let you take them. 9 times out of ten, both WMP and iTunes will identify the disc, look up it's data and tag the tracks as you "import" (rip) them, and file them nicely within the players interface. You can specify in the program's settings what codec and bit rate you want to rip to (either WMA or MP3 in Windows Media Player, or AAC or MP3 in iTunes (iTunes will also rip to AAC-L (apple's lossless format) AIFF and WAV. Don't bother with AIFF and WAV, bit antiquated now and you won't need them. I also wouldn't bother with AAC-L either, as you're not going to be putting these files through reference grade systems). So you rip them, and then look up the actual created files (in Windows this is usually in the Media folder in My Documents, with Apple it's in the iTunes Media Folder) and then simply highlight the ones you want to copy, copy them, and then go to the USB stick and paste them (or highlight, drag, and drop if you have two windows open)

MP3 is the universally accepted "standard". WMA is a Windows proprietary codec, as AAC is an Apple proprietary codec. Many players do recognise them, but for simplicity, MP3 is the best bet. Ripping quality - MP3 is limited to 320kbps as it's highest bit rate. Other formats can go higher, and regular CD in "lossless" format is 1411kbps (lossless in terms of no degradation from the original CD source, as CD itself is compressed from true lossless analogue) As Norm says, in most cases there's not a massive aural difference between 128k and 320k, although the better the listening gear (both electronically, and you ears!) the more the difference can become apparent. Just as the difference between an actual CD and a 320k rip can be apparent (a perfect example - or two - Rage Against The Machine's self titled record, and Michael Jackson's "HIStory" album, are among some of the finest technically recorded albums. The difference listening to the CD vs MP3 320 rip of them is night and day). Pretty much everything I rip is 320k, and play through my iPod into my van's stock head unit. This is fine that way as my iPod actually has a very good DAC in it, however the stock head unit isn't the best in the world. Outcome is no audible difference between CD source and 320 rip. When I'm using my iPhone, I generally tend to sync at 128kbps - reason, the DAC in the iPhone isn't as good as the one in my iPod, so the subtle differences aren't heard, and it saves space - no point dedicating space to nuances that aren't heard. You're best bet is to take your favourite album, once you know very very well, and rip it as 128 and 320. Put it on the same USB stick, plug it into the car, and take yourself out for a leisurely Sunday drive, and listen to both versions - your ears will tell you which you prefer. Then you know what bit rate is best for you - if you can tell the 320 is better, then go 320. If you can't hear a difference, go 128 and save a bit of space.

A chip repair is a different thing. That is filling a crater and crevice with a specially designed liquid resin, that is forced in under pressure, then cured hard with UV light. It's then cut back to surface level so it cannot be felt (so as not to foul the wipers). You cannot fill scratches with it, as the resin would have nothing to grip to. Easy way to imagine it is like tree roots - the centre crater is where the trunk is, and the cracks spreading off from it are like the roots. The resin flows though the trunk and into the roots, and once cured is harder than the glass itself, but it can't come out because it's larger than the crater in the glass. This is why surface "chips" that aren't actually chips, can't be repaired. They can be filled with something called "pit-fill", which is a liquid "cap" put over the top of the resin (this serves two purposes - 1) it traps the resin inside the glass before it's set hard with the UV light and 2) it's not as hard as the resin, so responds better to cutting back and polishing), but pit fill won't stay in a surface chip or scratch unless it's mixing with the resin - it has next to no bond qualities. There's nothing you can fill, or "line" a scratch with that has any strong enough bonding qualities that won't actually make it look worse and impair the optical quality of the glass.

It will have to be a very faint/light/surface blemish to be removed by polishing. We use specifically designed polishes, and they won't get out most scratches. Jewellers rouge used to be the trick back in the day, but glass has come on leaps and bounds since then, and it's composition, for better optical quality and strength, all the while being thinner and lighter, is much tougher than it used to be, hence why scratches generally don't come out. Rouge is still pretty effective for "metal marks" (where a mark is caused by transference of metal material on the glass, rather than something/object marring the surface or "scuffing" away the glass finish) If it's a very light blemish then you might be able to get it out. Anything too marring will need to be sanded out and repolished. Problem with that is you're removing an area of the glass, so you will have a void. Even a slight void will impair the glass' optical quality and be noticeable with wipers. My advice is take it to one of the car-park stone chip guys, and bung him a fiver to try using the resin polish. If that doesn't work, then I'd leave it as it is, as you'll probably only end up making it worse. I'd need to see it in person to advise you better, so this is all I can do/say blindly

The Parrot kits seem to be the market leaders in compatibility. But have an ask in the 2nd gen forum, as they might have pics you can look at of installations, etc http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/forum/127-lexus-is-250-lexus-is-250c-club-lexus-is-220d-is-200d-club/

Never had to undo the lock bolts when I've changed mine. I agree it's not the most easy job in the world, but when I've done it I just remove the 8mm nuts inside the boot lid (don't do what I did, and drop one of the nuts inside the boot lid!) and then from the outside, use a flat scraper / putty knife (protect paintwork!) and lever the trim to un-pop the poppers. Why they didn't just put quick release light covers in there I don't know.....

From what I'm told by our guys that carry diag kits on board, Toyota (inc Lexus) are the most restricted to get into and change/reset. Your VAG stuff is easy and nearly all kits will do that, but for some (annoying) reason, there's very little you can do with Toyota without specialist gear.

(Sorry, didn't realise this was an old post!)

This stuff is brilliant. I get it from work, and use it to fix all manner of car related problems! It's even strong enough to stick a nut to a mirror boss, that's stuck inside a mirror, and then use a spanner to twist it off. Seriously strong stuff! http://www.loctite.co.uk/loctite-4087.htm?nodeid=8802631221249