Sanman

When I had the same problem on my IS, dealer replaced the shims and added some copper grease to the back of the pads. This sorted the problem as the knocking was caused by the pads moving slightly in the caliper. Ball joints are also a known weak point on the IS which can also lead to a knocking noise like you describe.

Many people recommend the use of warm soapy water. I would only use alloy wheel cleaners (e.g Autogylm) if they are very soiled as these usually contain fairly harsh cleaning fluid which can over time damage the laquer on the wheels. I try to wax the wheels once cleaned with some good quality car wax. This usually makes cleaning easier as the wax provides some protection against hot brake dust etching into the laquer.

As far as I'm aware no other version of sat nav came out on the GS since 2001 (apart from updated DVD disks). You might want to get your dealer to do a diagnoistic check on the sat nav system to make sure it's all working as it should. There are some service menus that can be accessed (if you know which buttons to press in which particular order) directly on the sat nav screen that are used to set up and calibrate the system. This was done on my sat nav system by my local lexus dealer in a few minutes when my sat nav was playing up. You may also want to check the DVD in the unit in the boot (under the mat on the right hand side), eject the disk and see if it is damaged/scratched. Hope you get it sorted.

I got some Denso IK20's from the States via an e-bay site. Cost me about £45 for the six plugs including postage from the States. Check e-bay out.

Does your Sat Nav unit have buttons on both sides of the screen i.e. Climate, Menu, Destination? If it does then it is the CD-ROM based sat nav. If yours has the widescreen format screen, and only with buttons on the right hand side of the unit then it is the later DVD based sat nav. Hope useful.

I bought a new car on the weekend to satisfy my quest for more space. Unfortunatley Lexus don't make a GS300 estate so that wasn't an option. I went for an Audi A6 Avant Quattro Sport which will hopefully (i've got my fingers crossed) be as reliable as the 2 lexus's that I've owned. I will miss the Lexus, especially the power and the smooth ride but the choice really was to go for something a bit more practical. One mod that will not be going with the car is the 2001 model rear light upgrade. These are only 9 months old have the modification done so that they will work on 1998 to 2001 models. These are available now as I've already put the original ones back on the Lexus. PM me if you are interested. Cheers, Sandeep

I've got Pirelli P-Zero Rosso's on my GS300SE which I have found fairly good in terms of comfort/ride and wear. I managed to get these in 235/45/17 for £95 a corner.

I'm not suprised at all - had a fair bit of hassle from them when I bought an IS back in 2003 which I found out afterwards didn't have a full Lexus service history. I thought they were trying to improve things when they had a new dealer principal.

I've never experienced this sort of problem with the Sat Nav on my GS300. There is a diagnostic menu on the Lexus navigation system which can be accessed by pressing certain buttons in a particular order - see this website http://lexusmodz.netfirms.com/ as I'm sure there are instructions on how to access the sat nav service menu. If you can get to this menu, you should be able to see what satellites you are locked on etc.

Wishing all LOC members a very merry Christmas and a great New Year. Sandeep

Like many others, 17 inch spare fitted fine in my IS. Seems like the car might have a had a rear end shunt in the past which has damaged/deformed the spare wheel well, but only the outward facing parts i.e bumper were repaired or replaced.

I'm no expert on this, but I reckon that this won't be "plug and play". The Sat Nav screen also controls the climate control. Because of the size of the unit you woudl have to remove the stereo and climate control panel. There is also the CD/DVD unit in the boot with associated wiring. If you do manage to get a second hand unit, make sure it's all working properly as replacement touch screen unit is £3500 from Lexus, or £1700 for a reconditioned one. The CD/DVD unit in the boot is about £2000 to replace if faulty. Cheers, Sandeep

I have got a Mk2 GS300 SE and have found that it is surprisingly agile when you need it to be. I used to have an IS200 and I expected the GS to have barge like handling compared to the IS, but it has been surprisingly good for the size of the car. Would like to try out a Sport Model sometime, however wasn't there the issue of some of the more recent Sport models not having a different suspension set up and only having cosmetic differences to the SE model? I'm sure someone will be able to advise on this if I'm wrong!

If you can see the black primer there is no amount of polishing/buffing that is going to make it better. I got the whole bumper on my GS sprayed after some scuffs as mobile repairs on my old IS didn't look too good after a few months. I would expect to pay about £120 - £150 for a decent independent bodyshop to spray a bumper. Lexus dealers would be quite a bit more. Cheers, Sandeep

I'm quite certain that yellow light is for a blown rear bulb as I had it once on my IS (incidentally that was also after it was returned from the dealer!) Cheers, Sandeep