james250

Got the bugger off. Found this video soooo helpful. The connector is held in exactly like this. I wedged a tiny screwdriver in from the opposite side while pressing and pulling and it popped straight out

I've pressed down as hard as my fingers can cope and been at it for a good few hours and neither the left or right connector comes off. I tried with screwdriver and the plastic is starting to break

I'm trying to disconnect the connector for the cooling fan (pictured below) But I just cannot seem to get it off. I tried pushing a screwdriver in but wasn't budging and I dont want to break any tabs. Anyone have any suggestion?

I know exactly what you mean as I experienced this issue with the unbranded alternator I bought a while back and luckily eBay gave me full refund. Eventually switched to Denso. Hence why I was looking for Denso radiator but with the very long lead time it seems not practical to wait. And this time I definitely won't be going for anything unbranded. My options are between nissens and nrf. NRF seems to have good reviews, they make radiators and condensers for trucks and stuff. They've been in the game for a long time too. Seeing as it is a reputable brand I think I might just bite the bullet and give it a try

As mentioned above by Razor61 the OEM one is overpriced. Considering Denso is only just over £100 but the lead time for Denso is currently 3-4weeks. I've ready that the nrf is supposed to be a good brand and comes with a 2 year unlimited mileage no quibble warranty and after discount codes comes to only £63 so may bite the bullet on that. Seems like. Reputable brand from all the reading I've done so far.

So I'm looking to replace my radiator and the 3 brands available are NRF, Nissens and Denso. DENSO seem to be out of stock so either I wait for an unknown amount of time or I go with NRF or Nissens. Does anyone know anything about these two brands? Problem with googling it is you always get mixed feedback. Some people say not to get Nissens, not sure about how good NRF brand is. Does anybody have any experience with these brands?

I am suspecting the radiator as I can feel it's a bit wet under the radiator by the drain plug area. Maybe the plastic housing has a crack somewhere. Like you said with the age maybe worth just replacing radiator for now. After car has been running for a while I do get a sweet smell of coolant at the front of the engine bay area. Do you know if the bumper needs removing to change the radiator? Also, with a small leak I'm assuming coolant system will not pressurize and hence could potentially overheat?

My IS250 has some sort of coolant leak for sure as the overflow bottle levels drop even after topping up. It's not a major leak that I can see. My water pump and thermostat were changed few years ago. I cannot see any pink crust anywhere visible. There is no mayonnaise like substance in oil. The only place I see what may seem like crusty pink coolant residue is right along the bottom seam of the radiator. But cannot be sure. Ive seen some UV dye kits on eBay that covers upto 10L of coolant. My question is, is coolant dye safe for our super long life pink coolant? I probably will end up having to drain most of it anyway if I find the leak to change any components

I've been using Armorall Dashboard cleaner and Protectant spray. I've been using this for over 12 years and never had issues. Just past few years I've probably neglected it a little and not applied it as frequently and last few summers have been hot.

Has anyone here experienced the notorious sticky dash issue that has been effecting people in hot climate countries? Recent few years battering in the summer sun my dash does have a rather sticky feeling to it. I usually apply a dashboard protection spray once in a while. Just wondering if anyone else has had it and if this is just the beginning and is it likely to get worse

Come to think about it, if memory serves me right then I think the first recall I had was to do with airbag not deploying in the event of an accident and the second was the takata scandal recall. But it seems like the scandal recall Lexus did was only on the passenger side. Does that mean the steering wheel drivers airbag isn't the scandalous takata airbag?

On my is250 if I remember correctly I had airbag recall work done twice. But i just cannot remember which airbags these were related to. I've been reading about the takata scandal and how faulty systems can explode sending shrapnel flying out. But from what I can see online there is no mention of the is250 drivers steering wheel airbag. There's mention of the passenger airbag. Has anyone else had airbag recall work done twice and if so do you remember which air bags this was for? Does the is250 not have an effected drivers takata airbag?

The OEM pollen filter has an arrow saying TOP matching the TOP arrow on the plastic holder for the filter. But aftermarket filters have airflow arrow. From what I understand, is it correct that the airflow arrow actually needs to point opposite direction to top arrow on the holder?

Original alternator didn't fail completely no. The pulley and freewheel clutch on it had failed and I had really strong plastic burning smell a few times which seem like a common symptom so I thought it's just safer to change it out.

Just an update. Avoid these alternators from Schmitz Rotary Engineering Ltd, they sell them on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132242571162 Before I purchased it, they said to me these are really good quality and apparently it's made in the same factory as Delco Remy and that they buy factory excess stock as unbranded to keep prices down. But this is absolute rubbish. Then they put a sticker on it that matches the model number of a Lucas alternator. These alternators are absolutely crap. I bought myself a Denso genuine one and all the problems are solved and it's perfect. I tested this rubbish ebay one with a multimeter and diodes and everything have failed. The clutch in the pulley doesn't work. Absolutely rubbish. I came across a few other people who bought from these guys and their alternators worked for few months then failed and the company doesnt take it back unless you have it professionally installed and can prove it. Luckily with me they have no choice as i'm within the eBay buyer protection time-frame and ebay have forced them to take it back. Regardless of the rubbish policies, they sold on ebay so they have to follow eBay rules. Furthermore, the eBay's feedback system is rather flawed. Because I saw that they sold over 60 units of the alternator and they had 100% positive feedback. So I thought thats quite good. But then for example i've returned mine and because i've returned mine then I cannot leave feedback. So really the feedback isn't accurate because people who return their product can't really leave feedback. Furthermore, they sold 60+ of these but only have 9 positive feedback for these items. If you google the company name, you will see a lot of bad reviews too. Considering the amount of work needed to change the alternator and there are too many expensive electronics on board to be damaged by a defective alternator. It's just not worth the risk for the little bit of savings to get these crappy alternators.

OK so avoid these alternators at all cost. I just finished installing it. Did everything properly and disconnected negative before installation. After I re-installed it I connected the negative and went to start the car, it was extremely loud with a very loud whining sound which I never had with my previous alternator even though previous one isn't dead yet. Then immedidately the alternator started smoking and letting out a huge amount of smoke from it and gettting louder. So i turned it off and disconnected the battery again. Will have to dismantle it and order myself a Genuine Denso this time. This surely isn't normal. The noise was extremely loud. Going to try and return it but I get the feeling they will try dispute it with the clause on their terms saying that it has to be installed by a garage and proof has to be provided. Really annoyed

Not sure what kind of Pulley it has but definately has the plastic cover just like the one in the picture of the OAP on the video you posted. So, is an OAP supposed to help with noise but when I do this manual spinning by hand back and forth very slowly that noise could be part of the OAP?

It doesn't seem to be the sort of resistance that you will get from spring loading. It's very strange because i can only re-create it and the noise if i turn the pully ever so slowly with my hand and sometimes if i rotate it back and forth then it feels almost like something touch or the blade inside is catching something. When this happens I can hear a little noise of whatever it is touching.

So I ended up buying this one as the seller seems to have sold quite a lot of units and I messaged and they said that apparently it's very good quality aftermarket alternator. I received it and looks like a quality build externally but I guess it's about the quality of the internals. One thing i noticed though I spun the pulley by hand and a few times it felt like some sort of resistance almost like something was stopping the pulley but it wasn't strong resistance and kept spinning but then eventually the resistance disappeared. It did that when I spun it in both directions so not sure if that's supposed to happen?

There are few other brands i've found CASCO, AS-PL, Ridex. These are quite reasonably priced. has anyone heard of these brands are they any good? here are a few links: https://www.onlinecarparts.co.uk/casco-10879590.html

I was really considering this one seeing as the ebay seller has 100% feedback but then I googled schmitz rotary engineering ltd and the google reviews are mixed with lots of people compaining about alternators failing after few months. The price is rather cheap but if it fails again so soon its not really worth it for me as the headache of replacing it everytime is too much. How long have you had yours and how was the fitment? Having my own one refurbished will that give it a good chance of lasting long though? Like my biggest concern is a repeat failure. Like will the cost saving vs new one be worth it? how long do refurbished ones last and what is involved in refurbing a alternator? I have also found the following one by a alternator and starter refurb company in Plymouth. They seem to have very good reviews on TrustedPilot: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192474249867 this particular one is £180 for a Denso refurbished one and they refund £30 for the old unit.

So the other day after about a 30minute drive on motorway I got a strange rubber/plastic burning smell through the vents into the cabin. Turned off the car and from outside the smell was quite noticable near the passenger side wheel area. Popped the bonnet open but when trying to smell the engine bay area I couldnt really smell it in the engine bay (was just getting a slight whiff of the smell) but the smell was more noticable by the passenger front wheel area. So I left it overnight and for the next day and went for a drive the following night. It started up fine, no smell at first as everything was freezing cold then after about 10minutes of driving as it was warming up I got a whiff of that smell (not as strong) for a few minutes and then it disappeared completely. After that the smell had completely disappeared. So, wondering if this can be the dreaded alternator rectifier burning smell? I've been looking at buying an alternator. The Denso replacement for it is the Denso DAN1354 but with brexit it seems to be out of stock everywhere. Earlier this year it was going for around £220 on ebay. Now the only brand new alternator option I can find is the following: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132242571162 which seems like some british made alternative. Anyone had any experience with this particular product? I wanted to go for Denso replacement as this other one brand is unknown.

Thank you. So if I'm understanding correctly if the friction surface of the discs wear out will it not automatically cause a lip between the edge and the friction surface? Isn't that why we use a gauge to measure the thickness of the disc? Maybe I'm not understanding correctly 🥺 because a brand new disc for example will be flush on the edge with the friction surface right? And as the friction surface wears out the edge will remain the same thickness but the friction surface will get thinner over time and this is what we measure in terms of minimum thickness. But what I'm confused about is that if the wearing out of the disc creates a lip then the minute a bit of lip is seen any do people say to change the discs? Isn't there supposed to be a certain amount of lip to allow for discs to wear to the minimum thickness? Like I said I'm not sure how this all is supposed to be just trying to understand so please forgive me if it's a dumb question 🥺

Which Castrol 5w30 do you use? Magnatec or Edge? How many miles have you done with that oil? The Mobil ESP seems to be the most overpriced of them all but I can get 7L for about £60 which for mobil esp is actually a bargain. The car needs 6.3L

But when I used to have car serviced at dealers I used to get through more pads than brake discs. Always seemed to be that the pads wear out more than the discs. A question about lip in disc. Can someone kindly explain what exactly a lip on the disc is and what it means? I hear this term a lot where people talk about lipped discs. Is it possible to have plenty of thickness left on disc but have lipped disc that needs changing?