SeriousSam

Afternoon all,

So I took my IS250 in to Lexus Reading for its 80k service yesterday, and we had a bit of a chat about service plans, since I'm doing about 20k a year in that car. They printed out an example of what the standard service costs would be, compared with the costs on the service plan. Unsurprisingly the service plan comes in cheaper. What's interesting is that I then worked out the costs of the standard services with the owner's club 15% discount, and that's cheaper still. Full details below:

2 year plan based on 4 services, standard price:

80k £519

90k £245

100k £669

110k £245

Total £1678

Service plan total cost £1560

Owners club discounted price:

80k £441.15

90k £208.25

100k £568.65

110k £208.25

Total £1426.30

The service manager said that he'd seen several owners' club members before, and some had service plans while others used their discount cards, but none of them had ever actually worked out the costs in front of him. My membership here has already paid for itself several times over in savings, but this shows quite nicely how much it helps :)

Thanks for sorting this one out for me Steve, I received the replacement card this morning. Proper job :)

Thanks very much!

Hmm, problem there - I'm getting an error message saying Steve can't use the message system. Any other suggestions?

Top stuff, thanks :)

Morning all,

Not sure if this is the right place to be posting this, mods feel free to move it if needed :)

I received my renewal pack a couple of months ago, and I've put it down somewhere, it's then been tidied up, and I've lost the membership card. I'm taking my IS in for service at Lexus Reading next Wednesday, and I've been asked to show my card to qualify for the club 15% discount.

I've placed a support request for a new card in the relevant section of my profile but nothing has happened on that since Tuesday. Clearly I'll be needing the card pretty soon, so is there anyone I can PM about this?

Thanks in advance :)

Sam

I was looking for a while, in the end I decided to go aftermarket. Good luck with the search though :)

Actually it's a little less than that if you go to the link below...

http://www.lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/products-accessories-10-0.html

Still going to set you back just over £1200 for the set, and that's before paint and tyres, but you can't put a price on style ;)

Interesting - I managed to dig up the website below yesterday, which suggests that the US cars had wider wheels with the same tyres - that would fit my requirements slightly better since I'd only need to change 2 wheels. Also I've just checked the manual, and it's definitely 255/40 on the rears, although I agree that makes it look a bit more jacked-up than I'd like.

http://www.wheel-size.com/size/lexus/is/2008/#trim-25-eudm

The point is I'm trying to preserve the warranty, since the car is still under ten years old. I've had £1150 worth of parts replaced under the warranty so far with no quibbles, so it's worth the £800 I paid for it. However I need to get back to OEM tyre sizes to ensure that any suspension problems that crop up can't be attributed to my wheels. Also the scraping is really annoying.

OK then, offsets. I can get the same wheel in 8.5j fitment for the front, in offsets ET20, 30, 35 and 44. The US cars apparently came with 8.5j ET40 on the front, and I want the wheels to sit slightly further out than standard, so they're almost flush with the arch rather than recessed. Should I go with ET35 or ET30?

Morning all,

I've recently got hold of a set of Rota Grid alloys in a properly wide fitment, too wide for the front in fact - I'm getting some minor scrubbing on the arches at full lock. I'm looking to find out what the standard 18" wheel sizes were, and I've got most of the info except two important bits for the fronts and rears - width and offset. What I know is below:

Diameter: 18"

Centre bore: 60.1mm

PCD: 5x114.3

Width: ?

Offset: ?

Front tyres: 225/40 R18

Rear tyres: 255/40 R18

Can anyone help?

You could try getting the wheel retrimmed, google Royal Steering Wheels - they're well regarded, and can do whatever you want to your existing wheel for about £150.

We had the Lexus Baransu 18" alloy wheels in gunmetal grey on our previous IS250, those were gorgeous. Shame the car was written off really, I liked them a lot.

I've had a quick look and there are a few options, but if there are reputable breakers that people know about on here I'd prefer to give them a shot first.

Morning all,

My car is currently in the bodyshop awaiting confirmation from my insurers of whether to proceed with repairs following a crash, but my suspicion is that they'll write it off due to the parts cost. I might need to get a number of body panels from a breaker, and I was wondering if there are any breakers on here or that people would recommend I look at?

It's a 2008 IS250 SR, and if I proceed I'll be needing a new front bumper, driver side headlight, bonnet, bonnet struts and rear passenger side door. There are additional parts that would have to come from Lexus, but these ones I could source from a breaker, and considering the current parts cost is just shy of £8000, I'd be keen to do so! Anything you guys can do to help would be appreciated :)

Sam

Thanks Ulisse, that helps quite a bit. The brakes look great behind the 18's you've got there, so I'd be happy going with the same size for my car. Since it's a full kit that would help as well, and it might even be worth upgrading the rears while I'm at it to keep everything looking right. Thanks for the heads-up on the replacement pads as well, it's good to know I could get those without too much trouble.

I've had a look round, and there are a few companies offering D2 parts here in the UK, just shy of £1000 for the front brake kit if I go for fixed discs so that could well work for me once I've saved the cash up. Thanks for the reply :)

Sounds like a sensible idea, where would be the best place to get hold of a full set of GS300 brakes?

Hi Ulisse,

I'd be totally interested in this kit, the standard discs look like bottle caps behind the 18" Baransu rims I've got, and they aren't performing as well as I'd like - an emergency stop on my way to work the other day completely roasted them, not cool at all. Looking at the site, it looks like these are available in a variety of disc sizes dependent on the size of the rim, which sounds great - you say you went for the 330mm discs and 8 pot calipers, what size ar your rims?

Also did the kit come with braided lines or was it just calipers, discs and pads? I guess you'd source replacement pads from the same company?

Sam

Morning all,

My wife and I have just bought ourselves an IS250 to replace her tired old 1.4 Astra. It's quite the upgrade, and we're both really happy with it. Me being me I'd like to add a couple of minor mods to improve it just a little, and I was hoping this would be the right place to get some advice.

First up, I'm after some iPod integration for the Mark Levinson sound system, and I'm looking at the Vais Tech MML (http://www.vaistech.com/site/mml.php). Has anyone got any experience of that particular combination, and are there any fitters that people can recommend in the Basingstoke area?

Second, the headlights are a bit weedy when compared to the factory fitted HIDs on my RX-8, so I'd be wanting to get those upgraded. I'm all for staying road legal, so I'm looking for a place to get hold of the OEM Xenon headlights with levelling sensors, ballasts and washer jets. I could ask the stealers, but I can't convince myself that they would be good value, and there's not much on eBay. Can anyone recommend a good source for OEM parts?

Looking forward to many years of happy ownership :)

Sam