ganzoom

Hope you get the issue sorted. Our IS300H is one of the most relaxing motorway cruisers I've driven regardless of weather conditions.

If the IS300H has a totally electric drive train it'll be the perfect car for me. Luckly it looks like Toyota is finally starting to see pointlessness of hydrogen fuel cell cars. There were suppose to be >50 hydrogen fuel stations open in California by now, but as it stands there are only 3. Costs of $1-3 million per station, and residents not wanting to live near a mass hydrogen storage unit is apprently to blame. Hopefully maybe soon we'll see proper EVs from Lexus / Toyota. http://insideevs.com/toyota-to-selected-dealers-stop-delivering-mirai-there-is-no-where-to-refuel/

So holding done the TC button for 5 seconds whilst in P appears to have done something....Shame the snow woudlnt be back for another year :(

That's my 'excuse' for having a little play in an empty car park. Actually losing the rear end is pretty difficult, as I've found out, the TC system in the IS is ferocious, your very unlikely to send it spinning unless your really trying too. The bigger danger in ice/snow is the massive braking distances. Your much more likely to rear end someone, or slide into a junction due to not braking early enough, than sliding the rear end out. Which is why I don't understand why people think 4WD cars are safer in snow/ICE. 4WD doesn't help you slow down any better, if anything it means your likely to be traveling faster (due to better traction), and therefore your braking distances will be even more. But for the IS300H, my experiences so far tell me its a pussy cat in low traction conditions. Don't be scared by low traction conditions, see it as a opportunity to get to know how the car handles but at much lower speeds. And the IS300H handles very well :).

I tried all sorts, will give it another go. But snow is disappearing :(

So with with a nice layer of snow on the ground I took the IS300H to an empty car park to see if I could warm my self up with some nice doughnuts....Sadly it quickly became clear Lexus didn't want the IS300H to be associated with this type of immature behaviour :( The TC kicks in regardless of what setting you put the car in, Snow, TC 'off', sport, manual shift. Worse than that it's not just the TC that kicks in, you can feel individual wheels been braked to try and stop the rear end from over taking the front. Shame really, because the car is beautifully balanced, you can start a drift/donut really easily, and for about 1-2 second it all feels really controlled, but than the TC comes alive, and it becomes like wrestling some kind of bear (I imagine). But it wasn't all just about trying to get an ASBO....Also tried 'snow' mode, which seems to lower the initial power delivery, and allows a bit more 'slip' before the TC kicks in. Overall very impressed how the car handled in slippery conditions, even with the eco tyres on :). Still a shame the TC is so intrusive, but at least the car still looks good surrounded by a bit of slush.

I'm seeing 40mpg last few days. 20 minute commute, start stop traffic, 4 miles total distance.

I really wouldn't worry about it :)

We've got a 15 plate premier with shark fun aerial. Still have imbedded aerial at the top of the rear windscreen. Nothing to worry about for the OP.

Ours is coming up to a year old soon and 7000 miles. No issues at all. Currently we are averaging 41 mpg, which given the cold weather, horrible traffic, and mainly trips < 10 miles is impressive. Our old diesel Civic use to return <35mpg in the same coditions, and the 335i about 20mpg :D

Well if it does ever become loss you know what to do :)

Here you go, the guys in the US has done it on the Prius (Which is essentially the same as the IS300H drivetrain expect for a larger ICE unit). If you got £5-10K to burn on an AP racing BBK, I suggest this might be a more interesting mod - You might become the first person to convert an IS300H to a plugin EV :) http://www.enginer.us/products/conversion_kit.php

These people are probably the ones to contact. They have build a fully electric RX8 and have lots of knowledge on Leaf batteries. I bet they'll have a go at turning the IS300H into a proper EV - For a price :) http://www.indra.co.uk/index.php/services/modifications-to-oem-vehicles

^^ Becuse per kg, Lithium ion batteries offer 20-50% more charge per unit weight compared to NiHM. So instead the car will stay in EV mode for longer, or you can just shed weight. Maybe even reprogram the ECU to allow the electric motor to run at a higher output. Toyota is finally offering the latest Prius with an lithium ion pack. You can take apart the current NiHM pack in the IS and replace the content with equivalent Lithium Ion cells. The problem is how you control charge/discharge as the thermal properties of the cells will be very different. As I've said, that's proper car modding :)

Everyone wants different things, the reason we had no interest in the 'F-sport' IS over the normal IS is because underneath its the same car. But lots of other people like to the more aggressive looks of the F-sport. Spolier/lights etc aren't really that expensive or difficult mods, you can reverse them quite easily, I don't even class them as mods. But when you start talking about dropping a few Ks on things like BBKs, than either money is no object, or you haven't thought out what your trying to achieve. On my last car, I spent £2K on a quaife LSD, probably the best £2K I've spent on any mod. Than a similar amount on Bilstein dampers - which again worth every £ I paid. But wasted plenty of £££, like solid rear subframe bushes, about £1K on after-market oil coolers, £500+ on air-intakes, and close to £1k on various ECU remap options. Had I not sold that car I'm pretty sure I would have dropped £3-4K on hybrid turbos by now. I have no problems spending £££ on mechanical changes that make a difference, but a BBK on the IS300H, 100% pointless. If you really want to mod the IS300H, I would look into either the IS200t or thinking about doing a whole engine transplant from a scrapped IS350 - which they only sell in the states. But properly modding the IS is gong to be pretty difficult due to the lack of any third party info on ECU reprogramming. I still think replacing the battery pack with a lithium-ion solution is a worth while mod, but your going have to build a bespoke lithium-ion pack. You have to keep the overall weight/size the same, otherwise your looking at re-adjusting the whole suspension setup. Building the pack is possible - and not that hard, what's hard is how your going to convince the ECU to charge the thing, and working out what rate of re-charge/discharge the new pack can handle compared to the old. That's proper modding, and once our IS300H comes out of warranty a option I'll seriously have a think about :)....

If your fiend drive off a cliff would you follow them?? Putting a BBK on a IS300H is probably the most pointless waste of time/money mid I've ever heard of, if they have money to burn good for them, people also buy Bentleys and paint them gold. Mod a car for what you want it to do, not for the sake following others. The IS300H isn't a track day car, so upgrading the brakes is as good as burning money. What would be an interesting mod would be swapping out the heavy nikle hydrid battery for a lithium ion pack....

The mechanical brake is the same as any other car....Why are you wanting to change to an AP racing big brake kit?? The IS hasn't got enough power to warrant a BBK, not unless your going to track one, in which case you've bought the wrong car.... I also persume you know AP kits cost about £5k per axel before fitted, and replacement discs/pads are significantly more expensive than normal systems. Your probably have to also ensure they fit under the OEM wheels.

Hold the top end of the leather gaitor where it joins the gear leaver and give a tug, it should just come loss.

Figured it out. The leather bit come away with a little tug, and the shifter head can than be repositioned and screwed in. No needed for the dealer :)

Noticed the gear stick is twisting loss. Anyone else noticed this? Looks like our IS is going to have to vist a Lexus dealer after all :)

My personal view, spoilers are called spoilers because they spoil the look of any car :) Even on a GTR, getting rid of the spoiler improves the cars look 10 fold.

Eco mode makes more use of EV mode. I notice a 2-3 mpg difference on similar trips Eco versus normal.

Our IS300H replaced a diesel Civic, personally I think there IS is serveral leagues above the Civic interms of refinement, but that is expected, our IS was nearly three times more expensive than our Civic to buy (both new). Our is now nearly 12 months old, I've found the most impressive things about the IS is the the ride. It's really really well set-up, very little body role, good feedback, absorbs bumps well and is well damped. We'll be keeping ours for a long time, very happy with our decision to go for the IS over a XF/XE/C class :).

I've tried alligators on my old 335i. They are a hard to fit, and I ended up taking them off simply because I didn't fancy the idea of a 50cm piece of plastic flying off the wheel at 70mph+, or when involved in any minor knock involving the wheel. If people want them PM me, they are black, cut it fit 19inch wheels, cost me £100 or something but people can have them for £25 if you come and collect.

Spot the only idiot at work who didn't think ahead and book this week off as Annual leave, at least it's not raining today :)