fjcfarrar

70k disk life is not unreasonable. If wear doesn't get them, rust does... The job is probably 2 - 3 hours or so, given that the caliper assembly has to be shifted off the wheel assembly to change the disks anyway, this doesn't add a lot of labour. An easy job you could do yourself if you wanted using standard tools and bleeding tubes etc. If the offside caliper assembly needs to be changed, I would check the other one is absolutely OK while at it, because the nearside has a harder life through water and stuff near kerbs etc.

All standard disks CD, DVD, CD ROM Read only, Recordable etc. are governed by the same dimensional spec and will cause no problems as a result of size. Labels stuck on them can cause severe problems usually by coming off and sticking to the works instead; so never put these in. If the ink on hand-written disks that has not fully dried, it can be flung over the laser lens which will need a strip-down to clean it off. Small and strangely-shaped disks can't be reliably handled so NO to these. There is a chance that some formats not recognised by the player will confuse it. Most will simply be rejected; but there is a faint possibility that some really weird format could make the system lock up - so don't put these in either. By saying avoid MP3s etc, Lexus protect themselves against all the daft things people might do with their own disks.

Most 11 year old cars have drifted into the Old Banger category, shifted from back-street lots. I have never seen a neglected or tatty IS 200/300 that looked like one - unlike plenty of Fords, Vauxhalls, Peugots etc. Have you? Pictures please if you have.

In some countries there are Insurance restrictions on more than Driver + 4 passengers for "performance" cars. Lexus have chosen to play safe with this under the pretext of the effects on handling with more weight in the back. I suppose I should have added the option of the "sport" mode as the default setting, but have got used to pressing the button - there is no economy penalty if you have a sensitive right foot.

After 2 1/2 years, I still really like the car, but here are a few small things I would have preferred, but realise some are impossible/ridiculously expensive and others nobody else would want. Where they would add significantly to the price, I wouldn't bother - which shows they are not that important, just pipedreams:- 1. Single gearchange paddle on steering column that doesn't move with the wheel - to be moved Upwards for Change Up & vice-versa. 2. "Comfort" suspension setting with speed-limiter for bumpy, slow roads & passengers who hate Osteopaths. 3. Direction indicator repeaters in side mirrors (I think latest versions have these). 4. Old-fashioned maybe, but would have liked a choice of Tan leather seats, door inserts etc. with more or less matching dash and light neutral headlining. All-black is nice but a bit depressing. White seats are now available; but like white underpants require too much maintenance. 5. A quick Idiot's interface for Satnav where you just choose From: Home/Here & To: Full Postcode/Coordinates/Home (gives answer Jubilee Street, Durham - Confirm/Try again) and then leads you off into options & detail only if necessary. Should accept full postcodes even if it ignores final digits because everybody thinks in terms of the whole post-code. 6. An exhaust setting/valve that lets you have a full V8 grumble when just ambling along and not just above 3600 rpm when you are perhaps a bit too busy to fully enjoy the sound. 7. Something a bit less tacky than FAKE carbon-fibre inserts on doors & gear console. 8. The rear seats are separated by plastics from Primark - really the only quality/cosmetic let-down. 9. Without sacrificing looks or handling, I would have preferred a Hatchback which is so much more useful. We all have to lug stuff to the tip! 10. A Ford-style full windscreen electric de-icer to save the morning scrape 5 months of the year. So what would you want given unlimited choice?

Your work with the Exhausts, Emblems and the Carbon-Fibre Wrapping really is genuinely to be admired. You have used skill, imagination, care, craftsmanship and effort to create unique results which are well beyond just screwing on so-called "custom" goodies. What you have produced is subtle and looks professional. Whether people like it is just down to personal taste. Most cosmetic mods label cars as got at by an obvious burke with heaven knows what horrors to be found later, wrecking the resale value. Yours should actually be worth more because people will appreciate quality work and real individuality - although I am sure that is not your motive. Thanks also for letting us share what you have achieved and how you did it.

fjcfarrar: I have used a device in order to gauge the amount of db. The sound is coming from the tail pipe, as the exhaust is just hanging on the rubber mountings and is fully free except the 2 bolts. As a comparison, with the stock exhaust, my car is quieter than a GS and close to a LS :). this might be the reason why i hear a lot more than others. ps I might be selling the tom's exhaust (used for 2 weeks), so if someone is interested, please let me know! The problem with most aftermarket exhausts is that they are usually designed to make them pleasantly noisier/look cool/allegedly last a long time and rarely make the exhaust seem any quieter - just different, reducing some frequency components of the exhaust note at the expense of others. To reduce tail-pipe noise, a single much longer custom (horribly expensive) silencer filling the space across the car leading to a single tail-pipe would probably turn down the LF (approx 100Hz) component of the drone better than the OEM set-up by providing a longer path through sound-absorbing material. Also at huge expense, pipework is available with sound absorbing walls. Care would be needed to have smooth right-angles in it plus a large enough bore to avoid gas-flow restriction. After all that, you really will notice the road noise which you can easily reduce by fitting steel wheels with much taller section tyres. By now the car wil be very, very quiet but not look great and have lost some handling!

Look on http://www.bahamutcars.com for the circuit diagram in the Workshop Manuals section - that might help you.

I am not insulting anybody by saying this, but if the job was technically really complex & difficult - beyond the capabilities of normal mortals; mechanics wouldn't be able to do it either because not long ago most were just ordinary mortals like you. What they have is the convenience of a workshop with equipment to make it easy and maybe having done it before. Changing a gearbox (particularly an auto box) is essentially an exercise in the obvious. I go back to when people automatically did all this sort of work themselves - engine/gearbox/suspension rebuilds/body repairs etc. because otherwise you couldn't afford to run a car and there was always the first time for all of it. I only stopped when I got old, bu**ered, lazy and could afford someone else to do it. The really important thing is to think ahead to work safely. In the bad old days, some didn't and were badly injured. If you do it yourself, I am sure Forum members will help out in all sorts of ways.

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This is very true - use the phone. Also if you know an Insurance Company you trust, ask them which cars/models would be cheapest to insure. Then try for the best car/insurance combination. Unfortunately, all the statistics show newer drivers do cause claims, but I think Insurance Companies use this as an excuse for premiums which are out of proportion - after all, they also all claim they don't make any money out of car insurance but strangely seem to compete really strongly for the business.

The only remaining optiom I did not mention is to change the gearbox yourself. All you actually need is ramps/axle stands, some bricks/wooden blocks/fenceposts & a couple of old screw jacks plus hard work. Spanners etc of course. NOTE: YOU MUST BE CONFIDENT YOU CAN RAISE & SUPPORT THE CAR SAFELY & DO THE JOB WITHOUT INJURING YOURSELF. I have changed even larger gearboxes on my own without any special equipment, and although it is awkward, dirty & fiddly, and involves getting lots of bits out of the way; it can usually be done, especially when driven by being strapped for money. Otherwise, good luck with getting a decent price if you sell "as is".

Your problem there is that Lexus did what you asked - they no doubt never said it would cure it. The only way you will get anything back would be a generous trade-in on another car from them - and most Lexus main-dealers no longer keep IS200's, they just move them on. But if you strike lucky for once, they could just have a PX they haven't shifted yet. As for how long until something else goes wrong if you fix it - that will be the same problem whatever used car you replace yours with. It all hinges on just how near to perfect yours is apart from the gearbox. Is another unknown car a better way to spend £1k since you seem to be stuck with that sort of expenditure?

Sound deadening is a difficult subject and dB measurements are unreliable because of the predominant road noise transmitted through the body. The exhaust drone that annoys you could either be the note that comes out of the tailpipes or directly coupled through the mountings. If it is coupled, you could try temporarily suspending the rear sections by soft bungees (until the heat gets them) to see if that improves things - although the silencers may bang on things when going over bumps. If it is coming out of the pipes, drive along a quiet empty road on a still evening - then see if it gets worse when you open the rear windows. It could all be exacerbated by the resonance characteristics of the exhaust system and the passenger cabin which will be hard to modify. As a note of caution, if you succeed in making your IS250 uber-quiet, all the tiny squeaks and rattles will start to realy bug you!

Hi Rajesh. Faulty Lexus IS200 Auto boxes are rare except from extreme neglect - usually major fluid loss in the past. They should easily outlast the rest of the car. Even Lexus will have difficulties sorting out auto gearbox problems because they don't see enough faulty ones to be used to repairing them. Auto boxes self-protect because they always select an appropriate gear and don't have to suffer anybody revving and dropping the clutch on them and so on. You have been really unlucky with yours and another box from a crashed/write-off car is very, very unlikely to have any problems. So get one from a scrap/reclaim yard and have it fitted by an independant to keep costs down. It is not a difficult job and hard to make a mess of it. Most scrap/reclaim yards guarantee such parts although you would then have to bear any costs of exchanging etc., but it really is extremely unlikely you will even have to think about that. If the rest of the car is in a good state, this is probably worthwhile compared with going for another used car which could prove a dud - in fact it is much more likely that there will be faults with the whole of a used car than just a used gearbox.

Found the same. Also found that all the links mentioned in the Help files to report things etc to moderators etc are missing from site now, so have not been able to report this and just hope a moderator reads these posts.

Strangely, what Winter throws at your parked car is harmless. It is actually strong Summer sunlight that damages paintwork and can affect the plastics etc. where it bakes the interior. Car covers are a mixed blessing because colour/chemical vapours can migrate from them into paintwork leaving marks where they touch, and it is almost impossible to peel them off without damage if frozen on. They also tend to make your car smell like the inside of a welly boot. Generally, you are better off without - just give it a good wax.

Lexus official figures are 0-100 KMH in 4.8 sec which is 0-60 MPH in 4.63 sec. If you want to reduce it to say 4.3, you will need about 150 BHP more taking output to 563ish BHP (do the math). That will definitely increase fuel consumption which at full shout is already only about 4 mpg and probably requires a turbo. A tinker with the mapping is never going to achieve anything worthwhile. The major factors are traction-loss and aerodynamic drag - at max power the wheels are already slipping, and more power will make this worse as well as removing the tread from the expensive tyres very quickly. For similar reasons, The Bugatti Veyron needs 1000BHP to beat the 4 sec barrier, eats tyres & gobbles fuel outrageously. To get better fuel consumption, remove the lump of lead from the right foor or use Snow Mode - or both.

Although you would expect other codes, it seems like the car is in limp mode. I would check the Lambda sensor(s) which fit somewhere on the exhaust manifold/system and massively affect the mixture. I don't know if there is just one or separate ones for each bank. If you have a meter, make sure it (they) are not open-circuit as a starting point. Otherwise, unplug and replug all the connectors on the engine and to the ECU if you can get at it - there may be dirty connections which can lead to both problems and/or incorrect codes. "Working" connectors can often clear bad connections. Other wiser people can advise if you need to reset the ECU after this and how to do it.

fairly and squarely aimed at the company car user,i don't fancy going for less power. Less power isn't necessarily a problem. This version has similar BHP to the original IS200, and if the new engine characteristics make it drive even nearly as well as that and also return useful fuel economy; surely IS220D drivers will think they are in heaven in this revised version? Lets face it, it is almost bound to be better - Lexus are not going to be looking for something to dislodge the IS220D from its position as sort of OK, but their worst car ever. the 220 is a heavy car due to the equipment and safety levels.a power reduction for those currently owning a 177bhp model will be very noticeable imho. The weight difference IS200 - IS220D is only equivalent to 2 average adults, so I think what I say still holds true. Hopefully an up-to-date diesel can nearly compete with a 15 year-old petrol design (except in smoothness). Surely Lexus would just be unable to sell anything that provides a worse drive than the current IS220D?

A good hard bang as above that makes them ring - with a copper-faced, big & heavy hammer (so as not to dent them) usually releases rust etc.

1. You need to work at it. Comparison sites will not get you the best deal - you need to phone many companies and sometimes play one off against another. It takes a long time and a lot of effort. 2. If your car is heavily modified and looks like it has been stolen from a drug-dealer, plus you have only just passed your test - it is always going to be very, very expensive to insure. Unfortunately, Insurance Companies are actually correct when they think the chances of you costing them money are high. Realistically, unless you are wealthy, get rid of this car and get something cheaper to insure until you are richer. You probably couldn't really afford to run it anyway. 3. Before making any claim work out how much repair costs are compared with the amount your insurance will go up over several years. Your excess figure at next renewal should take this into account. 4. When it looks like insurance will get cheaper when you reach 25, this will move to 30 when you get there etc. 5. Read ALL the Terms and Conditions, remembering always that their aim is more to make profits than provide what you would like. 6. GOOD LUCK :)

fairly and squarely aimed at the company car user,i don't fancy going for less power. Less power isn't necessarily a problem. This version has similar BHP to the original IS200, and if the new engine characteristics make it drive even nearly as well as that and also return useful fuel economy; surely IS220D drivers will think they are in heaven in this revised version? Lets face it, it is almost bound to be better - Lexus are not going to be looking for something to dislodge the IS220D from its position as sort of OK, but their worst car ever.

You wont be too happy about it when all that oil from the filter ends up on your MAF sensor and starts messing with the engine management. If I swap it back to standard will I need to do anything else other than resetting the ECU? Or is there anything that might need a clean? The ideal filter is one that imposes no restriction at all on air-flow. So to prove if your K&N is making matters worse - simply remove the element for a while unless where you drive is really dusty and gritty. There isn't any real evidence that oiled filters have any technical benefits over dry-media filters with a large effective area like the OEM types (these also offer more diffuse paths for the incoming air, better cancelling induction noise). Both eventually clog, and as a simple rule, the longer that takes; the less it is picking up of the stuff it is meant to stop.

Lexus have done a good job with the looks of the F-Sport to produce an appealing package - but I do wish they had thought of another name for it. The terms "Sport" and "IS220D" just don't fit together any better than "Gourmet" and "Pot-Noodle" and adding the "F" doesn't help