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That is more than twice what I pay for my ISF with Direct Line and nearly 4 times what the 30 yr old girl who now has my IS200LE paid this year. Phone around directly to Insurers and do not use Comparison Sites or Brokers. Everybody can get cheaper Insurance by NOT using them.

I think you may have underestimated just how stiff the steering is going to be. Put it this way, I wouldn't drive 150 miles like that. Completely draining the PS fluid should make it more free so that the steering wheel is just working the steering rather than trying to push the PS fluid where it doesn't want to go, and will be kinder to the seals in the rack - but you will have to bleed it thoroughly when you refill it. If you are not sure how, look on this site which is the repair manual where the bits under 2JZ GE refer to the IS 300:http://bahamutcars.f.../menu_tree.html It is not going to matter if the AC & PS pulleys are disconnected as far as running the engine is concerned providing the belt drive to the other bits is secure and as a precaution the A/C is set to off to avoid confusing its control system.

Probably worthwhile trying Lexus Garages to see if they have a power-steering pulley & the full-sized belt in stock. It is possible that it is the same pulley on the IS200 or other Lexus models so there is a chance. But first make sure the power steering vane-pump is not seized or excessively stiff which may have stuffed the belt - or one of the other items on the route of the belt. It is of course possible a cracked/faulty pulley caused the whole problem when it finally gave up. The pulley is held on by one bolt. I take it you are sure the cam-belt is OK? Sorry I can't find the part Nos of the pulley or belt.Have now got the part Nos & prices from Lexus Guildford who are unfailingly helpful: Pulley P/N 4431122091 £102.08 + VAT Belt P/N 99366D1930 £23.93 + VAT The belt is the full-sized proper one. Should be in stock or on next-day delivery from most Toyota or Lexus Garages, but the pulley is unlikely to be in stock & may take 3 days to arrive from the Lexus Distribution Centre in Belgium from when ordered. If you don't replace these, it will be no fun to drive the car any distance without power steering and it could be dangerous. I don't know the IS300 well & can't see from the diagrams if the same belt also drives the water-pump. That must be driven or the car will seriously overheat very quickly. £ 102.08 for the pulley seems a lot; but £1500 to do this job sounds very steep. Best of luck.

Something well over 200 BHP is feasible if you go for a 'charger. It is not a job for the faint-hearted, and a mechanic to do it for you is going to be very expensive. When that is done, the extra power will seek out all the flaws & weaknesses in an unknown, well-worn, elderly car which will cost another fortune to fix including any suspension upgrades etc. Yes, an interesting project if you have time and money on your side. You could end up with a fine car with "exciting" Insurance costs, massive fuel consumption and a great deal of satisfaction. If you just enjoy the Lexus driving experience but would like more power, you might be better off in investing in a working IS300 instead. If you then find its 212BHP isn't enough, lean on that a bit. The power is a lot closer to start with to what you want. The IS300 also has a few extra toys and will work out cheaper & maybe more reliable than the above alternative. Don't be put off by the IS300 being an auto - people who start off against autos soon lose that prejudice. As to your original engine. Unless it has been stripped down, head removed etc; I would take with a pinch of salt the catalogue of things that are said to need to be done. Even a head-skim is not automatic after a head-gasket failure - the gasket is there after all to take up slight differences between the head and block surfaces - a proper engineering works can cheaply tell if skimming is actually needed if you take the head to them, and even skimming is not hugely expensive. As to the other parts, you should be able to tell for yourself if they need replacing. Above all, a head-gasket replacement is a job you should easily be able to do yourself with a few ordinary tools and very little expense, gaining experience doing it if you are a novice. It is particularly easy with OHC engines because no valve adjustment is needed, just attention to cam-belt alignment. Having done this in a few evenings, you could sell your otherwise worthless IS200 as a going concern to put towards a decent IS300.

Does "MY" stand for "Model Year"? MY = Model Year & not year of registration. MY2009 does not exist in the UK.The Thorssen LSD works by limiting the amount of rotational "slip" between the rear wheels before power is transferred to the wheel still gripping. The original "electronic" LSD works by braking a rear wheel rotating faster than the other one, and normal differential action then shifts power to the slower-rotating, gripping side. As the figures show, for track use the mechanical LSD gives better results which is a plus. The only downside is that the mechanical LSD inherently gives comparatively greater tyre wear when it is brought into play. For normal road use, it is dubious that there will be much of a difference of any sort between either type. What is probably more important is that the latest suspension changes hold the rear wheels slightly better to the road & mean a small reduction in inherent differential rear-wheel slip; so that any type of LSD will potentially have less to do - plus the ride comfort is improved (although it is fair to say that most ISF drivers find the original version's ride comfortable enough). In respect of LSDs & suspensions changes, the choice depends on your priorities for the ISF - as a track-car, road-car or a mixture of both - and the depth of your wallet. All ISFs are good and a little bit rare (have never seen another one on the road since April 2008) - enjoy. Rarest ISFs in UK are Ultrasonic Blue with white leather introduced by "popular" demand & have proved as saleable as men's suits in the same colours.

As these things go, the IS250 scores very well on reliability. But if you are worried, weigh up the cost of extending your 12 month Lexus Warranty. This is not cheap, but if something major (not likely but certainly enormously expensive to fix) happens to fail; it could be worth it - particularly if the dealer will sweeten the overall deal a little.

Just supposing there was an exhaust system complete with decat that actually gave a genuine validated 20 BHP more. Firstly, you would have a job detecting any change in performance from such a modest amount in 417 BHP. Secondly, in terms of the ISF power output, 20-50 BHP is the sort of difference you should expect from from normal daily or seasonal changes in air temperature, humidity, air density (usually through altitude), variation in fuel at the pumps and the repeatability errors of rolling roads etc. Then, supposing you could ease the power up by 100 BHP or more by some means like a supercharger. The losses through tyre-grip (or rather lack of it) already mean that the car goes slower than the wheel revs would suggest when the power is laid down and especially at the top end of the speed range; so without some tyre/suspension enhancements to improve this, a big proportion of any advantage will just be lost. Basically, there is not a lot that minor tweaks & so-called performance mods can achieve because Lexus has already done all this easy stuff. Although no supercar, the ISF is still within the range of cars where a hell of a lot more power is needed to make quite a small difference to actual performance.

There will be NO alternative exhaust systems that will make even the slightest detectable or measurable diference to ISF performance - the OEM system breathes much more than adequately. Another system could affect the noise it makes, but that is all.

Ignoring the pros & cons of different browsers, it is still true that over 98% of PCs now in use are an XP & Explorer combination. Mine is XPpro IE8 (fuly updated & protected) and don't think I should need to buy a new system just to use this site. I now found this site to be tragically & appalingly slow. It has been for a few months - I know no other site as slow & have tried it in a number of different locations on different PCs - it is the same on all of them. It is clearly not a virus/exploit problem. It is absolutely an issue with the LOC site which WAS fine and now isn't - perhaps a roll-back of some sort is called-for!

No, not coded on the IS300 either. I don't think any of the Lexus Radios/players/multimedia systems are coded. It has been long known that the only people defeated by coding protection on Car Entertainment Systems are the legitimate owners because thieves have always been able to easily overcome it.

The OEM Radio on the IS200 is NOT coded, so no worries.

The IS300 may not have an early wear problem for its cambelt which can go 100k - but I would not like to rely on the rubber in ANY ten-year-old belt. Maybe at least a careful check or change it as a precaution?

No problem at all with this. This is exactly what the Edge units are meant for. If you go to:- http://edgecaraudio.co.uk/manuals/edb_active_manuals.pdf This will show you how to connect to the existing rear speaker feeds (wires) and make connection to your Edge enclosure High-Level inputs & how to set them up. There is nothing difficult in any of this. The Edge Active Subwoofers are designed to either run from the head-unit OR from existing loudspeaker feeds - as in your Lexus. It would be unwise to disconnect the existing speakers. The Edge will provide heavier, deep bass & you will not notice what the original speakers are doing. At the bottom of the page on the site are clear instructions how to set them up. DO NOT set the gain etc any higher than you need to. DO fit fuses where they tell you to. It is probably a good idea to rig up one side just to see if you like the sound before doing anything permanent. When you have fitted your subs; please do not drive past my house in the middle of the night! Note: The Edge website is a bit iffy & it may take several attempts to get into the bit you want.

Not all phones will transfer phonebook data into the Lexus system - mine doesn't.There used to be (and it may still exist) a list of fully compatible phones on the Lexus website. I can't remember where in the site, only that it was hard to find. It is probably easier to phone a Lexus Dealership & ask. I copied my phonebook into a friends discarded compatible phone & then into the IS to avoid doing it manually.

Don't buy anything until you have proved the fault is the switch and not something in the mirror-assembly (jammed gearing or poor connection to motor etc.)

Sounds OK to me. Wait to see what others have to say before you make up your mind.Personally, would suggest you use some of the money saved on an earlier model to buy Lexus Extended Warranty - not that I would expect any problems at all. Its just that anything major is going to be massively costly if you run out of luck.

Unitee, you shouldn't be so hard on your repairer. A loose connection means the fault is sometimes there: sometimes not - so will not show up on any test until it chooses to happen. This means the majority of the time is spent looking for a fault while it doesn't exist. Intermittent faults are the bane of anybody trying to repair anything.

Assuming that it isn't just a simple hydraulic failure which would be fairly cheap (likely a floppy pedal with possibly hydraulic fluid dripping from the bell-housing). Otherwise, for a slipping clutch that has finally died etc; a big spread of price is likely because it depends on what is replaced. If the dual-mass flywheel needs to be replaced, this will add a large chunk. At your car's age this could apply - even as a precaution. Either way, not a difficult or complicated job for any half-way decent mechanic who uses proper spares. Hopefully someone on here can recommend somewhere trustworthy in that area - or at a probable premium price: a Lexus Garage.

It isn't an easy choice. Have a look at the threads "ISF with Upgrade" & "2012 ISF Release Date". In the end it depends on exactly how much in money-terms you value the improvements - most of which I think are niceties; but others think important. For example, many rate the improved ride-comfort/track-handling in more recent models - but I find my MY2008 car OK anyway. The same applies to mechanical LSD, improved dash/control layout, better SatNav etc. None are enough to even slightly tempt me to upgrade to the latest version - but that is just my view very much conditioned by the huge cost of doing so. So it is up to you. Most of the improvements would be quite nice to have; but so is a bargain-price for an earlier model where the really massive hit for depreciation has already been taken. All versions of the ISF are very, very good & you will enjoy whichever you get - and even find less thirsty than you expect!

Your calculations agree quite well with my rather odd example (quoting a previous post) - except you have arrived at the same 30% fuel-cost reduction apparently without factoring in the 25% more volume of LPG required for the car to drive the same distance and at the same speeds as when powered by petrol - this has nothing to do with comparative efficiencies of the system, and is entirely due to LPG's inherently lower energy value. No LPG system however well-engineered can duplicate the petrol system's performance without using more fuel or changing the immutable laws of Physics.The economic advantage of LPG exists only while the tax-structure continues to artificially price its energy content lower than that of petrol - but for how much longer?. Hopefully LPG is so small-scale that Government sticky fingers won't bother with it. I totally agree that higher annual mileage will submerge conversion costs and reach break-even sooner. I also accept engine-benefits of cleaner burning can accrue - although unless suitable steps are taken, damage to some valves/seats with LPG remains a possible consequence. Lazydocker, I am glad your experience has been both positive & financially worthwhile. Nevertheless, with the mileage of the original enquirer; the break-even point is in the balance over a 3 -year period - both higher annual mileage & a longer period would make it increasingly worthwhile. It would be even more worthwhile if the IS300 Sportcross had somewhere suitable for the LPG tank that did not intrude so inconveniently into its valuable but limited loading area. It remains an interesting & sensible project to undertake - but with eyes wide open.

It can surely be done. But if you want them to use in fog you need to have 4300K or lower. Beams from higher colour-temperatures (blueish) are more reflected by fog particles: beams from lower colour-temperatures (yellowish) penetrate further. Not an opinion but scientific fact.

Lets try & get the figures something like right (hopefully)The idea that LPG conversion will convert £120/month petrol cost to £40/month LPG cost is just plain ridiculous. It isn't physically possible. LPG average cost 78p/l. Petrol average cost 145p/litre - Figures published as at 22/03/12 So if your petrol costs are £120/month; over 3 years if prices stay the same, fuel cost is 120 X 36 = £4320 The same number of litres of LPG will cost 78/145 X 4320 if prices stays the same, and amounts to £2324 - but LPG has 25% less energy so you will have to buy 25% more - so total LPG fuel cost becomes £2905. You can see that at current prices, actual LPG fuel cost is 31% lower than the petrol cost for any distance you travel - this will vary a little depending on the efficiency obtained by the LPG system installed so that the saving could be less, but is unlikely to be better. If your LPG conversion costs in total £1000; 3 year expenditure becomes £3905, giving an overall saving of £415. If your LPG conversion costs in total £2000; 3 year expenditure becomes £4905; giving no saving at all but an overall increase of £585. So the financial viability of your LPG conversion hinges on the purchase/installation cost of the conversion & if one fuel goes up relative to the other. Otherwise, is a saving of £11.52/month worth the effort plus having to lob out the conversion-cost upfront? It could still be an interesting project regardless.

Simply because there are not many of these in the UK & still fewer where people have tried LPG. People are wary because it generally has proved to not be a universally brilliant idea. This is to some extent explained by very, very few car manufacturers ever having bothered with it and low development-budget suppliers of kits etc. relying on punters for their quality & compatibility data.

It will be interesting to see if you have come across the first ever additive to do anything significantly useful outside the manufacturer's laboratory.

I think it would raise my suspicions if such a low mileage car wasn't accompanied by a big pile of old MOTs & service documents which could support the mileage. Of course, I would be cynical if I thought a respected dealer would ever attempt to pull a fast one. That has just never happened.................