Linas.P

As much as hybrid owners will start crying now... hybrid on motorway is just a petrol with a heavy battery. Depends on speed somewhat, but over 65mph the scales starts to tip over. Specifically comparing say IS250 (mk2) and IS300h in the city and up to 65mph the hybrid would rule, at 80mph the consumtion would be the same and at 90mph the petrol woudl me more efficient then the hybrid. Hybrids are for cities - that is all, if you do a lot of driving on motorways you still best of with diesel and you won't find much differences between hybrid and petrol.

Ceramic coating costs £25-.... well max max £150 if you get into pro-only applications. £1000 is for full detail and polishing of the car - that is what makes your car look like from showroom, not the last step which is the coating. Even then, the price would be like £350-550, £1000 is either rip-off or you trying to book your car somewhere in Chelsea or Knightsbridge, to be done next to McLaren P1. Other thing - ceramic coating is not like apply and forget for 2 years (or whatever they claim). You need to keep the car clean for it to bead the water, you need to top it up from time to time (say every 2,3rd wash), there are dedicated "top coats" for ceramic coatings etc. In short if you want ceramic coating to last and to give you like "on application" water beading you need to maintain it. It is misconception that you spend £500 to get car detailed and ceramic coat applied and it is "protected for 2 years". Bear in mind as well - ceramic costing is not what makes your car look brand new (unless it is brand new now), it is the polishing. So if you have scratches and you apply ceramic coating on top... you going to have scratched-up pain with ceramic coating on top.. that is it. I is still going to look dull and ugly. You need to address any scratches of even light swirls before applying the coating. If you are really planning to keep car long term then do ceramic coating and detailing, but I would suggest to consider clear bra as well, at very least on the front quarter of the car.

That is not the way to do it. My car is at 1/2 tank now and I have done 230 miles - does it make it 35MPG?! No... it is around 23 actually. I know that with remaining "half" of tank I will be able to do 70 miles. What I found with IS (250 at least). First half of tank is ~75%, 3rd quarter is another 20% and last quarter is remaining 5% up until it says 0 miles range left. From there you can still make 30miles on reserve. What you need to do is to do it brim to brim, not necessary to do full tank, but it needs to be full to begin with. Fill it until it clicks, check the mileage or reset the trip, drive until you feel like refuelling, fill again until it clicks and see how much fuel you put in. That is going to 99.9% correct to what you used. Then check how many miles you did and that gives your actual accurate MPG. In terms of expensive fixes for IS220d they are well known and I would not associate them with mileage of the car. Actually, if the car has higher mileage because it spent most life on motorway you might be better off. The problem with IS220d and most of diesels is short journeys in the cities... If you find 12 years old IS220d with 50k miles - that is going to be money pit. Turbos, gaskets, ERGs, DPFs, Injectors, 5th Injector, Clutch and flywheel.... not only it could go wrong, there are plenty of thread of it going wrong. However, as said before it is not really a mileage thing, it is the way car was used - city and short journeys = dead. Looking into you travel I am not surprised you are fine (same was the case for @Shahpor) - doing 60 miles in a day and most of it on motorway gets your engine etc. up to temp and you should not get into most of the IS220d related issues. Although 32mpg is rather low for the journey which is mostly on motorway - even I in IS250 could achieve that (or at least I could before), I woudl expect your MPG to be higher. Well that is unless last 5 miles in the city are very very congested.

Never been flashed is not really reliable way of knowing if you dazzling others, some crazy people (like me) flashes every car, but most don't bother. The funniest thing - I flash somebody with clearly fake HIDs which are too bright and dazzles and they try to flash me back, but their main beam usually is not as strong as fake HIDs in dipped beam. MOT is as well hit and miss, some cars I see on the roads are not road worthy never-mind MOT "passing" - yet they have MOTs. Difference of scrutiny from centre to centre is literally anywhere between black and white and all shades of grey. Fake HID is just bad idea, antisocial, dazzles other, looks silly blue and doesn't give that much extra visibility anyway. The only way as suggested to get good quality high kelvin halogens like Osram Nightbreakers

Ok I will see if I can capture fuel trims. How log is long term? 17 miles to and from work would be long term I guess? One other thing - I was doing some math on the range and it seems my car is reporting lower MPG then it actually is e.g. previously I could do 340-360 miles per tank which on average fill of 58-60L ~ say around 27MPG, which was approximately what was indicated. The long term tended to be higher as I would do weekend trip to Scotland or something on 37MPG tanks etc. Now I do ~290-310 Miles to the tank which is ~23MPH. My last Tank AVG indicated 21.2MPG after 308 miles and 58.92L brimmed, which makes it closer to 24MPG. It seems car thinks it sends more fuel then it actually does?! Anyhow, even 21.2MPG is not as low as it could get... I now tend to drive really conservatively compared to before. If I drive same as when I was getting 27, 28, 29 MPG... I would be sub-20. Before it was like, I drive harsher or get into massive traffic and it drops to 24MPG, but then just few miles of smooth motorway and it picks-up straight away back to 27, 28. Now if it drops to say 22... it stays there. Equally before if I get half tank at 36, 37 and spend rest of the tank in the traffic the overall would still be 33, 34 etc. Now I just get into traffic can it drops right don't. It is not like I cannot achieve high MPGs e.g. last Thursday I refuelled on my way home quite late in the evening and the road was very quiet so I could cruise at dead 50 MPH for 10 miles and I got 44.1MPG... so it not like I cannot achieve it, but I need to try much harder and drive extra smoothly to get there. Clearly might highs were much higher and my lows were not as low. Previously, as long as engine is warm after refuelling I can drive home without showing off and even with traffic lights etc would would get easy 38-42MPG. Anyway... enough story telling - in short something is a miss. If I press accelerator fuel goes down like into the drain. All considered MAF sounds quite logical conclusion...

Agree... in general, but it is easier said then done. However last time decent mechanic was fixing my A/C, he turned the air from outside in winter when temp was 7C and noted that A/C performance is excellent - "blows 7C air". As a matter of fact it was not working at all. In UK we have very few real mechanics left, who can actually take a car and find an issue. People do not keep cars past 10 years old and nobody really fixes older cars, parts are replaced as units and most of "mechanics" only knows how to replace oil and most basic things, like brake pads, coolant, battery... even then they screw-up. Fixing such "nebulous" problem like low MPG in older car is just not worth it (they still could not find why A/C does not work) - even if I find decent mechanic it will cost me more than a car is worth. So I rather try few things myself.

Measured where - at the kerb side? Probably you right. Just to clarify 2.4% is specifically for CO2 and it is national figure for UK. Meaning average ton of X gas a year, locally to you it could be more or it could be less. Accurate figures for pollution are hard to come by as they often omits many pollutants or like TFL did for London - they simply disregarded all the rest of the sources and took the "pie chart" just about transportation and concluded some 40% NOx from passenger vehicles - that is at the street level somewhere in Camden only considering road transportation which itself is like 10% of total pollution, so 40% of 10% at the street level in Camden during evening rush hour in winter. When you see the graphs check sources and what they actually showing, because most of the time they are total non-sense. E.g. compare these 3 graphs from the same presentation. One states cars makes 70% of emissions (that is probably what you are referring to): But ... it is just road transportation, the entire transportation graph is here: But.... then this is just transportation, without considering other industries: Ok... so we finally getting somewhere.. But these are just GHG, not total pollution?! And in the end I am not even sure I trust the sources. If we go by this specific presentation, then you can clearly see how it gets abused and confusing for average Joe, what you will get in you evening news or morning newspaper is the first graph which says in capitals "CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 70%!!! POLLUTION, DANGER, KILLS PEOPLE", but if you check then actually what they mean is 70% of 71.8% of 19.7% which is actually ~10%, but includes vans and other light commercial vehicles and in the end this is only GHGs if you adjust for PM, Sulphur, Soot, non-industrial etc.... well you see the picture. I personally, have not found a single source which would have total pollution with up to date figures for all sources of pollution. If I would care I could potentially do the study myself combining multiple secondary sources and getting somewhere closer to real pollution figures. But frankly I am not bothered - even if I do it government still going to continue to vilify motorists just because it is convenient. Finally, any source you take they will quote different figures, but one thing stays very clear that ~70% of pollution worldwide is caused by 3 main industries - Manufacturing, Energy and Agriculture. If you looking for big change you need to go against these 3.. the rest are just to "save the face".

ODBII gives no errors and all the sensors reports ok, however I never looked into fuel trims as honestly I don't know what to look for there. Brakes are fine, had all 4 calipers refurbished and all new pads less then a year ago. Spark plugs are just the maintenance thing, I didn't meant to say they are bad just that replacement is behind the schedule. I keep the tyre pressure on the higher side most of the time + this is long term thing, started well before weather got cold.The only puzzling thing - the doesn't feel sluggish, power seems to be ok with stuffed-up intake valves I would expect impact to performance, not only economy.

And that is actually the problem - petrol is not always better than diesel. For city driving yes, but if ones does 30k miles a year on motorway and just occasionally have to drive past the city you are not even better off - you are best of with diesel and environment is better of as well. That is common problem, goverment only seems to be interested to find scapegoats to hide their inability to manage the infrastructure. All passenger cars combined are only 2.4% of the pollution, now NOx seems to be new buzz word, but previously it was CO2.. next one will be something else, but after all this is just a tip of an iceberg of the pollution problem. If everyone going to stop driving tomorrow we would only reduce pollution by 2.4%.. that all it is. If we replace coal and oil fired power stations with say nuclear ones, we can safe 10-15% of overall pollution. If we stop consuming like crazy, trowing away half worn tyres, wearing disposable "fashion" clothes and shoes, buying stupid kids toys which last 5 minutes after box is open, scrapping 5 years old diesel cars - we can reduce pollution by another 20%. But hey - that would cost money, that would not be popular... it is much easier to vilify motorists - yeah motoring is dirty, lets slam them with taxes (make nice money) and add another picture of "fumes" when the condensate of pure H2O is pouring out of exhaust pipes in the colder morning - you see "pollution"!

The above is correct and it won't trigger alarm. I always use it after getting into the car - sort of habit. Sadly could not program the car to lock itself when certain speed is reached.

The engine was hydrogen cleaned 2 years ago, apart of that I didn't have any problems so wasn't looking for any. Will check when I do intake valves check. You doing your preventative maintenance well, despite having port+DI - well done you! Can you add some info of oil catch can you have? As for F1 cars that is different story (I know you didn't intend to compare like for like), the issue with burning oil is not one of engine not having right seals or compression, or that of pollution, but more about intake valves and what PCV does - it sprays air with oil onto intake valves. On 2GR-FSE it is less of a problem, because you can do "Italian tune-up" form time to time with added fuels system cleaners and your port injectors will clean valves. Not the case for me. As for oil, my car uses ~0.5-0.8L of whatever Castrol Lexus uses (it is 5w30, but not Magnatec) and probably about 1L of Magnatec. That is per 6000miles. I have used Mobil1 0w40 and it stayed at the same level for over 4000miles, I haven't checked it for the last bit but it was far cleaner after 4000 miles, less petrol smell and no burn at all. Not saying Mobil superior to Castrol, just something I have experimented with and seen difference + whereas 0w40 Castrol Edge is 2x the price of Magnatec, I was able to get Mobil1 for even slightly cheaper.

So recently my IS250 became much thirstier then before. There were few changes so it was hard to attribute it to the engine, obviously colder weather, but as well after fitting Michelin PS4s I noticed the tyres to be the reason to at least some extent event though they were rated same as the ones I have replaced (Dunlop Sportmaxx RT2s - C for fuel). However, after running the car for some time now it is clear there must be something more... my Tank MPG used to be in 28-29MPG range. End of summer after tyre change it dropped to 26, when colder weather hit it was 24 and now I am approaching 20s. Engine feels fine, starts fine, idles smooth, no misfires, last MOT all pollution figures were 0.00 (I was even wondering if have forgotten to put probe in), but the fuel consumtion indicates not all is rosy.. . There is one obvious job which needs doing - the spark plugs overdue, not 80k miles whereas it should have been replaced after 60k, so I will address it during next service. Secondly, I feel that 183k miles motor now has quite a bit of blow by both petrol leaking into oil and vice versa. Even few years ago after ~150k miles I could smell petrol in the oil and I do 5-6k miles oil changes + I have noticed car likes to burn little bit of 5w30 (or blow it in the cylinders). Now both of those things are normal for DI high pressure engines so I am not overly worried, but with the miles I am starting to suspect it now reached level where blow by recirculated via PCV and now starts to gunk-up intake valves. Anyhow, going to take off intake manifold of and try to see how intake valves are looking, replacing spark plugs is planned anyway. Other thing I found - engine likes 0w40 oil (or should I say dislikes... doesn't even sip) - probably makes sense thicker base oil, less blow by and at the same time less carbon build-up from PCV. Now I really would like to have an option of 350.... Finally, just accidentally found this video by savagegeese specifically for this topic - preventative maintenance for DI (wondering if there is good reason to consider oil catch can). Have you considered any preventative maintenance considering these DI engines will most likely surfer from similar problems?

I was generally for tougher MOT, but it seems they took it in wrong direction. This always happens when people who don't really have any clue starts making executive decisions. Wheel bearing going to make annoying noise well before it makes car un-roadworthy, never-mind dangerous. So it is mostly annoyance like cosmetic defects. The only place where it would make sense is heavy equipment, but it seems they have skipped anything over 5000kg

dam... Some MOT'es goes extra and above, I guess new rules.... Mine still has original bearings, just ticked over 183k. Now I will go and spin my wheels to see if I can hear anything...

Sorry, to be of topic but maybe collective pain is more bearable:

I was always under impression that screws doesn't "screw themselves in"... not so funny enough.... I had 3 screws in last 2 years and all the times to the same tire - rear left! Last couple of days my car is sitting on the same beautiful yellow-ish spare. The view I am getting used to - ohhh.. and one nearly new Michelin PS4 going to the bin.

Let me know how it goes, because I was thinking to skim my disks for a while as well... Problem is that the only place close to me which does it.... is Mazda dealerships and even though they "authorised" SkimMyDiscs place they don't really keen on doing other makes.

All you need to know... I need to bookmark this, but so far google always helps me out: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/suspension-and-brakes/405811-is350-brake-upgrade-on-is250.html IS350/GS350 and GS300 mk3 and mk2 have same size calipers which are interchangeable, but has different look. For "big brake kit" look you really need IS/GS350 calipers, GS300 is just bigger.

£290 is standard price for cat-back (that is Y pipe from resonator and 2 new silencers), not cheap nor expensive. When I lost my rear silencer I had it welded as well £60, over 4 years ago now - "not bad value for money". But if it would happen Again I would probably just do all SS, by now I have quite a few pin holes rusted... if it is pin hole outside, I am sure it is cheese inside.

I asked my dealer to do these option and they told me my car cannot be programmed - I just thought they were too lazy or too embarrassed to charge £200 for simple config. Because, I used to have same "personalised" settings list for IS250 UK model from 2005 and it gives these as an option to be configured by the dealer... so it is kind of mystery - can it be done or can't it.

If you had battery disconnected then you need to reset windows, I believe the instructions goes like - connect the battery, fully open every window one by one and close them one by one. It gets weirder as well - once I have replaced battery and everything was fine for 3 days, but then during heavy rain I found my car with all windows fully open in shopping centre car park, so doing windows reset is highly recommended.

Just for some context - correct way is to remove front bumper, washer fluid bottle, filler and if I not mistaken headlight. That takes undoing like 100 bolts, nuts, clips and ideally 2 people. The guide above is bit of hack, but requires 20 minutes and 10 times less fiddly. + Top job for keeping it safe @normski2

Even summer screen wash would stay liquid up to ~ -5C. Assuming Jack is in London, we had no such temperatures yet where it would have frozen over. Once I had "-50C" screen-wash freeze over in -17C and that destroyed the pump. I have done a quick guide how to replace it... but search here is terrible. Cannot even found what I have posted myself (my "started topics" only have 3 pages - have they been archived?). Anyhow, when I was pressing screen-wash the pump was barely clicking, where it should make humming noise like electric motor, something like 3x stronger noise then aquarium pump if that helps to imagine how it should sound like..

Agree with Saloons market shrinking... bloody SUVs like a cancer... However, when you say "end of era", it is not like L4 are superiour to V6, or FWD to RWD... or more modern or more advanced. They are just cheaper versions of the same, being sold for more.

But... it is cheaper to make 350 and worldwide they make far far more 350s then 300h's, based on economies of scale 350s would actually have higher profit margin or would be total steal with the same profit margin... underselling BMW and a a likes maybe by 25%