Linas.P

No it wasn't. That's the point ! Service interval is not 100k - it is "lifetime", I guess in this case "lifetime" means, when the chain goes - you change the engine. They include checks in every service thought. Replacement is ~£1000-£1500 so you can get 2 used engines for that anyway. It seriously worries me now.. Have anyone actually have it replaced?

My is nearing 2x that... and I was worried about this particular problem since I bought the car (now 27k miles back)... However, check stays solid: "Checked - green"... I am still hoping that it is in better condition than my A/C "checked green"

I believe it is little bit off-topic as IS250 cannot be fitted with LPG... so we rather discussing about LPG in general.. I do agree... If something comes with LPG from factory, designed for such purpose... I would definitely agree - LPG is greener, better RON (maybe stinks a little bit more than petrol)... Anyways - IS250 doesn't come with LPG from factory (nor does CL65AMG or ML320) - that alone means these car are NOT OK to be run on LPG. Any manufacturer runs millions (literally) of miles to test the engines and sets them up to be used with certain fuel... there is no way some cowboys can have budget or time to re-run all factory tests and to install LPG system without harming engine performance and reliability. LPG tank is by any means fire hazard in the boot... no matter what you say it is nowhere near as safe as factory fitter petrol tank (unless again factory fitted LPG). To summarise - theoretically LPG is better than Petrol, greener, better to the engine and more efficient. Practically, except of very few cars e.g. WV Caddy such setup will always be less efficient (Less MPG on LPG), will hurt engine, will be inconvenient and possibly dangerous. I strongly believe that such DIY should be banned as unsafe... except few specific car models where it is financially feasible to conduct sufficient research and testing and where LPG system completely replaces Petrol (and is fitted instead of Petrol system components).

Direct injection and LPG.. You would need to bypass entire fuel delivery system, whats more you would need kill engine "Smart" ECU as well. I believe is either not technically feasible and maybe even impossible. For me whole idea sounds fishy... buying premium car and trying to save on petrol .. nahhhh Maybe that is only my opinion, but it is like buying premium breed animal for breeding and then castrating it. In my country such crime was very popular ( I have seen friend father getting LPG into his MB CL65AMG and ML320 ... what a joke!). I guess Audi A6 2.0tdi is better option then... As well on such low miles even cheap "cowboy" LPG system would't pay off.. Simple math - LPG - 1l ~0.65/Petrol - 1l ~1.10. Car will used 20% more LPG, hence that weighted prices would be respectively: 0.78/110 Average MPG on Lexus IS250.. lets say ~26.5 = 11000 / 26.5 x 6 = 2490 gallons (~8.9l/100km x 17700 x 6 = 9450l ). Based on this simple calculation at best you would be able to save ~£2600 at best. This is only if engine not going to break (which it will in certain extent). So now if you take the price of decent LPG system off the £2600 and as well add the price of engine rebuilt in your risk list... you not going to save much but will risk to loose quite a lot (and all that is the least - not technically feasible due to advanced ECU system and other linked electronics).

I believe they are equally prone for rusting, but IS250 is more likely to crack, especially right side (Drivers side in UK)... obviously dual pipe setup has more welds and is heavier ... so more chances of one of those welds failing. So just to put in simple language ... RAC man suggested he will rob you and you have agreed? ... Back to the topic... I guess if you get aftermarket one it will not only be cheaper, but actually will last longer. Good luck!

Rear Rims are 8.5" not 9" wide.

It is sad in a way... I do believe Lexus makes great cars as well as dealers usually provide decent service. The problem lies somewhere in between... they kind of poorly joint-up and there is huge communication gap between Lexus and Dealership (which are all independent). This becomes very evident when it comes to solving issues or taking responsibility. Then all ends-up will angry customers who might even choose different brand next time. Surely, it would have been enough for Lexus to say - "do whats needs to be do to fix this RC"... OK maybe that will £2500 on paper, but the real cost for Lexus is like £250... and everyone happy.. Now they are risking negative publicity and maybe even loose few potential RC buyers .. which will be few £100k the least. And that is not even fair, because I am sure majority of RCs don't have such issue. This is simply because there is no single point of contact, no person who can take responsibility and have authority to sign-off this little cost... or because of this un-jointly service simply nobody know who is this particular person.

True. And I actually prefer to get it refurbished myself, because when you see refurbished one on ebay.. you never know to what standard it was refurbished. Additionally, refurbished is not much cheaper than new ~£350, I guess it is based on that majority of breakers wants up to £250 for ones straight off the car (£90 was kind of bargain). I actually suspecting the new one which I was offered was not Denso, but rather equivalent.. because cheapest Denso I found was like £470 ex. VAT. I guess my point is - does £250 covers risk and inconvenience? If you have perfect, low mile car (less than 60k) and planning to keep it forever... probably not, but if you have high miles one like mine (just ticked over 135k) then I guess even the £90 compressor directly from "scrapies" can be considered as an upgrade. Obviously, it takes time to get it done (arranged) yourself. The only reason to do job right is that I know from experience it will save money in the end... that £90 for refurbishment is far less than another used compressor and £100 work 10k miles later.

Both wheels and mesh is pretty straight forward. Mesh you are referring to is "F-Sport" mesh, not "ISF". That said you need to get aftermarket one matching your car manufacturing year... I believe it is slight difference between "pre-facelift" and "post-facelift" models... That would not be huge difference, but it is easier when all the holes are fitting straight away right? As for rims - if you get Lexus OEM 18" they would be direct fit, this is not even a upgrade or modification, but rather retrofiring factory option (don't forget 18" was an option on both IS220d and 250). If you get aftermarket ones - it would be better to stick with OE dimensions (18x8J Front, 18x8,5J Rear - can someone confirm ET?). That said even slightly different rims would fit fine (unless you go to something mad), but you might have issues with alignment etc.

You can get it custom made from many places for about 40% off.. that would still be £300. When my one got broken I was quoted £680 (as there are 2 pipes on IS250) and about £350-£450 for stainless steel aftermarket. After market ones will be louder. If I would get new exhaust that would be all titanium all the way from the engine for ~£700 (from eastern EU "magic" makers). Now said that - the first thing I have checked was - if it is rusted or just cracked weld. My one was just clean cracked (not so much rust a all) so I got it to local garage and they welded it back for £60. I would not recommend to weld if it is rusted (it will simply fail somewhere else in few month), but cracked welds are fine to be just welded back to the place.

Just wanted to add. Increasing tire pressure can firm-up the suspension and make steering more informative, so you might just try this cheap option first (replacing front tire and doing alignment still recommended). This is probably just my personal preference, but on Lexus "recommended" tire pressure (35F,38R) car is "wobbly" and steering even less informative. So, I usually have it higher (38F,40R). Unfortunately for me I forgotten to mention this last week for Lexus and they "inflated" tires to recommended pressure.. which means they let-off £1 worth of nitrogen out of my tires and ticked the box. I must appreciate that car is more comfortable in majority of condition in London (where you at best can get up to 30mph if you lucky), but I have tried "outside lane speeds" recently and I though I will crash.. it was wobbly and uninformative at the same time... I had a though for a second, maybe I should stop and check for flat tire. That said higher tire presume helps with wear as well (at least on my set-up). My tires tend to wear more outside, but now with higher pressure they are nice and evenly worn after 8k miles.

That is exactly what I am saying - they can replace it with new one for £450. They said that they won't fit used one, but suggested if I can get it fitted "elsewhere" and they can do the rest of the job ... I am going to ask indies to fit it and then the proper aircon service will check the rest (check for leaks, fitting, re-gas etc). I know it is a bit stupid from them, but many places do not accept used parts or even any new (even OEM) parts from outside. Not sure if this is purely cashing out on the parts sales or being careful.. Got one from breakers... there was one in ebay for £120+9 (from 2009 IS250SR). It was pretty good shape (62k miles) and I made an offer for £81+9. They accepted - so paid £90 and the got it to be refurbished by compressortech.com. At first they said £150 for the job, but then I said the compressor only costs £90 and they agreed to do it for £90. They didn't take my compressor back (which would be another ~£50 refund), because it is stuck and doesn't qualify as "core". Thought, I still have plans to play with it when I get it out - maybe some de-greaser + penetrating oil makes it spin again. So still potential to save another £50. To be honest I don't even know if it was worth to refurbish it as it was quite "good looking", but I guess they going to clean it, oil it and maybe replace few seals/washers - should last for another 100k miles (hopefully). To summarise, "0 worries" option was £620 (£450 for new compressor + £170 for work). And my "struggle" option will work out as £250-380: £130-180 for refurb. compressor £50-100 for fitting £70-100 for leak test/fix/re-gass/oil Should, get refurbished compressor tomorrow and will fit it on Saturday. It is hard to tell if this struggle is worth ~£250 saving... but definitely an option to consider. Just to add: it was probably possible to repair my one for about the same price, but the issue here - to get it repaired I need to get it off the car and the car cannot be used in mean time (without some modification to auxiliary belt). So I couldn't do it because I need car for daily commuting.

As I said - if you really feel need for winter tires. And fair enough - even if it is only feeling more confident with yourself and having that extra piece of mind in case 1 day a year you going to have snow... and you feel it is worth £600 tires (or more). Then obviously - do it, BUT do it on 16" rims because on 18" is no-brainier. If I didn't make myself clear. If you take exactly the same new tire, one made for 18", other one for 16".. the 16" will perform better and have better grip on slippery roads. Wide tires are only good in warm dry road. So on 18" you not only going to have less options, more expensive tires, but as well worse performance..

Quick Update: So as previously mentioned I was looking into getting used compressor instead of new (~£450). I have sourced reconditioned compressor (6 month warranty) for £180. As I have no equipment/space I will be relying on indies again as no proper garage agrees to fit "used" part (which is not surprising). Now I have a question.. Obviously, compressor sits on Auxiliary belt and it needs to be removed during replacement. Is there any service parts e.g. on some car tensioners are disposable etc? Because, it is done by indies I am not expecting them to know/care to follow proper process. In summary any advise for replacing A/C compressor would be very helpful.. like service parts to have ready or even other recommended things while the belts is off..

No you not quite right - both 17 and 18 inch (Tires) are staggered, 16 inch are not. As well AWD versions have non-staggered tires (but we don't have these in UK.. like many other nice Lexus'es e.g. RC350). Trim doesn't change the tire sizes, not rim diameter. To conclude: 16" Rims all the same, Tires all the same 17" Rims all the same, Wider tires on the rear (225/45 vs. 245/45) 18" Front Rims are 8", rear are 8.5" as well tires are wider on rear. Now that said, you can obviously found some matching tires which will be inadequately expensive and would actually perform worse on 18" option, than it would on 16". As mentioned by piasek narrower tires are better on slippery roads. So 18" and even 17" setup would be very expensive, under-performing and unpractical. M+S (or universal tires) are essentially "one does all" product, but as it is always the case "nothing properly". If you get them grip, then they will wear excessively - would never recommend universal tires to anybody. Finally, this is not a statement, but rather question - Why do you guys need winter tires or even universal tires in UK (well maybe north Scotland is OK)? You probably know that you need temperatures below 6 Deg for Winter tires to perform better than Summer tires? As well it is not correct that in higher temperatures the only negative point of Winter tires is wear - no they actually perform worse, longer stopping distance, more likely to slip because too soft tire cannot maintain grip in cornering, bad fuel efficiency... and obviously excessive wear . I might be wrong and living in London I cannot judge for the rest of UK, but it seems like winter tires in UK are just a trick played by tires manufactures to cash from drivers (except of maybe few specific locations). Makes perfect sense - winter set of tires wears excessively as there are not condition for them to perform correctly. When it comes time to change half worn summer tires will get thrown away as well (who would put summer tires set if the the tread is like 3-4mm). So instead of driving 20-30k miles on one set of tires you essentially replacing 2. Not only it is waste of money, but as well terrible impact to environment. Personally, I have experience driving on winter tires (and summer tires in tems -20deg and 50cm of snow) and coming from the country where is legal requirement to use Winter tires from 1st of October to 1st of April. That is very sensible, because average temperature over that period is -11deg, and at least 2 month with -20deg and more.. I just kind of cannot understand the point using winter tires in majority of UK... Now as I said, my experience in UK is limited and hence - if you really have conditions for winter tires - definitely get set (recommended on 16" alloys, being same you can even swap front to rear to prolong life). I am personally just getting A rated summer tires tires for wet and that does all seasons.

Then it would be wise to make them not visible.. isn't it? If you choose right type of camera they should not be visible, unless you know exactly where to look.

We probably shall stop it as well... Won't change anything... You are right brexit would close the loophole.. I still believe there are enough people to vote against it :)

Sad to hear... Only reading stories like that makes me think twice about dashcam with parking mode. I could probably enjoy every second bringing those bas**** to justice for criminal damage. Minor to do... Major to fix... feel sorry for you..

If the insurance premium would be the only thing UK needs me for... No worries I have a plan... the plan which effectively makes my Insurance £50/year, no MOT and no VED, furthermore I will be shielded from any fines as well. If it works out well I will share the recipe :)

Well.. I guess right answer would be "white - other". I am not being too upset about it, especially now when my insurance became "reasonable", but insurance companies are asking far too many questions about driver which they don't need to know. I guess 90% of questions on the policy should have an option - "do not want to disclose" to become non-discrimination/politically correct. e.g. what is their business to know what you do for living? My understanding insurance should only be based on 2 things - car + driver experience... that what it is in majority of the countries anyway - 2 questions: car reg + driver license number, no other information is really relevant.

Seriously... if you get auto.. you might have to delete half of your previous posts :D (good choice thought).

Thanks, I have looked through this list few days ago... nothing in proximity of 100miles .. or doesn't work on Saturday. I am kind of getting in terms with £620 outlay, all the signs actually telling me that compressor is toasted and even if it possible to "un-stuck" it .. that would be very dangerous to destroy remaining A/C components with debris from stuck Compressor. Same problem as mine - solved with replacement of A/C compressor: http://my.is/forums/f115/c-stopped-working-blinking-clutch-smell-fixed-413949/ Similarly, my one was working fine ... until (3.5 miles away from dealership) it got completely stuck. Now the only decision to make - new or used (preferably re-manufactured). Obviously, used from scrap yard is not good option .. it it could fail again after 3,5 miles.

Small update: Been to local garage today who do A/C service. They just turn the A/C and made same conclusion I did "A/C compressor probably stuck".. Quoted me £450 for compressor and £170 for labor (fitting, leak check, "re-gasing"). - £620... and bloody weather getting hot already (I don't believe this is coincidence .. :D).. Now that said I am still not happy with diagnostics... My expectation was that they going to check electrical part, clutch etc. and the answer is going to be definitive and not based on "elimination" of "probably" faulty parts. That said it is possible they will find out something else is wrong as well after I fork-out £620 for compressor replacement. Maybe someone can advise good A/C service which could do proper diagnostics (around Essex/Greater London)?

let me know when you get to the point of getting rid of your old 16" set.

No.. Full UK driving license for 7 years thought. In fact changing that in quote doesn't make much difference. I do think that my quotes are about average now ... and getting better. I don't understand how in country like UK insurance companies are allowed to discriminate so much? :D