James

I was out in the IS today and suddenly there is this horrid buzzing from under the drivers side. Stopped at the side of the road and looked underneath it (how embassing to be seen peering under a Lexus...) and found some of the plastic under tray flapping around. It turns out that the plactic has broken up around the bolts that should hold it on. It's only 2! Anybody else had bits fall off? By the way, while I was under the car (on ramps at home, I'm not that skinny) I spotted a box screwed to the floor above the diff? Anybody know what's in it? Just wondering....

A rattle in 2nd, 4th, and 6th eh? Ive got that. I was beginning to think it was the leather gater round the gear stick creaking on the rubber one underneath. As I was passing the dealers new shop (lovely GS430 sport in there second hand) I mentioned it. "yeah, some of them do that" he said "a few people have tried vasalene". I think I'll get them to look at it sometime.

I'm driving through the estate near my folks house and there is this girl walking towards the road. Shes looking at the car so I know shes seen me. My brain is calculating that we'll reach the same spot of road just at the same time. So what does she do? Looks at me and walks in front of the car! I didn't get her. Perhaps my good looks stunned her.

I'm going to keep an eye on my fronts for a while and see how they last. If they start looking chewed up I'll get it laser tweeked like Supercharged was suggesting. I'm not sure what the last owners driving pattern was. No idea what the car was used for. I do very few miles (I take the train to London) so it'll be ages before I find out. Not wanting to talk Fords but how did you like the Focus? After all the good things I'd heard in the press I was quite disappointed with it. *** it was slow! And the back suspension squeeked too. (Seem to remember my dads Escort was like that.....) Happy to be in my car again!

If you don't get any help elsewhere ask your dealer for the phone number of the company who does wananty repairs on Toyota / Lexus radios. (Somebody said Autosound earlier). I spoke to them a few years ago about the pin out for the CD socket on a Toyota RDS radio and they were more helpful than I would ever have imagined. Sadly I don't have the number anymore. It's still in the Carina with it's new owner!

Hello SuperchargedIS200. Are you saying that your settings are shifting all the time? If so that's a bit of a shame. What chance do we have of keeping the wheels all pointing in the same direction?

Thanks for the welcome. It's good to join you all. I think I've seen and been told enough to believe that odd tyre wear on the front is a "feature". Sad though. The hard question is how big a feature is it? People are quoting anything between 8 and 30K miles. Problem is that tyre life depends partly on how hard the compound is. I don't believe that stuff about driving style. My tyres are feathered not chewed to bits by hard cornering. If I remember rightly feathering indicates too much toe adjustment and I think you can tell if it's toe in or out depending on if it's the inside or the outside of the tyre that cops it. Does that ring a bell with anybody? I'm willing to believe that it's rubbish so don't take me too seriously. Since the car is a push along (RWD) I think that there should be a shade of toe in but probably not much. Anybody have the figures? I also remember seeing something in the handbook about odd tyre wear on cars with the fatter tyres. (SE and Sport.) I'll try and look it up. How are people with the skinny tyres doing? Night night. PS I'm not so happy about those tyres being on the back now. It let go in the wet again today and I was being perfectly sensible. Don't like getting bitten like that. (The missus wasn't too impressed either.) Avon ZZ1s. Are they a bit hard?

Funny you should be chatting about this 'cos I was thinking about asking before I went on holiday. (2 weeks driving an automatic Ford Focus on the wrong side of the road. Yuck.) Yeah I have exactly this problem. The car (second hand IS200 sport) had scrubbed the insides of the front tires away. Just as if the tracking was out. I asked the dealer to look at it on its service and was told that it was fine and IS200s were heavy on the front tyres. No idea how many miles the tyres had done. I wouldn't mind too much but they were so noisy. Druming noises on the motorway. They are on the back now and it's much better. Has anybody had a set of front's wear out properly? Completely flat across the tread?