Tron20

Hi all, Don't want this to turn into a for sale thread as the last one started to, but i'm just wondering how much my car is worth, I'm thinking of going back to a Vtec honda either 5th gen prelude 2.2 vtec or and accord type-r not sure which now. Anyway, my car is a 1997 Lexus GS300 sport MK1 with two almost brand new alloys on the back (18" x 10" wide) cost a few pounds i tell the, but already slightly kerbed unfortunately. all alloys are in mint condition other than that. The car has full lexus service history, 65k miles and 2 previous owners. The interior is immaculate, and so is the exterior bar some stone chips across the front. The cambelt was replaced at 42k miles by the previous owner as part of a service. Currently the MOT runs out in December and the tax in january 2006. Everything all electrics, windows, sunroof, mirrors, headlights, etc all still work as does the air con. Can anyone give me a rough price that this car might be worth if I sold it? Thank you Paul

How bizarre, i'm thinking of going the other way from my lexus gs300 sport mkI to a prelude 2.2 vti motegi 2000 w reg, I'm not happy with the performance of the gs300 versus its fuel economy. The car still runs smoothly, and drives perfectly, just doesn't have the sportiness I thought it had having previously come from a 2.2 vtec 1994 prelude. Hope you enjoy your car, just one quick question, which do you prefer, is the lexus better than the 5th gen prelude? Paul

Hi all, still got my MK1 GS300 sport and i must say she's a beaut, but she doesn't half have a thirst for fuel and tyres, and scared me half to death the other week when i lost the backend on a dual carriageway in the dry. Managed to control it in the end. In case your intrested its had 2 previous owners and 65k miles with full lexus service history, not sure about the P reg babe magnet gs300's though :P Can't say I get many looks in mine, you do get the people at petrol stations having a good look at it, have though long and hard about selling it for another car, i'm craving sports coupe's with more power and quicker performance, not to mention a manual gearbox. If only they did a Lexus GS300 sport with a 6 speed getrag gearbox like the uk supra twin turbo's, oh and a uk twin turbo gs300 with the box would be nice. It's nice to see so many other people on here with MK1's, i have to agree that the mk2's aren't as nice looking in my opinion, my dad owned a MK1 for 7 years so it rubbed off on me and i bought one, owned it for 10 months and have yet to see more than 1 locally, another P reg sport with 10" wide rears on it and in the same colour If you're ever in the Derby/Nottingham area you'll probably see mine driving about Paul

Sorry a bit off topic I know, just didn't think it was worth posting a new thread. You got your car back today aido? saw it round the back of our lexus dealer when i took mine in to be checked over and get some parts ordered. Looking like a nice motor, love the wheels, exhausts are a little big for my liking, but still was impressive to see a nicely modified IS200. Does the supercharger make much difference to the performance of the engine? Thought I knew who's car it was the minute i saw it Paul

The cambelt should be changed at 63K miles according to the handbook, or within 6 years whichever comes first, hence mine was changed at 42k miles at just over six years old. Paul

Does the guy not want it back on the road, or is a rear diff that hard to come across? is it a sport model? the mind boggles...two lexus gs300 sports :D

I'm starting to get really suspicious of my diff/drive shaft linkage, sometimes when engaging reverse usually when parked on a hill i get a large click noise from the back of the car, is it possible that the drive shaft link has come lose or warn?

I would appreciate it if you could figure out how the glass is removed, i'm pretty sure you just unclip it either top or bottom and swivel it up or down and pull it off, but it i'm wrong i'm gonna need a new mirror... The unfortunate thing is that its only the trim that fits just around the mirror glass thats broken the back part is un marked, i was just gonna try to take it apart and glue the broken bit back together as a temporary fix, if it fits together properly it'll look good enough for me

Ok, my wing mirror front cover has been broken before i had the car, and i can see you can get it off with screws under the mirror itself, my question is, how do you remove the mirror glass from the wing mirror, does it simply unclip at the bottom and pivot upwards? like on some honda's? Thanks In advance Paul

oops, i've been torquing my nuts up to 80ft lbs, is this gonna make such a big difference to the 76 ft lbs. I know the last time i got either lexus or a garage to change a tyre/wheel they have over torqued the nuts too much, I had to use my 32" torque wrench as a breaking bar when lexus did it, and even then i had to jump on the end of the wrench to get them undone, and i'm not a particularly weak person.

Intresting topic, I've got a slight judder aswell on a 63k 1997 P reg GS300 sport, recently changed the front pads, but suspect a warped disc or two, any how, i'm still gonna check all the caliper pins, and caliper pistons for play/binding, might be worth a shot before i purchase costly discs for no reason. Just curious, but does anyone know how to check the drum brakes on the back of a gs300, i think mine are either wearing thin, or are sticking a little, as i get a scrappng noise from somewhere as i'm moving along, not a loud noise, but still evident when driving near a crash barrier on a dual carriageway when travelling slowly

I paid £45 from lexus nottingham for a set of front pads, i fitted them myself, didn't take long at all, been pretty happy with them, I don't experience many problems with them if any, no fade, etc, and i have driven the car pretty hard round country roads, only after its warmed up of course

I agree, it's not the figures I expected to see, I didn't actually realise you'd posted the correct settings last night, i also didn't realise they had used the ES300 figures instead of the GS300 figures until i glanced at the print out on the way back. Trouble is do i want to go back to them to get them to do it even if they can't put the correct model into their system.... Thanks again Paul P.S. the ES300 was a lexus model available in japan and america, and this system they used to check the geometry was american, so shows incompetance, I'll take it back to them tomorrow... with a print out of the settings you've suggested.

Ok those settings mean nothing to me, I've just had the geometry setup checked on a Hunter DSP 600 laser alignment machine, and the following print out was obtained, which doesn't show any real differences in the front passenger and driver settings, which doesn't explain why the drivers tyre is the only one wearing the inside edge... Please feel free to have a look and let me know what you think, as far as I know these are all the settings that were checked Geometry settings It's looking more and more like a trip to watford... Edit: - if you look closely, i've circled that they ran it with settings for an ES300, not GS300 so probably not gonna get the correct measurements...

right got two new tyres ordered for tomorrow, £305.88 inc vat and fitting for pirelli p-zero asymetrico's, the garage is gonna have a look at my tracking, and adjust it if necessary, and then i'm going somewhere else to have it's geometry set up on a laser machine, i've just got my fingers crossed that they can set it up properly, but i still think they are gonna set it to the wrong lexus settings, and i'm not gonna know until the tyres wear unevenly again :(

The car is a 1997 on P reg, with the chassis code JT153JSE700******, with a 2JZGE engine, not sure on the official model code I shall have a look on the chassis plate... Its a JZS147R

Cheers Matthew, was considering some other tyres, but I like my dad prefer the P-zero's although not tried eagle F1's, wheelspin isn't a great problem as i'm changing the fronts only, and find that the pirelli's handle well on the front. Plus i've got the wider back tyres, which have awesome levels of grip (in the dry) but completely hopeless in the wet, :D

Sadly I'm not greatly clued up on geometry settings on a car, and I'm sure that places round me could do a full geometry set up on my car, but they would only use the manufacturers figures, and i'm not entirely sure if any of my suspension has worn over the years, after all its a big heavy car... I'd just like to know what sort of settings would roughly be needed, as i don't want to spend £125 + vat for a full geometry setup, if they are going to adjust it to the manufacturers figures, and then be set up wrong to the car and the alloys it has. Then its just likely to have uneven wear anyway. As i'm thinking of buying to pirelli P-zero asymetricos for the front for £185+ vat each, don't really want to be having to splash out for more in around 3 months time because the same thing has happened again. I think I saw on here that the geometry settings that lexus released for the GS300 sport were identical to the GS300 standard car without the bigger 18" alloys, and certainly not the wider 10" alloys. I've had dealings with several tyre companies round here who have previously adjusted settings on my last few cars, and they have been wrong, the steering wheel has been off centre, one was supposed to be adjusting the tracking, but was actually trying to over alter the camber... just gives me no reason to want to go back to them. The latter actually had a laser alignment system which look pretty good, but not sure the best results were obtained. Watford is quite a trek from me, living in Derby, its around 85-95 miles one way, although i am considering it as i'm likely to get the car set up correctly, just wished i'd gone there after buying the car from enfield, but little did i know there was a camber/geometry problem then

Hey all, The time has come to purchase two new front tyres for my lexus GS300 sport mkI, I thought i'd replace both at the same time. I've had the tracking checked before on the car when i noticed the inside edge of the front drivers side tyre was worn significantly, and they said it was spot on... so I in my limited knowledge assume the geometry is wrong. I've recently replaced both rear tyres, one the 10" wide sport alloys and they seem to be wearing perfectly even, so don't really want the rear geometry/alignment settings changing. Not sure if the problem with my front drivers side tyre wear has any bearing on my poor fuel economy, but it can't be helping. I understand that the official lexus released geometry settings for camber, castor, and toe are for the none sport model, and i'm not to happy knowing that changing the current settings to stock lexus settings could actually make it worse. Does anyone including tony bones have any true geometry/alignment settings for the lexus gs300 sport MKI with the wider alloys on the back? I will take a picture of the severe inside edge tyre wear for anyone who might want to see it, or suggest whats causing the severe wear, the passenger side seems fine, if not wearing on the outer edge. As far as i know the car has never been in an accident, there are no signs of any damage thats been hidden, the car is also hpi clear, so i'm just assuming that a pothole or catching the kerb has knocked one or more of the settings out. If anyone has any suggestions, or settings, they would be welcomed, and if anyone knows where around the derby/nottingham area is the best place for 4 wheel full alignment, please could you let me know. I'm hoping the small vibration i've got will go with new balanced tyres. I'm even considering taking it on a road trip to tony bones if it means it will be set up perfectly, the last thing i want to do its have someone sort it for £XX.XX and it just to do the same thing or worse. Thanks for looking Paul P.S sorry for the long post

Ok, for those of you who may want to know, I've just ordered a brand new lens (on its own, no bulbs etc) from lexus, so i'll have to transfer all the bits across, just hoping its not just the glass front cover... But it was a fairly respectable £113.14 inc VAT or with all the bulbs and wiring harness £154.01 including VAT, so i though the cheaper option would be better, hopefully it'll be easy to sort out Cheers for any help offered Paul

:( Sorry to hear you're finally giving up, but at least you can buy a sport with full history and cream leather, if you buy the right car, you'll not have any problems. Hope to see you back with a new motor very soon

Sorry about the massive delay in responding, my dad had his mk1 sport for 8 years, and had it from 27k miles, the noise was present right from around 68k to 160k, then he got rid of it, i still see it driving about, and there was nothing wrong with the car, except the snow took its toll on it and it ended up being smashed in down the drivers side, which is still evident if you look at the drivers side, it was written off, and someone bought it did it up, and its back in derby again of all places

Ryo, where were you at the start of this thread, if you've had a similar problem, and it turns out to be the water pump, it could've saved this poor bloke at lot of trouble. I hope it is just the water pump thats buggered and not the head gasket, be a shame to lose another GS300, you don't see that many of them driving about anyway

Are you still not having any look with this car? Sounds sad that another lexus is struggling with overheating problems, does the expansion tank liquid only bubble when its warm, could be early signs of the head gasket going, I'd just take it back to the garage you bought it from, as has been said, and make them deal with it, especially if you have proof it did it the day you picked it up. It could be someone has put rad weld in and blocked the bottom of the radiator. have you taken the radiator out, or removed the pipes from it and run water through it? It could be one of the pipes thats blocked, or a buggered thermostat not opening. Edit :- Sorry you've already mentioned all the stuff I've thought of in the previous posts, and you've tried several of them already... Just out of curiosity is there pressure on the expansion tank with the cap off, could be the head gasket is on its way, but only shows signs when it warms up

Aren't they cat 2 alarms in a lexus gs300 sport mkI?