Texas

As a first point, check that the cabin air filter is all good in the rear of the glovebox, Note: Make sure ‘Re-Circ’ is on before attempting to open access door to filter or it may get damaged, £££££’s

I see in your profile it’s a DERV, afraid to say diesels are Not my forte and I would suspect head gasket issues ( v common problem on this engine manifesting in numerous ways) Could be very minute leakage of combustion gases into coolant system showing up as these ‘bubbles’ and an ‘air lock’ as occurred in heater matrix to cause loss of heat output. Like I said not my area and I’m sure someone With a derv might enlighten us soon!

What are we talking about? 200, 220 or 250 IS?

Has any work been done that relates to the cooling system?

Have you used this set up successfully in the past, in particular the ‘ two CTEK extension cables’ connected together? As I’m thinking there might be some voltage drop issues, I’ve looked on the CTEK website but it does not say you should only use one extension though! Also this very cold weather at the moment is Not helpful for charging vehicle batteries or their very existence! Like me they do not like or perform well in cold conditions!

My Original 250 battery (Panasonic) looked like this. was dated 14/07/07 and lasted until Jan 2018!

“About 50 miles worth” That prob equates to just over a gallon sloshing around in bottom of tank, Note the fuel pump ( electric powered) is IN the fuel tank and submerged in the actual fuel, it is this fuel that keeps it cool so if you use your car constantly on low/very low fuel levels then the pump is not effectively going to get cooled and may actually fail due to the fact that fuel was constantly low! I see people all the time at fuel pumps just putting £10 of fuel in and wonder how Their fuel pump is holding up?

2007, 43k on my 250 and oil changed every 5k religiously in all (5) of our cars, would like to ‘see’ inside but got absolutely no intention of ‘going in!’ 😀

So based on that theory then I guess I should be in the ‘Fit one’ group! My 250 ( 2007) has just clocked 45k and I intend keeping it until it fails the MOT catastrophically on rust somewhere! ( hopefully a good long while yet)

By the by... I went to look at buying a 335i for my son last year and when the bonnet was opened (shown below ) I had to walk away right there and then, after seeing the obvious presence of a rodent! I had to explained to the seller (and my son!) that there could be a whole lot of wiring loom damage that would be a nightmare to trace let alone fix! You can see that the little fellow used the bonnet sound deadening material as a quilt and made a lovely little nest right there in front of us! The underlying problem was the car sales lot was right next to a fried chicken/kebab shop and there was discarded food everywhere!

So did your original alternator actually fail completely or did you change it out before it stopped working because you had a smell of ‘burning’ and concluded it was the alternator?

I see from your profile that you have been driving for less than 2 years and currently pay about £140 a month for your IS250 insurance, sadly after this (fault) event they ( insurance company’s) will hike your premiums sky high so trying to insure the ( now repaired) IS250 may be another factor in the decision.

Remember a FWD car effectively pulls the car forward by the front wheels and a RWD car pushes it forward via the back wheels, From my advanced driver training days I remember being told to Not put the power down Too early in a bend with a RWD car whereas you can with a FWD car, FWD will drag you in direction you are pointing, RWD will push you sideways, you can see lots of examples of this on yooToob!!! Mostly not ending well Ha!

The first thing I thought of when OP stated about the battery... "couldn't quite get if fitted properly. The garage sort of banged it on" was that the Wrong battery was trying to be fitted, by wrong I suspect the battery terminals were on the wrong edge and this means the battery connection leads have to be stretched to get to the terminals which are now at the front of the battery instead of the back edge. sometimes when the wrong battery is supplied in good faith it is very easy to put battery in with terminals at the back but now the polarity will be REVERSED and will cause all hell to break loose if inadvertly connected even for a split second! I am not suggesting the battery HAS been connected up wrong But if your terminals are at the front of the battery it is the wrong battery at the connections may not be fully secured which may lead to a reduced power delivery to the starter motor. Below is a Picture of a (Expensive) IS250 with Wrong Battery Fitted. I think IS220D battery arrangement is the same, is it not?

Happy days👍

🤞you can get your ISF into the dealers for assessment today!

Ditto here on my IS250, from what I can find out it’s the steering geometry setup that doesn’t totally align the front wheels perfectly in full lock situations ( which of course should only be happening at really low speeds!)

You sure it’s not the well known tapping that comes from the hydraulic valve lifters for a few seconds after the car had not been used for a while and the oil drains down out of the upper head area, it goes as soon as oil pressure is achieved. I have had it happen a few times and to be fair it does sound dreadful, if it was to happen every start then I would be worried, but only happens ( sometimes) when engine has not been used for a while ie weeks! UPDATE: I have just watched the vid on the duplicate post about this!! And It is Not the Hydraulic Lifter problem!

Quite a possibility ( counterfeit parts) as they are in a high price point and mean large returns for the fakers! I haven’t looked at the Osram Website yet but Manufacturers that do get their products copied by counterfeiters some times have a guide on how to recognise their genuine products.

According to his profile 2015 IS250 Premier.

+1 on above for the remedy of your ‘problem’. It appears that the mechanics that worked on your car may have ( like is highly Recommend) disconnected one (or both) of the battery terminals and this has led to your window system needing to be reset, here is the page from my IS250 manual for the procedure after a battery disconnect and I will be surprised if it is different for your RX ( same year also )

Sounds like an absolute nightmare!

Pretty sure those wheels are known as ‘ G Spider’ wheels.

It might just need ‘bedding in’ after which it might be different!

Has it got an OAP ( Overrunning Alternator Pulley) as this might have something to do with what you are trying to describe.