Tango

Good work, now lower it I'm planning to lower it in February - March after the snow (if there will be any this year). The springs of choice are H&R 35mm drop front and rear. To be honest I'm very sceptic of lowering this car after driving a very low Alfa 156 for 5 years. I'm afraid i'm going to lose some of the comfort that I missed with the Alfa but I think I'm going to make that sacrifice because the 220d handles very bad at that height. It looks like a 4x4 next to 3 or 5 series bmw. For now I want to change the italian made tuning box (120 euro) I have which performs kind of ok for a german made (229 euro) race-chip . I have also ready to install a oil catch tank Just be aware that lowering by 35mm will put the camber just outside of the Lexus geometry tolerances. Mine was lowered just over 38mm at the front and required camber adjusters to be fitted as there's no camber (or caster) adjustment on the second generation Is's, only toe adjustment.

Don't think smug is the term I'd use for owning a 250 SE-L with a manual box, more sorrowful as it isn't the best choice by any stretch.

No issues on full lock providing you have the correct offsets for the width of wheel. I had 235/35/19 tyres on the front on the 8.5" rims with +38mm offset. This puts the outer edge of the rim +13mm from standard with an extra 1mm on the inner gap. Anything wider than 235 would rub with this set-up. The rears had 285/30/19 tyres on 9.5" wide rims with +42mm offset which put the outer rim +42mm from the standard position and reduced the inner gap by -16mm, so it filled the arches better. I don't have the IS250 SE-L now, having sold it to Cous3, but my IS-F is the same colour. Had the 250 from new for nearly 6 years and had both the 250 and IS-F for a year trying to decide which one to sell on. Cous3 has continued to modify the car, and it now has black pearl emblems, a IS-F style grill, and it looks even better. The rims aren't black, they are colour coded to match the car. I'll admit the Cadoxton Slate we mixed up was a little darker, but like the car they can look black in different lights.

Apart from the obvious, i.e. brake pads, there's nothing else you need. I fitted stainless steel braided flexibles all round while I changed out the calipers, but the standard lines on the 250 fit so no need to change. Why would there be rubbing issues by fitting bigger diameter rims?? The overall rolling diameter of the tyre should be constant, just bigger diameter rims mean lower profile tyres. I did increase the widths of both front and rear rims (8.5" and 9.5") so if you do similar it's necessary to buy rims with offsets to keep the centre line of the rim as near as possible to the OEM wheel centre line. I dropped the car on an american specification EiBach Pro Springset which gave a 38mm drop on the front and a 25.4mm drop to the rear. Dropping the front more than 30mm will put the camber angle outside of Lexus geometry setting tolerances so with my springs it was necessary to fit camber adjusters to the front to bring the camber back within specification as there is only toe adjustment on the IS250/220D. The rear camber was of course OK without adjusters.

The calipers and discs from the GS 300 Mk3 are identical to the IS350 calipers and discs, and although the IS350 hubs are slightly different to the IS250 they do fit, as I put them on my 2005/2006 IS250 SE-L in 2007 (as shown on the following pics). However, if you do then the standard IS250 17" rims will no longer fit, so you'll need the 18" OEM, or as I did fitted 19" non OEM. Don't bother with buying the larger dustshields/backplate of the GS300/IS350 as they will not fit the IS250 hub, and the originals can be left on even though slightly smaller than the discs.

V6 L** for the IS250 from DVLA £220.00 and V8 L** for the IS-F from DVLA £250.00

Was it front or rear? The rear calipers were known to be a problem, and I had the units replaced FOC on my 2005/6 SE-L twice, once under warranty and again on a recall.

Good work, now lower it

Have you asked the Lexus dealership who they use? Someone gave one of my doors a heavy bash which left their white paint and a dent on the door ridge line which I thought was probably a new door skin, but Lexus Cheltenham are part of the Listers Group and they have a dedicated dent man that travels between their dealerships fixing dents etc. in used cars for resale. He worked on my door and 4 hours later I couldn't see where the dent had been, even though I knew exactly where it had been. Charged me £70.00 +VAT which I thought was very reasonable.

Handbook will say to increase the pressure so the tyres will run cooler, but if you're running air inflation heat will cause expansion and raise the pressure anyway. I've always sought to run pressures that provide optimum tyre wear for my average journeys and leave it at that. I'll add that I've found nitrogen inflation appears to give less variation in pressures during regular monitoring, but now I've mentioned it I'm sure it'll generate a load of posts saying it's all hype and air is mostly nitrogen anyway so it makes no difference, yada yada.

Is that Perth, Scotland, or Perth, Western Australia, and do you want to know if anyone is living there now, or has lived there before??

With my IS250 SE-L I started with 35 psi all round and then monitored the tyre wear on both axles. If the tyres show signs of wearing more on the outside edges then increase the pressure by a couple of psi and continue to monitor, if they show signs of wearing more in the middle then decrease by a couple of psi. When the wear is even across the tyre then stick with the pressures they're on. If any of the tyres show uneven wear, i.e. more on one side of the tyre than the other, then get the geometry checked and adjusted. Correct pressures will vary depending on the type of tyre, the average loading, how you drive and the type of journey usually done. The user manuals state recommended pressures for depending on type of loading and average speeds, but they should be treated as a starting point, not as absolute. On my 250 I found 38 psi all round gave me the optimum wear, but that was on 235/35/19 front and 275/30/19 rear. Coincidentally the similar size tyres and rims on my IS-F ended up with the same pressures.

...and I drove around a Landrover that was stuck on an icy hill, albeit a Freelander, with the IS200 on winter tyres last year.

Forget the snow button as unless you're totally incompetent it doesn't help, so fit a decent set of winter tyres instead. I have Pirelli Sottozeros on my IS200 Sport and have no problems in winter conditions, even on the steep and often untreated hills where I live in the Cotswolds. The IS-F remains in the garage if there's any chance of snow or ice, and the IS200 on its winter boots takes precedence when the temperature drops below 7 degrees, regardless of whether there's any snow or ice on the roads.

May be stating the obvious, but Lexus never marketed the AWD 250 in the UK. You could import one from Japan or possibly Australia. Try: http://www.japaneseimportspecialists.co.uk/stocklist/japcars.html http://www.autoadvan.co.uk/japanese-used-car-import-stock http://japimportsuk.com/ http://www.goodmayesmotors.co.uk/ http://www.svaimports.com/cars.php?make=Lexus

Depends on where you are . The original Soarer Z20 series was produced in Japan from 1986 to 1991, then in 1990, following the launch of the Lexus badged marque outside of Japan, Toyota commissioned its California design studio(Calty) to develop a new luxury coupe. In 1991, this vehicle debuted in the U.S. as the Lexus SC 300/400. In the same year, the third generation Toyota Soarer debuted in Japan as the Z30 series, replacing the Z20 series. The Z30 series Soarer shared the body and key components with the Lexus SC, but featured different interior features, powertrain configurations, and other performance enhancements. After the Z30 series came the JZZ30 Toyota Soarer (1991-2000), the JZZ31 (1994-2000) and various other configuations in the same time period (UZZ30, UZZ31 & UZZ32). The last Soarer model produced was the Z40 series Toyota Soarer (2001-2005) which was more or less identical to its 'Lexus' equivalent, the SC430. On July 26, 2005 the Lexus division of Toyota was established in Japan, before which all 'Lexus' models were basically rebadged Toyotas. The Toyota Soarer series then ended at that time, leaving the 2006 Lexus SC430 as the only available model. So yes, in name only the only 'Soarer' has always been a Toyota.

Then you're a law breaking idiot.

Good catch B) Better be quick.

That's a bit heavy considering they were selling complete IS200 sports grills for £30.00. Sorry I cannot help as although I have a few spare body parts for the IS 250, unfortunately a grill surround isn't one of them.

Have you asked for a price at your local Lexus dealership?? You may be surprised.

Rubbish. I paid £140 for the updated set of 4 discs for my 55 IS250 SE-L covering all of Europe, and it allowed operation on the move. I also updated the satnav disc in my Is200 from the same site that I posted the link for.

You can check for updates here http://www.lexus-mapupdates.eu/ . The discs available for 2008 onwards allow use of the satnav system on the move. They come as a set of four, even though you may only need the one covering the UK. Loading a later disc will unlock the system so that once you have loaded a later disc, the system can be used on the move if you then reload your original disc (in case you know someone with a later version that you can borrow).

Obviously you know what you are talking about on this as it is your job but why would the OP's Lexus dealer be unable to answer the question. Is it that the service reception guys don't ask the techs? How do you rotate the wheels between tyre replacements or is it just not possible on these cars? Tyre rotation isn't possible on the IS 250 with directional tyres, as the tyre and wheel widths are staggered front to rear.

Mine's staying in a warm garage while the temperature is too low, and the IS200 Sport will be out and about on its winter tyres, same as last year.

But I much prefer English UK. Can't stand the American accent.