bernieeccles

This post bears no relation to the header or am I missing something.

When I changed my water pump, I need some coolant to top up the system and I bought this from Halfords. https://www.commaoil.com/passenger-vehicles/products/view/351 Not showing on their website at present but they do sell it. I found it my inputting my car reg on the Comma website.

I would add that in doing my daughters car, I did flush out the system and used new antifreeze/coolant before applying the SteelSeal. Also after reading the instructions on their website I noticed the following. Unless you are confident that no coolant additives have been used in the past, we recommend flushing the cooling system with clean water. Steel Seal is compatible with most antifreezes, but also works in clean water. We do not recommend using Steel Seal with long life / extended antifreeze. If completing the treatment with water only, simply follow the steps above with plain water and add antifreeze afterwards for best results. As Lexus use the pink coolant which IS longlife, I would bear that in mind. Also, as far as scepticism goes, I have many years of fixing up vehicles both professionally and in a private capacity and have always poo pooed quick fixes but with my daughters car being worth next to bugger all, it was worth a try and as I said, it's still going strong. They do offer a money back guarantee but I would suspect that there are a few hoops to jump through before they honoured that if it didn't work.

Just a comment about sealer. A couple of years ago, my daughters Peugeot 206 started to emit plumes of white smoke that had the characteristic smell that pointed to a leaking head gasket. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on this old car, I decided to try a sealer called "Steel Seal" I didn't really believe that it would work but bought some and followed the instructions. BTW, I figured the original cause was a stuck closed thermostat and a not very car savvy daughter who never checked anything. Over two years later, the car is still running with no loss of coolant, no white smoke and a rock steady temperature gauge. I know this sounds like I have a vested interest in this stuff, but in our case, it really worked and was worth the money which at the time seemed quite a lot for not much sealer. Got to be worth a try. https://www.steelseal.co.uk/

Just to add to this thread, does anyone know if those plastic thumb nut things are available without paying Lexus prices. They are found in various places in the engine compartment and a couple are found on the bottom of the engine side covers. Just found this picture

Mine started rattling against the pipes when I was on holiday a year or so ago and it was driving me mad. Bought these from Toolstation and got one of the Autocare branches to replace them all for something like £12 with me providing the clips. They did say they were not allowed to use customer parts but the manager put it through as a wheel balance on the invoice. They would have used their own clips but didn't have any and luckily, a Toolstation was about 5 minutes walk. https://www.toolstation.com/hose-clip/p69339

Another Kwikfit anecdote. A few years ago took my 2004 VW Bora TDI into said establishment for an oil and filter change. I usually do it myself but was feeling a bit lazy at the time. Now I have quite a lot of experience in working on cars both as a private individual and in a working capacity. On booking the car in, I did tell them that being a Pumpe Duse engine it needed a specific oil and of course the guy behind the counter said "we stock all kinds of oil". I had owned this car for many years up to this point and it is still in the family now so I knew it was fine mechanically. Car gets put on a ramp and I can see through the viewing window, the oil being drained. About ten minutes later, the manager comes to me and proceeds to tell me that the starter motor is faulty and the exhaust needs replacing. How much to fix those said I, playing along with his game. He then does a bit behind his counter and comes back with a price of many hundreds of pounds. I'll think about it says I and wait for the job to be finished, paid and left. On the way home, doubts began to enter my mind as to which oil they had actually put in my engine. I just could not rest with the thought that they probably just put in something from a big drum, not PD specific. Changed it myself a day later for the proper spec. Needless to say, the car which is now coming up to 16 years old, still starts every time with the original starter motor and the exhaust is still the original exhaust. I have never been to the crooks again since.

I read the post linked by Texas and found "the pedal to the floor" comment highly suspicious. All cars going back many years have dual circuit brakes which surely means if one circuit fails the other is still intact and would provide adequate braking power to halt the car. Thanks for the replies and in my case when the weather gets better, I will just cut and join in a new piece of brake pipe using Kunifer to ensure it lasts. No way is it going near a main dealer.

I have just had my 2009 IS250 in for the MOT and although it passed, I was shown the rear brake pipes where they meet the flexible hoses and the last 2 inches or so were corroded enough to warrant an advisory. We tried to see where they actually went to a union somewhere but couldn't see. Does anybody know the layout of these rear pipes or have a diagram of the pipe layout ?

I once took my other car, a VW Bora TDI to KwikFit for an oil change about 4 years ago. I normally do it myself but was a bit lazy at the time so thought I would let them do it. I asked the guy behind the counter if he knew it needed oil specifically for Pumpe Duse engines and he said yer, we have all sorts of oils. They proceeded to put it on the ramp and after about 20 minutes, the manager came to me and said "did I know that the starter motor is faulty and that the exhaust needed replacing?" I played dumb and asked how much. I can't remember how much he quoted but it was in the hundreds. Now, I had owned the car since 2005 and knew it intimately. It had never failed to turn over and start and it had recently been through an MOT and I am one of those people that work on my own cars having been professionally involved in car repairs and plant machinery on an LPG plant in Algeria. I knew he was talking cheval merde. After that episode, I could not stop thinking had they used the correct oil or just put some bulk type stuff in. I changed it a week later myself for oil of the correct spec. I would not go near a KwikFIt again!

They had better start building new power stations now as current capacity is not enough and with Hitachi deciding not to build the new nuclear power station, a spanner has definitely been thrown in the works.

That could be welded back up with a bit of reinforcing added as well. Job done!

A quick look on youtube came up with this video on replacing the batteries on the TPMS sensors. If that is where the fault lies, could save a few quid.

I have posted this link before but maybe some people haven't seen it. Great site for trim clips. Page 2 contains these clips at a very reasonable price. https://www.vehicleclips.co.uk/parts-by-make/toyota.html?p=2

Are they quiet tyres?

Have you ever looked at the panel gaps on a brand new Tesla Model S? The one I saw on display at a country fair had a gap at the bottom of the bonnet/ wing of about 6/7 mm decreasing to about 2mm up at the windscreen scuttle.

I bought a similar item to that in the first post because of an upcoming continental trip and not wanting to get stuck if the battery went flat. It's an auto. Last week my neighbour came round and asked if I had a battery charger as her car battery was flat and it would not start. Great opportunity to try my jump starter I thought. Plugged in the big leads, clipped them on to her battery and wow, it actually worked brilliantly. Still had 95% of charge left in it. A big thumbs up from me.

Electric windows might need resetting as they do on my IS250 when the battery has been disconnected.

Arthur Tussik could fix it ! Https://www.youtube.com/user/tussik01/videos

Good chap ! you know it makes sense.

Black wheels look absolutely horrible in my opinion but then again, that's my opinion not yours. They just spoil the look of the car and from a distance look like basic black steel wheels that have lost their plastic wheel trims.

I seem to recall that some turbo cars had a water cooled turbo and the pump was electrically driven, thereby allow it to circulate coolant when the engine was switched off. Possible explanation ?

I know it might sound silly but you did insert the disc the right way up ?

Strange, as I have just clicked on the link and it took me straight there. AliExpress, Google Lexus IS250 SNCN LED .

For those owners that don't have them but would like them but are put off by the huge cost of genuine Lexus ones, how about these from AliExpress. $35.70 dollars. Scroll down to the video and see them in the dark. The ones shown are inscribed Atenza but the Lexus logo is available, all in a choice of coloue illumination. For the money I think they are quite good but maybe a little less restrained than the genuine article. What say he collective ? Too bling ? https://tinyurl.com/y9bxdhpx