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parkman

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Everything posted by parkman

  1. Hi, I would like to follow up on the replacement battery issue. I bought a Yuasa HJ-S46B24l[S] battery, which I found listed by a Dublin battery wholesale supplier as being the correct battery for my 2013 IS 300H Premier model. When I went to fit the new battery I found that the terminal posts on the new Yuasa battery are the same as a standard car battery post. The posts are much bigger than the original Toyota battery posta, and, of course, the new battery won't fit into the car. The new battery cost €220 and is currently not useable. I wonder whether anyone has any solutions to this ? I have looked on the internet, looking for battery connector adapters, but I can't find much that will fit onto the original Lexus connectors and will allow connecting to the new bigger posts. I did come across an item call a "Pencil post adapter", and without major surgery to the cars cables I think that this adapter may be the only option. The only other choice that I have is to see if I can return the new battery, and then put the car into the local Toyota dealer and let them fit a new battery. The problem is that it will probably cost about €400 -€450, which really gets up my nose. In the old days I would just file down the terminal post until it would fit, but nowadays one might need the warranty and filing down the posts will defeat the warranty. Any ideas or advice would be appreciated. Parkman.
  2. I wonder whether someone can tell me how to get the mirror glass, with the plastic backing, out of the mirror housing ? Some prat broke the mirror glass a month or so back, and I have only just got a used replacement. I would like to see whether there is a video anywhere for removing the broken glass and fitting the new one. The car is a 2013 IS 300h. Parkman.
  3. Zotto, thanks for the reply. I will give it a try tomorrow and see if I can get the route direction to change around. Parkman.
  4. I wonder whether someone might have an answer to a question - is it possible to turn the sat nav route direction around by 180 degrees ? I have always used after-market Garmin sat navs and the map route direction is orientated from bottom to top so the the car icon is always moving in an upward direction, also meaning that the direction is logical and you are moving towards the horizon. In the IS 300h the nav screen is always moving from the top of the screen to the bottom, which to my mind is illogical. It makes it look as if the car icon is showing where I have come from, rather than showing where I am going. If you read a normal paper map you would normally read the direction from top to bottom, even if you turn the map up-side-down. Any answers would be appreciated because I keep the the Garmin on the windscreen because it is easier to read and understand. I would like to be able to rely on the car sat nav but I can't. Parkman.
  5. Colin, thanks for your useful information. Maybe I am jumping the gun about the testing centre, but unfortunately one learns to be a cynic when dealing with Irish government bodies ! I will wait and see what the dealer comes up with, when the car goes in, next week. I did look at the small print on the extended warranty and it does say that the bulbs are covered by their MOT protected status. However, I don't believe that I still have an extended warranty anyway, as I exported the car from the UK to Ireland. Parkman.
  6. Many thanks for the replies. I had a quick look a few minutes ago, and I see the places where the adjustments are made, but I have decided to book the car in for service and the dealer will reset the headlight alignment. A very interesting comment about the lifetime warranty on the xenon, or LED, bulbs. I must make a few discrete inquiries. If I ask the local dealer in Dublin they will definitely refuse any warranty - unless I can get Lexus Japan to tell them otherwise. It is normal here in Dublin that if a warranty claim can be refuted then it will. Until a higher authority can tell them to adhere to the warranty rules. First rule of business - refuse all warranty claims !! I had a Lexus breakdown service when I bought the car but when I brought the car to Ireland and rang Lexus Ireland how I could continue the service I was told that it didn't apply to Ireland. End of story. No new renewal. I believe that perhaps I could buy a separate breakdown service but instead I just rely on my insurance breakdown service, should I ever need it. Parkman.
  7. Hi, thanks for the reply. I know that the series 3 IS has LED headlights but I am not sure about self-leveling I have looked up the specs for the Premier model but it doesn't mention whether or not there are self-leveling. I did see a method of testing this by starting the engine, putting on the hand brake and then very gently pressing the accelerator to see if, when the rear of the car pulls down the headlights also turn down. The problem with this is that you are having to get the car to strain against the handbrake, and how long do you need to do it for, before the electronics see that the car has gone low at the rear and needs to turn the headlights down. Where would it say whether the car has self-leveling headlights ? Edit; I have just looked through an online IS brochure and it says that the IS 300h has "[1] / Xenon headlights Auto-levelling High Intensity Discharge Xenon headlights with high-pressure cleaners and LED daytime running lights are standard on the new IS." I could imagine one headlight becoming misaligned, but both, and by the same margin ? I would also like to know how the test mechanic tested them, to see this problem. I have a classic Mercedes and I tend to be very careful of speed bumps and potholes, to the extend that I slow right down to walking pace to pass over a speed bump, and I will zigzag all over the place to avoid potholes and damaged road surfaces. I don't care what people think, I don't see why I should allow bad roads to cost me loads of money repairing my car. If I have to stop in the middle of the road because of a pothole then that is exactly what I do !! Parkman
  8. I have a question that maybe someone has an answer to. My car is in Ireland, having moved from the UK last year. It is an original UK car. It is a 2013 IS 300H Premier, the latest model, and it came from a main dealer. It is now in Dublin, and it needed to have an NCT test, the Irish equivalent of the MOT, but operated by a Spanish outfit. Unfortunately, this company uses the annual car test as a cash cow [as with a lot of things in Ireland, such as road tax] and you have no idea what the requirements for passing the test this year might be. Each year the car goes for a test you can be sure that there will be different rules this year than last year, and passing the test will be totally speculative. My car has just failed this annual hi-jack due to both headlight being unaligned correctly. I had a look under the bonnet this afternoon and I can't see where the lights are aligned, and this has made me wonder whether there actually an alignment mechanism in the IS 300. If the test centre have decided that the lights are incorrectly aligned, both left and right, then they have been this way since the car was supplied to me 18 months ago, and having looked through the service receipts I see no mention of headlight adjustment or re-alignment. There are only 40,000 miles on the car, and since the last test which the car passed 12 months ago I have done just over 3000 miles, and I can't believe that the lights have gone out of alignment within that mileage so there are two possibilities; [1] the lights have been out of alignment from the day the car was supplied or; [2] the bandits at the test centre have just invented this to fail the test with the result that I need to get a retest, which has to be paid for. I called into a Lexus/Toyota dealer on the way home, and his answer was that the headlights have gone out of alignment because of driving over speed bumps. What a lot of utter nonsense. I said that if that was the case then there is an inherent problem with the car because I have never had the lights on a car go out of sync due to road conditions. Maybe someone can tell me if they have had any problems with car headlights going out of alignment during normal use, I would be most interested. Parkman.
  9. I am wondering whether the direction of travel in the sat nav display in the 300h can be changed ? I find that the display is a bit confusing because when using Garmin or Tomtom the map on the display scrolls down, so that you look like you are moving on the map display in the same direction as the car is moving. With the car display the maps move upwards, in the opposite direction to the cars direction of travel. It can very confusing if, like me, you are used to third party sat nav's. Can the map direction on the screen be reversed at all ? Parkman.
  10. I have just fitted Red pads front and back as well. I haven't done more than about 50 miles so far, but the brakes feel OK. As you say, time will tell as to whether the alloys get very dirty with the new pads. When discussing older cars one thing that we had to do on a couple of occasions was to pour Coke mixed with sugar into the clutch when it cooked and started slipping. It was an amazing quick fix which really worked. Parkman.
  11. I have quite a lot of old car stuff in my garage due to having had a couple of Ford Escort rally car back in the late sixties and early seventies. Copperslip was a vital component for any self-respecting rally car owner back then !!! You couldn't go to the pub and be taken seriously unless you had some under your finger nails !! Parkman.
  12. I had to sell the W124 because I am moving house and I just needed to make room at my new house. I have a 1983 W126 500se, as well, and my IS 300h, so the 124 just had to go. The 126 is my preferred chariot as it only has 53,000 miles from new, and one owner from new. I am not sure whether the Golf, A3 etc. were around in 1990 though 😏 The 124 central closing also worked on the early remote key fobs, just that mine didn't use the IR keys, only the key itself. But the key did do a good job, it worked every time closing all four windows and the sunroof. You just had to remember to keep the key turned until everything was closed. Like the later, 2004 E-class, if you let the key go, the same as the later IR key fob if you took your finger off the button, then the windows and roof stopped and you had then to turn on the ignition and use the internal switches. Parkman.
  13. Yes, that was the case with my 2004 E-class. You had to have the fob pointed at the small, square receiver in the door handle, and be no more than three inches away. If you moved the fob at all while the windows were rising then the windows would stop, and you then had to get back in the car, switch on the ignition and lift the windows as normal. You don't get a second opportunity. And, yes, it is operated by IR, so it had to been in direct line of sight of the receiver. I had a 1990 Merc W124 260E, which I sold recently, and that used the key in the door lock to close the windows and sun roof. You just kept the key turned in the lock position and everything closed. I can't understand that 25 years later modern cars don't have a total closure as standard, especially as it is now so simple using computer chips which are so easily programmed. Parkman.
  14. Carl, have you tried using the Carista dongle ? It looks quite interesting, although I probably couldn't justify a subscription for one car. Mind you, £34 for the year isn't very much. The one thing that would concern me is whether the main dealer would see that one has accessed the computer system when the car goes in for service. I deal with company laptops in a minor way and in our service department I am aware that we can see what external equipment has been plugged into a computer. So I presume that when the car is in the garage then the operator could see that a programmer has been plugged in without it being a Lexus component. Would that then void any warranty ? Again, my car is 2013 so I probably don't have any warranty left anyway !! Parkman.
  15. This is a question about an issue which I have not looked very carefully into, and while I am away from home, in other words I don't have the car with me at the moment. But here goes anyway. Does the IS 300h Premium have central closing when the car is locked ? What I mean is, does the central locking system close the windows if they are open when the key fob is pressed ? With my Merc E-class you could close the sunroof and all the windows by keeping the "lock" button on the key fob pressed. As long as you kept the "lock" button pressed then the windows would rise until they were fully closed. Then you release the button/ If the sunroof is open, and all the windows are open, then they will all close while the button is kept pressed. I briefly tried the same thing on the IS 300h but nothing happened, but perhaps I didn't do it correctly. I didn't try it again, and I didn't look in the user manual either as I forgot. Maybe someone might know if total closure does or doesn't work on the IS 300h. Parkman.
  16. Ref. wheels stuck on - that is exactly what happened !!! It seemed to be the two front wheels, if I remember. I had to put a truck tyre lever in behind the spokes of the wheels [very carefully] and gently lever the wheel off. As pointed out, the wheel rim was a bit corroded onto the brake hub and just needed a small bit of persuasion to break that bond. The exact same thing happened on my Merc E-class that I had before the Lexus. On that occasion I had to knock on some-ones door and ask if I could borrow a hammer, to use with a piece of wood, and whack the wheel rim from behind to release the wheel, as the tyre had picked up a nail on the road. It took a fair smack before releasing, but the Lexus was nowhere near as difficult. Changing the brake pads turned out to be straightforward, and each wheel took about 15 minutes to do. Easy-peasy. I must take the wheels back off, sometime during the summer and put some Copperslip, anti-seize compound, on the back of the wheel rim. Parkman.
  17. I had read somewhere about the necessity of having to program the cars system to light up the sills when the doors open but in retrospect I suppose that the plug under the sill is probably connected to either the side light circuit or to the door light switch circuit. I am not sure whether the sills are lit when the side lights are on because, obviously, the doors are closed !! I had Lexus do the installation when I bought the car and before I collected the car from the showroom. Parkman.
  18. I had the illuminated door sills fitted by Lexus, Chester. They are for the front doors only, and replace the plain sills. They light up blue and they look very nice at night. They connect to a plug under the sill apparently but may need to be programmed. The cost, including fitting by Lexus, was £420 if I remember correctly. That price was in September last year. Parkman.
  19. Thanks for the replies. I pulled off the front drivers side wheel and it was the same as one of the American Youtube videos. I wasn't sure whether the brake pads were removed through the back of the caliper, as is the case with the Isuzu Trooper. I am surprised that all the bolts and the rear caliper are all aluminium. It was very easy, as it turned out, to undo everything, and I finished all four wheels in two hours or less. The hardest part was actually getting the wheels off, they were a bit stuck on the lip of the hub and it took a bit of persuasion to get them off. However, job done and as easy as any other newer car that I have changed the brake pads on. Parkman.
  20. Hi, can someone give me a run-down on how to change the brake pads, front and rear, on a 2013 IS 300h, please ? I read a blow by blow account somewhere, but I didn't bookmark the website and now I can't find the article. I have had a look at various other websites but they are all American and refer to IS 200's, ES 200's, and IS F Sports, but I can't find anything to do with UK IS 300h. I think that it is pretty straight forward but do I need to remove the caliper to get the pads out ? Also where does the anti-squeal item, included in the box with EBC Red pads, go ? Parkman.
  21. Re: Ganzoom. I looked very seriously at a 2016 Jaguar XE with 9000 miles, from Hatfields in Liverpool, but I was eventually put off by the fact that it was diesel, and also used Adblue to achieve the low emission figures. I am really put off by the idea of having to check yet another reservoir before driving the car. Also, I do a lot of short journeys and, as I have said before, I dislike the DPF system. It just gives too many problems with a diesel and multiple short distances. My E220 cdi Merc, thankfully departed, used to give regular limp home mode problems, all related to diesel, DPF, and short journeys. These add up to garage nightmares. The IS 300h is a dream in comparison to the Merc diesel. And I know that the Jaguars from around 2008, 2009, in 2.8 twin turbo diesel form were an even bigger nightmare. Short journeys and engine failures were the order of the day. Re; Ed. I have never, ever, used voice command, even though I have had two previous cars with it. I don't really see the point of it either. Just another thing that either gives problems that only the dealer can fix, or else just doesn't understand the user !!! The other thing that I have never used, on a high spec vehicle, is the mobile phone connection thing. Many years ago, for work, I used to use the Nokia built-in hands free car kits but then I decided that [a] I didn't want to keep having to answer the phone while travelling, and the government kindly saved me making the decision by out-lawing phone use while driving. For me, a phone call while on the move is a major distraction and normally just not of ant importance. Now, I never even check for calls until I get to the end of my journey. As the TV advert says - "simps" [[The two meerkats]. Parkman.
  22. DanD seems to suggest that there is little or no adjustment in the adjustment of the lights. I have not checked this myself, it's been a bit too cold for an old goat like myself to go out and fool about under the bonnet, but I could well believe that parts needed to allow adjustment may not be fitted on an economy basis. A bit like changing from a full sized spare wheel, to a space-saver, to a can of sealer !!!! I must have a look under the bonnet of my IS 300h when the weather warms up a bit. Parkman.
  23. Interesting discussion, this. It interests me because I use BP 98 octane in my 1983 Mercedes 500se, which is a 5 litre V8. I found that the motor is noticeably livelier using 98 as opposed to 95 octane. Whether that difference would carry over to a 2013 IS 300h is perhaps difficult to ascertain. The Merc has a fairly basic fuel injection system and just likes to get fed good old fashioned high octane petrol !!! Parkman.
  24. I would have to agree with Roger, that is more or less the same thing that I have found. The dip beam is moderately OK, but I feel that I am guessing where the road goes sometimes when someone comes in the opposite direction on a country road. But switching to main beam immediately that the enemy has passed doesn't do much to help as far as illuminating the road ahead. I just have to rely on my reactions. I would be really interested to see whether this could be because the seating position in the IS is much lower than my previous car, a Mercedes E220 cdi. Not only that, but before the Mercedes I had a Mitsubishi Pajero, and these days I also have an '83 Mercedes 500se which is quite a high seating position. So it may just be the ride height of the IS. Parkman.
  25. I think that with long legs I must have knocked the switch. I think that that is the only issue I have with the IS, it is quite low for people with long legs. Anyway, I am now beeping to my hearts content !!!! Parkman.
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