Thelongterm

Nice colour imho, don't see many bottle green ones. As to the start button, I have seen this before on a car that someone with long nails was the main user, she use to start by pressing not with the finger tip but with the nail tip. The same worn out signs were evident on the driver door handle. SH will be nice but a good check by a dealer could point out any faults.

The service history is still there on the mylexus site but you first have to add your car. once added: Click to login, go to my vehicles, select your car, select vehicle information, service history.

I enjoyed watching Scotty K swearing and effing when he had to do a sparks job on the IS v6 while having c19. enjoy

I prefer this YouTube video

I posted about this few weeks back and it is now sorted. The car I acquired was from a lady who hardly used it but kept it garaged. This treatment meant she last changed tyres around 2011-2012, it's a combo of Pirelli's P7's at the back and Dunlop sport maxx rt on the front. So although the thread is reasonable at 3.5 to 4.5 the tyres were noticeably stiffer in the cold with lots of skipping even at a light reverse turns. The car was fitted last week with all-seasons boots all-round and now the skipping is gone.

I use the armrest setup as I I wouldn't trust myself to fiddle with the stereo without breaking something. My setup consist of the UGreen BT to 3.5mm receiver via ground loop box, with the speakers set to 'Front' and the bass to +1 it seems to play Spotify almost perfectly, certainly better than our other car (2010 Avensis). Maybe it is not well defined but the Ugreen BT has a mic built in and taking calls is a doddle with good surprising good quality (well no one complaint that they can't hear me so far).

Agree. I came to the IS250 from a newer Yaris MK2 99bhp manual, and I got the IS because I wanted comfort, the auto box and a similar level of dependability you get with the Yaris. Considering that most cars on the road with you have less than 204 horses under the bonnet it's laughable to describe it as slow. If you need to get away from other road users then the IS do the job in the best way possible. If you need to go up steep hills like we have around here, it does a remarkable job.

Was the carbon build up a problem on European sold cars?

Thanks for the info, I never had this profile on previous cars (Yaris and Avensis) so learning something new every day. According to other forms for Mercedes Benz cars, the level of wear and age are factors contributing to the issue.

Is softer compound tyres like Yokohamas or Uniroyal have more give in colder weather? (Thinking about the next set).

Started about two month ago.

Something odd is occurring when I turn slowly (2-3 mph) over road imperfections and pot halls that we have aplenty around here. It sounds like the tyres (I think it's the rear) are 'catching' and making this knock sound when going over an imperfection as turning the steering wheel slowly. The tyres are what I got with the car and still have around 4.5 to 4.9 mm left on average all-round. Looking at the date code tells me the back 245 45 17 are from 2016 (these are Dunlop sport maxx), the front 225 45 17 are 2018 vintage and are Pirelli P7's so not cheap tat. Can it be that the tyres lost their flexibility considering the back is six years old and the back are three+ ? The callipers at the rear were serviced and greased after buying the car in August and the front wheels roll freely. Any idea?

The MK2 IS250 is getting some bad rep in the US so Scotty is right. It's a topic that was done to death with their use of low grade petrol in engines using direct injection only, fairly unusual in Europe.

Good question, I tried two products, one from Halfords which was cr**p but the other one which works perfectly is Meguiar's G2970EU Two-Step Car Headlight Restoration Kit.

I had a look at how to replace the low and high beam bulbs in the IS, seems like a right pain in the arse, comparing this with our other car (2010 Avensis) which has much easier access. I got a couple of Osram Ultra Life as these are suppose to last a long time, the lights the car have now are fairly good but I can't tell what brand is buried down there.

I tested SEL's without the nav/ml combo but never saw pre 2011 one that only had the nav without the ML.

I never understood the attraction of the mid 00’s infotainment systems in any car as an element in buying your wheels in the last five years. Mobile tech is so far ahead of the stuff car brands use to bundle back then. The modern smart phone when connected to the excellent IS stereo is capable of taking you where you need by just telling it, (comparing with the science class you needed to know how to operate the daft old units), can play pretty much what you want by just talking to the handset, you can even use the phone as a reversing camera with better safety features to boost, what not to like? DAB is overrated, if you use an internet radio like Google podcasts or Spotify the selection is far better (not to mention the dreaded connection in the ancient Lexus supplied module vs almost non existing issues in Bluetooth 5.0 equipped adapters).

I can concur that some lowish 250's i came across were fairly average. Garaged examples seems to be the best of the lot. Mine is a low mile, garaged example and the only thing I found is some strange paint corrosion on the wiper arms, both seems professionally corrected. The main keys to the mint condition were 1. Car garaged from new 2. The lady who owned it was well-off and allowed the local dealership to 'manage' the service regime. Nothing was spared when it came to maintenance (including Lexus not servicing the rear calipers, as they do).

We’re there any signs of imminently failing fuel pump other than the smell of petrol? according to Scotty Kilmer one can hear a high pitch noise when opening the fuel tank and listening, never came across this myself.

I agree with Mr Vlad, go and have a look. I went to look at around 7 cars in 18 month to find the best one for me. As to ditch finders. My example came with two Dunlop’s Sport on the back and two P7’s on the front. As they were all evenly at 3 mm I changed them a couple of weeks back to a full set of a new to the market Nokian all weather’s, the grip is far better than the summer tyres it replaced, drove it today in blinding rain on the M5 and it felt like the car is glued to the road. I don’t expect longevity to be anything to write home about but I only do 5k annually so that is not an issue.

We had a similar issue with our other car (2010 Avensis), managed to sort it out by cleaning the throttle body.

On Monday I needed to fill up of E5 (07 SE), gone to our local Texaco and away and behold no queue for the 97ron good stuff at £1.38 about 23 cars queuing for diesel at £1.35 and another 20 for 95ron at £1.34 You take your advantages where you can.

I lasted exactly eight minutes, just waffle about unrelated stuff, I drifted. I love the SC look, it's unique. Seems like JM is comparing this twenty years old design with modern stuff like LC etc' that's where he lost me.

Did you try to place a ground loop adapter between the Aux and your player or Bluetooth receiver (if using BT) ? I bought one and it works beautifully (on the Pioneer unit in the SE) to cut down on the white noise and various crackles associated with using the AUX socket https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203221691403?epid=13042775780&hash=item2f50f4ec0b:g:om4AAOSwL7xgUF9a

The 'White noise' on your right side is... the ventilated seat doing it's job, it's a whispering woosh sound. Turn off the ventilation on your side and by magic all is now quiet in the cab.