H3XME

Hello,

I've had an HKS Temperature gauge on my shelf for a few years now and I finally decided to use it. I will put it in next time I do an oil change as it replaces the sump plug. 

However, in terms of routing the wire from the oil pan back into the cabin (to the gauge), I'm not sure which way to go. In my GT86 I ran it through the wiring harness hole in the firewall that was located just under/behind the Battery on the passenger side. Is this the same case on these? I haven't looked yet, so apologise in advance. Alternatively, since the plug side on the driver's side, it would be ideal to run it through the same side of the car, it would be a much shorter path but I don't know if there's a hole in the firewall on the driver's side. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

16 hours ago, sram said:

Hi all

Happy owner of a 2008 IS250 here. Had it two and a half years and it's been a joyous ownership experience so far compared to previous German cars. There's one issue I'm having and after a lot of research on here and some Googling, I think it may be carbon buildup related. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts?

For the last few months I've noticed that low speed running is getting rougher. If I'm cruising along at about 1200-1500 RPM the car will gently shake and hesitate. It feels like a misfire. In addition, if I've been driving at anything other than slow town speeds and then come to a stop at a roundabout or traffic lights, etc the engine speed will sometimes drop below normal idle, become lumpy and then something presumably within the ECU will kick in and cause the throttle to open up a little to prevent it stalling. The engine then settles back to a normal idle and is fine until the next time it happens, perhaps the next time I come to a stop or it could be a few days later. 

The symptoms have gradually been getting worse over the last couple of months. 

I looked for the names of some recommended Lexus/Toyota independents via this site and Google and I called two of them this afternoon. Both of them told me that they haven't ever heard of carbon buildup on the intake valves being problematic for the 2.5 V6 engine in this car. One even told me that carbon buildup on the valves wouldn't cause running issues! Needless to say I don't really have any confidence in either garage after talking to mechanics there.

I know that intake valve carbon buildup seems to be an inherit problem with DFI engines from this era and you only have to spend 15 seconds online to find plenty of posts about VW group engines suffering the same symptoms.

Could anyone recommend someone that could help me out? I've found the DIY guides for stripping and manually cleaning with brushes and carb cleaner, etc, but because this is my daily driver I can't really afford to do the work myself as, although I am a reasonable home mechanic, anything I tackle always seems to turn into a weekend or two's worth of work!

Car has a full main dealer service history (until I bought it) and has 114,000 miles. I've done one oil change since having it, approx 5000 miles ago last year. The plugs were done by a main dealer approx four years ago.

Many thanks for any advice or pointers you can offer. 

 

You know, I had the same symptoms. The car would even sometimes stall if I went from 6th to neutral coasting towards a junction, but then it was also shaking at the lights and was doing like 500rpm and you could just feel it was struggling so I had to give it some revs. Almost as if the oil pressure was low. This happened only sometimes, and maybe 2-3 weeks later I changed my oil, cleaned the maf & air filter, started using Tesco 99Momentum more and poured one can of Liqui Moly injector cleaner into the fresh tank of good fuel. I forgot about this issue now but come to think of it I had nothing like that ever since. 

Like Linas already mentioned, Carbon build up to a point where it's causing issues is very rare in the UK, but if your car lived in London all it's life, it may never get a proper chance to stretch it's legs often enough so it would kind of make sense, but still, I don't think it's that given your mileage. Service it, do what I did and see what happens, if that doesn't do it I would be inclined towards a faulty coil / spark plugs etc. Do the free or cheap stuff first before moving onto spending money on replacement parts that may have no effect!

HEADlights have sold now, but these tail lights are still available 🙂

SOLD.

Admin please remove.

FOR SALE

Brand New Smoked / Black VLAND tail lights.

These are fully road legal, brand new in boxes. I bought these thinking I'll use them but I don't like them on my car. They are the same tail lights as on my friend's White IS250 (attached photos).

Price: £190

Collection preferred (WV11), but can post at buyer's expense.

I also have factory Xenon headlights for sale here for £200  > 

2 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

I've given up the idea of the 1.0 litre focus. Thought about a GS but Too big.

CT200? 😉

5 hours ago, dephrank said:

I agree on the car’s colour playing a part on how the rear lights look. If it were a darker colour, there’d be more contrast. I’d leave the exhaust tips standard tbh and probably delete a secondary CAT or something just cos it’ll tie in with the OEM+ look you’re going for. Larger tips look out of place cos they hang lower than the rear bumper. The rear lights will grow on you. I’m fitting B12 pro kit dampers on my bimma soon. If I ever spot you at a traffic light, it’s on 😈 

I wouldn’t say that I’m going for OEM+ look overall, because that’s definitely not the case but I’d like for it to have some oem+ elements here and there. Overall look is going to be stance car. Similar to the attached pics. 
Yeah the exhaust will go, the tips are way too big, so I will go back to HKS mufflers. The only reason why I havent already is because 1) I thought my HKS tips were 5” but weren’t 2) it’s £900 I didn’t wanna spend on the exhaust just yet. 

Ahh, the old Bilsteins haha. Enjoy

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

Yes I believe they are 1.5-2.5" ovals. HKS in my opinion is already on larger size (didn't realise they were 4.5" already), sort of "tuner looks", but still not too ridiculous...

What can I say.. I loved played NFS Underground as a child.🤣

21 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

And HKS was already like 1.5" bigger than standard - so that is compounding enlargement and as far as I know 2" makes a difference 😄 

By the looks of it the car must be making 2000hp, because 1000hp Supras usually have one of them!

No Idea what the standard size is, but they're oval anyway. 

This was the HKS system with 4.5" tips and 6.5" mufflers. Already pretty big but that's how they're made for this car and it wears it really well in my opinion. But yeah, the stuff I got now is too big I don't like it.

7 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Reminds me styling of LS/ES lights of certain years, but overall makes the car look more JDM somehow (last gen Toyota Crown maybe?). Call me old-school but my favourite tail-lights for IS are IS-F ones with white indicator, the only problem is that they are rare and expensive. 

You didn't mention you planning to strap rocket boosters?! Fistable doesn't even come close to describing it now... going to the moon? 

Believe it or not, this is only 0.5" bigger than the HKS system I had and it looks ridiculously huge. I didn't think the 0.5" will make any difference but here we are. I will be going back for a reduction unless I can find a used HKS system somewhere.

The time has come. Finally got my tail lights yesterday, so decided to fit them on my lunch break.

They grabbed my attention because I've never seen these lights before and they look very OEM+ I'd say. Subtle design, sequential indicators (in the bottom chrome bit) nothing too crazy. However, I am not 100% sure on them.. Maybe it's because of my car's colour, but I'll keep them at least until I get the rear spoiler & rear lip fitted and then make my mind up.

Sorry to hear that @Mr Vlad , but I'm glad you're good. Happens to the best of us! As for the airbags, I think this is normal since it was a rear end damage.. the guy who crashed my old one did something similar to you and airbags didn't go off either as only the rear of the car got affected. Tbh for the money that MK3 focus will cost you, you could get another IS250 😉 but the UX will be nice if you get it! 

Hi guys,

Would anybody here be interested in my factory xenons? 

They have been polished and lacquered so they're "sealed" to prevent them from yellowing again anytime soon. This was done some time ago, they don't look brand new, but they aren't yellow, work fine and certainly look to be in a better condition than most others I've seen on the road. I see the prices of them are quite silly - Used are anything from £150-£300 PER headlight and new ones from lexus part direct are £557 each.

£200 takes both - will not sell individually. I'm happy to post at buyer's expense.

I'm only willing to get rid of them as I purchased a set of aftermarket headlights.

The BC Racing coilovers are on. The ride height is much better, but I can't lower it anymore with the current wheel/tyre setup. That being said I couldn't avoid rubbing on the front arches, so the dremel will have to come out so I can cut a little bit of the arch liner that catches. However, as low as it may seem, I can clear regular speed bumps without scraping (even head-on), so practicality hasn't gone out of the window...yet.

1 hour ago, markeyszoo said:

my 2009 facelift looks like that without add on. So what does it look like before add on?

It doesn't. This is a standard facelift bumper what you have. The rear lip / extension or "add on" is what you'd get on the SR model with the factory body kit. 

Here's what the bumper looks like with and without that part on.

12 minutes ago, javadude said:

I don't understand why Lexus are releasing this as another "self-charging" hybrid instead of EV. There's no need for more hybrids and their only half decent EV is the RZ which is crazy expensive. Lexus seem to have lost the plot. 

I tell you why. Because Toyota are actually using their brain. Hybrid is better for them. Ofc Tesla doesn’t have a choice it being EV only manufacturer, but for the rest of them it’s better to make hybrids. At least for the foreseeable.
https://www.thedrive.com/features/toyota-is-right-we-need-more-hybrid-cars-and-fewer-evs-heres-why

I think Porsche 911 and Lexus LC500 are slightly different cars. Sure, arguably they are flagship models of both manufacturers, but Porsche is, and always has been more sporty and a driver's car. You can't say that about the LC500. While it drives well and the V8 makes nice noises, it's THE ultimate grand tourer. It's a stylish cruiser, and for most this is enough. Porsche on the other hand, is much more focused on spirited driving, track driving and overall sporty experience regardless of the model you get. Their handling is like no other. They are very capable cars. I know which one I'd choose for a back road Sunday drive.. the 911. And on the flip side, if I'm going cross country or even daily driving, the LC500 would be a much better companion. 

This is just my opinion, and what I'm trying to say is that they're different cars. LC500 is much more comparable to BMW 8 Series coupe. Whereas the 911 would be more of a competitor to the M4.. 

On 6/27/2023 at 1:23 PM, MartinH said:

Ah, your car is the same colour as mine. Presumably you had this new skirt piece painted?

Hi, sorry the pictures above are not my car, although it is the same colour as mine, and yours. Desert Sage Metallic. Yes, I will get it painted. I've done the whole front bumper myself and it came out well. 

4 hours ago, dephrank said:

It remind me of a 3er from behind 😃. Making the car look thicc AF with a slight drop and camber to boot. I absolutely love it - modding a car to your own taste.

Haha, soon! 
Picked up BC Racing coilovers today, so they’ll be going on.. maybe as soon as Tuesday after work if I can be bothered. 
 

I also ordered tail lights. Something slightly different to what I’ve seen on people’s cars. 
Vland headlights are also on the way. 
 

9 hours ago, dephrank said:

You may drive a Lexus but your soul belongs to BMW. When you’re ready, I’ll personally welcome you to the dark side 😈  

Why does it?🤣

I can confirm it definitely doesn’t belong to ze Germans🤣

Hi guys,

I've wanted an SR lower rear lip for a long time, and sourcing one from breakers is virtually impossible. I ended up committing to a bulk order (only 4 pieces) from overseas.

These will be with me this weekend, so I have 2 for sale. One is for me, one is already reserved by someone which leaves me 2 left.

If someone wants one, let me know. They are made from plastic and fit just over the bottom bit of your rear bumper.

It looks like the below. £150 ono. Collection from the Midlands preferred. I can imagine shipping will be very expensive due to size. Happy to deliver for fuel within reasonable distance.

On 6/24/2023 at 10:37 AM, SRVO said:

I've found myself needing to replace my offside headlight and out of curiosity I had a look at alternative options. These popped up...

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPjc5DO

 

They're obviously not OEM and who knows what the quality is like, but for aftermarket lights I think they look really good - reminiscent of the previous generation NX.

 

I don't suppose anyone has fitted these or has any idea if they would be road legal in the UK?

I'll probably end up swapping like-for-like genuine ones, but thought I'd ask out of interest.

They will be like Vlands available for IS250s.. No issues with MOTs and such. They are road legal, you just need to get them adjusted should the beams be misaligned but any garage can do that for 20 quid. 

Finally had a crack at dying the carpet black.. this was done maybe over a month ago now.. still not rubbing off, so works good! 

On 5/31/2023 at 9:11 PM, OS-IS250 said:

Got a new set of 18" alloys - all 4 are 8JJ.

I need a tyre set up for my RWD IS250, can anyone recommend tyre size for front and rear?

 Thanks

Only just noticed this, so not sure if you still need help, but it depends on your driving style... simply put, 225/40R18 are a good option for 8J wide wheels.

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

but your one has perfectly invisible colour, so what are the solutions?

 

I have no solutions because I have no problems. It’s other people’s problem they can’t see me🤣