zoricib

I replaced the water pump in 2020  (water pump, a pulley, the accessories belt & coolant) for £230 inc labour. Water pump alone was around 130 if I remember right...

The alternator I replaced with a remanufactured part from eBay which cost £125 & £166 for labour - it's known to be quite tricky to replace because of lack of space. 

If prior to your issue you started your car for a very short time (e.g. engine ran for around 30s), the engine could be flooded - this happened to me too. Start it over 4-5 times with your accelerator at the floor so it clears the unburnt petrol. 

5 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Usually they include moulding around the windscreen, but it is questionable quality and not colour matched, just matte black plastic. As I had black car that was fine for me.

As above - they usually do, most of the time mouldings break when they remove them and clips ALWAYS break, so it is kind of impossible to replace windscreen without replacing them. 

Thanks Linas! Mouldings was the word I was after, not clips😄 

5 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

^^  No idea, but I'll check when the fitter arrives - to be honest I have been aware of the "exterior clips" until they were mentioned here.

17 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

Appreciate all the expressions of sympathy and sound advice, replacement booked with Auto Windshields for 10th April which was the first available date.  They're the approved repairer for the Insurance, it being included in my Comprehensive cover subject to the excess as outlined above.

I appreciate it won't be a Lexus screen but will have to be by a good manufacturer like Pilkington.  Done on site so I'll be watching like a hawk, and subsequently checking for water ingress and wind noise.

Here's a pic of the damage, the one to the left isn't as visible as the major one to the right [I have NO idea who the random chap tying his lace is....  ]

 

Any idea if they'll replace the exterior clips on a typical windscreen replacement? Mine has been done before (I think) and it has lots of micro-pitting so I was considering putting a claim in (and a hammer through the windshield to qualify 😅) but the external clips don't look great & know they're quite expensive to replace.

6 hours ago, Texas said:

Try this ebay item No 254278351048

 

Nice one! Ordered 2

On 3/22/2024 at 12:49 PM, Andrii said:

On 3/22/2024 at 12:49 PM, Andrii said:

Be careful and don't lose the white plastic ring - it keeps the lamels together and the motor cannot be used without it:

 

Thanks for posting the fix! I just took both my mirrors off ( one wasn't heating, the connector came loose). Cleaned one of the motors as it wasn't working great, felt like it was grinding. Managed to lose the plastic circle bit (despite really trying not to!!) So pushed the 2 lamels closer together and all seems to be working (for now).

Anyone found replacement motors yet? Would want to keep 2 for spares

28 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

I use a small hand from me clutching microfiber cloths to dry off the car everywhere. The problem with airdrying is any particles held in the water dry onto the car and potentially of course interact with the paintwork.

Full disclaimer, I don't know what I don't know, because my name is not Donald (sic).

I don't have such a great paintwork so I need to worry about that - in my view though it would be the same as driving the car?

I use a small leaf blower (around£25 from Amazon) to give the car a once over after every wash to get rid of water in between doors, mirrors etc. Or go for a short drive and let the natural airflow take care of that. 

On 3/17/2024 at 5:20 AM, madasahatter said:

Started to change the rear vents, passenger side was easy. But on the drivers side, noticed wires going through the vent. These seemed to be

going into the back of the car. Anyone done these vents and was yours the same.

Might be because the car has/had some sort of after market lights? e.g. LED reflectors or an extra reversing light?  What are the wires plugged into inside the car?

same on my 06 - very minor scrape by someone in a car part (luckily they left details) - respray cost was £250, payout was around 2k. Got to keep the car, no category etc. Would involve a free claims management company, maybe they can push for a bigger payout. 

there are a few older threads where similar setups have been explored. 

To your current setup you could add an L-shaped USB adapter like this one to remove strain on the cable/ avoid it catching in the armrest lid. When I was running a similar setup I also had to add a ground loop isolator as I was getting a buzzing sound when no music was playing 

If you want to change tracks from the steering wheel you can install this  which goes in the back of your stereo as a second CD magazine. Will not show the name of the tracks playing though and it's a bit tricky/fiddly to remove the headunit to install the adapter, but with a bit of patience it's quite an easy process really.

How come you are importing the 250? any advantages over a UK available 250?

On 12/27/2023 at 8:06 PM, Taseen said:

LEXUS IS250 SE-L 2006

Hi everyone. I recently cracked my exterior mirror and need to replace it. My car was fitted with auto dimming mirrors and I understand that not all cars got that feature. I have ordered the mirror from a scrapped car and am now wondering if my car requires a certain mirror - are there two different mirror types for this model (one with dimming and one without)? lexuspartsdirect.co.uk suggests that there is one universal mirror for all. 

Had no luck getting a replacement glass mirror with the auto-dimming on. One way to tell which is which is by the vertical line on the far side of the mirror glass. If it's a continuous line it's non-dimming, if it's a dotted line it has the dimming function.

I gave up on searching for a dimming mirror as had to buy the whole mirror assembly to get the glass & ordered glare reducing ones from Aliexpress which have a blue tint on them. 

Hi all,

I recently had my alternator fail & whilst I was expecting it to go at some point, never knew what the signs of it going are. Scoured the web for a bit I found that one of the telltales is when the alternator produces a whine and your car sounds like you have a supercharger - which I definitely noticed but didn't think of investigating further.

So if your car starts sounding like it's got a supercharger, start looking for an alternator.

I got a rebuilt one from eBay for £125 including postage and had to send the faulty one back (they held a £30 deposit until they received my faulty one).

Labour cost was £160 at a local mechanic and he said the aircon compressor had to be removed to get to the alternator (also had a rounded bolt apparently so this may have added to the complexity of the job.

P.S. Once the alternator goes (all electrics started playing up - radio turning on and off, lights on dash etc) the power steering goes with it too. If you're driving at motorway speeds all systems come back,  but once stopped at traffic lights it all goes off too - mine went bad just as I was joining the M6 but managed to make it to the mechanic after wrestling with the steering wheel. 

4 hours ago, JamesP33 said:

Hi!

Can anyone help! There has recently started a beeping noise that lasts for about 5 seconds when I turn on the ignition in my 2005 Lexus IS250 that has only just started. I cannot work out what is causing this - I heard that this could be due to the battery needing replacing? Does this sound right or could there be something else at play?

Any help is appreciated! 🙂

James

could be key Battery? 

12 hours ago, MrTrendizzle said:

Quick update: After a few hours of searching and talking to various "experts" swapping the OEM AUX port to a 4 pin AUX would allow me to run the normal L/R wires to the stereo as normal but use the mic+/gnd with new wiring to the back of the steering wheel and T on to the existing wiring so the momentary buttons act how i want. This will depend if they run on a CAN Network and if i can splice in to the wires and get an analogue signal.  

I i'll pop out the button tomorrow and take a look at the wiring. If it's a simple momentary switch as i believe it is and the radio does all the decoding then just T'ing off the in/out wires should be enough to get a signal. Then it's work out the correct resistance (if required) for my phone to understand what that signal means. I'll most likely butcher an old pair of headphones and use the inline controls to T in/out of with the resistor there to see if it works.  

If all things go well i'll report back with what i find and post some instructions as Bluetooth modules are normally bulky and a battery drain while Grom products are expensive and i'm not 100% sure they do what i'm trying to achieve. 

or you could install this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN9MD28/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=autoclubinte-21&tag=autoclubinte-21

It's a bit fiddly to install as need to take the stereo out & need to be careful not to damage the dash around the vents, probably a 30 min job - but if you're comfortable with splicing wires & such, this should be a breeze. It plugs in the back of the stereo and it's read as a second CD magazine. Installed it and has been working flawlessly for the past 3 years.

Thanks both! Ordered a set of 4 & will drive it slowly to a nearby mechanic

Jumping on this old thread as I just broke a stud on the rear. Is it safe to drive it like so to the garage? 

2 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Always makes me smile with ASDA selling tyres.

The name ASDA comes from the original company name of ASsociated DAiries which sold milk, cream and other dairy products.

Along came the supermarket chain and now just like most of the others they sell everything.

I would love to have a chat with their technical tyre department regarding noise levels between 2 brands with a 3 dB difference in published figures. 

Things always change with brands and companies - I used to work for a pharma company which originally produced and sold solid fuels. 

ASDA came cheaper than the rest, so went with them.

Decided to go with the staggered setup in the end and just ordered a pair of Asymmetric 6's from ASDA tyres

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

I don't want to sound snob, but just kind of highlighting the irony of form over function. Keeping the original lights probably allows for enough illumination and keeping the reflectors where they should be. VLANDs look cool, but there is a catch. 

But don't take that too seriously - this is minor detail, I doubt it will ever become relevant, I am just nit-picking and justifying to myself why I don't like aftermarket lights. I like and support car modifications, but only when they have no downsides, sadly the aftermarket "stylised" lights have compromises I would not accept.  

Oh definitely form over function for most things I changed on my car. The car came with full vland lights at purchase, but would have purchased the rears myself anyways, so would have ended in the same place. No regrets here 😁

45 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

would be more worried if somebody crashes in my parked car at night, because there are no reflectors. That being said - as I generally don't park outside or on unlit country streets that would be unlikely to happen, still I think reflectors are there for a reason. 

Yeah, I would have liked them to still be reflective, but it's a compromise I'm happy with as now I can actually see something when reversing in total darkness

26 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Do they still act as normal reflectors too?

Well not really. They still look similar but it won't reflect light like the oem ones do. Had similar LED ones installed for about 3 years and they've never been an issue at MOTs if that's what you're worried about. 

On 2/18/2023 at 9:12 AM, Vintagesixtysix said:

If you decide to go for it…..

drop some photos or a vid if you can.

Finally got round to doing this...but forgot to take any pics of the process.

Firstly, I got some LED reflectors that have reverse lights too as I have to back up on an unlit street every day and the reversing lights on the Vlands didn't do much. Since the reflecors have the reverse lights into them, they came as clear rather than red, but applied some red tint/film from eBay.

Also applied some silicone on the edges of the reflectors as not sure how water tight they are...

These are the reflectors 

This is the red film (yes, this makes the reverse light pinkish, but better than nothing)

I followed instructions to take the bumper off & wire up the lights from this video 

Fed the wires though a grommet - just removed it, fed the wires through & placed back the grommet. Attached a pic of the specific grommet. 

Then for the reverse light I took a feed from the left light cluster on the boot lid, and fed it through the boot arm near the wiring loom that's already there, & daisy chained it to the other side too (FYI used a few extra feet of cable for this). So basically wired from left boot light to left reflector & then to right reflector.

If you have Vlands, the reverse light wire colour is white & looks like in the car's wiring loom it's orange.

I used T-tap connectors like these but shaved a bit of the cable to expose the wire & make sure it will make a connection.

Here's a video of the reflectors in action. Will take another video in the dark too. (Excuse the dirty car)

9 hours ago, SteveGee said:

Yeah and thanks guys - I tried this - just this morning.

Formatted my 32 Gb USB - even did slow format rather than quick format. But - transferred just one album off Media Player - yet it still just doesn't see the USB stick?

Hey it's possible I have a faulty line-in off my USB port I suppose? I have ordered a USB to straight Aux pin connector off eBay - to see if that's it, but flyin' blind atm.

Bogdan - if I later buy one of those gadgets you have suggested - is it head unit out - to get at the back of mine to plug it in? I just hate the thought of pulling the dash apart?

If you go with the second option I shared, yes you'd need to take the stereo out. It's not complicated but just fiddly and need to take care so you don't damage your dashboard around the center vents area.

For the first option you just have everything in your armrest. Assuming you have an aux in port in there.