4969_LXS

That's a bit concerning they didn't know what the valley plate/heat exchanger was. Hopefully they know to be very, very careful with doing the job as it's not uncommon for direct injector connections and knock sensor's to get broken. They get brittle with age and heat cycling. They're not cheap either 😕

You should be fine with those sizes on the stock wheels. A lot of people upgrade to those sizes. With aftermarket rims, I've read people go as far as 285 on the front and 305 on the rear with no issues.

Please see the part numbers in the attached image for the GSF bushes. You want them With 0 offset. It's easier to ring Lexus Parts Direct and they will help get the right ones. They are plug and play. Any garage can fit them, they just slide on and off, takes 10 minutes. Just make sure they have the correct torque settings for all the bolts, 2 of which are for the subframe.

@Mantas88 From what I've read, the GSF bushes use a different compound/material than the ISF bushes and are slightly stiffer. The steering has become significantly more direct and I get no squirming, rut following and at the moment, much reduced inner tyre wear. It was definitely a worthy upgrade from my experience, handles like it should do 😈. The reason I went for GSF bushes was to stay OEM, Lexus invest a lot of money in the design and the Japanese philosophy of constant improvement sits well with me. I didn't want Poly bushes and I didn't see the benefit in other companies offerings. If you want GSF bushes, get the 0mm offset ones. They come with a +/-20mm range. Lexus Parts Direct advised this and were great with the purchase. Im surprised you've gotten brake fade. With the car being developed at Fuji and that hard brakiny zone after the straight, the brakes are pretty stoat. I've not come across any fade. I'm interested that's all 👀👀

A couple images from the latest road trip.

This was the state of my LCA bushes on my 2008 ISF with 70kish miles. Whilst they didn't move under MOT inspections, they did flex under load, allowing the control arm to move, I was also getting inner tyre wear, and used to squirm under spirited braking and follow ruts/grooves in the road. I swapped them for GSF bushes. It's made a world of a difference.

@Twellsie is right, if an RCF, GSF and LC500 isn't specced with the TVD diff. They come with the same 2.937 ratio Torsen limited slip differential that was used on 2010+ ISF's. The GSF and RCF even use the same housings, so is a straight swap. I would bet the LC500 uses the same housing as well. Saves the company money using an existing design.

Hi Dan, there was a thread about some UK made manifolds that might be useful for you, I've put a full stop comment on to bring it onto the 1st page. @YN57OCK had some manifolds made and fitted to his car. I believe STG performance undertook the work. @YN57OCK would you be able to provide any more details about it ?

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Definitely up for this guy's !

From reading around, if heating is lost and the coolant is dripping down the transmission bell housing, which it looks like it is on image 2, it's usually the valley plate leaking.

@Womble72 is there an option to trade in the knackered daily against another car on PCP ? What is the current knackered daily out of interest 👀 ?

Hi Rich, I think I ordered two 5 litre bottles of 50/50 premix Lexus coolant. I've still got some left in the 1 bottle from when I did it. In terms of the transmission fluid. Put a jug under each hose when you remove them to see how much comes out but try and plug the hoses as quickly as possible with something to limit how much comes out. I can't remember the diameter of the hose, does anyone know or recommend something to plug the hoses with, I used the end of a random tool? Doing the trans fluid level is easy if you have a diagnostic tool to read the temperature guage, something to put the fluid into the gearbox via the fill hole and making sure the car is level. You could try syringing the same amount + a little more back into one of the hoses and quickly put it onto the radiator connectors.

After looking at the images again, I agree with @Charliecloud, the first pictures don't look cracked, try and wiggle the flange on the other two cylinders of that same manifold, if it's loose then it should be that way. The second set of images of the manifold looks like mine when it cracked, cracks on the last cylinder where all the gases meet, mine was the drivers side manifold that cracked. apologies for the wrong information, I've only ever seen when the flange is loose it's broken.

Hi @BTCC_ Racer. They should be attached. That's the infamous manifold failure. The garage might be able to reweld them together as the cheapest option.

I got this photo, I struggled to fit everyone in with the space we had. I didn't take many pictures of the day either.

@scudney do you know which car he had ? It was either Rob with his RCF, me with my ISF or Jacob with his GSF ?

@scudney yes mate that was us !

Good morning Steve, No worries for leaving mate, I wasn't far behind, I was struggling to stay awake. Yes I got your note ! @GSF_REG @Rob RCF thank you all for a good day, it was really nice meeting other people after all the COVID crap. Also finally met @RichGS11 in person too and a couple other ISF owners hiding amongst the stands. It was a really good day. yeah we were lucky with the weather, I even got sunburnt 😂😂 We will have to sort out another meet just for us Lexus owners.

@Rob RCFsee you there mate I haven't booked any track time. It would be epic if a load of us F owners went one year and took up an entire track slot. Imagine the symphony of noise lol

Phew, it isn't the valley plate, bit rubbish the radiator has only lasted a year ! From the US forums, the radiators have been known to fail along the top and bottom of the radiator, but it appears to occur on original ones that are old and tired from looking around at information. I'd of thought Lexus Parts Direct would help you. As it sounds like a defective rad to me

@Cactuskeep us posted where the leak is coming from. Fingers crossed it's just a loose hose. Did you poke your head around and see where it was coming from before taking it in to the dealer ?

Hi @Rich1988 ,have a read through this thread about the radiator. You can see mine was looking worse for wear at the time. It's been a while but I remember reading somewhere about a recommendation to change it every 10 years. If you're good with tools this will be an alright DIY job. I'm not trying to scare you into doing it, it's just more information for you to decide what's best for you and your car. On a side note, when I did it at home, I lost a little bit of transmission fluid when changing the radiator so I had to have the trans fluid re-levelled. The Lexus dealership I took it to had to do it twice as it wasn't quite right first time and even then, the person who did the work didn't tighten the level plug properly and it's been leaking fluid for 6 months, makes you question the Labour rate of £125 an hour 🤔. God I wish I had my own ramp. Anyway I digress. The level plug will need a new crush washer. If you know a decent garage that has a diagnostic reader that picks up our cars transmission temperature sensor (a snap-on system at an independent garage I trust was able to read all the cars diag systems), I'd get it done there and watch what they do. It's simple enough to be done at home too but the car needs to be level and you need a reader etc. Temp range is 35-42 degrees Celsius. Try and do it as soon as 35 pops up if you go down that route. 👍

Cheers guys, Myself and @GSF_REG are aiming to get to Silverstone circuit for 07:15. Advise the earlier you arrive the better.

We can arrive between 07:00 and 09:30. Myself and @GSF_REG will be coming from the North. There's a Starbucks, Travelodge and McDonald's car park complex on the A43 in Towcester.