Lex_utor

Thanks. But to be honest, I'm seriously thinking about selling it. MOT is coming and I will probably sell it after. No other car I have ever owned has given me more grief and expense. I wanted a RWD 4 doors saloon with a manual transmission and the reason I passed on buying a BMW was exactly that I was not looking for big bills. So I bought a Lexus because of the stellar reputation. But based on this first and only, and most likely last Lexus, I can't say I recommend them, let alone buying another. Maybe this generation IS is the blacksheep? I had heard horrible things about the IS220. But not of the IS250. As much as I love driving the car, I'm getting tired of the big bills. As it is, the garage told me that I might have problems getting my next MOT because they saw some rust. This after having to replaced a totally rusted out fuel tank 2 years ago. And I barely drive the car as we have 2 other cars in the family. Ironically, I love Alfa Romeos and the reason I don't own one is the rust and unreliable reputation.

Hi Brian. Glad you got your car sorted. As faith would have it, I just got my car back today from the garage. They managed to repair the alternator and it's now working fine. Didn't mention any other problems, so I guess I'm good. Interestingly, they first tried ordering a new Denso, but it didn't fit. They said something about it being a special type. So they got it repaired instead. I wonder if this is just some business tactic. Unless the manual transmission cars have a different hard to get alternator? Oh well, at least now the car is working again.

The garage mentioned the possibility of "fixing" it if possible. Which would be cheaper. But they said this is not always possible. Plus I guess it would add down time. They will know once they have the car. As for which Denso, they selected the alternator from their computer system using my VIN, so maybe it's the correct Denso?

So the autoclub truck was here. I'm a member. He measured it and said it's the alternator. I was today at a couple of places and I think I will have it done with one of them. The alternator they would put in is a Denso. I guess that's is ok?

I measured it. Battery was under 12V and with the engine running, under 11. But I'm not sure how accurate this is. It's an old multimeter and it's first time I done this. The battery was not freshly charged though. I fully charged it a week or so ago and since then I have started the car to move it a few times. But regardless, if it reads lower with the engine running it can only mean the alternator is not doing its thing right. If the measurements are accurate.

Oh man. Not very encouraging. As far as doing it from underneath, I have no lift. I only have those ramps, so the car front is lifted a few centimeters off the ground. You have to lay underneath the car. This is what I meant when I said from under. Probably better from the top then, under these circumstances?

Thanks. I was out of town for 2 weeks for work. I charged the battery overnight before I left. I just came back Friday, so now I'm looking into this again. I charged the battery fully, car will start but battery light is still ON. I didn't measure it yet. I get how to measure the battery. but as far as measuring the voltage for the alternator, you do that through the battery? For the battery you measure the battery poles with the engine off and for the alternator you measure the battery poles with the engine running?

So...after sitting for 3 hours, the car started. So I could at least manage to drive it into my garage at home. But this is strange, as when I came home the car just died and wouldn't restart. Internal dome light was still on etc. But engine wouldn't start and dash wouldn't light up. Now it started almost on que. And power steering was ON. Then the power steering quickly went. Very hard to turn in the the garage. But the car didn't die again. I would have thought if it was dead before it would remain dead? Because it presumably died because the battery was dead. So how did it get enough juice to start now?

Sorry to hear about the write off. 😞 Yeah, I need to have a look and see if I think I can do it.

Well, it only takes about 12 mins. right? Can't be that hard. 😄 In all seriousness, I don't have a fully equipped shop or the expertise. I'm no mechanic and never did this before. But even if it takes me the whole Saturday, as long as I can finish it, I guess it's worth it to save 800-1000 quid. I have most of the tools. I'm not sure if he used a special tool to take those studs off, so he didn't have to take off the AC box. Or if that is just a small socket? Need to get a mirror. And the tool for the belt removal, just a normal ratchet with the correct size socket will do or is there something else? Hardest part seems to be that one bracket. I'm also guessing it's easier to do the job coming from the top than from the bottom of the car? At least I don't have to remove all the top plastic clad. Mine are all off already. 🙂

I'm with our local car club. I have used them to tow me for free once when I broke down on the motorway (not the Lexus). They only tow it directly to a garage/mechanic. But now the car is at home, so I'm not sure if they would still do it. Plus, I'm not entirely sure I want to leave 800-1000 Euros at the mechanic to sort his out. I might do it myself, if it's not too complicated?

I'm not in the UK. 🙂

Hi Vlad. How have you been? 🙂 Thanks for the quick reply. Is it worth it trying to charge the battery? I can't even get the cart to a mechanic, without towing. But I'm thinking of doing it myself at home. Is it a dread, like changing spark plugs in the IS? Anything I should watch for, if I don't buy a Lexus part?

Hi. So yesterday I noticed my battery light was ON. I don't drive much. But drove on Friday and everything seemed ok. Didn't drive during the weekend and yesterday, battery light was ON. I drove a little bit, to charge it, as I had the problem before of the battery dying on me after not driving for a few weeks. For a moment, the light went away. But came back again. Today, it was ON again. I drove off and on my way back, I lost power steering and the whole dash lit up like a Christmas tree. ABS light, VSC Light, airbag light, and of course the battery light. Then very close to home the dash started flashing ON and OFF and the needles going up and down as they do when you turn the car on. As I turned in my street everything went dark and the engine started loosing power. I barely made it to my house and had to park up front. The engine didn't have power to drive in. All was dark and engine had no power. Glad I at least made home. Now, obviously something related to power. Can a bad battery do that? Or is all this a clear sign of a bad alternator? I have a battery charger. Is it worth it connecting? To at least being able to drive the car in the garage? Or if this has damaged the battery it can de dangerous? I seem to remember something in the charger manual not to connect to a damaged battery. But the manual is gone. Thanks as always for the help gentlemen. Cheers.

Update: VSC light is GONE!!! Doing the calibration did the trick. Linas helped out via PM. Thanks again Linas and thanks to everybody who jumped in to help. Car never had any problems but it's sure nice to drive without that annoying light on. I'm also glad I could do it via techstream instead of the wire hack. Thanks again gentlemen. This chapter is closed. Today I get my big brakes installed. Looking forward to that.

I'm trying to do this now. Looking at the Service Manual. There is option A. Clear the zero point calibration data. which seems more similar to the steps your described above. Then there is option B. Perform the zero point calibration of yaw rate and acceleration sensor. Shoud I do both? Regardless I can't find my way around techstream to find "Reset Memory" for A. Or find "Test Mode" for B.

Thanks. What's the correct way of erasing? On the health check page as above or in the VSC page, where I scanned and found the posted codes? Or makes no difference? If memory is correct, I think the engine symbol is available on both.

Wow, thanks gentlemen! Solved! So easy. But yes. Decidely adbsurd it's needed.

Yep. Those are the only lights on the dash. You mean this symbol:

Wow. This sounds scary. How common is this/these issues? If that happened to my car I would be at a total loss, considering how much it would cost to have it put right and the time or even finding out the problem. But I have invested too much in the car at this point to just drop it. But electric/electronic problems scare me. Specially that my car seems to do some funky stuff related to that sometimes. Like now I can't open any windows from the driver's door, apart from the driver's window. But the universal lock is not ON. I figured maybe a fuse. But didn't look yet. But I had a couple of electronic niggles along the way. So the topic in this thread scares me. 😳

Errr, *didn't miss a beat. 😄

I scan the car and the only codes I seem to get with Techstream are C1210 and C1336 codes. Zero point calibration yaw and acceleration. I haven't noticed the problem lately. But the weather is much warmer, if that was helping causing it. But codes related to the engine Techstream finds none. My calipers are fine but the car is getting new brakes all around this week.

I fill with 98 anyways. So the switch to E10 doesn't affect me yet. I'm just worried that they will either keep raising the price of E5 or just make everything E10. But the car does run much better on 98 or 100, which is why I stopped putting 95 in and switched to 98 after a few months I had the car.

But the car is really absolutely fine! Last Saturday I did another trip with it. About 200 miles and it didn't miss a bit. Eating Mercs and Bimmers left and right on the motorway. 🙂

No, I didn't click on the engine looking symbol bottom right of the screen. I didn't know how to clear codes till I read this. 🙂 Thanks. Here is how my dash lights look like: