grev02

I second that - cheapest option for me last year was to get a stainless steel one made, £731 catback by Powerflow. My brother in law worked for years sourcing and pricing parts for car insurer repair jobs. There’s one company online - onlineautomotive.co.uk - that do supply their own exhausts parts for a Lexus. Most mechanics had never heard of them and knew nothing about them, but turns out my brother in law had dealt with them several times and had twice rung the company owner up to tell him how crap his company was! For what it’s worth - and it’s not mentioned on their website - the company keeps the parts in Germany then ships them, which means potentially big delays in them arriving. But according to my brother in law, during lockdown this company proved reasonably reliable. But if you want my advice, get a bespoke stainless steel one made and fitted. It’s a lot less hassle… and probably your cheapest option.

Thanks. I found a garage in Brighton that fitted a bespoke Powerflow stainless steel exhaust with a lifetime guarantee for £731. It also turns out that the garage specialise in Toyota and Lexus’, which is a bit of a result.

If anyone’s interested, I gave the Meguiar headlight restoration kit (Amazon £30) a go and I’m really impressed. The driver’s side headlight cluster was very foggy and yellow, so I masked off the bodywork with bog standard masking tape, applied the cleaner, rubbed it with a supplied scouring pad and was amazed how quickly the yellowing came off. Washed the cleaner off, dried the headlight and then sprayed on the supplied polish, and I’m really impressed with the result.

I’ve heard that VSC warning lights - when not caused by an actual problem with the VSC - are usually caused by either a faulty O2 sensor or the fuel cap being slightly too small. I tried fiddling with the fuel cap a few times but it made no difference. But like I say, the second time I filled up with super unleaded, all the VSC warning lights instantly disappeared for 30 mins. And the third time I filled up with e5 the warning lights vanished and haven’t returned. It could just be a coincidence… but the fact that the VSC warnings can be caused by something as ridiculous as a fuel cap that’s slightly the wrong size still makes me think that the e10 fuel could still have been the culprit, and maybe the e5 eventually diluting down the remaining e10 stopped triggering a sensor. Maybe. I chucked some redex in for good measure a few days later, but by then all the warning lights had already disappeared. It’s a mystery. But at least it appears to have gone away.

The golden rule is apparently, is the water level lower than the bottom of your exhaust pipe? If it is, you can ford the ford. If it’s higher, then the water will flood down your exhaust pipe into the engine and it’s flatbed truck time.

I just found a YouTube vid on it:

‘Another thing to be aware of are pedestrians, they can’t hear the car in battery mode and rarely look. This occurs mainly in supermarket car parks when they stroll up the middle of the roadways pushing the mis-tracked wobbly wheeled trolley with their spacial awareness on another planet.’ Jeremy Clarkson, of all people, pointed this out on Top Gear years and years ago. Car engines are now so quiet that most noise from a car emanates from the tyres. And tyre manufacturers are striving to make car tyres ever more silent. And if cars are completely silent, no pedestrian will ever hear them coming, and presumably accident rates will go through the roof.

I bought a 2005 gs300 last month and it didn’t have a manual. So I googled Lexus gs300 owner manual, and Lexus owners club came up as a search result. Completely accidental!

Also I accidentally gave myself a heart attack a week after I bought it! I’ve driven nothing but diesels for the last 17.5 years, so the switch to e10 completely passed me by. When I bought my gs300 I filled it up at the nearest garage… almost certainly with e10. Which I later discovered the 3rd gen gs300’s can’t use. About a week later lots of Check VSC warning lights came on, which obviously caused me to fret. Then a couple of weeks later, after having topped up a few times with e5 and gradually diluted the e10, after I filled the tank up the Check VSC warning lights disappeared for a while before coming back on. I topped up again last week… and the Check VSC warning lights vanished, never to return. I can’t prove it, by I’m 99% certain that they were caused the e10 fuel. It can’t be a coincidence, surely? I know that the Check VSC warning lights can be caused by a faulty O2 sensor or an I’ll fitting fuel cap.

Thanks, Vladimir. I just ordered a Meguiar headlight restoration kit to clean up the yellowing headlights. Sounds like it takes a fair bit of elbow grease, but most of the reviews on Amazon say that it works.

I just thought I’d say hello as I’m new here. I bought a 2005 gs300 3rd gen a month ago for £2500, only 112,650 on the clock. Three of the shocks are leaking so it’s a bit bouncier than it should be, the brake discs are worn, and the exhaust is knackered so I’m getting a bespoke one fitted in two weeks (cheapest option by the sounds of it), and the alloys look fairly grotty. But the engine sounds as good as the day it was built and the auto shifts are still very smooth. Fingers crossed I’ve got myself a bit of a bargain.

I bought a 2005 Gs300 last month and this switch was bugging me too! At least I’m not the only one who couldn’t figure it out!