BTCC_ Racer

Don’t mean to hi-jack the thread, I’ll be looking to sell my ISF. I’ll get some info / pictures put together on separate thread. In summary, it’s had headers, rad, starter motor, suspension / bushes/ (B6 Bilstein shocks) all carried out. I hardly drive the car but that can be said on other cars I own, I need to sell the ISF as I need get money together for a large house deposit.

I’ll be selling my ISF soon. Its had alot of preventive work, mainfolds, new bushes, new shocks, new radiator, all fluids and a huge list of other stuff, new Michelin PS4s tyres. I have 3 cars hardly use the ISF.

Nice one. Been there at that exact location. I’ll have to dig a pic of mine out. I don’t live far from these roads, don’t drive mine much.

This place looks familiar where is this? Nice car btw.

They pop out I changed mine as they were getting lazy. Id get someone to hold the bonnet up so you can focus on the task at hand.

Your welcome to come to the borders of Yorkshire and see mine. I may even sell in the near future.

Great review, personally i dont think the room in the back is that bad. Surprised to see so many for sale - hopefully this videos encourages folks to buy.

Thats a bargain given the work!

Some of the ones discussed on the forum recently can be brought up to a high standard with a bit money and effort - the truth is very few will be minty fresh, luckily for buyers the powertrain is to a degree bullet proof providing its hard annual oil changes etc. From personal experience and speaking to other members id budget for the following: Cracked manifolds - All will have there day and when I was look nearly all early ones had the tick! Radiator - for the money silly not to replace and a coolant refresh will safe guard you from valley plate issues Discoloured headlights - can be polished out Leaking shockers/ worn out, some bushes esp the from LCA bushes - transforms the car new shockers and bushes Transmission oil service - pre-longs the life dont bother arguing sealed for life with me Aux belt and tensioner will most likely most likely shot Water pump - needs changing not expensive easy access front of engine Although little no cars for sale would have had the above its clearly not that difficult to bring these cars up to standard yes it will cost a little but its worth it in the end! Hope this helps. Thanks

Good budget that. Even if you went for a higher miles car and did some preventative maintenance you'll have plenty of change left, this way the car will be fresh, tight suspension and years of trouble free motoring.

They are a 7/8 for sale on AT, as you've no doubt read the points mentioned in the thread use these when weighing up any ISF along with any regular and essentail check you do. Whats your budget?

which dealer as this?

Pretty much yes, when inspecting a car ensure the engine is cold, maybe tell the seller in advance you want to do a cold engine start. Also just check before starting the engine is cold, luckily the water temp takes sometime to cool down. The suspension and bushes isnt expensive if going for oem etc and you can forward plan the work and order parts from abroad to save a few quid. Also check inner or outer tyre wear, bad bushes on these can cause funny tyre wear.

SRD sounds like a good option. To be honest id break it down in two parts when looking for a car: Check as per any car for the usual stuff, paper work, service history, tyres, brake pads / disc life, body condition fluids etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Just bear in mind the car will need to following Water pump a must - if its not already had one Radiator a must if its not had one Aux belt - these wear and are inexpensive - easy way to check full throttle 1st going to second if you hear a slip it needs a belt very common. Manifold change / weld - if it makes a tick noise on cold or if it comes up in ownership. Suspension - optional if you want to tighten up the handling - I can say hands down when pushing on a little the ISF has more control its hard to explain unless you drive a freshly damped one. My old shocks were fine no knocks from them. Lower control arm bushes on the front - as some have mentioned GSF are a good option (that that i have on mine) - genuinely cannot see these being in good nick even if the car has done 30K simply as the wear with age aswell as mileage so this is a must change. I would happily assist but im based up north. The rest is happy motoring. Thanks

To be fair Lexus dealers will carry out preventive work to a point but you'll be guiding / instruction them. When I bought my lexus i did ring up the dealer for a quote on the Rad etc but they will not weldup the manifolds only replace them (i.e for new and isnt cheap nor worth it), there is instances in the USA owners have had them replaced under warranty with a bit of arguing but my cars not in warranty. In the end i bought all the parts from Lexus uk and went to a good mechanic who carried out the work, car was in for a fair few days and i personally took the manifold to welder had them welded up - literally took 20 mins and cost me £50 and was smoke tested to see if it had any leakes which didn't. As Linas has mentioned i'd find a local ISF owner who is happy to show you there pride and joy and crucially a owner who would go and inspect a potential car. You dont have to carry our a suspension refresh - but its certainly worth it and potentially helps the resale vaule. I can honestly say the ISF is one of the best cars ive owned and its a cracking car. You wont be disappointment.

Is this the recall for the ISF? mine has a recall stated but Lexus are unsure what it invokes or maybe they aren’t telling me: I found this with a bit of digging, https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2014/RCRIT-14V647-5234.pdf Its a lot of work - I don’t think it covers the valley plate reseal. any thoughts?

Well written Linas - I think is important to mention that my expectations on a car as you say is more on the 10/10 side if im honest. I also think its easy to miss judge the true capability of the car if its not 100%. Suspension car dynamics, brakes etc, if not 100% will in essenace make the car feel not worthy of an ISF for one whats its known for. I've had a number of people message me when I had my manifold repair done and its certainly a more common problem then owners like to admit and certainly ones who will actually repair. Suspension too - i didnt have leaky shocks but they were just tired and not as responsive as the ones I replaced them with. Again Bushes were gone past there sell by date. I probs didnt need to do them and the car would have been 7/10 but im not just picky I wanted 10/10. Also owners of lower mileage newer cars still need the preventative work doing at best the cars are now 12 years old, rad, water pump, the aux belt (nearly all will slip with age during high rev gearshift), bushes. Personally I would rather buy a car with the work done or have money knocked off / put aside to get the work done and enjoy the car for what it is. I think its easy to look at a car with premium tyres and folder full of Lexus receipts and think its mint, that just a starting point. In terms of value we all can see the £30k car on AT im sure it will sell at somepoint but its bloody strong money and I agree these cars never will be collector cars as such and the inflated price is more to do with the whole car market as a whole which is starting to ease. These later cars are early £20k tops maybe less, during lockdown a 2012/2013 reg ISF with 100K went for £16/17k maybe less there is also some which went cheaper. At £30k your knocking on GSF money, I know what i rather have! As good as these ISF when there is alot of alternatives to the ISF putting realibility and running costs aside joe member of public will more likely pay stronger over inflated money for one of the german rivals, there is simply not a strong enough market for Lexus in the UK although as time goes on the ISF is getting a second wave which is helpful and maybe in time will have more owners like me flock to the brand!

some good valid points mentioned. I looked at a couple of ISF before settling on mine all were early cars and other than service history (oil, filters plugs) none had preventative work done. Some had mismatch tyres, or basic oil service no indication of wheel alignment or refresh of suspension parts. Also they had the infamous ticking noise on start up (manifold crack). Very few owners would tackle this job, either by after market headers or welding up current ones. Some have on this forum and let me tell you its a MASSIVE job! Let me tell you this is more common than you think, this noise only get louder and there is a lowish mileage car on AT which I went to see for someone which also has this noise! In my ownership ive replaced the following over Lexus service schedule (including gearbox oil change - again not many folks do this). Radiator - the oil cooler pipes crode Manifold welded up and new gaskets. New 02 sensors Front compliance bushes, new drop links and other bushes. New Shocks and top mounts all round. Let me tell you the way the old car drove was good, with new shocks bushes, fresh rubber PS4s its transformed the car and feels very sharp pointing and the the rebound over a wavey road is awesome, before the work i did not have any knocks or bangs but I could feel the limits should be a little higher! In terms of price I would say if the car mentioned has had some preventative work its worth it, especially if your keeping it for a few years or maybe ask for some money off towards the work. Truth is nearly all ISF need a refresh of some sort.

New diff time for sure. As mentioned above maybe worth looking into a LS460 etc im sure they will be breaker who'll sell it you for a few hundred.

What are your symptoms? Just out of interest how often did you change your diff oil and kind of use did the diff go through? I too would recommend a upgrade the cusco diff a little better priced os giken.

Will be interesting to see what this goes for. Crucially a independent inspection to check the crash structures and maybe one from a owners perspective to check the engine and gearbox - big emphasis on the gearbox from hot and cold. Body panels, badges and paint etc can be easily repaired and refreshed. Trouble is most if not all ISF at that age will need the radiator, potentially new headers (or old ones welded up), shocks, suspension bushes etc - point is that most ISF up for sale when i had bought mine didn't have any of that apart from the usually schedule service history. Those parts are costly and the labour even more costly! - I know I've had alot of work done and I can tell you it transforms the car. Ive had a number of ISF owners reach out to me when I had the headers welded up as its a pig of a job.

Hi there, A gearbox flush and ECU reset will certainly help. It worked for my ISF however my box ran great if anything the flush and reset just made it that little bit better.

From a ISF owners experience changing the gearbox fluid and gearbox software reset made the transmission better and faster. However I wasnt unimpressed with it before hand but everything just improved a notch.

I checked on the MOT site there is a tab at the bottom to check recalls. On the Lexus site there is no recall against my reg, its only go on the mot site since the 9th of December so im assuming Lexus would write a letter in a few weeks?

I had mine done earlier this year and made a difference cold and hot. Oil over time breaks down so its worth getting done.