Dilbert D

Hi there, I do all of my own oil changes on my 2006 GS300 SEL. You did not mention whether you have the oil filter removal tool. If you do not then type TOY 640 into google and all will become clear. This is the Assenmacher tool from the states, similar to what Lexus use. :winky:

As the other person said, that is normal operation. You close the boot lid until it is slightly ajar, then it pulls itself in like a soft close facility. Popping the boot lid does just that, a dull thunk and the lid pops open. You then have to lift it yourself ! In a Lexus ! :P It is the one gripe I have about the GS I wish Oh I wish it would open and close itself on the button like some Mercedes ! Maybe someone from Lexus is listening ? Can we have proper motorised opening and closing please ?

Hi there, My 2006 GS300 SE-L does 26 mpg around the doors (7 miles each way to work) but I can get upper 30's easily on long runs. The best I ever achieved was 43 mpg from Washington to Stamford straight down the A1 all the way. The way I did it was by filling up to reset the fuel computer immediately before the journey then using cruise control at around 70 mph almost all of the way easing the speed up and down with the column control keeping my feet away from the 'juice' pedal. The return journey was 42 mpg. I chose the SE-L model to get the 18" alloys as I believe it improves the look of the car, I have never found the ride to be hard in any way. The SE-L gets a few other bells and whistles such as Mark Levinson sounds system, boot lip spoiler, sunroof, 18" wheels, etc. I would love to change for the GS450h to improve 'round the doors' fuel economy from 26 up to nearer 36 (and save slightly on road tax, but funds will not allow yet. When I do go for the GS450h I will go for the SE-L model but make sure that it has the sunroof option as the GS450h SE-L does not come with sunroof, it is an option. Boot space can be an issue for some GS450h owners but I presonnaly think that the advantages outweigh the downside. Note that the GS450h may save around 500 to 600 pounds a year in fuel and road tax over the GS300 depending upon exact year for each car. I hope this helps.

The 2005 onwards model has the 3GRFSE engine with timing chains. No belt, no replacement required.

This thread makes intersesting reading for me. I have a 2006 GS300 SE-L and I watch my MPG carefully. Around the doors and going to and from work (7 miles each way) I average 25-26 on a tank. On long journeys though the figure is usually around 40 if I refuel at the start of the journey. My record figure was 43 on a journey from Washington to Stamford lincs on the A1 all the way. I had to keep the speed to around 70 and control the speed all the way on cruise control so that I was not using any excessive throttle at all. The return journey on the same trip was 42mpg. Back to work the next week took the figure back down to 26 again. I plan to change to the GS450h eventually to get my 'around the doors' figure up to at least the mid 30's (and save on road tax). From what I have read I don't think there is much difference between the 300 and the 450h on long journeys at constant speed, but the 450h scores on short journeys by recuperating the lost energy, as long as a heavy foot and heavy braking is not used all the time which would counteract the benefits.

Update ... both were carried out on the 5th by Lexus Newcastle. They picked the car up at08:300 and returned it all done by 1:00, bottle of champagne in the boot !!

I got my first letter a while ago. Got my second letter inviting me to make an appointment 2 or 3 weeks ago. Just rang the 0800 number on the letter and they advised me to ring Lexus Newcastle and make an appointment. Mine is going in Tuesday 5th.

I think you need to find a reputable non-Lexus garage which will work on your car. I do that myself. I get the parts myself, quite often from Lexus, then take the parts to my local garage who have worked on cars for me for years. That keeps the labour charges down. On the subject of the cambelt, it will definitely need changing. My IS200 owners manual said the cambelt should have been changed at 100,000 miles, and I had it done at 102,000. I then found out that Lexus had reduced the mileage to 60,000, but me and my owners manual did not know that ! When I had the belt changed I asked them to keep the old parts so I could see them. The belt was frayed 25% through the width so would have failed soon ! If a belt snaps it will right off the engine completely then that is the end of the car. Get it changed soon :winky: I got the genuine Toyota cambelt kit myself for £110 and took it to my local garage to fit for a further £120 labour. £250 all in.

As some other guys have said already, it is not worth letting the average tyre fitting shop replace the tyres due to the risk to the valves. I has all four of my tyres replaced last year, 750 quid for four supplied and fitted by Lexus and I advised which tyres I wanted. I checked the cheapest non Lexus deal and it was 600 quid for the same four tyres from Tyre Spot. To me the extra 150 was worth it to guarantee no problems with valves and Lexus customer service.

There are two recalls that I know of for the 2006 GS300 one for the rear brake caliper replacement and one for electric power steering linkage replacement. These should have been done for free already as a matter of course. Make sure that you confirm with Lexus that they have been done. My 2006 GS300 was always serviced by Lexus before I bought it so I assumed that any recalls would have already been done but they were not. My car went into Lexus last year for both recalls free of charge. Make sure yours has been done.

The MPG for the GS300 MKIII is impressive for a 3 litre and shows how advanced the engine is. I should point out however, that my normal MPG around the doors is around 27 MPG over a tank and that is mostly short journeys (7 miles to work each way) in stop start traffic which is still good for a 3 litre. But settle into long journeys on cruise control and we are sailing into Fiesta MPG's again !! :D

Yes,at least almost the same figure. I posted in June with my figures from a long trip, post details are attached below. Never used snow control though, interesting idea ! Posted 08 June 2010 - 12:46 PM Hi there, Last year I posted some mpg figures of 43MPG in a 2006 GS300. I just though I would give an update on my attempt to beat that figure ! Well I have just come back from a weekend in Stamford (we live in the north east) after a weekend away. Again I was using cruse control for 95% of the time trying not to touch the pedals, just easing the speed up and down with the stalk control. Over the 180 mile journey to stamford the tank average was 42MPG as I hit the Stamford turn off. The return journey was not as good as I could only get to 41MPG over the 180 miles as I reached the Washington turn off. Now this was not crawling along the road, the speed was maintained at between 65 and 75 for 90% of the time. At one point in the outward journey we reached road works with a speed limit of 50MPH which lasted for quite a few miles and at the end of the road works the MPG figure peaked at 44.0MPG and this was not a fleeting figure over a few miles this was the tank average over about 80 miles at that point. Obviously the figure dropped off again down to the final figure of 42 for the journey. These figure are in Fiesta territory and pretty damn good for a 3 Litre, So it is possible to beat the 39.2MPG book figure for extra urban, but the secret is to let the car drive itself do not use your feet !! The car is a MKIII with 61000 on the clock, tyre pressures all at 34 PSI, new plugs last week, Magnatec 5W30 A1 oil, air con only for a short period of time. Call me sad but I just thought I would publish my little experiment, and yes I do also have a good blast down the road from time to time Watch this space for 45MPG !!!!

Hi, I have just purchased some new valve covers from a seller on e-bay called “uforeborn” they have the Lexus embalm on the top and look very nice, good quality around a fiver I think, better than the original Lexus ones at £6 each. Just a bit of advice, don’t use the ones that use a locking grub screw that are suppose to be pinch proof, if kids do try and nick them, they may damage your tyre sensors, and at £150 a go that’s not good, mine have the grub screw but I am not using it, just tighten them gently with a spanner & keep it in the car, also put a little Vaseline on the thread & remove & replace the caps once a month to stop them corroding on, I had this problem and had to use mole grips to get them of, I had every thing crossed that I didn’t damage the sensors, luckily I got away with it. The reply above echoes my sentiments exactly. Do not use the grub screws just remove them or the kids will snap your valve stems off, and use vaseline or copper grease to stop them corroding on as this is a big known problem.

It is not unheard of for electronic components to fail very close to one another especially if they are from the same batch. However, it is statistically very unlikely that they would all fail within such a small time window unless they were being affected by some other influence. I have heard of quite a few corrosion related and tyre fitter related problems that can result in snapped stems resulting in failure. If the old sensors look corroded and/or you have just had some tyres changed without lookig after the valves very carefully then the likelyhood of failure becomes quite high. If the sensors all look to be in good condition then it sounds to me like some obscure system problem which is not being diagnosed correctly by Lexus. It will be interesting to see what they say if/when all four sensors have been replaced by Lexus and the fault immediately re-appears !

Hi there, I have a Jan 2006 GS SE-L with ML system. I am no expert but I am pretty sure that if you do not see the Mark Levinson logo on the front of the unit you do not have the ML stereo ! I do think that some SE's were available with the ML as an option, but the logo has to be there on the front or you do not have it !! If you do not have the ML logo on the front then it is probably the standard 10 speaker system not the ML 14 speaker system. I do know that my SE-L with ML does not play DVD video ! I believe that the UK spec cars were never given the DVD video option, only the US spec and Canadian spec cars can play DVD video. The ML system in the UK will however play 'DVD-A' high quality audio files I believe although I have never played one of these. The system does have an addtional DVD slot hidden behind a panel in the glove box but this is only for the navigation DVD so do not touch it. One think I know about my car is that if I go in the boot and lift the small velcroed floor panel on the drivers side there is a massive amplifier ! But I am not sure whether the non ML system has the same amp or not, anyone know ? So that is what I think unless anyone else can correct me ?

Hi there, Last year I posted some mpg figures of 43MPG in a 2006 GS300. I just though I would give an update on my attempt to beat that figure ! Well I have just come back from a weekend in Stamford (we live in the north east) after a weekend away. Again I was using cruse control for 95% of the time trying not to touch the pedals, just easing the speed up and down with the stalk control. Over the 180 mile journey to stamford the tank average was 42MPG as I hit the Stamford turn off. The return journey was not as good as I could only get to 41MPG over the 180 miles as I reached the Washington turn off. Now this was not crawling along the road, the speed was maintained at between 65 and 75 for 90% of the time. At one point in the outward journey we reached road works with a speed limit of 50MPH which lasted for quite a few miles and at the end of the road works the MPG figure peaked at 44.0MPG and this was not a fleeting figure over a few miles this was the tank average over about 80 miles at that point. Obviously the figure dropped off again down to the final figure of 42 for the journey. These figure are in Fiesta territory and pretty damn good for a 3 Litre, So it is possible to beat the 39.2MPG book figure for extra urban, but the secret is to let the car drive itself do not use your feet !! The car is a MKIII with 61000 on the clock, tyre pressures all at 34 PSI, new plugs last week, Magnatec 5W30 A1 oil, air con only for a short period of time. Call me sad but I just thought I would publish my little experiment, and yes I do also have a good blast down the road from time to time Watch this space for 45MPG !!!!

Reckon the existing rims look pretty smart. I would love to change my GS300SE-L for the GS450SE-L !!! Ho hum !

Absolute joke in snow or on the ice ! I have to reverse up a sloping drive to get out of the garage so unless I have completely cleared and salted the drive the neighbours get to watch comical wheel spin and pointless sliding up and down as I try to reach the road ! But on a more serious note I have noticed that when driving on sheet ice with the car being auto there is a strange and scary tendancy for the car to keep going straight on even with the brakes on as the auto box pushes against the brakes with the auto box winning with the result that the car keeps going just when you think it is about to stop. I know that all cars do this on ice but with an auto it is worse and very scary. On solution I have found which works very well and has saved the front of the car on more than one occasion is to drop the box into neutral just as you expect the wheels to some to a stop. This way the tyres can use the little bit of grip they have left to stop without the auto box trying to keep pushing. Now I am not advocating driving with the box in neutral as this is not safe and removes control. But flicking the gear lever half an inch forward into neutral just as you want the wheels to come to a full stop makes all the difference and prevents front end damage in slow manouvering ! Try it and you will see the difference :winky: I have also noticed that since I fitted new tyres a few months ago the car is better than it was with the 3mm tread tyres I had this time last year. The extra few millimetres of tread does make a difference in the snow even with summer tyres.

Hi there, sorry if I seem to be contradicting the theme here but I have a 55 GS300SE-L with 58K on the clock. I have owned the car since last December and I have put 9000 miles on it in that time. The car is faultless, I have no rattles, no failures of any kind over the past 11 months (there I go I have saifd it now so I will break down on the way home !). No electrical problems of any kind, no rattles. The drivers side mirror moves in and out slightly slower than the other but other than that it is fine. The only gripe I have is that the engine sounds 'tappety' when ticking over in an enclosed space but I have been advised that this is perfectly normal as it is the sound of the injectors, a known gripe with this model. The front brakes were a bit creaky when I first got the car but a clean up at Lexus free of charge resolved that. On the whole I love the car. Maybe it is not as absolutely perfect quality wise as the 99 IS200 I had before but I would not change it for anything at the moment (except for the GS450h of course !!). Not trying to be a smart A&%e, just portraying the opinion of a happy owner and trying to redress the balance a bit. ^_^

My GS300 SE-L has the ML sound system, it is usually very easy to tell if it is fitted since the ML systems have 'Mark Levinson' printed in small letters on the front of the unit itself. If it is not printed on the front chances are it is the standard system.

Well it will !!???.... Never EVER... EVER use a pressure washer on the paintwork of a car (nor on the sidewall of tyres for that matter). Pressure washers are meant for cleaning patios and outside furniture, driveways and the like. I have a super billion psi Karcher washer but it never has and never will go anywhere near my car. The Ed Agreed - you have to be mad to use one on any car. Why? They do little more than waste water and make noise. What's wrong with Hose, sponge and lots of warm soapy water? Pressure washers don't mean you wash any cleaner or faster. Did you know that they can damage the sidewalls on tyres (ever noticed lots of hairline cracks after a couple of years on sidewalls)? And rubber boots and bushes on the suspension suffer too? They are only good for cleaning slabs, even then they can destroy the slab grout and cement between slabs, wash out kiln sand on block paving etc. And if you don't hold it close to the car so not damage then boy you really are wasting electricity, water and making noise pollution :shutit: Sorry for sounding off, but. I can believe why anyone uses one on a car. Just use hose! I agree too, I use a soft car wash mit for washing, then rinse with a watering can. Watering can uses much less water than a hose, about 4 watering cans full does the rinse and saves money on the water meter too ! Quick dry with an Autoglym synthetic shammy and it is gleaming and blinding people ! :winky: But I do use a pay as you go jet wash to get under the acrches once every few months, best of both worlds.

Got mine 2 years ago, Toyota battery straight from Lexus, 54 quid. Not worth shopping around !

Just an update to this topic for anyone interested. I have been worrying about the engine tick for quite a while now so I bit the bullet and took the car to Lexus Newcastle with wallet in hand ... and a lump in the throat ! The technician guys there checked out the engine tick. They even compared the engine tick to one of the bosses low mileage 2009 GS and the engine tick was the same. I was advised that the engine tick which is audible when parked near a wall or listening with the bonnet open is not valve noise. The noise is actually injector noise which is more discernable as a tick when the engine is ticking over. I must admit that I have been researching this issue on other forums in the US and they too say that the noise is in fact injector noise and valve noise is kept to a mimimum by the oil pressure controlled lash adjusters so no valve adjustement is required. So the info given by Lexus Newcastle and the comparison made with a newer GS supports this and puts my mind at rest. It seems that I have been worrying about nothing and I hope this helps other owners rest happy at night knowing that it is not really an issue. Maybe we are getting too fussy. The GS is silent when driving, just dont park next to a wall with the windows down or you will start fretting like me

The GS300 Is a great car. Is it the Mk3 you're looking for? I have owned my car a few months and there are a few things to look for. Make sure that the recall work has been done. The steering rack and rear brake callipers need to change. Also it is now transpiring that on early Mk3 GS models the ECU can throw up warning messages. Make sure that this has been changed under warranty. The cars affected are 2005 to late 2006. This is a £3k bill for the repair. Apart from the above the car is wonderful. It's a super smooth drive with a beautiful gearbox, returns good MPG and is a very cool car. It is one of those rare things with me that after 7 months of ownership I still look forward to getting in it and drive. It has lots of gadgets too and all very useful. Reliability is of course fantastic. I test drove the IS250 but to compare the two is pointless. Take a GS out for a test drive and you will be hooked. You will not see many GS's on the road unlike BMW or Merc which makes this quite an exclusive car. People will comment about your car too, more than any other main stream marque, this car turns heads. Put on some private plates as because of the quality paint and interior quality people will struggle to guess the age. Test drive and see for yourself! :D Ditto ... I could not have put it better myself and I completely agree with everypoint. Totally superior on the road too B)

Does anyone know whether there is any kind of valve adjustment on the MK 3 GS300 ? Mine is still sounding more tappety than it should for 55K miles when at idle. I thought the tappets were lash adjusters and were oil driven and therefore automatically adjsuted but the Lexus service sheet hints at 'extra charge for adjustment' on the valve section. Maybe Lexus can adjust something ? Anyone had this done ? Thanks.