Advice Request: Looking at an IS250

[C Andrew Green]

1 hour ago, Mauler said:

Cheers!  Aye, I got my paws on PDFs for the manual, multimedia manual & quick guide.  Thusly armed I intend to turn off the highly irritating Traffic Patrol/Notification nonsense in my car!  lol

I've seen a few people mention snow tyres on various forums, that those existed over here never really occurred to me as we tend to get snow in Essex only once or twice a year.  Also just ordered a Techstream cable, I'm interested to see what options for auto-locking, interior lighting and the like that gives me...

Hi @Mauler

Is that a .pdf of the UK Spec Manual? If so do you have a link you could share, I searched a fair bit but could only come up with the USA Spec one, which has considerably different customisation options to the UK one.

I also acquired an OBD cable as my IS only came with one key and I needed to add a second hand key (from fleabay). Took a fair bit of messing about to get Techstream working, but the key added correctly, I had a prowl around the available options, there's only what's listed in the back of the manual, so I disabled the 'long press unlock winds down all the windows' which whilst it's somewhat useful in hot weather seems a bit prone to accidental activation which is very unhelpful! I also increased the auto lights sensitivity. Unfortunately options that the yanks get like auto locking the doors above 10 MPH and the like aren't available in the UK vehicle firmware.

My IS is poverty spec so it came on 16" wheels, I was fortunate to pick up a set of OEM 17" wheels with tyres cheaply and as the 16"'s were worn out I got some Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 which although not full winter tyres like their Ultra Grips are however winter rated for european countries where winter tyres are mandatory. Last year on normal tyres it took me 10 minutes to persuade it over the little snow berm outside my garage and it wasn't much fun on the road, this year however no problem 'Snow Mode' on until I got to the main road and an easy drive.

Andrew

[Mauler]

2 minutes ago, C Andrew Green said:

Hi @Mauler

Is that a .pdf of the UK Spec Manual? If so do you have a link you could share, I searched a fair bit but could only come up with the USA Spec one, which has considerably different customisation options to the UK one.

I also acquired an OBD cable as my IS only came with one key and I needed to add a second hand key (from fleabay). Took a fair bit of messing about to get Techstream working, but the key added correctly, I had a prowl around the available options, there's only what's listed in the back of the manual, so I disabled the 'long press unlock winds down all the windows' which whilst it's somewhat useful in hot weather seems a bit prone to accidental activation which is very unhelpful! I also increased the auto lights sensitivity. Unfortunately options that the yanks get like auto locking the doors above 10 MPH and the like aren't available in the UK vehicle firmware.

My IS is poverty spec so it came on 16" wheels, I was fortunate to pick up a set of OEM 17" wheels with tyres cheaply and as the 16"'s were worn out I got some Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 which although not full winter tyres like their Ultra Grips are however winter rated for european countries where winter tyres are mandatory. Last year on normal tyres it took me 10 minutes to persuade it over the little snow berm outside my garage and it wasn't much fun on the road, this year however no problem 'Snow Mode' on until I got to the main road and an easy drive.

Andrew

Haha, "poverty spec", I'm not sure that a Lexus could be considered such a thing 😁

It's the PDF of the US manual as functionally the vehicles are the same, I didn't know that the custom options were different though, I'm not sure why Lexus would go to the bother of modifying a firmware for the UK market so much?  As an IT Tech myself, I'd expect them to take an existing firmware from another market and modify that as little as possible to suit.  

[C Andrew Green]

3 minutes ago, Mauler said:

Haha, "poverty spec", I'm not sure that a Lexus could be considered such a thing 😁

It's the PDF of the US manual as functionally the vehicles are the same, I didn't know that the custom options were different though, I'm not sure why Lexus would go to the bother of modifying a firmware for the UK market so much?  As an IT Tech myself, I'd expect them to take an existing firmware from another market and modify that as little as possible to suit.  

@Mauler

Well it's a base model! Cloth seats, not heated or cooled, manually adjusted, no parking sensors.

Yep, I'm surprised that the different country models are so different in firmware, you would think that they would program it for every country and just enable / disable bits of code as required. It's probably down to legislation as to what each market requires vehicles to do. Otherwise people like us could end up fiddling with stuff and then Lexus could fall foul of the law.

Andrew

[normski2]

Given that you are a new owner and you may want to do a few bits yourself.

Please take a few minutes to read this before you attempt changing the cabin filter behind the golvebox.

This may be useful as well

Incidentally, I have 6 CD's full of Mp3's loaded in my player and they work fine. As you found ... DVD's full of Mp3's do not. 

Enjoy getting to know your car. I think they are quite excellent cars.

[Mauler]

Thanks very much again, chaps!  All the info here is just as valuable, perhaps moreso, than years of experience using tools to maintain other vehicles.

A slight tangent - what are opinions on K&N air filters and for the IS250 specifically?  Opinions on them are often mixed,m depending on who you speak to.  As I've usually owned reasonably powerful cars (and from a Ford family) I've generally dropped a K&N filter into anything that I've driven on the first service I've done.  Fairly suitable for my Holley carbed Capri and my Celica GT-Four RC but for a Lexus...?