2014 IS300H spec question - F Sport dials

LexusLuksus · July 27, 2021

Hi everyone,

I just bought my first Lexus and I'm new to the forum. I have a query about the specification of my car, it is an Executive Edition, but also has the F Sport dials (the customizable tachometer and no speedometer, except the digital readout). I've perused whatever brochures I could find online, but none of them state the F Sport gauges as an option. Would anyone happen to know if they were an option back in 2014?

LexusLuksus · July 27, 2021

It probably doesn't really matter, but the vehicle was originally purchased from Lexus Manchester.

Linas.P · July 28, 2021

Hi Pasi and congrats with you purchase.

You are absolutely right - F-Sport dials were never an option on any trims except of F-Sport. There were few members on this forum who have tried retrofitting them (not straightforward job at all), but to be fair I could not remember where they ended-up. So perhaps you got one of their cars (or somebody else who manage to retrofit dials). In either case that is definitely not a factory job.

So I guess consider yourself lucky if the dials works as they suppose to... but considering car can still be warranted, I don't think warranty will cover it if dials stop working.

LexusLuksus · July 28, 2021

Thank you Linas.

That is weird indeed! Yeah the dials are working perfectly. Here's hoping that they keep working for a long time! 🙂

Shahpor · July 28, 2021

Welcome Pasi.

This is very strange indeed.

It is also interesting, so I don't suppose we could get some pic's of the car to see what it looks like 🙂

Thanks.

Linas.P · July 28, 2021

Probably like Exec IS300h with F-sport dials 😁 - as rest of the cabin looks the same I doubt there is anything to see. Although, I wonder if they fitted F-Sport steering wheel or at least additional buttons to control the dials?

LexusLuksus · July 28, 2021

Being a Lexus noob, it is entirely possible that I'm wrong, maybe it's not the F Sport dials at all. My wife has the car at the moment so I can't take a photo of it, but I had taken a video of it earlier, not sure if I can attach it here but I'll try.

EDIT: Ok the video attachment didn't work, but here are some screencaps of it, sorry about the poor quality.

There is a button on the steering wheel to move the dial to the side and access the menu.

Mincey · July 28, 2021

4 minutes ago, LexusLuksus said:

Being a Lexus noob, it is entirely possible that I'm wrong, maybe it's not the F Sport dials at all. My wife has the car at the moment so I can't take a photo of it, but I had taken a video of it earlier, not sure if I can attach it here but I'll try.

IMG_1801.MOV

If the dials slide, they're the F Sport dials:

LexusLuksus · July 28, 2021

2 minutes ago, Mincey said:

If the dials slide, they're the F Sport dials:

Ok well that confirms it then, it definitely slides. It's a cool feature, I really like it, not sure if it's really necessary, but very cool nevertheless! X-)

Mincey · July 28, 2021

3 minutes ago, LexusLuksus said:

Ok well that confirms it then, it definitely slides. It's a cool feature, I really like it, not sure if it's really necessary, but very cool nevertheless! X-)

I must admit that I only use mine once in a blue moon! It is a cool feature to show off with though.

LexusLuksus · July 28, 2021

7 minutes ago, Mincey said:

I must admit that I only use mine once in a blue moon! It is a cool feature to show off with though.

That's exactly it, you show it off once, and you're done. 🙂 I would actually prefer if it had the option of an analog speedometer as well, but sadly it doesn't.

LexusLuksus · July 28, 2021

How can I tell if the steering wheel is standard or F Sport? What are the differences?

CT200h-TL · July 28, 2021

F sport steering has a F sport badge at the bottom (6 o'clock)

LexusLuksus · July 28, 2021

22 minutes ago, CT200h-TL said:

F sport steering has a F sport badge at the bottom (6 o'clock)

Well it's definitely not an F Sport steering wheel then.

Linas.P · July 28, 2021

58 minutes ago, LexusLuksus said:

Being a Lexus noob, it is entirely possible that I'm wrong, maybe it's not the F Sport dials at all. My wife has the car at the moment so I can't take a photo of it, but I had taken a video of it earlier, not sure if I can attach it here but I'll try.

EDIT: Ok the video attachment didn't work, but here are some screencaps of it, sorry about the poor quality.

There is a button on the steering wheel to move the dial to the side and access the menu.

Definitely F-Sport dials. In my opinion it transforms the car and it is far more important than exterior. After all the most time you spend is inside the car and the standard dials on IS300h are very ugly and remind me of early 2000s hybrid... But F-Sport dials makes the car feel so much more modern.

As for the buttons, I am not sure if they were different between F-Sport and other trims, but I remember there was some issue controlling the F-Sport dials with standard buttons. Cannot remember what it was, but maybe pressing "menu" button didn't move the dial to the side as it should or something like that. So perhaps F-Sport wheel was not needed, just had to be programmed correctly.

So indeed - consider yourself lucky, you must have probably one from couple of cars which exists with this mod, maybe even the only one!

LexusLuksus · July 29, 2021

I did some more googling about this, and on US forums a few people said that they have done the swap, and apparently it's quite simple. They said you can buy the F Sport gauges for about 500 USD and it's relatively straight forward to swap it, but the mileage reading of the car is stored in the gauges unit. So you would have to re-program the correct mileage afterwards. If you didn't, well I guess that would be breaking some laws (fraud/misrepresenting the car or whatever.)

Linas.P · July 29, 2021

Unless your previous gauge cluster was broken and change in mileage is recorded, then I believe it is ok.

Sadly I can't find the thread in this forum (search function isn't great), but I am sure it is not plug and play. First of all the dial sliding function didn't work correctly and the context menu didn't show correctly and that had to be programmed in additional adapter. Would be interesting if somebody could find the thread.

Mincey · July 29, 2021

46 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Unless your previous gauge cluster was broken and change in mileage is recorded, then I believe it is ok.

Sadly I can't find the thread in this forum (search function isn't great), but I am sure it is not plug and play. First of all the dial sliding function didn't work correctly and the context menu didn't show correctly and that had to be programmed in additional adapter. Would be interesting if somebody could find the thread.

Linas.P · July 29, 2021

@LexusLuksus - there a chance you got ex- @Subtronics car? 😁

200h · July 29, 2021

ianhu from yorkshire managed to get his Fsport dials working on his car

LexusLuksus · July 30, 2021

22 hours ago, Linas.P said:

@LexusLuksus - there a chance you got ex- @Subtronics car? 😁

No, it's not that one. 🙂 By the way, the book in the car says that mine was bought from "Lexus Manchester 282-286 Bury New Road Manchester M7 2YJ", the address of it seems to fairly closely match Lexus in Bolton (301 Bury Rd), but when I enquired them about the car, they advised that they had not sold it. Does anyone know if "Lexus Manchester" is still (or ever was) a thing?

Subtronics · August 7, 2021

I still have mine, just have been spending money on different things recently. Think I'll be getting it sorted next year though.

ianhu · October 18, 2021

I did repair my cluster on my is300h f sport but the cluster was the original. I fixed the stuck odometer by reprogramming a new IC and surface mounting it to the board in place of the old/broken one.

I have since been tracked down from other lexus forums and repaired another f sport cluster with the exact same issue. Very strange fault to occur. My attempts with lexus were totally fruitless since they just wanted to sell me a new fitted cluster. Hmm I think not. So I set to read up and did the job myself.

Ian