Putting life back into a 'modded' IS250

[TadasC]

19 minutes ago, DnG said:

Wow, that's a lot of helpful information, thanks a lot.

I didn't exactly know where the drain holes are, I also bought one of those long wires with a brush at the end to clean them, so thanks for the pointers.

I haven't actually checked the passenger side floor, I only checked the driver's and it was fine, will definetely check the passenger floor now. Could also be the windscreen as the sealant does look like it deteriorated quite a bit, hope it's that and not the AC heater unit... that'll be a pain (for my wallet) to replace I guess.

Indeed the oil was very low, just at the low mark, topped it up with about 1L and it's now right about the middle. This could have caused the error but I also just found out that the intake solanoid wasn't even connected, the wires were loose, so I ordered a new connector and we'll see if that solves it.

 

No problem. There are no actuall holes there. Its just all dirt blocks under the plastic covers and water gathers and leaks over the rubber seal into the boot. I always check after heavy rain that carpet above rear screen is dry as its a good indicator. Carefully take the plastics off or at least try a good jet wash first.

[DnG]

3 minutes ago, TadasC said:

No problem. There are no actuall holes there. Its just all dirt blocks under the plastic covers and water gathers and leaks over the rubber seal into the boot. I always check after heavy rain that carpet above rear screen is dry as its a good indicator. Carefully take the plastics off or at least try a good jet wash first.

Ah yeah, just had a look and didn't see any holes so I assumed it's just the side of the rubber that acts as a drain. Also, I did see some water flowling on the left on the actual body of the car, from what seemed to be the tail light, so I'll also get that checked. And weird enough, my boot lid is a bit crooked, it's slightly to the left which scraped the tail light and it's a bit high on that side when closed, that might add to the water problem I just don't know what to do besides trying to bend (or break) the boot lid...

[DnG]

Does anyone know a good source for parts? My mechanic pretty mult told me to bring my own water pump and belt and I don’t know where to get it from or even which one is the right one…

[TadasC]

28 minutes ago, DnG said:

Does anyone know a good source for parts? My mechanic pretty mult told me to bring my own water pump and belt and I don’t know where to get it from or even which one is the right one…

i have used JapEuro car parts in Birmingham. They do have oem and aftermarket pumps and belts.

I would go with oem as i had bad experiences with aftermarket pump failling after 1500 miles. Replaced it with oem pump and its good to use oem toyota pink coolant. Also i have replaced my radiator before which i got from eBay, fittment was good and it doesnt leak.

[DnG]

49 minutes ago, TadasC said:

i have used JapEuro car parts in Birmingham. They do have oem and aftermarket pumps and belts.

I would go with oem as i had bad experiences with aftermarket pump failling after 1500 miles. Replaced it with oem pump and its good to use oem toyota pink coolant. Also i have replaced my radiator before which i got from ebay, fittment was good and it doesnt leak.

Thanks, they're not that far away from me either. Now I need to find a mechanic around as well that doesn't charge an arm and a leg and that knows the IS250. My mechanic seems to not like doing big jobs on cars that aren't GTRs, Skylines or Supras...

[Linas.P]

On 10/18/2024 at 12:10 PM, DnG said:

A possible revelation!

So, after doing some late night googling thinking about that pesky camshaft error, I found a topic talking about verifying the connectors on the actuator solanoid on bank 2 because those wires tend to get loose.

I popped the bonnet and started slowly pulling on the wires, and just the slight pull on the actuator wires, left me with the wires in my hand while the connector was still on the solanoid, so could that be it?? Could it have been that simple? I'm still thinking that the wires could have still had contact with the pins and that shouldn't really throw an error, right? I cleared the codes and read them again with the wires disconnected and no new errors showed up, just the same ones. I'll order a new connector and I'm hoping for the best.

It is 99% what it was, some muppet pulled the wires out and then tried to hide his mistake by just putting them in. As I said - sensors on these cars don't fail... and wiring on these cars don't fail without reason. If they do fail then the reason is most likely because somebody explicitly broke them, or in rarer cases - because water ingress. Again as I said - if swapping the sensors didn't fix your issues then wiring was the next obvious thing to check, and connector not connecting is pretty much as straightforward as it gets.   

23 hours ago, TadasC said:

i have used JapEuro car parts in Birmingham. They do have oem and aftermarket pumps and belts.

I would go with oem as i had bad experiences with aftermarket pump failling after 1500 miles. Replaced it with oem pump and its good to use oem toyota pink coolant. Also i have replaced my radiator before which i got from ebay, fittment was good and it doesnt leak.

Definitely that - do not use aftermarket water pump, OEM isn't even that much more expensive. Also do no use aftermarket sensors (or fake ones), they fail almost instantly and you not only end-up chasing issue forever, but also have to replace them multiple times, so basically paying twice in the end.

When it comes to parts - in short it sucks, some parts not too hard to get, like basic wear items like pads and discs, but anything more complicated than that and you need to order it from either US or Middle east. LPD has some parts, but apart of some clips and floor mats most of the parts there are rip-off. I even asked why their shifter knob is £300 when in amayama it is £36 and they just said "sorry, it must be something with import duties and regional pricing, sadly it is true and we can't do anything about it, we just can't match some of the prices". And when they say some, it is basically all... commination fuse - £45, LPD - £180 etc. etc. and it is not even small amounts, the prices are like 5x-10x. So yes - for Lexus be prepared to order from abroad.

@DnG your clamp, can't add picture in DM:

 

[DnG]

So, while I wait for the connector and to be finished with the mechanic, I upgraded one of my fobs to a newever version, what do you guys think? Due to the layout of my original key fob, I had to get this where the trunk button is all the way at the bottom and looks like a van trunk, but I think it still looks better than the old original.

[Linas.P]

Matter of taste really, these are not "newer version", just aftermarket. No Lexus ever came with fob looking like that, I am just guessing but maybe Toyota Alphard has key looking something like that, which would explain van symbol on the key. Basically you downgraded Lexus key into Toyota key 🙂 

From further away it kind of looks more modern, but up close the logo and the names are are kind of low quality and clearly just a paper stickers. Not sure I like that.

How about key (the actual metal bit)? does it still somehow fit in there?

New Lexus keys looks something like that (this is US version with that alarm button):

Personally I prefer old ones, they have weight and that metal key is kind of thick, the newer key is very light, like a plastic toy and the key is like metal shim, very thin and flimsy. I guess I am old fashioned.

[H3XME]

 

On 10/18/2024 at 3:32 PM, DnG said:

Does anyone know a good source for parts? 

Amayama is good.. it's all stocked in UAE & Japan so not exactly next day delivery, but it's a lot cheaper than the main dealer.. I was just looking at something for my Mark X the other day.. £18.52 from Amayama and the dealer in the UK wanted £81 lol

[Linas.P]

3 hours ago, H3XME said:

 

Amayama is good.. it's all stocked in UAE & Japan so not exactly next day delivery, but it's a lot cheaper than the main dealer.. I was just looking at something for my Mark X the other day.. £18.52 from Amayama and the dealer in the UK wanted £81 lol

Same here - planning sizeable order from them. Most of stuff is 10x cheaper, minimum 5x cheaper. Perhaps it does not worth for larger items e.g. brake disk is £18, compared to ~£60 here which I still consider cheap, but delivery from Japan is £58, making whole thing uneconomical. But there are loads of good examples of common parts that are worth buying - for example those lower control arm bushing that are always shot on all cars... £16 (£82 in UK)! I feel almost like a kid in the candy shop, everything is so cheap I just want to order it all, even if that is not really a priority item to replace, but for £16 I may as well do it.

Also one thing needs to be considered - one would need a larger order to justify shipping costs, but also you don't want to make it too big so that it get's stopped at the border and taxed. So Generally speaking I would try to stay under £200 per order (the actual limits are £39 no taxes, £39-125 no duty only VAT, £125+ you hit with everything, but in my experience they really only start checking above £200-300).

[H3XME]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

Same here - planning sizeable order from them. Most of stuff is 10x cheaper, minimum 5x cheaper. Perhaps it does not worth for larger items e.g. brake disk is £18, compared to ~£60 here which I still consider cheap, but delivery from Japan is £58, making whole thing uneconomical. But there are loads of good examples of common parts that are worth buying - for example those lower control arm bushing that are always shot on all cars... £16 (£82 in UK)! I feel almost like a kid in the candy shop, everything is so cheap I just want to order it all, even if that is not really a priority item to replace, but for £16 I may as well do it.

Also one thing needs to be considered - one would need a larger order to justify shipping costs, but also you don't want to make it too big so that it get's stopped at the border and taxed. So Generally speaking I would try to stay under £200 per order (the actual limits are £39 no taxes, £39-125 no duty only VAT, £125+ you hit with everything, but in my experience they really only start checking above £200-300).

and if you're really lucky you won't have to pay anything even on higher value orders. They don't check every single parcel. I paid nothing on my £400 tail lights from japan

[Linas.P]

It is value, but also size... Not only that they don't check every parcel, they don't check majority of them. That said - I tend to limit my orders around £200 and so far in many years not a single one was checked.

I am not so much bothered with paying some tax on it, but the whole process of getting the things delayed and out of customs is really annoying.

I think only once I had parcel that went to customs, and I knew it will go there are it was ~£1,600... I paid duties right away at the checkout, so it wasn't even a matter of paying something when it arrived, still added like 2 weeks of waiting and paperwork and all sorts of nonsense. Really rather avoid it whenever possible. 

[DnG]

I need to get a price check off you guys.

Just got billed £590 to fix up the car and I'm not entirely sure if that's a fair price or not.

Radiator + water pump (original) + auxiliary belt + coolant : £290

1 coilover swap + MOT + labour for above: £300

Parts I think I got a steal, but not sure about labour, he kept rounding it off but at the same time, £70 for a coilover swap is lower than what other people ask for though, it's not a hard job, if only I had the space I would have done it myself.

[H3XME]

10 minutes ago, DnG said:

Radiator + water pump (original) + auxiliary belt + coolant : £290

Reasonable
 

10 minutes ago, DnG said:

1 coilover swap + MOT + labour for above: £300

I mean it's not awful these days.. but £70 for a coil swap is ridiculous.
jack up the front of the car, and swap the fronts. Don't do just one, it will be awful. Different spring rates, compression etc. Fronts are easier to do than the rears. Bring it to me and I'll do both fronts for you for £50 🤣

[DnG]

1 hour ago, H3XME said:

Reasonable
 

I mean it's not awful these days.. but £70 for a coil swap is ridiculous.
Jack up the front of the car, and swap the fronts. Don't do just one, it will be awful. Different spring rates, compression etc. Fronts are easier to do than the rears. Bring it to me and I'll do both fronts for you for £50 🤣

Other mechanics (and people that I've talked to) usually charge £350-400 to swap all 4 so £70 for 1 that'd be £280 for all 4. I'll get the TEIN rebuilt and put back on, the one I'm swapping now is temporary until I get the money to rebuild it. I'm not driving much anyway so it should be fine.

I would have done it myself but I live in a small grove and people keep giving me dirty looks, and there's always someone who wants to walk on the sidewalk or wants to park next to me, and space is very limited...

Let's hope he doesn't find anything else that's wrong with it... The shock was blown because I think, the previous owner took on a massive pothole at high speed, the alloy is cracked and a bit bent on the side wall and obviously the shock is leaking. The wheel does seem to go more towards the inside of the car and when I steer the wheel scrapes on the wheel arch on the inside, so I'm hoping there isn't anything that's broken or bent, but I doubt a leaky shock can cause the wheel to be off centre...

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, DnG said:

I need to get a price check off you guys.

Just got billed £590 to fix up the car and I'm not entirely sure if that's a fair price or not.

Radiator + water pump (original) + auxiliary belt + coolant : £290

1 coilover swap + MOT + labour for above: £300

Parts I think I got a steal, but not sure about labour, he kept rounding it off but at the same time, £70 for a coilover swap is lower than what other people ask for though, it's not a hard job, if only I had the space I would have done it myself.

Prices sounds good. The question would be the quality of parts. Also coolant is very important - MUST be Toyota Pink Ultra Long Life, no other coolant ever should be used on these cars. It is not that expensive, £40 for 5L, but just one thing to make sure it is done. This stuff:

https://toyotadirectparts.co.uk/parts/toyota-hilux/toyota-hilux-mk-8/hilux-mk-8-engine-service-kits/toyota-pink-pre-mixed-coolant-antifreeze-5-litres/

[H3XME]

59 minutes ago, DnG said:

I'm hoping there isn't anything that's broken or bent, but I doubt a leaky shock can cause the wheel to be off centre...

Pothole at some speed will do that.

Your alignment is out, so that's gonna be another £60-100 for that. There isn't a whole lot adjustable on these cars, so there will be something bent slightly if you have Toe in.. on the front of the car you want toe to be 0 or ~2mm out for some fun driving better turn in.

[Linas.P]

It depends what "off-centre" means.

If that is just toe-in/out, then it could be outer/inner tie rod, understeering into the kerb is sure way to get that bent. Or it may be just not properly adjusted.

But if the wheel is sort of closer to the front or back of the wheel arch, then it will bent control arm... which is very hard to do on these cars... must have been massive pot hole and at good speed for that to happen... also I guess wheel and tyre would give way before the control arm.

[DnG]

3 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Prices sounds good. The question would be the quality of parts. Also coolant is very important - MUST be Toyota Pink Ultra Long Life, no other coolant ever should be used on these cars. It is not that expensive, £40 for 5L, but just one thing to make sure it is done. This stuff:

https://toyotadirectparts.co.uk/parts/toyota-hilux/toyota-hilux-mk-8/hilux-mk-8-engine-service-kits/toyota-pink-pre-mixed-coolant-antifreeze-5-litres/

On the phone with the parts guy they both said ‘red coolant’ so I guess I’ll have to flush it and put proper coolant myself, he already doesn’t like I’m picky with parts…

2 hours ago, H3XME said:

Pothole at some speed will do that.

Your alignment is out, so that's gonna be another £60-100 for that. There isn't a whole lot adjustable on these cars, so there will be something bent slightly if you have Toe in.. on the front of the car you want toe to be 0 or ~2mm out for some fun driving better turn in.

Previous owner did do alignment a few days before I got the car, I did see that on the dash cam footage so I know it’s true.

Also, the wheel is chipped so I’m not sure what to think of you say that the wheels should give out before the control arm…

[H3XME]

4 minutes ago, DnG said:

On the phone with the parts guy they both said ‘red coolant’ so I guess I’ll have to flush it and put proper coolant myself, he already doesn’t like I’m picky with parts…

Sounds like he's sh!t and unsure of his sexuality if he can't even say "pink coolant" 🤣

[Linas.P]

24 minutes ago, H3XME said:

Sounds like he's sh!t and unsure of his sexuality if he can't even say "pink coolant" 🤣

There is also generic red coolant, red colour is just a dye, but says nothing of the type of coolant it is, nor quality. It is likelylong life, but not "ultra long life". But there is huge difference in both price and performance. One is like 40k miles lifetime, another is 100k miles... and their properties are also significantly different. 

29 minutes ago, DnG said:

On the phone with the parts guy they both said ‘red coolant’ so I guess I’ll have to flush it and put proper coolant myself, he already doesn’t like I’m picky with parts…

Previous owner did do alignment a few days before I got the car, I did see that on the dash cam footage so I know it’s true.

Also, the wheel is chipped so I’m not sure what to think of you say that the wheels should give out before the control arm…

Well he just needs to suck it up, you are the client you paying for work and for parts. he has to put the right coolant for the car, it is not optional. 

He can pretend he "did not know", but if you tell him it has to be Pink Toyota super long life, then it has to be pink Toyota super long life.

Same as spark plugs have to be Denso iridium and not NGK Platinum... sometimes it does not matter, sometimes it does. When it comes to coolant or sparkplugs... it does matter. Because the engine is designed to run, and has gaskets specifically for specific coolant. It is same thing like you would not put 10w40 into the engine that needs 5w30... as a client you can experiment, but as a mechanic you don't get to make such calls. I wouldn't let my mechanic to take me for a ride like this, also just kind of attitude thing - if he is not putting right coolant in, then why bother at all, just put tap water... in short what are the chances that he is motivated to do anything right?!

Now just as a side note - I also sometimes put red coolant, for example when I did engine swap and I needed to drain the coolant, I just put generic red coolant TEMPORARILY, because I know I will need to service the car shortly and replace pump anyway and it will all be wasted. But if you replacing pump, then that thing will be there for next 60k miles, not getting right coolant in my view is just a bit weird.

Don't know about the wheel, maybe just kerb damage, I can't really see what you mean by "not centre". Whenever such damage on the wheel would be indicative of bent suspension arm... hard to say, I personally expect much worse, also I would expect aftermarket wheels to shatter before the bend suspension (they usually quite fragile), but I don't know maybe these OZs are very thought. 

[DnG]

19 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Well he just needs to suck it up, you are the client you paying for work and for parts. he has to put the right coolant for the car, it is not optional. 

He can pretend he "did not know", but if you tell him it has to be Pink Toyota super long life, then it has to be pink Toyota super long life.

Same as spark plugs have to be Denso Iridium and not NGK Platinum... sometimes it does not matter, sometimes it does. When it comes to coolant or sparkplugs... it does matter. Because the engine is designed to run, and has gaskets specifically for specific coolant. It is same thing like you would not put 10w40 into the engine that needs 5w30... as a client you can experiment, but as a mechanic you don't get to make such calls.

I feel like he looks down on me tbh, he just takes my jobs because its easy money. He mostly works on GTRs, Skylines, Supras, any JDM tbf, and I know they're big ££££ jobs and he provides extra care and diligence for those, whereas me going to him with a beat up 2007 Lexus, he doesn't really care, not like he's gonna be out of business if I don't go to him lol. I just want to see the car running for now, and from then on I'll do each thing individually and be more picky when it comes to what goes inside it for long-term use.

19 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Don't know about the wheel, maybe just kerb damage, I can't really see what you mean by "not centre". Whenever such damage on the wheel would be indicative of bent suspension arm... hard to say, I personally expect much worse, also I would expect aftermarket wheels to shatter before the bend suspension (they usually quite fragile), but I don't know maybe these OZs are very thought. 

Apparently OZ Racing are supposed to be a top brand, and considering it didn't shatter into a million pieces like I've had happen with other aftermarket wheels, I guess they're good.

As for the off centre-ing, you can't see it on the picture and I don't have the car at the moment but looking at the wheel, it seems to be positioned more towards the rear of the car, towards the doors. I'll see on Thursday/Friday when he finally gets the parts and finished it, if he found anything. At for now, no calls from him so either everything is alright, or he forgot about it lol

30 minutes ago, H3XME said:

Sounds like he's sh!t and unsure of his sexuality if he can't even say "pink coolant" 🤣

Haha, yeah it seemed weird. I said it out loud "Pink coolant, the Toyota super long life one" and he was like "yeah the... red coolant, yeah red" and the guy on the phone: "ah red yeah yeah, red coolant"🤣 🤣 

[Linas.P]

I mean if he works on Supras, then surely he should be stocked-up with pink coolant. I would be amazed if guy who positions himself as "top tier JDM sports cars guru" would not know the difference between pink and red coolant.