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£500, 20 year old Lexus LS 400 – 140 mph! Lexus owners on the forums come from different financial angles. I saw an old Top Gear (2011? repeated last night) showing a yellow McClaren MP4-12C that cost around £180,000. They also showed a Nissan Pixo, which at the time was the cheapest new car, at around £7000. For similar money Hammond and Clarkson purchased a second-hand 8 series BMW 850Ci (£6700 17 years old) and Merc CL 600 (£6695 9 years old). http://www.topgear.com/videos/jeremy-clarkson/new-vs-used-part-12-series-17-episode-3 The argument against owning the older cars was the cost of repairs. When considering a Lexus LS400/430 – they are actually much better value AND more reliable than an old BMW or Merc. Driving my 1998 LS 400 is still a lovely experience and far better than many newer vehicles I have owned. I would rather put more fuel in my Lexus than spend half that amount running an Austin Metro (one of the most uncomfortable and rough cars I have owned) for example. The Lexus experience puts Bangernomics into a different league.

I have been inspired by some photos posted on the forum showing members vehicles in various interesting and beautiful locations:- Here is mine:- A castle built by Henry VIII!

14 Bags of 10-20 mm stone,10 in the boot,4 on the rear seat ( covered first of course ) and still pulled like a train,and did not bottom out either :) 3 trips of 10 miles from local quarry,i saved 50 quid in delivery costs,and used just over a gallon of fuel the old girl never ceases to amaze me B)

For the past 3 years (the time I've got my IS) i was looking for something that will give me some more personal feel and connection with the brand. Only thing that really got into my eyes was the Lexus genuine wrist watch. The previous design was the one that i really liked, then not so long ago they have introduced new model. and after many days and sleepless nights thinking if i really need a wrist watch and if it really has to be Lexus branded, I have made my decision and ordered one from eBay Official Lexus shop. Everything was just fine up until it didn't came on day i was expecting it. So i have checked tracking history and it was saying "it's on its way", great, lets just wait a bit more. A bit later another check on tracking unveiled that they actually lost my parcel and are trying to sort this out. But after some scary moments now it's here, and have the pleasure to present it to you. ENJOY!!! (below photo you will find link to my pictures and unboxing video) Gallery Link: Google Photos Video: YouTube My personal opinion known as the Review: maybe lets start with the basic data about the watch: Made by: House of Excellence, Copenhagen (http://www.hwexcellence.dk/products.html) Movement: MIYOTA 0S10/0S1A (Miyota is part of Citizen group) Battery: SR927W The watch is a heavy piece of equipment on our hand, it's nearly 55mm/2in wide (including buttons), 15mm/0.5in+ thick, watch plate is round and 37mm/1.5in wide.Can't say how heavy it is but but definitely you can feel it on your hand. Top button is for starting and stopping the chronograph, bottom button is for resetting it to "zero" position, middle button is a 3 position one: pushed in is for usage, step 1 (no actual feeling if you got it, but its between max pushed in and max pulled out) for date setting, step 2 for clock setting. Belt is made of leather and its got nice feeling on inside and outside, length and amount of holes give a chance to many people to get it on. Glass is Sapphire and whole body is Stainless Steel. Its a well made watch with good quality movement that makes no noise, for someone with skinny arm it might by a bit heavy and too big. The design makes it a bit sporty or even maybe "motorsporty", there is no carbon imitation, but the white rings around top and bottom plates make the look. Lexus logo is small enough to not throw at people "I'm a Lexus MANIAC" but big enough to make clear what you drive. The hour and minute hand are illuminated as well as the hour marks on main plate. from my personal feelings i would say the watch is a well worthy piece of equipment for any Lexus driver. only thing or two are, its a bit hard to read time as too many details are all round, but this might be the case of getting used to it, then its the top hand is used for chronograph seconds and time seconds are displayed on bottom small plate. Enjoy!

I'm useless at car mechanics as I'm temperamental and impatient plus I have been stung by dodgy garages before and it makes my blood boil!!!!!! So when yesterday when I had a pleasant experience at an independent garage I just had to share it!! -The members on this forum have been really helpful so perhaps I could give something back..... Recently I bought a Lexus is250 SEL auto on a 07 plate from a trader and the next day the dreaded VSC light came on. Posts about exhausts/ huge bills worried me so I bought an OBD reader. Found out it was a front 02 sensor, (trader said he would fit it, but I must pay for the part ). Meanwhile I started noticing a slight sluggishness and fuel consumption at 20mpg...so I ordered the part and found a garage I could trust as I thought there could be more to this. I went to BMERCS in Barnet, North London (found out they do Lexus too). They went out of their way to calm me down and put my mind at ease! As I had the part they only charged me for 30mins labour and checked the car over to see everything was ok. They let the engine run for a bit to see if there was anything else that could trigger the dreaded VCS light after they put the new sensor on, as when one goes sometimes the second one follows on the IS250. The normal practice is any parts changed are given back to you (old ones), which is something I have never seen before. (Just google the reviews they have got!!) I was impressed at how cheap they were and more importantly how honest and professional, I had to write about it!!

Make sure there is no corrosion on the disc surfaces, this happens when your calliper is seized which results in part of the disc never coming into contact with the pad to keep it clean and rust free. This typically results in a grinding noise. To resolve you would need the disc surface to be skimmed or the disc replaced. The following is an example, the inside half of the disc is corroded and will result in a grinding noise when you apply the brakes and the pad comes into contact with that non-smooth surface. The lip on the outer edge isn't a problem.

Can you feel any pulsing through the brake pedal when it happens? I assume that non of the pads are down to the metal backing plates?

Just pop speaker grill of by my be a flat head screwdriver, then you access to sub, get clear silicone and pull back the edge of the rubber surround on the woofer but be gentle no need to pull back much, just enough to get a bead of silicone where the rubber edge sits on to the metal lip. Once you pull it back a bit you'll get the drift of what to do, takes ten minutes to do let silicone cure for half hour and it should be good as new. I did mine and after a year I sold car and sub was still good. One other thing I don't know if you could get a small tube of silicone as it would be easier to get a the sub with it. Good luck phil

Mine started to come away - stuffed in loads of glue and keep my fingers crossed.

No photos - could it be a teenage wind up? - under a month membership of Gumtree. Who today is unable to take a few photo's and download them? Why would anyone advertise a car without photo's? Not negotiable - not interested! go away and take some photo's as no one is travelling to a destination for an unseen vehicle especially at a ridiculous price. BTW Has Viv Westwoods car been sold yet - looks like the S*x pistols performed a concert in it!

Sounds like a fun weekend project :) I have the OEM Aisin A340 transmission manual, bit of light reading on the loo.

Cripes, mine is missing too, drivers side rear quarter window.... Been trying to find one on a breakers for ages. Most be a common fault there !

I carry one around in the boot just in case I get caught out abroad.- also replacement Serpentine Belt.

It may not be the same cause but I've seen this exact same problem on a Bmw tourer, a friend at work had it intermittently but it did get gradually worse, all the windows & sunroof would be open when he finished work (private secure carpark) it definately wasn't his the fob as it was broke & he was using the key, It turned out to be a fault on the central locking which was caused by water ingress in the drivers door central locking switch ...

Hi there Mike, Thankyou for your reply & I appreciate your most warm of welcomes. I have checked out the LOC rules & shall definitely a deer to them as I would not wish to offend anyone or breach the club rules. In due course I would very much like to become a fully fledged member of the LOC & attend any meets & so on that may be occurring. Question: I am considering becoming a gold member, However I am unsure of the benefits of doing this. I have checked out what the gold membership entails but am still unsure as to whether it would be of any true benefit to me as a relatively new driver (My lexus is my first car & as such my insurance is spectacularly high). I hope there is someone out there whom can help with my quandary, as until its remedied I'm without a stereo, sat-nav or hands free kit. Again thank you for your warm welcome. Regards Sy

Hi there Sy, welcome to the LOC, we are a friendly bunch and some of us even know how to pull them to bits and put them back together again, with of course the one bolt and washer left over. We recommend you spend a couple of mins looking over the rules of the LOC, we will be asking questions later I cant help with your present queries but I'm sure someone will be along ASAP. http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/terms-conditions/ Regards Mike.

Never had any problems with the car not starting when stood unused but I think the longest it has been left is for about 12 days when we were away on holiday, however....... ...... a couple of months ago the wife went to work and parked in the multi storey, as usual, came out from work at 5.30 and got in the car and switched the ignition on (but not all the way to the 'READY' position).... and then decided to phone her mother using the cars bluetooth system - on for about 40 minutes (wtf !) when she had an incoming call from her friend, which she took - on for a further 20 minutes (WTF !). Of course, you guessed it, when the time came....no starty ! By this time it was 6.30pm, the car park closes and is locked at 7.00pm (no exceptions from mr Jobsworth car park attendant) and I only have my Hi Ace van.... which is too tall for the car park ! A quick call to her friend, who has a Ford Ka, saw us dash round to the car park and get the jump leads on and the car started with about five minutes to spare.... phew ! ...if only everything in,life was as reliable as a Ka ! No further problems, car started next day fine but to be on the safe side, a week later I booked it in to my local Toyota dealer and had a genuine Toyota replacement battery fitted - £93 all in. Dan

Doubt the single missing locating screws would make any difference as the wheel bolts it all up tight. Check you didn't loose any balancing weights off the wheels when doing the job!

Mine's a SE-L with a Levinson system but never suffered from a flat battery even when parked at Manchester airport for 3 weeks. I was expecting it to be flat and had a changed up jump pack in the boot ready and waiting, but not needed.

Hi ChrisKay. I suppose the only avenue to search is breakers yards. I did find a RX300 being scraped on ebay, unfortunately he didn't have my side.

Also take a look at: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/86415-afs-sensor-replacementrepair/

Try checking height control sensors attached to rear anti-roll bar behind the drop/stabiliser links, easy to see with rear wheel removed. There should be another much smaller drop/stabiliser link from the anti-roll bar that goes to the height sensor and not uncommon for them to seize or even snap. I'll try and get some pics on Friday when I replace my rear strut, if you can't locate it!

Seems like a lot to me - especially given the state of the tyres. The fact that the pictures were taken in a public car park should also ring alarm bells. And in true dealer style an empty fuel tank - with all the issues that can cause. Also, at that mileage, why would it have had two cam belt changes? Possibly been stood up for a while too, needing a battery charge. Seems they forgot to put the terminal shroud back on before taking the photo!

Its disappeared now - hasn't shuddered in ages!

If you want peace of mind then the obvious choice is the Lexus warranty. We have had our 2011 model now for getting on 18 months - it's got around 85k on the clock and there has been not one single thing that has gone wrong. I would be surprised if there was anything much outside of regulation wear and tear that you would need to be done. Might be worth banking the cost of the warranty and taking a chance. I do have the warranty on my ISF but I have never thought about putting it on the RX.

Whatever that sales guy says get it in writing! As for the poor soul who shelled out £2.5k as they wouldn't cover him, I'd have got a few solicitor's letters off to the GAP company, if I was gonna be screwed like that, £2.5k would be quite a few letters to at least go down with a fight! I hate insurers with a passion, they always screw you one way or another!

In relation to Gap cover, my wife purchased this on a car we bought 7 years ago, unfortunately i wrote the car off which p×××ed her right off. As the car was a total lose the gap cover would cover a max of £5k difference, the insurance assesor submitted his report and after a period of time i was offered a settlement figure, the figure given left us with a 2.5k shortfall. I told the insurance that i thought the car was worth more, they informed me that they had searched Autotrader amongst other sites and that was the best offer. I got intouch with the company who supplied the Gap cover, and Yes they refused to pay as they stated that they thought thw car was worgh more, i informed them that i had asked this and i was told this is what the car was worth and i would not get another offer, GAP refused and we ended up paying the shortfall. Becareful with these companies ( pinnacle).

I thought that mine was a duff battery as the problem disappeared when new battery fitted - for 2 weeks. I got it fixed at a friend's garage - wasn't too expensive at about £120 if I recall. Pete

Here is a report on the corrosion on my recently bought LS430 2004 82k miles which recently replaced my rusted out 1995 LS400. My inspection included a £16.99 endoscope from Amazon and it is a fun bit of kit. With its own variable light and colour image [also waterproof] it connected by USB to my Macbook Pro and was immediately found in Photo Booth. I drilled a 10mm hole inside the top of the wheel arch and introduced the scope into the void to find pristine metal and shining black mastic in the seems. Not a trace of rust. Corrosion Block was sprayed into the void. FLY-Shop® 2 Million Pixels Cmos 5m/16ft Waterproof USB Hd 6 LED Borescope Endoscope Inspection Tube Pipe Camera This was the same result in the doors after removing the door cards. Where the lower 'chrome' strip on the outside is secured through the door shell with plastic pegs there was no rust whatsoever. The upper trim strip is secured by mastic or double sided tape and again no corrosion as was the case at the bottom of the door void where I would have expected something at least. All was so clean I even decided against spraying any ACF-50 into the doors. Underneath the car across the 'back axle' area all components were covered in rust except of course the stainless and aluminium items. Nowhere is it more than superficial and I have now treated it with Rustbuster fe-123 converter followed by Corrosion Block which will last about a year. Also where the rear number plate retaining bolts enter the body there is no rust. I have yet to investigate the door sills and the front wheel arches but I am feeling much better about the LS430. The only area of rust really needing Rustbuster's two part epoxy mastic [on top of the converter] was forward of the rear wheel arch at the bottom, both in the arch itself and the horizontal surface just forward of the arch. I can recommend the endoscope for the price and although it is not sold for 'medical use' I am sure I will find out things about the wife I didn't know when she comes out from behind the sofa.

My other car passion is a fiat coupe 20 valve turbo and fiat marea. If your talking about rust Fiat invented it. My coupe is the same age as my LS and you'd think the lexus was only a six year old car. Even though the fiat is galvanised (the minimal amount) it still has significant rust issues in major structural areas. Luckily I have the facilities, equipment and and skills to restore it to its former glory, time and money are the hold up for me.

Hi guys, new to this as well. I am getting my 2003 IS200 Sport Cross tomorrow and the first thing I am doing is taking out the stock stereo with the disc changer. Is the amp and wiring different in the sport cross than the saloon? also where is the best place to by the double din to single din conversion Thanks Matt

You should find the wiring diagrams on http://lexus.solar3.eu (you need to open it in Internet Explorer, not Mozilla, Safari, Chrome, etc)

Hi all i have a is200 (y reg 2001 ? ) im having problems connecting my new head unit up to the old cables ive got a pioneer app radio to fit in the car instead of the old 6 cd changer one (my stereo model is toyota 86120-53041) i went to my local halfords for the cables and they typed in my reg and showed me the cables however they were completly diffrent to my cables in the back of my head unit. i searched online to find some cables that would fit and convert it but had no luck so i decided to cut all the cables and connect them manually together however all the colours are diffrent so i dont know what cables go where and i cant find a wiring diagram for the stock head unit that use to be in my lexus to find out what cables go where ? can anyone help me out or have they had this problem or do they know what colour cables go to the ones in my block connector that i have for my new stereo ? It has the colours, Green, Green & Black, Red, Black, White, White & Black, Blue, Orange, Yellow, Grey & Black, Grey, Purple & Black, and Purple ??

Like Nigel just said - using the amp bypass cable retains use of all standard speakers. And yes, it means the stock amp is no longer in use.

No - rear speakers are fine with the bypass cable. The only real problem is you might lose a couple of layers of skin getting the connector off the stock amp...

Hi Matt, Cheers for the heads up also does this mean with the amp no longer in use the rear speakers need to be changed as they are the 4 and 2 ohms doubles Rob

If you're fitting an aftermarket headunit, it's pointless using the stock amp, as you're new headunit will have an onboard amp, meaning you'll have to use pre-outs to connect to the stock amp. Just get the amp bypass cable, which connects the speaker harnesses to the new headunit's ISO harness, effectively by-passing the stock amp (hence why it's called an amp bypass cable), allowing you to keep the standard speakers.

Dear Clunkfish. You need to read the archive threads not just what has been written on this thread go back months and you will find it all there I have no intention of doing it myself. I myself have reported him dozens of times to Ebay but they don't give a damn I reported him to Trading Standards West Midlands and despite them promising they would investigate it they didn't and when I asked why? they said they wouldn't move on anything unless they got at least 20 complaints about any business as they are far to busy. Typical government agency, bone idle and the same goes for the Police in the West Midlands. This is how criminals like lexuschap are able to function but one day they will over step the mark once to often sell a car to the wrong person and he will get what he deserves. This is my final response to you clunkfish on this subject because all that is happening is that you will not read the historic archives and all we are doing is "oh yes he did, oh no he didn't" and that is not a a reasoned argument. Mike.

Even if the fiddling with mileage is the only indisputable case - that on it's own is enough reason to stay well clear.