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Yeah but everyone has an RCF nowadays... Almost as common as the VW Golf PCP R ;-)

On Saturday I flew down to Gatwick (from Edinburgh) to pick up this wonderful wafty thing from a nice chap who may occasionally frequent this forum, but is more often on the barge thread on Pistonheads (it's been christened Sherman by myself and the other PTs at the gym coz it is a big old tank of a thing). I had never been close to, let alone driven an LS400 before this. I had plenty of time to get used to things on the drive back up North though. Now my only regret is that I didn't take the plunge sooner. It has a couple of little foibles - non heating seat(s) - only checked the drivers but not too fussed, and the temperature gauge doesn't work so I'll be having a look at the wiring around the sensor at some point when there's less snow. Much like myself there are a couple of cosmetic flaws but nothing concerning - mainly a bit of paint fade and a couple of very small patches of surface rust due to stone chips. I'm finding I love this car more every time I drive it and can't wait to get behind the wheel - what a fantastic machine!

Hi John, delighted you are so enthused with your new RX. It will take some time to get the hang off all the stuff in your RX, took me ages to get the hang of it all. Re leaving it in Drive, yes, that's what you do, counter intuitive I know, and i feel sorry for those behind me but I've never had anyone comment, suppose it's all so normal now. Just do it. Hill Start Assist. - When on a hill, just stamp hard on the brake, too gentle and it won't operate but it will, im sure there's nothing wrong with it. Just go out and try it in your driveway, it'll be fine. A yellow lamp flashes for a couple of seconds, it's really clever. I've never sat for any extended period of time but I'm sure the engine will kick in if you're sitting in it for too long. I used to drive around in eco mode but now don't bother, seems to be very little difference in fuel consumption and the faster response is nice. It took me a while to love it, i had an IS300 Sportcross which I loved but wouldn't go back now. Great cars.

Shifting into N at lights is a definite No,No in a hybrid and not recommended in an automatic either. In the hybrid it means the traction battery can't be recharged, if needed, by the engine. In an automatic it just causes unnecessary wear on the transmission shifter and 'box. It took a while for me to get used to sitting in the car leaving it in the Ready state whilst listening to the radio etc.. Yes the DRLs are on but they draw minimal power, plus in the ready state one benefits from the a/c and heater. The engine will fire up now and again, depending on how long one sits there but it's much less in the summer (no cabin heat required), it's surprising how long the traction battery can power the stationary car. If one powers off and relies on the 12v battery one runs the risk of discharging it and not being able to restart the car. Or perhaps not locking it. Hill Start on my RC is automatic, just come to a stop, the car will not roll back when taking one's foot off the brake and getting on the throttle. Not sure if that's the same with the RX though.

I replaced both the front and rear brake discs and pads on my daughter’s 2013 Nissan Qashqai this weekend and was surprised at the rear disc/drum set up. It is virtually identical to my 1994 LS400 with the combined disc and drum parking brake even down to the rubber bung in the disc which is removed to access the knurled nut on the parking brake shoes for adjustment and backing off to allow the disc to come off over the shoes. Given the difference in age it just goes to show how advanced Lexus were and the reliability of the system if the same is still in use probably to this day. Also nice to work on a newer vehicle where ALL the bolts come out without a struggle!

You should never reveal your true age on any social media ;-)

Hi everyone. Yes the title sounds too good to be true and it isn't.. yet. Odometer reading as of this morning 385 552 miles but it's safe to say i'm on my way there Being a long time enthusiast, this is my 8th Lexus over the last 10 years. After selling my GS450h two weeks ago, i was looking for 3-5 year old GS450h F-Sport, but as you can see it wasn't meant to be. This is a MK1 model and i can literally say i picked her up for a song. There are lots of problems to sort out as expected with this age and mileage and i will keep you posted as i go trough the process. About the car: 2003 model, dark red with brown leather interior (which is what sold the car to me straight away). 385552 miles in the hands of 2 loving owners (not doctors :) Yes the mileage is ridiculous and considering that, i was actually looking for reasons to walk away no matter the price. But i couldn't find any :D Exterior looks a little bit tired: there's paint bubbling around edges of the roof, the dogs have eaten the passenger headlight washer and drivers door handle cover. Naughty dogs.. Interior is almost spotless. I have owned many high mileage cars between 100 and 250k before this is just unbelievable condition. Missing floor mats and i haven't yet figured out why the stereo cover panel isn't working. Is there a button you need to press? Roof works like charm and there's no water leaks. Both front door speakers blown. Will be looking to replace/repair. Satnav isn't working. It needs new exhaust from the front cat's onwards. This is probably the most expensive investment i will have to fork out as i won't be able to do this myself. Original back box and tail pipes look very sad too.. Small oil leak coming from the sump cover gasket, which i will sort as soon as the weather will ease off a little bit. Engine and gearbox are spot on. Oil looks clean, compression is good on all 8 cylinders and the spark plugs look like they have been changed not long ago. I have ordered a new radiator, cam belt kit with water pump, oil and all new filters. I will also have to get the tracking done, but the suspension and brakes in reasonably good condition :) I would love to fit MeisteR coilovers but considering the mileage this will be highly unlikely. Overall i would say despite all these problems, the way this car still drives just amazes me. I know i'm saving this car from the scrapyard and i'd like to think i'm doing a favor to the world :) Any advice much appreciated and special thanks to Neil E whose project thread is very inspirational. Very nice person to deal with too.

...still not convinced I'm doing things right. It's been two months now since we picked up our pride and joy and we're loving every minute of it, it really is excellent! However, 43 years of driving has led to some very deep-rooted habits, chief amongst which is that when sat at traffic lights or in other queues, I have always put the handbrake on and put the transmission in neutral and anything else just seems so alien! Is it really true that I shouldn't be doing that now? Is it really true that for a hybrid, I should keep the car in gear (in 'D') and keep my foot on the brake or at least put the parking brake on but do not take the transmission out of 'D'? Also, I hate to admit it but I seem to have morphed into my parents. As a kid I hated being dragged off for a Sunday afternoon trip to the seaside but now, as a 60-year old adult, I absolutely love a good long bracing walk along the prom and then (if the weather's not too brilliant) just sitting in the car for a couple of hours, maybe even longer, watching the world go by. Being big music fans, we always used to have the radio or CDs on while we sat there. As yet, we just haven't had the chance to do this but when we do, and having heard stories of just how easily the small 12v battery can be drained, is listening to the radio for long periods even possible in a stationary hybrid car? I think I read somewhere that the way to do it is to make sure that the car is in the "Ready" state but that means that the daytime running lights will be on, the instrument panel will be illuminated and all the car's computers will be ready to move off but they won't get that instruction, so will that do any damage to anything or is having the car in the "Ready" state the way to do it and completely safe? One other thing that bothers me is that before buying this car, I had a test drive in a 12-plate RX450h Luxury. While out on the drive, the salesman demonstrated 'Hill-Start Assist and if I remember right, after coming to a stop on a hill you press down a little harder on the brake for a couple of seconds and a buzzer sounds to indicate that Hill-Start Assist is active. I think I'm right in saying that the Advance is the next model up from the Luxury so I would have thought that our car should have Hill-Start Assist but I can't get it to work. How do I find out if it is actually fitted on my car because if it is, it's faulty, but if it was never meant to have it anyway then that must be the reason it's not working

First the cd error comes up never to be resolved even trying another unit. radio and cd player give up the ghost for about a year and a half then suddenly recently came on again. Steering in and out worked but not up and down. Suddenly up and down works. drivers door lock won't work on the door button. why the hell isn't there a postcode option on the navigation? nearly 18 years old with 138000 on the clock, never ever failed an m.o.t and despite all the weirdness I still love this car.

Thank you 👍looking forward to getting it all hooked up and the transmission in. I went to a trackday at bedford on the weekend with a couple of friends and it was so frustrating not being able to rip round myself...... but its things like that that push me on more to pull my finger out

More good work and attention to detail. I like the way you think of everything, even down to the practical colour of the broadloom.

So i carried on with the loom..... I took over the front room whilst the other half was at work 😂 started by pulling all the tape plastic coating and clips off it. I then started chopping out plugs i no longer need. I could have just gone for the plugs but by tracing the wires back as far as i could it would make the loom alot thinner and smaller. This lot came out.... There is still a couple more plugs to go too, i then pluged this into the ecu box to see if it will all fit and it does quite nicely. Just need to bang it back in the bay now and see what needs to be lengthened. once that is done i just need to get some sleves for the loom and get it all tidy for fitting.

Sat and played in that for an hour while mine was being prepped for handover. Very nice indeed.

He'll have to beat me to it, I can be there in two hours. 🚘

Thanks just ordered them :)

While I was getting my 02 sensor fitted today I got them to check the knocking and they say anti roll bar links. I haven't got time to do it so it's going in on Friday. I'll report back on the outcome. At least the warranty covers this... apparently.

Took advantage of a bit of fine weather on Sunday afternoon to check my brake pads. I'd purchased some Pagid sets from ECP last August as they were so ludicrously cheap. Last checked them in Oct and figured then it would be round about now when they'd need doing. Sure enough, all down to their last 4-6mm. Took about 2½hrs from start to finish. Jacked up one wheel at a time, chocked front and back on the other side and just worked my way around the car. Found it useful to have:- An old plastic syringe ... to draw some brake fluid from the master cylinder as the new pads would raise the oil level. Copper grease for the shims. There were 2 shims on each pad and I chose to clean and re-use those along with a slip of Copper Grease. Strangely the pagid boxes only had shims(4) for the rear pads. Caliper grease ... best to give the slide pins the once over while there! They were all fine! A 8" G Clamp and a piece of 2x1 about 4" long. To press the brake piston back so you can get the caliper back together over the now much fatter pad pack! The only part I needed to use from the old pads was one spring clip on each front pad. These lock into the caliper housing when fitting the pad. A decent pair of vinyl work-shop gloves. Solvent/rag/wirewool for cleaning various parts. My copies of Noobies descriptives for doing pads and slide pins. Always good to refer to. Couple of sharp tests on the drive and then a run around town. All working beautifully. For what its worth the Pagid pads are just fine and despite what some others said they are silent thus far. Brake dust? Well that'll be observed over time. The last Toyota set were quite dusty...particularly on the front wheels. Someone commented recently about not being able to withdraw the rear pad guide pins. I'm wondering if they had removed the locking spring that fits between the pins and locates through a hole in each pin. I cant see how the pins would be immovable....unless maybe this spring was in place. You only need to wiggle the pins and they readily withdraw with a pair of pliers. Then you can withdraw the second spring which has loops to accommodate the guide pins at each side.

Put radio one on or Dire straits on full wind down the windows cuz 60 is the new 30 and stop putting it in neutral cuz you will ***** up and select the wrong one and if I'm behind waiting you'll get the Sc grumbling at you hehe I'm older than you

Im pretty sure the 3RX turns itself off to maintain enough charge to turn the vehicle on but Ive never had to try. Should be OK for 30-40 mins though. The IS definitely turns off to prevent depletion of the battery though. As others have said - leave it in D or shift to P and then apply the parking brake. Hill start on the 3RX. You have to hold the pedal down all the way to the floor for a few seconds until it beeps.

Same comments as others above. Re the listening to the radio, all modern venicles deplete the battery quickly when sat with the radio on and ignition completely off. My previous RRS and Discovery Sports would close down the electrics automatically after just a few minutes of listening to the radio with the message "the car is now shutting down due to the low battery" When trying to watch the useless TV in the RRS it would last all of 2-3 minutes before it needed the engine starting to be able to continue. @Silversalmon I agree re eco mode. It does let you be more gentle in trying to activate EV driving. Ironically, our Discovery Sport, which had eco, normal and Sport driving modes, was always more fuel efficient when in sports mode.

Im using pagid discs with ferrodo pads on my 430 - they perform just like the originals - good bite smooth and quite braking with no dust. I normally also work off the factory jack but as a back up I put the wheel under the car aswell just incase.

Try capitalcarfinance or broker4cars they both do PCP on used cars at better rates than a dealership would ever offer you. The only restriction is you need to buy the car from a FCA registered dealer I believe, but even that may have been relaxed now.

Car and Driver have stats. The RC F beats a LC 500h 5 to 60 mph however the LC 500h beats the RC F 30 to 50 mph mainly because of the slow kick down on the transmission (the LC 500 beats the 500h). In gear the RC F would win.

It is possibly 58399-53010 https://lexus.7zap.com/en/eu/lexus+is/242520/gse20r-aetlhw/3/5801/582391g/#58399B

Just a small update. Managed to get round to priming the boot today. Can't wait to get some colour on it :) Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

It does sound like the EGR valve but since you have recently had a new one fitted I'm thinking it's turbo related, possibly a stuck wastegate.

Contact lexus UK and arrange a drag race at the 10 year party! We can throw the ISF, GSF and 220d too 😊

Happened to me I replaced with a secondhand unit I bought a set and used one N/s rear and sold all but of/s rear it resolved the problem

I've had my 05 GS300 for nearly a year now. It is a heavy NA car and on the test drive, I too thought the car was sluggish at low speed. Until I enabled ECT-PWR!! It transformed the car for me. The gearbox was much more eager to kick down in this mode. But make no mistake, a 450H would crush a 300 for speed/power. Another unintentional bonus was having some much needed engine assisted braking, which I am sure is extending the life of my disks/pads. In my first year of ownership, thus far I've put on some winter tyres, replaced the PCV valve, 2 tyre pressure sensors and had a full stainless steel exhaust system fitted. NOTE: If you replace the PCV valve, get a genuine Lexus part. I foolishly bought a cheap 3rd party one thinking it'd do the job. How wrong I was. All it did was burn oil at a frightening rate. Like almost a litre in a single 270 mile trip frightening! Ordered the Lexus part and after the return trip, the oil level on the dipstick hadn't gone down. I love my GS300, will keep it until one of us dies!

A quick update on this. I test drove another one on Saturday and the brakes felt much more reassuring so I think that there was a problem with the first one I drove. Also the sunroof stopped in the closed position. The car was in excellent condition for its age (early 2007) and I agreed to buy it on condition that the strange vibration at motorway speeds was addressed. Buying from a private seller and he diagnosed sticking front brake caliper so he offered to replace it for free and also asked if I would like the other front caliper replacing for the cost of the caliper alone after discounts. He has now replaced them both and taken it out for a good long run and says the difference is amazing. Going to pick the car up next weekend

Hey Big Rat! Ta for all your efforts on this. I'll be there no matter what. Let us know once you know about the 21st/22nd, it woul be great to see those that can still make it again. Who needs a stupid LFA when you've got an ISF with the Actuator hose unplugged! #whocaresaboutheatsoak

Hi Seb Welcome to the LOC My first suggestion would be to see if you can hook the car up to some diagnostics to see if there are any fault codes logged You can buy an OBD2 Reader which links to your smartphone with an app like Torque Lite (Android) or OBD Car Doctor (iPhone) and will give you basic readouts If you have a laptop you can use (Windows) then do a search on ebay for TechStream which will allow for much more detailed information about your car systems. From the description of your problem it sounds like the EGR valve. I know you say it's new but how long ago was this fitted, I understand they need regular cleaning. Failing that you may need to clean the inlet manifolds, which would be a garage job for most of us. Good luck with getting sorted.

A few pics now it's out of hibernation just had a fresh mot at Lexus Leeds was surprised to have it fail on a rear shock and window wipers which I've never used as i never drive it in rain so I'm guessing they were perished.

@Eame64 So while we are at it here I am somewhat younger taking delivery of my nice brand new 986 Boxster S in 2000 from Porsche Swindon.... Big Rat

@Stuno1 Stuart here's some pics of installation day......

Todays job i pulled the engine back out and changed the engine mounts over to the vibratechnics 1s. Also managed to sort a coolant hose under the exhaust manifold to the back of the water pump. I had some left over reinforced silicone hose in my box so cut a short section out and trial fitted it. Once i had it measured just right i pulled it back off, put some reflective heat tape on it and refitted using mikalor hose clamps. Had to put reflective tape on it as it sits very close to the external wastegate pipe. Ive also removed the loom again to start modifying it to fit, ive labelled up all the plugs i will still be using and the rest is coming out, ends heat shrinked and taped up. Its looking like i will have to lengthen this loom to like i had to with the body harness. Pictures of this to come once im chopping and heat shrinking.

Number 3 Messa>Pearl>USB Just love an ISF :) Had this one two years and changed a few things along the way to address a few small issues I've always had; Noise (lack of) with a H&S, Seating Position with Recaros, Steering Wheel (Now Alcantara) and ride height with Bilsteins. The only problem is, I've now spotting a beautiful Pearl White car with ultra low miles with even lower mileage than my own and I'm in a real quandary as to whether I should buy or not due to having my current car exactly as I want. Blast that bloody Auto Trader! I only went on to show my wife FC300hs! Stevie