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You’re right there, the days of simple bomb proof diesels that you could run on virtually anything including used cooking oil are long gone!!! All the items you’ve listed except possibly the EGR valve come with four figure repair bills, also if it’s a manual there is the dreaded dual mass flywheel to think about too. Modern diesels are horrendously complex and it’s only going to get worse as emissions regulations for them get tighter and tighter as the government tries to force them off the road. Also, they’ll always sound, shake and vibrate like a tractor no matter what they do!!! They tend to deliver all their torque and power in one lump between around 2,000rpm and 3,500rpm with nothing on either side. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can take the diesel out of the farmyard but you can’t take the farmyard out of the diesel. The future is petrol hybrid and electric.

Well, as above really. Alas, I can’t make it - I’d need to take a week’s worth of leave from work and that wouldn’t please MrsFunex. Not at all. I’ll just have to watch a live stream and get the timing data from the WEC website instead.. it won’t be quite the same! Plenty of great memories - the ones of the racers arriving at Indianapolis out of the forest at 2am with brakes aglow, and the Corvette C7.Rs splitting the air apart along the Mulsanne straight in the early-morning mist will stay with me always!

Following on from the demise of my old 430, another joins the fold... This is my third... The first one was sold many moons ago, the second one had a slight mishap, well, alright, a **** for a driver.....ME...!! See it's rise and fall here.... I couldn't find another Blue one with a grey interior but I did find a nice Smokey Granite Mica one with a grey interior, I do like the grey and I love the Granite colour, same as the old 460 I had, it's a 2005 so two years newer than the last one but has done the same 130,000, it has a very full and detailed Lexus history up to 100,000 with a new cam belt. If was then looked after by the previous owner who kept records of all it has had so it has been loved a bit... I picked it up last night and drove it around 200 miles, it drives very nicely, slightly better than the old one but still not quite right... The engine is very quiet and really does purr well... The plan was to make a great one out of the two so today I took them both to my mates garage and stole a couple of his lifts for a couple of hours... Beauty and the beast And, yes, that is a tow bar on the new one, a Curt made one from America, these are about £350 to import with all the taxes and then there is the electrics as well, I was just about to buy one for the old 430 as I have a small trailer I use, as we are refurbishing a house.... It's not the prettiest of things but there again nor is the back of a 430.... I have made it look better (IMHO) by removing the LED light strips that were wired into the reversing lights but most of them had burn out...!! So, get them on a lift and pose for more pics..!! And just as I thought, the bottom front wishbone rear bushes had gone, this causes a terrible wheel wobble when braking from speeds above 60mph, it feels just like warped discs Not to worry I had two new ones on the old car.... also swapped the front discs and pads as they were very new and swapped all four wheels and tyres for the set I had just had refurbished and fitted four new Dunlops.... I have bought the salvage of the old one from the Insurance company so I'm not stealing anything, I do want to keep it drivable though, and yes it is roadworthy as all the lights work and there are no sharp edges... Maybe not to good at night as the headlights have moved back, but it's handy to keep it mobile. It took a while to fit 4 front bushes, 4 discs, 8 pads and 8 wheels...!!! That was about it for the mechanical swap overs, I took those LED lights off whilst it was airborne and had a good check of it underneath, noting it's two new rear suspension sensors which the previous owner had just done. The inside is in nice clean undamaged condition apart from the driver's seat which has a hole and some other damage... Not to worry I have a spare.....!!! luckily it is the passenger seat that has damage on the old one so I was able to make a good set out of the two... Whip the seat out (5x14mm bolts and three electrical plugs) and it wasn't too bad underneath for 13 years.... A quick hoover and it's ready for the new seat (If you do one, remove the door threshold, saves damage from the bottom of the seat..) If anyone wonders what it looks like underneath their seat it's like this..... right side of the picture is the front... Bottom center of the picture is an oblong hole, this is where the filters for the seat heater/cooler go, they do get full of fluff.... An airline blown from the back sorts them out.... The drive home was superb, the 430 felt like new and had got back it's "waftability" and Magic carpet ride.... A few more things to swap over and then it's bye bye to the old one.... The new one needs some bodywork, it has a scrape on the rear nearside arch and a few other little marks... I shall machine polish it and see what needs doing, there are also a few other things to do with it..... May have to spend the weekend with the polish as my brother is coming to stay next week and will be in his absolutely mint SC430...

Very interesting write up with much useful information. Something you may or may not know. The "Curt" tow bar is not legal to use in the UK/Europe as it has not been type tested. It can be used for bike carriers or cargo boxes, but cannot be used to pull a trailer no matter how small. What you use it for is totally up to you, but there are insurance implications as I found out the hard way. All tow bars fitted now have to be type approved, and be marked with the appropriate numbers unless for some strange reason it is fitted to a commercial vehicle. John.

You're quite cute in quoting half sentences😉. Let me remind you of what I actually said. Ok not quite brilliant but the basics are there despite Beeching doing his best in the 60's. Agree with Rayaans about some of the prices.I travel into numerous large cities and conurbations most weekends. Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, London etc. Its far easier and cheaper for me to park 20 / 30 miles outside and get the train in than drive in and park for the whole day. That appears to be the sweet spot, price wise rather than long distance journeys where yes its simply a rip off. That said i'm not a commuter, many of whom are fleeced but have no option as there's little parking and its expensive. That will never change. My point is that you can have all the electric cars in the world but it would be totally impractical to park them all in a city . Remember the discussion involved the country needing a massive injection of infrastructure for EV's. My counter argument is that I'd like to see continued investment and subsiding of public transport nationwide first and foremost that would negate people wanting or needing to jump into a car be it electrical or petrol driven. Obviously rural areas have their own issues. If we are going to stick charging points on every street corner (I heard the suggestion lamp posts could be used / adapted) should this be Government funded or should vehicle manufacturers cough up (hence my public transport tirade)

Update to strut top bearings, Got the car back today 24th May, both top bearings replaced £199 + VAT each + Fitting + VAT + Oil & Filter change. Total £879.90. I do not feel in any way ripped of in fact a massive saving from the quote from Lexus of £2500 + The car is now as it should be and I hope to get many more miles and years out of this superb car. Keith.

@mrfunex Stuart nice pics, never been there myself undoubtedly a real petrol heads jolly boy outing that's for sure. Big Rat

While I love the car and now understand 'lexus', and even upgraded my wife's Rav4 to an RX, Rattles seriously let it down, and are still the main annoyance that makes me want to swap the car Thought I'd share the rattles I've fixed in the hope of helping others and maybe getting some tips for the other rattles. Biggest Annoyance by far... Door seals. Took me about 18months to diagnose this, I was convinced it was the seat belt mech that was rattling. turns out it was the door seals, originally fixed this by cleaning the door seals in 'Nextzett Gummi Pflege Flege Car Rubber Stick Door Restorer'. However I have now put some felt tape around the door frame interface and achieved a perfect fix. Console Lower side panel front. This rattle sounded like it was coming from just behind the steering wheel, but the console side, right at the front of the console under the dash. I stuck some felt in this gap and the rattle has gone. Door window switches. more of a creak than a rattle, particularly on a hot day. fixed by pushing a small slither of bluetack into the gap around the bezel. Drivers side lower, knee airbag and lower trim panel. Stuffed this entire area with foam strips, not a 100% fix yet so need another go at it, but I think the source of the issue is the lower narrow panel, so going to try and build more tension in an isolate it a bit better. or maybe the airbag fixing. only rattles when cold, but it is a persistent one until the car warms up. I have another couple of rattles on the Dashboard, but have so far been unable to diagnose where they are coming from... Please note, I'm not OCD or anything, the only car I have had in the past that has had as many rattles as this car was a Rover 25! I've not been to the dealer about any as I don't have any close by... I didn't have one rattle on my last car (mazda 3), so not sure if it is because the cabin is so much better isolated and hence they are more audible / not drowned out by road / engine noise), or just been unlucky and got a poorly built one (maybe a build issue at plant and it was stripped down and rebuilt?). hope this is useful to someone.

Hour or so ago pulled into what must be one of the very few 'one man operated I serve you petrol sir' old fashion garages left in the Uk to get some fuel, there's only room for two cars........ and on the other pump as I got there was............ Honestly these Blue RcF's becoming very common now....... what say you @DAW @Jon B @Comedian anyone fancy changing for say a Carbon..... Big Rat

I bought a 2004 RX300SE Sat Nav last week. After a few days of ownership I've started rectifying some of the small issues that come with buying a car on a private sale. It has a knocking on uneven road surfaces, which I have traced to worn rear anti roll bar bushes. I've ordered a pair from eBay for a tenner. Hopefully I can get them fitted in the next few days to see how the noise is improved. Waggling the ARB shows movement and the offside bush hole is almost as big as the lip on the ARB. Today I fitted a new fuse for the Cigar lighter, restoring power to it. Finding the fuse box was a bit of a mission, but it's there under the glove box on RHD cars behind a removable plastic panel. Some contortions to get under the dashboard and a 15A low profile fuse later and power was restored. The reversing camera doesn't work, but I have a cheap Chinese NTSC camera that I'll connect in to see if it's the camera or the wiring at fault. If it's the camera, hopefully another cheaper Lexus camera will bolt to the mounting bracket because I'm getting quotes of £120 for a used RX camera, but IS cameras cost around £30. But the housings and connector look identical. I've plugged in a cheap Bluetooth OBD reader and there are no codes,which is a bonus. No other issues. All 4 tyres have a good amount of tread on them, all the other toys appear to work and there is no water ingress. I've a bunch of paperwork with it including the original sales receipt which states the original cost in 2004 was just over £35,000. Last week it cost me just £2500. Anyway, hi to everyone on the forum, I will post how I get on.

As usual Peter, a great write up. I do enjoy reading your posts, keep it up. Graham.

Update here...

I've been to Le Mans 8 times over the past 10 years, always camped which is ok as long as the weather is on your side, has a few wash out years which although still good fun the mud gets on your nerves after a while, especially on the cheaper campsites like Beausejour, Houx is the site of choice now. Best memories for me was seeing/hearing the 1991 winning Mazda 787B screaming round before the race, what a car! and briefly meeting Nigel Mansell after the drivers parade and wishing him luck (he then crashed in the first few minutes). Decided to have a few years off now as it was starting to feel a bit repetitive and instead do some road trips, has a cracking 5 days touring Scotland last year and am planning a route around Ireland for this year at the moment.

Good or bad but I have always re-used the bolts when re-greasing the pins on the calipers. I do have a spare set of bolts that came with a set of pads/discs a while ago but not found any need to use them. I don't thread lock them.

thanks for the reply Farqui, im not the most mechanically minded person so I'm gonna let my friend take care of most of what you suggested. I have called Toyota and im expecting a call back tomorrow with prices for front pads. once I get them my friend is going to fit them for me. with any luck i should be all fixed up by early next week. did you watch the video? if so, by the sound you could hear would you say it's definitely brakes? I would hate for it to be something else I havent thought of.

I think there might be some coverage in the MOT cover part if that helps Section 5.7 https://d3rvezpmgp265q.cloudfront.net/lexusone/lexgbenv11/Lexus-Extended-Warranty-Terms-and-Conditions_tcm-3157-1184113.pdf

Good find on the spacers. I see fitting a spacer at the top of the cone as the best option without any reliability problems. The lower fixing brackets could be modified in a number of ways, but I see they supply extension brackets in the kit anyway. A 20mm thick spacer would raise the car about 30mm. This would be ideal in your situation, but another idea would be to buy the 30mm version,and cut them through at 20mm as both pieces could be fitted if you needed more height or 10mm pieces if you need less. Effectively giving three height options at only £5 more. John

Yes fitted ok , it’s only heated though not auto dimming. Did mine around three months ago, paid £22 for mine. hope this helps.

I got my replacement mirror from these https://www.cardoormirrors.com/lexus/rx/2003-to-2008-car-door-mirror.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_ZqvxNjU2AIViLvtCh1xLAd6EAQYASABEgLuvPD_BwE

My tin of Lexus boiled sweets used to rattle but they now all seem to be stuck together. The rattle has gone though!

Just come back from Monaco classic. Very much recommend that when it comes back around in 2 years. LeMans was awesome when I went years ago. I never camped though, so would like to do that at some point.

Good to see you followed your dream St4. Keep up the great work, fantastic pictures!

All sounds pretty shocking and incompetent. Will be interested to hear final outcome. Somewhat confused as to how you received a text if you didn't have your phone with you though

That is a coincidence, although I did see a few of them all together in Wales last month, all being washed at the same time.......really weird................. I left before they noticed me.

I'm going to the Le mans classic at the beginning of July. It's only on every two years. Bit more relaxed than full le mans event. Saw a blue rcf British reg in Arnage 2016.

Thank you so much John for the reply and for the contact details - they were a great help and I am relieved to say I can now get the rack repaired. Many, many thanks for the assistance!

Sadly not. It’s been on my list for a while now but has always clashed with other priorities. I’ll also be watching it on tv as usual but I’m planning to make it over there next year with a few mates. Everyone I’ve spoken to who has has been before has always said how awesome it is.

That's sort of how mine is but I only get it with very minor bumps and rough surfaces. I feel nothing at all through the steering either. I can't wait to find the problem as it's an irritant, although not a serious one.

Just goes to prove how lazy RCF owners are!

Hold up, were you both filling up with standard 95 fuel?

My old E350cdi would match it, but the Lexus is a nicer experience. Actually most of the components of the hybrid are quite simple ... a lazy 3.5L V6 and an electric motor. It is just the things which connects them which is complicated.

I had a Prius on which the CT was based. The larger wheels with low profile tyres dropped the mpg by around 5 against using the smaller 205/55/16 wheels and tyres. I found that over 130,000 miles the best tyres for fuel economy, road holding, quite running, and ware life were Hankook. "I cannot remember the type name but it had green in it" The next best tyres were Goodyear performance efficiency tyres, but these only lasted 18,000 miles against the Hankook 34,000 miles The worst tyres on the car were the OEM Bridgestone Ecopia that were not fuel efficient, and got noisier as they worn to the point I thought I had faulty wheel bearings, but it was the tyres. I got rid of them at 15,000 miles. John.

Dunlop Sport Maxx RT 2's all round.

This morning Dave at Lex Tek Autos fitted my MTEC coated brake disks and Mintex pads (they were on offer) all round and after just a few stops they feel good The anchors worked before but didn't have any real bite. These already feel more purposeful, they'll continue to improve once the coating has worn off. I had intended to refresh the brakes myself but bottled it once I read the hybrid bleed procedure, but Dave sorted them easily. So we're now all set for a break in Belgium at the end of the month Whilst there he looked over the car and can't see any issues with the low rear suspension, springs or seats. He suggests replacing the springs even tho he agrees that they look fine. But I'm reluctant to spend £500 on springs only to find nothing has changed. So I may well pursue getting some spring spacers made up, @Britprius do you by any chance have the measurements of the OEM spring top seat?

I'm finding it interesting that there's such a theme of negativity running through a lot of these comments, as if some people find it a personal affront that cars exist that are powered solely by electricity, and that some Lexus enthusiasts quite like them. My view is a Tesla Model S is probably exactly the sort of car I'd want to replace my GS450H with if only I could stomach the upfront cost. While I can't speak from experience I'm sure any internal quality issues will be sorted in time. Similarly, if I was in the market for a small/mid saloon with a budget of £40K I'd definitely be looking at a Tesla Model 3. While the range/charging requirements would mean it won't be suitable for some, I'd imagine for most people it's totally fine. On one level if this was a Caterham or Westfield forum I'd get the aversion to a large, heavy, complex car like a Tesla, but Tesla and Lexus pretty much live in the same kind of market segment, so I do find the hostility odd and a bit disappointing.

The bar of the lorry probably saved you from more serious injuries. We all make mistakes, it is life but when you have put so much work and love into a car it is a bit much. Onward and upward! Good luck with your search.

The "slow" comment is very relative - on paper the IS 300h doesn't look all that quick on the standard 0-60mph (62mph) but rest assured that this is misleading in the real world. Put the car into Sports mode and pedal to the metal and the manner in which the power flows through the drivetrain makes it deceptively quick - there are no gear changes to be made and no let up in the "push". In particular the performance from around 40mph to ...ahem... very fast is more than enough for the real world, and all undertaken with a certain calm which means keeping a close eye open for when you reach the legal speed limits. I have driven numerous "faster" cars (on paper) and you do get a different perception of speed in those cars - even with an auto-box - as the shifts are noticeable sort of creating the milestones in the mind of speed and very often undertaken in a much noisier manner, again adding to the sense of speed. My last "fast" car was a BMW 330i (2006) with an auto-box and which was no slouch - I wasn't sure how the IS 300h would compare being slower on paper but I have to say the difference has not been any issue to me - the IS 300h just delivers in a different way that takes a few thousand miles to get used to and appreciate.

Hey Alan, Indeed they do, but I didn't find it juicy enough! So mine is actually a 5L V8 supercharged IS-F pushing out a dyno proven 640hp. Who said Lexus were boring! Lol.

I think the current generation of Golf is dull Inside & out even the R .- much prefer the Mk6 TBO. The I30N has had really good reviews & I much prefer the way it looks to the Golf for the above reasons. Good to have some new kids on the block showing the others how it can be done. Good choice 👍🏻

And I thought it was only me. Same problem with the driver side seal. When the silicone spray didn't work the garage (Lexus Reading) "repacked" an area around the windows. Don't ask me what was repacked but the noise has gone. Great service. Now trying to puzzle out an intermittent tapping which seems to come from behind the vanity light . A light thump seems to help. I'll get used to it I guess.

Very happy with the door seals suggestion! This was driving me nuts and yes, it does sound like the seat belt mechanism! My solution is to just apply silicon spray on a rag and apply. I do not want to add any substance that could start to build up. Works a treat, very Lexus quiet again! It is only the right-rear door that was doing it. It happens to be the door that stays closed most of the time. The dealer looked for the rattle many times and was not able to fix. it. As a Lexus dealer you would think that noisy door seals could be common. Anyway, this is really a great forum and happy to have joined. It's also for guys like Darren sharing his experience so others can benefit. Thanks Darren! Happy Lexus IS300h driver

Useful info as I am a bit OCD on rattles and squeaks. The only one I have found on my car to date is the door seals - I have had experience of this before in my BMW 330i and at that time, like you, thought it was the seat belt mech until I found that it's a common problem on BMWs (especially the top rubbers) and cured with gummi pflege - when I heard the same on the Lexus I knew what it was and cleaned the rubbers and applied gummi pflege and that silences it for about 6 months - in fact once the weather improves time to do mine again as I can just hear it coming back.

Just a heads-up. I did not buy the GSF from Cheltenham. So they decided to keep my £500 deposit. So if anyone wants to buy it, there is a minimum of £500 to be taken off the list price. And 1 day after not proceeding, they lowered the price by 2k! Also, there are a lot of chips in the wind screen.