Leaderboard

its not a c63 amg its not an m3 its not an Rs4

Its the longest ive ever owned a car by a lot of years and im far from done with it, its exactly like you say what do you replace it with that is going to be as reliable with similar performance its the ultimate allrounder in my opinion.

Hey everyone, I just picked up a 2005 RX a couple of weeks ago and I love it! It is very comfortable and over the weeks I have managed to get the mpg from 14 mpg to 22mpg on longer journey's to Helensburgh. It drives soo smoothly and different from the IS. It has just over 92k miles on it and it is in for some suspension work along with brake calipers this week, fingers crossed that is all it needs for a while as it was serviced and has its MOT 2 weeks ago. Would love to own and drive a newer RX one day... I made a video on it if you would like to check it out? Thomas 🙂

H&S near me will make a cat back system for mail order, cost is probably around £1200/1300.......plus shipping I’d imagine, I opted for a cat back by another local company to me, mine was the first system he’d done on an ISF and cost me £720 from memory, best £720 I’ve spent, absolutely love to hear it 👍🏻

There are films about that sort of thing on the internet...was there a camera!?

Thank you. I tried but no luck. It's as stiff as a stiff thing that's very stiff.

Top 3 things about "my" ISF 1) it's mine 2) wife hates it. 3) my little boy loves it (he is 2 in March) VID_20200205_164803.mp4

I dread the horrible rattle which somebody described as "smooth engine".. much more than any BMW. 0-60 is comparable, just feels much worse.. however engine is much less responsive - so joining main roads expecting the power to be "there" could be serious mistake. Not something I have previously encountered with silky smooth and much more efficient v6, again the engine which somebody described as "outdated". Regarding last point - I don't think I would ever do, because it isn't financially feasible, but funny enough - engine swap would solve the only issue with the car. On positive side - RC is actually more practical for my use than IS. This primarily comes from folding rear seats... somewhat unexpectedly I can fit 2 bicycles once seats are folded and front wheels removed (...wheels of bicycles obviously). This was an issue with my old IS, as it does not take bicycle rack, nor fit the bicycles in any other way (there was an option of roof rack, but it was more expensive than the car itself). So yes - with the different engine it would be perfect car... how could anyone say it is acceptable engine is beyond me!

Motor replacement

How's it going Linas. Won any traffic light grand prixs yet or are you choosing to waft along dreading the site of any BMW with something bigger than 116i on the back. How is the 0-60 ? Much less than Lexus state i guess....keep us posted . One more thing, can you turn it into an RCF with a few bolt on's ?

With pot hole damage the camera would be straight out and a claim to the local council submitted for the total repair costs! With regard to your earlier post regarding the door lock problem and the auto lock activating it will 99% be the motor having failed in the door lock actuator (I had the exact same symptoms on my rear door some years ago). You can buy replacement motors from ebay sellers and replace it for a few pounds, the rear doors are easier to remove the lock than the fronts. Door lock removal

Did you leave all the cats in? I've heard that a less restrictive system will result in a relatively sizeable power gain on these. Any good threads or advice about this here? Yeah, I left them in, had a resonator removal and a small box in its place, smaller rear boxes, it made a noticeable difference and again after having bigger bore manifolds fitted, possibly thinking about a Lems air intake.....that’ll probably be it for me, possibly be about 440ish BHP......May even look into rolling it for exact figures later in the year

i have had the microphone replaced and there is no difference but i have found some settings that i have just applied and yet to try out you need to get into the service mode by doing the following steps press and hold the menu button and flick the headlights between off & on 3 times the service menu will appear then select HF voice quality setting i have set mine to 2000 hands free voice quality setting.pdf

Here ..

Ask them to lend you a car while you are away and they can then put 200 miles on your car .

Well, it depends whether you’re starting with the standard UX, or the F Sport which already includes the Premium pack. I’m more interested in the F Sport, mainly because of the electrically adjustable seats, and it’s £2,600 on that model. Please see attached from the configurator...

Exclusiveness reliability feel good factor ive had mine 5 years. I had the IS250-sel for 5 years prior, although totally different engines I’ve been driving the same car on the inside, I still look back n smile when I park her up, no body knows about them so a theft aspect is excellent, although old enough now to not warrant that issue, there really isn’t anything that I dislike about the car, daily at 30mph 👍🏻......mad half hour at 🤪🤪🤪mph and It’s still that inner child that grins......only 3 things missing I would of liked from my IS250 is illuminated door cills, amber 75mph and red 100mph dash illumination and air cooled front seats, other than that there still isn’t a car I’d change for.

My wife got a Lexus Dealer to disable it. Never happened again ...

@Mr.Flo No idea about what's on Amazon, mine came from eBay, however I've previously seen this one recomended as it says it works on 64 bit Windows. They all claim to work on 64 bit Windows but I had to reinstall 32 bit Windows on a spare laptop to make mine work.... Andrew

Only thing I can advise now then is a squirt of WD40, leave for a bit to let it soak in and then use pliers for extra torque when twisting anticlockwise.

So as much as I loved my LS and wafting to and from work in effortless comfort and speed was...relaxing, it was also very painful in the wallet - even with the LPG conversion. If I hadn't bought it on a whim and not had to replace the battery, starter motor, LPG reducer and all the other bits and pieces then I'd be a bit more reluctant to have seen it go. I've since kept the eco-warriors happy and upset the potential taxi-drivers by buying a low(ish) mileage prius. Saving just under £28 a month in VED and going nearly twice as far for the fuel means that I'm a lot less worried. Most importantly though, the radio works.

Or a GENTLE tap around the bulb holder with a small hammer.

Twist it a tad clockwise and then immediately counter-clockwise

I thought so, other cars the wife tired were Vaux Astra, Corsa, a Yaris, and the Mazda was a good price (for two year old motor) so it won the day, and as you say a nice torquey box. The only thing I find with the Mazda is rear seats not very comfortable (whenever testing a new car I always sit in the back to start with, you get a better feel IMHO for the car). I also do not like all the light and gubbins on the dash, I prefer simple and less distractions while driving. The DAB radio seems to be better than any I have met in just about any new(ish) car I have been in for hte last 3 or 4 years. Still much as I like the fuel economy of the Mazda, it is still not a patch on my 20 year old LS.

Hi Jack, the poly bushes in the link don't look right and look like the front lower arm bushes not the front 'BAR ASSY, STRUT' rod bushes. The failed bushes on my car were the front 'BAR ASSY, STRUT' rod bushes. The poly bushes I bought for the 'BAR ASSY, STRUT' rod are PSB531 but I didn't use them in the end. I was going to fit these poly bushes as the original OEM bushes are no longer available and see whether they affected the ride etc too much. I figured I'd give it a go and if the ride was too hard, fit new OEM arms. But I found some rubber bushes that would do the job. The rubber ones I bought and actually used are part number 48674-40051 (cushion, strut bar) and they are originally made for a Toyota Century. The diameter is the same as the originals but the width is greater meaning about 10mm more rubber. I'm glad I didn't fit the poly bushes because of the work involved replacing them again with rubber bushes or replacing the arms. After doing my car, my advice for anyone thinking of replacing these bushes would be: The vast majority of the work is removing the arms themselves. If you are good with spanners, have all the needed equipment and tools, somewhere to do the work off road, access to a good press and plenty of patience then replace just the bushes as I did if you want to save money. If you have the cash then buy new arms and no need for a press. Because of all the stuff you need to remove its a good idea (in my opinion) to replace the drop links, anti-roll bar bushes and clean/de rust/ rust treat anything you can see and get to including the inner wing arches etc.

My reply in another thread re water ingress on the RX.... When you have an hour to spare, read this thread... it's possible that the membrane behind your rear door card has been messed with or a door seal gone etc... but water will settle at lowest point, so wherever you are experiencing water, the rear boot of the RX is probably the source because it can run from the boot into the cabin...see my write up below. So....I was aware of the RX leak problems before I purchased my RX300 last month which indeed came with wet rear footwell carpets. The history showed Lexus had already had a go at fixing water ingress in 2014 swapping out the rear light gaskets. I tested sunroof drains, they were OK and clear, sealed up boot lid hinge plate bolts... I stripped out the rear boot floor/plastic trays etc. I sat in the boot of the car when it rained and watched water seeping in along the seams at back under boot lip exactly as per pictures on the last page of the above thread posted in March 2018 by 'Steve.ch'. No water came in from rear lights, so that was one possible ticked off the list. Looking in the stripped out boot, I could see how water coming in could find it's way to the cabin carpets via gaps on each side of the 3 or 4 inch high crossbeam/bulkhead running just behind the rear seats. I had an idea!!!! I wanted to have a go at fixing the leaks in time, but I wanted dry carpets much quicker than that. So, a 'managed coastal erosion' kind of thing sprung to mind. I filled the gaps each end of the crossbeam/bulkhead with expanding foam, once dry, I sealed over with bathroom silicone sealant which I also ran along the seams the of crossbeam and in it's holes. My aim was to prevent water reaching the cabin from the boot. Secondly, there are several small rubber grommets covering 5mm-ish holes in several places in the boot floor. I removed these, now water can come and go as it likes without wetting the carpets. I put everything back together and dried out the rear carpets as much as possible with swapping over towels with weights on them to sponge up the water... I also had an 8 hour drive to do over Xmas, so did this with heating on full aimed at the floor, sunroof open to vent the moisture (luckily no rain) It's worked... the rear carpets are dry even after heavy rain. I can lift out the plastic trays and see only a cup full of water accumulates at the back of the boot after rain (our drive has a slope and I park rear down... old habit from the LS) before it runs out of the holes.... and now after the long drive, with no rain, the boot is bone dry because it's also getting ventilation via the opened grommet holes. I might get round to fixing the actual source of the leak, but no rush now!

i am with @FTBBCVoodoo on this lol my wife hates it, almost went into labour early in stock suspension Therefore, its exclusive to me for some reason my son loves it (turns 2 soon) i.e he points to the isf everytime i take him out as opposed to the nx... may be colour plays a part in this. i think you should test drive and asks yourself what you want from the car. If you are after a rare reliable v8 saloon then the isf is an excellent choice. i like my isf, though i do miss the lightweight manual turbo car in terms of fun and usable speed in the real world. Barry

£160 is a real bargain, my local main dealer has just quoted me £384!

Hi Louna, I assume you read through this thread and have checked drains in sunroof cavity as these are most likely source as was eventually found. Whilst doing this check all 4 drains and clean cavity. Pour water through each drain one at a time to check water is coming out of bottom of car. If no water coming out unblock drains If you don't have sunroof water ingress could quite likely be via scuttle. .

I hope it was in neutral when it went on the flatbed or was it driven on? I think that when you braked sharply the engine lost vacum and tried to stall but obviously these can’t so the stepper motor kicked in to bring the idle up and probably gave you the chugging rattly noise until vacum built up again hence why it was rough when trying to select any gears. Powering down does reset a lot things on the CT that’s why they make a noise after you shut them off. Don’t let this make you lose faith in it as they are a bulletproof car and very reliable. Mines a 2011 SE L Premier with 103K and I’ve never had anything go wrong at all. Only 2 recalls and I get it serviced at Lexus Poole every year. Passed all it’s MOT,s with no advisories. Good luck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought a pair. The bulbs are almost 12 years old so probably needs a refresh now surely? 🙂 That's be justifying spending £100 on bulbs 😉 Found some Denso ballast units for £40 brand new so worst case scenario... headlight refresh. Again... self justification here 🙂 It's nibbling away at the new car fund/keep the ISF and refresh the suspension fund though 😞

To check wheather it's the ballast or bulb, you could have swapped NS with OS bulb to ensure its 'only' the bulb that's failed. See you have ordered replacement bulbs now so hopefully it is that, and do you intend changing both for new as I guess the ones in there are the same age?

I have been looking at fitting these as a DRL option. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Maybe stretch to 1 and a half tanks in the week 😄 the ISF is a fantastic car indeed.

Do not buy an SLK, they rattle like hell, break suspension springs and the brake callipers seize regularly, it's the worst car we've ever owned. We went back to an MX5 very quickly. And BMW? Get another mortgage to cover parts failures and taxi journeys.

A pressure plate or damper between the engine and CVT would cause this kind of problem. The Honda Civic has a frequent occurrence of juddering when starting off after being stood for a week or two. The damper is a dry plate and condensation gathers on the plates and it can linger for some time especially in cold weather. Your sudden stop may have activated the damper, allowing moisture into the mechanism. Normal driving wouldn't cause the damper to fully deploy. I wouldn't lose faith in the car after one incidence like this, Lexus will find the problem or cause and maybe they won't tell you, but they'll fix it.

Sorry, please substitute Mazda 2 for Yaris in second sentence..............Doh !

3 words to sum it up: Performance Noise Comfort I could bang on about reliability, wolf in sheep's clothing looks, exclusivity, fun etc as well, but the 3 words above are my favourite 3 things about my F

hope this helps. it maybe that the AA guy was playing safe as he couldn't pinpoint the problem. section 8.1 in the handbook

me again in my glove box I have a cable that has three ends. aux, old iPhone and usb. anyone know how I get anything to play through these? there doesn't seem to be an option for external input. also under my seat by the dvd player there is an fm transmitter plugged into it so I can play the dvd through the radio. bonus

1.5 month update. Best car I've ever owned. I've driven 2000 miles and I don't even need a car for my commute. I've to try limiting myself to one tank of petrol a week as I just keep going on pointless drives. Shockingly quick yesterday too even against another dream car of mine, an Alfa Romeo Giulia QV. I thought he would leave me for dead. The dealers have been very impressive. The original dealer agreed to do a few jobs for me through my local Lexus dealer. They also paid for a full set of new tyres as I wasn't happy with the ditchfinders. That local dealer damaged my freshly refurbished alloys while changing the tyres. But they told me about it, booked it in for repair and gave me a brand new is300h for two days while they repaired the wheels. All that might make me even happier is a cat back system.

The snow mode worked very well this time last year when I had to collect a cake from a hilly and snowy location.

I’m sure you’re right, but the person coming up with that schedule has a vested interest in selling you a new car. No way I’d leave coolant in a car for 10 years when it’s so cheap to change it.

I have a series 3 and yes, it does suffer torque steer. However, the severity is largely dependant on which tyres are fitted. When I first got the car, it was fitted with Pirelli Scorpions on the front and the torque steer was frightening. When these wore out, I replaced them with Goodyear Eagle F1 and the torque steer virtually disappeared. However, the wear rate of these tyres was not very good and they lasted about 16k miles. I replaced them with Vredestein Quatrac 5 which are quite good regards torque steer and are wearing much better than the Goodyear's. I plan to replace these with the Michelin Cross Climate SUV when they wear. I have recently fitted the Cross Climate to the rear of the car and the difference in grip was immediately noticeable - it feels like the back end of the car is on rails! I am quite confident that these will be perfect on the front.

My wife--Mrs Roy- is on her second Mazda 2 Pete after having a Yaris for 15 years(no problems). She thinks that the Yaris is the bees knees and I think she is right. It is both a great runabout and a long motorways car with a wonderful torque converter gearbox..

Hi Jack Don't buy a new one yet, I took mine out after buying a new one from Lexus £90 and stripped it down it is a common fault on the 97- 2000 . The cause is over indulgence of lubricating grease and this migrates onto the contact points and causes power cuts . The switch is easy to strip down and clean the grease off . The hardest part is getting at the damn thing.

I wonder if it could be caused by some sort of spurious radio signal received from the wider world - I guess it just has to be the correct frequency for a very short period - speculating that the long press on the key fob - which we know does it - actually causes a switch to a short burst of the correct frequency for opening the windows after a period of a few seconds? It does seem to be that often the behaviour is completely unexplained - when my IS250 did it I never thought that I had done anything to accidentally press the fob button. (Although I do know with other cars that crouching down to work on the wheels, for example, if I have the fob in my pocket the central locking will often lock and unlock almost randomly!) Disabling the facility via Techstream of course switches the function off in the car, not in the key fob - so it is a permanent solution.

On my 2009 GS 450h this action can be set by the owner so can therefore be disabled. If it was activated accidentally and the doors not opened then the doors would automatically re-lock but the windows would remain down. Also test whether it is set up to do this by locking then unlocking with a very long press on the unlock button, that will then give you an indication as to whether there is a fault. This happened to me immediately after locking my car and walking away. A friend had parked next to me shortly after I had left the car and remained with it till I returned and time checks showed it could only have happened as I walked away.

Can't be sure about the Gen 3 GS but my 2006 IS250 was subject to phantom window opening until I found out what was causing it. In the settings it is possible to set things so that the windows can be opened and closed with a long press on the unlock and lock buttons respectively on the key fob. You can sometimes press these buttons accidentally, eg by bending down with the fob in your pocket or if something heavy is placed on the fob in the house, or if a child plays with the fob - the fob has quite a long range. You say it was tucked away, but is it possible something like this happened? Both settings (which are independent) can be changed/disabled via Techstream or by a dealer (at a cost!) My Gen 4 GS300h doesn't do it, but I don't know if that is because it's the default setting - I suspect so, or maybe it was changed by a previous owner and again it would be a Techstream setting to change it.

Took delivery of my UX Thursday (From Bristol). In Sonic Titanium with Premium pack. Very pleased, major improvement on my CT200h. So quiet and refined. Plenty space for us (also in our 70's!!).