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My IS250 is now 13yrs old and the ivory-coloured leather is looking tired. I’d been mulling over different options and settled on doing the work myself with a restoration/recolouring kit. There are a few companies out there that can supply you with the necessary components. Having watched many tutorial videos and accounts of how the job went I settled on getting my gear from Furniture Clinic based in Durham. https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/ This is the kit I got along with some of my own bits I have in the garage. My additional bits were a funnel, selection of paint brushes, foam backed sanding blocks [ I'm lucky I have many from previous], measuring pot say 5-50ml is damned handy [the type from the top of Tomato feed is spot on] and a selection of Pry tools for getting thing apart without damage. Oh and my spray gun got in on the act too I see! It is the medium colourant kit plus I got the repair add on pack so that I could do some filling with their flexible filler. I also sought out a small leather sample piece from inside a headrest for a colour match to be made. The worst scuffing/wear/cracking and discolouration was on the driver’s seat and the centre armrest as you would expect. These three photos show the condition of the areas needing the most work. So, the plan was to fully refurbish both front seats and the armrest. The seat bolster was really pretty grim. This video from Furniture Clinic [FC] is very good and pretty much encapsulates what I did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFXkraC9B7o I found all the products to be very good apart from the airbrush kit. I have a compressor and spray gun of my own thank heavens! No matter what I tried the airbrush would not play ball. I will return to it and get an adapter for my airlines. They can be very useful tools so I will attempt to get it functioning. But that’s for another day. So, I used my own spray kit and just closed it down to low pressure and low feed and it worked a treat. I should point out everything is water based which makes it all rather pleasant!! FC videos seem to show a lot of work being undertaken in the car but that requires a great deal of masking and you can’t get to every surface properly. So for my needs it was out of the car repairs. This next video is useful for showing how some of the armrest components come apart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXgTBn8MHZ0 You can get the armrest out without taking out the entire centre. You just need to prise up the trim at the front of the cubby box, where it meets the wood section [on mine] enough to release the tabs and then the top U-shaped trim will pop off. The rear of the cubby box just pulls off. Then you have to move both seats forwards as far as poss to clear the beck end of the cubby box to pull out the metal tabs and its off. Two screws underneath will allow the handle to be removed. I then masked up all the underneath and mounted it on a piece of wood for spraying ... a stand if you will. There is a useful write up here that Agent-Dess put up a while back, credit to him for this This will guide you through seat removal if you want to remove the seats. Remember to disconnect battery and wait 10mins before unplugging the seats. I found them not too heavy but you need to be careful when removing as you don’t want to damage anything with the seat prongs [they stick out a wee bit – so be mindful!]. I wrapped masking tape around mine! The Driver’s seat is the more awkward of the two as you have the steering wheel to contend with. The three electrical plugs under the seat are a bit fiddly but not too bad. I also removed the lower plastic trim once the seat was out and up on my workmate bench. There are three screws hidden underneath. Two at the front and one at the back. Pry off the raise/ lower knob and back tilt knob and remove the three screws that are now seen. Then unplug the electrical connector and its out of the way. Next was masking up all the areas you want to protect from spraying. Seat back is a contrasting colour on mine so that need looking at with care. I masked the headrest collars and the stalk and the re-inserted the headrest into the seat as it’s easier for me to spray it all in situ. I then did everything as outlined in the FC repair video. But I used my own spray gun for applying the colour and the clear two pack top finish. I have to say the colour is spot on. The Leather Binder I found to be very good indeed, that I used on the more heavily scuffed areas. The Heavy filler and Flexifill are surprisingly good, much better than I anticipated. In truth I could have put more in but that’s something you learn from experience, and I had none with this! It seems odd using a hair drier to speed up curing but it really works well and at every stage even after spraying the finishes on!! Just remember when you start scrubbing it's going to look worse...much worse on the bad areas. But then it all starts to improve. This is the side bolster after scrub and 6 coats of filler applied with the spatula Same bolster after dab sponging on some colourant just to see how it's looking after filler. Colour coat [x3 with 10 mins between coats]. Colour coat is glossy/satin finish and when dry is still almost tacky to the touch. If you sponge apply any colorant onto the pierced leather ... do not wipe it on [ you'll clog those holes!] ... just dab it gently. If you mess up and block a hole just tease it out with something like a bradawl tip. I sprayed 3 coats of the finish top coat with 10 mins between and used the hair dryer to speed it up. If go careful you can see it drying in front of your eyes. If you get a sag or run just dab it with a sponge. Pleased to report I did not get 1 ... but then I was a furniture restorer and sprayer for over 20 years. Passenger seat and armrest done ... driver's seat untouched Everything back in the car I am very pleased with the results and very pleasantly surprised at the flexibility of the fillers and finishes. I have been poking and prodding after 24 hrs and it’s all very impressive. My only gripe would be that FC don't supply enough crosslinker for the amount of top finish supplied at 8:1 mix!! Which to me is daft, but they claim the pack is based on 250ml ... but I have 500 ml? ... and we go round in circles on the phone getting absolutely nowhere! That's just poor in my book. How long did it take? Firstly, I’m retired so I have plenty of free time [ I was spraying the last coat at 7pm on Thursday evening!!]. The kit arrived early on Wednesday morning and I finished putting everything back in the car at lunchtime on Friday. Oh and there is enough left over to do the whole exercise again. The plan now is to leave it for 3 or 4 days to fully cure and then I'll give it a going over with the FC Protection Cream. I've given it a waxy paper de-nib and it all feels really good. There you go then ... Job done ... chuffed! I hope that will be of use to anyone considering doing this. Take your time and follow the instructions they are very comprehensive. My only reservation is that airbrush.

Just returned home from probably one of the most memorable summer holidays for a while, as it essentially repeats an European road trip we did in my much loved BMW 335i nearly a decade ago. The difference however this time the entire extended family came along (6 people+luggage), and the car in question is 6.5 years old having done nearly 70k miles already. The route took us through Colmer region in France where we stumbled across some amazing vine yards, the next stop was Lake Como via Switzerland where we had an amazing view or the lake. We than crossed back into Switzerland via Stelvio and Furka pass, before ending up spending a few days on the shore of Lake Lucern. To do such a road trip in any car would be amazing, but to do it in the car we have owned for almost aslong as our daughter has been alive is even more amazing. The fact the car was an EV made zero difference in convince/time compared to doing the same trip in the 335i. The only question now is where next? We did Norway last year, so 2024 needs to be pretty spectacular to match......Open to suggestions 🙂

I thought I would post my experience of my first 10 day owning a Lexus is300h, I find it very smooth and quiet to drive ( bit def though) so far over 50 to the gallon but not done many miles, it’s odd not having to start the car before moving off and a couple of times I have forgotten to apply and release the handbrake ( or should that be the foot brake ) last car electric and auto release and put it in park but the car gives you a warning , smart entry takes some getting used to especially locking, a bit worried that someone could clone the fob, is there a way to turn it off ? Last car press twice quickly and fob turned off but not sure with this car just seems to double lock. overall very pleased with my purchase and thanks to the people on this forum that have been very helpful. Dell

Managed 53 against the last guess. Tonight's guess is 58.2/57 keeps going up

My 450h predicted 45 with a/c but actually achieved 49 😀 I'm sure colder weather will squash that

I don't know if factory calipers are coated or not, but mine are 13 years old and aren't rusting. As a precaution I've taken to spraying them (and the rest of the brake parts) with Atom Mac after each wash, which is a water based corrosion inhibitor that's safe to use on brakes. https://bilthamber.com/product/atom-mac/

45.5 for me yesterday.

I had a service on my Lexus a couple of months ago which was pretty uneventful but my mechanic told me I was going to need 4 fresh tyres soon. I decided that I would replace the 17 inch wheels with a set of 18 inch alloys at the same time. I started looking at f sport wheels but they were very expensive so I decided to see if anything else would fit and were cheaper than the f sport wheels. I came across the wheels which are fitted to the Model 3 and after doing some measuring and some basic maths I worked out/hoped they would fit. The internal diameter of the hole in the middle of the wheel were different so I ordered a set of spigots to make sure they fitted correctly. I fitted them yesterday and I think they look the part, they are a trifle wider than the f sport wheels. The offset is good at the front and rear and I’ve not needed to use any spacers to get it looking right. Personally I am rather pleased with them and think they look standardish

Just completed a recharge and its predicting 54.4/52.7.

Hats off to you Normski2. Great guide….. Great result. Ive always wondered about the seat perforation bit when restoring. I think your 20 years experience might just have given you an edge! 👍 Im sure it will feel like a new motor again. ps. Glad it didn’t involve the circular saw. 😁

What an excellent write up Normski. Just goes to show what can be done with time and effort plus your own experience of furniture restoration must have been called upon more than regularly. Excellent results. Well done 👌👍

I also hate battery cars and will be keeping my Lexus as long as possible.

In short, no, but it's really tight. You have to remove a plastic cover on the back of the headlight to access the bulb - you can pop it off with the airbox in place, and if you have small enough hands you can maybe just about twist and remove the sidelight bulb. However, you will not be able to put the little cover back on as that requires a bit more movement in already a very limited space.. It's not worth the aggro, so just get the 3 or 4 bolts out of the air box, push it aside (no need to fully remove it) and that should give you enough wiggle room. It's a 10min job.

I’m sure most of us are fairly scam savvy. If I can waste a scammer’s time and have them hang up on me in fury, then I feel my day has not been in vain. But this week I was reminded how easily anyone can fall prey. We have a lovely lady who gardens for us. I noticed that instead of working she was standing in our hall using our phone. I was informed by MrsT that she (our gardener) had just been called by HMRC on her mobile to demand payment of the £900 she owed. Apparently she had had recent correspondence with them over a similar claimed nonpayment, only to point out at that time that she had in fact paid it some weeks earlier - as indeed proved to be the case. This caller claimed there was no record of that payment, so she would have to settle it now and it would be refunded if she was correct. So she downloaded some software onto her cellphone so that she could be guided through the process! The caller suggested that she could use her phone now to check with her Bank (for some reason) and gave her a number she recognised as being her Bank’s. Having finally completed her call, she then reflected on what had happened and used our phone to call her Bank. They confirmed that the sum had left her account - and that it was a scam! They are looking into it to see if they are willing to refund her loss. I am furious because had I heard what was going on, I would have intervened immediately. Our lady is not especially gullible, but she was caught at a time when she had had (written) dealings with the HMRC over alleged nonpayment. It seems that it is not widely enough known that: a) HMRC will rarely call anyone direct. They invariably prefer to write. b) They will NEVER demand immediate settlement of anything over the phone. c). They will NEVER demand Bank Account details or passwords - or insist on the downloading of software. d) These rules also apply to all Banks and financial institutions that most people deal with. If you know anyone who you think might be vulnerable to this sort of pressured scam, make sure they’re clear about these simple facts. Because it seems that these kind of scams are on the increase.

Popped into Lexus Hedge End today to work through some admin stuff on my NX450H+ and fell over this lurking in a corner of the show room... Was informed it is very low mileage (<5K) but didn't dare sit in it to find out. I believe the colour is Graphite Black and the lustre is amazing.

Just got back from Normandy and Brittany after a 2 week trip and we saw 4 Lexus and one was British registered.

This is from the Toyota forum ...think it applies to new Lexus vehicles too https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/208235-motion-detection-key-fob/

This is pretty standard place to have rust issues on any car (the rear wheel arches), basically if stone chips are not addressed in time it will start rusting. The side panel goes into "C-pillar" and it is one big panel. Fixing it is not that big of the issue but in UK I would expect to pay ~£500 for that. The work is same as on any other rust panel, cut the piece out, weld replacement and paint... just blending is quite difficult on such big panel and on your paint (blue metallic). This is not MOT fail, but will get more and more pricey the more you wait. Although, very unlikely to cause any structural issues you mentioned - it would take literally few decades before structural issues would happen from rear arches rust. And IS250 overall quite rust proof car, it only rusts on damaged areas and they must be left for a very long time. The headlights, do not look too bad, so no MOT issue yet (but it will become eventually). The lights can be simply polished - I do it quite often actually. Total cost ~£50-150, depending if you do yourself and depending how many tools you have and how many you need to buy.

How many miles have you done since you purchased the car 9 months ago? Service interval is 12 months or 10k miles, whichever comes sooner. If you have done less than 10k miles then it likely wasn't reset at the last service but if 10k miles or more then the car is correct and a service is due to (regardless of the time since the last service).

Yes. I appreciate your preference. The Premium Plus alloys are great however with the Graphite Black bodywork.

Poland, Czechia and Slovakia. Some absolutely beautiful places up and down the countries and the people are so warm and friendly.

Totally agree - I have the same combination - just wish Lexus had given us some options on wheels - I would have paid for an upgrade

I rang my insurance company and they asked me if i had any mods. I declared my stickers that my kids applied to the rear window and informed them that the sticker collection will grow and i do NOT wish for them to be insured, just noted on the policy to remain legal. Same with my exhaust. Instead of insuring my exhaust i have it listed as "Exhaust system changes" rather than custom built exhaust worth £500+ which kept my premiums down. As another note, front lip, rear valance and sideskirts are 3 separate mods but if you declare them as a "bodykit" it counts as one and leaves you room to add arch flairs or canads etc... Admiral seem pretty cool with what i've declared and i even sent them pictures of my mods to clarify what i've put was acceptable.

There's no accounting for taste! I have the large screen but use the small sat nav screen size

Premier was the top of the range so will have every option, FSport was available with a wide range of options so check the exact spec carefully. Last week I did a 500 mile round trip (mainly motorway cruise set to 70) and averaged 43 mpg which I think is pretty impressive. Maintenance is reasonable, 10,000 / 1-year service plus you get the Relax warranty thrown in, I have had zero issues with mine. Be aware of the Can Bus theft issue, but there is a modification for this available from Lexus.

Just one large 7 seater car.

Slovenia is beautiful, especially the North including the Julian Alps, the Logar Valley, Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj. I've been there 3 times on a motorbike but it would also make a great road trip in a car.

I’ve replaced all the bulbs with new ones that ‘should’ be in there. If the wrong bulb/s are in the car to start with, and it is entirely possible as illustrated with my car, when you take them to the motor factors for a replacement you will get the same bulbs which are not correct. The point of my last post was to clarify what the configuration of the lights are, wiring/type of bulb fittings etc, and what type of bulbs ‘should’ be in the car so people can purchase the correct bulbs regardless of what bulbs are in the car. It wasn’t an attempt to create a fancy/complicated/smarty pants way of bulb failure fault finding.

Hate them with a passion mate. Points are on your license for three years but they’re allowed to demand to know about them for five. They literally can and do make it up as they go along, not paying out for any excuse and potentially bankrupting people in the process. unfortunatley can’t have them painted in any way shape or form. Can you tell me more about high temp lacqeur? Would this stop them from rusting?

I've been looking into this kit to dye the seats in my (yet to arrive in the UK IS350 F-Sport) the same dark rose colour that was in my 3is F-Sport. Seen some videos on YouTube and the results were actually really good. For a kit that you can buy sub £100 and do full interior I'm quite impressed. Only thing that's holding me back is I don't have much spare indoor space to do this in.

To add some clarity regarding which bulbs are required (single/dual) for the rear outer lights, and hopefully help other people, I’ve spent some time on my car with new bulbs and what I’ve found is below. Outer Cluster wiring: Top lights - 3 wires - wired/configured for dual filament bulb with dual filament fittings Middle indicator lights - 2 wires - wired/configured for single filament bulb with single filament fittings Bottom lights - 3 wires - wired/configured for dual filament bulb with dual filament fittings. A light/bulb failure is detected by voltage differences in the Light Failure Module and not by a 3rd wire to the light bulb fitting, anyway there would be a 3rd wire to the indicators as well, which there isn’t. The top and bottom lights need a dual filament 21/5w bulb and the middle indicator lights need a single filament 21w bulb. Top lights use the 5w filament part of the bulb for the tail lights - 21w filament part is not used Bottom lights use the 21w filament part of the bulb for the stop lights - 5w filament part is not used. A single filament bulb does not fit into a dual filament holder. It can be forced in as it was on my car for one of the brake lights, causing one of the issues I had, but should not be used even though only one filament of the dual filament bulb is actually used. The light clusters are wired etc for dual filament stop/tail in the top and bottom lights but not enabled on the car. They are separated, as described above, top for tail lights and bottom for stop lights. You still need to fit dual filament bulbs top and bottom even though not all the filaments are used.

Can't blame the tyres then!

Picked up our new NX350h Premium Plus with Pano Roof this afternoon. Sonic White with Dark Rose inside. Ordered May 2022 so about 15 months wait. One key (well one and a half) only and no locking wheel nuts/bolts. Everything else is just excellent.

I've had mine almost 2 years now and love her to bits. Put new struts all round and she drives like a new car and has now 90,000 miles on her. only let me down once and that was the alternator packed in but, this happens to younger cars. had a mate and his packed in on a 3 year old ford.

All done and dusted in about 90mins - and typically the weather was fine today as well! Generally a straigtforward operation, although they are not 100% certain how well they bled the system once finished - so have requested I keep an eye on it. The old pump had actually seized completely. (So take note, roughly the same time as your rear wiper starts to seize up you need to go pump shopping!)

export_1690544200202.mov Very immature clip I know , but I have a hatred for battery cars , no sound no feel no soul no nothing , just impending battery pack failure .

Current trend CT200h replacement. It'll see alright. My father's CT200h was mid range and he didn't think twice at paying £27k for a tiny car back in 2018. Plenty of older folk around wanting a smaller car with serious disposable income.

The car is now sold. : o )

30s apparently: When the shift lever is in D, the driver can momentarily select a desired shift range by operating the shift paddle switch (transmission shift switch assembly). Automatic shifting will be reinstated under the following conditions: - The vehicle has stopped. - The driver continues to push the shift paddle switch (transmission shift switch assembly) in the "+" direction longer than 1 second. - The driver continues to depress the accelerator pedal longer than 30 seconds.

Personal detail are left behind on all sorts of websites. Book something on for instance booking.com. This site is then hacked which gives them name/address/bankdetails and that can be the start of it all. This can also be used to open an account that is used to receive the money. If money in they close account immediately and run. And repeat, and repeat. No need to rob a a bank anymore.

That’s very true - and yet they can be very attractive. When MrsT and I got married, there were some changes on the car front. I sold my Lotus Elan to pay for a new kitchen and we had to look for something we both liked - and could drive! We stumbled across a Fiat dealer who had an ex-demo 128 Coupe for sale. They were also dealers for a brand of sliding roof - and a black vinyl roof product. So it came with both - and very smart it looked too! It was in fact a very likeable car. It even survived MrsT deciding to reverse it out of our then narrow brick garage with the door open to aid her view. Unfortunately it didn’t help enough for her to spot the protruding brick pillar half way down which was rammed by the edge of the door, reshaping it in the process! 😡

Just in case, I'm not letting my car anywhere near supermarket fuel and only give it BP or Shell 98/99 E5. Call me paranoid, but for the difference I'm not gonna take the long-term risk (I don't do lots of mileage anyway)

I still use the “press and hold the lock button on the key fob whilst at the same time quickly press the unlock button twice” This disables the battery in the fob, therefore no signal is emitted. If you remember to put your keys in a bag, then surely you can remember to use the lock system every time you leave your car, Each to their own!

As I've said before, I'll judge it better once I see and feel one but based purely on pictures and the odd video I've seen, I'm really not impressed by it. It's not something I'd personally consider and whilst I know I'm likely showing bias here as an outgoing UX owner, I'd rather wait for whenever the second generation UX comes out if I was looking for a small(ish) hatchback. I understand Lexus want to look at attracting a younger demographic, but at the same time this is very much going to be 'de-valuing' the brand in my opinion. You just know these will be what Lexus will use en-masse as courtesy cars, regardless of what car you’ve taken in to them. 😕 I hope to be pleasantly surprised by it, but I'm just not feeling the LBX at all at the moment.

That's true but the CT and especially the LBX are targeted at a younger demographic to maintain/increase the user base interested in Lexus as a brand.