Steviewevie

I'm happy to lend a hand, as long as you tell me what to do !

I'm guessing that Tony means that the steering wheel will be pointing a little to the right when the wheels are in the straight-ahead position, rather than being centred. But I'm sure he'll confirm.

You won't regret it :winky:

Yay ! :D

I don't believe that the poster has any significant position at a Lexus dealership, or if he in fact works for one at all. I suspect someone who has a grudge against Lexus trying to discredit them.

Changing the wheel won't affect the alignment or tracking. But if the tyre was taken off (which I imagine it was), the wheel should have been re-balanced. I would highly recommend a trip to WIM if you can make it, for a proper geometry setup (the factory settings are faulty). Or finding someone near you that knows what they're doing and can apply the WIM settings to your car (not the factory ones).

Getting very excited now, wooo ! :D *ahem*

990,787

The wiring diagram for the auto light control is shown here Also see this diagram of the driver's side junction box

990,791

I thought diesel too when I read this. Sounds like you've had a real scare, and I'm not suprise it's shaken you up, but I think you've just been very unlucky. It wouldn't have mattered what car you were in if you hit a fresh spill on a slightly damp road, going round a corner, even quite slowly - if there's no grip then there's no grip !

Wow, my car's been to WIM but I didn't realise the machine will pick that up itself. It's a relief to know though, since it means my suspension must be ok !

I use Bilbery from ValetPro, very good stuff.

So you're in luck then ! :D Think it still applies that there's no minimum plate size, so you can probably use that smaller font and make the plate as small as you like with that correct font and spacing.

I find de-icer makes a right mess, I'd rather just scrape the thing !

Got some pics of the stains on the alloys ? Is it baked-on brake dust ?

Yeah but you can only have that under as follows : Not sure Toyotas/Lexus would fit into those categories ?

There's no legal minimum for the size of the plate, just a legal size for the font and spacing. So you can make it as small as you like while displaying the correct reg with the correct font (including font size) and spacing. Edit - posted at the same time as Aido

I'm taking my camera and won't be drinking, so I hope to get a few good pics ! :winky:

I'm suprised that it could fail the emissions test because of a problem with the pre-cats (in the manifold), because some LOC members have deliberately removed those pre-cats, keeping the main cat, and passed the MoT still. If you have a look at the link in my earlier response, the diagram shows the exhaust manifold towards the top left. This is basically the start of the exhaust system, there's a pipe leading from each cylinder (6 on the IS200), and each of the "banks" of cylinders (two banks of cylinders with three cylinders each) feed into their own pre-cat (i.e. small catalytic converted). This is all the assembly labelled "Exhaust Mainfold (with TWC)" in that diagram. The manifold then connects onto the main cat, which is shown at the bottom right of that diagram. This is a much bigger cat, which I would presume does the main work in cleaning up the emissions. Assuming all the diagnosis is correct, then I wonder if the main cat is pretty marginal too ? Anyone know more about this ?

Hmm, ok, so it's the pre-cats that have gone, rather than the main cat. Is the £655 plus VAT you were quoted for a new manifold (including pre-cats) ? Is it just me or does this sound a bit weird ? Could it be a sensor that's really faulty ? There's a diagram of the various components here

Ah, CB radio, the 80's equivalent of mobile phones/MSN Messenger :D

I found this, which seems to show that from 1st December customs duty isn't payable for goods worth under £105 (the cut-off used to be £18).

The "VAT" charged seems to be exactly 15% of the pre-VAT total. How can that already include Duty though ?

Cool, great news that this is all moving forward for you.