Steviewevie

You've already got a head start on that front with no sunroof ! :D

991,381

991,383

991,387

Yeah if I'd have taken my Lex, I'd have probably come last time-wise I can't imagine I'd suddenly have transformed into a banzai nutter and crashed my car (at least, I like to think that would be the case !), but it would be interesting to actually go onto a track and see how the car feels. Who knows though, maybe with a crash helmet on, the red mist would have descended

991,389

Looking again under the bonnet, after having seen the pics in this thread, I *can* see some signs of leakage from around the bypass pipe/seals (though not the pump itself). So I think I might as well get them replaced at the same time as the pump.

I had a quick look around at Dremels, and found this one at Amazon for what seems like a pretty good price. What do you reckon, does that look any good ?

Seeing the pics makes me wish even more I'd gone. But I really couldn't make it, it wasn't that I just decided I couldn't be bothered. Looks like a great time was had by all. Would be good if there could be more Lexes next time !

I wonder if someone just misunderstood when the commentators were talking about the fact that Mercedes had built a new engine from the same batch of parts as Hamilton's engine, and tested it to destruction, assuring themselves that the batch at least had no particular defects ? I really can't see Maclaren making such a fundamental mistake, and suspect someone has either got the wrong end of the stick here, or is just making things up (not suggesting TheDon did this, but perhaps the person who posted it on the other forum did ?).

Just read this on another forum i go on... can anyone confirm? I can't see anything about this on the Autosport website, which is usually pretty authoratative, so I'm taking a large pinch of salt with that suggestion.

ok, thanks, just thought I'd check. I'm sure that some of the expert knowledge possessed by the members here will help you to sort out your problem. I hope that you can get it resolved soon. Mat suggested checking the diff mounts too, have you had a look at those ?

It just started raining a lot harder on that lap. So those still on dry tyres (e.g. Glock) were in big trouble and had to slow down massively to stay on the race track. Glock was doing fine on the dry tyres while it was raining lightly, but as Wozza said, they gamble nearly paid off but ultimately failed, once the rain started coming down hard and making the track properly wet.

991,391

ok, cool, thanks for the advice ! :D

Funny you should mention that, because the other day after my trip to Machine Mart, I was looking at the Dremels in their catalogue ! :D So what do you reckon, Dremel to clean it up and then Hammerite smooth on top ?

Sorry if you've already checked and eliminated this, but are you sure it's not a wheel balancing problem ? That can cause very bad vibrations (as I found when I first took ownership of my IS200). It's easy for the weights to come off and to introduce a problem when there was none before.

I've always quite liked Massa, although I was delighted that Hamilton won. I thought that Massa was incredibly sporting in his reactions after the race though, considering what he must have gone through (thinking he'd won only to have it snatched away from him). Although I've never been a fan of Ron Dennis's, I'm very pleased for Maclaren to have ended the season like this, considering how unfairly (IMHO) they seem to have been picked on during this season, even after having a huge penalty laid on them at the end of last season.

There are lots of people here who know a lot more than me, but I personally would have thought that a vibration that only shows up under braking has got to be something to do with the brakes ? Apparently the "sticky calliper" problem is rather common on the IS200. You can get a garage with the correct equipment to check if your discs are warped. But I wouldn't just change them without knowing how they became to be warped, because your new discs might similarly just become warped over time. I think it would be worth getting all your discs checked to at least narrow down where the problem is. If you find just one out of the four discs is warped then at least that shows you where to look more closely.

Whilst I thought Glock's move looked highly suspicious at the time (although don't get me wrong, I was delighted !), reading what Glock said afterwards, it sounds like it just started raining a *lot* harder just at the right moment for Hamilton, and Glock had to slow down dramatically to keep his car on the road.

The curved brackets that attach to the top of the radiator in my car are a bit rusty. I thought maybe it was just mine, but I saw another IS200 with the same problem recently, and the pictures in this thread look remarkably familiar. So I'm guessing that this is a very common problem. Any suggestions on how to smarten them up, quickly and easily ? Paint some black Hammerite on them ? Buy some new ones from a Lexus dealer (don't know how much they cost) ? When I get my shiny radiator panel from the Group Buy they're going to stick out like a sore thumb. What have others done here ?

Nice. You've helped to remind me that I really need to clean my engine bay ! Actually it's not too bad, but the plastic boxes are all a bit grubby.

Glad to hear that it was a good day, and thanks for letting us know.

991,394

Ah ok. So to replace the seal you don't need to take everything apart ? So I shouldn't worry if I'm changing the pump (which is purely precautionary anyway, I can't see any leaks but it may well start to leak before the next time the cam belt needs changing). Many thanks for all the answers ! :D