is200 Newbie

Oil to spec at approx. £55 for 6 litres / Oil filter at £9 / New sump plug washer at £2 / Air filter at £10 / Engine flush at £10 ..... pickup and drop off ... (costs for these parts vary) Other items to consider would be the oil filter removal tool specific to the car .. An hour to do maximum. This is what it would cost me and includes the time taken by myself to do the service on an standard service only. So I guess adding the labour element into it then it does stack up but I cant see where they are making their profit from, especially considering they are collecting and dropping your car off. I would be a bit suspicious on the parts used if I could not establish what they were, especially the oil grade and the fact you cant reallhy check the oil filter has been changed without draining the engine. This came up on a search on the company https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/mar/18/servicing-stop-charges-can-add-up-car-garage-driving

Have a look through the owner recommendation post I have just put back into the forum page - the boot bulb is listed in there

Thought I would put this back to the top of the forum as it got lost somewhere

Depends on the environment the car is used in but I agree that it should not get into this state. Don't think it is linked to the soot as the car pulls the air from the front grill area unless there is a hole in the system and its pulling soot through ... what does it smell like ?

Passed again. 29k miles on a 2006 plate and has passed with no advisories. Looking back through the MOT history it has passed since being born with no advisories also so 13 years really with a spotless history - well chuffed !!

Got to ask .... when was the last time the car was serviced or the filter changed at least - that's shocking

What was done at the service as the cost of £125 seems very low ?

A good 5 or 6 years ago I had this on my first 250 - The noise came from the drivers footwell and at the time I was pointed to the coolant being low and that there could be an airlock in the system as a result. I topped the coolant up and there was never an issue with it after that. There was a bit of white crusting on the water pump but nothing major - seemed to me it came from the overflow pipe on the top up tank which if I can remember correctly, one pipe feeds into the tank and another (on the right side?) vents any overflow out of the tank. The first thing you need to do is to top the coolant up - especially now with the cold weather. Remember this also cools the gearbox so important to keep it at a good level.

Check the coolant level is correct and top up if necessary Also check for any coolant leaks - white crusting around water pump area

They are not available anymore unless you go direct to the manufacturer and even that is difficult as there is no real replies to sent emails

Its the actual one above in Johns post, looks like it is a 3rd party one but a good fit all the same.

Thanks John - That's the exact one I have seen but didn't know if it was the actual bumper moulded to the shape or a 3rd party spoiler fitted.

Does anyone have one of these fitted for the Gen2 IS I have seen one on a car a while ago but I didn't take a lot of notice as could not get a good look. Is there a skirt spoiler available or is it moulded into the actual bumper. Just looking for a picture of how it sits on the bumper itself. thanks

What grease are you using - everyone has their favourite so you will probably get a few recommendations - I use the Toyota rubber grease and have done for years with no issue.

This is a brilliant thread, just spent a bit of time reading from page 1, credit to Rob for this - definitely would like to see the end result...

Circled is the area that you should ensure is clean and free or rust - it not it wont give a good seal to the rubber boot and let moisture and dirt in and it wont be long before the innards rusts and seizes. Not forgetting a good grease (one that does not attack the rubber boots making them slack) and as John said above, make sure to check them and re-grease on an annual basis. I do mine every 6 months as they don't take long to do and its no real hassle.

Just serviced mine today - I change the oil and filters twice a year as only small miles done. Use Magnatec, always have done as its a brand I trust although if I had the opportunity to buy 20 litres I would as it would make a lot of sense doing so. So, oil, oil filter, air filter, brake discs (front), brake pads (front) and greased all slide pins front and back took 3 hours. All the parts cost me £98 which I am happy with ..... what would the Lexus labour charge be? I also replaced the standard paper filter with a K&N oiled one. It does make a difference and its noticeable on cold starts - have had one in all cars owned and as I tend to keep the cars till they die so it makes sense to me as they can be cleaned and re-used. MOT next month which is the first time for me with this car so want to make sure it passes as it has done on all previous ones. The 3 hours taken included cleaning the alloys (inner and outer and waxing them) It was April this year when I cleaned and greased the pins but this time I noticed the drivers side one was a bit stiff (one with the rubber washer on it) Usually re-grease these every 6 months and I think this time around if I had left it a year until checking it would be seized as the existing grease in the pin assembly was black and the pin was quite hard to remove from the slide assembly. Came out though, cleaned and went in easy.

Shoot me down on this one but I would think that the better purchase would be from a private seller as they would have looked after the car, knowing the issues associated with it and looking after the running of it, batter than in some cases what can be found from the dealers?

The easiest way is to connect an MP3 player to the Aux jack (3.5mm) in the armrest - select Aux on head unit - job done. The Aux socket is pretty useless where its located in the arm rest as there's not a lot there so fix it so its permanent so your MP3 is accessible near the head unit to flick through tracks.

Just on the same theme regarding batteries - Hankook do batteries but not sure it they are the same spec as the Bosch or Panasonic ones but the battery type is 068 and a lot cheaper than the Bosch ones https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/hankook-mf57029.html

Not a bad price I suppose and with a bit of piece of mind although beware of a bit of sales tactics if they give the car a "health check" Make sure they reset the windows but its quite easy to do yourself

+1 to the notifications above that its probably the battery. A dead one like explained above will initially charge but will discharge very quick. The car does use power for its systems but not to an extent it will drain it over night. A dead battery will throw up a lot of spurious faults also that will lead you on the wrong path in looking for the fault. If yours has a Panasonic fitted then best guess its the original one and 9 years for a battery is not a bad lifespan for one. Like everyone else on here has said, the 068 is the correct one - also replaced one myself to my old 10 year old car and that was a replacement from the original one.

You can easily check the MOT history online through the DVLA portal

Generally, any of these cars with obvious electrical gremlins from the word go when you look at them, I would steer clear of. There's plenty of them on the market at the moment to have a look at. Mileage or age would not put me off but obviously look for the best deal you can get with the PX car and money to put to it you have. If you had a 250 before moving to BMW then you will know what they are like ... there are no new issues appearing with the 250's since. The screen, while they can go, is not a common issue. When you turn the car on then you should have the warning screen - pressing the "I agree" button on the screen will allow you access to the system. Did it not work at all ? There is another option on the same screen which lets you select the language "GB" should be shown ... did you try selecting this option and did it open another menu?

Thanks for the concern anyway