normski2

Press the DISP button and the map will show again

Somewhere ...... on one of my PC's is a description of how to locate and adjust your headlights .. If you want a copy I'll dig it out and put it up for you. I found it very useful when I checked mine. They were set too low and are now much much better. You just need a good flat surface to park the car on and a perpendicular/flat surface to project the beams against at either 10' or 25' away. Did mine in the factory one evening in the winter. If its dark enough you can use a wall or similar outside too. If you want to do this you will find it much easier with a cordless drill and a 150mm Pozidrive extension piece. Use a nice gentle slow speed and you can visibly see the beam moving up/down or left/right. Don't try it by hand as it will take so many turns to see movement ... your wrist will tire before you've achieved anything. The adjuster for up and down is easy to see with the side cover removed. But the left/right adjuster is somewhat hidden down an angled tube ...sounds odd but once you've found it it's easy.. There is a good youtube video showing the adjusters ...again, I have a link somewhere.

There are two adjustment ratchets on each headlight unit. One is for up and down The other is for side to side

Cheers. Just remember ....if you use hammerite .... recoat within the hour and if it goes beyond 3 hours you need to leave it for 6 weeks for full cure to be attained, or your next coat will have an adverse effect on the paint thats already there...ie it can wrinkle and spoil it. Personally I prefer brushing it on so you can keep clear of rubber collars.

Pretty sure that Lexus schedule the air filter for every 35,000 miles ..... which is completely bonkers. I do mine every 12 months or so but check every 6 just to be sure. Buying elsewhere they are around £12-15. The cabin filter is as little as £7.

Does the job give you a better income .... To the tune of £300 a month? Needs a bit of careful thought this one. Do you want to be driving 140 miles per day? My son did similar for nearly a year........ he now has a job elsewhere. The daily mileage was taking its toll on him. I'm going to ponder your dilemma whilst I watch a bunch of twits in Tuscany. I will be amazed if 60 odd mpg in a is300 is realistic. I certainly did not get anywhere near that when I dem'd one. Think it was 43.

If you ask them they can and should print you out the whole list. If not give you a link where you can download and print off yourself.

Good grief .... that's bloody horrendous

Yes .... very much so. The fronts can be separated by removing two bolts. Before you start , take a photo that you can refer back to to ascertain which parts are visible when the whole is assembled. You then clean up...wire brush, sand and solvent degrease. Paint the top half and rest it down onto a flower pot or paint tin and set about painting the carrier. This is exactly how I did my fronts. I only completely removed the rears as I needed to do some thorough remedial work on them. Remove one bolt and the rears can be split for painting. See noobies guide for greasing the front and rear calipers for some excellent pictures and the routine required to complete the job. Here

Me too, this colour works well with the mud flaps. I got mine from a really trader on eBay, he had every car covered. Then suddenly vanished......shame. If I see any I'll send you the link. I've seen more from time to time. Its not a particularly difficult job. Familiarity with greasing the slide pins in the calipers is a good thing to get to grips with. This will lead to easing changing of brake pads. Then when you have done this you'll know how to separate the calipers and clean and paint if you wish.

Thanks, glad you like it. All the pics of calipers I've seen in brochures or online have been Silver coloured. They may well have painted them Black for the FSport or it could have been done by the previous. My wheels are the std 18" rims that went on the SEL. Never seen a model name for them in any Lexus brochures ..........just ALY74217U79. Yes I had them refurbed last August. The originals were peeling off in sheets, it was getting very embarrassing! Surely any wheel can be kerbed Well if mine were powder coated they were not done very well. Look at the original photo there is more rust colour than anything else. Wire brushing and clean up turned up with cast metal look.

Yeah I know ... I googled a few colours on Google images. I was contemplating red, blue and green. Saw a green image on a is250 and thought yep that's the kiddie.

Having completed a major overhaul and servicing of the slide pins I started pondering the painting of the calipers. Then the bug took over and off I went. This is how they looked before starting. Last weekend I started with the rears. They were particularly cruddy so I took them right off the car to be able to get a wire brush on them and also take a better look at the fixed pin on the carrier. Sal was going to be my wing man later when I needed to bleed them after refitting them. Having given then a really good wire brushing I then brushed them with a degreasing solvent and left them for about 10 mins to dry thoroughly. Next it was a coat of smooth hammerite in a pale green colour and left them for 30 mins and then another coat (I had a tin of green and a tin of white in the garage so it was a case of blending to get the green I wanted). After about an hour and a half they were quite dry and easy to handle without mishap. It was hot day mind! At this point I removed the other locking nuts and gave them all a good clean and silver spray (3 light coats with 5 mins between) followed by a dose of clear lacquer. Everything was brushed ... no spray used at all. This is how they looked after refitting and bleeding the rears last Sunday. As you can see old roasting trays have their uses!! I did the same with the fronts in the evenings the following week. The weather was perfect all week and I car shared with Sal to get to work each day. So it was prep and paint one night then reassemble the next. Here are the fronts and rears after fitting the wheels. Sorry I didn't wash the wheels the pics were a bit rushed. Lastly, the finished look. I'm pleased, it's exactly what I was after. Hope you like the look. If you feel enthused it's quite an easy job to do.

I was thinking in a similar vein to that. Also, check out any heat shields on the exhaust. They are made of softish/malleable metal and can be slightly bent out of shape quite easily...one may be close to rumbling against the bodywork somewhere. I had exactly this on the shield under the floor.

Well done Chris ... that is good work. You have the satisfaction of knowing the plugs have been done now. Doing the slide bolts/pins on the brakes is a very worthwhile job and having done it once it gets easier and quicker each time. Just take your time and make sure you have the right grease. Noobie has put up 2 really good write-ups with photos for the front and rear slide pins. Follow what he says and it will be a doddle. If you're not sure at any point take photos to look back at when you come to re-assembly. Having done all it is likely you will find the car feels a lot better under braking. The likely one that often seems to play up is the bottom pin on the rear brakes. Just keep waggling the caliper gently and it should start to free up. You only have about 30° of rotation before the disc is fouled or the brake pipe reaches its tight point. Once you have done them think about doing them every 12 months or so. Its worth it and its quite simple really.

Well, I've come to a decision regarding the calipers. Having looked at many white cars with painted calipers via good old google images ..... I'm going with a light, fairly bright looking green in a smooth hammerite paint. I've dabbled with adding a small amount of white to a proper green (not the dark green that is available now) smooth hammerite (that I had already) and it looks good on a trial I've done. I'm undecided on adding decals as there is not a great deal of suitable flats to use. Pics to follow ...

Bolt was fine ... all good now. Hard to believe that carrier could have been bent (very slight) ....must have been removed by one of the robots from Robot Wars!! The sheared end came out OK too. I'd dosed it with WD40 and wrapped the end up with cling film. Drilled a small pilot hole then started with a slightly too big a next size .....it jammed nicely and came out with selecting reverse on my battery drill. Happy days. I thought it going to be a right pig. Had a quick test drive .... and working fine. Next job is painting the calipers ... may start at the weekend if the weather's good.

Must admit that does sound a bit slow to warm. Mine is warming within 2 miles and warm within about 4. It's on the drive after start up for maybe 2 mins whilst locking house, stashing case and squeegeeing windows. Squeegeeing .... what a great word that is

Strangely, the scrapyard chap said the carrier was a buckled and useless to anyone, but the bolts looked OK. Probably mal treated at removal ... I'll take a good look at that bolt!! I'll find out tonight on the way home Now I'm considering taking a bit more time over this and cleaning and painting the calipers a complimentary colour. Seems silly not to as I'll have the lot split apart to do the work ... so may as well do the 4. Thinking Red or Green at the moment, maybe even Blue. Having a white car makes pretty much any colour work. The missus has Red calipers on her ( Silver) MX5 and they do look quite fetching. Maybe that will push me towards Green or Blue ... don't want to end too 'Howard and Hilda' now do we?

That is a very kind offer John ... I am somewhat gobsmacked by your generosity.This forum does have some rather splendidly helpful people aboard. I was amazed to find a local scrappy this morning (not 10 mins away) who told me he had a knackered caliper bracket with both bolts in place. Said I could have the bolt if I wanted it, just remove it myself..................... for nowt. Wow and double wow ... what a stonkingly good chap!!!!! The tricky part now will be getting the part-sheared off end out of my carrier on the car. That's next Saturday's job sorted then. Thanks again for the offer John, you are a true gent.

Good job. It's always nice when you can look back in admiration and say "I did that"

£19 for that pair in the pic. A lot for about 90p's worth

Busy day today. I knew i had some caliper slide pins to get checked and the weather has been just great today. First up was the wifes MX5. This has a very similar type of slide pin set up to the Lexus and they too require a bit of TLC from time to time. Did all 4 and had a quick test drive. To be fair they were in good order and moving freely but i cleaned and regreased the lot. And yes I was using the correct grease. Next up my Lexus. I always dig out my copy of noobies guide for the fronts and rears. In truth I could have done it from memory as it all comes back once you get started. Found the lower guide pin on the rear drivers side was a tight little so and so. A bit of jiggling and gentle persuasion and it came apart. It looks like the rubber boot was not sitting quite right and had allowed water in. Needed a good bit of wet and dry to get the surfaces smooth, then re-grease and reassemble. Swapped the car round to do the nearside and this all went really well Until I got to the upper slide bolt on the nearside rear caliper. Its useable and working but I'd like to source a replacement. Part of the thread has sheared off in the carrier side, which was bloody annoying. Seems bloody hard to find though. Only source at the moment is good old USA if I go new route or seeing a scrappy will separate a part for me....kind of think they might not be too helpful on that route. We'll see. Anyone got any surplus bolts? Its this that I'm after ...the bolt on the right. Anyone ever need to source one in the UK?? Anyhow, its all back together and functioning but I know I need to get it sorted in the near future. While I had all the wheels off I pushed out the centre caps and removed the chrome Lexus logo(2nd time I'd done this). They were silver as the wheels when I had them refurbed last year. I preferred the idea of them being black. So, I cleaned them and cut them back with fine wet and dry (1200) and degreased and left them to dry for a few minutes. Then sprayed them 3 times with 15 mins between coats and left them to dry in the garage. After 30 mins I put them in the sun and left them whilst carrying on with the slide pins. Next i bonded the logos back on (only on the pin part) and then added a blob of hot melt glue to be extra secure. This is how they look now. I'm pleased with the result .... it's exactly what I wanted to achieve. Next thing will be a full set of new shiny wheel nuts and a chromed set of locking nuts.

Take a read here Should tell you what you need.

Try here