noby76

no matter how secure cars are they could still be stolen! there is always a way. I would beat him before he beats you. solution is find an alternative parking spot round your area maybe couple of street away from yours and park there for the next week or two. yes you mite have to walk a bit to your car but its good excersie all the same and when he comes back for couple of days and dont find the car parked he would give up and move on but make sure the alternative parking spot is well light and safe at night but certianly not close to your drive tho. CCTV is good but will only capture a theft being taking place and will take couple of weeks to be recovered by the police thats if you get lucky. steering lock will definatley prevent the car from being moved and make sure your tyres have locking wheel nuts aswell.

if not too sure about him and need a second opinion, book it into Lexus near you for them to double check if all he says replacing really does need doing and if they double confirm that then go ahead and let him carry out the changes otherwise you might be spending money replacing something that really doesnt need doing for another couple thousands of miles.

best to phone up Lexus and ask if a 2008 grill will fit a 2006 model..

am guessing mainly ebay or could be ordered via Toyota dealerships but these cars hardly brake parts unless really neglected by current or previous owner thats when they will need something big replacing. Toyota/Lexus parts are NOT cheap as I found out. how does £460 sound for an electric wing mirror??

good news is new Lexus engines have chain driven cams not belt so cam belts wont need touching for the life of the engine but make sure good clean engine oil is always used. I think water pumps and drive belts will still need replacing at some point so if unsure its been done by prevoius owner have both inspected at lexus and they can advise if they need doing or not.

two options if you still need your comfort and toys then either supercharge the 200 to around 220bhp but that involves money or just get IS300 210bhp and more drivable torque than the RS200 in low to mid range pull. people say its automatic and get put off but am not missing a manual since i got mine and it does not hunt around for gears either and when it kicks down if falls right into the right gear. oh and you can also drive it like a manual when in the mood (F1 style)...

not sure if this lights up but will check tomorrow morn. normally when you turn on the ignition, all dash lights up brielfy for about 2 seconds then goes off and am guessing fluid level lights up aswell but not 100% sure so will look closely when ignition is on.

loved the car balance at 1:48 to 1:53 nice and planted..

coolant obviously gets used up by the engine to cool its self down when engine temp rises to a certain point. just like engine oil aswell it gets used up and with time, the level starts dropping slowly. I make it a habit to at least open my bonnet every 2 or 3 weeks just to have a nose around. checking all fluids i.e washer fluid, engine oil, transmission oil, brake fliud level, power steering fluid, and coolant levels just to see if all is in check if not i top up to the max levels. in around six months I've had to top up my coolant twice. each time it had dropped down about 2 inches. so if one hasnt checked thier coolant in about 6 months and covers lots of miles like i do, thats just rougly 4 - 5 inches in length of coolant lost dont know how that converts to litres tho but you can see where it can lead to. my advice is pop your bonnet open every couple of weeks after fill up of petrol and spend 5 mins checking all fluids and levels if low top up same applies to tyre pressures aswell cus the small time you spend doing this could save ££$$ in engine breakdown as a result of no oil or coolant in engine cus by the time it lights up on your dash board of fluid level low, its too late.

looks really nice but why would wald international waste time doing up the CT200H... for a start people who buy the H definately did not put performance as a priority(apart from GS450h's) as its more towards economy so that would definately not fool an Impreza driver at a set of traffic lights with its quad exhausts and sports diffusers unless its got a yummy ISF V8 swapped engine sleeping under that bonnet somewhere.... all the same I like it.

you can always hop in the CL500..just joking!! If there was no coolant atall in the expansion tank, then you would need more than just a litre of coolant as I believe and some one correct me if am wrong that the IS3 takes a total of 7.5 litres of coolant and water. so chances are the 700mls you put in just went into feeding the radiator hence it dropped down again so if you check under bonnet and under the car and there are no signs of leaks I would get some more coolant from Lexus and get mixing again but best to ask them the number of coolant litres you would need. or if not too sure bite the bullet and pay them to flush the whole lot and do the job for you then you wouldnt have to worry about air leaks etc.

i do agree with the mordern lexus engines having dual vvti, direct injection, high compression ratio coupled with an effecient 6 speed auto box with you running a high ron fuel i would say it is possible but will still limit it to 48mpg and thats even me pushing it. I say that because i do get 33mpg in my IS3 on combined motorway and town crusing which is 7 mpg more than the 26mpg combined figure quoted by Lexus and I use Esso 97. people also forget big engined cars hardly work when crusing at 60-70mph i mean at 70mph my revs sit at 2500rpm which is about 1000rpm above a mordern deisel car doing the same speed and with your having 6 speed will be more of around 2000rpm at 70mph. why bother with deisels huh....

modern petrol cars have really improved in consumption but 52mpg is really optimistic for a 3.0 V6 petrol. I think you might have consumed more litres than you thought. the GS300 should officially acheive 39mpg on motorway driving so the maximum bonus mpg you can extract will be around 45mpg on motorway driving which in litres consumed will be. 313 / 45 = 6.9 6.9 * 4.54 = 31.5 how did i get this figure? 313miles which was total miles driven divided by maximum bonus mpg of 45mpg = 6.9 gallons. 4.54 litres makes 1 gallon so to get how many litres 6.9 gallons is we do 6.9 times 4.54 = 31.5litres so i can confirm you used about 4.5 litres more than you thought and thats even with you acheiving a bonus of 45mpg rather than the 39mpg quoted so the OBC figure of 40mpg was more closer to the official motorway mpg figure of 39mpg.....

a preza STI shouts 'am a bad boy look at me' whereas an MPS says 'its just a Mazda' till you floor it ...

tho havent driven any of them both companys have been making Turbo charged cars for years so both should be rigid and reliable if taken care of obviously. i.e when its due an oil change or service do it and not waste time as turbo charged cars go through a lot of stress/heat and pressure so things like oil, coolant, brake fluids etc cannot be ignored. Turbos will need replacing on all turbo charged cars at some point which is not cheap due to labour cost involved so something with a full service history and less owners should be top on your list. I personally like the design of Saab 93's but heard Volvo T5's are one hell of rapid cars and very very comfortable aswell. If volvo had a Saab 93 design i would pick the volvo but thats not saying Saab Turbo engines dont have ooomph or style. if i would pick a turbo charged car today it would have to be Mazda 6 MPS AWD its japanese so you have the reliabilty checked, its turbo charged direct fuel injected checked, its Saloon so has four doors and a boot checked, it looks mean with the front grills, body kit and double exhaust to make an M3 driver think twice checked, its all wheel drive so grip and acceleration from standstill, in and out of corners or rolling start is instant with less wheel spin checked, It can be driven in all weather rain/snow/sun shine checked, it has all the toys checked, and the best part is its not common on UK roads checked and falls within your budget checked. tho not turbo charged Lexus IS300 and Ford ST220's can hold it....

it will be more hassle than its worth to get the useless mechanics in halfords to admit they messed up your gear i wont be surprsed if this was done delibrately to rinse more money off you. this option might cause you a bit more money but should solve your problem. book it into lexus oxfordshire explaining the exact problem they will then diagnose and tell you what the problem is. if the price quoted by them is in your budget then let them go ahead and fix it but if not buy the parts from them and take it to a local garage to be fitted managed to find a couple of garages in oxfordshire in the link below i think TJ Hall & son ltd can work on toyota so they should be familiar with a lexus layout. http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/garagefinder/oxfordshire/abingdon/toyota/ http://www.tjhallandson.co.uk/services.html

if you aint fitted ebc on the car yet and in two minds you could just flog them on ebay and get you original Toyota ones from lexus they will be cheaper and will be the ones designed to stop the car effectively and last longer. thats not saying after market performance brakes wont do the same job. I have used ebc green stuff before in my previous car and its quiet effective but might also depend ot the car as some people say its crap and others like it.

if you have breakdown cover give them a quick ring and tell them you thought you had a puncture and wanted to change your tyres yourself but you now stuck once the breakdown man turns up explain the problem to him and if you lucky he mite just have the right tool to take the broken bolts off.

come on jfatboy dont be harsh as other said it doesnt matter if this is his first post. both of you live near each other maybe you two can meet somewhere convenient for you so you can take a quick look thats if you willing tho.

do like the idea of being called young but dumb am far from. dont get me wrong am not knocking older technology one bit as i beleive older technology in terms of cars was more reliable and the best. take a Toyota 2JZ and Nissans RB26 for example this engine blocks were designed in the late 80's using older technology i.e cast iron and a turbo and highly tuned, they do deliver power figures and beat the 8 litre 16 cylinder Bugatti Veyron labelled the worlds fastest car over a quater mile. As an engineer you should know the race between car manufactures to deliver good economy, responsive, powerful, good co2 emissions, efficient gearboxes all in one car, they have to push technological boundaries i.e. using complex ecu's, high powered injectors, dpf's, over complex transmissions etc which could sometimes result in unreliability in mordern cars. I mean take older deisel cars as an example tho they do not deliver the same mpg figures as a same capacity mordern TDI they were reliable and could be driven to the ground. take the new BMW M5 F10 since when does a 4.4 twin turbo engine deliver 28mpg? my 3.0 only gets 26mpg and this is without a turbo. so this should tell you there is a race going on to deliver and this leads to pushing boundaries. couple of years ago a car was either fuel efficient and slow or was fast and gave 15mpg but today they are cramming both in one. we could go on and on from oil. to engines to gearboxes to tyres but each man to his own and yes there is nothing a modern car does that an IS cant thats why i drive one my self ..

Nice one AndyB glad you liked it mite use them for my next service too

of course i do not know any of them and not related to any either but please bring me a human who can shift a manual transmission in 0.1 of a second both up shift and down shifts to put this into an 'engineer language' which you can understand, by the time you have clutched down to grab a gear in a manual, the automatic as shifted up two gears before you have clutched up from that gear. looks like you will be driving that IS200 for a very very long time since you mentioned of being critical about new cars. would be nice to log onto this forum in 2040 and still see you with the IS200 because you scared of newer cars .your mileage would definately beat my 110million miles... and even Lexus will be impressed with your achievements. And yes everthing i post comes off from the internet why because we are in the Information Technology age which in 'engineer language' meaning In order for me to get what I want, I don't have to write to companies for information or go to my local library for information because its readily available a click away. we are in 2012 man catch up. geez took us a while to steer you back to my original post... though not helpful but thanks for the effort though! No hard feelings

So what old saying is this? Its an old saying from Lexus performance engineers (ISF, LFA), fastest ever factory Lexus's to date from Nissan NISMO performance engineers (GTR) fastest ever factory GTR to date from BMW M performance engineers (M5 F10), fastest ever factory BMW to date from Mercedes AMG engineers (C63, E63) fastest ever factory AMG's to date from Audi RS engineers (RS6, R8) fastest ever factory audi's to date and what do they all have? automatically controlled transmissions now I dont know your background but you cannot tell me you are clever than the 100 plus expensive engineers employed by these companies to work out the best transmission to put in thier most expensive fastest cars? http://www.lexus.com/models/ISF/features/performance/Transmission_Story.pdf dont miss the very final paragraph in the link. why have one if you can have two in one? says all of the above companies

this is lexus birminghams ebay page. genuine pads for less than £40 worth e-mailing them for price of front ones aswell. my guess will be it wont be any more than £50. but saying that I currenty have Pagid brakes both front and rear and they excellent but will switch to Toyota/Lexus once they worn out. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rear-Brake-Pads-IS200-IS300-GS-2-/170860442693?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item27c8137445

Bringing this thread back on topic. Engine oil crops up a lot on car forums and you will always find that one person will prefer one make over another. Now I've never used Motul oils in my Lexus, I use Fuchs Titan Race Pro S (formerly known as Silkolene Pro S) & I'm happy to say I've never had any issues with it. Now it sounds like you've done your homework & so far it appears no one else has tried it. Therefore when you come to change your oil swap it for the Motul Eco-nergy 5W-30, but come back onto the forums, let us know how you got on & if you noticed any improvement on performance. I have read a few posts about Fuchs Titan aswell and they meant to be good oils. Thanks for your input guys will keep you updated after trying it out!! excluding..well we all know the main highjacker of this thread.