johnatg

There are two lines of thought with this query. Firstly, the original diagnosis - cam gear wear. IMHO, this is very unlikely unless the car has done a stratospheric mileage and not been maintained properly, especially after the Lexus SH. I don't know about it being common - not in the UK it's not. It may be in the USA - for some reason different problems beset cars there - not sure why - different climate, driving conditions, servicing, oil - who knows? But often different problems get prominence compared with UK. Now I don't want to be rude and I appreciate that you're concerned about the noise and have the opportunity to reject the car. BTW - fixing it, if it is cam gear wear, will cost way more than the car is worth (at least to get it done by a Lexus dealer and I'm not sure that I would entrust a V6 engine strip to any old garage). But I'm afraid, other things being equal, the cam gear diagnosis is automotive hypochondria. The noise is much, much more likely to be hydraulic valve lifter chatter - it is very common on all cars with hydraulic tappets simply because oil changes are too infrequent when carried out according to manufacturer's intervals - those intervals are geared to fleet maintenance costs over a limited mileage (less than 100K miles). Your choice whether to reject the car - otherwise proceed on the basis of doing some oil flushes and oil regime procedures as Linas says. Lexus do approve the use of 0W-20 oil on all IS250 engines but it's pretty damned expensive and probably not necessary, but it might clear the noise more quickly.

I don't think that's right. With these scrappage schemes it depends what car you're buying, not what you're trading in. If the car qualifies and you're buying a very expensive new Lexus, you'll get £4k off (even if your trade in is an ancient banger). Buy a cheaper new car and you'll only get a proportion.

You shouldn't use copper washers with alloy sumps - they can set up corrosion due to electrode potentials. Lexus sump plug washers should be fibre with an aluminium core. I buy sump plug washers for all my cars from www.smartearlybird.co.uk - they list the correct washers for more or less every car on the road. in fact for IS250s they list two grades - a standard one and a superior one.

This is not a particularly serious problem and it won't raise a fault code. It is annoying and a bit worrying though. It is due to the hydraulic valve lifters (tappets) being bunged up due to insufficiently frequent oil changes - Lexus service interval is 10K miles and oil needs to be changed more frequently - preferably 5K mile intervals. No point using a dealer for a 9 year old car. Go to a trustworthy indy and get them to change the oil to a good quality fully synthetic 5W-30 (I use Dexos2) and use an oil flush additive at every oil change. The noise will eventually get less and go away altogether, but don't expect instant results.

Haha! Anyone heard of irony?! But to answer the original question - it's better to go straight away - that warms the engine up more quickly, which is better. An IS250 engine will take a long time to warm up at idle with 10 litres of coolant. But drive gently until the engine has at least started to warm up according to the temperature gauge - use light throttle and keep the revs down. You may have noticed that the auto box doesn't use 6th gear until it too has warmed up.

Mine was done on Monday at Lexus Stockport - they had the car for about 5 hours - returned with a wash and valet and a splash of petrol to top up the tank and a tub of sweets.

You can get 'complete' kits on eBay - 13 or 15 pieces - quite a few on offer. Do make sure you know how to get at the dome bulbs before you start prising with screwdrivers, etc - do not use metal tools. (Except for the screws, obviously, which you get to after you've removed the outer cover). Check the workshop manual. You can get plastic trim removal kits - consist of several different types of levers. Check eBay or Amazon.

From your comments I assume the gearbox is auto? Changing fluid in an auto compared with a manual box is a completely different kettle of fish. Actually I have intended for a while to change mine - I have a can of WS fluid waiting - but on the whole I think I probably won't bother and I think I'd advise you not to either, at least for a considerable mileage yet and then only if the shift quality deteriorates (which it is very unlikely to have done at 71K). If the changes become slow or don't happen when you expect, or if you get some other gearbox fault (unlikely, but has been reported) then it might be worth doing. It won't happen until well past 100K. Meanwhile, leave well alone!

BMW X5 3.0D 0-60 - 6.8 seconds (there are faster and slower versions) (Diesels have massive torque which gives you low down acceleration) Lexus IS (2.5) - 0-60 7.8 seconds (petrol versions - there are slight variations over model years and trims - due to weight and a particular year's emissions standards? Top speeds are much the same - X5 143mph, IS 144mph So a 3.0 X5 is slightly faster than an IS but not by much and I suspect that in a straight drag race it would be down to the drivers. Not much difference in the real world. Oh - and I don't know about diesels not stalling - I had a rental BMW 116D in Sicily last week - damn thing was completely gutless and it would stall if you let the revs drop below about 1500. At least the stop/start system would restart it when you dropped the clutch!

You've probably squeezed the remote in your pocket in the house - maybe bent down. That activates the windows down function of a long press on unlock. It can be disabled with Techstream Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

The thing with hydraulic valve lifters is that they have very fine and precise passageways for the oil. They have to have just the right amount of 'squishiness' to adjust to the correct length by ejecting oil but not too much that they change length to any extent during a single valve operation and they also have to be able to refill with oil very rapidly (by suction - like letting go of a squeezed washing up liquid bottle with the tip under water) when you start the engine (and during running) - they partially drain out when the engine is stopped and on each valve opening.. Now oil deposits sticky gum especially as it gets a bit aged but it starts doing so right from day one and this restricts the passageways. If it gets excessive it takes a few seconds - even up to half a minute - of engine running for the lifters to refill so in the meantime they are effectively too short and the rattle is from too big valve clearances. The gum is dissolved and removed by engine flush additives - that's why they are a good idea. (In my view) The gum is distinct from the very hard carbon deposits which build up in the 'rocker chambers' (there's a lot more stuff there than rockers!) - that forms when the oil is really old and it is very difficult to remove - it's almost as hard as the metal and it doesn't get dissolved by flush additive (or anything else - it can only be removed mechanically really) I suspect that Alan's car had just a bit of gum in the lifters and giving it an Italian tune-up has blasted some good hot (and thin) oil around and this has cleared them enough to suppress the rattle. An early oil change would be good idea though - with flush additive!.

I know this 'bit of sludge' thing is often quoted and I suppose if it's really bad it's possible, but a 250 that has had 3 or 4 at least (hopefully!) oil changes to 67K shouldn't be too bad. I did once buy a Mazda 626 which had been well neglected (and had copious amounts of crud in the rocker chambers) - it had belonged to someone who ran by the principle, buy , run for 20K miles without touching it, get rid. But I bought it for peanuts at 75K and ran it for 3 years adding 80K with frequent oil changes and flushing and it ran perfectly. I only sold it because I saw and fancied a GTi version - this was over 25 years ago. I've certainly never done a further oil change - I always change oil at 5K mile intervals (3K in my MX-5) and use flush additive every time.

It's likely you have bunged up hydraulic valve lifters (tappets) due to infrequent oil changes. Use a flush additive before an oil change (every time) and change the oil every 5000 miles. It may take a while (several oil changes) to reduce the rattle, but eventually it will largely disappear. If that is indeed the problem. Meanwhile it won't do any real harm. The more frequent oil changes will protect the timing chains as well as other benefits for your engine! These flush additives are a bit controversial but I've used them on multiple cars at every oil change for the last 30 years or so and never had a problem even over very many oil changes.

I certainly appreciate your points and indeed, not everyone has the abilities/resources/equipment to maintain cars themselves - or the space to do it. And I don't mean to cast aspersions on anyone who drives a 220D, but I suspect the warranty issue is rather more relevant for those who do drive 220Ds than for 250s.

Calipers rarely actually fail - the sliders seize up if they're not greased. Lexus then tell you that you need new ones, but even then they're usually fairly easy to free up and re-grease - any decent garage would do it for you for a few quid - not Lexus though - they don't dismantle anything. Even if the worst comes to the worst and you do need new calipers, they don't cost as much as a one year Lexus warranty (for the parts). Just look after the car properly and you'll (almost) never need any warranty. I've had my car for over five years and never paid for a warranty (or a Lexus/garage service).

I think I'd be inclined to go for it (the Online Automotive one). I suspect the crack you've got (others too) is basically a fatigue crack due to slight flex stresses on that bit of pipe as it emerges from the resonator, due to there not being any separate supports for the front exhaust pipe assembly. It might be worth getting a support strut welded on from the bottom of the resonator to the flange (if there's room and as long as it doesn't disrupt the smooth fitting of the flange to the rear section). (That would make a very stiff triangulated set up - I've had it done before when getting stainless steel silencers made - the pipes at either end are inclined to crack as described but the actual silencer boxes will last forever) The front section of exhaust pipes tend not to corrode too much because they run really hot. It's the rear sections and silencers which rot as they run much cooler. Quite a lot of exhaust failures are due to fatigue cracking caused by flexing rather than actual corrosion, especially these days when exhausts seem to be made of better stuff on the whole than in previous times. The £400 eBay one seems to have been removed from sale.

No four basic pieces. One piece from each manifold (left and right) - (just plain pipes attached to the manifolds, ending in flanges to which the rather complex 'front exhaust assembly' (refer to the workshop manual drawing I referenced earlier) attaches), the 'front assembly' and the 'rear exhaust assembly'. The cats and the resonator are included in the 'front exhaust assembly'

And this - the whole 'centre pipe' ('front exhaust assembly') for £350! http://tinyurl.com/ycbh8sr8 Can't imagine it's anything like Lexus oem quality, but it's a hell of a saving!

Here's an exploded pic of the whole exhaust system, connections and fittings: http://tinyurl.com/yag975wx

You should be able to re-form the clips/support plates with pliers to restore the grip and springiness. That should be done anyway when you change pads (but of course dealers don't do it - they wait until you complain and then want their £120 or whatever). But it might be worth getting that kit from eBay anyway if your slider boots are looking a bit shabby - new ones provide better protection for the slider pins/bolts against corrosion and seizing. Fitting them is a bit tricky - they need driving in with a socket but it can be hard to get them to go in straight. You need to take the calipers and their mounting brackets off the car to do it. (At least, that's the easiest way). And you'd get the new pad support plates as well, which I must admit would be better than re-forming old ones.

Alcantara isn't leather (it's wholly synthetic, but having said that it's quite nice!)

The cam cover gaskets may be leaking, which leads to oil in the plug recesses and it gets on the threads as you extract the plugs. Lexus spec for plug tightening is 25 nm or 18 ftlbs.

The workshop manual does say to start at the wheel furthest from the master cylinder - which is of course the rear passenger side, then rear drivers side, front passenger side, finally front drivers side. Not sure why you think the passenger side wheels are closer to the master cylinder than the drivers!

You need to take the wheel off and use a micrometer across the thickness of the disc or you can use a couple of nuts either side of the disc and measure across the whole lot with a caliper then subtract the total of the nuts thickness. You can't just use a caliper by itself because you'd be measuring the thickness at the rim and there'll be a lip there if the discs aren't new. Note that most micrometers are 25mm max opening but you can get bigger ones. Dial caliper gauges are cheaper and have much bigger capacity. Most of the time you can tell that discs need replacing just by looking at them - general corrugated iron effect is usually more significant than straightforward wear. You can expect a disc to last for two sets of pads - ie need changing every other set of pads.

if you can't smell fuel in the engine compartment, the seal is probably not leaking and the car will be safe to drive. If you can smell fuel, get it done right away - parts should be available. I wouldn't hold your breath on the airbag recall. Who knows if it's safe to drive? The only way to find out is to have a big crash. So we have to trust to fate on that one. There are umpteen million cars in the queue to get airbags replaced.