johnatg

Just paid my 'road tax - rfl' - it was £25 - £5 more than last year. Why do some pay £30?

Just a heads up. I think Brian (son) needs parts 52297 and 52298, not 52295 which is that little brace under the main frame. The prices for 52297 and 52298 don't seem to appear on the amayama list. Incidentally, check the compatibility carefully. My post above showed a Mk 4 subframe assembly - whilst similar, it is clearly not the same as the mk3 ones shown on the amayama list and they seem different for various years.

Oh dear. That sounds like very bad news, but it's not entirely clear what they mean - is it this, officially known as the Rear Suspension member? I suspect a new one would be catastrophically expensive but one may just be available from a scrap dealer. There are web based search facilities where you can send a round robin to see if any used parts specialist has one. Removal from the dead car and fitting to your son's car, along with the rear suspension rebuild is still going to be pretty expensive, I'm afraid. Sympathies.

Denso is a member of the Toyota group - Toyota actually own about 25% of Denso. Just saying!

When I last had a full service they said the plug change would be about £250 extra over the base price for a full service - and that's for 4 plugs on my GS300h. They charge extra for plugs at 60k or 6 year intervals.

It is very unlikely that the plugs were changed at 50k/ 4years. But what happened in 2013 - 6 year service or 2019 - 12 year? The Lexus db won't show plug change as a separate item.

That would be an important consideration but I don't think you get relax warranty beyond 10 years - Martin's car is 16 years old.

It sounds as though the car has a full Lexus service history? If so they would have changed the plugs at 60K miles or six years, unless they noted in the service book that they hadn't. (I asked for my plugs not to be changed at 6 years/40K miles - they wrote 'No plugs' in the service book) It is ridiculous to change plugs on an age basis - they only need changing on a mileage basis at, at least 60K miles and they will usually reasonably last to 100K miles or more - see Car Care Nut on YouTube for an informed person's take on this. But if you still aren't sure, you could get a local garage to take out one or more plugs from the right (offside in UK) bank - they are very easy to access - and have a good look at them. If they are OK don't bother changing. If they are the worse for wear, fair enough, get them all changed.

Interesting that GS phase 3 sensors are £104 from Lexus Parts Direct, but phase 4 ones are £68. I'm thinking of replacing mine at the next tyre change, probably within about 4K miles. The originals are coming up to 9 years old. Is that a good move do you think? (Even though they are working fine at the moment)

Once the car has failed it has no MoT. The previous thing when you had a paper MoT no longer applies

I remember that mine flickered. I think it's a characteristic of LEDs used as replacements for filament bulbs where there is a slow build up in power. The filament bulbs are fed a gradually increasing voltage but it's probably a series of steps. Fine for filaments but shows up as flickers with LEDs. When the circuitry is designed for LEDs (as in my GS300h) the voltage steps will be much smaller so no (or much less) flicker. It's the controller you would need to sort - not the bulbs.

You can get a set of plastic levers eg from Ebay or Halfords - various sizes in the set of about 8 usually. You just insert a suitable lever where the clips are as on the diagram and they just pop open. It's about 10 years since I put led bulbs in the interior lights in my IS250 and I can't remember the exact details. It wasn't difficult though.

Is this what you're looking for?

If you can get the car close to an electrical power point you would be better to get a smart trickle charger such as the Ctek Mx5. ' Other brands are available!

They replaced the passenger airbag as it was potentially liable to explode steel shards at the passenger if it was deployed. They would have had to dismantle the glove box area and then some.

An important function of aircon is to dry the air in the car - in winter it will dry up any condensation, eg from breath etc. So yes - you should use aircon (Climate control) in the winter. Use heater controls to warm it up to desired temperature. The effect in fuel economy is negligible - and hell, you're driving a GS450h - you surely didn't buy it for minimal use of fuel. The electric demister is for quick demisting - you shouldn't have that on all the time. I have two cars with aircon and it's on all the time. One without, but it lives in the garage all winter and has the hood down most of the time in summer.

You say you don't use aircon - that's why the condenser is bad and the o-rings are leaking. You should use aircon all the time - it keeps it working properly and it has negligible effect on fuel consumption. Use it or lose it - you've lost it! Tyres and alignment from KwikFit? Aagh! They didn't even get all the settings within spec. What brand of tyres are they? Budget tyres last no time at all. Go to a reputable tyre place! Get wiper blades from Lexus Parts Direct. Probably cheapest and best. Various posts on here and elsewhere about how to restore headlamps - eg try toothpaste or you can get restoration kits to DIY.

I think this has nothing to do with steering calibration etc. If you're indicating left and turn the wheel clockwise by more than a few degrees the indicators will cancel (and vice versa) It's a mechanical function and not a fault. Just hold on to the stalk or flick it down again.

I meant between brands - and it really doesn't matter if you use dot3 or dot4 in a road car (although low viscosity versions are preferable with abs or non-brake hydraulic systems) Dot 5.1 needs changing more often.

If you are not doing the job yourself just trust the garage to supply their dot3/4 stock. There isn't really anything special about brake fluid. A competent garage should be able to change fluid and/or bleed the brakes.

£20!

17" wheels use 225 - 18" and 19" use 235 section tyres so slight effect. Exec models may get slightly better consumption - I'd say you'd be lucky to get 2 mpg better. Imho

Official figures are nonsense as I guess the op realises as he asked about achievable figures. Interesting that cars with smaller wheels have better consumption. That will be because smaller wheels are lighter. The overall diameter /ccircumference elf all the wheels is pretty much the same. The average on spritmonitor is about 7 litres/100km which is about 42mpg.

1 - real world - 38-42 (general-motorway) 2 - Don't know but I doubt that there'd be a significant improvement.

You would think that someone would have set up a remanufacturing business for headlights - so many brands are affected. Anyone know of anything?