johnatg

Why not ask the question on a Mazda3 forum? I look after one (which is perfectly reliable) - but the answer to your question depends on the year and exact engine - most have Zetec-derived engines but there are several different capacities etc and recent ones don't have Ford engines.

Those plugs look pretty well used to me - I'd say 92K rather than 32K. But still more or less serviceable - (I assume no particular starting or fuel consumption issues?) - which lends credence to my theory that these plugs are good up to 100K miles. I say 'up to' because it will depend on driving conditions - motorway cruiser or town traffic crawler - not sure which will last longer! My car passed 60k miles today (during a 350 mile trip to Scotland) - I intend to leave the plugs until 80K - 85K and then assess how long I intend to keep the car (if indeed I keep it that long - I only do about 7K miles a year in the Lexus. So my personal advice is - if your car is passing 60K save your money on plugs until another 25K miles have passed and then see how long you'll keep the car! (so long, of course, that you don't meanwhile have issues such as starting, emissions or fuel consumption or other obvious signs of worn-out plugs). Nothing sudden will happen - and they last 100K miles in California! ('Cos they are emissions related and all emissions stuff has to be warranted to 100K there)

Actually a diesel with blanked off EGR would probably pass the current emissions test. But if they somehow bring in real-world emissions testing (as seems possible) it would likely fail. EGRs are there to recirculate exhaust gas at high revs/load which reduces combustion temperatures and hence NOX emissions.

That all sounds as if it's operating correctly - I doubt that changing the thermostat would make any difference. It's not just a lot of coolant to heat up - the engine is pretty big, with two cylinder blocks etc - that's a good lump of metal to heat. And there's a lot of oil - that is important for cooling too - it takes time to warm up. IS250s don't operate at best efficiency on short journeys - they need 10 miles or more. I use the Mii when I can for short trips of less than ten miles or so - it's easier to park, too!

You check oil with the dipstick, not with the dash lights!

I wouldn't say 'any other car' but it's pretty normal for a IS250 - there's a lot of coolant to heat. My temp gauge starts to rise after about 1½ miles then takes another couple of miles to get to the normal half way mark. My wife's Mii gets to full temp within a bit over half a mile. My MX-5 is somewhere in between. I'd say nothing to worry about.

No probs, Normski - pleased you got sorted! Maybe you should just have taken the whole mounting bracket from the scrappy!

Hi Normski I've got one of those slider bolts that you can have - if it's not too late! Send me a PM with your address. It's not quite as pristine as the RockAuto (?) pic but it's perfectly serviceable.

That's all true, but it would be interesting to know if there have ever been any prosecutions for using non-e-marked bulbs on a car (except possibly stupid colours, like blue led sidelights - plenty of them about), or any refusals to pay insurance claims. The most that's likely from the police is a 'get it fixed' directive (I forget the proper term!) which is how (along with MoT failures) they have got rid of number plates with fancy scripts (although there are still plenty of incorrect spacings around)

HID conversion kits are illegal in UK for the simple reason that the bulbs are not e-marked (and all bulbs used on the exterior of a car must be) Having said that, I have them - and with no problems - including not getting flashed and passing MoT. But legality of bulbs is a 'Construction and Use' issue and MoTs are not designed to check for compliance with that - just for roadworthiness, so as long as the bulbs are lighting up, are even between both sides and the beam pattern is correct - that's it. The beam pattern is correct when HIDs are used in our reflector beam headlights - the foglights are not checked for beam pattern. You could theoretically be prosecuted for using any after-market HIDs but the 'law' would have to carry out a detailed examination of your car. How likely is that?

There's plenty of space around and behind the light units.

You don't need to take the bumper off to get to the fog light bulbs. On the nearside there's a hatch under the light fitting - you can get to the bulb through that. On the offside, undo the two clip things holding the wing liner to the wing, then bend the wing liner back a bit - it's tough but it will bend. then you can get in behind it and get to the bulb.

The pin isn't actually fixed - it unscrews from the carrier (there's a hex socket in the end into which you can insert an allen key). You don't seem to be able to get replacements easily though, so maybe academic. There is a consequence though - on the nearside, if the caliper is stuck on the pin you have a chance of rotating the caliper to free it. But on the offside a well stuck (in the caliper) pin is liable to just unscrew from the carrier if you try and rotate the caliper, so that you can only apply force in an outwards, rather than rotational, direction. That tends to be harder to do without damaging the caliper. The caliper will only rotate a certain distance before it comes up against an obstruction.

Nothing to do with Lexus per se - it's the usual thing with all number plates these days. You can buy the special adhesive tape from Halfords - it has a green protective layer which you remove, then it's double sided black foam.. It is extremely strong, but you do need to have thoroughly degreased both number plate and whatever you're sticking it to. Yours obviously wasn't properly prepared.

It's not really snapping that's the issue at big mileages (although it can happen) - it's stretching of the chain, along with corresponding wear of the tensioner and the sprockets. That leads to excessive noise. This problem will rear its head more and more with stupid extended service/oil change intervals - the wear is largely caused by ineffective lubrication when the oil gets contaminated. I'll say it again - frequent oil changes! (BTW - IS250s have three chains - the main one which drives the intake camshafts and two small ones, one for each bank, which drive the exhaust camshafts from the intake ones.)

Welcome! I read your post as the actual pedal making a thump? I don't know if there's some sort of soft stop that's missing. The pedal is only held on by two bolts and an electrical connector - no complicated cables or anything. Might be worth taking it off and see if that gets you further. Could it even be that the securing bolts are loose?

The most critical thing affecting timing chain (and tensioner) life is good quality, clean oil. If you use the correct oil (fully synthetic 5W-30) and change it at 5K mile intervals from now on (twice as often as Lexus service spec) they will last more or less indefinitely - 200K miles or more. And by then, it is unlikely to be an economic proposition - it's a pretty expensive job to do yourself (think 4 figures) and will cost well more than the car is worth at 15 years or more to have done professionally.

The ABS warning light (it's an LED) is fed directly from an ignition activated relay, then extinguished by the ecu (ie the ground goes through the ecu) But if the fuse has been removed, the light won't light up in the first place. Actually the fuse might control other warning lights - be interesting to know which, if any, aren't (or are!) working. If the ABS fuse really has been removed, the ABS ain't gonna be working!

Unfortunately there may be serious faults with those items. The heated seats may not matter that much. The ABS does - the car won't pass an MoT with faulty ABS. (Quite apart from the ABS not working, which is a safety issue). Try putting fuses (correctly rated) in - if they blow, or then the ABS warning light stays on all the time, get it investigated right away. If you bought it via a dealer, take it back. I suspect it was a private seller - I'm afraid that then you're on your own.

It looks pretty empty to me. It should be 2/3 or so full with pink coolant. (There are max and min marks). Indicates that, as I said, the system was not properly bled during filling. Not sure that it's too great an idea to drive it a long distance like that. Is there no Toyota dealer closer? They might do you a favour and sort out Lexus Edgeware's incompetence!

You certainly have air in the coolant system. The heater will make no difference - heater matrices these days are always hot - the temperature is controlled by flaps and air mixing. The system must not have been bled correctly during filling. Thing is - you need more pink coolant to top it up. Do you have a Toyota dealer nearby? - might be worth seeing if they will sort it for you to avoid a long journey

I'll second Cracksta's post - and don't use any other plugs! They come from Lexus Birmingham - a good source for reduced price genuine Lexus parts!

There are inner and outer 'electrical key oscillators' inside and outside the boot - between them they know where the key is!

I'm puzzled about what you are trying to achieve. I was really asking what brand and type of tyre you have. Why would you want to make it 'less grippy'? IS250s are hardly the first choice of drift merchants! I very much doubt that an lsd would improve predictability - quite the opposite in fact. I would think you would do better (ie with fewer unintended consequences) with anti-roll bar work

Hmmm.....what tyres are you running?