johnatg

Indeed. VIN shows manufacturer, model, some but not all aspects of options and trim - only major things such as engine and type of transmission, plant where it was made, year it was made and a serial number (last 6 digits. It doesn't show the actual build date- that needs a database.

Yep - you have no easy way of knowing date of manufacture - but dealers can find out - most manufacturers show date of manufacture in the dealer version of the workshop manual or other documentation. (Or supply a database linking build date to VIN number. Er...cars get manufactured - built - once! Most car companies build lots of cars every day! Cars are first registered on the day the dealer registers them - that might be towards the end of the month if they are trying to meet their 'sales' targets, then they register them to themselves and sell it later as a 'pre-reg'. Or if properly new, it's registered on the day of (planned) delivery to the first owner. Cars can quite easily sit around for months or years before being registered - fields and parking lots full of them around the country!

When the car changes direction by less than you expect from your steering input (front wheels lose grip) - that's understeer. When the car changes direction by more than you expect (rear wheels lose grip) (see Tim's original post!) - that's oversteer. Re these cheap(ish) tyres of far eastern origin (mostly Chinese, but also Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese etc) - I think that what happens is that the outer layers of the tyre - the first few mm of tread - are made of reasonably up-to-date tyre technology rubber etc, - so you think the tyres are quite good and a great bargain - but when this has worn away you reach a base layer of much harder basic (cheaper) rubber. Then you find they are rather less of a bargain! Stick to well known brands - or at least tyres manufactured in western Europe (inc UK).

That's called oversteer!

Largely rubbish tyres IMHO. Evergreen EU72 tyres get good reviews when new, but a lot of reviewers say that they last a long time (eg one reviewer claims 75K miles for a set). That points to hard rubber - and as I've said before, hard rubber tyres get to be lethal in the wet especially when they wear down to 3mm or so. Avon ZV7 are an excellent choice - I have them all round. Doesn't stop the occasional kicking in of TC though when it's wet or icy. All the electronic gizmos in the world can't beat the laws of physics!

See p135 of the owner's manual (section on rain-sensing windshield wipers). It describes operation in each of 7 switch positions. It should be available on line somewhere if you don't have one.

First change at 10 years then every 5 years (if you use proper Toyota pink long life coolant) Mileage is irrelevant (in this context) Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

There's a brand new one (with several available) on eBay for just over £300. Any decent aircon place should be able to fit it and give your aircon a general service. Can't help with a place 'cos I'm miles away. You could probably find one cheaper from a breaker, but make sure that the ports have been plugged if you do - you mustn't let air/moisture into the unit.

Tyres that last well that you've never heard of are often made of hard rubber which has minimal grip, especially when the tyres are getting a bit worn.

And plenty of similar items! That isn't a recon - just an engine pulled from a breaker - in fact it's still in the original car in the pic! With a broken auxiliary belt and a fancy air intake - wonder how much they want for that? Re recon engines - I suspect that the bottom has fallen out of the engine recon business. Gone are the days when most cars needed a rebore and head job at 40K miles. Most engines nowadays will reach 100K miles and more with only a modicum of maintenance. For most that will be 8-10 years by which time the car will be worth buttons and due to be thrown away anyway. Quality cars such as IS250 will reach way more than 100K - probably 200K or more with proper maintenance and especially if they are motorway cruisers. So there's a steady supply of good(ish) engines (for all cars) from write offs - as I said before, it doesn't take much damage to write off a car more than just a few years old, and almost no demand, except the rare case where something catastrophic has happened.

PS - Ask them to record the engine number - pretty much invisible once fitted, and you are supposed, at least in theory, to notify DVSA.

I haven't used them, but that sounds like a good deal to me. Fitting cost element shouldn't be too horrendous - should only take a day or so. They will be glad to get some return on an IS250 engine - demand for them must be only slightly higher than zero. Make sure the warranty is in writing!

Toss up between the first and the last. One you can see (and hear!) running might be safest, but the first would probably be a good bet too. IMHO

It's DVSA rules. not the garage. Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

I can understand that emotional attachment but you have to be realistic. You could probably buy a near-identical car for less than £5K or a newer one for maybe a bit more. And once a car has let you down big time you never feel quite the same about it afterwards.

I'd be surprised if you can find a recon IS250 engine. I think this is the first time, at least in the last 4 years or so, that we've had a report here of a likely toasted IS250 engine. So the reconners won't have much to work with, and if they have done almost anything at all to it it will cost a lot - eg we talked here not so long ago about hydraulic tappets costing £70 odd each and there are 24 of them. Likewise I suspect the rest of the valve gear and general engine components. I think you are more likely to find a damaged car at a yard or on eBay for much less than a recon engine would cost. An 8-10 year old car needs only light body damage to write it off.

I know you mentioned that before. It's very strange - you would not think that all 10 litres or so of coolant could disappear in a flash without leaving evidence. Or be lost through a cylinder/exhaust. You would also think that at least one red light would have appeared on the instrument display.

In 'Car Mechanics' just received (I think January edition), the resident garage proprietor describes a 2003 Punto where the owner had watched the temp gauge go all the way up, then all the way down again before seeking help. Almost needless to say - the engine was toast and a replacement (second hand) was fitted. The cause was a small leak in a heater hose. I'm afraid that modern aluminium engines rarely survive serious over heating. Incidentally, appropro various other threads here but not this one - 'CM' are working on a project Prius at the moment (they buy cars at auction then work on them over a period of months). One of the topics covered is the de-seizing of rear brake slider pins - they look like a very similar design to Lexus brakes.

It could easily be - but I suspect a new engine would be way more than the car is worth. There should be one in a scrap yard somewhere - various web sites help you send circular messages to lots of yards to seek parts.

I'd ask them how much it will be to get the head off and check it and the cylinder bores, before committing to the whole job. They won't be able to give a precise quote for parts until they know what damage has been done - eg is the head warped or even cracked? - can it be salvaged?, will it need skimming?, if so, do you need the other head skimmed or replaced as well to keep engine balance?, have the rings picked up in the bores?, are the valves damaged? - lots of unknowns yet and expensive things might come out of the woodwork, so to speak!

It's really just a comment that some things can't be, so haven't been, checked - eg the tops of the shock absorber towers.

It looks as though it was due to coolant loss - I think it's unlikely that the gasket (or one of them - there are, of course, 2) went first, but we'll have to see what the verdict is.

MoT testers aren't allowed to remove them, or anything else. Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

Sorry - that's outside my experience and the manual doesn't give any clues about 'real world' symptoms - it just tells you to plug in the Intelligent tester and run a whole series of tests from there. Maybe a word with a transmission specialist or back to the dealer for more diagnosis? Good luck!

You could have paid the charge! (£11.50). The fine was for not paying! Everyone should understand that drivers of cars (at least ones without electric motors) are not welcome in London. And it will come to other cities in due course, although at the moment the policy in Manchester is to make driving in the city so impossible that enough people give up so that traffic can still move at slightly less than walking pace!