johnatg

It's certainly easier if you remove the (inlet) pipe first - only held with one bolt and a trim clip. I'd take the car for a drive after you've done that and see how it sounds before you start cutting!

Did they read the fault codes? Or explain what an 'oil sump solenoid' is? That's a new one on me - unless they mean a solenoid in the gearbox. We need more info before we can offer any advice, as Mark says. And where was the 'loose connection'?

Yes it can - but really - why? It's a fair old cost for what you can do for free.

Wouldn't just taking the inlet duct off do the same job? Presumably we're talking about a hole before (ie below) the filter? Taking the duct off would leave a medium sized hole - bigger than a credit card but not huge and I guess you'd get more noise. Doubt you'd get more performance. Haven't tried it, but the duct just comes off with one bolt and a trim clip, and you wouldn't be cutting anything - could just be returned to stock - when you get fed up of the noise! :-) It would lower the inlet point though, so watch out for floods, but then the inlet duct joint to the air box is hardly air (or water) tight.

If uploading doesn't work for you, you could sign up for a dropbox account (www.dropbox.com/home), load your pictures there (that's dead easy - you just slide them in) then share them (click on a box) and you get a link which you you can post here.

Don't keep vehicle documents (esp V5C and MoT certificate) in the car!

That's what VOSA and the government say - but when I had company cars the V5 (which I only got hold of if I was going on hol abroad) showed the lease company as registered keeper - never saw one with my name on it!

Traders don't need to register cars to themselves. It would just add to the number of owners and be confusing. They just hold the V5C (less part 9 which the seller should send to VOSA) and give it to you when you buy the car. You keep Part 10, fill in the other appropriate sections and return it to VOSA. Dunno why they shouldn't send you a V5 copy, but there are security issues. Maybe they don't think you're serious, or maybe they reckon the can sell the car locally fairly easily.

Yes - I changed the sidelights some time ago - not sure what they are but they are white LED and I rarely use them alone - if it's dark enough for lights I switch on the headlights. They are fine for parking - er..am I the only one who uses parking lights (sometimes) these days?

The diff casing and the fins are very strong. Position the saddle carefully and centrally, with the car on level ground and you'll be fine. The saddle should fit in that square area of fins clear of the drain plug.

You can also put a jack under the diff (avoid the drain plug and don't put anything between the jack and diff) - and at the front you can use the centre of the crossmember in front of the oil pan. That info is in the Owners Manual (P271 in my edition) and also in the workshop manual - Repair Instruction - vehicle lift and support positions

I finally got round to fitting HID bulbs in my dip beams. Should have done it years ago! The HID lights are soooo much better! I used these: http://tinyurl.com/zakl2hd I would stick at 6000K (which are well blue enough) - this vendor does 8000K ones but that's getting into boy racer blue - maybe 5000K ones would be better but I couldn't find them in H11 at a reasonable price. Whenever this is mentioned, we are regaled with instruction that Tungsten Halogen headlights are not suitable for conversion and that you'll end up with poor focus and dazzle other people. I think that is what has put me off before and it is no doubt true of reflector or lens focussed lights, but as Ishaq said a month or so ago, IS250s have projector beam headlights and these are suitable for conversion. In fact, I would say that the focus and cut-off are actually better now than with Tungsten Halogen bulbs. (I wonder if the geometry is actually designed for HIDs and the Tungsten Halogen bulbs are in fact the compromised ones?) Here are a couple of shots of the beams reflected on a garage door: http://tinyurl.com/jlucwa9 http://tinyurl.com/zepeg2c The brighter one (normal exposure on my phone) gives a good impression (maybe a bit emphasised!) of the brightness you see - the dimmer one (minimum exposure) gives a better impression of the focus and cut-off and of the detail visible along the cut-off line. The beam pattern gets a bit lost on the left as it hits stonework rather than the door. Then there's the thing about having to have headlight washers and auto headlight levelling for HID bulbs. That is a requirement for type approval, but once a vehicle has been type approved there's nothing to stop an owner messing (in UK at least) and there's nothing in the MoT test about having washers and auto levelling. Now Ishaq mentioned that you just put the bulbs in and connect up the ballasts. Well yes, but there are complications, mainly to do with access. Even with the washer filler removed, there isn't much space by the left hand (nearside) headlamp housing - I got the hatch off OK and the old bulb out but found it very difficult to get the new bulb in. (The HID bulbs are straight rather than with an angled connector so there's nothing to get leverage with). It has to be aligned correctly (tabs with slots - only one orientation works), you can't see what you're doing and the bulb needs a strong push to compress the sealing ring then it's quite hard to turn. And you pretty much have to use your left hand. I'll admit to giving up and removing the bumper - I've done it before and it's not difficult as long as you know where all the bolts (some hidden) and clips are. Then you can remove the headlight and it's dead easy. Replacing the bumper is a bit of a fiddle - you have to line up lots of interleaving thin plastic all at the same time. You also have to cut a 25mm hole in the bulb hatch as the ballast wiring goes outside the headlight housing. The hole is filled in with a well fitting grommet. I used a 25mm spade drill - that worked fine. It would have been a good idea to grind down the fins on the inside of the hatch so that the inside of the grommet can sit flush with the inner surface. The wiring and ballast can just be tucked down around the washer tube but I cable-tied the ballast to a wiring harness to keep it secure. I used silicone grease on all the connections (which are well sealed and good quality in this particular kit) and on the hatch grommet to give extra waterproofing. One more thing - you have to plug a couple of thin spade connectors into the old bulb plug. These are a bit loose and I feel are likely to fall out. I added extra insulation with shrink fit tubing then tied the two wires tightly together - that meant that when plugged in the spades were pushed outwards slightly giving some extra grip in the plug. It would be better if a proper H11 type socket was supplied for this connection. If you've removed the bumper you might as well do the right (offside) the same way, but if you did manage to insert the nearside bulb without removing the bumper you can just remove the air box then there's plenty of access. Hope that helps someone! Finally - my previous dip bulbs were Osram Nightbreaker Plus and the main beams Nightbreaker Unlimited. The mains looked much whiter than the dips but now the mains are much yellower than the HID dips. Can anyone recommend Tungsten Halogen bulbs to more or less match 6000K HIDs in HB3 format? I know that as bulbs get bluer they put out less light but would somewhat bluer ones look better without losing brightness? Or should I not bother?

I'm pretty sure that the 'auto air filter thing' is actually just temperature related - ie when the temp in the car falls below what's set, it switches to recirc to get the temp up quickly, then when it's at set temp it switches to fresh air. I see it switching now and again as I've had it set to auto for a while to see what happens. I can't relate it at all to nasty niffs or dust!

Pressed up against something? A bit squashed somehow?

We've been here before. What did you do after you left your car? This can happen because of a spurious long press on the unlock button on your remote - possibly by sitting down with the fob in your pocket, or bending down to tie a shoelace or whatever. Or maybe because a coincidental radio signal was received which fooled the car into thinking you had done such long press. It is a setting in the ecu (ie put the windows down with a long press on unlock, along with put them up with a long press on lock. Although no-one ever seems to complain about that). It can easily be changed (disabled), but you need access to a Techstream system (eg software on a laptop with the appropriate cable connector). We're not allowed to talk about how you get thus equipped here! A dealer can do it for a usurious charge.

Once the drum/disc is off, you can see the linings - they start off at 2.5mm - minimum thickness is 1.0mm. Just measure with a ruler if you're not sure. But as they (should) never get used in a moving situation (except maybe during MoT tests), they shouldn't wear at all really.

OK - here's how to adjust the parking brake at the rear wheels: http://tinyurl.com/p2wgou4. Click on the pic to enlarge it. The adjusters are further round to the side of the hubs than my faulty memory told me, and you turn the toothed wheel sideways.

You are unlikely to need any new parts. The pedal should go down 7-9 clicks - that feels like quite a long way. If more, the parking brake needs adjusting. The adjusters are located behind holes in the drums (part of the discs) - as I recall, the nearside adjuster is at about 11 o'clock and the offside one at about 1 o'clock. They are toothed wheels aligned vertically and you turn them with a screwdriver. It can be tricky to work out what's going on when you're working 'blind' - it can be worthwhile to remove the drums/discs so that you can see exactly how they work and what you need to do. Obviously you have to do the actual adjustment with everything assembled, then you can't see what is going on! They need adjusting to just a shade backed off from rubbing. There is an adjuster on the cable, too, where it attaches to the pedal, but the main adjustment should be done at the wheels.

I wouldn't get parts 'on spec'. It's not a particularly easy job and but the shoes are easy to inspect and if they do need doing it doesn't take long to get the calipers clear on another day. Unusually, you don't need to remove the caliper mounts to get the discs off. Unless the mileage is very high you shouldn't need new shoes, especially if the parking brake is working OK - not too much travel etc.

Vauxhall dealers do a trade deal - strictly (?) trade only - then it's roughly that price, but if you go in as a punter it is much more expensive. Incidentally, AutoVaux is not a Vauxhall dealer - it is completely independent. There are sellers on ebay for 4 x 5litres for less than £60, with free postage. I think they are mostly pretty closely linked to Vauxhall dealers - either actual dealers or mechanics or other employees doing a moonlight.

I doubt that it makes any odds. 0W-30 might theoretically give you slightly better lube on a cold start but they'll both be effectively the same when warm. And now your car is 7 years old you will really not notice any difference whatsoever.. I use Dexos2 - a GM 5W-30 oil - meets the specs of lots of major manufacturers including GM and all the German makes and I presume the Japanese manufacturers, who seem to be less fussed about all the ridiculous variants. I use it in all the fleet I look after at the mo - my own IS250 and MX-5, my wife's Seat Mii and daughter's Mazda3 (and a Peugeot 306 until recently). Perfect in all of them over many years and it's dead cheap on ebay. The key is to change oil and filter regularly - at least twice as often (half the mileage) as the manufacturers service specs.

Well, it's a GReddy 10117200 SP Elite Axle-Back Exhaust System 2006-2009 Lexus IS250 IS350 GSE20 GRE21 4GR-FSE 2GR-FSE 60MM Dual Mufflers w/ 102MM Tips Stainless Steel SUS304 - normal price $890, now on sale at $867.75 - + costs of getting it from Texas! http://store.outperformance.com/product-p/greddy-10117200.htm Looks nice, doesn't it? And actually probably cheaper than Lexus silencers etc! Even if it comes with a dent! :-)

My sympathies - that sort of thing makes you feel really gutted, especially when it's not your fault. Keep us updated

Not worth the effort at that price - you'll buy a similar car in UK for round about that. Does the price include duty and VAT? Don't know if you can change the odometer electronically and you'll need to change the physical speedo too because it won't have mph markings. Or at least the dial face but where will you get that from? OK a scrapper but do they need electronically coding? Dunno. And many insurance companies won't touch 'grey imports' so your choice of insurer will be limited and may cost more. You may have problems proving it's emissions compliant. (For the inspection which you have to pay for) And you'll get no help whatsoever from Lexus with things like part numbers - they'll just say they don't have it in their database. And there's a very high probability that it's been damaged and repaired - such cars are unsaleable in Japan. I know the Shaken seriously depreciates a car of that sort of age in Japan, but it's often down to more than that that these cars are available for export. I did once import a Jap-spec Eunos Roadster (aka MX-5) from Ireland and that wasn't much trouble. But Jap ones were effectively identical to UK ones and since so many were imported things like the speedo face were very easy - all mechanical too. (Even then the odometer stayed in Km.) Insurance companies and Mazda tried to be as obstructive as possible and that was when every other MX-5 was a Eunos. Imported IS250s will only be slightly more common than the proverbial rocking horse droppings.

Get the battery checked with a proper tester, but I'm afraid it's more likely that the alternator has failed. 13.3v is nowhere near enough - it should be charging at 14.2 volts or so. It's just possible that the battery is pulling it down but not likely. It's most likely that a diode has failed - this can be caused by poor battery connections, a poor (corroded?) earth or accidentally disconnecting the battery whilst the engine is running. Or welding with the alternator connected.