johnatg

Are you sure it's actually broken? It doesn't have a hinge - it just comes off. It is a bit fiddly to replace - on the one occasion when I took my car to a dealer for a catastrophic electronics problem which prevented the central locking from working, the dealer didn't get it back on correctly!

Welcome back! 4T5 is known as Sable (metallic) in UK.

The alloy under where it's flaking will be corroded. You could clean it back as much as you can and repaint, but I wouldn't lacquer it (you won't be able to remove enough corrosion to stop it breaking through again - that needs sandblasting). I don't think it will last long but it would be a stop gap. The only long term solution is to get the wheels refurbished 'professionally' - ie at least some outfit with a bit of a track record and reasonable reviews for refurbing. Watch out for cowboys!

I have 2 - one about 9" and one about 18". And a short (18") length of scaffold pole for rare emergencies - comes in handy for semi-de-staked hub nuts etc.!

I don't think oil on the gasket makes much difference. There will be some there anyway unless the threads on the housing, and the seating, have been thoroughly wiped. Even then, it can't really apply much glueing! But you should of course oil the gasket (rubber sealing ring) when reassembling. The Sealey wrench referenced (VS7112) (and the Draper 22490) are the ones described as being for the 4 cyl engines - I am pretty sure they fit the IS250 housings - they just have extra slots. It's just a matter of applying enough torque - use a long breaker bar if a short one or a ratchet drive won't cut it.

The eBay item referenced by Noobie looks like the Laser 4880 and £22.95 is the usual price (rrp) for that. The Amazon offer I saw for it is good value! (But you'll need to buy something else to get to £20 for free delivery if you don't have Prime). Other brands (eg Sealey) are available! Re Jack's question: No guarantees! But it gives the best chance. There do seem to be some Toyota filter tools on eBay which mention they are for 4 cyl engines and they are much cheaper. They are the correct diameter (64.5mm) and number of flutes (14) and I think they have 3 cutouts on opposite sides. The 6 cyl engine ones have 3 cutouts on one side and 1 opposite. But they could work OK - I don't know if the cutout spacing is the same. The extra ones won't matter. Anyone confirm that they are OK? Or not? Meanwhile better to be safe than sorry!

Or there's a proper one (Laser 4880) for £15.14 on Amazon UK. There's a cheaper one on eBay but it doesn't look very substantial. D-I-Y is fine in it's place and I am all for it. But for this job I have a Laser 4880!

The base of the oil filter is ultimately part of the sump (oil pan). The chap referred to in a previous post said he'd removed part of the assembly to a bench and got the filter housing off there (having bought some new parts) (as I recall). But I don't know if you can easily separate the base of the filter housing from the oil pan - it doesn't look like it on the assembly drawings.Maybe he took the whole oil pan off. I hate to think how much a new one of those costs - multiple hundreds at least. With the correct tools (the proper cup wrench rather than a universal cup wrench or other generic tools) the filter housing should come off with a long enough breaker bar. I don't think heat would help much because you're not trying to break a rust weld - just tight threads. You mention that your brother's cup wrench was stuck on the housing - makes me think he was using a tin one (which may distort) - even if it's the right size (64.5mm) it is not really adequate - the proper ones are made of alloy and because of the tabs they won't get stuck

The filter housing should be done up with a torque wrench to 18ftlbs - that's not very tight at all - most people should be able to more or less reach that by hand (maybe not in the confines of working through the little hatch). But these housings do seem to tighten with time - it is why you absolutely must use the correct filter removal tool - a substantial cup wrench with cut outs to match the tabs on the filter housing. And it should be used with a torque wrench to do the housing up with the new filter installed. Don't really understand the post about wodging a screwdriver through the filter. That's a common technique with disposable canister type filters - but you ain't gonna get a screwdriver through a Lexus housing - and there'll be a lot of expense if you did manage it!

tyreshopper.co.uk lists 245/45/17 Efficient grip performance at £110.90 each (fitted) - BTW - they seem to be somehow related to National Tyres, and their fitting 'partners' are usually National - prices quioted usually same as or cheaper than National. Usual disclaimer!

You can see the discs through the wheels if you've got standard (or most other) wheels - see if the rears are similar to the front (ie two discs separated by a whole lot of fins) or if there is just one disc (similar to most other cars' rear discs - check on a neighbour's hatchback!) Then report back!

The higher the light temperature the more blue and cool they look...and the less light they emit!

When you switch to 'S' the box automatically selects highest gear available as 4. If you were stationary, the actual gear you were in (1st actually) would not be shown in the top 'strip' display (if you have current gear displayed there as opposed to outside temp or average fuel consumption or whatever) but the red led indication of the highest available will be 4.

I'm pretty sure that there's no direct access to the rear light wiring just by removing the bumper. And have you got rear parking sensors? If so, removing the bumper is pretty involved, at least by the official method (eg it involves removing most of the boot trims). He's maybe realised that this is a lot bigger job than he'd imagined - or maybe he just couldn't be bothered! You're gonna have to ask him what's going on!

Yeah - it's actually the whole track rod - there's a ball joint built in to the inner end. Here is a pic of the assembly. (Edited to a single jpg) https://www.dropbox.com/sc/926yad7vxaevxic/AADzQC4yZOYBRDwc6af_202ma It's that ball joint labelled with the square box with numbers (torque settings) in it which wears.

This play is due to wear in the inner joints of the steering arms - you'll have heard of 'track rod ends wearing' - the inner joints are (obviously) at the other end of the track rod. The units are the track rod/steering arms (less the track rod ends) and they just unscrew from the rack and are fairly easy to replace - don't know how much the parts cost but shouldn't be huge. Lexus call them 'Steering Rack end sub-assembly' - other manufacturers just call them ball joints. Probably a good idea to change the track rod ends too when doing the job. Incidentally, the wear is caused by turning the steering wheel when stationary - easy with power steering - I see it all the time when people struggle to park and it's horrible. Often women do it (oh - sexist remark!) but they're not alone - (put your hand up!). The car should be moving, even slightly, when you turn the wheel, otherwise it puts huge stresses on the steering and particularly on these inner ball joints. If you drive a car without power steering you'll know how much difference there is in steering effort between being moving and being stationary.

Hmm - that's somewhat different from operation on early cars. On them, put it in S and it stays there, but it limits highest gear to 4 unless you 'paddle up'. It still works in full auto except that you can select the highest gear the box will go to with the paddles. That effectively means you can change up manually as you accelerate, taking it to high revs in each gear before using the up paddle to go to the next one. And you can change down as you approach a corner to be ready to accelerate out. ECT PWR makes it more likely to change down as you approach a corner but you have less precise control. And it hangs on to lower gears for longer during acceleration. You can of course use both S and ECT PWR together.

A rubber strap (or any other generic oil filter removal tool) is utterly useless for undoing Lexus/Toyota oil filter housings. You need (more or less must have) one like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOR-LEXUS-GS250-GS300-GS450H-IS220D-IS250C-IS250-2005-OIL-FILTER-REMOVAL-TOOL-/291062390949?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43c4aba0a5 Note the cut outs in the rim - they engage with the filter housing tabs. (PS - Time to start a new thread, methinks!)

They (Scoobies) cost a fortune to maintain properly and they drink fuel - lots of fun though. Not a medium distance commuter. More mundane choices abound - I hate to recommend anything in particular, but cars like Toyota Auris and Mazda 3 come to mind. I certainly wouldn't contemplate a £5K 220D - got to have problems at that price level.

The paddles only work in 'S' on early (pre-2009?) cars. They work in 'D' or 'S' on later ones. 'S' is 'Sports' mode - the box will change down earler (eg when braking into a corner) and hold on to lower gears for longer when accelerating than in 'D'. You get pretty much the same effect with 'ECT Power' selected on the switch - not quite the same but it's pretty confusing to have so many options. Maybe different design teams were competing to see who could come up with the best solution for 'sports' driving and they just decided to chuck the lot in!

Or just turn the volume down.................?

Did you check that all the calipers are sliding freely? Maybe at low brake pressure one of the calipers isn't sliding properly so that a pad is brushing against a disc rather than being clamped to it? Maybe...

They are not actually struts since it doesn't have McPherson strut suspension - rather, twin wishbones. But removal is actually pretty straightforward - you just have to disconnect the speed sensor, drop link and steering arm, and the top mounting nuts. It's all quite big and heavy though. Any proper spring compressor should be OK for separating the shock absorber from the spring. Lexus wheels corrode - period. As do most japanese wheels. Refurbishment is the only real option. I am told that it is all because they don't lacquer the back side of the wheel - not sure I believe that myself. But it's not just japanese wheels - I was looking at an Audi TT the other day that had worse corroded wheels than my Lexus before I got my wheels refurbed.

They know what will keep a fleet manager happy (by saving him money). I change at 5K miles - IS250 engines may stretch their timing chains after 100K -150K miles or so if you change at 10K intervals - that of course doesn't matter to fleet managers and it may not matter to you. But it will if your timing chain stretches when you still own the car...... IMHO

As I've said here often before, I use Dexos2 spec oil. Dexos2 is both a spec and a GM brand - check it out on Ebay - lots for sale and heavily discounted (I think becuase of Vauxhall dealers' trade pricing). The more you buy the cheaper it is (I usually get 4 x 5 litres for about £60). 5 litres (just one) is usually about £21. If you buy at full retail price it's about £48 for 5 litres. It's A3, SM etc - meets most of the GM, Mercedes, VW, BMW specs. And it works fine in the IS250 (and in all the cars I look after - various Mazdas, Peugeot, VW on and off)