Rem Zuk

Right, so not to leave the topic open, wanted to share the outcome...

So, decided to try one last thing before going to proper dealer (yes, I know... Had this lesson loads of times- you cannot be cheap for these cars...). As it was getting worse and worse, I got it to a mechanic to be checked out (he said all was ok). He forwarded me to another garage that does skimming. After all was done, the owner told me something that bugged me for a long time- he was overlooking the process, and it did not look like they were warped... But as I left the garage, the car was braking beautifuly! Till my next few longer trips... And then it started coming back again! Imagine my dissapointment...

As it was getting worse yet again, I started thinking of causes- and already made up my mind to get it all done in the expensive way. Was about to, but managed to get myself into a motorcycle accident (amazing black cab drivers think that side mirrors are just for image purposes...). Either way, had other expenses, so had to put vibrations lower on priority list. Till one day read somehwere here on a forum possible cause!

I noticed, that jugle would become a bit stronger after every longer trip on motorway. Apparently, when I would brake after long trip (a bit warmed disc and pad), the would be dust residue that would get stuck on a disc and would cause all the issue above! Few hard brake checks (not coming to a full stop though) from about 40mph have reduced the problem by a good 95%! Might change my pads to a better quality ones (not sure what is it there now...), but that seems to be the end for this issue!!!

Hey, Chris111!

If you check prop shaft and everything else that everyone has offered and it will not solve your problems with vibration, try getting an all 4 wheel tracking re-done. I was experiencing same issue- from about 80mph it would start quite annoyingly (yet, not massively) vibrating. As tyres were worn, I thought it must have been that. Got them changed- same issue. Someone told me to do the tracking, and, although doubting, went to do it (had a cross-europe trip coming in a week or so...). And what a change it had made! All vibrations were gone instantly.

Obviously, your problem might be different, but in my case that was the whole issue.

Oh, and warped discs- had a proper scare on those, and apparently that was only dust on disc, and braking really hard few times in a row without coming to a full stop has solved the issue (well about 95% of it).

Amazing, all the issues you had are now happening to me!!!

Same fear of warped discs, hopefully gonna solve it tomorrow (gonna try the "Italian fix" as someone here said...). If that is the case- I might just be too happy as I have already changed discs once, grinded them after a month, and now getting back to the same issue again... I am driving a lot though and lately it is mainly in city- fingers crossed that is the issue...

Just not to create another topic, maybe someone can answer- I too have issue with passenger side vent blowing exeptionally cold air (ant at 4° my better half is not impressed to say the least). I have tried to it fixed by taking stuff appart (read that it is most likely an actuator issue), but when I managed to get it all out, I found three of them (well, I think one more is on drivers side..). Maybe someone can tell me which one of the actuators is actually responsible for the issue? As they are hard to get off...

3 hours ago, C.B said:

I had a similar fear, sourced the first discs myself and got fitted by a friend. In the end I have had zero come back the supplier will not accept the discs back.

New set fitted by national where the manager assured me if they warp that quickly they will replace them FOC and send them back to the supplier. Return power of one consumer versus a major purchaser. Lesson learnt since I have had to but them twice in 2k miles 😞

Yeah... Cheap person always pays twice... Same mistake as mine, by the looks of it! Well, I am hoping soon it will be just a bad memory and once again I will be able to enjoy the ride!

All troubles aside (not that I had a lot, they are just quite expensive...), love the GS to the bits!

3 minutes ago, C.B said:

Is it not just the discs warped? I had this recently on my wifes honda, very noticeable when braking from speed on the motorway initially but eventually could sense it most of the time.

Got the discs checked and they were only ever so slightly warped (and 6 months old) but combined with the heat of a long drive was driving me nuts.

New discs..problem solved.

Morning, C.B.! 

Well, you're right about the first part- I am 99% sure it is a warped disc! The issue is, the disc got warped, I got both of them (including pads) changed, and after mere 2000 miles the new one is warped again! Changing it is solving the consequence in my case, but not the cause...  

5 minutes ago, Ben01 said:

If one front wheel it is probable seized anything (piston, pin(s), pads itself even), hot only, or cold and hot, very common problems on elder toyota/lexus. I struggle with same in both previous (but elder and worn) GSes.

If it will be two or four wheels, you could be really sorry for your wallet funeral, as this marks up the brake valve unit/pump, etc. and that is I call expensive break down.

Yeah, sounds like I got myself in a bit of a trouble then... Well, on Tuesday will try and see a mechanic and will have it checked there... Thanks, Ben! Great GS-history of yours, by the way!!!

Sorry, forgot some details...

One wheel (same as before), front right (driver's side)

Hmm, never actually thought of that...  Thank you, Ben01! Got a longer trip planned for Saturday to Boston, so will try and see weather it get's worse when I get there!

Fingers crossed it would be that, otherwise it will be a very hard month on a wallet...

Good morning/afternoon!

I've got GS450h, 2008. Bought it from a dealer half a year ago. All was fine, just noticed at some point brakes started squeaking when backing up... Then the disk most likely overheated and started wobbling while breaking.

End of July I went to my homecountry (yes, Eastern Europe...), and gave my car to a mechanic from local Lexus/Toyota dealership. He's been looking after my family cars for years now, including my mom's RX400h and two PRIUS'es prior that, so kind of trust that guy...

Long story short, about 2000 miles down the road and back Home (here, London. Trip done non- stop pretty much, so enough time to over heat), my breaks are same, if not worse!!! Obviously, gave a call to mechanic, as my first idea was seized break caliper piston. He claimed they checked both sides and calipers were moving freely, so shouldn't be the cause. 

Could someone please advise what could possibly be the problem? I was told it could be the hub that is bent a bit that is causing that (pre-history of the car has nothing, but it clearly has had some accidents, as both rear and front bumpers are resprayed, and quite poorly, I must add...).

Any advise is very helpful!!!!

Bluesman, yes, I did get rid of car (very sadly)... But today thegre4tone asked about the issues I had as he has similar ones... I believe that is why we have all the threads- to see if anyone had similar problems with our vehicles and what have they done to solve them (or at least what was the issue having certain symptoms...).

With all respect,

Rem

To be honest, I gave her to out to a friend of a friend for peanuts... Not sure where she ended up though...

Yes, Bluesman, the car was sold in February.

Well if I have heard right, the issue is that LPG is naturally drier than petrol... Which causes less lubrication that leads to higher temperatures and after loads of miles even the valve issues... Now after saying that, it makes a great difference in who is installing and adjusting LPG. I had it done here in UK, and to be honest I did not like the job they did... First thing- the appreciation of vehicle... They wanted to add the filling cap onto the side of my rear wing... Well, if a company cannot offer even a proper esthetics after install, that is one point against them in my eyes (loads of vehicles have filling points just next to petrol filling cap, so hidden from eyes...). on the end I got my LPG filling cap installed under the rear bumper and looking like a taken off tow bar, so problem partially solved... Second thing- I spoke to my personal mechanic and when he saw how they connected everything to the engine, he could not believe it (they did it very complicated, in that way, that trying to get access to injectors you would have had to dismantle a lot, while my mechanic and few of his friends (Lexus club in my country) had LPG done in way simpler ways). So in a way nothing bad, but still point two... Now the LPG ECU for the first 1000 miles was "learning", so I was told. Well, the set up was  quite poor from beginning and the car would start chocking as soon as you floored it... After first adjustment it got a bit better, but I wasn't too happy with it... Fuel consumption, again, compared to my friend in another country, was by 10%- 15% poorer (not really only because of a driving style thought), but I had the car serviced few times in the LPG company and they said all was great...

I think after all that I just wanna say, it depends on loads of things... Maybe I had a tired engine already? Maybe LPG was not set up right. All I know that by January I had so many problems (just got unlucky with few garages, from which car was taken back in worse condition than it was brought in), that in the end I had few longer trips (London- North Wales, London- Leeds and the across whole Europe) planned and I couldn't trust the car anymore... Had to let her go... Now I am driving Volvo C30 2.0D re-mapped, pulls great, look sallright, but has no soul... :D Still looking at every single IS passing by and thinking that after a year I might just get back to it...

Just to add, by the end of my ownership, while engine is cold, it would loose huge amount of power, so it would still go uphill in first gear, but forget anything else... Then after two- three minutes it would become way better, but sometimes even while on the motorway you could feel her chocking and missing a beat...

Fault codes- yeah, "multiple cylinder misfire", "1st (2nd or 3rd) cylinder misfire" was a pretty much daily reading for me... Sometimes it would stay without it for few days, sometimes, especially after teraclean, it would come up few times per drive... You cannot imagine how sad it was getting rid of her...

Any questions- give me a shout. As well, if anyone needs (not the best condition) 17" original 5 spokes, I still have them and would definitely pass on for £20 picked up from South West London...

Hey!

Well yes, I did indeed... In my case it was the valves that burnt through... But in less than two years I covered about 60000 miles with it all across Europe, so the pressure was high on the engine most of the times... As well as it started misfiring, i did a teraclean for the engine, which in a good side cleaned the engine from all crap that was inside, but bad point was that all that crap was actually helping to cover the valve issues... So after cleaning it became even worse...

Unfortunately, left the car with few mechanics to do the suspension, and they broke my car completely... So had to bite the bullet and sell her... 

Sad days...

Allright, would it be too much to ask for some help with a compression test? Beer is on me!!! 

As far as I understand, it doesn't take long to do that... I spoke to my mechanic, and according to him the issue might be poorly set LPG (too poor mixture), which caused valves to burn through... In a way it does make a lot of sense- while the engine is proper cold, compression is at it's lowest and power is at... Well, power might be at a pub somewhere, cause there is none in the car for first few minutes... After it warms up, situation get better, but still not as it should be... MPG is pretty poor as well- LPG tank is 50L, and lately I can do only around 200miles on it... (still 200 miles for £25 is not THAT bad, but it used to be and it must be better than that) 

On the other hand, if compression is great, then I will know that issue is not mechanical... Most likely... 

So if anyone has a free Sunday (I am working all days till 7pm before that) and is willing to help me to have a check on the compression levels, I would be more than grateful!!! 

Steve2006, wil defintely try the CPS warm up trick tomorrow evening after work... Now about MAF sensor- please correct me, but as far as I know, there is none in IS200... There is one sensor in air intake, but that is just a completely plastic intake air temperature sensor, nothing else... 

In a way I hope I am not right and then tomorrow I will have more theories to test...

Oh, yes, cat manifold (the one going from the engine down with two cats and two lambda sensors) is changed as well... 

Never checked compression before, so would need to get some help on that or maybe someone knows a reliable garage somewhere around here? NW London...

To be honest, I know quite a few people who have is200s with an LPG conversion and running those cars for thousands and thousands of miles without any issues whatsoever... It is expensive to install though because of those 6 cylinders... I paid 2.5 years ago £1200, I am not really sure about the price changes now...  But yeah, answering your question- it is possible and there are cars using LPG for years and years...

Hi, everyone!

I've been reading this forum for few years now, but never had any issues, so didn't post... Now, on the other hand, I am a bit desperate...

When engine is completely cold, the first few minutes after turning it on, it is shaking a lot and power is down to nothing. If I start driving with the cold engine and hit neutral, mostvof the time engine dies and then it takes way longer than usual to start it (5 seconds of starter which is way too long).

After few minutes engine starts working almost fine, although some misfire is felt, power is there as well.

Check engine light turns on every now and then, indicating multiple misfire (cylinders 1, 2 and sometimes even 3).  If accelerated hard, just before VVTI kicks in, for part of the second I can feel the loss of power as well... 

I should mention I have LPG installed sonce 90000miles (now I am on 126000). The issues are exactly the same on petrol and LPG, so mostvlikely it has nothing to do with it. Actually, LPG might be even less misfire...

In last couple months slowly did few bits and pieces trying to figure out the issues... My guesses and people suggestions to me were:

   Throttle body- took it off, cleaned it properly, put it back. Car started going better, but still not good. As well, now, while idling, throttle body is actually moving and shacking (well not the whole, just a butterfly)

   Spark plugs- changed, no difference at all.

   Ignition coils- bought two new ones, swapped all of them around few times- still same cylinders misfiring, nothing solved.

   Oils and filters changed as well...

   Engine cleaning? Terraclean has been done, engine is way smoother now, but misfire is at it's worst at the moment... 

Just came back from a garage where I was told it is most likely connected to some electrical faults, maybe even ECU. Maybe someone can offer me a great electrician (prederably in North West London, I am from Wembley area...)? As well, just checked ECUs on eBay and they are really cheap, around £20... How hard it is to change it and does it need programming to the car and stuff? Just really need to get my IS200 back on the road... Any ideas and suggestions are welcome, any help is highly appreciated!

Hey guys,

recently one of the A/C control unit lights went down. Just spent an hour on the internet- and I can't seem to find any place to get new ones... I don't want upgrades, I like original look, maybe someone knows a magic place where those ones are sold?

Wanted bulbs:

AC control unit, orange one from the bottom

Map light (did not check Halford's yet, but all glass parts seem to be smaller...)

Of course there is a fare big chance of me not knowing how to use internet...

Price here in London varies between 71.9p to 75.9p. Of course, if I tried I would get better results... Just getting 230 miles for £38 without thinking about it and sometimes playing with other cars from traffic light to traffic light or just enjoying the torque while overtaking someone- I consider it as a good result.

Hey guys,

As it has been close to year now of me owning Lexus IS200 and having it on LPG, I can honestly say- it is worth it. Yes, I lost quite a bit of trunk as I need to have spare wheel in there... But it is not a major problem. During this year, I covered about 15000 miles. Not a lot, but still. To fill up my tank it costs £35- £38. Tank lasts for about 220 miles in London (and I cannot say, that I drive like a granny) to up to 260 miles when I went to Newcastle on Christmas. Power loss? Minimal, if any. On one hand, yes, it would be really nice to drive it on petrol and not to bother. On the other hand, the only difference I notice is green light inside vehicle and different place to put filling nozzle in. That's it...

Hey there everyone,

bought my IS200 almost half a year ago, already have 10000 miles done. To afford that I saw only one option- LPG. The difference in performance is minimum, and now I get about 240 miles for approximately £35. And that is not a granny style driving...