ubersonic

The ISF has a system called VDIM (Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management system) which among other things adjusts the weight of the steering based on vehicle speed.  From memory I know that Sport Mode adjusts VDIM, backing off stability and traction control (though not disabling them) however I cannot from memory recall if it also affects the weight of the steering.

If the car is an import, has it been converted to MPH? Because a badly done MPH/KPH conversion can leave some ECUs confused to the vehicles speed and result in quirks (I.E a JDM Honda refusing to engage VTEC in 1st gear) which theoretically could result in the speed sensitive power steering applying the wrong settings, and maybe even in only one driving mode (to be clear this is an explanation of something that is possible, not a claim that this is what's happening).

9 hours ago, hondansxr said:

guy selling it didn't have a clue !!!!

it was knocking on the front suspension , , he didnt know if it was limited to112 mph ??

sat nav was still in japanese..wheels scuffed ,  boot wouldnt open on boot button , stone chips on bonnet not even touched in .

In fairness unless he'd been round Silverstone in it or done something highly illegal on the M6 Toll he wouldn't know for sure if it could pass 112MPH 😛

As for the Sat Nav, I don't believe from memory that you can set the JDM ones to English (somebody please correct me if wrong) nor do I believe you can straight swap them for a UK one due to differing pinouts...

Boot not opening on button could be as simple as the button in the glove box that toggles that on/off being set to off, or as complex as a fault with the system.

9 hours ago, hondansxr said:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406221014257?sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_cars&make=Lexus&model=IS F&postcode=b774pl&fromsra

Personally I would be a bit wary of that for the price, looking at the advert I can see:

• It's an import which means it probably isn't going to hold value as well as a UK car (based of historic comparisons where the JDM version of a car is lower spec than the UKDM version, I.E MK4 Supra).
• The original Japanese owner didn't get the adaptive cruise option (not standard on JDM cars) which is usually desirable, and I think may also mean it has no collision prevention system either.
• The original Japanese owner didn't get the parking sensors option (not standard on JDM cars) which is usually desirable.
• There's no mention of the VP seal or the cam tensioner being done (two bills totalling £4-5k every ISF will face in it's lifetime).
• It's 15 years old with 66k miles on the clock which is touching the bottom being "too low" for the year so you would definitely want to see and check the FSH*.
• Either the original owner ordered it with base IS interior trim instead of ISF trim, or a subsequent owner swapped it out.

On the plus side though, the original Japanese owner did opt for the minidisc player option (cool), and skipped the sunroof option which means the roof is aluminium instead of steel.

*Miles being too low may sound crazy but it can be an issue with a Lexus because a lot of things like seals, etc will decay with both time and milage, this is why Lexus say to service it every year or 10k miles, whichever it comes first.  You often get issues where some Lexus owners simply say "Oh I only drove 3000 miles this year, I'll have it serviced next year", etc.  From 

Another thing is it's a 2015, so just like an ISF it's going to need the valley plate and the cam tensioners doing if they haven't been already and at that milage both will be on the horizon if not imminent, so that's the better part of £5k any potential buyer would need to set aside.

Went running to AT when I saw this thread, but.

"This car is a part exchange that we have just taken in, it is being sold as is on a trade sale basis for substantially below market value, we will not be preparing it or providing any warranty, this is NOT a retail sale."

I'm out lol.

For what it's worth, the other year I needed new tyres on my stock ISF wheels and so knowing I was going to be getting a set of Rays for summer use with their own tyres I opted to fit the stock wheels with a set of "Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3" (all season tyres) in stock sizing/rating that way I could run the Rays over summer and the stock rims in autumn/winter (UK winters aren't severe enough to warrant full winters over all seasons due to how poor winter tyres perform in rain).

Due to delays with the Rays not arriving until the autumn I ended up running the stock rims with the Goodyears over a summer, and in all honesty they are so good I would go as far as to say that if you have no plans to run your car on track regularly then just get a set of the Goodyears all seasons and don't bother with the faff off winter tyres/wheels.

They are a flat out better tyre in all weathers than the Bridgestone Potenza's Lexus try to push on us, and compared to the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S I used before and on my Rays they're so close in good weather that the only way you would notice a difference on the road would be if you were driving so irresponsibly that the police would arrest you on sight.  I actually ran the car at Santa Pod with the Vectors while waiting for my Rays and again with the the MPS4S on the Rays and over a 1/4 mile the difference was margin of error territory.  Obviously it goes without saying that the Vectors were in a different league in the two days of snow I had to deal with.

It was technically an option on all ISs in Japan.

You don't see it much on ISFs because this would be the equivalent of spec'ing up your RCF and saying "I'm not keen on the 19" RCF wheels, but I like the F-Sport ones in the RC brochure, how much extra are those?".

Japanese dealers will usually do whatever the customer wants within reason hence you see stuff like this.

9 minutes ago, GMB said:

This reminds me of the situation where you buy a used car and the insurance ask about modifications and you answer None.

• Insurance: Any mods?
• Customer: Nope
• Insurance: But you said it was imported, don't they need modifications to be road legal?
• Customer: You charge for those!?!
• Insurance: *laughs in banker*

44 minutes ago, jeffrosie6 said:

Facelift dash, but not converting to MPH 😕

Ahh sorry, I was just quoting the manual, maybe they just didn't add that feature to the JDM cars 😞

On 3/6/2024 at 9:44 PM, jeffrosie6 said:

Read about that in your thread. If I had the std type speedo, I probably would have gone that route. But as I already have the facelift speedo, was looking for a solution. 

Need to see if a speedo converter in the speed signal wire will work. Not too bothered as I'm using a HUD in mph.

Wait, you have the facelift digital speedo?

Press the button that switches between trip/odo so it shows the odometer not the trip count, then hold it down until the speedo switches between KPH/MPH

Simples 🙂

NB: This will also switch the units used by the multifunction display (I.E range in miles not km) but I figure you want that too.

*laughs in ISF*

(The Euro ISFs don't have TPMS, it was only mandatory on American cars back then as manufacturers still had faith in Euro/Jap drivers to check our tyres were up before driving the car).

8 hours ago, B1RMA said:

I guess it would depend on how much it weighs

Well the standard LBX is 1280KG for the FWD version and 1415KG for the AWD version, and that has a load of batteries weighing it down.  So even though the sporty one will have a slightly heavier engine and a sporty body kit it should come in under those numbers whichever powertrain Lexus use.

Personally I would prefer to see it electric or V8, putting such a weedy engine in a Lexus seems a bit weird, but from a reliability point of view it seems flat out wrong.

I would hope they just make it an F-Sport like they did with the IS500, as like with the 500 it would probably damage the F badge.

20 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Funny quirk with importing a car from Japan.

If you go and live there for at least a year, buy a car there and own it for at least six months then return to the UK with it you don’t have to pay any import duty and VAT.

So what you need is a mate who is going to work there for a year, get him or her to buy a nice ISF, bring it back with them and then sell it to you 😀

While a cool idea I can see two practical flaws (Ignoring the downsides of a JDM ISF as the upsides pretty much cancel each other out) at least under my understanding of the law.

Firstly, if he brought it back and then sold it to you at market value, that would exceed his personal tax allowance for the year, so he (meaning you) would need to pay tax on the remainder of the value (and he would also have the inconvenience of having zero tax allowance for the rest of the year.

If he sold it to you for considerably less than market value, then ISF's aren't going to go down in value so if you ever sold it on you would be on the hook for tax (or a considerable hit to your tax allowance) on the apparent profit made.

I could be understanding it wrong, and obviously the point was made more for comedy than an actual scheme suggestion 😛

1 hour ago, RichGS11 said:

Good price? Any damage caused to the injectors?

Great price, well in contrast to what I was expecting it to cost.  £1564 and that included replacing the radiator which needed doing anyway, but obviously price may vary from car to car and whatever crops up.  As far as injectors go I didn't get charged for one and the cars running great so I assume all good 🙂

As per recommendations I took the car (well, the RAC took the car) to Westfield Motors for the work.  Excellent service, would definitely recommend to anyone else who needs the VP resealed.  Very happy.

On 12/7/2023 at 11:03 PM, Grey One said:

This is what I have in my ISF: https://www.modinjapan.com/toms-racing-japan-air-cleaner-super-ram-ii-drop-in-air-filter-for-lexus-is-f-rc-f-and-gs-f-17801-tsr35-tms-17801-tsr35.html

Same, really easy to clean, sounds better than the OEM filter, and maybe makes an extra HP or two, all good

On 12/2/2023 at 1:59 PM, EP80 said:

Should your ISF have been an original UK supplied car with the black stereo surround

The 08's have grey stereo/dash, the ISF made the switch to black in 2009 as part of the overall 2IS facelift.

On 10/27/2023 at 11:33 PM, Jgtcracer said:

All, so ended up getting Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres from Camskill.

Pilot Sport 5 or Pilot Sport S 5? They're two different tyres.

The Pilot Sport S 5 is the successor to the Pilot Sport 4 S (which was the successor to the Pilot Super Sport).

The Pilot Sport 5 is the replacement to the Pilot Sport 4, which replaced the Pilot Sport 3, etc.   

Samiboost on YouTube uses that radiator, good reports if I recall.

On 10/9/2023 at 11:32 AM, ISF855 said:

Has regular Lexus service history from birth to 2023 with an approx 4 year gap with no service history available. This seems to be because they have no paperwork or record of work done besides where it's happened at Lexus. Thus it comes across as having a 4 year gap with no services. 

What's most likely happened is that the entire service history has been lost, and Lexus were only able to duplicate the paperwork and stamp a new book for the work done on the car by Lexus dealers.

Obviously that doesn't help with the issue, but it does explain it.

Are you planning on selling the HKS coils?

@northerndan

4 hours ago, NothernDan said:

Got a new car lined up and am selling all the stuff that isn't bonded on (or too much of a pain in the azzle to remove) on eBay. Listings start at 7:30 tonight.

Do you have a link to your listings page?

Thanks for the info guys, is this the right place yeah? https://www.westfieldmotors.co.uk/

Hey all,

Got home yesterday to discover coolant dripping from under the car.  Quick inspection today with a borescope reveals it's coming from the valley plate seal, yay.

I know some people in the UK have had this repair done so I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it cost you? And was it done by Lexus or a specialist?

Thanks in advance.

Nice car, looks a beauty 🙂

I've just ordered a set of ISF wiper/washer stalks from Japan, hopefully thye arrive first 😛

The biggest problem with dropping to 18" (aside from most wheels that look good on an ISF looking better in 19") is that unless you're okay with your tyre diameter/circumference (and thus your speedo/VDIM) being a bit out of whack then you have to fit 255/40/18 and 225/45/18 which means tyre choice is simply inferior to what you can get in 19".

11 hours ago, GMB said:

Looks really nice at first glance, but a bit of a high mileage.

That's average/regular mileage for a Lexus knocking on 16 years of age.

This is a high mileage ISF:

NB: That's obviously a joke, high mileage for an ISF is 200k+ that one is a well used outlier.