mk_lon

Quick update here, I managed to transplant the motor and the plastic housing from the 2nd hand eBay mirror to my car. However I faced following the challenges;

1. The wing mirror casing is an absolute **** to get back on. Even after 1hour it wasn't flush and still has a small gap to the side of if... I gave up

2. All these videos on YouTube make it look easy to put the glass back on the plate...just click into place.... That took almost an hour and even then its loose on the bottom right corner right now. 

The good news is that the mirror now tilts and slides again and is moving in all directions... 

Worth mentioning that the mirror I got from eBay was missing the black plastic socket which connects wiring to it (see image). 

Also I noticed that the mirror glass was aftermarket and missing some wiring too. 

Minus the gap, loose corner and the best part of 3 hours getting wound up, it's working again.....Now I remember why I have been avoiding this for the last 2 years... 

Do let us know how you get on, I'm tempted to upgrade mine too but given my recent mirror motor disaster I have to think twice before I go near the car 

It looks really impressive, great work on the lighting. I agree the boot lightning is pretty poor 

Ha ha small world, I reckon it probably is. I will keep posted on this adventure 😆

So I took apart the wing mirror today to understand how the plastic plate snapped and I found the answer.... It turned out that the previous owner had glued the plate to the the mirror glass.... DOH! 

awaiting the 2nd mirror for an attempted transplant. The back is ridiculously fiddly to take off... 

Hi Vlad, 

Sounds like a major pain in the arse, hats off to you for trying. I literally just bought a red passenger wing mirror for an is250 /is220d for £30.

I will play with it when I get it, but after reading what you wrote, I fear I may have bitten off more than I can chew... 

Hey Vlad, 

Thank you for the advice and tip regarding the nut. 

I will have to buy a wing mirror off eBay and try to fit it. 

It looks like I need transplant the inner plate and motors of the mirror to get it back to former glory. 

Am I right in thinking the inner motor and plate is the same on either side of the mirror? 

Hey Guys, 

Im a big fan of this forum, it has helped me on many occassions over the years - A big thank you to all who have contributed 😁. 

My passanger side wing mirror on my is250 sel auto stopped moving left to right about two years ago as did the auto tilt function but did go up and down. Recently it started tiliting again when put into R so I thought there must be some dirt in it as I have read on this forum.

Im pretty useless when it comes to DIY so after a year of putting off this task for 2 years I finally decided to attempt it. I saw the guide from is200 Newbie which was written as a step by step guide with pictures. What could go wrong I thought .... 

I printed it out and began by popping out the glass as written. I noticed it was super stiff so I applied more force gently .....(so i thought). Then the mirror popped out with a loud click followed by the two motors flying out landing on my driveway.......after a couple of swearwords i looked and found the plastic back plate edge (with the poppers) had snapped off....

As it was open I thought I might as well clean the inside up given it had dead spiders and flys, I then swapped the two motors around turned on the ignition and found one of them was dead. Also a cable which had popped out refused to go back in. 

I have attached the pictures too. My neighbour who used to be a mechanic said I could probable use silicone and it could repare it and managed to push it back in with one motor.

Do you think I need to get a 2nd hand wing mirror from eBay or get a new motor, use silicone and repair it. All opinions and answers welcomed.

Kindest regards,

Mo

Mine has always had the steamy windows issue, I first noticed this when I bought it 5 years ago, when I went to the supermarket, parked up and returned with the shopping to find all the windows steamed up. 

My 07 plate had under surface rust badly accordingly the local dealer when it went in for a recall 3 years ago, which worried me a lot. 

My local indy where I get it serviced looked at it and said there is nothing to worry about and it's normal for the age. Never had a problem so far.... 

Nice little video, I like the graphics too. Welcome to the forum theres loads of great tips and advice here 

I live in London and have never got more than 20mpg in town despite driving like a granny 

I had Mintex, never had a problem with them

I have attached a diagram showing where the problem lies, hopefully that should clear it up

And now it's quoted a different paragraph from the thread above 

On 3/30/2019 at 1:50 PM, baviaannl said:

Trust me, you're about to loose your backbox, my symptoms were exactly the same as yours.  Do you know someone handy at welding?  Get him to investigate, this will save you a fortune

Yes it's not a picture of my car, my Appologees but my phone didn't alert me when the thread was updated thus I didn't reply.

14 minutes ago, johnatg said:

which must be the ones between the manifolds and front section

Hi John, Paul & Ken,

For some strange reason my phone hasn't alerted me to the posts on this thread so apologies to the radio silence. The image I posted was from google images and not the actual car. 

John you are correct in stating that its the gasket joint between the manifold and the front. I'll try and take a proper picture at some point today if I can reach it. 

Kind regards,

Mo

2 hours ago, johnatg said:

Hmm...maybe a bit more damage than I had envisaged. Beware of spending too much on patching up a disintegrating exhaust - such repairs rarely last more than a few months at best. Better to spend some money on replacement - but the centre section is expensive, even to get fabricated - I assume it is the centre section and not the manifolds where the damage is? (The manifolds are the pieces directly ahead of the joints you describe - they also contain a cat each.)

Hi John, That is exactly my fear...it will only last a few months, I'll just have to wait and see. 

1 hour ago, Texas said:

That is prob what is gonna happen if this job is taken on but at the time to the customer it was probably 'bigged up' a bit to make it sound like it was an involved job! You know the score. And yes if you or I were there then we would have questioned this procedure.

paul m.

Very true with places I have used in the past, I feel I should share my experience of the Indy, their labour rates are not the cheapest but whenever they change parts they usually give you back the old ones in bag. Quite often they haven't charged me for small jobs over the years. In 2015 when I bought the car privately I took it in for a recall at Lexus. Lexus came back with a list of things to change after their free check, ranging from aircon clean to underside being very corroded and having a very expensive treatment on it. 

My local Indy checked it and said not to bother with the list, as things pointed out can last a lot longer, also the corrosion is expected for a car of this age and change the calipers on the front next year, as you can get another 6 months out of them due to the low mileage you do, in the meanwhile get warranty wise and they will pay for the calipers - which they did. 

Despite being a merc/bmw specialist they recommended me to buy an IS250 in 2015. Quote "BMW/Mercs are not built like they used to anymore, so unless your buying new I'd stay clear of them, can't go wrong with a Lexus". To this day I have never had any problems with car bar the recent exhaust and calipers.

3 hours ago, johnatg said:

Why cut the pipes and weld? Why not just cut the nuts and bolts off with an angle grinder or hacksaw, replace the gaskets and use new (preferably stainless) nuts and bolts? (I don't think that they are captive studs - just normal nuts and bolts)

That would take a lot less than two hours and be altogether a lot less effort - and a better job!

Valid point - Worth mentioning when I saw it, the pipe had rusted through and created quite a long(ish) vertical hole roughly spanning the height of it thus the gasget on one side had a gap between the pipe from the cat to the joint. 

1 hour ago, Texas said:

So now you have 'invested' in fixing the calipers and exhaust then it should serve you a good while yet and I would not be thinking about selling now its 'sorted', if you had a BM or a Merc you'd be spending like this a lot more often I know. Enjoy...

Note: that is prob gonna be the cheapest fix for a 12 year old exhaust problem!

paul m.

 

Very true, I was thinking that. I totally agree that a BMW 3 series (e90) or Merc c class (w204) would be a money pit right now with a catalog of problems.

On 3/30/2019 at 1:45 PM, baviaannl said:

Makes a lot of sense, the 2 years prior to my purchase, the car had only managed 3-4k miles so I'd imagine it was being used as a local run around obviously not getting up to the kind of temperatures to fix the condensation.  My backbox fell off on 26th December, I had it welded back a few days after that and a full service on 4th January, it's now running as quiet and smooth as you could imagine although mine is very well looked after, it had been serviced by Lexus exclusively as well as having all work done by them (must of been on a Lexus plan throughout it's life)  I've said it before, the IS250 is a fantastic drive, really enjoy driving it.

Very true, low miles in the IS250 is bad news in the long run...

Hi Guys, 

I took it in the morning first thing to my local Indy, they put up on a ramp and showed me. It turns out the left side exhaust gasket (after the cat) has completely rusted and there is a gap between the two pipes. The one on the right is rusted and will develop a hole soon too.

They said gasket parts shouldn't be much but the labour will be a couple of hours as they have to cut the pipe as the bolts are rusted through and wield it 😞 

I asked about the rest of the exhaust as it look pretty rusty. They said given I only do about 4000 miles a year, I should be able to get another year out of it at least. They usually do Mercs and BMW. They said minus exhaust & brake issues these cars have bullet proof engines, you can't go wrong with a Toyota engine as long as you maintain it.

I love the IS250 SEL, its a beautiful drive and has tons of kit, but given I have spent around £3k+ in 3 years (via my local Indy + Jan19 change rear calipers), I fear even bigger bills are around the corner ..... Thus I may be forced to change it soon.

Ps Thank you all for the advice and sharing your experiences - you have all helped so much. 

Kind regards,

Mo 

23 hours ago, Texas said:

No Problem......and no matter how good their coffee & biscuits are the telephone number bill at the end of day is gonna hurt!

So having spent a good bit of money on it then if you continue to 'keep on top' of niggles then it's gonna last you a good long while yet I would like to think. Shame about having to replace the calipers ( pads and discs are expected) as this is preventable if inspected/cleaned/lubed on a regular basis ( even though it is not a Lexus service item)

paul m.

I must admit they have some of the best coffee and biscuits I have seen in a while. I usually get my is250 serviced at my local independent garage. Despite that I have managed to spend 3k on it in the past 3 years... And now I'm dreading the exhaust issue. 

Even my local indy won't grease the pins (annoying) 

Hi Guys, 

Thank you for coming back to me on this. Paul you correct about the fluid from the exhaust and it sounds like there is a hole somewhere - I was dreading this as I just replaced the rear calipers and was hoping not to spend anymore. I have noticed an increase in the last year of engine oil consumption and noticed that the coolant almost ran out in Oct18, initially I thought it was the water pump and/or a leak but since I topped it up I have never had a problem. 

 Scouslexus - Thank you for the advise, I fear mine will probably end up going down the same route...

I have spent almost 3k since I bought it in 2015, mostly wear and tear (brakes, discs, calipers) but I suppose with the age it should be expected.

Thank you once again for the advice, I dont know where I would be without this forum...... probably sitting in a dealer service area feeling depressed looking at a massive bill lol