Linas.P

Yes, but imagine MOT centre has a rolling road for brake check adjusted for modern cars brakes and tyres, the old car won't pass the brake check, may even get damaged in process. Obviously, it depends on what cars are being checked, some classic car may be relatively modern in design and can be evaluated by modern methods, but others won't even have the same suspension components etc. Imagine 40 years from now, if they need to check emissions when all cars are electric and they don't even have equipment for ICEVs, same applies to old cars now where the yare made to the standards which would not pass current tests, or testers don't even know how to properly test them. So I think government just had to draw the line somewhere to say that after so many years the technology is so different we can't even evaluate it properly, if it survived 40+ years it must be good enough. Most countries has it and I think that is good thing - it supports car culture, because it would be nearly impossible to maintain classic car on the road if it would be checked every year based on modern standards. By making them exempt it protects those cars and promotes the ownership, but 40 years is too long, I feel 30 is more appropriate, that is usually when car values starts going-up again.

Yes, but that is why I said exempt/qualifying - if one does not want to use authorised dealer and they do maintenance themselves (or doesn't do it at all) then they have to continue doing MOT on exiting rules, the infrastructure already exist for that.

I will be devils advocate here, but if the tyre could be rendered unsafe "in minutes", then what is the difference if they are checked every 1 or every 2 years? As for starting point of inspection it is kind of hard to say. For example in my experience doing MOT on my RC was waste of time, it was literally in perfect condition and always services at Lexus, the MOT centre didn't even need to take the car in to conclude that it was like it looked like. So perhaps it should be certain criteria which should qualify car for "exemption of national testing" e.g. if car is maintained by authorised dealership service schedule, then it is exempt for first 5 years, but if car is not maintained then MOT becomes mandatory after 2 years. Or something along those lines.

2 years MOT (equivalents) is fairly standard across Europe, but I would say that in many European countries people take different approach to vehicle maintenance. As well MOT is joke compared to TUV for example, so yes Europeans mostly do tech inspection every 2 years but it is much more rigorous. I personally would welcome it, just one less thing to worry about every year and my car is in good condition anyway, but not sure that applies to all. In other hand I am not sure 1 year or even monthly MOT would change anything - people who runs their cars on shoe strings will continue to do so anyway. For example how many times one looks at car MOT and sees same advisory for 6 years in a row? This is just approach some owners takes and nothing will change it. As well not sure what is the issue with 40 years rule for classic cars (most of Europe has 30 years rule, some countries even 25). Point is - 30 years old cars are unsafe by design, so there is no point in testing them every years just to conclude that new car brakes better with single working brake than classic car on all 4. The design is such that most of test on them is not applicable anyway.

(I think it is RX in the picture, but same place on IS), it should have cover on it as well if never been used before. Kind of helps to lay down on your back in footwell for the first time until you figure which way it goes in. Try not to push it too hard either as it may go into the panel and then difficult to fish it out. Yes the car should be drivable, I mean I would try to avoid it if possible, but that is being overly cautious. You will need app for OBD2 adapter, I think Torque is free to scan, but I believe you need to buy Pro version for like £6 to clear the codes.

It is actually quite hard to get certain professional detailing products in many countries (Koch Chemie - I consider "professional grade" lol), in which case I suggest trying to find online detailers store, it may even be in another country, but they often have free shipping in Europe if you buy for 50 Euro+. And that isn't really difficult to achieve - GS is surprising cheap (good value -hence very popular), but dash UV protection will be like 15 Euro, set of soft interior brushes another 10, pack of microfibers cloths another 10 and suddenly you at 50. In UK I am using in2detailing as they often have good prices and you can always use cheeky discount code (DW10) for 10% off, not sure if they ship to Europe or anywhere else in the world (but I guess with brex**** that would not work very well).

First of all 15k kilometres servicing is just not good practice, yes I know that in UK people tend to do it every 10k miles because manufacturers rounded it like this to make it easier to understand and more appealing for fleet managers. As well I guess it gives this false sense of "care free motoring" for society where many people only ever owns cars for 3-5 years and do not care what happens to the cars after that. However, from purely maintenance point of view 6k miles is the most one should do between oil changes if they care about keeping the engine in good condition. There is as well time aspect - so if car does 40k miles in a year, it would be acceptable to do 4 services every 3 month/10k miles, but if car only did 5k miles in a year it would be best to still replace oil after 1 year. Then there is the engine cycles vs. miles - cars which on short drives should get their own changes more often, than ones which do longer journeys. In fact even Lexus maintenance manual clearly states that - only "lightly" used cars qualifies for 10k miles extended service, all other cars must be services more often - every 6k or even every 3k miles. What is considered heavy use is for example driving in traffic, so almost no cars in UK qualifies for extended service, but most of them only get that. I agree that Lexus allowances are a bit wild and that engine would be effectively toast before it ever reaches this point, but we not talking about 1L/600miles in this case and I am yet to see IS250 which burns so much oil. In my case car was burning 0.6L from the time I bought it with 122k miles and pretty much done the same all the way to 200k. I estimate by 200k miles it burned ~1L between services, but I never cared about it because I always did oil change every 6k miles and it was rarely significant enough that I would have to top-up. On few occasions I added like 0.4l at 5k miles, but then did the oil change 1k miles later anyway.

Yes that would do, or as others suggested Bluetooth module + phone app. From my personal experience I have seen this because of gearbox solenoids performance, because of oxygen sensor, battery voltage, I have seen the case where the battery box was removed and battery temp sensor was close to exhaust and this triggered battery temp code, it could even be something like momentary misfire (although that should clear after 3 starts if error does not repeat). But I would not want to guess and lead you onto wrong path before you have the code, as the code would give you more definitive area to look at.

You need to read the codes and see what code you get - check VSC can mean literally million different things.

No - it was like 4 or 5 AM at night, and there were no roadworks. My assumption - they planned to start roadworks in that stretch of the road at some point, somebody came and installed average speed cameras before works actually started and turned them on despite there being no road works and no workers.

It would be very funny, if not for reality in UK where such think could ruin lives... If not for SAP 3 points on license can mean not being able to afford insurance or even losing job... and why - just to protect "road workers" who are not even there!

Yes, that is correct. As well this guidance only applies to stationary "spot" cameras, whereas some police forces allows discretion for the officer if they have like "speed trap" and it does not apply to average speed. I have been done for 2MPH over on motorway in the middle of the night, because there were "roadworks" and speed was limited to 50MPH, there were no cones, no workers, just the sign at the beginning of it... and I didn't brake just let the car to slow down... thus did 52MPH in the first zone of average speed on literally empty 4 lane 70MPH motorway and got fine. Lucky for me it was eligible for SAP.

Agreed, but when the difference between £600 and £2800 a year, those mod have to be substantial and expensive enough to justify it. As I said - only declare cosmetic mods if you want them to be insured, most of the time it just isn't worth the money. Like what is the point of paying £2200 more every year for bumper which costs £600 in the first place? Obviously, it is good if one lives away from the city and difference in the cost of insuring the cars is between £220 and £280, but at least for me declaring and insuring mods was never realistic possibility. That said I never had substantial modifications which would warrant declaring them in my opinion, but there are people on the this forum who have declared that they have replaced interior bulbs, or parking lights with matching LED ones and have their insurance declined for that reason! Just shows how declaring something that does not need to be declared can hurt.

Not how it works on normal insurance. Basically, when you quote for insurance brokers runs your application past multiple underwriters, all underwriters have certain condition e.g. no claims in last 2 years, 5 years NCB, over 25 etc. etc. Simple truth, many underwriters outright refuse to insure modified cars. So when you do price comparison if you say that your car modified, you automatically ruling out like half of cheapest underwriters and basically limit your choice to only those underwriters who specialise in modified cars or have special conditions for modified cars and tends to be more expensive. So for example if you choose to insure the car without mentioning it is modified you may get eSure as a cheapest quote for say £600 (that is what I would consider a "good price" in London) and BRENTACRE may be there at the bottom for £2800 (they would not because they are not part of comparison sites, but the underwriters who insure modified cars in general). However if you directly just quote BRENTACRE, then yes the price will be the same regardless. So modified cars cost more to insure not because some underwriter increases the price, but because most underwriters who charge reasonable prices just simply refuses to touch the car with barge pole, or quotes stupid price just to get rid of you. If the car is heavily modified and likely have loads of money spent on it, then the specialist insurance is the only way to go, but if somebody makes minor mod for the car and self-sabotages their own chances of getting insurance for decent price then it is bad idea.

I don't say that is "viable" way. But technically one can fit such tyre which would make speedo more or less correct. As that was the question I answered it, but I don't think such tyres would fit the car. Other thing - many people actually don't know that speedos always under-reads and drives in outside lane at 66MPH and get annoyed when I overtake them. Or drive in the city consistently at exactly 26MPH causing unnecessary delays.

I guess you put it in quotes, because they "f-sport" look alike? I didn't know there was actually difference between pre-face lift and face-lift grilles, would be interesting to know what they are. As well I could not find any f-sport grille below £140, even the aftermarket ones. Unless you literally mean like "mesh" grilles.

Sound like clutch? I am assuming it is manual.

How much was it, because ebay sellers want laike £140-£180... It definitely looks much better, I am looking to do this to my car once mechanical part is complete

It would be good if you create separate thread for it as that way it would get more appropriate responses. What you have here is well known Lexus IS mk2 issue starting to manifests itself - that is so called "sticky dash". It is caused by overheating interior trim in sunlight and could get especially bad if somebody uses wrong product. There is no real solution, but it is possible to make it noticeably better and delay the process - in your case I am sure you can make dash to look as new. To address this I used alkaline APC to clean the panel from any oils and dirt - like Koch Chemie GS (in 1:10 ratio with water), or Bilt Hamber Surfex HD (probably in 1:30), overall any APC in right concentration would do. Just agitate it with interior brush and wipe dry with microfiber. This should remove the uneven shine, stickiness and oxidation - so do it until you have even matte finish. Then apply some form of protection, like Gtechniq C6 Matte Dash for nice matte finish. I have even used Gtechniq T1 Tyre Gel few times, worked well to restore badly faded trim, but it leaves more shiny surface and it is harder to get even application. It used to be called "Tyres and Trim" and yes I know intention of the product was exterior trim, but because Lexus dash and doors uses kind of rubberised plastic it works relatively well and it provides protection from UV. Just be careful not to sling it anywhere else. @J Henderson - I typed my answer and then realised you have already said pretty much the same thing - so I just second that!

Absolute nonsense. All cars of all makes burns some oil, before 100k miles it is usually so little that it is not noticeable between the services, but the more miles car has the more likely is to burn more oil. IS250 is not exception and it is just about average compared to other cars in this regard. Now sure - Toyota have used "low tension" rings on their petrol engines since like 1998 (and till uses them), in fact most DI petrol engines uses them, and these rings have tendency to let more oil through as they wear, but in other hand they improve fuel efficiency significantly as they create less drag. Rebuilding the engine because it burns ~2L of oil between the services is ridiculous suggestion. As well, mileage is kind of wrong measurement here as most of the wear is causes by starting cold engine, so better measurement would be "engine cycles". As such 60k miles car in the city with 6000 engine cycles will burn more oil that car with 120k miles which was used on longer trips and maybe has only 2000 engine cycles. My advice for Jack would be simply to make sure correct amount of oil is added this time and monitor it for next 6000 miles (that would be my recommended service interval), if car requires more than 1L of top-up, then consider using higher quality oil (fully-synthetic like Edge, Magnatec is hydrocracked-synthetic)... well or simply keep some oil in the car (I know - revolutionary idea... who would ever thought about that!).

But that would be fitted instead of the badge, so I assume it would be quite obvious when replacing the grille?

Yes same car behind the grille. The only difference is that in the air intake there is acoustic chamber which allows more intake noise into the cabin.

So far the amount of oil being burnt is well within spec. i.e 1.8L over 7000 miles isn't a problem.

Yes codes could be related to exhaust leak, but not the engine oil.

The effect of oil additives is pretty clear, but what makes you believe fuel additive does anything?