Linas.P

Yes interesting, so in his case it was fuel pressure sensor, which I kind of tried to diagnose but could not completely do it due to it requiring 5V to do the test which I can't provide. The other thing I read was that simply unplugging the sensor should allow to start the car in the "limp" mode, but in my case it didn't start. The behaviour was slightly different - with sensor plugged in it starts and immanently stalls, with sensor unplugged it doesn't start at all, just cranks indefinitely and by itself. In either case, my sensor is plugged in and unplugging it, clearing the codes and plugging it back on didn't make a difference. As well it seems that I have fuel pressure, but it would be good idea to do what he did and see if it gets to 588-1900Psi when cranking. Interestingly he didn't do anything with B2799, I assume he just cleared that DTC and it did not appear again.

How about all pre-reg deal, I know Lexus was doing this for years and there are many models in odd years, before they were even made. Is that not an option i.e. that because you bought the car under old list price and it get's registered for 2021 Q2 (71 plate)?

Yeah - have the description, the problem is that one needs oscilloscope to check the signal between ECU and ID box. But I guess it still means it could be either out of sync ECU + ID Box, something to be fixed by reset or actual harness issue, which requires identifying faulty wires somehow?

Seems to me that it is either EGR sticking or DPF starting to regenerate when you getting up-to speed/revs/temp - regular EGR maintenance ~every 3000-6000 miles would be good preventative measure as otherwise it causes rest of the parts to fail that follow (turbo and DPF). DPF regen is just part of embarrassing diesel ownership, but in itself it is normal process and actually necessary to clean all the dirt which accumulates in DPF.

Yes, I have used the key blade for most of the time in last coupe of weeks, because I have removed battery for charging few times. As well when I go through key registration wizard I get error saying "key is already registered". And there is separate wizard which checks all key amplifiers (which to my surprise are like 9 different spots in the car), basically you select the spot and bring the key somewhere close and car beeps. I checked most of amplifiers and my key beeps, so it is definitely registered to the car and recognised.

From what I am reading there is master key to ID Check Box, which remains on the box no matter what, then there could be many more keys registered. Basically if Master key is lost then the only option is to change the ID Check Box and buy all new keys. I have checked again with Techsteam and the only thing I get in summary is that there are 2 keys registered and 5 more slots in memory for keys to be registered. But it does not give me details of what the 2 keys are, obviously I have one of them. As well I have checked ID Check Box to Steering lock connection (Techstream provides the wizard to do this) and it works fine, which is in line with expectations i.e. immobiliser light goes off and steering unlocks as it should. But then there is separate wizard to check "remote engine start" which I assume is connection between ECU and Certification ECU and this test fails - again in line with the issue I am getting - because if Certification ECU does not certify the key then ECU cuts the fuel to the engine. Now in terms of this second connection it could be just programming error, although I have no clue how that could have happened considering car worked in the past or it could be actually bad connection. The first issue in theory could be caused by jump starting the car and connecting and re-connecting the battery, which definitely have happened many times to this car recently and it should be fixable by the trick you posted above (jumping pin4 and 13 on OBD port). The second issue will be pain to diagnose and again I am a bit confused as to how it was working all fine and suddenly connection between two ECUs are broken. I am wondering if there is any possibility that washing could have caused it e.g. car has sunroof and maybe if drain is clogged it could flood harness or Certification ECU? I am just speculating but I have heard similar stories on other cars in the past where such critical components are placed in strategically idiotic places e.g. on Audi Q7 if sunroof leaks that is exactly what happens - it floods stereo amp and if you unlucky enough then body ECU as well, which controls central locking.

Basically my concern with above reset is that it removes the keys and leaves only master key, because I don't know if the only key I have is master it would be too risky to do for me. If it fails and I happen to have only sub-key, then the only option would be to get new ID Box with new keys from Lexus, which is £2000 in parts only. Although in other hand that may already be the only option anyway.

That is quite interesting. Maybe somebody know is there is a way to do the same in techstream? I have looked at few examples of this "trick" and they mention that dealer can do it on their programming tool, which is basically something similar to techstream, so maybe would be a bit fancier way of achieving the same. Actually thinning about it, on thing which I remembered now - once I got the car from auction the OBD2 port was pushed into the dash, I kind of needed to fish it out. This indicated that somebody were clearly using the port. I wonder if this happened before and they maybe reset ECU with this method, so it ran for some time, but then went back into where it was?!

No that is if immobiliser doesn't recognise the key i.e. the key battery is low and immobiliser light remains on. I have actually tried that just in case and replaced battery in key, but that doesn't work.

I assume conversion would not be that difficult.... more or less bolt on? Looking at your cars you can do that just foe giggles and have SC460 + GS430 😄

Yes, I would have thought so as well, but I have read at least for 3 people with B2799 code it was exactly like for me - car was driving fine, parked and it won't start again. I was trying to test for short somewhere, going with the theory of loose wire in harness or something and I am not sure what normal reading should be, when car is locked/unlocked I have about ~0.6A draw which doesn't sound that bad, with ACC-ON it jumps and settles ~7.92A is that normal? And finally with IG-ON it is ~20A+, sometimes drops to ~18-19A, sadly my multi-meter is only rated for 10A and only displays 20A max. I waited for ~3-4 min to see if it drops down, but wires were starting to get warm and it was still ~20A+. Again - I am uncertain what the draw should be with with IG-ON and whenever this indicates massive short or is it just normal considering all electric gizmos in the car? I mean my next step is to test Certification ECU and ID chip circuits to best of my ability (I can't do oscillometer stuff), but just wondering if there is something obvious that is shorting everything. The final, think I am a bit worried about is that I only have one key and I am not sure if it is master key i.e. if it is not master and somehow something got corrupted in Certification ECU for sub-key IDs it may not be recognising the key properly.

I am still stuck where I was, but finally got Techstream working and got one code which OBD2 reader didn't show and it cant be cleaner. B2799 - that is Immobiliser error. The examples of car with such error looks exactly like mine - cars would crack but won't start. As well few people reporting it appeared from nowhere e.g. they decided to move the car to different parking sport, car was driving fine and then suddenly it won't start - exactly like it was for me! Just to be very clear - my key works, it lock and unlocks the car, when I turn the IG-ON immobiliser light on the dash goes-off so it seems like car is recognising the key and turning off the immobiliser. Looking at some other people trying to diagnose it, it could be linked to bad ground which in result interrupts communication between ECU and ID chip (immobiliser) - again what of the thing I was suspecting, but difficult to diagnose. I don't want to jump the gun here, but it matches my issue quite well, so it may be it!

Ohh and one more thing - contemporary BMW and MB nowadays are smoking pile of crap, with absolutely everything broken and nothing working. I was in the market for SL500 few months ago, looked at maybe 5 or 6 of them and they were all in absolutely horrible shape. I went there with OBD scanner and with paint gauge, but never even took them out of the backpack, the cars were so obviously rough that I needn't to use any damn gauges to tell it from miles away. And that is where SC430 comes with excellent reliability and very little maintenance needed to be honest. BMW and MBs would last as well, but to maintain them one would have spent £2k a year consistently. To maintain SC is as much as dealer charges for the service, following service plan (plugs, belts, pump) and maybe odd set of tyres, brake pads and disks - that is all! Just so much easier to keep in good mechanical condition overall.

To be fair to them - when they looked at it they looked at it from perspective of it being brand new £60k+ car and going against the likes of contemporary BMW 6 series and MB SL/CL. Which likely costed less, were better styles for contemporary taste, were more practical, better driving etc. etc. So in that sort of comparison SC didn't make sense. But like 10 years later, one could have SC for half price of what same vintage MB or BMW was going for and generally well under £10k... so with that in consideration it suddenly becomes very good value for money and a lot of car. Besides I would argue the style which was questionable at the time actually aged rather well and another thing - many appreciating classic cars are not appreciating because they were good in contemporary setting, but actually opposite - because they were weird or quirky in certain way, especially if not many were fold. So SC matches this aspect quite well - rare, not liked at the time, quirky etc. I think with time it is only going appreciate more.

Yes - just google "Lexus IS250 Android Sat-Nav" and there are many options that pop-up e.g. something like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324768903952 I have no affiliation with above and I don't even know if it is any good, but what I know for sure - it will be many times better than existing Sat-Nav, it will obviously going to have full phone integration, Android auto, latest maps from Google-Maps etc. etc. One must be carefull to make sure it is compatible as there are different model required for ML, non-ML, and car without sat-nav. They come in many different shapes and forms and functionality sets as well.

Please don't confuse what I am saying. Paint harness is not the same as thing as matching the paint colour or making the car look good. I believe you - you took the car to some place and they matched the paint perfectly and it looked better than original. Great! Expect that paint they applied would be very very soft (or clear coat to be more precise) and from detailing perspective polishing repainted car is a lot more difficult, than polishing original paint, it is harder to finish well (because it is soft) and it scratches more easily. So basically, it is not as "good" paint from maintenance perspective as the original paint from the factory. And that is even if the paint job is actually good, which lets be honest here - rarely the case. This again probably more specific to car detailing - the harder is the clear coat, the better. Sure one may need to use coarser compound/pad to cut the scratches (that is generally not an issue), but it finishes very easily to perfect gloss and it stays glossy for longer. Soft paint is easier to cut, but much harder to finish well (hence Sonax Perfect Finish is what I use on Black Lexus) and it is much easier to scratch, so the finish don't last as long. For example paint on the my old IS250 (which was repainted) was so soft that sometimes I would scratch when just buffing off the polish with MF cloth, so I had to have separate brand new very soft "edgeless" MF cloths specifically just to wipe-off after polishing. And the paint job I go was relatively good, car looked great, didn't have orange peal and they even applied extra layers of clear coat to make the paint look "deeper". So again - the key difference is that paint they use in factory is different from the aftermarket paint used for respray and as far as I know there is no way of getting such paint finish outside of the factory. I am not saying it is not possible at all, but I have never seen repainted panel which would have same harness as factory paint.

2007 model would have old CD updates, because it was before the sat-nav had HDD. I really don't believe CD/DVD updates are supported anymore, or if 2018 maps are even compatible/genuine. Besides one can fit whole new unit with android auto and google maps and everything for ~£250-£350, so paying 165EUR just for maps update doesn't sound that great.

Sadly above is true, with no work or worries any smartphone will be 10 times better in any imaginable aspect rendering map updates kind of pointless. I know this is not answering the question on when ever there are never maps, but maybe explain general cold feeling towards this topic.

I would vote for SC430 as well, styling is questionable, but V8 is what you want in convertible for sure. On top of that - although controversial now I thing it will be future classic. There is nothing wrong with IS250C, but it is not on the same level as SC, it is still 2-seater and V6 does not sound that well even at the best of the times, if anything from outside it sounds a bit like diesel because of injectors ticking and if driving with the roof down is at all important, then engine noise is kind of important as well. As far as equipment goes - both have very similar specs, IS has slightly more responsive automatic with paddle shifters, but hardly enough to make a difference. IS was as well slightly more modern back in 2006, but by now both are pretty old-school. V6 in IS250 is definitely LESS reliable than V8 in SC430. 4GR-FSE is lovely engine and I really like it, but as far as Lexus engines goes it is one of less reliable engines. The only three engines which are less reliable are 3GR-FSE, 2AD-FHV and 2AD-FTV... sure there is massive gap between reliability of 4GR-FSE and say 2AD-FHV, one being great, but not excellent and other being absolute piece of trash. But if we say majority of Lexus engines are 10/10 (including rather excellent 3UZ-FE in SC/LS/GS430), then large group is 9/10 (2GR-FSE in IS/GS350), then there are less reliable ones like 8/10 (4GR-FSE, 3GR-FSE) and finally there is 2AD-FHV which is literally 0/10 and improved version of it 2AD-FTV is just marginally better, but not much more than 3/10. So SC430 is MORE reliable, but when it comes to cost of maintenance it kind of depends of what you consider maintenance. Sure it will be less efficient, so more fuel, more expensive insurance, higher road tax, more litres of oil used etc. So cost of ownership on SC430 is higher, but cost of mechanical maintenance overall is going to be similar if not less. Other thing - spare parts would be more expensive on SC430, because it shares very little with other Lexus models, IS250C in large part can use most parts from IS250/220d, meaning there are a lot of spare parts for them and they are cheaper.

And that is most annoying thing... because resprayed paint is always softer (even softer than soft Lexus paint). So I would argue that achieving last 5% is simply impossible or at very least not practical, because it would mean making 95% of the paint worse to get 5% better.

They always try that, but anything that broke at their premises and that was not broken before it entered their premises is their fault (legally). Obviously within reason, it would difficult to blame them for blowing the engine on which they didn't even work, but if their job was undoing wheel nut and they broke the stud, then it is definitely their fault. I think it is not the cost of the parts, but rather overall time sourcing the right part, getting it delivered and occupying shop space with extra car for a day, which they are trying to avoid. My worst example was the insurance bodyshop which was repairing my car after accident, part of repair included refurbishing wheels and replacing tyres... when handling over car back to me the guy told me "one stud broke, so we put some hermetic on the nut and put it in place for now"... as you can imagine this made my face green, then purple for the moment, but I manage to composed myself after like 10 seconds and asked politely: "so you are saying you broke the stud and instead of replacing £5.74+VAT part (on overall £2800 repair), you have glued the nut using hermetic glue, which means this glue will have to be scraped now from newly refurbished £500 worth wheel and scraped from the nut and then I have to fix the broken stud myself - that sounded like right thing to do for you?! .... I appreciate the honesty, but what you going to do now - get the wheel cleaned or refurbish it again if needed, order new nut, new stud, replace them and then comeback, otherwise I am not signing-off repair".

I think the point that at the age of ICVs building the brand of reliability was exceptional, but at the age of EVs this is likely to be much less of achievement. However... looking at how horrible are Teslas I am not sure I agree either, in other hand Tesla is not car company - so perhaps we need to way for proper manufacturers to really focus on this market. I honestly don't know because it never interested me, but for example are BMW i3s or Nissan Leafs (sort of last gen BEVs) are known for a lot of issues? And as to why they would merge - well that is hypothetical answer to this topic. Practically Toyota and Lexus cars are far too close in quality and equipment now to necessitate having Lexus as separate brand. As I said above, I would simply make sure that is not the case rather than merging brands, but looking at CT, UX or ES I really don't see why Lexus brand is needed, on other hand looking at LC and LS I really appreciate it existing.

And that is exactly a reason why brands like Lexus exists - to serve the people for whom the car is more than just that. As such it is very important to maintain "purity" of the brand to justify it's existence, and if such brands starts to make too basic, too boring and too unexciting car then indeed it becomes race to the bottom at which point one may argue the cheapest is the best and thus Dacia wins. For me it seems that Toyota should focus on value - i.e. delivering most dependable, reliable and simple car in the market niche where the volumes are the highest.. I guess at this point it would be some sort of PHEV/BEV/HCEV small SUV and they should build them in millions to make the profits and the margins whilst selling them at affordable price. Which is kind of what they are doing, but I would argue their prices are not low enough. Whereas Lexus should focus at various niches where volumes are low, but expectations are high - coupe, convertible, limos, large luxury SUVs.. which again they were kind of doing, but then they introduced few questionable models which really diluted the brand, IS220d, CT200h, IS mk3 when launched with a lot of very very basic trim levels and generally speaking Lexus trim levels makes no sense to this day. They kind of undecided if they are in Luxury game or not. So unless you take Takumi or F-Sport + Takumi then sometimes really basic and questionable things are missing. I mean even leather isn't real leather in most trims and that to me is not a sign of Luxury car.

Detailing ≠ washing/cleaning. Detailing is hobby which involves various degrees of OCD, you either care about it and you want to dedicate certain part of your life for it (because it is hobby you enjoy) or you don't care or don't enjoy it and it is enough just to "scratch" your car with dirty rag and bucket from sewer... and there are unlimited number of steps between one extreme and another. The goal of detailing is literally to make car perfect with particular care to small details. The goal of washing the car is simply to make it practically clean... more or less. Again where do you draw the line? What is clean for one is not clean for another and vice-versa. There are people who never wash their cars, like literally for many years. I just happened to buy such car from auction which is relatively low miles for it's age, but I reckon it was never ever washed in it's life. There are people who polish their cars literally to mirror finish and spend £200 just for the products regardless of the time. And there are people in the middle - who kind of like their cars clean, but won't take much care or effort to make them perfect. For this middle group which is probably biggest, the local car wash with little bit of supermarket range of products is sufficient "level of detail" and that is fine, but "detailing expert" would have heart attack if their car would be treated like that, whereas "sewer bucket experts"... or generally non-car people and wives would struggle to understand the purpose of using even cheap products like Demon's Shine Spay wax, because "car is just appliance and it drives just as well shiny or not". What I am saying - the reason why detailing section might blow ones mind (or may not) is the personal perception of what perfection is, serious detailers definitely go beyond diminishing returns when it comes to it (same like serious body builders or serious any-hobbyists) so for bystander it may look a bit extreme. I would probably rate myself ~8/10 when it comes to ultimate detailer, but I have spend over 30 hours detailing my RC last time and results were quite obvious. Certainly helped me to sell the car at asking price because buyer could not find any reason to negotiate the price (granted the car was as well mechanically perfect). Kind of sad I didn't take any good pictures of the process, but realistically I don't believe many people would find it reasonable to spend such amount of time detailing the car anyway. The reason I mentioned multiple steps polish (which is clearly detailing stuff) is because of mention of clay bar, which distinctively is not necessary in simple car was and is only part of decontamination step in detailing. Sadly the product is kind of misunderstood and people who actually don't want to invest in time consuming polishing process often use it incorrectly marring entire car and then having even worse results than not using it at all. So if you commit to clay bar, then count in at least 6-8 hours of polishing after that, if polishing is not your thing, then better not to use clay bar at all.

Some good point there Renato, as usual I agree with many but not all and that probably isn't an issue - after all each may have different opinion. Certainly good point about reduction of quality being noticeable for long term Lexus owners. Sadly, for me I never been in Lexus ownership before LS was launched (because that predates my birth), but I still can see noticeable drop in quality compared to even 10 years ago... and I assume it is probably even more noticeable compared to what Lexus represented as a brand before 2000. I think other good point mentioned by few people, is that not only that Lexus quality is slipping, but that Toyota quality or at very least trim level has improved. All in all gap between Lexus and Toyota has really closed and it is becoming hard to see them apart. This sort of the point you making about just making it "ToyoLex" in the end, because what is the point of marking vehicles under different brands if they are inherently the same and don't offer substantial improvement or reduction in price either way. Sorry to bring these two as examples as it is touchy for the owners, but being frank the ES and UX is epitome of this problem - Lexus cars which in most direct sense are badge engineered and offer no substantial improvement over Toyota counterpart. It does not mean they are bad cars, it just makes no sense to keep brands separate if there is so little in between the offering. I personally would not support merger of Lexus/Toyota and I don't think it makes sense, but I agree that underlying issue needs to be resolved - i.e. Toyota has to get price cut and at the same time perhaps reduce trim levels to cater for lower end of the market and for people who don't care about any fancy equipment and just needs "appliance" to go from A to B, whereas for Lexus it needs to get distinctively more competitive in Technology, Luxury and Performance and the price should reflect that. I guess the reason this started to happen is because Lexus don't have as comprehensive product range (especially in Europe) as Toyota does and therefore for some niches on the market which sometimes are particularly competitive Toyota has to offer products which caters to both budget and premium market as Lexus product does not exist to plug the latter niche. Then as result some Toyota models become way more luxurious then others and Toyota then have to try to be more consistent by improving equipment on all models. Which eventually leads into situation where we are now - Toyota is just so good that it is becoming hard to see what you get from Lexus apart of badge. I am still not sure what GS or RC overlapped? GS was just not competitive, just because on paper BMW 5-Series was better and in practice GS had nothing extra to offer for most consumers who are leasing the cars for 3 years and don't care about long term reliability and dependability. GS was basically just overbuilt, over-engineered and as result too expensive and not competitive. Hybrid drive didn't help either because for people who care about performance simple petrol M5 was better and for those who don't - simple 520d was better. RC on other hand probably was competing with LC... I can't see nay other car in Lexus/Toyota range where it would have overlapped. And probably it is true - RC was GT car, same as LC... RC was in no way more sporty, LC was in no way larger and apart of built quality there was not much in between the two. So why sell 2 similar cars and sell one cheaper than the other? I ideal world I feel like Lexus should have separated them more - RC lighter, more agile and sporty, LC larger and more practical. This became even more apparent with cancellation of RC convertible and introduction of LC convertible - both would have taken exactly same niche in market.