Linas.P

not much to add to above ... I agree that fluid eventually will need changing and perhaps ~100k miles is most logical estimate if we wanted to associate it with mileage. Besides - Mondeo comparison is absolute red herring. Mondeo is FWD car and uses trans-axle transmissions... there are no similarities between Mondeo and IS250, besides some Mondeos having 2.5l V6, but even then it is transversally mounted... Isn't that waste of rather expensive AT fluid, not to mention environmental impact. If you actually dropped the pan - isn't it better to replace all fluid at once. + like for aircraft, for cars engine/gearbox cycles matter much more than actually mileage. Hence I am kind of reluctant to put mileage or certain period on maintenance.

Yes... I agree that procedure overall is the same, but just wanted to note it, in case the capacity of the oil or some other details would differ. For example if you want to replace all fluid at once, then you will need new gasket and new fluid filter... and at that point it becomes important that you actually order the parts for the right gearbox... isn't it? As for preventative maintenance I agree... where it makes sense. However, you would not change your engine pistons, rings or head-gasket as a "preventative" maintenance would you? Sure if they broken and if they need changing, and if it makes economical sense you will do it, but not as a preventative maintenance. Same here - automatic transmission fluid isn't a scheduled maintenance job, it does not need frequent changing and doing it incorrectly may cause catastrophic failure. As such - if you have no issues with gearbox, you don't need to create ones yourself. Now where I agree - "life-time" fill is non-sense, gearbox fluid will require changing eventually and you need to change it when you have a reason for it. It is doable, it is possible to do it all at once and it could help to extend life of the gearbox, but this is not something you should do as scheduled or as a "preventative" maintenance. So the final question - how do you know when to do it? There are few things which could indicate it - early shifts, late shift, harsh shift, higher fuel consumption, car being in wrong gear for no reason e.g. staying in 5th on motorway... and perhaps eventually faults coming from solenoids (as they are sensitive to viscosity of the fluid). The above is official list from workshop manual and in such case fluid "refresh" or change is recommend. In the end that is just my opinion, but if you don't have one of above issues then there is no point risking it.

That is very cheap for terraclean, must be COVID pricing... before you could not get it done for less than ~£100-£120. At very least it would not hurt. You can try to be a little cheeky and try to figure out when they actually going to test it and arrive like 20 min before that. But I do know exactly what you mean... some places just say bring the car in for 9AM and pick-up at 2PM... most of the time when you arrive at 2... only then they say... "ohh yes that car let's do the MOT". At some point I found the place which actually gives proper appointments and you out of there within 45 min...

I have done terraclean - car was ~160k miles at the time... as a matter of fact I don't even know why I did it... probably as preventative maintenance and hoping that engine will be more efficient or something. The test sheet showed 0.00% emissions before the clean and 0.00% emissions after the test... seems like I was running on hydrogen all the time. In short, it made no difference on my car, but I didn't have problem in the first place. So who knows... apart of that I didn't felt any improvements after terraclean whatsoever. As somebody already suggested, considering that car was driven rarely and for short journeys simply blasting it for 20 min on motorway and getting fully warmed-up before MOT could be all it needs. If at all possible I always try to do MOT right after driving when car is still warm, some more reasonable places as well runs the engine at least for few minutes before testing emissions, because to be fair any ICE car would fail the test if they put the probe on cold engine and only then started the it.

Just quick note - RWD IS250 has Aisin A960E gearbox (not A760E, only AWD IS250 has A760H). 2006 SC as well has different gearbox from IS250 - A761E (although both are 6-speed auto). Besides above details, as well consider that Lexus does not recommend and won't do full fluid replacement. Only the places specialising in gearboxes does it. The other thing to consider - automatic transmission fluid last a lot longer than manual transmission oil, so doing it every year in my opinion is waste of money. Actually, I was looking to replace all fluid on my old IS250 (192k miles) but only because I started getting solenoid errors (indication of fluid needing the change). Again my opinion, but do not change the fluid just for sake of it - if you have no problem don't look for one. And there are reasons for that e.g. procedure is not completed perfectly and fluid is under-filled or overfilled, it could destroy gearbox. So my advice - do the fluid change, but only if you have reason to do it. This is not manual gearbox and this is not engine oil which needs annual or frequent change.

And probably a good opportunity to put some tyres on them.... Roadcruza and Tree-A does not sound like brands I would like trust to keep me alive. On any road conditions... heck even stationary car...

You welcome

As I said - colour is kind of personal choice, bu I can see benefits of black wheels. Cheap to refurbish, easy to match colour if refurbishing only one, easy to touch-up, durable finish .... so there are some specific benefits. Just to clarify regarding price - normal wheel refurbishment process usually includes acid striping (and sometimes sandblasting as well), then wheels usually are powered coated and the powder coat is usually black. So if you just want black wheels that is where it ends - no further steps required so you can quickly save yourself £20 per wheel. Powder coat can be sanded and polished, so no need of extra finishing, clear coat etc and it is as well quite hard (harder than normal paint or even lacquer).

Yeah, but for the price of colour change, that is already half-price of new set of wheels you like, and considering your ones should be worth something when you sell them, that is price of whole new set. Just seen another set of F-Sports on eBay, quite expensive thought - £990... but seems they require no refurbishment. Black alloys is matter of the taste and indeed they suite some cars. I think they looks great on lighter colour cars, like whites and light silver colours. Sadly every-time I see black alloys my first though - "somebody was on the budget", because black is always the cheapest option when refurbishing.

I agree.. I don't know either. Just saying - I see what they were trying to do there? Unlikely to succeed, not that sort of car, not that sort of clientele etc.

...and I don't know if I have unreasonable expectation. Lexus dealerships do their job just fine, nothing exceptional and nothing bad either. I guess my point is that, there are people who say "yes... but the experience is Lexus dealerships is on different level"... and he I can say - No, that is not something I have experienced! Again... I appreciate that some small dealership chains, family run.. or whatever... could do better job then others. But then it is not Lexus achievement, it would be the same for any make. And when somebody says Lexus dealership experience is exceptional, then I expect there is some bar set by the manufacturer which elevates their network above the rest. And the final thing, maybe Lexus tries harder... in US, maybe in Japan, but in UK I see no evidence of that.

Not by public thought, usually these more special cars are bought at massive discount by dealer reps and principals. Which makes them excellent value for money when few years later they appear on second hand market. I think it makes sense in a ways, or at least I think I know why they did it. Basically, those are "rare" cars so they can always make excuse - "there are only two in UK and this is the price" and they will be right you won't even find another one for sale if you wanted to (the reality is that it seems nobody does). And then they have very reasonable strategy - make it look like they make you excellent offer. It is not as impressive if you get an offer to buy £69k car for £67k, but when the offer is to buy "£79k" car for £67k it may fool somebody ... after all "you making £12k saving.. you know"... So yeah.. that was just an age old tactic to make impression of large discount.

That is pretty much my experience from the begging. Obviously, I am too young to remember good old days, but it never felt exceptional from the first time I used them ~2012. And I bought brand new IS250 for the company... so I wasn't the sort of frugal, shrewd and nasty negotiator as I am now. Times and times again I was unimpressed with level of service and despite me telling them exactly what to check on the car, they still left impression of generic and rather clueless service centre. Maybe just the dealership I use, but they never impressed me... in neither knowledge of their own cars, nor personalised service at all. As I have mentioned somewhere else - around Jan last year I got invitation, to "invitation only special sales event". I have just bought RC200t so I wasn't looking to buy anything, but I though some canapes and few glasses of free champagne could not make my Saturday worse in any way. They asked me what cars I would be interested in and I said maybe RC-F or LC, they assured both will be ready for test drive... all sounded very nice. When I arrived to dealership, not only they didn't have any refreshments, except of the standard instant coffee and biscuits, but they didn't even knew who I am and what I want. After like 30 minutes of waiting, they just got random sales person to advise me and asked all the basic question - like what I am interested in etc. Needless to day, they did not have RC-F for test drive, but to their credit they found dealership MD's LC500. So it wasn't complete loss. But what happened to "invitation only personalised experience and cars ready to test?!" And finally, I want to be clear - Lexus dealership experience is not bad, but it is in no way better than standard generic corporate experience you would get at MB, BMW or Audi. The are generally polite and nice, but they don't go extra inch, never mind a mile to make it feel even a little bit personalised.

I had K&N filter... no difference to be honest. I could not even say intake noise was better, maybe on F-sport. As well I suspect I may have oiled it wrong and that caused MAF issues and had to clean it etc. If you ask me - not worth having.

Makes sense, especially as potential buyers may not appreciate "mods". If a keeper then I highly recommend this mod, but if you already planning an upgrade then obviously just a waste of money.

My first insurance with Bell had 3 months black-box. At the time I was 25 and it took insurance premium from £2800, to ~£2200. But after that (very first insurance) there are no difference whenever it is with black-box or not. So yes, for younger driver and for first insurance it could reduce premium, but not as much as they advertise. As well my blackbox was just plugged into cigarette lighter / 12V socket and it is only powered when engine is on or ignition is on. So I expected no parasitic drain from it - I would have never agreed to hardwired box.

Yes they are not the easiest to source in UK. I believe mk3 GS300 calipers where the same and are the easiest to find (they look slightly different, but all dimensions are identical).

Yes indeed - standard alloys for pre-facelift cars (have set of these myself). It is nice that you have them refurbished as these were notorious for bubbling-up and pealing away (issue with primer). If done properly your alloys should last you forever (or until you kerb them). In terms of your allows - I would say they are just black, maybe they have little bit of metallic flakes in them... just cannot see in the picture. In this case they would be black metallic. Anthracite in my books would be looking like this: In terms of costs - Anthracite used to be considered "premium colour" in days when all wheels from factory been in that "car alloy silver colour". It used to cost ~£10 per wheel to have them in Anthracite over silver, but nowadays many cars have something similar from factory so many places just consider it to be one of the standard colours.

Few members on here had, they noticeably bigger and 4 pistons (actually I have same on my RC200t). Just note that you will need different disks - for IS 350. And indeed if you looking to refurbishment it would make sense to do upgrade now rather than later.

Do you have picture of the car somewhere? I can clarify that fairly quickly for you 😁

Have you considered any coatings designed specifically for matt paint? And to Peter's point - there are coatings which can moderate the gloss as well i.e. some can make paint more matt. Wheres if you applying wax then I guess it always going to make paint more shiny (although maybe nowadays there are waxes for matt pain specifically, I just never came across such product).

Yes, I know that is officially what it says everywhere. I guess because some chip tuning companies are claiming extra power by just chipping the ECU, then the questions comes where they get the extra power from and speculation is .... that 17psi is the maximum what turbo can do, but not necessarily what it actually does from factory. My opinion... I think it boost to 17psi and that is all the little turbo can do... and that chip tuning companies may be not exactly realistic with the claims.

When I moved to Romford my Insurance dropped by 30%... Imagine what was the rating in the area i lived before 😁 RM Romford 1, 6, 9-10, 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F * 2-5, 11, 17-18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . E * 7-8, 13-16, 19-20 . . . . . . . . . . . . D *

Yes... true I can try using OBD2, but at the same time I would expect that gauge to reflect information it receives from ECU. What I am saying I would expect OBD2 and gauge readings to match.

I thought Harrier = RX, not RAV4/NX. But in either case they all seems to share same platform now.