Linas.P

That is exactly what I am saying - they can replace it with new one for £450. They said that they won't fit used one, but suggested if I can get it fitted "elsewhere" and they can do the rest of the job ... I am going to ask indies to fit it and then the proper aircon service will check the rest (check for leaks, fitting, re-gas etc). I know it is a bit stupid from them, but many places do not accept used parts or even any new (even OEM) parts from outside. Not sure if this is purely cashing out on the parts sales or being careful.. Got one from breakers... there was one in ebay for £120+9 (from 2009 IS250SR). It was pretty good shape (62k miles) and I made an offer for £81+9. They accepted - so paid £90 and the got it to be refurbished by compressortech.com. At first they said £150 for the job, but then I said the compressor only costs £90 and they agreed to do it for £90. They didn't take my compressor back (which would be another ~£50 refund), because it is stuck and doesn't qualify as "core". Thought, I still have plans to play with it when I get it out - maybe some de-greaser + penetrating oil makes it spin again. So still potential to save another £50. To be honest I don't even know if it was worth to refurbish it as it was quite "good looking", but I guess they going to clean it, oil it and maybe replace few seals/washers - should last for another 100k miles (hopefully). To summarise, "0 worries" option was £620 (£450 for new compressor + £170 for work). And my "struggle" option will work out as £250-380: £130-180 for refurb. compressor £50-100 for fitting £70-100 for leak test/fix/re-gass/oil Should, get refurbished compressor tomorrow and will fit it on Saturday. It is hard to tell if this struggle is worth ~£250 saving... but definitely an option to consider. Just to add: it was probably possible to repair my one for about the same price, but the issue here - to get it repaired I need to get it off the car and the car cannot be used in mean time (without some modification to auxiliary belt). So I couldn't do it because I need car for daily commuting.

As I said - if you really feel need for winter tires. And fair enough - even if it is only feeling more confident with yourself and having that extra piece of mind in case 1 day a year you going to have snow... and you feel it is worth £600 tires (or more). Then obviously - do it, BUT do it on 16" rims because on 18" is no-brainier. If I didn't make myself clear. If you take exactly the same new tire, one made for 18", other one for 16".. the 16" will perform better and have better grip on slippery roads. Wide tires are only good in warm dry road. So on 18" you not only going to have less options, more expensive tires, but as well worse performance..

Quick Update: So as previously mentioned I was looking into getting used compressor instead of new (~£450). I have sourced reconditioned compressor (6 month warranty) for £180. As I have no equipment/space I will be relying on indies again as no proper garage agrees to fit "used" part (which is not surprising). Now I have a question.. Obviously, compressor sits on Auxiliary belt and it needs to be removed during replacement. Is there any service parts e.g. on some car tensioners are disposable etc? Because, it is done by indies I am not expecting them to know/care to follow proper process. In summary any advise for replacing A/C compressor would be very helpful.. like service parts to have ready or even other recommended things while the belts is off..

No you not quite right - both 17 and 18 inch (Tires) are staggered, 16 inch are not. As well AWD versions have non-staggered tires (but we don't have these in UK.. like many other nice Lexus'es e.g. RC350). Trim doesn't change the tire sizes, not rim diameter. To conclude: 16" Rims all the same, Tires all the same 17" Rims all the same, Wider tires on the rear (225/45 vs. 245/45) 18" Front Rims are 8", rear are 8.5" as well tires are wider on rear. Now that said, you can obviously found some matching tires which will be inadequately expensive and would actually perform worse on 18" option, than it would on 16". As mentioned by piasek narrower tires are better on slippery roads. So 18" and even 17" setup would be very expensive, under-performing and unpractical. M+S (or universal tires) are essentially "one does all" product, but as it is always the case "nothing properly". If you get them grip, then they will wear excessively - would never recommend universal tires to anybody. Finally, this is not a statement, but rather question - Why do you guys need winter tires or even universal tires in UK (well maybe north Scotland is OK)? You probably know that you need temperatures below 6 Deg for Winter tires to perform better than Summer tires? As well it is not correct that in higher temperatures the only negative point of Winter tires is wear - no they actually perform worse, longer stopping distance, more likely to slip because too soft tire cannot maintain grip in cornering, bad fuel efficiency... and obviously excessive wear . I might be wrong and living in London I cannot judge for the rest of UK, but it seems like winter tires in UK are just a trick played by tires manufactures to cash from drivers (except of maybe few specific locations). Makes perfect sense - winter set of tires wears excessively as there are not condition for them to perform correctly. When it comes time to change half worn summer tires will get thrown away as well (who would put summer tires set if the the tread is like 3-4mm). So instead of driving 20-30k miles on one set of tires you essentially replacing 2. Not only it is waste of money, but as well terrible impact to environment. Personally, I have experience driving on winter tires (and summer tires in tems -20deg and 50cm of snow) and coming from the country where is legal requirement to use Winter tires from 1st of October to 1st of April. That is very sensible, because average temperature over that period is -11deg, and at least 2 month with -20deg and more.. I just kind of cannot understand the point using winter tires in majority of UK... Now as I said, my experience in UK is limited and hence - if you really have conditions for winter tires - definitely get set (recommended on 16" alloys, being same you can even swap front to rear to prolong life). I am personally just getting A rated summer tires tires for wet and that does all seasons.

Then it would be wise to make them not visible.. isn't it? If you choose right type of camera they should not be visible, unless you know exactly where to look.

We probably shall stop it as well... Won't change anything... You are right brexit would close the loophole.. I still believe there are enough people to vote against it :)

Sad to hear... Only reading stories like that makes me think twice about dashcam with parking mode. I could probably enjoy every second bringing those bas**** to justice for criminal damage. Minor to do... Major to fix... feel sorry for you..

If the insurance premium would be the only thing UK needs me for... No worries I have a plan... the plan which effectively makes my Insurance £50/year, no MOT and no VED, furthermore I will be shielded from any fines as well. If it works out well I will share the recipe :)

Well.. I guess right answer would be "white - other". I am not being too upset about it, especially now when my insurance became "reasonable", but insurance companies are asking far too many questions about driver which they don't need to know. I guess 90% of questions on the policy should have an option - "do not want to disclose" to become non-discrimination/politically correct. e.g. what is their business to know what you do for living? My understanding insurance should only be based on 2 things - car + driver experience... that what it is in majority of the countries anyway - 2 questions: car reg + driver license number, no other information is really relevant.

Seriously... if you get auto.. you might have to delete half of your previous posts :D (good choice thought).

Thanks, I have looked through this list few days ago... nothing in proximity of 100miles .. or doesn't work on Saturday. I am kind of getting in terms with £620 outlay, all the signs actually telling me that compressor is toasted and even if it possible to "un-stuck" it .. that would be very dangerous to destroy remaining A/C components with debris from stuck Compressor. Same problem as mine - solved with replacement of A/C compressor: http://my.is/forums/f115/c-stopped-working-blinking-clutch-smell-fixed-413949/ Similarly, my one was working fine ... until (3.5 miles away from dealership) it got completely stuck. Now the only decision to make - new or used (preferably re-manufactured). Obviously, used from scrap yard is not good option .. it it could fail again after 3,5 miles.

Small update: Been to local garage today who do A/C service. They just turn the A/C and made same conclusion I did "A/C compressor probably stuck".. Quoted me £450 for compressor and £170 for labor (fitting, leak check, "re-gasing"). - £620... and bloody weather getting hot already (I don't believe this is coincidence .. :D).. Now that said I am still not happy with diagnostics... My expectation was that they going to check electrical part, clutch etc. and the answer is going to be definitive and not based on "elimination" of "probably" faulty parts. That said it is possible they will find out something else is wrong as well after I fork-out £620 for compressor replacement. Maybe someone can advise good A/C service which could do proper diagnostics (around Essex/Greater London)?

let me know when you get to the point of getting rid of your old 16" set.

No.. Full UK driving license for 7 years thought. In fact changing that in quote doesn't make much difference. I do think that my quotes are about average now ... and getting better. I don't understand how in country like UK insurance companies are allowed to discriminate so much? :D

That is not true. Any modification will increase your insurance... Improving brakes if you lucky wont increase the insurance premium. However, "Improving" is not really that straight forward and what somebody regards as improvement, might not be treated as such by Insurance provider e.g. IS350 brakes (or even "big brakes" kit) for IS250 is definitely an improvement - better wear, better stopping power etc... but insurance in such case would consider that as simple modification. As mentioned already - I do not consider my new brakes as improvement, nor as modification, because all specifications are equal to OEM. For this reason I don't see any reason to report them to Insurance company. I heard that upgraded security system e.g. gps tracker or Dash cam can potentially reduce your premium, but it is likely on case-by-case basis..

Not directly linked. Mr. Osborne "ring fenced" £10bn. Just to understand the figure - last year they allocated £10.8bn... (spend something around 12.3bn in the end) so that means they ring fenced less than they actually spending anyway - that said, £10bn is the lower limit not upper limit.. and what it means road expenditure should not go down by much and might actually stay the same or even increase. Still... they won't be spending anything near ~40-ish bn they are collecting. Secondly, as explained previously .. this expenditure is combined and large part of it will not benefit actual VED payers (more likely opposite). Finally, even what is going to be spent directly on the roads is not necessary going to improve things. Good example would be - does SMART motorway benefits us? - no it doesn't... it just slows us down and effectively takes longer to reach destination, but the congestion is "smoother".. What would be beneficial - more lanes, wider roads, higher speed limits ... but that won't happen.

Well .. officially it isn't and never was. What you are referring to is the period between 1920 and 1937 when "Road fund" was implemented and road expenditure directly linked to collected duties. Personally, I am in complete agreement with you VED = road tax... it can be called "pollution tax", "air tax", "nonsense tax" or anything else, but it will always stays "The Road Tax". Very easy to prove it - if you don't use your car on public road you don't need to pay it, so if you do use it you pay it for using road and not for some another reason. Based on that my opinion is - not only should it be linked to road expenditure, but as well subsidised from general taxation for stuff like bus lanes, cycling lanes etc. - which is not directly benefits "Road tax" payers (or in reality negatively impacts them). Sad reality is actually opposite, see nice graph illustrating it since 1979: Now the Government regards it as vehicle tax to cover "something"... it is not very clear what it is covering, but principal is simple - "you have car, means you are rich, so we take random tax form you and pretend that we are Philanthropists from money you paid". It is not linked to road maintenance and in no way secured for such purpose. In fact government was heavily under-investing to road infrastructure for last 40 years (as can be seen above) and at any given year they spent less than 30% of VED and fuel duties on road maintenance. Even then that 30% includes things completely unrelated and irrelevant for drivers who actually pays for using the roads e.g. bus stops and lanes, cycling superhighways, subsidies for rail-work and city buses etc. Speaking of new VED rules - they are designed to catch tax loophole - low emission supercars e.g. BMW i8 or other luxury cars which previously were able to avoid taxation or use lower tax bracket. I guess this is preemptive tax for hydrogen powered cars etc. so that in future they cannot avoid paying taxes. It accident ally can have "positive" impact - people will buy more powerful expensive cars, because there will be no tax benefits for buying hybrids e.g. we will see more BMW 750i , rather than 730d or 7-series hybrids... or more LS460 than LS600h... That is completely understandable because government made this to increase tax revenue, not to fight global warming. It is clear by the fact that the cars which pollutes the most, but cost less than £40k will benefit most, and the ones which pollutes least will pay more, especially if it happens to be as well over £40k.. even for cheap cars the increase will be 500-900%. It will simply be not beneficial to buy fuel efficient car if it is over £40k as well.

Well.. as I said you won't need to roll arches with 18" as they are by default designed to accept 18" wheels. The only reason why you would need to do it is if you get much wider rims than stock. I believe stocks are 8 and 8,5.... so 9 on the rear should still be fine. The minor difference in width and ET will have impact on wheel alignment thought.

I was about to point out shims... usually indies don't know what they are for and throw them away. As well did they thoughtfully cleaned the hubs?

You will be OK with clearance, because IS came with 18" option from stock, however I believe you have to play with alignment e.g. get wheel "spacers" to get your offsets right (I might still be wrong).

Well... actually your location is the main factor e.g. you cannot get similar price anywhere near London... I am paying £760 and consider it being "very cheap".. thought I am rather young.. last year it was £1160, and the year before ~£2700. Before I bought the car (3 years ago) it was £7600...

I don't know how would assessor would consider "Yellow stuff" pads.. and how he would see them either without taking calipers apart. One way or another I don't use Yellow-Stuff pads, my pads are Brembo OE equivalent low-dust and Mintex standard OE on the back. As far as disks themselves - they are as well direct fit and at least MTEC themselves market them as OE. If that would satisfy assessor it is another story, but at least for now I am not planning to have any accident

In the service the schedule it says "check Air con/ heating/ventilation". So I guess it is a simple check turning it on and off to see if it works. And quite clearly it doesn't.. to say the least. Trying to turn it for obviously won't help... so I will be enjoying some fresh diesel smell through the open windows next week. As mentioned Auxiliary belt can't slip... hence the RPM jumps. I will go to any A/C specialist place for check. I bet they would know it straight away what's needs replacing - I guess I am not first and definitely not the last with such issue. Hope what you are right John... I wish that only R134a refill and maybe fixing a leak or something. Thanks for replies.

I would only notify insurance if parts are non-OE compatible e.g. bigger or changes the way car, same stopping power. Holes in the discs and protective coating is "style" thing, not performance. If I would need to declare that to insurance, I would need to declare Lexus owners club sticker on the boot lid too... Same goes for the rims for example - I would only notify if the rims are something completely different from car specs e.g. IS250 came with R16/R17/R18 as standard. R19 can be fitted wth tires which keeps the wheel size the same... so that is kind of on the edge.. I would probably notify insurance for R19s.. and would definitely do for R20s. However, if I just pick up R17s with different style from OE.. I don't consider that modification. Anyway.. the disks will not be reported.. but that is my opinion and risk, by no way take it as a legal advice. I reckon it is possible to call insurance and as if they consider something modification or not..

ATS does free check ( I believe front axle) regardless you buy anything or not. Obviously, they expect you to do the alignment if they found it being not good. I do recommend them for alignment, but not for tires -> cheap trick get your tires from blackcircles.com and choose them to be fitted at ATSeuromasters. In this way you will get the tires fitted and wheels aligned by reasonable service, but you save on tires like 20%.