Linas.P

But that was specifically what we were discussing... As for the rest I think you are correct on all individual things in isolation. 225mm means - only the thread surface i.e. the part that touches the road. And indeed the side wall design could be very different, some have wheel protectors, some don't, some are round, some are more like triangle, some are very thin and flimsy, some are reinforced etc. But the thread will always be 225mm and 225mm is more than 203mm, so that is all that matters here. And on top of that there is no way you will touch and actual wheel to the arch, unless you severely lower the car (like 80mm), but you will probably scrape the bottom of the car before you scrap the wheel on the arches. In short as far as spacers are concerned, wheels width isn't an issue most of the time.

What are we talking about here? If you go from 245 to 225 and then add 20mm spacer, then end result will be that tyre sidewall will be 10mm closer to the arch than before. Now sure - if you change NOTHING ELSE and just add 20mm spacer then it will simply SPACE OUT the wheel by 20mm. But we are talking about combination of changes, 20mm narrower tyre + 20mm spacer = outside wall of the tyre 10 mm further out. What isn't clear here? https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/?wheel1=245-45-17X8ET45&wheel2=225-45-17X8ET25&fcl=50mm&wcl=30mm&scl=50mm&sr=0mm Note in the summary of the changes at the bottom: "Fenders The tire will stick out 10 mm farther. Rim will stick out 20 mm farther. Make sure that you have enough room under the fender. If not, consider narrower tires or higher offset" The standard rim on IS250 is 8J = 203mm, so tyre sticking out is only thing that matters, because tyre will always stick out more than the rim. And even if you go from 245 to 225, the 225 is still wider than the rim.

And where did I say anything to contrary. OP asked about "arch filling", not about overall track... so it will fill arch by 10mm more... and yes it will make a track 40mm wider. Most of the bumps are taken by the front anyway, so I can't see how having wider or narrower rear would make much difference. As well, 245 in the rear really creates weird car balance... IS250 is RWD car which always wants to understeer... So if you in the dry, then it understeers and I hate it and in the wet you just get epic tank slapper every time, because it starts sliding, but then either rear hooks-up or front loses grip. With square set-up you would just get much more predictable handling - yes it will act like rear wheel drive car, so expect oversteer, but at least you don't need to deal with both understeer and over steer depending on the situation. In short - my problem is that with staggered set-up on IS250 you get unnatural balance to the car, and it not only matters if you want to slide it (which to be honest I don't care about), but it as well makes it harder to control the car when it does slide, because it is less predictable. So if argument is - 245 is a safety factor... then I don't believe it is. If you ever get to the point where you are limit of grip, then you will get very unpredictable understeer from this set-up. And if you don't drive to the limit, then 225 are plenty anyway. Same goes for braking - front does 80%+ of braking anyway. Same goes for aquaplaning - narrower tyres actually reduces aquaplaning.

Assuming you going from 245 to 225, it is 20mm difference, but only 10mm on each side, so 20mm spacers would make them come out 10mm closer to the wheel arch. It is kind of matter of taste and I would say ~15mm is required to "fill" the rear arches on IS250. So if you going with 225s in the rear, then 25mm spacers would be required. I would never recommend going more than 25mm, maybe 30mm at absolute maximum. And 20mm would be recommended if you want to be on the safe side. Obviously, all the safety things apply. Make sure the spacers are good quality, hub centric, correct diameter lips etc.

245s on IS250 is completely unnecessary. For 17" wheels I would definitely go with square set-up. This further gives you an option to rotate the tyres, so it is double saving - not only cheaper tyres, but you can as well wear them more evenly, as long as you always put the best tyres to the rear. In terms of grip 245s are absolutely not required, 225s have plenty grip, especially if you go with decent brand tyres. As well IS250 AWD comes with identical wheels and square set-up, but I believe it is running 4x235s. I personally went for 245s instead of 255s on 18", but that is because my wheels themselves were staggered, so I could not rotate them anyway. 17" are "square" wheels, so you can absolutely go with square set-up for tyres as well. Likewise if I had 18" set-up which is square say 4x8J instead of 2x8J+8.5J, I would go 225s even on 18s. Looks wise consider using spacers, 15-20mm, should do.

The general chip shortage was an issue last year, I doubt it really has impact this year. Could ML be impacted by general chip shortage making amps or other components? Yes likely, but again that would have been story of the 2021/2022. So I would say it should be resolved by now.

I doubt anyone have done it themselves, it would be best for you to find workshop manual for GS300/430, but the work will look along the lines of below:

It says "rearward driveline", the way I interpret it - that is driveshafts and differential. This would make sense knowing that IS250, shares driveshaft with GS300, which itself shares it with GS430, which I don't know for sure, but would not be wild speculation to say is related to LS430. And if driveshaft on IS220d is the same as IS250, then it would make it related to LS430. There is certainly nothing in common between gearboxes, based on fact that LS430 was only ever available with automatic gearbox and IS220d with exclusively manual.

I did check before saying it and this is the car I found as well. Note - this one is likely SE, it is 100% not SE-L (lacks wood trim) and I doubt it is SE-i either (at first I thought so because of sat-nav), but SE-i had Xenon Lights and this one clearly has halogens (lacking washers). So I suspect it is just 2009 model year SE registered in 2010. That said - your right, it is a proper 2009 FL car, L-Finesse rear lights and indicators on the mirrors.

In which case I propose even different theory (and I just cannot see any material to support it, so it will remain a speculation) - the manual Sport/SR should have come with LSD, whereas SE/SE-L came without it. So the gearing difference may be based on final drive ratio of the diff, meaning Sport/SR got higher ratio, hence shorter gears. SE-i was only launched in 2009 and I don't believe it ever had manual available for it, or maybe none were sold. I was under impression that manual was not available after 2008, but I know here are few 2010 cars floating around with manuals (I would theorise maybe they were late registered 2008 model year cars?). Kind of annoying that Lexus does not make old brochures available and now I just can't find what options were available back then.

It most likely is Dot4... that is what came in the car from the factory and what Lexus uses.

C1201 is real bas***** of the code. Is basically non-descript generic code and could be triggered by many things. I have not heard it being triggered by pads or fluid, but it could be related with faulty ABS pump. Most of the time it is caused by faulty wheels speed sensors, but there is at least dozen other reasons for that to happen, electrical issues, faulty ECUs etc. etc. What you need here is to read the codes likely from ABS module and see what underlying code you get, could be something along the lines of "failed communication to the module, or failed communication to speed sensor" and they have sub-codes for that. In short C1201 doesn't mean anything, you need sub-codes scanned for more direct troubleshooting. That is if you lucky, because I have seen issues where C1201 is triggered because of lost comes to ECU/ABS pump and you just get all possible sub-codes for all components related to that and have to check them one by one. Brake fluid is Dot4, could be topped-up with Dot5.1, but must NOT be mixed with Dot5.0. Again - on IS250 I doubt it will be related to the fluid.

Wheel bearing is wear an tear item and wear an tear is not covered under any warranty, Lexus Relax being even more watered down is even less likely to cover it. That said it is kind of grey zone, because Relax T&Cs mentions both that wear and tear is not covered and that wheel bearings in particular are covered: https://www.lexus.co.uk/content/dam/lexus/nmsc/united-kingdom/owners/warranty/extended-warranty-with-servicing/150623-LEXUS-WARRANTY.pdf So in my opinion this boils down to mileage of the car. If say you 2017 CT has only done 4,000 miles a year and it is currently at 24,000 miles, then I think it could be argued this is fault and thus warranty should cover it. However, if it has say 80,000 miles, then I can see how Lexus can easily claim it is "just wear and tear" and thus not covered. In summary, if you believe it to be fault, because any reasonable person would agree the bearing should have lasted longer, then insist on it being done under warranty. If however the bearing could have worn out due to mileage, or due to damage caused say by hitting pot-hole (usually near-side/passenger side front) then it is unlikely to be covered. Finally, just make sure you correctly understand what they are saying. When I claimed the warranty I was told just as standard disclaimer that it will cost like £160 to diagnose the fault and if it turns out not to be warranted fault, then I am liable to pay it. However, if it is covered by warranty, then it will be handed by warranty claim itself. As in my case that was 12-months sale warranty which is equivalent to manufacturers warranty which is much more comprehensive and there was no doubt it will be covered this was just disclaimer, I agreed and never paid anything. But in your case where there is high-likelihood they may reject it as wear and tear... I kind of see the point of it sounding more serious. So you will not need to pay anything upfront, but they likely warned you with standard disclaimer, that you may be liable for diagnostics if you warranty claim is rejected.

DMF is usually recommended because, the clutch job itself is quite costly, so when you already have it apart it just makes sense to do it at the same time and as well, you must replace clutch when replacing flywheel (of any kind, same as pads when replacing discs) so it would be unfortunate to pay £600 for clutch + like £300 to replace it, just to pay this again next year + DMF. But I get what you are saying - it may not need doing every time. If I am not mistaken, there are two gearings for IS250 - Sport/SR which has shorter rations (sounds like what you describing) and long rations similar to diesel (they are different but related gearboxes) which goes into SE, SE-L?

Not trough mechanical difference, if anything maybe a slight change ECU mapping or something like that. Even then - it would not translate into significant practical change in fuel consumption.

It kind of makes sense - the paint is usually mostly damaged by people who does not know how to correctly maintain it and ends up scratching it more themselves. So no care in this sense is better than bad care. Another obvious thing which really helps the paint is keeping the car garaged, or at very least not parked under the tree. A lot of people really damage their cars by leaving sap, leaves and bird droppings on the car.

Yes - it is so sad that so many people come to ask for help after they have already purchased IS220d, rather than asking before making this costly mistake.

Agree with all, but not the latest model you could get. I would not - I would go opposite, the earliest one you can find, because there is no mechanical difference between 2005-2015. So I just can't see any reason to overpay for basically the same car. Now sure - if you want more modern looking car then you should go for mk3 (2013+), but there is honestly no difference between 2005-2012, except you would pay more for a later car. Yes later cars got upgraded sat-nav, but by todays standards both are equally useless and both could and should be replaced by android system, 2006 cars got upgrade to wented rear discs, but that has no benefit in real life. Really don't know why would one go for later car. What is important is to make sure the cars maintained - these cars are known to run forever as long as they are serviced well. Mileage almost doesn't matter, the higher is the mileage the better value is the car, as long as it has service history. I personally had IS250 up-to 200k miles and it required minimal maintenance, but I acquired one with 120k miles and 13 Lexus services, even at 120k miles (~6 years old back then) it looked almost new inside. As for manual - indeed unless you get late 2005 car (before April 2006), it will be ridiculous £675 to tax and it has same issues as diesel manual when it comes to DMF and clutch, and that is costly £1000 to repair. Solid flywheels are available, but not at all cheaper and weird gearing is still present. So I would advise going for auto as it seems to suit the V6 engine very well and it is very pleasant and smooth ride.

Absolutely not - avoid at all costs, so good decision to look for IS250 To expand a little bit as to why - constant DPF issues, EGR issues, head gasket issues, injector issues, DMF is problematic, if previous issues not resolved turbo issues, basically they are known to fall apart and forum is full of the constant issues. In theory if you doing 100 miles per day on motorway and do all preventative maintenance you could keep IS220d running, but by now all the IS220d are neglected to the point of uneconomical repair. Besides diesel doesn't even make that much sense compared to IS250. In the city both get quite similar MPG ~30, the only real advantage of diesel is on motorway where let's say IS250 gets 40+ and IS220d 50+. But on petrol you get very smooth engine and gearbox that actually sounds decent, and on diesel you get weird manual box where it requires you to do ~80MPH on motorway if you want to be in 6th, or you drive in 5th then you kind of need to stay ~65MPH. Which means that if you drive in 6th at 70MPH engine just doesn't get to the right RPM and doesn't clean-up DPF and if you stay in 5th then economy becomes similar if not worse than petrol.

Lexus IS250 is really reliable, apart of AC compressor failing because I didn't maintain it properly I only ever did basic maintenance and consumables e.g. tyres all the way to 200k miles. ECU cannot be mapped (should not be confused with hacked) and even if it could, it would be illegal. So you looking at £1000 +6 points for "mapping out" DPF and potentially much more if your insurance is invalidated and you admit of doing it yourself (+£3,000 and 6 points for insurance and £10,000 for altering emissions outside of "proper use"). Do people do it? Yes - many people do it, but finally we starting to see crack down on this. Most of the time you just get your MOT stripped at the spot, or just failed, but in case of accidents insurance will always try to not to pay for whatever reasons. Removing or "mapping" put DPF makes it no longer road legal and all insurance contracts are based on assumption that car is road legal. And on top of all financial problems and MOT it is kind of immoral, because diesel cars are heavy polluters, especially when emissions systems are removed. And finally, apart of this - it is against forum rules to discuss, so if you have any other issue with the car nobody will be able to help you with anything as they ultimately come back down to illegal modification.

2 years ago - yes, but not in 2020 - when I was looking to trade-up in January 2020 the LC500 had already went just under £40,000. And compared to today they were real low mileage cars, most of the cars had almost delivery miles like - 1000, 2000, 6000 etc. Obviously, those cars for ~£40,000 back then were all 2017, whereas I wanted 2018 car for the tax reasons. And the reason I didn't trade-up was first of all because Lexus really wanted to low ball me on PX, secondly because there were simply no "high-mileage" 2018 cars around in the spec I wanted (ideally either non-Sport or Sport+ black, with red interior). So what I wanted was as high-mileage and as cheap LC as it could be, if they had 2018 car with 60k miles on it for say £35,000 (the price was realistic back then), then it would have been the one I wanted. I think there were few 2017 cars offered privately with like 40k miles, for just under £40,000, but what Lexus had were all 2018 cars with low miles and starting at £48,000, I think that was the cheapest one they had offered me, yellow with black interior with 8k miles (which I was not fan of anyway), the other car they had was literally "delivery miles" (like 800) dark blue with black interior for £52,000. The dark blue I kind of considered, but when they put the proposal together they basically wanted me to finance £44,000... meaning they have valued my RC at £8,000 and I still had like £6,000 to pay for outstanding finance on it (can't blame them considering I paid £15,500 for it!). My offer was closer to £36,000 and I wanted them to put my car at £16,000 (basically get my money back on RC which as many would know I hated). We probably could have moved by £1,000-2,000 + service plan, but not by £10,000. And obviously then covid kicked in and I seen same Blue car listed at £68,000 last year with 12,000 miles on it. But at the same time I sold my RC for £19,000 in 2021, so I think financially I am in better position now backing out of that deal. In best case scenario, the same if I could negotiate the price down. But not sure how realistic is to sell £60,000+ car privately for cash, I already struggled to sell £19,000 car for like 8 months, so for even more expensive car it would have been near impossible.

If you bought it from Lexus dealer then as part of "Used Approved" scheme they usually (always?) offers 12 Month warranty which is very comprehensive and would definitely cover sunroof, but as Peter said it may just need lubrication. I had 2017 RC, but as far as I know sunroof is 100% identical and not had any issues with it.

That is exactly how much it costs... little bit more in UK actually. Just bear in mind that used keys attached can stop working at any time. I would definitely use them for a spare if there is a need, but I would be very worried to drive car for longer trip with such key as it may leave you stranded.

That was one of the reason why I wanted to trade my RC up-to LC500 at the start of covid, because many of 2018 LCs are now turning 5 years and £180 tax. Could have sorned it for 2 years and then went directly into £180 year tax 😄

No and to be honest there is no guaranteed legitimate way of doing it. Basically, it is kind of hack, sometimes it works, but nobody can say how long it will work. Lexus themselves cannot do it, so it is basically aftermarket tools and insider knowledge, not dissimilar to how thieves does it (if you think about lock-smith is basically a paid thief). I do know that such services are available and I know it is possible to do, but to be fair I have never researched what tools are required and how exactly it is done as it basically has limited utility. Obviously, if somebody is in the trade i.e. lock-smith then it makes sense for them to have this option. That is kind of to the same point - you can't program the used keys.