Linas.P

Any half reasonable body shop would remove it. Yes there is distortion around the fog light, but that should not be a problem - little bit heat from the heat gun and it could be flexed back to shape. I would advise using original crips with screws rather than self-tappers, but in the pinch that works as well.

As far as I can see, there should be no problem putting it back together, but surely it will need to be painted

Yeah - I would call it "lip", the correct Lexus term is "front spoiler, cover" 76851-53010 D0. I had this exact thing painted and it was £150 (bumper) +£20 (one side of the lip). I got used piece of lip for £40. Although in your case I don't see why you need to replace it - it is screwed in, not clipped in. There are like rails to align it, but not clips - so really nothing to break. I would go further and say that I wouldn't even bother painting the lip - fix the bumper, because that is visible and leave the lip as it is, maybe touch-it up and that is it. It is hard to see it as it is almost under the bumper. Although if they can spay it at the same time for £20 like in my case I guess it does not hurt. I am sure that was joke 😄

The Speedometer and fuel consumption can be set to show miles/MPG or km/L/100km regardless where car is from, but ODO will always show miles or Km based on where the car is from. So if the car is from US/UK it will be miles on ODO, no matter what Speedometer is showing. If car is from "metric" country ODO will always be in Km.

The "complete" service price is only there to calculate the jumps between the packs, which clearly shows that discount was either not applied or does not exist. As for oil - it is just anecdotal evidence, but in my experience Toyota/Lexus generic oil only last ~4k miles, before I notice burning and start to hear valve lifter sticking and engine generally getting noisier. Magnatec could do maybe 5k-6k miles before same happens, I have not tired Edge in IS250 (although I had it in other cars) and Edge is better than Magnatec, So say 6k-8k miles. What I have tried was Mobil ESP 0w40 and after 6k miles it was still looking fresh, didn't burn at all etc. So in my experience these fully synthetic oils are better then generic Toyota oil (I did notice it), but whenever it matters is another question. For example I would say that it is better to replace cheaper oil twice than run 10k miles on "better oil". However, in this particular case I am just saying I rather pay same £75 on better oil than same on Toyota oil, I still going to replace it after 5-6k, but even at that low mileage I tend to believe it will be marginally better. Other consideration - if I am not doing a lot of miles, maybe I can last whole year with 4k miles, rather than replacing Toyota oil every 6 months. For me it is more the case that I tend to do service in between Lexus service plan i.e. I would take car to Lexus once ever 10-12k miles, but I would always do oil change in between at 5-6k miles as I consider 10k to be too much and taking car to Lexus every 5k miles too expensive/inefficient. That is true, but I would go even beyond that. As I said for example comparing Toyota vs Bosch oil filter, Bosch filter is not only cheaper, but it is better. Toyota filter just has glued ends and cardboards skirts, whereas Bosch had like rubberised plastic skirt and the filter itself is moulded into that plastic rather than just glued. Now whenever that makes difference I don't know - perhaps Toyota filter is "good enough", but it is still objectively true that Bosch filter construction is stronger/better.

I have received the offer from Lexus Parts Direct (a.k.a Lexus Swindon) about Service Pack Deals (free oil with service pack etc.) and was just wondering how good of a deal it actually is. If you look at "complete" pack, then it seems to reduce price from £327 to £231, which sounds good in isolation, however it wasn't exactly clear how much saving on the oil helps with overall price. Throw some numbers together and here are the results: Not horrible, but not great either... and that is before actually considering that sometimes aftermarket quality is better. For example Bosch oil filter is better quality than OE Toyota, Castrol Edge or Mobil ESP are better oils than generic Toyota 5w30 Synthetic, not only that, but you can get Castrol Magnatec sometimes for £20-30 for required amount and it is at very least on par if not better. I would argue that even Bosh air/cabin filter is marginally better quality. Where I am not so sure is coolant - Toyota Pink SLL is pretty much the best coolant on the market and if you were to buy it alone it would still cost the same £48. How much worse is premixed pink from say Valvoline... who knows, but then anyone could still just buy Toyota coolant separately for same price. In actual fact, the "oil promotion" doesn't seem to even be there - because oil on it's own costs £71.45 and all services after that says it has oil promotion, but in fact they add exactly the amount one would expect them to be considering the parts they add. So it is little bit disingenuous... unless I am missing something? In summary - with discount in place you will not be overpaying for service kit, but it isn't as amazing deal as it sounds. It is just discounted in line of what you would pay elsewhere, but probably for slightly better quality parts (oils in particular).

The tail pipes are the same, it is just the tips which are different. Old tips can be removed and moved onto new exhaust if you prefer oval ones.

C1554 is Power steering relay error, which seems to be part of power steering ECU. Although it could simply mean power to PS ECU is not coming, which could happen because of many reasons. So I would check if there is power coming to PS before replacing ECU. I can't advise if IS220d part would work, sometime they do, sometimes they don't, but when they do they usually have same part number (i.e. it is literally the same part). How about this one? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275417150077

Well supercharger from RR racing is unicorn, I don't think you can even buy one anymore and for $7000, it is more expensive then the IS350. IS350 is obviously just much better choice then, but if track is the target then I would go non-Lexus altogether. Even IS350 is still a luxury car and would require substantial mods (which don't exist and all have to be customer made) before it could go on track.

Vista was never the best windows to use and now being obsolete it makes it difficult to get the drivers for it. W7 probably would be easiest nowadays.

It does make sense to get used one - even if you have to change used one every year for 10 years (including fitting costs), it is still going to be just about the same as fitting new one once. The only other thing I remembered - check alignment and other suspension components on that side. Because even for pothole to brake driveshaft would be very unlikely. More likely would be that some link or arm is slightly bent causing driveshaft to wear prematurely. So just make sure wheel aligns, nothing is lose and nothing is bent on that corner.

It must have been damaged caused maybe by pothole or incorrect install. I mean in theory it could have been one in a million defective driveshafts, but generally speaking such issue is unheard for these cars. What I am trying to say - yes Toyota parts are often very expensive, but they last forever as well, so at least you can be sure you won't need it done again any time soon. You can get it slightly cheaper (£467) from https://www.amayama.com/en/part/toyota/4233030160 (just check the part numbers and whenever you need right of left one) in https://partsouq.com it is about the same price despite cheaper shipping (549.57$ ~£472.80). Now theoretically it may be stopped and import tax added on top of it, but it my experience that has never happened and it happens at best once in 10 times. Even then £341.58 +20% + 126.25 = £563.15 ... which in my estimation is a lot cheaper than £750 +VAT.

User manual lists all oils as an option even for 2005 model - 0w20, 0w30, 5w30, 10w40 as compatible.

I think it must be methodology problem as well and Lexus should have looked more carefully how to properly test vehicle, because it does not make sense why car with same engine just different gearbox have to pay so much more taxes, it definitely does not pollute much more. And likewise late 2005 car pay the same tax as auto... so something messed-up happened in 2006 with testing methodology. And this isn't even cheating emissions, but simply getting correct emissions band for the car. For example Jaguar XKR with 5L supercharged engine is cheaper to tax than IS250 manual, despite having higher CO2 emissions - go figure!

Ohhh this made me giggle. Surprisingly DVLA knows something about the cars for once. But still Toyota ES is just so true and funny. Just in my opinion - as I have not driven in Liechtenstein, and I would have never known about ICMV, nor ever bothered to find out, and would have never bothered to get it anyway. But I think you likely would not even need to show it anywhere and in unlikely case you are stopped you have the document which has right car details apart of Toyota/Lexus which is close enough. So I would say that is good enough.

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Ok fine, I was wrong about measuring the tyre pressures. Still nitrogen fill makes this moot point as difference between cold and warm tyres will be so small it no longer matters. Again that is just one of nitrogen benefits, because one no longer needs to deal with variable of of water expanding. At least when I filled the tyres with nitrogen there was no mention of green caps, but I know Nissan used blue caps to indicate nitrogen on R35 which came nitrogen filled from factory, as well all the branding for nitrogen is usually blue. And I know for a fact Slime comes with green caps in the box.

There are a lot of misconceptions in above statement. As I said before nitrogen vs. air makes minor difference, so I am nit-picking at best, but what you stating above is just incorrect. First thing is water in air and it is an issue which nitrogen filled tyres don't get, as I have already said "dry air" would be 90% as good, but you can't generally get it, whereas you could get dry nitrogen. Key difference is not air vs. nitrogen, it is the content of water in your tyres. Because tyres are under pressure water boils and thus increase in volume significantly at relative low temperature (even below +40C), so running on air there will be huge difference between cold and warm tyre temperature, whereas there will be little to no difference when using nitrogen. The difference is small, but nitrogen is just better. Secondly, tyre pressures are measured when driving and tyre is warm, not the first thing in the morning (that cannot be more wrong). Because it does not matter what tyre pressure you have on stationary car, what is important is that tyre pressure is optimal when you driving (the stated pressure are warm pressures, not cold pressures). And here many people have misconception that tyre temperature is the same as air temperature. No it is not - when you start driving tyres will warm-up to at least +20C and in hot summer day a lot more. So really nitrogen just needs to be stable between +20C and maybe +60C, which it is. So on nitrogen you are getting consistently stable pressure when driving and that is the only thing that matters. As a bonus, because it is more stable, you get same pressures right when you start driving on cold morning and they don't change much when tyres are warm. As well you don't get uneven pressure if say you took two hard right hand corner and now your right hand front tyre is warmer. There are literally no downsides to nitrogen in the tyres, including the cost. I guess the only thing is that you need to find the place which offers it and dedicate a trip there to refill. ATS does nitrogen filling and generally because I use them for alignment and tyre fitting is the same trip anyway. Properly fitted tyres don't leak anyway (at least I have not noticed it within say 6 months), so this is just another nice to have, but not real benefit. The problem with air in the tyres is not that it leaks out, but that you have to increase and decrease the pressure at least 4-6 times a year and you have to contently monitor it. That is not an issue with nitrogen - pressures just stays same all the time. As well, as I have already said I don't think green caps indicates nitrogen.

I suspect it has tyre sealant (Slime) inside rather than nitrogen. I had it in bicycle tyres and package comes with green cap. This is most likely because car comes without spare. It is still useless for sealing tyres, but somewhat better than milk which comes with the car, because it has glass fibre reinforcement in it, so it may actually seal small hole rather than running out, but if you have puncture 9 times out of 10 it won't work. As for nitrogen - I had it in my tyres before and it does make a small difference, but certainly worth £3 it costs to fill. What is the difference? That is your tyre pressure remains the same all year long and both on the cold morning and after driving for long time at high speed. So you never need to worry that tyre pressure will be low on cold morning before the trip and generally it saves money as "free-air" is increasingly rare at service stations, some now charging £2 to refill. Whereas air - although 75% nitrogen, has 25% of other gases and some water. The water is what matters, because it expands when warm and contracts when cold, which is what makes the 3-5Psi difference between the seasons. Technically "dry-air" is 90% as good as nitrogen, but air is NEVER dry, especially not in crappy petrol station pumps. So my logic is - you can spend £3 for lifetime of the tyres to make them maintenance free, or spend ~£8 a year for 2-3 years adjusting for seasonal temperature changes and for longer trips. It is tiny but positive difference and when fitting the premium tyres for £1000 it is well worth it to keep them in best possible shape. I guess if car ever went on track that would as well be warranted as it is easier to keep consistent air pressures on the track when using nitrogen. But again I don't think your tyres have nitrogen, if they did it would be more logical for cap to be blue rather than green.

Supercarger is another story (none of the issues with heat and piping) and to be honest what they achieving is like 260-280hp, for $7000 it is a bit of the joke, hence they long time closed the shop (or at least stopped making IS250 kits). I doubt head gasket will be your issue, unless you mean double-stacking to reduce the compression ratio. But I am sure you will blow the piston rings before anything else. Fuel pump and injectors should be fine, but stock ECU won't give you any power... actually I would not be surprised if you get less power after slapping the turbo onto it. Because hot air will detonate, ECU will think "OMG" and retard timing all the way. You can realistically fit the turbo on the bottom of right hand side, but I haver no idea how you redirect the left bank exhaust manifold there, other option is to fit it instead of airbox and around that area, but the same issue applies - you need very long exhaust extension. Why engine swap the car with VQ35 and have all the headaches associated with that, if you can simple but the car with the engine already inside for £3000? I just can't see how engine swapping would be cheaper or better?!

In theory you only need a single cat in the car, so yes you can remove upper-cats and join pipes into single cat. I assume you want this as it would make easier to do pipe management considering you will have single turbo with single outlet. However, you can't use the standard IS250 cat because it is designed to be used in pair and for relatively low flow (as there are 4 of them to handle everything). So first of all with single cat it would not pass MOT due to emissions, secondly you will burn that single cat, tertiary it will not flow. So what you need is to put single large high flow ("performance") cat in place of one of secondary cats. But if you planning to use it on the track, then why bother with cats? Just straight pipe-it from beginning to the end. Regarding the second point - this forum does not hate mods. Lexus and IS250 in particular hates mods. Have you seen the engine bay? It is so tight you lose your knuckles just looking at it, working on it is painful and where exactly you planning to fit the turbo? Heat management will be bi*** as well, as you starting to realise you exhaust solution will be difficult as well. And that is just beginning of the issues. 4GR-FSE as most of modern engine have low friction rings, they can't handle forced induction (it will blow by and you just going to cook it), so you will need at very least rebuild the engine and add new rings... which you will have to adapt from some other car, because to surprise of nobody there are no aftermarket parts for 4GR-FSE. Now you have your engine rebuilt at the cost of say £1000 (if you do it yourself). Next step actually fitting the turbo and all the fabrication, add another £1000 (if you do it yourself). Once that is done you need standalone ECU, only the part itself is £1500 to handle DI and 6 cylinders and few more nice things like wideband etc. then you will need to tune it. Can you do it yourself? Else it will be another £1000 considering the hire of dyno etc. And here is the key point why these things are not being done to IS250 (and it is not that people here hate mods) - after spending £4500 you may have 300hp if you lucky, but likely unreliable, not road legal and uninsurable car. Even swapping the engine will be cheaper and more beneficial than turboing 4GR-FSE. So add the price of your project car and suddenly you can just buy another 100 different car for similar price and with more power and more suitable for the track use. I mean sure, you can just bolt on some old diesel turbo, put scaffolding around it and just wing it - but that will be less of "scientific research" and more of bonfire, you won't make any power at all without ECU and blow the engine before you can even get to the track. And that is before we even consider all other mods which you may want to do before taking IS250 on track. Answer - just get something else. And this is not because I am trying to save IS250 from being "modified", but because it does not make economical sense for you. Just as example of car which will cost less than your mods and will be better for track in itself: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195294356803 or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265821350422

I doubt about the second part, because there are simply too few BEVs around for it to be profitable and it would undermine their ecomentalist message. But pay per mile road tax has been discussed for a while now, although there would be technological challenges to implement it. I personally think they will continue hiking road tax every year for all cars until they are completely priced out from existence.

I wouldn't be so sure about it. Goverment considered two proposals, as far as I know neither was voted on, but they will. Reason is that as you say they still want to promote BEV for time being, but it won't last forever. I am confident that if ICEV ban will be implemented on 2030 as they said, one of the proposals or both will be put forward. First proposal is road tax per mile/minute, but counter intuitively the more traffic there is on the road the more one have to pay. So effectively it will punish us for government incompetence on building sufficient road capacity. Exact cost is not known, has not been discuss or agreed, but likely to be similar to using taxi. So basically take your current journey, but into uber app and see how much it will cost. And in peak time it will obviously be more expensive. Second proposal is to add duty on electricity used for charging vehicles. Hence you have smart electricity meter at home (read T&Cs they can adjust your electricity supply at any point) and that is why government has banned non-smart car chargers last year. So with combination of smart charger + smart meter they will know exactly when you charge the car and that will pay different rate from your normal electricity. Even worse - you may plug your car in in the evening and in the morning it will have less charge because they decided to use your car battery to supply power to where they deemed to be more important. Could you plug it into standard 220v socket - yes, but if you have electric car then you know this is not viable option as it would take days to charge it, maybe viable if you have plug-in hybrid, but you would still technically be committing crime (same as using red diesel on road) by using your own electricity, at your own home, to charge your own car. Yes I know sounds ridiculous, but that is in plans and mostly implemented already. If you think this whole BEV thing has anything to do with environment then I am sorry but you are a little bit naive. BEVs are not solution for environmental issues, because private cars are very small contributor in the first place, that is not to say BEVs are not slightly environmentally friendlier (but just very slightly), but the problem is that cars are not the issue in the first place. Car ownership for government is simply cash cow and that is how they see it, they never cared about environment, they just used environment as an excuse and justification for punitive road taxes and duties. So they won't just lose £40bn a year to BEVs, they will find the way to extract that money out of you once ICEV owners are no longer major tax payer. Good news - this likely won't happen until at least 2025-2035 (depending on how quickly BEVs are adopted), so you may enjoy low tax environment on BEVs for another 3-13 years.

Just wait for them to add duty on electricity and see what happens then.

In upfront cost - I guess yes. But everything needs to be put into right perspective. On Lexus IS250 17" premium tyres are £80-90, the budgets are £40-50. So if one is replacing the whole set - yes that is like double the cost, but is it really a big cost? £320 fitted vs £200 fitted, sure one can save £120 upfront, but what is that 1.5 petrol tank? For a part which will last 20-30k miles vs. the one which will last 15k miles? Just considering the mileage premiums already works out cheaper, but they as well more likely be more fuel efficient. So in fact one may save money by having more expensive tyres. As such I would say saving on budget tyres is always false economy. And by the way, I am not saying one has to always but Michelin, there are few decent mid-range tyres, which slightly cheaper and still safe. Although to be fair most of the time difference between premium and mid-range in my case was like £8 per tyre... is it really make sense to compromise on that? I just can't see it. And considering car ownership costs thousands of £, saving on tyres which are the most important thing for safety is never the right place to save on. Now sure, when we get to 19" the difference in price may be more substantial, but at the same time difference in fuel economy and mileage will be more substantial as well. But I guess it does not matter anyway... many people could not even check their tyre pressures properly, so they end-up destroying perfectly good tyres just by running them underinflated etc. So it is as pointless as trying to teach deaf and blind person how to read. People just don't care about cars, about driving and this information won't reach their brain anyway. That said - I think you made good point, if you want to see how car was maintained, just look at the tyres (and I always do that). One thing you don't want for sure is to buy the car from the person who didn't care about maintenance.. and nothing screams more about it than budget tyres.