Linas.P

They are called VLAND, everyone to their own when it comes to style and as far as how good they do their single job of illuminating the road... kind f depends. They are better than standard halogen, but probably not as good as xenon. And then there are VLAND lookalikes, which can be anything from acceptable to outright terrifyingly bad.

Thanks guys, admittedly if I needed the car at the moment I could not afford to spend so much time on it, I am just fortunate enough not to need the car and as well being sort of interested in such things. So in one hand it is like a hobby, but on other hand it is kind of hard to explain, but it is like one of those situations when one thinks they want to do something, buys the tools and realises that it wasn't what they wanted to do. I like wrenching on cars, but this was not the journey I have enjoyed, so realistically it was not sensible to do but I told myself "mate you wanted it so now you have to get over it". In other hand I think I have learned a lot. Car came back together easier than I thought, I was surprised myself that I was able to start it on first attempt and despite fuel already being a little bit off. Likewise interior came back together nicely and for most of the part was self-explanatory where everything goes. Yesterday I had doubts I can actually put it back together, well I kind of knew I have workshop manual and I can find the ways, but I thought it will be more painful and slow. First, I had to do something with cracked dash, I was thinking to wrap it in leather, but in the end used vinyl. Reason - it is impossible to get leather in one piece, or it would be very expensive, likewise it is impossible (with my skills) to stretch leather enough to do dash in one piece. So it meant I would have to sew it from multiple pieces and that is just not something I am capable of doing. It is kind of side show to wiring problems, but with known "sticky dash" problems on this model it may be alternative for many owners (i.e. wrap instead of replace the dash). The process was relatively straight forward and one of few things that I enjoyed doing in the end - I have trimmed cracked edges and glued/formed some foam, applied epoxy on all edges and cracks, then used spray adhesive to both dash and vinyl and just worked my way top to bottom stretching and sticking vinyl (which was mistake - should have done it left to right). End result isn't perfect by any means, but it is so much better than it was before and I rather like the looks of "fake leather", kind of elevates interior a bit. If I do it again I am sure I could improve a lot. Secondly, as said I just plugged old harness for now to confirm the fault before replacing it with new, and kind of practiced on old one, because I don't want to be stretching new harness not being sure where it goes. Tidied it up minimally just to make sure nothing is dangling and that it won't catch fire right away. And as well I wanted to make sure ECU kit and immobiliser is still working, so I can put the dash back and reassemble interior. I got all new hardware, because old was rusted (well like at least every third bolt needed replacing, so I just replaced them all). Generator is still not installed, because I will have to remove it again to install new harness (to access starter wire) and A/C compressor as well (to access crank position sensor). At this point car STARTS and drives, but obviously not for long without alternator. Third goes back the interior, the pile of bolts was daunting at first but they all kind of have obvious places. They all M6 with 10 mm head which helps a lot (except of two M8 12mm to attack passenger airbag, but they were just obvious), I kind of remembered and used common sense to pick the correct length. The only thing I was not sure about - some had bigger washer on them, but others didn't - turns out ones with the washer are for knee airbags, the one with small washer are for the dash, and the ones without washer are for the rest (like head unit). Then there were few black screws which were for plastic trim and glove box. Finally had to tidy-up in the boot where, smart key module goes: So what started with full boot of parts and several boxes of stuff ended around 2AM with 90% complete car. Obviously, I still have to replace harness and I have few bits to complete in interior, but the car is now in shape where I could almost sell it if I wanted to (lol).

Ok - it is time to conclude on this. I have identified following faults with the car: - faulty o2 sensor bank 1 - faulty fuel pressure sensor - faulty immobiliser ID box - faulty engine wiring harness 1 (main harness), intermittent shorts on several grounds and signal wires Basically, I was struggling a lot with diagnostics, because most of symptoms were compounded by intermittently faulty wiring harness. Eventually, when it started pulling the harness apart the fault disappeared, so I assume small crack somewhere in the insulation was causing havoc with all electrical part. The biggest issue so far was that Lexus in it's infinite wisdom man single wiring harness for engine and gearbox and despite it taking ~4 hours to remove all connectors but 5 I could not remove the harness. To do that it basically requires removing either engine or gearbox, I have seen it is theoretically possible to undo gearbox mounts, lower it by 5cm or so and reach over to disconnect the gearbox side, but there is no way I can do it without a lift. So this has delayed me for at least 2 months. Even then, just to remove initial part it requires unbelievable gymnastics, removal of alternator, A/C compressor, accessory belt and most of accessories. IS250 engine bay is by far the worst in terms of being friendly to work on from any cars I have ever worked on. To summarise the status - I have replaced o2 sensor and fuel pressure sensor, without any results, then I have replaced full ECU set for immobiliser (that is immobiliser, steering lock, smart key module and 2 keys, ECU could be reprogrammed, so I did that), but still had intermittent issues. Then I realised the issue with wiring harness, but could not properly fix it and diagnose it, because I could not take it off the car and that is where I am now. Yesterday I was able to find used wiring harness in great condition and for £110 (instead of paying ~£1800 +vat + delivery), so today I have reconnected the faulty harness, just to confirm fault and to make sure car still starts before I put the dash and interior together, or start fiddling with new harness. To my surprise all went well and within 8 hours I managed to put it back together, less alternator and belt (not actually required to start the car) and car started on first attempt. Wiring harness seems to be playing nice for now, but I am taking no chances - it will be replaced when new harness comes. Here are few picks of where I started from (total disaster). Really wanted to do a video, maybe time-lapse, but it already took way too much of my time and trying to film everything would double or triple the time, so I hope pictures will do for now. Finally, why and how this happened. No way to know for sure, but I have a theory - lockdown started, car was left standing for some time, battery went flat, somebody tried to jump start it, messed something-up and blown some fuses, but as well wiring harness and other bit (like immobiliser), then they tried to fix it, but used some trash mechanics who could not properly diagnose the car, nor fix it. Why do I think so - I found several fuses which are not right (they are standard size instead of low profile, thus both fuse boxes under the dash don't close properly. Next they took off the dash to inspect immobiliser, because dash was all cracked, they may have replaced it, or maybe it just started working intermittently, so they wrapped everything-up and quickly offloaded in in auction whilst it was still running. As well battery was new, but wrong size, they have "deleted" the battery box to fit it, so certainly not qualified mechanics. And that is obviously the time when I got the car...

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Have you had your battery disconnected, replaced or going flat recently. If so, then you need to re-set, otherwise they may open randomly.

100% sell it. Car are there to be driven, no ragging will be worse than sitting on the drive and rotting. I appreciate the attachment to the car, but if you do not use it yourself, do not have money or cannot fix it for any other reason then let somebody else enjoy it. The only part where I agree and appreciate - I would try to ensure car does not go to scrap yard. And yes this requires some mental gymnastics - you have to start thinking about it as it is and object which can be sold and where you should not care what happens next. If you really want best for your car then investing that £800 (if it is really only £800) will save it. Cheapest IS300 on sale now is £3500 (times are very different now!) and it is cat-S, so £800 investment can make difference between £500 scrap and £3000 driveable car. Now I personally doubt that it's going to be only £800, but even if that just makes car remotely presentable for sale it is better than selling rolling "project for £500. Because if you let somebody have it for £500, this most likely going to attract the people who will scrap it, but if you fix it and sell it for £3000, this will attract people who will cherish it at least a little bit, even if it is 19yo. Although IS300 being automatic, they are not most popular cars with 19yo for ragging, so I would not worry about that.

Don't have that issue mate 🙂 For me leather is must and it is kind of funny to think about IS250 as a "sporty" car. I am not saying it can't be turned into one after stripping 400kg of insulation and stuff, but in the factory form it just isn't. And I agree with your suggestion - most likely they decided it is "sporty" to have cloth (even if car was anything but), although my argument would be that they should have had half-alcantara seats like in F-Sport, I hate alcantara, but at least it looks presentable. Whereas standard SR seats just looks so nasty.

The big issue for me was that you could not get SR with leather at all (kind of weird decision as many Lexus decisions about arbitrary options restrictions).

I am sure it handled amazing by contemporary standards, as well "sure footed" (as expected by AWD) is not the same as "good handling", if anything steering is a bit dull, lazy on rotation in corner, tendency to understeer. AWD is great on loose surface, which is why it was developed for and successful in rallying, but not on track racing. So for most of time where the grip is good RWD is the way to go and no AWD cars are just mediocre at best. My comment comes from owning several BMWs including E90 328xi and E46 330i, they definitely handling better, just way more sharply and predictably on limits and Lexus electric assisted steering is no match, but is completely sufficient for intended purpose and I never felt it was inadequate.

My view about JMD equivalents to Lexus is that Lexus made their platform, because Lexus is semi-autonomous within Toyota and then later it was decided that such platform could be reused for more upmarket Toyotas at home. When it comes to car platforms, the key is the volumes - as such Toyota would never make platform for the car which they know they only going to sell in low numbers domestically. I guess it is moot point, because Lexus is owned by Toyota anyway, so any Lexus platform is Toyota's platform as well. But my argument is that platform was made with Lexus in mind first and foremost (i.e. focusing on Luxury and Handling), rather than being rebadged Toyota like modern ES.

It definitely handles better than UR Quattro - AWD is just never good for handling, but definitely not as good as BMW. Yet it handles good enough to be fun and enjoyable to drive, which cannot be said about any comparable FWD car.

I think there are few things at play. First - IS220d (as most diesels) don't have issue with high mileage, quite opposite they have issue with short journeys. Second - IS220d wasn't really that bad car, just maintenance intensive, so well maintained IS220ds with known how and preventative maintenance and driven primarily on longer journeys can go a long way. In short both IS250 and IS220d can go a long way, just on later that is conditional on good maintenance and care, whereas IS250 is more or less maintenance free. That said - many people don't maintain their cars very well and this is especially true for the cars which fall under certain value... say £2000. It is much harder to justify £1000 service routine every year for the car which is only worth £2000, so automatically many many IS220d fallen quickly as victims of neglect after reaching certain point and now are very troubling money pits. As for your car I know it benefited from both longer journeys (if I am remembering right it was 120 miles a day?) and knowledgeable owner who did right maintenance at the right time before issues had any consequences. I once said that I perhaps would be able to live with IS220d because I kind of know what to look after and when, sadly that most likely not going to happen as there are many issues at play - for one it does not have auto and manual is not the best, the trend for diesel isn't right and all the cheap ones nowadays are too far gone to buy... and finally although theoretically I could survive it I just don't have desire to torture myself just to prove the point 🙂

BMW rides fine if you throw away terrible run-flat tyres. Avensis and IS250 do not share the platform - Lexus of the era was "real Lexus" with it's own platform (it could be argued that it shared platform with JMD Toyota Mark X, but there were more IS250's than Mark, so I would argue it was Mark which used Lexus platform and not the other way around), but they do share many components in suspension, switch gear and buttons design, as well as horrible 2AD-FHV engine. So Accord as I said is similar to Avensis, but IS250 being "much nicer Toyota" is on the other level altogether. Many things things looks similar between Toyota and Lexus indeed, but they are very different feeling for touch (with exception of modern ES which feels exactly like Toyota). For example overall design of dash is similar, but on Lexus is soft touch like rubber/leather and Toyota more like hard textured plastic. Same thing in Honda - it looks kind of similar, but just nowhere as nice to touch (sadly same applies to Acura, which meant to be like Lexus, but is just Honda with different badge). Is IS250 drivers car - probably not, but being RWD it is way nicer to drive than any FWD econobox. Yes BMWs are better, but less comfortable, whereas I would say Lexus is perfectly balanced between Merc which is comfy but absolute barge and BMW which is nicer to drive but kind of uncomfortable.

There are like 2 or 3 in UK and as said they are for sale for like £7-8k.

I think they have said SE meant "special equipment" for mk1, which was one of better trims, so I assume the same is true for mk2? But you right - they have never specified that for mk2 and on mk2 it suddenly became second worst trim. No suffix was certainly the case for mk3 (being the lowest possible grade), now that you said it I may remember that being the case on mk2 as well, but they are extremely rare. As for AU I thought SE-L equivalent is "Prestige"?

Not a problem for you... Import specialist would charge me £2000+ in London.

All the comparable cars have similar fuel consumption, so the argument of fuel cost is unfounded, unless you saying people are overall downsizing or going for diesel cars. Likewise I have no plans using E5 as I believe E10 damage is overblown and not justified. Gen 8 accord is FWD, so that is out of question automatically. Besides even thought Hondas are build very well, but are kind of plain and they never feel Luxury inside. They feel like Toyota's - good quality economy car, without any bells and whistles, where Lexus really feels class above.

The poor quality US fuel is a myth, I mean you could buy worse quality fuel there, but that does not mean equal quality fuel isn't available. 91 MON ~= 97 RON, but they as well do have 93... so they have 99-100 Octane as well. I think it has more to do with some people in US doing insane mileages and it is more of inherent design issue which shows-up with miles. So at least in my mind - any IS250 will have some issues with carbon by 200-300k miles. That isn't unusual and nobody would be surprised, but what was unusual and what created this name for IS250 having carbon issues is that in US within 3 years from launch there were already people who did like 160k miles and already had carbon issues. IS350 for £7-8k sounds like amazing deal and in current market definitely makes more sense than IS250, my only issue is the insurance on grey import. But on other hand there is no comparison between MT IS250 and IS350, IS350 just all around better and even lower road tax. Besides Lexus AT can be "manualised", there are mods for it where it keeps each gear and properly shifts on paddle shift click. My only issue is that I could not justify spending £8k on mk2 IS overall, for me the platform is just too old for that sort of money.

Have you quoted another insurance company by any chance? And have they asked you to declare all incidents regardless if you claimed or not? Well, if you would have done that then you would know. Because when I made a claim next year my insurance didn't increase either (apart of usual increased renewal offer, which was quickly discounted upon the call), but it bit me in the back when I moved to different company. Maybe not all insurance companies does that, but this is what happened when I have purchased RC200t, I had my IS250 insured with eSure and thought I could simply transfer the insurance to another car as it is usual, called them said... have new car blah blah and expected it will be slightly more expensive (I was paying ~£600), but because it was 2 months left on old policy I thought they will add like £50-100 ant that's it. The answer I got - "we can't insure you..." like at all for no money ever, because "young driver (30 years old!) and powerful car (damn 2L engine?)". Anyway, made a new quote... all good, £950, but I kept getting error about undeclared claims despite declaring the only claim I knew about where my car was written-off non-fault. Called up the company which provided that best quote (I think it was Elephant) to ask quote over the phone, told them all details pretending I don't know anything about issues online and the lady on the phone was like - "£950, but you haven't declared all the claims". And I was like - "I have no claims apart of the one I have declared, there was small bump few years back where I didn't claim and that is all"... and she was like... "does not matter who is at fault and whenever you claimed, if you had incident you have to declare it, let me check insurance database". She checked and came back "stating that in total I have 3 incidents to declare, one for a hit and run incident where there was just a scratch and I just informed insurance about it 4 years ago, but didn't claim, one from earlier in the year which I dealt with using claims management company and got money directly from TP insurance without involving my insurance and declared and final one was claim for windscreen 2 years ago". She added the claims and the price turned out to be £1600, so £300 per claim basically. Point of the story, as I said before - windscreen cover is A CLAIM and it goes into national insurance database against your name, so be aware it is there. If you were lucky enough not to change the insurance companies, or if they haven't checked the claims then your premium probably was not affected, but it could be. Obviously there is another consideration - if you paying for insurance £200 and it will increase by 30% next year and little bit in following years after that, then perhaps windscreen cover is still worth it, but in my case that turned out to costs £300/year for me.

Does not matter, if you have windscreen cover and claim under policy, even paying excess for... it still counts as a claim on the policy and when comes time for renewal it is counted same as claim for accident. Basically insurance companies treats £500 windscreen claim same like writing-off car for £100k when increasing your insurance next year.

I have been on here for like 7 years and there was single occasion of blown head gasket and no other serious issues ever reported, but in that instance there was logical explanation. Basically, car was 60k miles, but 10 years old and water pump gave way, leaked coolant and owner didn't realise that until it was too late, as result engine overheated and blown head gasket. IS is really a cars fault? or a bit of missed maintenance? I had weird problem, but that is because I bought "non running" car dirt cheap from auction and it was way way worse than anyone can imagine, horrible service history etc. My suspicion is that somebody jump started the car incorrectly, potentially multiple times, blown some wires, blown immobiliser, then tried to repair it but failed and then flocked the car on copart. It is nothing to do with Lexus or IS250, it was just some imb/ec/iles who previously owned and worked on the car. In the end of day I have fixed immobiliser issue by getting whole replacement ECU kit, but still could not figure out where engine harness is shorting and I am not good enough electrician to do it - "simple" fix would be to replace the harness, but that requires removing the gearbox so I am struggling to do it on the driveway. In short - nothing seriously wrong with IS250 whatsoever, there are some "weaknesses", but to really be impacted you have to drive 200-300k miles. All the issues are solved by having port injection like on IS350, but again one has to drive for 100s of thousands of miles to really bother.

Just few considerations here and trying to understand better what you looking for as well. Does the gearbox plays part of the choice for you or is it road tax, or is it fuel consumption? If Manual is not the hard requirement then Automatic IS250 is slightly more fuel efficient than mk1 IS200 and slightly faster than mk1 IS300. The only issue is that if you want Manual, then IS250 has very high road tax, however if you ok with automatic, then IS250 is really best choice between mk1 200/300 and mk2 220d. Obviously, if overall cost of the car is the key criteria then IS200 will be by far the cheapest and very solid car overall. Yes I know that it is possible to buy IS220d for similar price as mk1 IS200, but that is because all those cars below £2000 most likely have engine issues. You can get IS220/200d without engine issue if you look for lower miles and later models (particularly 200d), but then expect to pay in excess of £5000 and it is by no way guarantee it won't develop serious engine issue, only that it does not already have one.

It is not great, but it is within spec. First thing - what is the mileage and how the maintenance history looks like (cars with poor maintenance history could be notorious for burning oil)? Second thing - when was last service done i.e. have you done 4k miles in 6 month, or a year or maybe 18 months? I am asking because many people assume that car only needs maintenance after 10k regardless of the time, whereas really it is whichever comes first and there are further caveats - 10k miles is what is called "extended service schedule" (or something to that effect) and car has to qualify for it. The normal service is actually 6k and could even be 3k for heavy use (e.g. city traffic). The third thing, are you sure right amount of oil was put in the car when service was done - sounds stupid but such things happen? Although in IS250 oil is more likely to be overfilled than underfilled - that is because oil level has to be measured when engine is in operating temp, which is tricky. Which brings to final question - how you measured it? This is because measuring oil on warm engine is tricky (stupid and unusual as well) - you have to get engine fully warm, so the best thing to do is to measure it after a long trip, stop the engine... but not measure it... that is because it takes time for all the oil to drain back to pan, set the timer for maybe 15-20 minutes for all the oil to drain and only then measure it (long enough for oil to drain, but not for engine to cool). When I owned my first IS250, I have overfilled the oil few times because of this, either because engine was cold and measurement was wrong, or because oil hasn't had time to drain and I thought it is missing. Obviously, with some metal gymnastics this could be simplified. For example when you do oil service and you are certain there is correct amount of oil in the car, check where it sits on the dip-stick (should be around lowest mark), so then the next time when you check oil on cold engine you will know that around that mark the oil level is right even if dip-stick indicates it is low. In summary - 1L over 4k miles is acceptable, but not great, however it is very important to confirm with absolute certainty that it is indeed burning oil, which sounds easier than it is. You need to do oil service, check, double check and triple check correct amount of correct oil was added there in the first place and then monitor at say 1000 miles intervals. And only then it is possible to say with certainty that car is burning oil. Dip-stick on Lexus is about as accurate as trying to measure thickness of paper with inch ruler. When I had high mileage IS250 (160-200k) it was certainly burning oil, but not very much. As well it was burning more oil towards the end of 10k miles i.e. for first 5k miles it would burn virtually nothing, but then at the second 5k it could burn 1-2L. However, the first time I noticed it was hard to tell and it took some time before I was more certain about what is happening. In my case I check/top-up oil, check tyre pressures after every second fuel tank (600-800), sometimes before longer trip as well - that is just my normal routine even on brand new car (if I ever buy one lol) and only after second service I was able to confirm that. In the end my solution was to do oil service twice a year or 6k miles, whichever came first, this mean I no longer needed to top-up as cars was burning almost no oil up-to 5k miles and overall engine was noticeably smoother, especially on start-up, eliminated lifter and chain rattles etc.

I advise to take it for at least a day or even better weekend if possible - admittedly I missed most of the annoying issues with it when I test drove it with sales guy on the side. Definitely holds gear in Sport+ - but it is totally not necessary to be fair, because you need to change at 4.5k-5k anyway as there is no more power to be made after 5k (and this was always issue for me mentally I could not deal with). Pulls well from ~50+, hesitates from the start and as well for overtaking it can never select right gear, so it is very sketchy when you start overtaking at first there is nothing, then it shift mid-overtaking and then you suddenly need to start braking because it is too much. As well does not hold speed when cruising on autopilot and event at 70mph seems to shift between 6th, 7th and 8th all the time for the smallest hill, which hurts economy and smoothness. I guess you could not test fuel economy in test drive. As well it not only does not feel like, but it isn't faster up-to ~50mph and I am not saying that because I think so, but because I had IS250 and RC200t at the same time for few months and (admittedly) had them lined-up and even went to seaside with friends using both cars. IS250 simply get's going quicker and pulls better up-to ~40 maybe and then RC overtakes it around 50 when it finally sorts out which gear it want's to use. Same for overtaking - IS250 just gets moving quicker, RC200t just takes longer to sort itself out and by the time it does you have already overtaken the car. So overtake on IS250 looks more like - 1s delay (you can even eliminate this, but putting it in S and if needed downshifting once before opportunity comes - effectively two clicks) > 2.5s to go from 60 to 80> 2s to finish overtake and you back to your side of the road in ~6s. In RC 2s to start going > struggles to accelerate in maybe 5th and takes 2.5s to get 60-70 > changes again to probably 4th or even 3rd in another 1s > then suddenly accelerates 70-90 in another 3s (because you scared you won't make it), then cut sharply back to your side of the road under braking and overtake overall takes ~8s and it is scary, and you waste fuel and speed unnecessary for what is simple overtake. Provided you can juggle 8 gears in your mind I think it could be fast car after 40mph, but I just can't (my problem) - especially considering gears are very "short" because of effective engine power is ~2.5-4.5k, so you always have to keep the car in that range for it to pull and the gears are overlapped a lot as well, so you can't even "feel" if you in right gear. When you have 6 gears that is totally normal and quite different - it is possible to shift yourself and gears are clearly distinct and feels natural i.e. you know what to expect and you can predict based on speed you going whenever you need to be in 4th, 3rd or 2nd gear. I know we discussed this already, but RC200t can only be tunner if you change turbo, the turbo as it is can't provide more boost even if you remap the ECU... and that is going to be very existing proposition for what as you say is rare car and pretty much has to be custom done everything.

The replacement units have all the same controls as original one, besides most of controls for temp and radio are physical buttons anyway, screen only repeats the same controls on the screen.