bobmc

Still here 🙂 I ended up getting a second opinion on the rears, as said they were relatively new and low(ish) mileage but deemed to be 'cracked and perishing'. To me they looked fine and the tyre fitters agreed they were good for another year or two. I got a set of Maxxis' on the front as a punt really, and I've been quite impressed so I'll probably go for the same on the rear (they do the right size) when the time comes.

Yeah I've watched a number of these videos and I would say that I have been very tempted to have a go. I think I would if I had a mate who was good with the tools to keep an eye on me or be able to help if I got into trouble but none of my mates fit the bill. I've enrolled on a college course for basic car maintenance to build some confidence and get some practical experience but with all this COVID stuff I'm not sure when it's going to start.

I'm coming up to 120,000 miles so I'm probably due a spark plug change, so it's probably an ideal time to renew the gasket and probably the PCV at the same time. I'm not confident in my ability to do it DIY so I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get it done. I was thinking about trading up to a newer IS or GS this year but it looks like that will have to wait

Noticed this at the weekend, it's the valve cover (I think) on the passenger side

I've had this when I didn't re-fit the fuel filler cap properly, hence a leak was introduced - will cost you nothing to check.

This video is someone lubricating the slide pins on an Avensis but I'd imagine they'd be very similar if not identical on a lexus

Welcome to the LOC The car looks to be in very good condition and even the alloy wheels seem to be in good nick (they have a tendency to bubble and flake) and 3K seems a very fair price to me, so it looks like you've scored a very good deal.😀 You know about the caliper issue, for the diy'ers it's a simple task so should be no problem for a garage mechanic and not expensive - the trick is finding someone reliable to do it as part of the service/maintenance. In my experience is they're not interested in doing it because they don't want the potential hassle of dealing with seized caliper pins - they'd rather just get you to pay for replacement calipers when they fail as the job is much more predictable. Calipers are not particularly expensive - I had one of my front calipers replaced earlier this year and the part cost was £110 It's a heavy car so brake wear can be on the high side but that will depend on your driving style I suppose. Regarding the water pump, I wouldn't replace now unless there's any evidence of leaks or belt wear. The wisdom is to change the pump at around 100K miles but I would be inclined to wait until the next major service at 120K when the spark plugs should be changed. This involves some disassembly of the engine and that would be a good time to change the pump and belt as well. The pump and belt part cost is about £120 Other than that you should be good and enjoy happy many happy miles

Welcome to the LOC from a fellow smoggy 🙂 I wouldn't automatically rule out a high mileage as there's no inherent mileage-related weaknesses that I know of and given your budget you will probably be looking at 100K+ examples. I'd be more interested in the service history and the condition of the vehicle. Is there service history and was this regular. Does it look well-cared for or are there scratches/dints or is the interior worn and or damaged. What sort of tyres are fitted - branded or no-name types, etc. Any reason why the fsport version - it's just that Lexus Teesside have a low-mileage IS300h Premier for sale just about where your budget lies. The extended warrranty is good value and includes AA breakdown cover and has a good reputation for being hassle-free but you need to factor in the need to go to the main dealer for servicing. But you can choose to pay by installments for a warranty and a service plan and this is the best option for some buyers. Good luck with your search

that sounds as if it's in limp-home mode - are there no warning lights on the dashboard? How long have you owned the car? Have you got a diagnostics code reader - if not I'd recommend you get one, the bluetooth types that link to your moblile phone are less than a tenner, that will give you an indication of what's wrong

Hi Colin Thanks for that - it confirms my understanding of things. The problem is that we don't know who the insurer is because it all goes through the lease company and apparently they've never seen the insurance documentation so we have no idea of what the policy wording is. I don't condone what they've done by any means and it's fortunate that no-one was badly hurt. The issue here is that they really don't have the means to meet the potential costs of this claim. They accept they've been stupid and irresponsible but the fine and the repair costs have hit them badly already.

A family member was recently in an accident that was their fault - they hit a stationary car at a road junction Unfortunately, the family member was breathalysed and was over the legal limit for alcohol and has since been to court and there has been a fine and a ban. The car was leased and the insurer refused to pay for the costs of repairs to the lease vehicle but are allowing them to pay these costs over the next 12 months. However, they have now received a claim from one of these accident management companies for personal injuries to the third party driver. As the accident speed would have been very low, it's a bit of a stretch but I suppose it's quite normal now to claim for whiplash injury in these circumstances. They've spoken to the fleet management company after receiving this claim and they're refusing to deal with this 3rd party claim - so my question is are they within their rights to do this in these ciircumstances or does the Road Traffic act not cover this?

In my area, the Lexus and Toyota franchises are owned by the same group and they do push you back to the Lexus dealership. Don't know if that's common around the country but I would suspect that there is lot of cross-franchise ownership.

I'm not sure about the OEM - I wasn't the first owner. I've seen a variety of the major brands fitted to new Lexus cars so I don't think there's a brand preference. Looks like the option of all-season tryes is out of the question, I can't find any brand that does a 255/40/R18 as an all-season option

mea culpa, I should have updated the topic 😳 We had a happy ending, an appeal was submitted and upheld