Dave748

Hmm, I do 17 - 18 miles (each way) daily commute on country roads every week day which is reasonably hilly, I can 50 - 55mpg if I'm careful and it's a fair bit colder than most places due to the higher than sea level average . Due to the type of roads I tend to try and stay around 40 - 50mph and I hardly ever use Curse Control. I find I can get much better mileage feathering the throttle myself though it means not keeping a constant speed. If you are on a flat or down hill and you have a reasonable battery charge just hold the needle between Charge and Eco in Eco mode, at anything below 45 - 50mph it will stay on EV mode as long as your needle doesn't go over the Eco mark. If it goes over the Eco mark and your engine kicks in just quickly take your foot off completely and gently back on and it will almost instantly go back to EV mode. Doing this I can get about 3 - 5 miles sometimes more (depending on the hillyness of the road) just on battery. What I find that also helps is learning the roads, particularly the junctions, downhill parts and sharp corners. Experiment to find out what the earliest point is you can begin to brake to reach the point your aiming for at the speed you want to arrive at but ensuring that the needle doesn't go all the way down to the bottom of the charge meter. This will ensure the maximum amount of your momentum is converted into battery charge instead of been converted to heat from your brake pads been engaged, it will also make your brakes last longer. Of course if you can avoid braking altogether even better but at times it's unavoidable. It takes a bit of practice to keep the car in EV mode for long periods and find the sweet spots where the car is most efficient for the road you're on but as you keep trying different things you'll discover little things here and there that overtime add up to make your driving much more efficient. But then sometimes like me you'll just want to bang it in sport mode and floor it on the straights, at that point your efficiently is ruined, but it's fun.

Hi Change, When I did the claying I also thought it was going to be a lot more abrasive than it was, it didn't feel abrasive at all and it's surprising how many streaks it picks up even after a very thorough wash. It also highlighted some patches that it couldn't remove that but were hard to see, they came off with a good one finger scrub with a cloth. I also live in the country side and my daily commute is all country roads so I'm not expecting it to stay that clean for very long at all, probably until the first day it rains. Nice while it lasts but easier to keep clean if you do it often, also I used bilt double speed wax that should help a bit and rain-x on the glass.

Hi All, So I finally took some photo's, I followed rayaans detailing guide not using all the exact same products but near enough the same process. Taken me all day, the missus won't stop moaning at me for how long it took but I got pics of it looking it's best so here they are.

Never mind I read your PDF, very informative but looks like a lot of work, I will have a look tomorrow see if I can get some of the stuff I'm missing.

OK I hear you, what would you suggest as an under wax polish? I have some halford's polish in the garage and it does a good job of adding shine but it also waxes so not sure if it would be a good idea waxing again over the top of it.

Thanks 200h, I thought it would take a lot longer to clay be honest. I'm a bit nervous about claying it, never done it before and as it was only registered and has only been driven since September but I don't really want to WAX it properly without claying it first. If I do it this weekend then I may not do it again till late summer or I could wait till later on in the year and clay it closer to summer when it will look it's best and just wax it anyway this weekend after a good wash. What do you think?

So, I got the LED block, the lights were compacted in but it was still too big to fit in the light hole, it was mounted on a metal plate which I had to sand down right to the edge of the LED block. I snapped off the wires while doing this but soldered them back on in work. Finally got it to fit just right and in the dark it does light a hell of a lot better than the standard light, even to the back of the boot so no need to use the extra strips. I also got a Meguire's clay kit from Halford's and some bilt hammer double speed wax that if I have time may do this weekend. If I do I'l finally take some pics and put them up.

Hi, I'm looking for more cool mods I can do to my new IS300h, done quite a few but would really like some Angel Eyes. Does anyone know if you can get Angel Eyes for the IS300h? If so where from because I've looked all over the place. Cheers Dave

Thanks 200h, I have already ordered a 36 LED panel that should just fit in the light panel that should give loads of extra light and I have also ordered 2 white LED strips to place near the back for even more if it needs so it should be good. I was looking around earlier and noticed you can get an F-Sport Carbon Fibre bumper lip from the states for the bottom of the front, looks amazing but with delivery over £400. I've been able to get away with ordering little bits here and there without the missus kicking up too much fuss but I think she would blow her lid at a £400 bit of bumper. Looks good though if it fits the is300h. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181955967777?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

There was a reason I used block connectors and not soldered, I did solder most parts of the circuits I made and insulated with electrical tape (shrink tubing would be neater but as you can't see those bits tape will do the job just as well). I used block connectors only in a few places and only because the wiring was already in the car and couldn't be taken out, all the parts of the wiring I could do outside of the car I soldered. I didn't want to risk taking the soldering iron inside the car, one slip and there would be a hole burnt somewhere or a big melted line in the trim or carpet so I opted to not take that risk and just use block connectors on those very few parts. 200h, I like the idea of changing the light for a brighter whiter LED and I was going to do that anyway at some point but that doesn't solve the problem that the light won't reach to the back of the boot it will just make the front of the boot a little brighter. I've got some spare blue LED strips left over so I may put a couple of those towards the rear of the boot, or, I may order a couple of white strips and put those towards the rear of the boot to keep it all the same colour as there is no need for blue in the boot. I'm also going to replace all the internal bulbs with LED ones as I prefer the crisper white colour.

It was really hard working running the wire for the ambient lightning and even harder when I finally got it to the back of the car. I was going to remove the rear light cluster to attach the wires but couldn't figure out how to access the back so instead I had to strip off the sheathing, cut the wires and put them through a block connector and just prayed they would still work when I'd finished. Luckily it all did so that was a relief, not sure how I would have explained what happened if I tried to claim on the warranty because I messed it up. I think I can still do a bit more to neaten it up, there is a small part where the wire is exposed as it comes into the boot, I won't be happy until it's completely hidden from view. I may change the foot well lights to blue ones too, looks a bit odd with the mix of blue and white light in the front. I've still got 4 LED strips left over too so I may put some extra lighting in the boot as it's hard to see to the back with just the standard lighting.

OK, so I've spent all day wiring in some LED strips for foot well lighting driver, passenger and rear. Took along time to find the best places to take the feed but ended up splitting the original foot well lights so the LEDs light and fade with the doors opening and shutting just like the standard internal lights. I've also wired in some ambient lighting as per Capese21 but using Blue LED's to match the car color and the foot well lighting, what a pain in the ***** that was to wire in. Took the feed from the rear left cluster so the ambient lighting comes on with the head lights. Because I used Blue lights they were as I suspected too bright plugged straight in so I'd also ordered a mini LED dimmer to put inline with a memory function. Worked a treat, the light is perfect now and the switch retains the setting so when power is lost it still goes back to how I set it before I sealed it in. Got more stuff planned and stuff in the post, will upload some pics soon.

Hi All, So tomorrow I will finally be driving my Lexus for the first time since picking it up, it's been in the garage a while, while I've been doing bits and bats to it and I've been away on holiday too for 7 days. So far I've tinted the rear windows, painted the callipers and applied DECALS (Looks great) and added some logo puddle lights, I've also cleaned it up to looking like showroom new. I've got more stuff planned this weekend too, ambient lighting (got all the parts and tools just need the time to do it, LED foot well down lighting, extra boot lighting and maybe rear foot well lighting too if I can find a good spot to place the lights. Also looking at ordering some of these from the US: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290837889369?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT in blue and got a few other nick naks on the way but their coming from china so may take a while.

I'm having problems registering my vehicle with the Lexus portal, I've followed the instructions and it shows my vehicle in the My Vehicles part but when I try and download the update it says I don't have any Vehicles Registered. Anyone help? Never mind, sorted

It depends how warped they are, if it's only very slight you may only notice during braking, if it is a much bigger warp then yes your steering wheel would be all over the place most of the time, especially between certain speeds when the warp most aligns with it's resonating frequency. I've had both on past cars, it may also be worth looking for any marks on your wheels where the balancing weights are, one may have come off, I've had this too and it's a very quick and easy fix in any garage.