mike m

Finally swapped out the wishbones, bit of work involved in the driver's side as the front bolt can't be removed due to the oil filter housing so had to unbolt the upper engine mount and Jack up the engine. 3rd bolt in from the left in the pic. Passenger side was plagued with rusty bolts seizing up and again had difficulty accessing the wishbone front bolt which required a section of angle bracket to be removed to get a good swing with the breaker bar. Took the opportunity to spray everything with lanolin underseal to suspend any further corrosion.

Cheers for that. I do have a press but to be honest the amount of rust on the wishbones i'd be as well replacing them. I've been caught out in the past fitting cheap parts and having to replace them so i'm happy to spend the cash. Plus in the 3 years and 80k miles we have put on the car, i've only had to replace a rear wheel hub due to and ABS sensor failure. Everything else has been consumables so it has been a very cheap car to run.

The oil filter housing plastic caps are normally really tight especially if it's been horsed up by an idiot in a garage. I bought a specific cap removal socket (65mm) off Amazon. I was regularly servicing my CT and Auris hybrid, they love 0W20 oil and fresh plugs which Toyota don't reckon are needed for 120k. I also replaced the air filter every second service, I'm sure the service interval is 40k on these which is abit long. The service hatch underneath re uses one of the plastic trim clips to hold it open which is decent 🙂

When my previous Auris did this, i started checking the door switches with a multimeter for good continuity. Found a dodgy one on the driver's door but the main problem was a faulty micro switch on the bonnet release mechanism that I believe was randomly operating the alarm. Not sure if the CT has a similar bonnet release or a separate switch some where for the bonnet but worth a check.

Haven't bought them yet but probably be use lexuspartsdirect.co.uk as they are slightly cheaper than lexus. Complete wishbones that is, I haven't seen bushes sold separately.

Perfect, Thanks for that.

Hi folks, My wife's old CT which has now become my car just had an MOT advisory for play in the rear bushes of the front wishbones. 62 plate premier with 109k on the clock. I'm going to replace them sooner rather than later but wondering if anyone has an excerpt from the maintenance manual or has the correct bolt torque figures? Thanks Mike

Yeah I owned for a couple of years before Nick. 12k on the clock and I took it upto around 22k. Great car but it would sit in my garage not getting used for weeks at a time so it was time to make way for another toy. During my ownership I had it fully detailed and ceramic coated, lots of micro scratches hidden by super resin polish lol. I also put a set of Brembo discs on the front due to corrosion. That was it. Hope you enjoy it, awesome bit of kit to drive in manual mode.

Lol that could get some interesting reactions 😁

After what feels like a lifetime since selling my F, im finally getting to pick up the new / old cruiser next weekend. Anybody have UN stickers lol

After my dealings with that particular dealer it wouldn't surprise me if they bought it for around 23 - 24k. Very captive market here in Scotland with the only two official Lexus dealerships owned by the same group and they seem happy to charge what they want.

Nice one Nick, nice it's gone to an enthusiast. The isf ML system was quite poor compared to the RX I used to have and I'd find myself fiddling with the Bass settings and fader all the time. It's still not bad with 14 speakers but the RX has a subwoofer in the boot giving some punch. It's very much a first , second , third , Jail car lol Btw every man and their dog has an S3 in Aberdeen so welcome to owning a rare sight on our roads.

Welcome Nick, Cant imagine you will have much bother with this one 😉

Congrats on the civic. Ive always got a soft spot for them after owning an EP3 and an FN2 in that bronze colour that looked black most of the time. That FN2 of mine took some abuse lol and was an intense drive but really reliable. Needed a set of plugs about 20k earlier than Honda recommended but i heard that was normal. I love the shape of the new one and think its way more interesting than any Golf R or anything else VAG that this country seems to be in love with. Not sure about the ones still in primer though lol. I know how you feel about wanting to own other cars though and it was part of the reason for selling mine.

@JonPwill that be a P38 model at that age? Going from people I know that's owned range rovers they seem to suffer more electrical glitches than anything else. One P38 owner from work had his fuse box go into meltdown leaving him stranded. Few weeks before that he closed the tailgate and the central locking somehow activated locking him out the car but his keys and wallet were inside lol. Think sometimes with land rovers its just your luck. I know a Freelander owner who's diff input bearing for the prop wasnt fitted correctly from the factory. Common issue with a batch of them apparently. I work with a discovery owner who said his disco 3 was terrible but his disco 4 has been totally reliable.

I'd have a landcruiser over the strange rover. I'd imagine like a defender the range rover is a great car if you like working on them and have a lot of patience. The latest 200 series landcruisers are probably most in line with the rangey and will set you back over 30k for an 08 plate but older 100 series Amazon's are anything between a few grand to 20k but still bullet proof like their residuals.

Yeah wife's Mesa red CT turns spangly pink in the sun too

Price drop of 2k already lol.

Yeah pics seem to have added to the link today.

Nice ISF for sale in Dundee No pics yet though. https://www.arnoldclark.com/used-cars/lexus/is/5-0-v8-is-f-4dr-auto/2013/ref/cc_equ6utxb8dvwhjmz

Nice that. Id seen some pics doing the rounds on facebook a couple of weeks back and thought it suited the car.

Completely agree, ive seen 13 plate ISF s on autotrader for months and the prices drop every month trying to get shot of them off the forecourts. In my opinion the immaculate older models 2008 - 2010 seem to change hands quicker but again thats just from watching the market. The thought of selling mine private put me off almost instantly.

Well thats the ISF away as of yesterday with a big empty space in the garage for me and the Yaris for now lol. Keep your eyes peeled for another blue one coming up for sale somewhere. It went to a Merc dealership in Dundee. I suspect it might have a silly price tag attached or they already have a buyer for it. I'm more than happy with the money I got back from the car after two years though. Anyways it's been good fun watching the Jap auctions the last few days and quite interesting comparing the prices to what some garages are asking for here. Particularly fj cruisers, I reckon one place is trying to make 10k on them and that's taking into account shipping, import duty , VAT , conversion and registration. Having owned Japanese imports before I just bought them on condition at the time but now I'm having my eyes opened. If anyone else is considering an import ask to see the auction sheet. It will show you condition, price, mileage which is the easy bit to understand but it also gives details on the spec , No of owners etc. If it doesnt have one then you can do your own background checks if you have a chassis number through JOC and they check the Japanese history. Theres actually a white 2016 GSF going through just now with 16000 km starting at 6780000 Yen or £45400 seems quite expensive.

@Jgtcracer I tried webuyanycar just out of curiosity more than anything as I know they can be low. I guess Edinburgh didn't want the car on its own but I suspect if indeed trading it for another lexus from them it would have been better.

They have an online calculator similar to webuyanycar that gives an instant quote then you choose a dealership to have the car inspected / value adjusted. I'm interested to see what it goes on the market for. When webuyanycar are offering 2.5k more than Lexus (Scottish Lexus Dealers- they are both owned by the same group) you start to get the feeling they are either not interested or just trying their luck. @ThebigC Might be worth trying a few different places other than Lexus for a valuation or buy your car scheme. Would be interesting to see how the figures stack up vs a trade in against a GSF through Lexus.