sorcerer

Being a tight scrote I've never used anything but supermarket fuel in my cars since supermarkets started selling fuel and I've never had any problems. Having said that, I'm not a petrolhead that looks for every ounce of performance or every extra bhp, I just use a car as transport. I ran one car from less than 50,000 to more than 180,000 miles on supermarket fuel with no problems whatsoever in the context of fuel (few other things but not fuel). However, 10 years ago or so, I had a car converted to LPG and I've never looked back. Nissan Maxima QX 3.0 V6 Auto, had 22,000 on when we bought it (if I remember correctly) and had it converted, had more than 120,000 on when part-ex'd and that car would go like greased lightning. LPG really is the dog's doodahs - better for the environment, better for the engine, better for the wallet and absolutely no loss of performance or power whatsoever. One of the first things we did after buying our RX300 in May was to have it converted to LPG and I'm so glad we did, it's brilliant.

Should I get the mother-in-law to operate the tailgate then

Again, just like winter tyres, this is something else that I've never needed to use in more than 40 years-worth of driving. I've had cars that have been over 20 years old when I've got rid of them but never had squeaky, leaky or hardened rubber door seals. Have I just been extremely lucky? Are you folks just overly-sensitive/protective or is there really something to it? I appreciate it will never do any harm to lubricate the rubber but does it really do any good?

When I bought the car back in May it had two Dunlops on the front (can't remember which ones) and two Kumhos on the rear - think they were Crugens if I remember right. The back end used to swing about a bit if I wasn't careful but not now with the Avons on. Noise-wise, much quieter than before. Of course, I can't speak as to the longevity of the tyres having had them only a couple of weeks, but if that aspect is as good as others I'll be well pleased.

Or any other make/model - just as long as they are on all four wheels, of course Seriously though, I know I haven't had the Avons on long but in the first week it rained five days out of seven and I can say they are superb in the wet. They are 'A' rated for wet conditions and I can honestly say that they live up to and deserve that rating, the car is now so sure-footed. Not only that but they are equally as good in dry conditions too. I can't remember who first recommended the Avons on this forum but I'm very pleased they did.

Might be worth having a read of this

@DanD It may (or of course, may not) help for comparison purposes, if I say that I've just been quoted £150 at one place and £180 at another for sorting out the dent and scratch on my front wing:

As mentioned above, Lexus won't have their own body shops. In fact, I've never seen ANY main dealer have their own body shop and I've been in a lot during my 20-odd years as a telephone engineer for BT.

Not an answer to your question I'm afraid Mitesh but, I noticed that you say your car is a 2016 model, which means that it's still under the original warranty. I'd think twice about making any modifications to it at all yet, just in case it might invalidate the warranty.

Well, the first thing I came up with is Ebay and/or any breakers yard local to you. The next thing is to question why you need one? Copied from a previous topic that I posted in: As someone who has been running cars on LPG for more than nine years, with the LPG tank fitted in the spare wheel well, I am an advocate of the 'goo and compressor' method. I've been lucky in that I've never had a puncture in all that time (and I'm now touching wood and praying to any cosmic deity I can think of so as not to tempt fate, given that all four tyres currently on there at the moment were brand new just a couple of days ago) but a mate of mine in a similar position has had two punctures. The first one was sorted by using the goo and I can tell you that he went on to have it repaired in the normal way. The tyre fitters charged a little more for the time taken to clean the wheel and tyre but it did not stop them from repairing it. The second puncture was actually a blowout so he just called the breakdown people who went out and recovered him to a Kwik-Fit if I remember correctly. The point is, not having a spare is not a big drama and is easily sorted if you're unlucky enough to have a problem. Inconvenient and a bit more time-consuming yes, but not a huge problem. For many years now, my wife and I have driven from our home in Preston, Lancashire to Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and even further afield for our holidays and we have no qualms or fears about having no spare wheel and doing the trips with just goo and a compressor - it really is not a problem.

Feeling really p****d off with myself tonight. After more than 40 years driving I did something so stupid and so idiotic that I really can't believe it - although I've no doubt the repair bill will emphasize just exactly what a numpty I've been. New traffic scheme in town means an extra 20 to 30 minutes and extra miles on the homeward journey every night after picking up my wife from work, so I was in a bad mood about that and getting impatient. One particular set of lights has the inside lane for left turn and straight on, outside lane for right-turn only. Inside lane has a queue of about 700-800yds of stationary traffic to the lights and is our way home, but tonight I needed to turn right to go to the shop for bread and stuff and the right-turn lane is completely clear to the lights. A traffic island narrows the road a bit but there is room for two cars as long as the inside one is well over - but tonight it wasn't and I hit her door handle Thankfully no damage to her car but I'm ashamed and embarrassed to say that I've now got a dent and scratch on my passenger-side front wing! What an absolute prat stupid 1 stupid 2

I don't know about the Lidl one but I've just bought one of these. Plenty of Youtube videos showing them in action so yes, they do seem to work very well.

Having driven automatics for the last 25 years or more I always carry jump leads anyway, but as we all know, you need another vehicle to provide the power. Flat batteries are not always so accommodating as to occur when someone else is around so I recently invested in a jumper battery pack capable of providing enough juice to start a 5L petrol or 3L diesel. I've only just discovered these little beasts but there are plenty of Youtube videos showing them in action and they really do work.

I think Steve may have got the wrong year there - think this is the one you'll need Chris: http://www.sgs-engineering.com/car-boot-tailgate/lexus/rx/gsc1597-lexus-rx300-bonnet-strut EDIT: Or maybe not. Just noticed your avatar and that your car is 2003. Steve's link is to the 2000 - 2003 model and my link is to the 2003 - 2009 model, so it depends when in 2003.

Fair enough - so it must be something else that's causing the problem on the RX300 then. Glad it worked for you mate.

Like I said above, my tints are factory OEM (in other words it's tinted glass, not clear glass with a film tint applied) and the RX300 uses an external radio aerial, not the heater elements, and I still have the problem so I'd be very surprised if having your tints removed has any effect, but I'll be very interested to hear what happens. Hope it works for you if you go ahead and have them removed.

Well, ok, this isn't about gas struts but a lot of us either know about SGS or have bought gas struts from them, so I thought this may give you a chuckle: SGS create table football with power drills

So you mean the cup-holder with the wood lid? If so, Chris's idea may work well.

Hey thanks guys. For some reason or other I've not seen any replies to this topic since my own last posting on Sunday, which is very strange. I've accessed the forum on two different computers and also on my phone via Tapatalk so not sure what's going on but hey-ho, worse things happen

In all honesty I have no idea whether that's a good price for those tyres or not as I've never looked at the price of Michelins. I've just put 4 Avon ZX7s (235/55 R18 100V) on my RX300 and ordered them from http://www.tyreshopper.co.uk for £386 then used a Tyreshopper discount code to get 5% off, making it £366 and also got 3.15% cashback by going through http://www.topcashback.co.uk making the final, fully-fitted price £354. They were fitted at a local branch of National Tyres who, if I had bought the tyres directly from them, would have charged £421

This may help, but I'm afraid it's not looking good

Nothing to do with me, but be very careful about doing that. I've mentioned it on these forums before but just to reiterate - I used to work with someone who had an accident and on investigation they found that he had incorrect tyre pressures. I can't remember if his insurance refused the claim altogether or if they paid out a reduced sum, but it was definitely one or the other.

If the car was relatively new then yes, having a full main dealer service history helps to keep the resale value up a bit. However, a 2005 car is now 11 years old and having a full Lexus history will not mean very much anymore. When we bought our 2005 RX300 six months ago it had done almost 80,000 miles and the timing belt should have been done at 100,000 miles or 10 years, whichever came first, so we had it done straight away. Timing belt, new tensioners/pulleys, new water pump and coolant change came to about £360 if I remember correctly at a local independent garage. Oh, and my car doesn't have a full Lexus history

And so we come full circle to why I started this topic in the first place - can anyone recommend a good UV protector?

Fully qualified and time-served electrician by trade but spent most of my working life as a telephone engineer (cable jointer) on BT. Unfortunately, a back injury at work resulted in medical retirement, so now I'm self-employed as a computer technician, mainly doing domestic/residential repair work and some basic tuition.