Farqui

Well done Phil, I'm glad the GS performed well for you Your mileage eclipses my 700 mile round trip to Belgium last week. Did you have good weather? Cleaning off those bugs will keep you busy for a while

That's disgraceful [emoji23]

I know what you mean, OEM bars are rare but used do occasionally come up for sale. I scored a set from eBay at a much reduced price, so keep your eyes peeled. The other option is to a fit a tow bar but that's more expense, approx £550 for the hardware from a dealer (unfortunately). They can be fitted yourself as I've just done mine and used it with a rack just last week for a trip over the channel. We'll be using the rack to haul bikes every now then too. If you will be towing anything big then the optional cooling kit is £2k for the parts alone

Would you prefer 'sedan'? Still Yankee style.

The Lexus air mix servo's do seem prone to issues so it's not a huge leap for your issue to be related to them. The servo's worm gear can become loose, DIY fixes are available online. Having looked at how my air box works, one of the links getting stuck seems entirely plausible. My passenger side temp output is a bit off and I doubt I'll ever have the courage to look at it again. Operating in dual mode helps alleviate the issue somewhat. I may ask Lex-TexAuto's to have a look IF they're able to understand the conundrum, should I ever have them look at my car. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Well done, very satisfyingly to save a bunch of cash [emoji106]

Looks like a very nice car you've acquired there Peter, well done Tigerseal on the bush tho, really?! Well spotted. Good to see that you're on top of the jobs but keep your eyes peeled for any other odd fixes.

Roy, At the back of headlights you'll either find plastic caps or rubber bungs that hold in the bulbs. These caps/bung either unscrew or just roll back to reveal the bulb. Pop out a bulb in the misted up lamp and leave in the sunshine for the moisture to evaporate. Hopefully you can gain access from the engine compartment and don't need to remove the wheel arch liner or the headlamp unit itself. If I were nearer then I'd happily pop in to give you a hand.

Thata a tough call and I suspect you'll get a mix of replies. Consider any money saved on the purchase can be held back IF anything needs repairing. Not paying for a warranty can also free funds for a 'war chest'. I'm able to tackle most things myself but there are plenty of alternative and cheaper than dealer solitons available. The warranty question is kinda odd as Lexus are one of the most reliable brands.

Phew, that's better re: Hybrid issues - Richard @hybridbatterysolutions is a wizard and will see you right

Hi Marcin, welcome to the forum. The GS450H is a pretty solid car, it's a Lexus after all but on the older models watch out for leaky shocks, blowing exhausts at the rear Y pipe and rear mufflers. The Hybrid battery meter will flow up/down during use and is handled automatically by the vehicle. So what you saw sounds perfectly normal. Dealer charges on the hybrid batteries are costly but there are numerous options to make much cheaper repairs, we even had a forum member who offers such a service. Hybrid issues aren't unknown but they aren't common either, as Toyota/Lexus have been developing the system for many years now. There have been several threads like this recently that will quickly bring you up to speed e.g. https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/115281-going-to-see-a-450h-tomorrow-any-tips/?page=1 https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/115355-dads-looking-at-purchasing-a-gs450h-any-advice/?page=1 As always check the MOT history whilst looking at any purchases, they can often be very revealing. Good luck with your search and let us know how you get on? PS: what's going on with your large font?

It's cheap enough at that price, FSDH, has miles but not excessive and pic's look okay and is an easy colour to keep clean. What's your opinion?

I bought mine from there just over a year ago. PM me if you want any info on the dealer. Mine was serviced by the nearby Lexus dealer, so I wouldn't be surprised if this has come from then too. Car is low mileage but not too low. What's the MOT history like? Is it missing any recalls?

Cheers chaps

Yes, de-pin'g was painful especially as I had to do it twice! The instructions had 2 different pin'g options :(

The roof box was going to take us over the height limit for the car/dual level carriages and after using the roof rack I wasn't happy with loading/unloading up there. So I pushed on and fitted a tow bar to the GS and have myself a beefy rack from www.bak-rak.com, their website isn't great but their product is. It's 100kg capacity means we can now add a couple of bike racks and get the wifes heavier e-bike on there too, which you wouldn't dare do on a roof rack.

All done Was quite a job and made worse for me as my rear AND mid section of the exhaust had to come off as it's one piece. This also meant removing the two lambda's and a couple of cross braces. A long SS exhaust is heavy too! Oddly the front exhaust seals were tiny and I've replaced them with a couple of nice tapered seals that fit much better. I was concerned the the tow bar brackets wouldn't clear the aftermarket exhaust but they all went back together just fine. I only had to trim back the long lower bolts that secure the central bar to the end plates. I was quite surprised that the tow bar sits under the rear bumper bar, on previous cars the tow bar replaces the bumper bar. Oh any the tow bar mounting plates move the foam bumper insert out by approx 5mm, so the foam insert needed trimming back across it's length.

Oh dear, sold for spares/repairs Why did you sell it Phil?

Oh and as it starts to rain (again) while your rushing around clearing up tools at the end of job, don't carry arm full of tools/etc at once. If you do then you may find that the heavy removable swan neck tow ball does a swan dive to terra firma. The issue I had was the key was still in the lock and the key broke off inside the lock Fortunately the key broke in such a way that two of us managed to fish the broken portion out of the lock. A replacement key and a spare arrived this morning

I finally got around to tackling the arm rest squeaks yesterday and it's made a HUGE difference. I added thick but soft foam tape wherever I could and thinner sticky backed felt elsewhere. In the diagram I stripped out all the components top left; shifter guide, ash tray and cup holder. They were all contributing quite a bit to the squeaks. They were then each refitted with foam/tape, to prevent as much plastic on plastic contact as possible. The side panels got the same treatment and now the tunnel area is silent I also removed the media console and central vents for the same treatment but they weren't really nearly as bad as the tunnel. I goofed whilst removing the vents and nearly pulled them completely apart so take care if you try it.

OEM tow bar and electric's are now installed, the job escalated and left the car airborne for a week. A rear mounted rack that's nice and low is much easier to use than a roof rack, more aerodynamic too. I've already had a pal 'suggest' that I've been moonlighting for the council and emptying wheelie bins into my boot ! That bin has been split for years, ended up housing junk and has now gone.

By pad carriers, does he mean the shims that the pads slide along? Some pads don't come with them, which is fine if you can reuse yours. But maybe yours are in bad shape and need replacing?

Well done, the boot lid looks much better. How did you secure the mess behind the redundant number plate holes? Are the coilover, BC something or others? Do the coilover use rubber top mounts or are they bolted directly to the towers? How's the ride now?

Putting the US slant aside the car is quite a surprise. Well done flagging it here [emoji106] I see he's just done a follow up vid on the old Lexus too.

Phwaaaar