H3XME

Well, it’s home. It was very grubby so had to give it a quick-sh*t wash at Asda on the way back. Just clocked 72k on the 2.5h drive back from Dagenham. Other than clutch being on its last legs it’s mechanically sound. It’s got a cream inteior which i absolutely hate, but there’s about 30 manuals for sale in the whole country and this was the only one in this Desert Sage Metallic colour that I quite like so my next step is to swap the interior for black leather. Spoke to the guy who bought & crashed my black one, and I’ll have some interior bits (glove box + lower dash trim that goes under the glovebox and under the steering wheel) from that one, but not all as he’s going to be using it as a donor car for a new one he bought. Scrappy by me has IS300h leather seats that I’ll be putting into this, another scrappy not far from me has rear black leather seats & door cards. Carpet I’ll be dying black as swapping that would be a sh*t job. Clutch I’ll sort over Christmas as it’s not slipping yet.

It’s okay if you buy a new German thanks to warranty but god help your wallet if you go for some older models. People often slag off japanese cars for not being “nice enough” inside and whilst it’s true unless you get a lexus, I’d choose less glam for reliability any day of the week. Not saying this is the case of your son, but so many people chase Badges and forget about the rest. I got my GT86 at 21 because i wanted a sporty car rather than something that might impress the ladies and I couldn’t of been happier 😁

I'll say what I say to everyone who thinks about buying the diesel. Get the petrol. MPGs are pretty much the same. You will get 25-30 around town in the IS250 if you're careful and 40+ on the motorway. London and back to Birmingham I average 44mpg with 3 adults in the car. (Manual car & 70mpg on cruise control).. It just makes sense to get this as they will cost less money in the long run as there are no diesel issues with EGR, injectors, turbos etc. IF you can, sell it and buy the V6. It's crazy how wrong they got it with this diesel..literally no benefits to owning a second hand one as they all go wrong one way or another.

maybe do a full EGR delete as a last resort. otherwise I'd be interested in some interior bits if its black leather 🤣

Just take it back

DIY. I only paid labour when I had my clutch done ~£200 as stated in the reply

@Ozzay In terms of the rough idles and vibrations, I have nothing to say. Never came across this and my car was on 176k.. as for service items, you seem to be paying A LOT. It also seems like you're buying an air filter every year? You don't need to.. they last 20k miles easy. My service costs over the 3 years and almost 50k miles of ownership were something like this: Oil filter ~£5 x5 Oil ~£50 x5 Elbow grease £0 New slider pins (front & rear) ~£50 for both axles Rear caliper carrier bracket - £90 (one was seized) Rear brake pads ~£20 (once every 3 years it worked out) Front brake pads ~£25 x2 (once every 2 years it worked out) Rear brake discs ~£55 (needed them once) Front brake discs ~£50 (needed them once) Elbow grease £0 Spark plugs - ~£120 (every 60,000 miles) Elbow grease £0 Air filter ~£20 x2 (every 20,000 miles) Cabin filter ~£10 x2 (every 20,000 miles) Elbow grease £0 Clutch & gearbox flush (bearing, friction disc & pressure plate, gear oil) ~£250 - first ever clutch change at ~145,000 miles - DMF was good to reuse Labour ~£200 Toyo Proxes TR1 & Accelera 651 Sport (semi-slicks) 225/40R18 - £60/tyre > £240/set once a year.. went through 3 sets of tyres in 3 years = £720 Grand total ~£1940... that's with a clutch job you wouldn't need on an automatic and excessive tyre wear from too much camber. Of course I didn't have any issues with gaskets etc, but I did blow up 3 M&L subwoofers that cost me ~£60 each and one amplifier ~£80... this was arguably self inflicted though. High volume high bass music. I don't think it's too bad in terms of service cost.. minus the carrier bracket, slider pins and stereo issues these figures would be very similar to any other regular car.

Thanks! I think so too, although my friends were telling me to wait until a black one pops up haha. I had two black ones and I like this "Desert Sage Metallic (6U3)" colour.. it's very rare.

The 300zx is fine just the wrong of the year to drive it atm. Need to get new fuel lines made as they’re corroded (was on the latest MOT) yeah manual, but the one I’m going for on Saturday is 06 so lower tax bracket luckily. It’s also in a rare green/jade colour like some r34 skylines were offered but I will have to fully rip out the interior and swap a black one in as its currently poverty spec cream cloth, no nav or camera.. I’ll be going down the route of android head unit, 3IS 2014+ front seats again and make it nice. It’s a low mileage example, full service history and for good money. It’s just a bit rough in every way other than mechanically.. luckily I can do everything myself to make it the spec I want.

Update time. There are some exciting changes coming very soon... As you may know, I was looking for a 300ZX some time ago, but I couldn't find one that's good enough. Ended up selling my IS250 and went for '99 Toyota Mark II JZX100. As much as I liked that car for what it COULD be, rather than for what it was, I swapped that for a '94 Nissan 300ZX because 1) the old-school automatic in the JZX100 just isn't for me 2) always wanted a 300zx.. So here it is. 1994 300ZX non-turbo, 2+2, manual with TT tops.. Now, this car is now 28 years old. It has its little gremlins and needs a little TLC. Not to mention these just rust before your eyes so there is no way I want to drive this over winter. This leads me to my Lexus related content again.. I really struggle to find something within the budget that's: RWD, Manual, min. 200hp, LSD and not silly money.. Well you guessed it. I am getting another IS250, this will be my third one and let's hope it's gonna be the last one..at least for a good while. They have been such good cars to me previously it's hard to ignore it when it comes to getting something else, especially since the IS250 does everything I want. Keep an eye on this thread.. I will be doing some bits to it when I get it.

There's a JDM import GS350 on eBay for 4,5k... I was tempted myself since I'm looking for a daily again. Looks very tidy and only 60k miles..the only thing that put me off was the fact they don't have the paddle shift 😑

Probably because of the 23% extra duty to be paid on fuel from March 🤣 I'd have it for £6k 😅

It's either 1) Written off 2) On a private plate Why wouldn't you put a private plate on an older car? You have more of a reason to put it on an older car to hide its age if you already got the plate. My IS250 was 14 years old ('08) and I also had it on a private plate, not because I wanted to hide its age, but because it's my plate and I paid for it. Might as well use it. As for reliability, my car was on 176k miles when I sold it. It's was mechanically perfect, like Linas said, mine too was on standard bushes, alternator, water pump etc. I don't see why it wouldn't do 300k.. It was serviced properly every 6-7k miles. However it will never reach 300k because the new owner wrote it off 4 weeks after buying it off me... 🥲 I'm already looking for another one.

haha, yes and no. The new owner of the car (he's the one who crashed it), will be transferring all the good bits onto a new IS250 he's buying.

I swapped 3IS seats into my 2IS.. it's a bolt on. Same mounting holes etc. Seat belt buckle needs transferring over by that's a matter of one 17mm (I think) nut. As for heat & side airbag... connector heads are different shapes. Same amount of pins IIRC. If you split them and connect with the correct connector head it will all work. I swapped for those seats to improve my seating position... the IS300h seats I got weren't electric therefore go lower. So.. 3IS seats fit. RCF & GSF seats are exactly the same. Normal RC seats are the same as IS300h so yes, they will all bolt on, but you gotta mess with the connectors to clear the lights. I never bothered. Losing heat & ventilation didn't bother me, but I did have an airbag light on the dash from the curtain airbag. You can buy a resistor to plug in to clear the "fault" or like I said, swap the connectors over. and as for ISF seats, yes, they will fit no issues. Same plugs, same everything. It's the same car at the end of the day.

WheelFurb in Tamworth and Dudley. Great service, great prices and offer loaner wheels & same day.

Define bumpy ride? You think the suspension isn't soft enough? I would say that for a "sporty" saloon, IS250 takes the road imperfections really well. Some say the car is a little stiff, so you know when you go over bumps and dips in the road but I think that's a positive. It's not a GS or LS, you want to feel the road for more precision. aka sporty saloon. Maybe have a look at the suspension, it could be on lowering springs, 15mm springs will obviously be a little stiffer therefore bumpier, but if it''s on standard shocks & springs, there's nothing wrong with it.

Haha this reminds me of when my dad got 10mm spacers for the rear of his E92 330i and the wheels would scrape quite badly against the arches when going over bumps and dips. Safe to say they didn’t stay on the car for long. i never had this issue on my car but it was on coilovers that I had set to the stiffest setting for this exact reason.

If it’s the guy I’m thinking of he had a bad time doing that swap. Things weren’t as simple as they sound, but a manual is350 would be the dream

Dual Mass Flywheel

@karlfullard this judder you’re talking about. I had the same on mine basically when the clutch was too worn to grip properly. Don’t stress over changing your flywheel, get the clutch bought, drop it off and tell them check over your DMF - if it’s not got heat spots, it will be fine. Judder could also be a result of a worn release bearing. Dont just assume it’s the DMF aka the worst case scenario. Go to the garage and ask them to check if the flywheel is reusable. Simple as that

Okay, on a diesel I'm with you on that... diesel engines vibrate A LOT more than normal petrols.

It's not really the case on these cars. Rovers are infamously 💩, my mate with a 350Z (3.5L V6), went to a Competition Clutch Solid flywheel from the factory DMF and the difference was minimal. It's better for performance purposes but doesn't cause faults otherwise well known aftermarket clutch manufacturers wouldn't offer such products. They are all being tested - I worked for an aftermarket performance parts distributor and we dealt with a lot of brands such Competition Clutch, Exedy, Helix, HKS, Mishimoto, Whiteline, Cusco, Goodridge, HEL, PFC, EBC you name it. I know how these top level manufacturers test & push new products out.

Hi Karl, I had the pleasure of replacing the clutch on my manual IS250 a couple of years ago. It had its first ever clutch change at 140,000 miles. I bought EXEDY OE replacement clutch. I cost me ~£300 then but I see they are over £500 now... (Part number: LEK2001). A1 Clutches have replaced it for me and charged £220 I think. They replaced the fluids too.. I was worried I would need a new flywheel as well, but seeing the OEM flywheel was ~£900+VAT from the main dealer, I was either going to buy a solid flywheel from Fidenza from the states (I wanted a solid one anyway as it would be lighter and better for drifting & spirited driving) for £500-600 delivered. I ended up going to A1 Clutches with my exedra kit that included cover, disc & bearing and asked them to let me know if the flywheel needs doing too. Majority of the garages will tell you that you should replace the flywheel as well to get more money out of you, but that's only the case if your flywheel has heat spots - which you shouldn't get unless you're particularly bad with riding your clutch or doing burnouts a lot. Long story short, my flywheel was fine to reuse, didn't need skimming or anything (not really possible on DMF anyway) and the whole clutch change cost me around £500... I had a quick look and I would recommend this BluePrint clutch kit for £338... https://www.autodoc.co.uk/blue-print/7981920 I've used many BluePrint parts in the past, they are OE quality with the brand stamp & mark up.. Old clutch for reference.

You will have no issues, however I recommend 225s all round. Nothing better than a nice balanced setup for balanced handling.