Paul Brooksbank

I feel for the guy, he's obviously made a good job of it. It does say that the timing belt has been changed, that is the cam belt.

You could buy a clamp that's long enough to stretch from the wheel spoke to the back of the caliper! Align the wheel correctly and you're fine as long as the caliper can be observed clearly.

I did mine on level ground with the parking brake off, box in park. Even loosening the wheel nuts didn't move the car. If you apply the parking brake out won't make any difference, the caliper will still move for the check.

I did a quick test today to make sure my caliper slide pins were running freely. If you follow this quick guide there's no need for any stripping of the brakes as long as you don't find one that's seized. You only need to remove each wheel. All you'll need is a jack, obviously, and a pry bar or long flat bladed screwdriver and or, a clamp. Use the pry bar, screwdriver or clamp to compress the brake caliper until it moves toward the offside of the hub, or toward you, then, if the pins are running freely you'll be able to grab the caliper and check that it's moving freely.

They are beautiful cars and I'm still impressed every time I get in mine. One thing I found, you need to program the phone contacts with the full name of the person you want to call with voice activation, then the system has an easier time recognising the prompt. For instance, my son is called Darren, if I leave his contact name as Darren, it doesn't work, but if I store him as Darren Brooksbank, it calls him.

I could have bought a silver IS on a 2015 plate from Ford's of Winsford for less than I paid for mine, it's still on their site now if you take a look. The car is literally 8 miles from me but ... It was MOT'd last September, on an Isle of Man number plate, then it arrived at Fords in October with very few miles on the clock since the test. It has sat there for months at the same price. It may be a good car, but Fords only give a 3 month warranty and with it sitting around for so long? I know it'll be bullet proof, but the Isle of Man to Cheshire thing screamed "auction" to me. As you know, once you've dealt with a good Lexus dealer, you don't go anywhere else! Lexus Stoke are deservedly very highly rated, so I paid a bit of a premium for mine, but I sleep soundly at night and I've just had the 12 month warranty extended by 3 months by that nice Mr Lexus. If you're going to buy into a premium brand, and I honestly think Lexus currently occupy the position that Mercedes enjoyed in the 1970's, which is just about the pinnacle of quality, then why scrimp and save on a few quid? By the way, as I've previously stated on here, Crewe where I live is the home of Bentley and previously Rolls Royce. That factory has been bought, sold and horse traded more than the average corner tart. Their quality (Bentley) is about 20% above the car they're based on, the Audi. Mercedes and BMW are run by accountants these days, long gone is the engineer in charge. Take your pick, but if I'm spending a lot of my cash, I know what I'm doing.

WHAT? Good God, some people shouldn't have an electricity supply!

Barry, I hate to tell you this, but I live a mile and a half from the factory and there's no craftsmanship these days. Their leather work isn't as straight as Toyota or Lexus, or even Hyundia. Everything on them is Audi, even the window switches. Now, I know Lexus and Toyota share parts, but they don't have starting prices of circa 150K.

I've recently bought a September 2013 F Sport with 22,800 on the clock for £17,000. It's immaculate. Electric heated and ventilated seats and auto dipping mirrors. The only thing I haven't got is lane control and radar cruise. I'm getting 42 mpg town and urban and 58 mpg at motorway speeds. The seats are very comfortable and its very quiet. You won't get the full luxury spec for less than 20K on a 16/17 plate. But don't be put off by a slightly older car, they're bomb proof and if supplied by a Lexus dealer, it'll be fine.

I read an article today in which it was claimed that 85% of all French and German cars built are still on the road. Then I turned the page to discover that the other 15% made it home! 😌

I bought an IS300h at the end of December 2019, a 63 plate with 22,800 on the clock. Having owned both Honda and Mazda previously, the Lexus feels far better built than the others, and they are pretty well screwed together! The mileage I do is fairly similar to yours and I'm having no issues at all, with no battery problems and on the coldest days I was getting 38 mpg around town and suburban. The Honda Civic gave me 28 to 32. On a long motorway run to St Albans on a very cold January day I got 58 mpg at almost warp speeds, the Civic gave me 48 mpg at best. Currently in lock down conditions I'm only doing the across town run and I'm on 44.5 mpg. Bear in mind that I'm running the F Sport which has wider tyres, hence a little less mpg than the standard saloon. I have no issues with thoroughly recommending any Lexus to anybody. My colleagues who run German stuff, and that's all it is, are somewhat kicking themselves right now and every single one of them who've ridden in the Lexus has been totally gob smacked. Buy the IS, it's the only car I've ever owned where I'm impressed every time I do so much as click the seatbelt on.

Yes, Sandbach. It would be worth a trip over.

Oh yes, sorry mate. Totally agree now I understand.

What is HJ John?

Try these people, not too far away from Derby. These guys are ex Rolls Royce leather trimmers, possibly the best in the business unless they are Lexus of course! http://www.trimmtech.co.uk

Not as bad as Mercedes sliders and pistons, I've seen no end of problems with those, and at mileages as low as 16,000 on our "biggest mistake" purchase, an SLK 200, this was accompanied by a broken suspension spring. I made my wife trade it for an MX5, the fifth one we've owned in 20 years, with no problems other than the odd linkage bush perishing.

Interesting Darren. Were the brakes showing any signs of binding prior to this? I consider mine to be working freely if I can roll the car by taking my foot off the brakes on a gentle slope. The pads needing a hammer to remove is quite normal in my experience due to corrosion on the upper and lower edge of the backing plates.

I have one, but she takes all day, she's a Slovac!

Exactly. I've previously driven Hondas for the last ten years and usually do an annual trip to Gatwick for flights to Goa. I've driven from Gatwick to Crewe on several occasions and only even seen BMW, Mercedes and Audi on the hard shoulder with the bonnet raised. The numbers are shocking, an average of three per trip. The only reason I've never seen a French car stranded is due to their failure to make it off the driveway.

They will have to due to the fact that they are closed!

You won't need the warranty, it ain't a Renault! 😂😂

I've just received an email from Lexus, they've extended my free roadside assistance for three months due to Covid 19 with no charge! Now, being cynical I could say that I will probably never need it. But what a nice thing for them to do! Every time I get in the car or deal with Lexus I'm impressed.

I was brought up in Alton, Staffordshire. Joseph Cyril Bamford lived just North East of Alton Towers in a rather large house on Waste Lane, you can see the house and their test track on Google Earth. My brother went to school right opposite the JCB factory in Rocester. I remember JCB actually buying the road that the school was on and building a by pass to the East of it. Not many people know that JCB isn't a limited company and has no share holders, it's solely owned by Anthony Bamford. And they make their own engines and drive trains! The only thing they buy in is glass, steering wheels and tyres. Do you recall their company car fleet? Each one bearing the registration number JCB 1 to JCB 120?

It will be the inverter cooling system running.

I live in Crewe where they make the Bentley. It's no better than a well polished Audi or VW with nicer leather seats. The switch gear has VW/Audi labelling and the engine is simply two Audi V6 units welded together. The SUV they brought out, the Bentugla as we call it around here is absolutely hideous. Put simply, the Bentley is VW/Audi's equivalent of what Lexus is to Toyota. I know which premium brand I would rather own so I do! One more thing, when Lexus introduced the LS400 to Britain in 1990, the then Rolls Royce engineers in Crewe stripped one down to see what out was made of. Their chief suspension engineer lived a couple of doors away from me and he said "we took that car apart and now we're craping ourselves, we've got to up our game. "