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. 

6 hours ago, Maxz said:

Would love it if there was even a way to do this without removing the wheels but so far this is the least time intensive method I have seen - thanks! What if you had access to a pit, but from the above looks like you need access to both sides of the caliper to test this? Need to find time to check mine!

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. 

6 hours ago, Maxz said:

Sorry and to check, does the handbrake need to be off and car in Park, Neutral or Drive? Assume if handbrake off and Neutral need to chock block the other wheels?

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. 

2 hours ago, Localhero said:

OH! thanks for that the only video I have seen someone took a dremel to the back plate to cut out a piece, then used the same dremel to cut out a chunk of the brake calipers in order to get a longer bolt in, 

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

On 4/20/2020 at 1:55 PM, Barry14UK said:

Bentley much further down along it's depreciation curve and look at the craftsmanship that's gone into the Bentley.    

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. 

6 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Thank you, the link gives the address as Sandbach Cheshire, do you mean the one in Mickleover, Derby?

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.

6 hours ago, Mincey said:

Can anyone suggest a cleaner capable of getting coffee off a laptop screen please?

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

5 hours ago, Mincey said:

Or German

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. 

35 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Will they also relax their requirements for servicing to maintain the warranty cover? It doesn't apply to me as I (usually!) do more than 10k a year, but if somoeone does less and only has a service once a year which falls about now will they let that go to 15 months or whatever?

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

23 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Very nice 🙂

They didn't extend the warranty by the same duration though, so if I renew the warranty I'll get new recovery and therefore I'll never get to use that extra 3 months.

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.

15 hours ago, RgrWynne said:

I can add to that for you. I had my own business and did quite a lot of work with the Specialised Engines Division, based on the factory apron. I then also supplied some specialist parts to MPW the division that altered cars for the Sultan of Brunei, their best ever customer. I was there when they bought an LS400, infact at the same time they also bought an S Class Merc and a BMW 7 series.

 They stripped all three down and the conclusions we were told were,

Merc was best built, thickness of metal etc. BMW was good, Lexus they did not know how they could produce the drive train for the money, and thought they were selling at a loss. The engine and gearbox were outstanding .

 Remember this was when Lexus was new to the UK and I had never really heard of them. Further to that I also had a contract at JCB at Rochester when Mr Joseph Cyril Bamford himself attended the factory, this was in 1993. Mr JCB then moved to live in Switzerland and always had a Merc, except when Lexus brought out the LS400, he then had nothing else. The fact it was talked about and I knew it, says everything about Lexus, and believe me Mr JCB was an absolute stickler for quality, and instantly knew it when he saw it. Those were the days and bring back memories, but remember the legend that Lexus is today didn’t exist, it was all just very new. The only way I got into Lexus was reluctantly giving up my Ford Granada Scorpio with all the bells and whistles, for a Lexus GS300 being used by a fellow Director, who decided to have a Jag. The Lexus had only done 15000 miles and I did not like it at all. I was doing about 25k per year London to Cheshire regularly and all over the UK. After about 3 months the penny dropped about how good the car really was. Smooth, refined, no rattles and I began to love it. I drove it for over 100k miles, with no faults whatsoever and , bought it myself, and eventually sold it to a pal, who abused it totally, but it still had 280k miles when it gave up. I then bought another GS 300 with 3k on the clock, a 51 plate and really regret selling that to my pal above, who then also wrecked that, but still with 240 miles on the clock. I reckon I have driven 250k miles in my Lexus’s and they have never let me down, but I do meticulously service them strictly according to the service manual, and that is I think the secret to a long and happy Lexus life......and don’t skimp. Cheers , Roger

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. "