zoricib

When I got my car 4 years ago it came with the Vlands. Wasn't a fan at the beginning but they grew on me. The light pattern is a bit scattered on high beam, but visibility is great and had no issues on MOTs etc. They've lasted me 4 years + whatever they've lasted the previous owner, so no issues with durability from me. 

19 hours ago, Harish_S said:

Does anyone in the UK actually own and drive an IS 350. I’ve found a few IS 350 for sale and I’m thinking of buying it but I’m just curious about what the cost of ownership is like. I know parts are probably interchangeable with IS 250s but in terms of insurance anyone have any idea on what insurance group it is? 

Look up an IS350 for sale and get a quote on comparethemarket/ money supermarket etc. It's extremely likely that your details and circumstances will have more of an impact on the price than the insurance group. 

21 hours ago, MrTrendizzle said:

Just to update. The clunking i was hearing was the brake pads moving only a few mm when applying the brake. I found a very old youtube video with very little views that was showing the same issue. He replaced the backing plates and it fixed the issue.
I made some plates from old coke cans which fixed my issue so ordered new plates from Aliexpress. No more clunking under braking. Honestly it has driven me insane and without finding any other issues i attempted to live with it until this random Youtube video popped up on my feed.
These are the plates i got which fixed the clunking.

Got a link by any chance?

On the repair I asked the mechanic to take a look  whilst I had my oil changed as I thought the exhaust had a blow somewhere & he welded it a bit but did mention the metal was thin and he won't be able to do a great job on it. For £10, that's exactly how I was expecting it to last 😄. Gives me a reason to switch the resonator though, which I always wanted to do. 

Depending on where the blow is, it could be repairable. 

If you're changing just the backboxes you can get a non-oem replacement from ebay for £250 but the quality will not be great - it could last 2 years or 10... Or you could get stainless steel backboxes for about £350. 

Mine is now blowing by the middle box/ resonator (had it welded once but lasted a few weeks because the metal is so thin), so will have it replaced with an aftermarket one. 

There are plenty of options to repair or replace, but depends on how much you want to spend on this.

On 5/21/2024 at 4:01 PM, Aras said:

For sale: Lexus/Toyota turn signal relay that enables lane change function (3 flashes with a touch of the turn signal stalk),LED support

Item Condition: Brand new

Price and price conditions: £10

Extra Info:  Ordered from Japan as after owning sever germans, feature of 3 times flash when changing the lane or exiting roundabout was really missing in my daily driving. Havent got a chance to install it as car been written off before i even received it

Pictures: 

Contact Details: DM me here or email liveforboost@gmail.com

Location: Norfolk, Wisbech 

Delivery & Conditions of Delivery: Can post as long as buyer pays postage 

I'm interested, can you dm me the cost including postage to CV10 please?

On 8/11/2024 at 8:15 PM, DAN@ADRIAN FLUX said:

Hi.

Please feel free to give us a try for insurance if you haven't done so already.

Regards,

Dan.

Rant time: Any time I called AF for my IS250 I don't think the quotes been below £1,500-£2,000 whilst every other insurer went for the £500-£600 mark... I don't see the point of advertising your services if you surely know your figures will be way way above market averages...

20 hours ago, Texas said:

As it looks like you are gonna keep this car a good while I highly suggest oil/filter changes every 5,000 miles, like you said the chain starts to make itself known at about this mileage when oil is prob past its best, also oil is cheap compared to going inside engine👍

That's the plan on oil changes. I'm waiting to see when the rattle comes in to set it as a benchmark for the shorter intervals. 

2 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Happy 4th year ownership Bogdan. And here's to another 4 + years. 

I thoroughly recommend you get a bottle of ZX1 and the chain rattle will never come back, we'll until it's time to change it. I've used ZX1 in All my cars and can report those engines loved it and performed excellently. 

Thanks Vlad! Will have a look at the ZX1. 

Would also recommend trying other comparison websites. Compare the market used to be the cheapest for me but in the past 2 years GoCompare was 150-200 cheaper. 

As to why some things don't make sense, I think it's very strongly statistics based - if people with 2k excess had more crashes compared to those with 200, then they potentially see it as a risk. 

In some countries they insure a car against a person but then anyone can drive the car...isn't that a dream!

9 hours ago, DnG said:

Ok so insurance is starting to ***** me off. So I've tried looking at 4 different cars to see what year I should actually look out for, a 2007, 2009 and x2 2010's.

The 2010 car I'm currently looking at and is for sale (BJ10XLR), the insurance is £2.457. The first 2010 model I looked at (YS59FZW), the insurance for this is now £1.900, was £1.600, so already that difference doesn't make sense.

I also looked at a 2007 (which is the second car for sale, KF57WNU) and insurance for this is around £1.634 and then I quoted a 2009 just to see if that's gonna make a difference, well, insurance for that is £2.284. So the difference in insurance between a 2010 and 2007 is around £800 !!

All these quotes were done through comparethemarket and looking at Aviva Zero. These do not make sense, it's hard enough that I had to increase the budget for the car itself, but now also the insurance budget needs to be up, just because they randomly decided to add another £600 to insurance since I started looking for a Lexus, which was a few months ago. Just let me have the car for £3.000 and insurance for £1.700 ffs

25 years old, 6 years of NCD, no claims or penalties and I'm still getting bent over and sideways like I just passed my test at 18... And before anyone says "well you're looking at a premium car, increase your budget or look at something smaller/cheaper", I also looked at corsas and fiestas and for some insurance is pretty close to a Lexus's or the car is nearly double the price of what I could get an IS250 for.

Just thought I'd update the post with my thoughts and what I'm going through, once I finally get the car this would be for a nice journal of the journey lol.

If you have a friend with UK driving experience & over 30 who would be willing to appear as a second driver on your policy, that might help reduce it. When I started driving I added my GF on a provisional licence and my insurance went down! 

12 hours ago, Ozzay said:

You put Assymetric 6 on. I find the steering heavy compared to other tyres even at 38 psi all round. How is your steering? Maybe I have some sort of suspension issue I don't know. 

I had a similar cost of ownership thread as well. Maintenance very similar to yours with lots of mechanic mistakes costing me up to £600 extra. 

I recently bought a Ford Mondeo diesel 2016. What a mistake. Problems with Turbocharger and potentially other things. 

I appreciate the Lexus drive when I jump back in to it. 

The asymmetric are on the back, on the front I have the efficient grips. Haven't noticed any changes in the steering from the tyres. However, when I was on holiday and rented a Fiat Panda for a week, when I came back I felt like I was battling the steering wheel in the lexus...maybe with you driving the Ford now too you're feeling a difference?

I also like to run my tyres a bit more inflated - from memory it's 40psi/2.8 bar fronts and 43psi/3 bar rears - I feel it handles better with more air in the tyres.

I think you can adjust the steering wheel weight if you get a copy of techstream? I remember moving it up a number when I got the car as it was feeling rather light for my liking

3 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I just wish all people took such good care of their cars... 

Definitely good decision on 6k miles oil changes, I have done the same in my ownership as chain rattle would comeback after ~6k miles, also all the oil burning only started occurring after 6k miles. So changing oil just before that cured most of the issues and car was very happy all the way to 200k.

Can't not take care of it when I like the car so much 😄 I still enjoy driving it and always turn to look back at it after I park. 

49 minutes ago, DnG said:

I would also love the 2010 car but the insurance is £700 higher... Also I doubt they'll knock £400 off the price to get it to £3.500 so I'm way over budget for that one. Hopefully it won't sell by next month when I get more money coming in but I really doubt it. Will go see the 2007 during the weekend.

Are you using any comparison websites for insurance? Also as daft as it sounds, comprehensive insurance is cheaper than 3rd party only, in case that's what you were looking at. 

Hi all,

A few days ago was the 4 year ownership anniversary of my 2005 plate IS250, which was purchased from a fellow forum member. As I kept track of most of the spending on the car, I thought I'd share the ownership costs over the 4 years. 

Apart from the ATF change, which I'm not sure I'll tackle as it at 120k miles now, I think I completed all big maintenance items for the age & mileage of the car. Also will start changing the oil sooner, 6-8k intervals, as I noticed the chain rattle comes back once the oil degrades. Next will look at replacing brake fluid and diff oil, as well as front pads and discs. 

As a general observation, noticed that the car is happier with Motul 8100 Eco Energy oil and it does not burn any of it. Tried OEM Lexus & Petronas as well, but had to top up around 200ml after around 5k miles to keep the level bang on in the middle.

check on the alternator too - mine was having a whine sound before it gave up

Thanks everyone for your input. looks like I'll either go for the bigger breaks or will go with some cheapish low dust pads. 

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to replace my front discs and pads at the next service in a few months. Should I go with OEM-like quality or is an EBC Green stuff & their discs upgrade worth it? 

Any other low-dust pads recommended? 

Any chance this is a forum member?😁 

Impressive drive from the UK to Portugal...thought the plane trip was on the long side.

I replaced the water pump in 2020  (water pump, a pulley, the accessories belt & coolant) for £230 inc labour. Water pump alone was around 130 if I remember right...

The alternator I replaced with a remanufactured part from eBay which cost £125 & £166 for labour - it's known to be quite tricky to replace because of lack of space. 

If prior to your issue you started your car for a very short time (e.g. engine ran for around 30s), the engine could be flooded - this happened to me too. Start it over 4-5 times with your accelerator at the floor so it clears the unburnt petrol. 

5 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Usually they include moulding around the windscreen, but it is questionable quality and not colour matched, just matte black plastic. As I had black car that was fine for me.

As above - they usually do, most of the time mouldings break when they remove them and clips ALWAYS break, so it is kind of impossible to replace windscreen without replacing them. 

Thanks Linas! Mouldings was the word I was after, not clips😄 

5 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

^^  No idea, but I'll check when the fitter arrives - to be honest I have been aware of the "exterior clips" until they were mentioned here.

17 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

Appreciate all the expressions of sympathy and sound advice, replacement booked with Auto Windshields for 10th April which was the first available date.  They're the approved repairer for the Insurance, it being included in my Comprehensive cover subject to the excess as outlined above.

I appreciate it won't be a Lexus screen but will have to be by a good manufacturer like Pilkington.  Done on site so I'll be watching like a hawk, and subsequently checking for water ingress and wind noise.

Here's a pic of the damage, the one to the left isn't as visible as the major one to the right [I have NO idea who the random chap tying his lace is....  ]

 

Any idea if they'll replace the exterior clips on a typical windscreen replacement? Mine has been done before (I think) and it has lots of micro-pitting so I was considering putting a claim in (and a hammer through the windshield to qualify 😅) but the external clips don't look great & know they're quite expensive to replace.

6 hours ago, Texas said:

Try this ebay item No 254278351048

 

Nice one! Ordered 2

On 3/22/2024 at 12:49 PM, Andrii said:

On 3/22/2024 at 12:49 PM, Andrii said:

Be careful and don't lose the white plastic ring - it keeps the lamels together and the motor cannot be used without it:

 

Thanks for posting the fix! I just took both my mirrors off ( one wasn't heating, the connector came loose). Cleaned one of the motors as it wasn't working great, felt like it was grinding. Managed to lose the plastic circle bit (despite really trying not to!!) So pushed the 2 lamels closer together and all seems to be working (for now).

Anyone found replacement motors yet? Would want to keep 2 for spares