LenT

I see you’re located in Bucks. Is it Lexus at Milton Keynes that you’re dealing with? They state on their website that they’re open for sales and servicing by appointment and are also offering online video meetings with sales reps. i can certainly recommend them - In fact they’ll be servicing mine next month.

I too bought the TireTek off Amazon as supplied by Odyseaco. I think the pressure range is more appropriate for car tyres and I liked the rubber bumper protection. Also the way it retains the reading when disconnected and its use as a way of deflating tyres. Only downside for some these days is that it’s made in China - but the distributor is in the UK. It proved to be very easy to use and consistent in its readings. And you can complete an online registration for a 12 month warranty. As it happens it developed a fault after 6 months! It ceased to hold the recorded pressure on removal. I contacted Odyseaco and they sent a replacement by return and told me not to bother to return the faulty gauge. This has performed perfectly ever since. Out of curiosity I researched this problem and found it was a known - but rare - event and was easily rectified. So I feel a bit guilty but I do now have two working TireTek gauges! Meanwhile, full marks to TireTek customer service!

These days I might even embrace a spell of granny shifting, particularly as my wife (who’s not a granny) keeps demanding that I slow down. Unlike many here, I’ve never driven these year 2000 models so can’t compare them directly in terms of driving experience. (I had hondas before, and will never look back.) It may be a bit dim of me, but I’m not clear if that means you wouldn’t have another Honda. I would certainly agree that as the years have gone by, the Honda range - apart from the mad Civic R - seems to me to have become more family oriented, whereas Lexus has continued to widen the styling and luxury gap between them. Maybe that’s because as a marketing operation, Lexus can still offer a Toyota to that market. My own experience seems to reflect this. My Accord - bought new - was the last year it was sold in the UK. Prior to that I had a brilliant Prelude, bought new in 1997 and again, I believe, the last year it was sold in the UK - and PXd after 14 years and 120,000 miles for the Accord. Before the Prelude, I had a Toyota - an MR2 - for three years and 90,000 miles. So I have very fond memories of both marques. But were I to buy another new car - which is highly unlikely - it would be a Lexus.

Like the OP, I’d have thought different. But as it’s not something I’ve ever done and you obviously have, it would seem to settle the choice for the OP. With the additional advantages of style and luxury - but no overriding edge in reliability, longevity and dealer satisfaction- it would seem that the Lexus has it. Of course if one’s been sold by now, that makes the decision even easier! So we wait to hear...or will the OP surprise us by announcing his purchase of an eminently sensible Volvo 240 Estate?

Then like you I would have every confidence in them. The comparison I made was with the specific H11 Osram as shown on their web page. But I would now say that the minor packaging differences are probably not significant. I hesitate to suggest anything else as you’ve probably already done it! However, if their website bulb checker confirmed that that was the correct bulb, then I would have thought they would refund your purchase in view of your dissatisfaction - and maybe have a solution to the poor performance. When I bought the D4Ss from them, the bulb checker didn’t know that I only needed one bulb per lamp, but ABD refunded the unused pack without a quibble. One way or another, I hope you have a brighter New Year!

Too kind...☺️

Phew! That's a relief! As a Lexus newbie I have to admit that I have no idea. All I can add is that it was registered in Feb 2015, which I have gleaned could make it the last of its spec to be sold in the UK before it was replaced by the hybrid version. I was as surprised as others here that it only needed one single filament bulb for main and dip. I'd never encountered this system before. Anyhoo, my point really was to support these Osram bulbs, even if mine was a D4S as opposed to the OP's H11. But surely the really curious feature is that the OP had successfully used the same bulbs before with good results. I may have missed it but I'm not sure this disappointing result has yet been explained. One thought that does occur to me - and I cheerfully admit I could be hopelessly wrong - is prompted by a warning on the Osram website. They claim that this range of bulbs is seeing a lot of counterfeits on the market. Not surprisingly, they state that they should only be sourced from their Authorised Dealers. I got mine from one such - ABD.co.uk - and looking at their pic of the H11 Osram Night Breaker Laser Next Generation 12V 55W (!) there are some subtle differences in the packaging from the OP's. If they do turn out to be counterfeit - which might also explain why they didn't perform even as well as his previous H11 purchases - then poor assembly might explain the results he was getting. Just a thought....

I came to the Lexus from a Honda Accord and one of the very few disappointments was what I felt was inferior lighting. I asked the Lexus dealer if my IS250 could be upgraded to the best available bulb - only to be told that it already had them! Having then discovered the Osrams, I thought I’d do the upgrade myself. The manual specifies both main and dip as D4Ss but gives no fitting advice, other than to state it should be done by a dealer. After watching some YouTube videos of people struggling to replace main and dip, this seemed to be good advice. So I bought two sets, main and dip, took them along to the Dealer and settled down for a long wait. Well, fifteen minutes later it was all done. And one set handed back to me! it seems that my model doesn’t use two bulbs, as the specs suggested, for main and dip, but one bulb for both with an electro mechanical switching system. I had no idea - and of course there’s no mention of it in the manual because it appears to be the only bulb on the car that Lexus don’t want owners to replace. I wonder why? Incidentally the Service Manager was sufficiently impressed with the bulbs to want more details about them.

I fitted a pair of D4S Osram Night Breaker Laser Xenarc , as they call them, with a claimed 200% improvement over standard bulbs - and when I took them out for their first night test, I would say they were certainly that. But it wasn’t just beam range that impressed. The dip was also brighter and better distributed. Whereas I’d previously had to use the fog lights to augment dip, in order to light up the kerbs, which is essential with our narrow, potholed country lanes, the new bulbs produced a brighter, more effective light up the kerb. However, as I recall, they were just over £100 the pair, so clearly not the same as the Osrams you fitted.

No question, do it! I’ve got the 18” wheels with the low profile tyres - and they are a pain! With my previous Accord I don’t recall any serious rim damage. Within two weeks I’d marked both n/s rims on the Lexus. A combination of low profile tyres, potholed kerbs and snow conspired to defeat the tyre bumper strip. Although our local Chips Away guy did an excellent job, at around £60 a wheel it was soon going to add up. So I invested in a set of Alloygators and they’ve proved to be excellent. Occasionally I notice a scuff on the plastic, but that can be smoothed off - and of course it’s evidence that it’s doing its job and protecting the rim. It’s a DIY project if you have a soft-faced mallet, tyre inflator and a plastic cutter - and they are best fitted with the wheel off. Plenty of how-to videos on the web. If you catch a kerb in a way that starts to lift the Alloygator off the rim, deflate the tyre and it should go back with some persuasion from the mallet and some washing up liquid lubrication. Sometimes you may have to release one end of the jointing strip to achieve this, but both the strips and the adhesive are available online. They come in a range of colours, so you can fit them as a fashion statement if you wish. I chose black to merge in with the tyres! Wih our narrow, potholed country lanes it’s very hard to avoid the occasional kerb. So it doesn’t take long for a set of Alloygators to pay for themselves. And they’ll always look better than a scuffed rim.

It’s an interesting problem to have. I had an Accord until an HGV wrote it off and would have replaced it the next day, if Honda hadn’t stopped selling it in the UK. it was utterly reliable and never needed more than regular servicing by the excellent dealers. To replace it, I spent a day touring the Merc, BMW and Audi dealers in Milton Keynes. On the way I passed a Lexus dealership and on impulse decided to pop in. The salesman thought he had the ideal Accord replacement and took me to an IS250 in white. Well, it was love at first sight (with the car not the dealer) and although I toured the others, nothing came close - and that includes the attitude of the sales people! By the time I got home, the Lexus dealer had already emailed me a video tour of the car. Service and attention by the Lexus dealer has been exemplary. And we have bought makes where the sales team couldn’t do enough and the service team couldn’t do very much! On balance, I’d give Lexus the edge but that might not apply to your local dealers. As for reliability, neither car needed any attention between regular servicing and both makes are regularly to be found at the top of the customer satisfaction surveys. For DIY, I suspect that the Honda will be easier to work on and parts will be cheaper. You don’t mention the actual mileage but it might be worth looking at the service histories to give you some idea of what kind of life they’ve both lived. Finally, try to take both on an extended test drive and then buy the one that leaves you smiling!

Alan64, possibly the best advice yet! Thanks for raising the topic as I had no idea just how complex and varied the TPMS was until you raised it. No wonder even tyre specialists can get it wrong. I did a search for TPMS MIL and found lots of info for auto technicians. One US site was a page titled ‘Dealing with TPMS problems. Tips to avoid issues and diagnose glitches.’ Two general points that leapt out at me were the warnings to only use plastic dust caps, as ferrous metal ones can interfere with the system, and not to use chemical type leak systems, which can block the valves. It also confirms that the batteries in the valves have a seven to ten year life. It also states that less than 40% of vehicles now have a system that can reset itself - and none of them appear to be Lexus/Toyota!

You may then have a problem with the MOT. On vehicles first used after 1st January 2012, under section 2:12 Wheels and Tyres section of the Car Parts Checked at an MOT list, the TPMS monitoring light is checked to ensure it’s functioning correctly. You can check out these MOT requirements on the gov.uk site.

Yes, that certainly might explain why the warning light keeps coming on. But you should fix the fault, not disable the warning system. That would be like taking the battery out of a CO sensor because it keeps going off! Incidentally, one tyre problem I discovered the hard way is that it’s best to fit plastic dust caps. I discovered that I had one metal cap which had corroded onto the valve...which sheared off when trying to remove it. This cost me £70 for a new valve. But fortunately I had an emergency tyre in the boot, having ditched the rubbishy sealant system which would have been useless in this case.

Before you disable it, check that it isn’t trying to warn you of a problem! If there’s no apparent problem, I’d try to turn it off by resetting it. On my IS250 there’s a reset button tucked under the dash about inline with the steering wheel. It’s hard to find. In fact I had to get in the footwell with a torch to locate it. To reset, first set the cold tyre pressures correctly. Then in the ‘Ignition On’ mode, press and hold the button for three seconds. The TPMS warning light should flash three times and then go out. Stay in the ‘Ignition On’ mode for a few more ‘minutes’. When you restart the light should be out. If not, then there could be a tyre or valve problem. The TPMS valves do work off a battery that has a finite life, so they will all eventually have to be replaced! Hope this helps.

Good advice. I replaced my main/dip with a pair of Osram Next Generation Laser Xenarc (!), D4S in my case, and am very impressed with the results. Range is certainly improved, but even more impressive is the superior dip beam that gives far better illumination of the verges of our narrow, pot holed country lanes.

I fitted CrossClimates to our 4wd Suzuki SX4 and was most impressed with their performance. So I decided they were ideal for the Lexus IS250 as well. Unfortunately my Lexus requires two different tyre sizes, of which Michelin only make one. Fortunately, Goodyear had recently launched their Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 which performed on a par with the CrossClimates, and better in some aspects, in both sizes. I fitted them and it has proved to be an excellent choice. Can’t really compare the two vehicles, but the Goodyears are far superior to the standard rubber that came with the car, not only in dry and wet weather grip, but also in the level of road noise they generate. I would certainly recommend them. Incidentally, I would never have a mix of tyre brands or types. Having wheels that could be affected by variations in compound mix and tread patterns is surely just asking for trouble.

Well there you go! Just don’t get them mixed up afterwards.

Never had occasion to try it myself, but have often come across the mention of the use of toothpaste as an effective and gentle way to brighten up headlights. Probably worth a go as I expect you have some handy! I'll be interested to know if it actually works.

I had my BlackVue dashcam installed by a guy who does it for a living and I know he took a live feed off somewhere around the passenger footwell. Unfortunately he made such a good job of it that I can't trace the wiring! But he also fitted what BlackVue call the Power Magic Pro on the driver's side. This is a switchable hardwiring kit that BlackVue claims is compatible with all dashcams that have a Parking Mode. It powers the dashcam when the ignition is off but will turn the camera off if the battery level drops to a preconfigured voltage. So the camera will never flatten the battery. I hope this helps.

Yes, you're right. I see that my original comment only seems to apply to my model year! Earlier IS250s had a range of wheels and it was the16" that wore the same size all round. The earliest manual I can find for the IS250 is for 2011 models and this gives the tyre sizes for 17" wheels as: Front - 225/45R 17 90W and Rear - 245/45R 17 95W. (At the risk of stating the obvious, I take it that when you refer to a 'booklet' that is not the manual - which is over 600 pages! And I also assume that the tyre information label on the driver's door frame has been removed or sprayed over.) Anyway, I hope this helps.

There’s no legal requirement to carry a spare tyre. Although it is an offence to put different sized tyres on the same axle, an exception is made for the emergency use of a Space Saver tyre. The conditions of use require that it is restricted to a maximum of 50 mph and the journey with it is for the purpose of driving to a place of safety or repair. So, not for going shopping then. I think they’re generally considered to have a pretty limited range, too, as the tread is not very deep and wears quickly. So around 70 miles I think. Still, far better than a can of squirt tyre gloop - which is useless in the case of a tyre wall rip or a broken valve!

I think you’ll find they’re different sizes for the 18” rims and the same size all round for the 17” rims.

Did you get your new tyres? I was also going to fit Michelin CrossClimates - until I discovered they only did one of the sizes. Frankly, not keen on mixing tyre makes. Often different compound mixes and tread patterns will give different handling characteristics. Fortunately, Goodyear had just launched their Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 in both sizes. Excellent reviews and test comparisons and, so far, excellent performance on my IS250. Wet handling at least as good as the CrossClimates on our 4x4; excellent dry road performance - and much quieter than the original tyres that came with the car. I'd certainly recommend, for what that's worth!