Glyn Jennings

Found this on a different forum. I don’t know if this helps or not. From the '06 Navigation Manual: (a) Enter the Bluetooth phone To use a hands-free system, you need to enter your phone in the system. Once you registered it, you can make a hands-free call. 1. Push the “INFO” button to display the “Information Menu” screen. 2. Touch the “Telephone” switch to display “Telephone” screen. You can also push the telephone button to display this screen when the vehicle is stopped. 3. Touch the “Settings” switch to display “Settings” screen. 4. Touch the “Add Phone” switch to connect your cellular phone to the system. 5. When this screen is displayed, input the Passkey displayed on the screen into the phone. For the operation of the phone, see the manual that comes with your cellular phone. If you want to cancel it, touch “Cancel”. 6. When the connection is completed, device name and Bluetooth Device Address is displayed. You do not need to enter it in case of using the same phone. I can't imagine it's much different for other phones vs. an iPhone. Once you find the Bluetooth on/off switch within your phone and then search for devices and once found, put in the code, you should be paired.

That is my impression as well. I have a 2004 and when I bought mine it had an old Nokia Bluetooth adapter that had been retro fitted. It didn't allow you to stream music so I fitted the SC430 mods one. I don't have any buttons for Bluetooth on the side of my steering column only volume up and down and mode but if you have the buttons and are getting the message no blue tooth connected on your sat nav display I guess you must have one of the very first SC's to be fitted with this feature.

deleted post as probably not relevant to this model

Something I didn’t mention was I thought it was a harder ride driving home after fitting the new tyres. So checking the pressures yesterday each tyre was 3bar instead of the recommended 2.3bar. That’s 30% over inflated.

Thanks for all your comments. I will look for someone other that Lexus to get the alignment done. ATS said the alignment was out because the front tyres were worn more on the outside but at 23,000 miles I don't think that is to bad. It all my years this has been the same with all my cars I have owned with that sort of mileage. I have to say I love both my Lexus cars but I don't feel the same about my local Lexus dealer or Lexus pricing. For them to just look at my RX for anything it starts at £186 and you have to even agree to pay that for them to investigate whether something is covered by the Relax warranty or not because they don't seem to be able to tell you upfront if it is covered. Obviously if it is you don't pay anything. If it's not they will reduce the charge to £93 for just the inspection if you pay the extra for the work to be done. I also find the staff over the top and rather false in the way they seek to please you.

I have just had 4 new tyres fitted on my RX450h at my local ATS centre and they said the alignment was out on the front wheels. They also said they couldn’t do the alignment because of the regenerative braking and suggested I go to Lexus. I rang my local dealership and they said it would cost £186 which is only £6 less than I paid for each tyre. I can’t understand why the cost is so high compared to a tyre depot. Were they right in saying Lexus would need to do it?

Hi Russ, I don’t have a garage either and did mine in December last year. I wrapped all the bits in a spare room. Here is a link to the gear knob which I purchased after wrapping the panels. The only thing I found was the carbon fibre pattern on the knob was diagonally opposed to how I had done the panels so I then had to wrap the gear knob as well so it matched. If you go for this gear knob you may want to match how that is wrapped to avoid more work. It’s strange that most carbon fibre I have seen goes from top left diagonally to bottom right but the gear knob was the exact opposite.

Hi Russ, I did all the all the bits that had the wood finish, ie doors, dash and console. The gear knob was about £12 from China. You need a selection of plastic trim removal tools. The centre console pulls up from the back after prying up the seat heating controls. Car need to be in at least neutral position to allow it to come up and two connectors need to be unplugged. You have to remove the radio to cover the door as well as the navigation unit for the nav door. The dash panels are really tight to prise out (there are two clips at one side within each air vent that need to be released at the same time). The door cards have to come off and there are about 13 screws holding the wood panel on from the back. If you look at the SC430mods installation videos on YouTube you will get a better Idea. On YouTube or the Lexus Club forum you will see how to do the doors. I hope this helps.

Hi Paul, I have seen this question this discussed quite a few times and the consensus has generally been no. The problem you have is the difficulty of the air bag, different wiring connections and different function buttons. You can get a recovered SC ones in different finishes and also with a flat bottom but they are done abroad and cost around £400. I wrapped mine as in the picture above with 3M black carbon vinyl wrap and it was not easy. The first attempt took about 4 hours and I messed it up near the end so it had to come off. I gave it another go the next day for the same amount of time and managed to do it. I took the wheel off which is relatively easy. You need good lighting, patience and a calm peace of mind or you could save all that and pay a vinyl wrap installer to do it for you but even for them it is not easy. Mine is not perfect but looks OK. To be honest if my car had had the darker wood finish I would have left it but it had the light yellow colour which I personally really didn't like and the beauty of the wrap is you can remove it at any time to restore the factory look.

https://www.sc430mods.com/

I've had had the SC430 mods one fitted in my 2004 for just over a year now and it has worked perfect for me. it is a good price, easy to fit and hidden in the centre console. It works very well for phone calls and streaming music over Bluetooth from my phone. However if you listen to radio or tape or CD's the volume is reduced by about 50% in my estimation. Calvin is aware of this and so this may not now be case with the one's he now sells. I only use the phone and stream music from my iPhone so it is not an issue for me. Interestingly on the SC to the right of the overhead interior light is a place that was intended for a microphone to be fitted and I have fitted mine there so it is also out of sight. The only thing I had to do was to fit an extension cable to the microphone cable as it wasn't long enough to get to mic position.

It is just a pack of silica gel water absorbent crystals with a fancy name.

Yet again Aldi get me to buy something from the middle isle. Now the mornings are getting very damp I bought one of these for a fiver to put in the SC.

Both wheels look really nice. The Lexus ones particularly in gunmetal grey. You were very fortunate in getting 4 centre caps for £20. I looked at buying some but they were about £160 for a set from the US. I ended up buying some refurbished wheels that already had them on, then sold the old wheels which were quite badly corroded in places.

This is where I saw someone saying they move theirs around without any issues. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc430-2nd-gen-2001-2010/778110-new-tires-and-wheels-and-sc430-2.html

I may be wrong but on a different forum I read that the sensors in the wheels are not sensitive to which corner of the car they are on provided they are registered to the car. I forgot to note down what wheel went where when I took mine off to put the new ones on so I hope this is the case. I would assume that the trims are plastic and can be lightly rubbed down and painted the same as the Pie Plates can although you may not end up with quite the same finish as original. The Pie Plates have almost a chrome finish to the plastic with a lacquer on top.

Perhaps it’s the M factor. The longest journey I took in the Z3M was to Amsterdam so nearly all motorway and that averaged out at 29 MPG. Round town it was about 23 MPG. One thing which I think is an unfair criticism of the SC is the 0-60 MPH time of 6 seconds which is none to shabby compared to the BMW’s I have owed which were between 5.5 - 6 seconds without any criticism. I think a lot of motoring journalists just look down on Lexus because it’s Japanese who make a lot of low budget cars so it doesn’t carry the prestige badge like BMW, Audi and Mercedes to them even though it may be a better car in the eyes of owners who don’t just drive them for a couple of days.

I find it interesting considering the size of the SC430 engine how fuel efficient it is. When I had my BMW Z3M coupe I never got anywhere near the SC’s MPG. That was with a smaller 3 litre straight six engine with slightly more power but almost a third lighter in weight. Even the 330d and 335d I had were not that great never mind the M50d considering they were all diesel’s I think the SC is a remarkable achievement.

Hi Ken, if you want to really make the car come alive you can fit an electronic throttle controller which totally transforms the car. It has lots of settings at the push of a button and a display ranging from economy through to normal then 3 sport settings which have 3 increments. I generally use normal or the highest sport setting depending on my mood. You need to get used to the highest setting though as it is very acute. I fitted an SC430mods one but they are all generally made in China so you can save money if you buy direct from China. I don’t find much difference in MPG but I don’t do many miles.

Thanks. I personally like brightly finished wheels with dark body colours, especially blue. However I never realised before how polished rims show every mark. I probably will always park drivers side to the kerb so I can see the distance to the kerb. My RX has side cameras which is so handy. I understand from Calvin at SC430mods.com that he is intending to do an add on to his reverse camera setup to add front and side cameras at some point. That would be a bonus for me.

Really glad you got it sorted Ken. I have found the SC430mods.com camera works really well. Hopefully now you won’t have any further problems but if you do you know there is is a wealth of fellow owners only to willing to help. I must admit I have always been the sort of person who will attempt most things as I like the challenge and I suppose the satisfaction of having achieved something new. I am a bit tight when it comes to spending money as well.

I have now bought some cheap 26”wheel covers from Amazon. When it rains hard it stops water splashing up and making the wheels dirty. They also keep prying eyes away. I think I am now getting obsessive. The next thing will be me buying her an electric blanket to keep her warm in winter.

I had to look her up as I had never heard of her. She certainly did some beautiful elegant poses.

I nearly bought a 928 or a Lotus Esprit 20 years ago but bought a TVR instead. I loved the Porsche 928 but it was was so technically advanced it worried me that something could go wrong at great expense. From memory it even had electrically controlled vents behind the radiator and 20 years ago a new engine was £14,000. The TVR was rubbish I spend more time repairing it than driving it and it took me a year to sell it. 20 years later the TVR has never appreciated in value whereas 928s have. I think the moral is don’t buy what basically is a British kit car. I also fancied a 993 Turbo too but they were always way out of my league and now worth £250,000.

Well done Ken for driving a sports car at 87. Wow they certainly whop the premium up at your age. At 71 now, I hope to be still driving at that age never mind a sports car. The annoying thing about getting older is how insurance goes up. Apart from car insurance once I got to 70 my holiday insurance had a £55 pound top up and I have to pay another £50 for everything that’s wrong with me. Even my 2 year old dogs pet insurance I don’t claim on as this will increase the premium the following year which they say can be any amount and at 10 years old they will only pay out 60% of the claim. On top of that all insurances now have an excess. It seems insurance companies only want to make more money without taking any risks which is ironic when that is the whole reason we use their services for so we end up taking the risk that they will even pay out.