Jon Dee

Huge thread here... https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lc-model-2018-present/992542-window-frame-noise-is-your-lc-noisy.html My BM coupe had this problem... and I noticed that when driving and the car was hit by a gust of wind it would actually suck the glass away from the seals. Whistling looks to be a reasonably common issue with frameless windows, and probably comes down to a combination of assembly tolerances and worn or damaged seals. One of the reasons I bought an ISF was that the windows have frames which reduces the chances of whistling.

These EDFC5 motors are tiny !!!! Smaller than I expected, and pretty sure I will be able fit the rear ones under the boot linings without any cutting. They measure 35 x 35 x 35 excluding the little tit that fits down inside the top of the shock. Additional height will be less than 35mm above the threaded end of the shock.

Ordered the EDFC5 to make sure I got the latest tech, and the box just cleared customs so I will have it in my hands next week 🙂 I'm only going to do this once, and EDFC5 looks to have smaller, quieter motors and an improved, more easily read display screen. Oooohhh... and AI so that it can "learn" driving habits and anticipate when to start adjusting for the next corner 🙄 Just hope that works better than the AI google uses to guess what I am looking for when I start a search !!!!

What he ^^^^ said. In addition to the usual ACC fuse there is a fusible link built into the base of the lighter socket. If the socket is overloaded through the use of a 12V tyre compressor or similar, the link will melt. Easiest solution would be to buy a new socket as they are readily available on Ebay and the like.

Probably a pole switch. Check the top of the front offside bumper to see if there is one installed. It's a parking aid and works just like an aftermarket power aerial.

Learning all the time 🙂 Discovered that the HDD will play if there is no CD loaded in the CD player and I press the CD/AUX button. That's most likely why it has taken me over a year to discover the HDD player !! Pulled and returned the RAD1 and RAD2 fuses just in case. Checked for power at the RAD3 fuse and it has 12V (this is the B permanent power to the radio that should maintain the memory when the ignition is off). Checked for power at the ACC fuse and 0V with ignition off (this is the 12V signal that turns the amp and radio on simultaneously when the ignition switches to ACC or ON). Checked the time from cold engine start to radio turn on and it was 4 minutes and 57 seconds. Everything seemed as usual, but when the radio fired up I could see that it had lost all it's station presets. So a problem there, either with wiring or the radio itself. Going to try pulling the RAD3 fuse tomorrow to see if that changes anything... not hopeful though.

Went for a drive today and had another play. CD player will only play discs recorded as "audio" and just ignores MP3 discs. It works fine loading and unloading and playing, but I have not yet been able to get it to load multiple discs. As all the touchscreen instructions are in Japanese, I could be missing something crucial to the process. Thanks for the offer to lend me an amp, only I am in New Zealand so not really viable because of shipping costs. If it turns out I need one I can probably find one locally from a wreckers. The HDD screen opens if there is no CD or Minidisc loaded, and can be controlled. I believe I managed to get it recording from a CD at one point, and as it seems to have added new tracks to the end of the existing CD that it had mysteriously recorded. I wasn't in the car long enough to check if it actually worked 🙂 I'll get that next time. I'm also going to try and time the startup delay for the audio system to see if it is consistent or random. As an aside, I discovered that the car has a "de-ice" button that blows air against the inside bottom edge of the screen. This apparently is an alternative to the electric heating embedded in the lower edge of the glass to defrost the wiper blades.

Yes... I have been forced to change my thinking due to something I discovered yesterday !!! I had forgotten to turn off one of the overhead "map lights" that I had used in the garage a few days previously. And when I discovered this, I turned the ignition on to check the state of the battery, and to my surprise the HDD audio screen popped up and I could see that it was actually playing 😮😲 No sound, just the track running indication on the screen. The other source inputs were still dead / inaccessible, but the HDD touchscreen was active. So I let the system run, and after more than five minutes the amp came online and the music from the HDD was playing loud and clear !!!! I can't think of any logical explanation for this behavior unless the HDD is powered up independent of the amp. That's possible, as the HDD has other duties beside storing music. I shall probe further when I try and figure out the HDD controls. Incidentally, my car is a JDM version and the audio system does not carry any ML branding. Cheers...

Checked the boot and all dry around the amp. Checked the amp wiring diagram, and yes, all the speakers are driven off the amp, so if the amp is not powered up there is no sound. There also does not appear to be any "remote turn on wire" for the amp, so essentially it will (should) power up when the head unit powers up. Looking at the logic of this problem... the touchscreen powers up when the ignition is turned ON, but the screen just says "Audio Off" when the Audio button is pressed. After a delay of several minutes, the Audio screen comes to life, and if an audio input is selected, music will play. The amp is not the problem. After it starts up, the whole audio system operates as it should. So it seems that the delay is caused by the audio section of the head unit. Given the complexity of the integrated head unit I'm not about to go poking around in there !!! I can live with the delay for the time being. If it gets worse I'll see if I can find some clever bloke who can diagnose and repair. Cheers...

Touchscreen comes alive at key ON so power supply to the head unit is fine. Just tried it in the garage and the audio is dead with the "Audio Off" screen showing for at least five minutes. Spent those five minutes pushing every single button and then it comes into life with music is playing. Remarkable thing is that somehow in the last couple of weeks I have managed to accidentally transfer the content from one of my homemade CD's onto the HDD 😀😄😎 No idea how that happened, but I shall investigate. As far as the time delay goes, I'm starting to suspect that it is the amplifier that is the problem. My assumption (and I will check this) is that all the speakers are driven by the amp, so if the amp is not powered there will be no sound. To be continued....

Yeah... I'm thinking that I could probably devise some kind of suction cup mounting for the windscreen so I could have the controller handy for setting up the various parameters. Then once that is over, make a bracket to mount it under the dash on the passenger side or in the glovebox. As you say, once it is set up there is no need to be looking at it all the time. It just needs to be firmly mounted and pointing in the right direction.

Hey David... looking at the EDFC Active Pro setup, looks like I have room for the motors, but after that it gets more difficult 😄 Most of it looks doable, only finding suitable locations to mount the controller and signal converter is a bit of a problem. The signal converter and power supply filter can go in the glovebox, but there are no obvious places for mounting the controller discretely on the dash. How did you mount the controller in your RX ? Also, to cut down on the amount of stuff mounted in the cockpit, I was hoping to be able to pickup a VSS to feed a signal into the EDFC. Appears to be a bit of a problem with CAN-bus cars, so wondering if you had any info on this ? If adding the GPS kit is the only way, then sobeit 🙂

Haven't been able to find anything relevant by searching high and wide, so asking the wise heads here 🙂 Standard factory audio setup that works fine once it gets going... touchscreen, radio, CD, mini-disc and aux. But when the car is first started the screen only displays "Audio Off" and no amount of button pushing will goad it into life. Drive for about ten minutes giving the buttons a random prodding at each set of lights, and eventually the system will come to life... audio control screen comes on-line and all sources are available. I appreciate that this is not a "life or death" situation, and I don't feel that it is necessary to do an audio and screen upgrade. Only I would like to have the music play when I start the car or while working in the garage. So any suggestions as to what might be causing the delayed start, and how the problem could be cured, would be welcome 😄 Cheers...

Interesting !!! I've always been a "set and forget" guy when it comes to damping. Even when I bought a new dirt bike I just rode it with the factory settings and never changed them. In a car that meant settling for a ride that was good for normal road use, but not really firm enough for track use. Reading up on the latest version of the EDFC system, it sounds like it may now be possible to get the best damping for all conditions... applied automatically on the fly 🙂 I now have no choice but to do due diligence on the EDFC to check out the installation details and costs. Now that I have the coilovers installed, the hard part is already done. Thanks for the input.

It's an available option, but I haven't looked into it at this stage. Fitting the motors to the top of the shocks may possibly mean some modifications to the covering trims, but otherwise would be straight forward. Here's a link to a happy customer's review 🙂 Cheers...

Tein Flex Z installed exactly to Tein's recommendations, and have had a couple of runs over my usual test track. That's a square set of 18 x 8.5 wheels with 255/40-18 rubber all round. The OD of these tyres is the same as the OD of the factory staggered set of 19 inch wheels with 40/35 profile tyres. The Teins dropped the front by 25mm and the rear by 12mm compared the the Bilstein setup, which was in turn about the same height as stock suspension. Got about 100mm clearance under the front lip and if that doesn't cause a problem, I'll leave it at that for the time being. Subjective impression from test drives is that the ride is now smoother and a lot of the sting has gone out of the small irregularities encountered during suburban driving. They can still be felt but impact has been reduced. The ride now has a more sophisticated feel to it... more how even a "sports sedan" from Lexus should feel 🙂 If you like a firm "sports car" ride, then the Bilstein setup would be more to your liking due to the stiffer B6 valving. The Teins are obviously valved a bit softer at the recommended settings (8 clicks from full hard in front and 6 clicks in the rear) and this makes the springs seem "softer" even though the Tein spring rate is much the same as OEM. That's a tradeoff that I'm happy to accept for the smoother ride. Curiously, the car seems a bit quieter now as well 🙂 Cheers...

Bit of information here shamelessly stolen from a BMW site....

https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/146736-gs-450h-propshaft-damper-replacement/#comment-1351997

Went to a Car Club driver coaching and training day at the Manfield Chris Amon Circuit, and put in a few hot laps with the ISF 😎 I raced on this circuit many times years ago in a smaller car, and it was a real nostalgia trip. Have to say that the Bilstein B6/stock springs combo could not be faulted for a road car being tracked. Had no end of fun, and the ISF surprised a few hot hatches down the back straight !!! The Teins have a hard act to follow, and it will be interesting to see how they compare when I get them installed. Then I'll have no choice but to go to the next "driver training" day... it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it... hell yeah 😁 Cheers...

Possible. Most get replaced because the intake tube gets crushed by people over-tightening the clamps after changing the air filter. I've not seen any used ones for sale in this part of the world, and the last guy that was after an airbox ended up buying new from Amayama. Good luck.

It is a fact of life that everyone is different, and that opinions on a cars ride quality and handling is almost entirely subjective. If coilovers were subject to the same extensive comparative testing as tyres, then there would be some good data available... but unfortunately, that does not happen. So we rely on random opinions, where in most cases there are plenty of opposing views. My objective is to get a more compliant and comfortable ride, and as you and a few others have reported that the Tein Flex Z improve the ride, I'm prepared to take a punt on them. I'm not any kind of suspension expert, but I do know that the springs and shocks have to be tuned to work with each other to get a great result. I'm hoping that Tien have done that, and the fact that they use twin tube shocks (a la Koni) is a good sign. If I was looking to track the car then I would stay with the Bilsteins and stock springs as they are a performance B6 monotube design that emphasise performance rather than comfort. Should the Teins not work out I'll put the Bilsteins back in and call it a day 🙂

Can you believe that when I wrote a post above with the word "led" in lower case, it has magically been changed to capitals, underlined, and linked to an Amazon advertisement for LED headlights !!!!!! WTF ?? Then I look back a few more posts and find that when I wrote "bluetooth" the same thing has happened and it is now linked to an Amazon advert !!!! Oh yeah, and the cute thing is that these magical alterations are only visible if I view my posts without being logged in. Once I log in the alterations disappear and everything is normal. Anyone else want to play this game of hide and seek 😀

If it is the part tagged in green (51441-50080) then Amayama says that it is discontinued 🙁 You might get lucky and find one at a wreckers. Good luck !!! Cheers...

Those wiper strips on your car are over 20 years old now. You either have to replace them with new or use something like Rain-X to get the water to slide off the glass. Most shower cleaners have a silicone ingredient to make your shower glass sparkly clean... for a few days until it washes off 🙂

That's what I am hoping 🙂 jeffrosie6 changed from RS*R to TEIN Flex Z and noticed a big difference as the spring rate dropped a lot. I'm running OEM springs and Bilstein B6 shocks valved to work with OEM springs. And they do... the handling is improved but the ride comfort level is much the same as the stock 2008 "sportscar" ride. Here are some spring rates I have found... The Bilstein's emphasis is on performance, and they don't have any adjustment. TEIN's emphasis is on improved ride quality. So although the TEIN Flex spring rate is only a little lower than OEM in front, I am hoping that a factory tuned coilover with adjustment can achieve improved comfort without giving away too much performance. The magic is always in matching the shock valving to the springs 😄