Stanky

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!

<trollface> Have you tried removing and refitting the front bumper? </trollface>

Have you looked at Lexuses at all? Plenty of petrol ones of those in 2-3L modes.

I had a day off work today so made use of some tinkering time. First job was replacing the rear inner light lens. One of the previous owners has reversed into something I think, there is some scuffing on the bumper, a very small ding in the metal quarter panel, and a crack in the rear light lens which is hard to see, harder to photograph but easy to replace. Its not too bad, but water has got in and its going green in the cracks, and is only a matter of time before it mists up and makes the car look tatty and uncared for. I bagged a replacement unit for £16 on ebay which arrived earlier in the week. Easy enough to do, open the boot and remove the sound deadening felt undo 3x 10mm nuts through the access holes and gently lift it out I took the opportunity to clean the muck out of the stamped recess in the panel before reassembling it all with the new unit. Much better. Then onto some other jobs. The Laser 4880 oil filter tool had arrived earlier in the week too so I lifted the front end up and had another go at getting the oil filter housing to release. I followed @RoverFolkUs advice and used a 24mm socket on it, rather than fitting the cup tool direct to the 12" breaker bar. I used the Power of Grayskull and amazingly it undid - I was sure I'd trashed the cup wrench again, but astonishingly it survived. I drained the oil out of the filter housing (maybe 1/2" litre?) into a washing up bowl and then replaced the filter and o-ring, making sure I cleaned up all the threads and mating surfaces with a rag, put a tiny bit of copper grease on the mating surfaces on the not-threads side of the o-ring, then refitted it. I did it up hand tight, then a tiny bit more on the ratchet. Hopefully next time I need to undo it it will come off without a fuss. I got given a BIN offer on a caliper and carrier so I took the lazy route and just bought it, and swapped the whole shebang. It was £150 which I could have done without, but the old one was basically fucked - I could have spent a significant amount of time heating it up, hammering it and getting it to free off, then replacing the slider and reassembling it all, but I'd probably have broken something in the process and immobilised the car so just took the easy route and assembled the whole caliper and carrier on the workbench, removed the old one and swapped the brake flexi over, refitted the pads, pins and wire retainers and then enlisted my eldest daughter to do the pedals end while I did the caliper end and bled it through. All sorted out and working fine - so thats another issue off the list. I think the next thing is to get some tyres, it has 4 mismatched budgets on currently, and they're all at, or close to the 3mm wear markers. it looks like I can get a full matching set of Kumho Ecsta tyres for £300, or Uniroyal Rainexperts for £340. I know and trust the uniroyals, the Kumho's are supposed to be just as good in the rain as the Uniroyals, so might be worth taking a punt on, thats something for next month though I think. I had to go up to Manchester for work last week and the Lexus handled it all beautifully. 550 miles there and back via Telford, it behaved impeccably and delivered 38mpg, and 35mpg over a combined 20 gallons of 70% motorways and 30% crawling round local roads.

Set to on the rear calipers tonight, these are a known weak point, with poorly-sealing slider boots resulting in seized sliders. The recommendation is that these are removed, greased and refitted annually to prevent this from happening. I though that the passenger side one moved ok from a bit of a wiggle when I had the wheels off the other week, but that the drivers side wasn't awfully compliant. Turns out I was about on the money. I started with the passenger side, the wheel came off fine, caliper top bolt undid, removed the pads and pins and things and the caliper hinged down beautifully on the bottom slider. I removed it, cleaned up the slider,greased it, fitted new rubber boots and reassembled it, other that getting the new bottom slider boot to seal over the barbs - which was a bit of a fiddle - all was fine. Next up was the driver side. Wheel off, top caliper bolt undone, removed pads and pins and the caliper wouldn't budge. The caliper is pretty much seized to the slider. I can see that the boot isn't correctly seated and so its a bit b0rked. Using a big screwdriver I was able to get about 40 degrees of rotation so I squirted some penetrating oil under the boot and tried to work the caliper back and forth, but didn't really have much luck. It moves, but not much, and needs a lot of leverage so I decided to call it a day, reassembled it all, cleaned down the disc and caliper with brake cleaner and refitted the wheel. The wheel moves freely so its not dragging, but it obviously needs looking at. With this and the oil filter malarkey I'm probably going to phone the lexus specialist that @MrBiscuits recommended upthread, and ask them to have a look at both the rear drivers side caliper and the oil filter in one hit. I'll also get them to check my homework on the passenger side rear caliper to make sure I've not made a dogs dinner of that inadvertently. mildly annoying, but the only real alternative would be a new caliper and carrier kit for the rear drivers side (£160) and bin this one - which maybe isn't too bad? I'll discuss with the lexus specialist what they think, because if they just say 'seen it all before, its new caliper and carrier time' then I'll just do the job myself, if they reckon it can be freed up and rebuilt in <1h (possible?) then its probably cheaper to go down that route.

Possibly, other than the flutes bit and the two tabs that the cup teeth grip onto it's quite smooth, so not a lot to grip onto. I'll try with the new improved cup tool and then go from there. Best case it's been like this for about 5k miles, worst case it's been using the same filter since 2013 or something!

Thanks, I've ordered a Laser 4880 which should be here next week and I'll have another crack at it, even if I can just loosen it off a bit this time I'll call that a result, and change the filter the next time I do an oil change. I'll use a big hex socket on the outer instead, I ended up like this using the inner square (not my pic, but had the same thing happen) I'll see how I get on, and if this fails again then it'll be garage time I think.

Thanks, some googling has also come up suggesting the Laser 4880 is the best tool for the job so I will have to swallow the £18 for a new one I think. The one I got previously wasn't as expensive as that, somewhere under £10. By the looks of it, its not a bad design per se, but seems vulnerable to having been done up ultra tight previously, or the threads not lubricated which might be what we have here. Out of interest, do you use the inner square head bit, or put a 27mm socket on the outside of the hex? I see you can do either, earlier on I broke the cup adapter by using the inner square drive bit with a 3/8" ratchet, should I have put a hexagonal impact socket over the outer instead?

I had thought the same thought! It might be a bit old. The entire housing bolts to the block, and is available 2nd hand, I was thinking that if I go down to the MOT garage in person a week or two in advance and talk to them about it, and offer to buy a replacement threaded end bit like this: in case they totally wreck it getting it off, then they have a spare part to hand (assuming they are able to separate the spin-on threaded bit from the housing). I think there are a couple of options - knock it round using the tabs that the 'teeth' engage with, or use a 14-sided cup thing ONLY, possibly in a combo with an impact gun and/or freeze spray to try and loosen it. Obviously heat isn't an option.

The last documented service on the Lexus was in January 2023, mileage unknown but probably about 5k miles ago. As usual for me, I want to get a few things done on the car to get it up to my standards* - so since its been a nice couple of days I set to with some general fixing. First thing was an oil and filters change. I got 10L of Mannol 5w30 FS oil, and a set of Ashika filters for under £60 delivered on ebay which seems good enough for the time being. The air filter and cabin filter were a bit dusty - not outright filthy so its definitely been cared for, but probably not changed for a year or two so they were duly slung on. Then it came to the oil change. I had the car up on the lift and was able to easily access the oil filter housing through the little trap door in the undertray (thanks Lexus!); I'd bought myself the Toyota oil filter tool and so got stuck in. However, this is where I came a bit unstuck. The oil filter housing is underneath the engine and looks like this: You use a 14-fluted cup thing with cutout 'teeth' to unwind the leftmost bit so you can replace the element filter I got a semi-decent ally removal tool with a 3/8" drive socket, it should be done up to 18lb/ft or 'about hand tight' in old money. So I started with my stubby 3/8" ratchet, no dice, it wasn't moving. So I stepped it up to the 3/8 > 1/2" adapter and a 1/2" ratchet, still no dice. I triple checked that I was definitely undoing it, pulling towards the front of the car - yep, correct. So then I went to DEFCON 4 and used my big 1/2" bar, heaved with all my might to undo the thing and shattered the square drive socket into 4 pieces and sheared two of the 4 teeth off the cup tool - so thats that fucked! The housing of the oil filter remained undamaged, but very much still attached. Obviously I had already undone the sump plug and drained the sump of old oil by this point, so I was a bit miffed. I duly replaced the sump plug and put a new crush washer in, and then refilled with fresh oil, but using the old filter which I wasn't super pleased about. Are there any grown ups among the assembled brethren who have encountered this before? I am given to understand this is a common oil filter housing for lots of Lexus and Toyotas, is there a knack to it? There isn't room to get an impact gun on it with the undertrays fitted, though they could be removed I suppose? I could buy another cup tool, but I suspect I'll get the same result if I heave on it again and it'll just shatter. My current thinking is that I can ask the garage to do an oil and filter change on it when I take it for its MOT in about 3 months time and ask them nicely if they can get the housing to undo, then please only do it back up to 18lb/ft so I can do future changes. The next task was to have a look at the fogged-up front foglight, after a lot of fiddly disassembly (I know how to do it now) I got the foglight unit out to find some ape had been at that too, and it had been modified* with a new ventillation hole in the side where the retaining bolt hadn't been undone and someone (not me!) had snapped it getting it out. It seems to be a fairly common theme, because there is this one on ebay right now which has been vandalised in the same way I removed as much of the water from it as I could, and put it in the oven for 40 minutes at 60c to try and get the steam out - its better, but still a bit steamed up. On refitting I made a special* bandage from gaffer tape to cover the hole which should prevent more water getting in, but also prevents the remaining water from getting out. I think it'll need replacing with a 2nd hand unit TBH, this one is wrecked basically. I checked the tyres and topped up the front nearside which was noticeably lower than it should be. I'll need to keep an eye on this. The next job is to remove and grease the rear brake caliper sliders, its a common issue on these apparently so I want to get them apart and greased ASAP to prevent them seizing. I know the passenger side one moves like it should so I'll start there because it should* come apart easily, the drivers side seemed a bit less willing to move under hand pressure, but since I was up against a wall and with the jack in the way it might just have been a bad angle or something. Anyway, the recommendation from the forum beards is to have the rear wheels off and grease the sliders at least annually and they'll be fine. I have a brake slider and rubber grommet kit for both sides as a precaution. Assuming I can get them apart I'll clean it all up and refit. Otherwise i'm really happy with it. As others have said I'm seeing a real-world 34mpg round the doors and 39mpg on a 350-mile run to see family which isn't bad at all from a petrol 2.5V6 IMHO.

Brilliant cars, all Daihatsu's are. Watch out for rust, but as you say they're basically toyota parts bin stuff. Officially, Daihatsu pulled out of Europe in 2013, but many parts will be shared with the Toyota Yaris, and specific stuff can be found using the excellent amayama.com website. You can also get the parts diagrams and OEM part numbers from there, which you can use to search with, or phone a toyota main dealer and get parts generally next day (at quite a high price). the 1.5 is the same engine as in the Yaris, so will be a tough old hector and probabaly about 100bhp so not slow. Daihatsu are the sort of 'funky' youth brand for Toyota in Japan, think of it like Seat in the VAG lineup and you're not a million miles off. I have a 2004 Sirion, it was a cheap car then, its done 120k miles and literally everything still works. Which is more than can be said for my 2021 Dacia currently...

Pah, you're obviously wrong! He would only have needed to work 40 hours a day if he worked 7 days a week, or he could have only worked 24 hours a day if he'd worked 12 days per week. Honestly, this is basic stuff man. This exact question was Q1 of my GCSE maths exam. Q. "Paul works in a MG Rover specialist in <somewhere northern>, he moonlights as a chauffeur in a 200k mile Mercedes S-class, how many days a week does he have to work to put 960,000 miles on the S-Class in 12 months assuming he never stopped for fuel or food, pissed in the footwell on the move and did 70mph everywhere, all the time? Show your working" A. 12 days per week (crude drawing of a stick man pissing in a Mercedes footwell) 93 marks

You know what there aren't any of in WD19 4PJ? Warehouses. Unless they're either subterranean, or camouflaged!

The Chinese can make high quality parts, the problem is that Western consumers won't pay proper money for them.

I thought there was a thread for 'historic spottings' but I can't find it so I'll put these here My local area in the late 80s, before they put a roundabout in to replace the staggered junction pictured. Some pretty hot chode in those pics! Is the pale green car in pic #2 an Alfa Arna, or a Nissan Cherry? Interestingly* the roundabout has been remodelled again recently.

So I've had the Lexus for a week and a half and have had some time to get to know it better. Headline is that its comfortably the best car I've ever owned! Its well built, comfortable - especially at motorway speeds, and literally everything works. I've only used about 1/3rd of a tank of fuel so far and if the trip computer is to be believed then its returning about 34mpg in mixed use. Today I removed the wheels one by one and gave them a thorough clean with the autosmart alishine cleaner which has brought them up very well. This also allowed me time to inspect the state of the discs and pads (all fine) and also check the operation of the rear caliper sliders. This is a weak spot on the car, and they are prone to seizing the bottom slider pin. The passenger side moves fine, but the drivers side seems a bit stiff, though it was parked close up to a wall so access wasn't great. I plan to strip both sides down and silicone grease the sliders to keep them working as they should, but I didn't have time today. I've also lined up bits for an oil and filters change, pleasingly oil, oil filter, air filter and cabin filter come in under £60 which I'm not grumbling about! I'll get that done after payday and sort out the sliders at the same time. I gave it a quick wash but it really wants a seeing to with the clay bar, there are lots of little tar speckles all over and it just wants a bit of hard work to get it up to top condition. Also, why does no-one ever clean inside the fuel filler flap? The rubber round the filler neck was covered in brown gunge and the rest of it was coated in dried mud, it looks a lot better now! Oh, the only other thing is that it currently wears 4 mismatched budget tyres which are a bit worn. I'll probably get a set of 4 matching midranges before too much longer so at least one rear tyre is at the 3mm wear marker. Surprisingly the road noise isn't too bad on the motley budgets and it handles fine even on greasy roundabouts. I shall end the update by saying that I have missed the best aspect of owning an auto, pulling out onto roundabouts while eating crisps. Extensive testing in a manual car has shown that you need at least 3 hands to steer, change gear and shovel crisps into your pie hole all at once, and this doesn't work and since the crisp-eating bit is non-negotiable then you either end up banging off the limiter in 1st gear or navigating the roundabout more like a hexagon - much to the alarm of other road users

@JJ0063 might be able to help with this. I suspect that the risk profile of an unemployed person is actually surprisingly high, not least because they would be using the car and exposed to opportunity for crashing far more than an employed person who, statistically, is imprisoned for 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. Can you not list your employment as 'farm labourer' instead, since thats what you seem to actually do? (EDIT, Tickman can type quicker than me)

NHS? My wife and eldest daughter go through this hoo-har virtually every time. They have 6-monthly appointments (mandatory, to remain on the books) except 75% of appointments get cancelled, often on the day of the appointment. Then several weeks later they get a new appointment and the merry-go-round starts again. I got so sick of it all I went private about 10 years ago, I have a choice of private practices within a 10 minute walk, I can get appointments within 72 hours if needed, can book months ahead and be assured that the appointment will never be cancelled and I pay no more than they do to be treated like lepers at the NHS dentist - because I only need to go once a year, whereas they must go twice or be struck off. Just tell them to FRO and go private, yeah, we all pay taxes and NHS dentistry should be better than this in the 5th richest economy on earth, but you're only frustrating yourself by persevering with the shit service. Go private and you won't look back. Fully appreeciate it should be better than this, but it isn't, so do something about it. If you're a private patient then tell the practice to FRO and go elsewhere. Money talks.

Glad it got you home safe and sound @CaptainBoom - the seats are very comfy, I've done several Fareham > Manchester runs in it over the last couple of years and its always been entirely pleasant. I think the best I saw was a 49.5 MPG average over the ~260 mile journey coming home late one weekday evening in the summer, I wasn't in a rush and did a gentle 60mph drive, no holdups, no stops for food or anything on a warm summer evening. Very nice it was! I kept coming back to the analogy of an old slipper with the car, its just wafty and comfortable and a little bit shabby. You'll get used to the hand/foot brake pedal (or just become more ambivalent about rolling backwards!) with time I'm sure. It was a bit scary at first but you do get used to it.

And he's on his way! Hope the mercedes is as faithful a companion to you as it has been for me. *Wipes away a tear*

See you shortly! The spitfire is flying from the airfield nearby today so hopefully you should get to see/hear that while you're here.

Mine doesn't have the sunblind, though two that I tested out did have it, its probabaly for the best because my youngest daughter would definitely burn the motors out once she found the button that controls it! its a really impressive touch, and equally impressive that it still functions perfectly on cars that are nearly 20 years old! Wickham is literally 10 miles away from me, I'm just the other side of Fareham - is that Lex-Tech in Droxford? I've heard good things about them if so. I want to drive the car for a bit, then sort out some servicing that I'll probably do myself, I would like to change the spark plugs and use the opportunity to have a good look at the inlet valves for the crud you get with direct injection, which seems to be the only real issue these suffer with. I need a bit of time to go out and play with all the buttons really and get it just right for me!

There is a free version of Tech2 called 'OpCom' available here: https://www.instructables.com/OPCOM-V145-Setup-and-Installation/ And works with any old USB -> ODB2 cable. I used an old VAGCOM cable I had and it would talk to all the modules on my old Saab 9-3 (2004 vintage) There is an official Opcom site where the software download lives. I'm sure it used to be free, but now seems to be £7.99 - I think the instructables link above is free? I think the hardest bit of the setup was getting USB pass-through as I was running it in a Windows 7 VM in Windows 10.

Counterintuitively, the automatic IS250 is comfortably inside the £395 bracket, but the manual version runs into the top tier at £675. I wanted an automatic anyway, apparently (and Autotrader prices seem to bear this out) the manual version is actually way less appealing than the auto.

Yes, this is the same tax as my Mercedes C180 was at £395 for the year. The manual version is the full-fat "I'm funding the NHS and Defence Budget singlehandedly" £675 rate, as was the GS300 I looked at.