st87

The $2000 quote for retrim, was that for all of the seats? Yes. It was for all seats, and the door trims/consoles.

Haha you have a point there although I was told that their man made leather was hella expensive and supposedly a lot more durable compared to real leather or other faux leathers out there. But still, probably sucks to be told that your merc is still using faux leather - no matter what funky name they give it or the price merc claims or charges to retrim. I guess people who could generally afford these sort of cars can also consider occasional retrimming from worn out real leather to just be part of its "running cost" =P That said, according to an article on the herald a few weeks back, quite a number of car manufacturers (Toyota included) were busted for not clarifying their use of faux leather and have been marketting it simply as leather. I hope that this is not the case for our lexus.

for what it's worth, I've never actually got mine done, but I had been considering the day when my front seat will get so worn out that I would change the entire interior trim altogether. I made some phone calls to Doyles in Artarmon and they quoted around $2000 for a retrim. Unfortunately, they tend to only carry black, so if you want custom, you will have to buy your own leather. They pointed me to a place for leather (can't remember now). They tend to do up a lot of brand new mercs (I mean, mercs that haven't even received their licence plate yet). Not sure if they were there for leather trim or sunroof installation or both.

Sorry to bump up an old thread guys. Bluey, that is quite impressive. Could you tell me what TLC is? My IS is starting to develop heaps of scratches all over. I admit that I've been really rough on it. Many places, the paint job is excellent, so I don't really wanna take it anywhere with the risk of developing additional swirl marks as some have indicated. However, I have had a few nasty scratches involving the clear coat being scraped off, and a lot of stone chipping on the font bumper which is showing white underneath my graphite paint (if I'm not mistaken, that 'white' layer is known as the primer, right?). Can anyone please give me a brief explanation on how I can restore that clear coat that was scratched off, and also the services available to restore the paint on the front bumper (there's like a million chippings there). I'm willing to pay up to $800 since my service schedule wasn't too bad this year. Thanks guys!!

Thanks LEX51S... Yeah, it's only 2W extra on a cable that was protected by a 10A fuse. I'm sure the cable itself is capable. I didn't 'upgrade' the fuse - I only replaced it with a new one with the same rating in case it was just a one-off failure. I was under the impression that LED lights fail open circuit, but seeing that it's not exactly JUST an LED, that could be the answer. The cheap built-in regulator inside might be poorly designed to fail short. That said, it's not exactly easy to put in a resistor in-line as a simple current regulator limiter... Still concerning is the fact that the LEDs flashed when I swapped the chip. If the reg or the chip failed short, shouldn't I not see a bright flast at all (i.e. if the reg shorted out, I shouldn't even get any power into the LED itself) but that only assumes LEDs fail open and that it really is the regulator that has failed short.

Hi folks, To those who are very knowledgeable in this field, may I ask what other components are tied in with the fuse protecting the circuit for the front position lights? Currently, I have some aftermarket 7W LEDs and they look fantastic. Today, the fuse unexpectedly blew out, and after replacing the fuse, the LEDs lit up for approximately half a second before they got shut off again by the fuse blowing up again. The fuse I'm talking about is: 20 | FR TAIL | 10A | Front Position Lights and is situated in the engine compartment (type B ). I understand that the manual only says 'Front position lights' as its circuit, but the original globes themselves are 5W, and the fuse used is a 10A, so would there be any chance that something else might be shorting besides my bulbs (after all, they have been working fine for a while and they did flash when I replaced the fuse). Anyone able to share some wisdom here? Thanks in advance! st87.

Terribly sorry folks, I finally managed to locate the sneaky little bugger... It's smaller than I thought and it actually had a cap to cover it! All good now. =)

Hi folks... I couldn't seem to have any luck finding this on google, but where the heck is the OBDII port on my IS250? I thought it would be underneath the dash on the driver's side behind the steering wheel, but I could not for the life of me feel or see anything that looks like a 16-pin connector! I just got me a bluetooth OBD II scanner and I'm dying to give it a go. =D Thanks!

Yes, that's exactly what I'm searching for... I found a listing a while ago but now I can't find one anymore...

Hey guys! Not sure if this is happening to you guys as well, but I find those clips for the 3 engine cover panels to be particularly fragile. Does anyone know the part number to them? I would like to get some spares. Had a few break and some lost somewhere in the engine compartment. thanks!

Thanks lex51S. Can't wait to try it out. Will keep you guys posted. =)

Okay.... just came back from snooping... Opened up the the side panels and looked around a bit. There is not a single hole which I can possibly feed a cable through! It's almost completely sealed up and I suspect the only way I can get anything through is by ripping up those carpet panels open. Has anyone had this kind of experience before and could give me a few pointers on where I can slip cables through?

Ah okay... thanks anyway... I guess I'll just snoop around for a bit first.

Yeah that sounds great and straigthforward (except for running the cable under the car... that part I would need help with), but I may have forgotten to mention that I would need to have an additional relay to cut current draw when the car is switched off (I don't think I can be bothered opening the boot before and after driving for every trip just to pull the plug or insert the plug in). Perhaps there is a 12V low current input from acc/on that I can steal from the amp in the boot, so that it's no biggie. Anyway I think I will do it DIY if running a wire from under the car is easy (I would hate to have something going through the cabin). Any good place to secure it?

I'm hoping to be able to draw a decent amount of power from it... I don't need anything crazy like 1KW or anything... but it would be good if I could get something that does around 200W (slightly higher than what I could get from the console). I will want it to power up something like this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WAECO-FRIDGE-FREEZER-499-CDF-35-PACK-INC-COVER-240V-ADAPTOR-/270875434376?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item3f116f1d88#ht_524wt_907 I know 200W is a bit of an overkill, but if I'm gonna get it done anyway, might as well have more than enough power available to me to begin with.

Hey guys, Has anyone installed a 12V outlet in their boot before? It's a tricky subject to get a price quote from auto electricians so hopefully someone who has past experience with their cars can give me recommendations/price guides? Also, I rather not have my car drilled into, so is it possible to just get an enclosed 12V socket harness dangling around in the boot somewhere rather than having a permanent one being mounted on the wall? Thanks guys!

yeah well i've been hearing endless criticisms about my nav ever since I got the car and my friend was following me behind with his tomtom. It appears that the nav likes scenic routes. Went to magenta a while ago and ended up on a very windy (and dangerously narrow) road that was basically next to a cliff all the time. No idea WHY it didn't take me on the freeway. As far as the 3 choice of routes you get, it's really difficult to choose the 'right' one. And even if you do, I have my doubts as to how accurately it guides you. Last time I tried to go to Roseville, it was a nightmare. Firstly, it didn't have the street number I wanted for that Street/Suburb (used the combination that had the closest number) Secondly, it didn't get me there at all and I was getting freaked out cuz it was a 90K main road Thirdly, I gave up and pulled out my phone and used TomTom.

Hmm I really need to make time for the next dyno run event.

Uh I hope I didn't read incorrectly, but you mean he did a reset between each dyno run and had power gains each time??

But nevertheless annoying. I was wrong. Clock was reset. Do you guys think it worked? Didn't notice much difference with performance. Perhaps my driving is too consistent? Lol

Yeah well I just got around to doing it (by disconnecting battery) with only half an hr towards bedtime. I think I got it disconnected for approximately 15 minutes. Hopefully it's enough to fully discharge any memory modules on the chip. The radio didn't reset (surprisingly) but I did get the power windows problem and had to initialize each one of them. Do you think the ecu has been reset? Is there any obvious way to tell that the ecu has reset? I think the time was still correct.

Oh wow. It's probably in one of them footwell ones then. I have seen a few posts suggesting reset via fuse instead of battery, but mainly in gs forums. Was rather hoping that I can do something similar on an is. Thanks lex51s

I was hoping for names. How many fuse boxes are there? I see the one in engine bay passenger side but there aren't that many fuses in there. I want to only reset the ecu and nothing else (from memory, I had to manually reset each window after the last time I pulled the battery)

Both. Reset ecu and replace blown fuse for front cigarette lighter =)

In response to what Atlantis said about his Soarer, does anyone know which is the corresponding relay for an IS250? I can't seem to find one that explicitly says 'ECU' or similar. Also, which one would be for the front cigarette socket? I'm not getting a voltage across it so it might be a blown fuse there =S