st87

Hopefully nothing funky about my mechanic. How much does lexus charge for your IS350? My friend takes his IS200 to a mechanic at Castle Hill. As long as you float around while he's performing the work and keep a brief eye on him, he does a pretty nice job. I'm thinking of trying him out next time. Unfortunately, I got my car serviced on a saturday, and my mechanic was quite busy so I suspect he has been getting his other staff to do the work. That said, the shoddy junior planted a few fresh scratches on my rims with his power lug tugger while changing my tyres. Thinking of not going back there anymore, but I doubt that I can justify the cost of servicing at lexus. I have read from some people complaining them for billing parts that perhaps didn't really need swapped (e.g. re-gas for air conditioner when the car was less than a year old when the guy doesn't use it that much). Not sure what would happen if you insisted that they didn't do the extra bits and pieces (and therefore, not getting as much profit they initially anticipated), but I am slightly paranoid that they would do something similar to 'spit-on-your-burger', if you know what I mean.

Nop... same car as yours... I got mixed up with my mazda (my bad!) =P ECT power on one end, snow on the other... the middle is the supposedly more economical mode, which is what I've been using. We'll see soon-ish. Just emailed good year to find out. Does everyone here actually take their car back to lexus for service?

The service done was the "Grade A" service from Good Year. I assume that's their major service there. I've never heard of 'throttle body' service. What exactly is that?

Also just a quick stab in the dark (and now I hope that I don't sound REALLY stupid)... I came across a product called "Nulon Injector Cleaner". What would a dirty injector do to a car, and would this possibly solve my issue?

That 'Eco' mode should be on the other side of the switch (i.e. OPPOSITE from PWR mode) =P

I use tank average to get a nice comparison between how I drive. I understand that when you just come out of the pump, the tank average will reset and show a very high figure, but after a whole week of driving (and it has been like this for 2 tanks already), I'm pretty sure it's already a reasonably accurate average of how my car's burning fuel (or how I'm driving). No changes to driving conditions... it's just a routined lifestyle going to work 5 days a week. Traffic has increased *slightly* but that won't explain why the car doesn't feel as powerful as before nor the 0.6L/100km increase. Does anyone else use Castrol Edge Sport 5W30 and tell me how they're going?

Thanks for your reply. By ECT, do you mean that "Eco" mode? If so, then yes, it's on and has always been on since I have had the car.

Hi guys, I'm not someone who knows much (if any) about mechanics so hopefully this won't end up to be a very stupid question. Anyway, I got my car not that long ago, and the first thing I noticed is that it has from stand still (and with my relatively light foot), the car goes into second gear pretty early (around 1-1.5 k RPM), at which it has quite a kick to it (i.e. i can notice a lot of acceleration when it gets past first gear, and it gears up quite rapidly). These days, the engine don't feel that impressive anymore. I definitely don't feel the car to be as 'torquy' as what I just described, and it's taking forever for the car to switch to second gear (at least 2.5k RPM), and doesn't feel as impressive as before. Also, fuel economy went from 8.9L/100km to 9.5L/100km, and a recent long drive to Magenta from Sydney (highway drive) only brought it down to 8.3L/100km (previous v-power tank) while I was expected something more close to 7. A recent service at Good Year Auburn made changes such as: - new tyres Good Year NCT5 from Micheline 'I-Don't-Know-What' (recently pumped at 35/38 psi). - used Castrol Edge Sport 5w30 engine oil (not sure what previous owner used but they went to Lexus for service). - new rear brake pads. On top of that, I changed from using 7-Eleven 98Oct fuel to Shell V-Power. What can mechanically happen that could have degraded power and efficiency? Isn't Shell V-Power the 'best' fuel out there? Does anyone get that second gear kick thing I mentioned, or is it just in my mind? Thanks guys!

Thanks guys! They would be much easier to install than the headlights at least. I just fitted HIDs on mine and I had to remove the air filter to get to the driver's side! The parkers appear very straight forward... pretty much just have to remove the panel if memory serves.

Hi guys, this is my first post and I think I'm going to use it to ask everyone if they are familiar with the front position lights which appear to be on as well when your headlights are on. In the manual, they are only referred to as 'Wedge Base' globes, but that sounds very vague. I found some LED globes matching that description that also says "T10". Is this the same fitting as the on my IS250? Thanks!!