MORE (OCD) Protection - For the Remote Engine Starter Remote

Yes, while I think this might be a bit obsessive, as Lexus had kindly given me a brand new remote engine starter remote, my first instinct was to find some way to protect it.

Although, realistically my chances of actually using the remote is pretty much nil.  Maybe I'll eventually find a use for it?

Anyway last Friday I came home to find this:

I had completely forgotten I had ordered this

This was something I had ordered off Yahoo Auctions and was, unbelievably, made to order.  In fact for an extra few yen, they even attached the clear poly for the openings:

IF I could figure out a way to leave the clear protective film on the remote, I would have!

Fitment was very very tight!

Yeah this was before I straightened it... I guess it's homemade and it shows.

The only good that this remote shows me, is how hot or cold the car is, from my upstairs office. I guess that means I could start the car from upstairs as well, even before I open the garage door, but I don't see myself using this for that purpose quite yet. Although I recently DID think of a reason to use it... stay tuned!

Another Child/Dirt Proofing Mod

My first interior mod was to protect the interior from dirt, without affecting the looks and function of the interior too much. (To review, that was the weatherproof rear floor mats.)

Next, I installed (velcro) these to the back of the front seats, to prevent small rear seat passengers from leaving dirt on the seat backs (when they kick me).

Then, I installed these to protect the rear seats from the weight of the child seats, as well as whatever mess the kids make.

Finally, I picked these up from the dealership last Sunday -

So now I've done what I can to physically protect all carpeted and leather seating areas with the highest likelihood of getting dirty.  The next step? Some treatment.... stay tuned...

My First USDM Mod!

So for some reason, the Lexus First Aid Kit was one option not available in Japan, either as a factory or dealer option.  But it was available as an individual option for all IS models in the US.  So I had to buy it in the US and have it sent over.

Here is the part number for reference.

Biggest problem for me is where to mount it. It would make sense to mount it where it's readily accessible, i.e. in the passenger compartment but I don't see where?

On the other hand, there are plenty of nice nooks and crannies in the trunk where it fits.

I think I've seen it mounted like this in a video review somewhere

But this is more out of the way - not sure of the letter ghosting but it must be function of the camera

I actually have another USDM option arriving soon too... stay tuned!

CPO Pre-Delivery Checklist Review

So even though I had, in a previous post, listed the items a CPO car undergoes before delivery, I had forgotten to check exactly what those items are.  I knew a few items had been changed, of course, like the windshield wiper blades, but was curious to understand what else had been done.

When I took my car into my local Lexus dealer to get the new remote for the engine starter, the bumper cover fitment checked and the Navi/TV "jumper" kit installed, I asked Ishikawa-san where I could find "the list."

It turns out this checklist was in my glove box the entire time, in this neat booklet.

And the "CPO Inspection Maintenance Record" shows that the mechanics at the Tokorozawa Lexus dealership dutifully checked all of the items listed - the engine bay, the interior, the undercarriage, and the suspension, brakes and wheels.

That's great, but what was truly interesting to me what was replaced:

Pre-printed items (so would be the minimum replaced)
1) 9.3 liters of engine oil
2) Oil filter (1)
3) Wiper blades (2)
4) "Clear air element" (1) (for the interior, I think)

Handwritten items (those replaced for each car, in this case my car):
1) Door gasket (1) - I'm guessing the driver's door?
2) Air cleaner element (1) (engine)
3) Rear brake pads - (1 set) I knew this as I was told, when I visited the Tokorozawa dealership, that the pads had less than 5mm of material left - new is 10mm apparently)
4) Spark plugs (8)
5) Batteries for all 3 smart keys (including the card key)
6) Battery for the remote control engine starter (which ended up replaced with a new unit)
7) Glove box (1)

So I'm pleasantly surprised by the door gasket and the glove box. If I recall correctly, I had noticed that the INSIDE of the glovebox door had some scratches which really wasn't going to bother me, being out of sight, out of mind! Now, no scratches of course...

At the same time, it appears that I have 9mm of front brake pad and 10mm of rear, so almost a brand new set. I hope that replacement doesn't reflect too aggressive driving by the prior owner.  On the other hand, not sure why an engine would need new spark plugs at only 50,000 kms, but I am hoping it's just Lexus being ultraconservative. Further checking of other maintenance records shows that the prior owners of this car replaced the tires basically every two years. So either the car was driven hard, or this car just eats up consumables (more likely from what I've read).

Because I was concerned enough about how the prior owners may have driven the car, my local dealership went ahead and did a complete diagnostic as well for me, after I mentioned to Ishikawa-san that I was concerned about the previous history of the car.  I actually had mentioned that I felt that the automatic transmission might be shifting a bit strangely, in that there was too much lag in first gear but then, as we all know, 2-8 gears locks up very quickly and is fine! But he had a technician take the car for a test drive, as well as run all the computer diagnostics on the engine and transmission and everything apparently is fine.

Which is a relief! Because all that means now is to worry about cosmetic items....

OEM Navigation and TV Bypass Kit

When the car was delivered to me, the salesman, Aoki-san, mentioned in a soft voice to me that "for a small fee we can do the Navi/TV workaround..."  He explained of course that, as the OEM Navigation and digital TV do not allow for inputs/TV viewing while the car is in motion, that there are aftermarket kits available to handle this.  The installation of this kit, however, falls into a "grey zone"- that is, a Lexus dealership shouldn't really be advocating such a work around for obvious reasons.

Of course, the solution is to say that, this aftermarket convenience feature was being added in order to allow the front seat PASSENGER to make such adjustments while the driver remains focused on driving.  Of course.

In any case, I did some Internet research and found that there are several kits available, with various pricing, all purporting to do the same thing.  However, some kits apparently worked better than others, based on reviews by users and purchasers.  Beat-Sonic sells than, and even Toyota tuner TOM's has a product.  To be honest, it rapidly became too confusing to determine which brand would work without any problems. 

So, at this point I gave up and decided to go the dealership route, as presumably they had installed a bunch and would know which ones work best with the IS F.

By sheer coincidence, when closely inspecting my car a few days before visiting the dealership, I found this on the plastic next to the driver's left knee:

My first clue that the previous owners had aftermarket items on the car!
Remember the shape of the curved portion next to the white tape residue...

Given its location, my guess was that there was something, likely a switch, attached by double sided tape to this area.  It would likely be a switch because it is too low for anything visual to be mounted, and so far in my research on popular add-ons to this car in Japan, I've only seen the electronic throttle controller, radar detectors, and yes the OEM navigation/TV "jumper" kits. 

So when I visited the dealership on Saturday, they showed me which kit they use for the navi/TV jumper kit: 

Interestingly, this is not a brand that I found during my searches, so I'm hoping this works better than the others out there which had mediocre reviews.  Ishikawa-san explained to me that essentially all these kits work the same (which results in the GPS signal being temporarily lost while the Navi is used), however what is good about this kit is that it has two buttons (versus the one button for the TOM's kit) which allows separate overriding of the Navi and TV, versus having to scroll through options that a single button setup requires).

Here is the button for this kit:

The one on the left (right one does Navi only) - from: http://www.datasystem.co.jp/products/tvnavi/01.html

Now when, after the fact, I researched this product, I found that they actually had a model which used an OEM type switch, which eliminates the need for this kind of button switch, and of course looks OEM.

Initially I was annoyed, but then when I viewed the videos on its use, I realized that the two type, red and green button was much easier to use, even though yes the OEM type switch looks better. 

So, I guess I'll have to figure out another use for this blanked off switch (and yes, the "blankness" really bothers me, especially given that this car had all the JDM options):

Center switch is to heat the windshield to melt any snow on the wipers (Part of the cold climate region package)

Any ideas? Something that looks OEM...Actually I don't really need that coin tray either, huh.

And by the way here is where I ended up having them install the two button switch.

Surprise surprise almost in the same identical spot...

So given its location, and the shape of the switch (as extrapolated from the first photo)  I'm guessing the prior owner also had the same kit installed...(and this means that Lexus just made a few more bucks off me...lol)

Incidentally as I said my good-byes after having ordered a few optional extras, Ishikawa-san slipped me the TRD ISF parts catalog....

oh.... this is SO tempting...

Impressed with Lexus Customer Service!!

I am too particular? In a word, yes. When I had taken my car to RAPT the day after delivery, we noticed that the front bumper cover seemed to flex more than it should. So of course I immediately drove to the dealership and - uh- ok - complained.

When I dropped the car off on Saturday so they could program the new remote engine starter remote, I left it with them overnight so they could look into this bumper cover issue.  And boy did they actually go to the trouble of checking to make sure there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car (i.e. some prior damage that might explain why the bumper cover seemed loose.)!!

Ok, it might be a bit dirty there but hopefully they at least wiped it clean. But it was nice gesture to not only take photos to show me what they did and the lack of damage, but also to do this all for NO CHARGE! Of course I'm VERY happy with this level of attention!

You can see the millimeter wave radar unit there between the horns...

Nothing a nice steam clean couldn't fix I think...

Interesting how thick that bumper beam is.

All put back together nicely...

There were some other photos that showed the integrity of the bumper support (a photo taken from the side) but as these photos were emailed to me by Ishikawa-san, I can't complain.

Oh, and after this they washed the car as well, was nice as it had picked up some dust.  Although another benefit to this was, even though I told them not to worry about it, they cleaned up that excess wax that I had found in the crevices...

In any case, I'm relieved and very happy. However there was ONE MORE item I was having done to the car, as I'll explain in my next post.

New Remote Engine Starter Remote! (and vanilla ice cream...)

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, this car came with all of the possible options, and most of the dealer installed options.

One option it came with was the remote engine starter.  The technicians at the Tokorozawa dealership, which did the CPO inspection, decided that the remote was acting up but simply needed a new battery.  My local dealership, however, thought otherwise and went ahead and ordered me a brand new remote!

So I dropped off the car on a Saturday morning, and as it was a typical humid and hot August day, was treated to an iced latte and some ice cream:

I then proceeded to briefly discuss the rest of the work order, as well as discuss future plans for the car, with Ishikawa-san, the dealership's  head of service.  I then arranged to pick up the car the next day around noon.  True, for just the remote it might have taken just a few minutes but I was having some other work done as well.

So on Sunday, I walked the twenty minutes to the dealership, was welcomed by the pretty ladies at the front desk, ushered to a booth and chair and then - yes, more ice cream!

On Saturday I enjoyed a iced latte and vanilla ice cream,
today it was ice oolong tea and ice cream. 

After a few minutes, after I had cooled down (the drink and the ice cream, people!), Ishikawa-san came over and presented me with this:

I'm tempted to leave the plastic on, and never use it
 - or else find a nice leather case...

This nifty Lexus logo engraved device allows you to remotely start your car's engine. It also allows you to lock and unlock your doors, find your car in a crowded parking lot (as if this blue wasn't obvious enough) and in a very Lexus way, the LCD readout also tells you the interior temperature of your car.  I note that on the current Lexus cars, these features are now available on one's smartphone. Nice, as I really don't want to carry this thing around with me in addition to the key...

Since the prior owners didn't live in a super cold place where it snows all the time, like up north in Hokkaido (and further I can't imagine driving this car in the snow...), I can only surmise that maybe they used this feature to get the engine running in the morning to cool off the interior? Especially as I had surmised that, given some faded plastic in front of the windshield, the car was probably kept outside? 

In any case, I immediately had to try it out. I learned the hard way to read the instructions first, but after I did that, it was indeed fun to start the car without being inside it! I was able to hear how the car sounds when it starts up, from the OUTSIDE where, I think most will agree, it sounds very different...

Anyway, this was just ONE item I was at the dealership for.  My next two posts will go into detail about my other reasons for dropping the car off over the weekend...