Hi everyone. It's been a week now with the new IS350 F-Sport, and I love it. So smooth, quiet, and comfortable.

So after some time with it, I've come across a few things I haven't figured out yet. I've glanced through the owners manual, but haven't read every chapter yet. Here's what I could use a hand with.

1) Preset radio/satellite stations: I preset and saved my favorites, but I'm noticing the central display only highlights the top entry. As I scroll down with the steering wheel button to other stations, the station it's on gets a faint highlight, but the top one on the screen has the bright highlight. I would think the station one is listening to should get the main highlight, right? Annoyingly, my eye always goes back to the top station on the screen, when I'm curious what I'm listening to. Is there a setting I messed up with? I'd like to have the station that's playing, be highlighted the most.

2) I feel there is virtually no bass at all with the audio system. I have the settings all the way with the bass, and and as low as I can go with the treble. But I just don't hear any bass at all. All my past systems, including my last IS, had plenty of bass. Is there an additional setting to tap into for more bass, or is it lacking that bad?

3) When cruising in "D" and switching over to manual mode, I've noticed different default gears the transmission goes into. For example, if I'm actually in eighth gear on the freeway, in D, and go to use the paddles, it will run down from 8 to 7 to 6, etc. But same freeway scenario, if I am in D and switch the gear-shifter into manual mode, I believe it goes right to 6 or 5. Or maybe I have it reversed. I just recall several times it's not gone into the same gear number depending on whether I go from D to paddles or D to gear shifter movement. What is the protocol here? . I'd like to learn what to expect and what to use for the proper downshifting method.

4) Regarding the driver information display in the gauge cluster, is there any way to customize the settings to have instant fuel economy AND average fuel economy "after refueling" BOTH displayed at the same time? I see all kinds of other options and combinations, but I'd like to have those two particular details together.

5) I prefer to have the main tach gauge slid over to the right, and the larger information display on the left. I hit the button on the steering wheel to get there, but it always reverts back to the standard, central tach set-up when I shut down and restart the car. Is there a way to save this setting so I don't have to hit that button everytime I start up? Seems like a very common need, so I'd be surprised they'd not allow that setting to be saved.

6) Also with the gauge cluster, it's quite dim during the day. I have the lower dash buttons set all the way. Is there any further setting to get them brighter?

7) Have a slight vibration sound coming from the driver's rear door area when the car is cold and going over rough/cracked roads. Goes away after a few minutes of driving. Is this a known thing? I'd like to gain some info before approaching the dealer.

8) Lastly, I was inspecting the engine compartment and found one area that looked a bit alarming. There appears to be some hose or wrapped up bundle of wires where all the wires are exposed. I will include some pics below (What part is this, btw?). To my eye, it looks bad and I feel a safety hazard to have exposed wires in a compartment that sees excessive heat during operation. If this is normal, then lets hear it. If you all think it's a defect and needs addressing, lets hear it. I will also show the dealer, but as always, it's best to do research prior. And speaking of the dealer, how successful do you think he can be in covering it up and not causing a new issues later down the road?

Thanks all for the information. If I've missed anything obvious with the above, I apologize in advance. I know I still need to read over the manual more.

 

1. The bright highlight is where you have your mouse cursor at.
2. Yep, zero bass. I dont have Mark Levinson but I hear similar for thst system too.
3. Thats normal. Tip, try using paddle shifters while in Drive for temporary manual shifting. Let me know if your curious more on how thst works.
4. I don't have FS
5. I don't have FS
6. Try thr settings on the infotainment center. There are more related settings in there but I think you found the brightest the dash will go with the switch you mentioned.
7. Not a known thing but these things make more noise when cold opposed to warm so doesn't sound like an issue to me but I hate noise too.
8. Without even checking mine I can tell you that's not factory. Someone worked on that, and unlikely a dealer would leave it looking that way but not impossible. I would get a new plastic hose / wire wrap to put there and cut to size.

Glad you're enjoying your new ride!

 

I will just add my comments in addition to what he said.

2. I have ML Audio, and the bass is still lacking. I don't expect, nor need much. But it is weaker than the ML that was in my 2IS, which wasn't very impressive.
3. I find downshifting with the paddles in D typically just drops two gears if allowable. If you switch to manual at speed, the torque converter locks so that creates a different scenario. For instance, if you're cruising along in auto and downshift via paddle, I find it will typically drop down two gear if allowable. Once you slide over into manual the torque converter locks, so there is a different situation there. I find it typically goes to about what the Sport+ setting would demand, which is around 10mph per gear. So going to manual around 60mph it would typically go to 6th gear.
4. Not sure either, I have F-Sport but always leave the tach front and center
5. I am pretty sure the cluster always defaults back to center and there is no way around it.
8. It looks someone has messed with that part of the harness before. It should be covered with the wiring loom.

 

3. Yeah if in 8th gear and in D, Paddle shift down will go straight to 6th. Like puts you right into a passing gear, although I normally want 5th for passing. The gear selected is the maximum allowed gear the car will shift up to, but i works similarly to Manual. Accelerating about 4 seconds will eliminate that mode and go back to Drive. Or coming to a complete stop.

#4 and #5 . If you're (OP) talking about how the dash is while in Sport mode, the car will not stay in Sport mode next time you turn on the car. It will start in Normal, or Eco mode if that's how you left it.

 

Interesting points about the manual shifting and how it works. So it drops two gears when going from D to the paddles. Is it the same two gear drop if going from D to using the gear shift lever?

So that leads me to another question about it. On my old IS250, if I was in manual mode and came to a stop, I could "prime" or pre-program the shifting by notching it up however many gears I wanted. Then when accelerating, it would shift automatically until it got to the pre-selected number I notched it to, then anything above that I'd have to shift manually. This was good if there were certain road conditions ahead (traffic) or hills. It was kind of a pre-programming/hybrid/memory thing. I wonder if the 2020 has that feature as well. Seems like thus far it reverts to "0" when at a full stop and doesn't let you select higher numbers until actually moving (?).

 

As a bass player, I find the bass to fine in my 200 IS F Sport. Non Mark Levinson. But of course, there is never enough bass!!!!

 

As another bass player, I will have my two cents. (If we're being fair, I haven't picked mine up in a few years...) I had non-ML in my car but found the bass was only okay. It got a little distorted at higher volume. The bass in the ML system in the RC F I drove was definitely much better in terms of bass. However the Fender system in my GTI has better bass than either of them, though the ML had better mid and high tones. So Fizzboy's experience seems to match mine.

In the GTI there's a separate adjustment for the subwoofer, not sure if ML has anything like that.

 

You need to get back to the bass! It may sound funny, being a bass player, but in the car I've never found the need to have lots of bass in the car. I
reserve that for the stage. You have a Fender sound system in your GTI? Never heard of that. Is it a Precision or a Jazz?

 

Haha, I can say it's fretless. I do need to pick one up again. I ended up donating mine to my younger brother, thinking I wouldn't have time to play it... But I miss it a lot. Pure coincidence the sound system is branded as Fender - an appeal to the cool kids, I say.

 

Another operational question... Is there a setting where I can have the daytime LED running lights on AND keep the headlights on a manual mode? I want to be in control of when I put my nighttime lights on, but would also like the DRL's on during the day and not have to switch every setting back and forth.
Thanks...

 

No, the only way to keep the DRL’s on is either on Auto or Parking lights on which would turn on your taillights too. DRL off is the only way to have the lights in “manual” where they don’t turn on unless you turn them on.

 

I was afraid of that. Could never figure out why Lexus did not make that combo possible.

 

Yeah it is strange. My GTI will keep its DRLs on when I manually turn off the headlights. On the flip side, I have to go into the infotainment in order to turn off the DRLs.

 

So you got your answer but what you may like is thst you can change the sensitivity of when the headlights come on. This would keep your DRLs on longer before headlights come on.

 

As a drummer the bass is just fine (IS350 FSport RWD w Mark Levinson).