Church

Yeah, more then advisable to clean shims, calipers under them and apply grease anew. Pads should fit snug, and imho shouldn't be filed, as that may introduce extra rattling. If they are hard to put in, most probably exactly because of excess dust/dirt/crap/rust in these shims (or between these shims & caliper), where pad "ears" go. If one changes pads by themselves, worth having brake cleaner spray, wire brush, and greases for guides and these shims. Optionally depending on state maybe also rubber seal sets (front SU003-04523, rear SU003-04098). BTW, if clips are of state that easier to replace them, part numbers: front SU003-00577, rear SU003-00627. When changing pads, worth checking, how easy or not caliper slides on guides. If needed, one may regrease them aswell, sometimes another possible reason for dragging of pads. Regarding what should be transferred over/reused, usually it's just these shims/clips that stay in caliper, that are in your pic. For pads that have also backing plate shims, those shims usually come in set with pads. Many aftermarket pads don't have backing plate shims and also don't need them to be transferred over from old stock pads. Regarding noise, if it's loud squealing .. usually it's because unbedded rotors. With well bedded brakes (that is material from heated up pads transferred/rubbed as layer onto disks) most pads usually are relatively quiet. Then again more track oriented pads with daily driving braking rarely get upto high enough temps, and even if brakes got bedded on trackday, few days of daily driving later, bedded layer is worn off, and squealing returns 😕

If it rubs too much you can tell, if eg. some wheel is too hot to touch vs others after some driving, even if braking was too light and it should have been cooled off. Of course, worth touching wheel, not brake disk/caliper (which sometimes might be hot enough to seriously burn hand), and also one can dirty hands with brake dust :). Constant too much of brake pad drag should result in much hotter wheel.

By chance have part numbers for washers that need to be changed when changing diff & gearbox oils?

Just that .. for many owners these particular cars are for sheer driving pleasure mostly .. and many ecomiling techniques go against "fun" in driving. Hence i wouldn't care much about economy, and what mileage some may have squeezed out. Fun is also worth paying for. Driving like i do nets bad mileage .. but i still willingly choose pay more for more fun . I still prefer to floor on launches, tire chirping in some turns, slight drifting on gravel/snow/ice roads. So i often find myself driving at higher rpm-s then needed, just for engine to be louder :). Worse mileage? So be it, it's worth it

Well, that's not exactly excuse for him. One may sympathize with that driver as none is saint and no-one always drives 100.000% never breaking any rule by even slightest and it's easy to put oneself in his shoes imagining getting into similar accident, but dura lex, sed lex, by traffic rules one needs to check/ensure that planned maneuver is safe, accident could have been avoided whatever subjective excuses might be brought up for crash explanation.

Regarding boot i usually heard mentions about creaking hood on oldest twins. As your non-opening issue is first time i hear about, i'd rather think of badly repaired rear end crash or maybe some electronic wiring issue from installing other things in rear, eg. aftermarket lights / rear camera and such ..

4S or 4?

Even for mx-5 aero works for grip/laptimes. Why wouldn't on these cars? Whatever power level, extra grip from downforce will allow brake later, less, corner faster, start accelerate quicker. Unless it's very small/slow track i guess, where gains might be minimal.

Verus has also other bits to improve underside aero in addition to diffuser & splitter. Diff cover, transmission tunel cover and so on. If one goes all way, one may consider also those.

Scratches to side windows, probably issues with window guides & weatherstrip. Check TSB S-SB-0009-14 (pdf). Problem though, that if warranty has ended, it's too expensive to replace windows by own money imho. Also such scratches from guides problems are rather common to cars with frameless windows, from what i've heard. As for me myself, as i missed fixing it while there was warranty .. by time i stopped caring about it, as issue doesn't seem grave enough to pay for complete replacement/fix. Yes, slight annoyance to see those scratches .. but I have many other mods to pay for with higher priority Rear seat latch rattle also is not uncommon thing to subbies. Well, car is cheap, hard to demand for it to be lexus :). Sharkfin antenna's reception is worse. It shouldn't be totally unusable. What exactly issues you have? As it's powered, is it connected correctly? Bad durability of bodywork paint is common to many modern cars. IIRC it has something to do with modern paints w/o lead for eco-something-legislation. What seems weird, specific to your car, seat adjustment not fixing and boot not opening.

Deacon: is your car lowered? At one point i considered Velox non-agressive diffuser, but from your photo it seems that ground clearance is way way below what would seem acceptable for me dual-using car 😕

Test Drives Unlimited: btw, have you considered two-piece rotors? (IIRC DBA offers such for stock brakes too), such won't be a bit better wearables cost wise?

Even if lowered to 31K GBP .. How much _new_ with full warranty MY2017 with performance package costs @UK? Yes, low mileage, yes limited edition. But price is justified only if there is demand. In this case imho owner greatly overestimates desirability of that limited edition-ness, and wants to overcharge more then what market might be willing to pay. For example in my eyes that limited edition paint & stickers is rather drawback, as may mean higher insurance costs, and not being able to get paint-matched optional or aftermarket parts. With those bits aside it's just pre-restyle twin of low mileage. But with already less warranty due already being registered. If anything, from limited editions i'd rather love to see something from one hundred run of 2016 GRMN 86, where higher cost is due expensive CF bits (vented bonnet, hood, vented fender garnishes, trunk lid, roof, wing, splitter, side skirts), plexiglass windows, brembos, remade rear bumper with single center exhaust, redone intake/exhaust/tune for +16whp, engine internals, close ratio gearset, tuned suspension, rear seat delete, sport seats, forged wheels .. now compare this to _just_ different paint & stickers for this yellow one.

4th discs? Given that usually they last 2-4 pads sets, you probably had tracking a lot. Or been persuaded by them that rotors need change more often then they really are due

Nothing wrong with OEMs, except there is little difference between standard iron ventilated disks, and some aftermarket replacements cost less then OE. And cheaper price imho can serve as justifying reason Even with those Ferodo DS2500 .. they also were noticeably cheaper then stock pads.

Worth always specifying also _which_ exactly pads. Most vendors have many pads covering most niches, from street to hardcore motorsport use. Comparing by generic brand name will just make apples to oranges comparison. For example Ferrodo has also real track pads like Dsuno, Ds1.11, Ds3.12. It also has also oem-ish, completely non-tracking even least stuff. For example, here chart of some hawk pads. I'm sure that different PFC pads are, well, different enough too, and thus one should always tell which.

These are not exactly performance (if under that term you think - "track") pads, more of oem+. As in they are obviously better then stock on track (rather easy to overheat/glaze), but i'd still keep track sessions to eg. 15min. And also change brake fluid to higher temp one. Then again most "real" track oriented pads are close to unusable for daily driving unlike these. As most track pads working temp range is much higher, they often have less brake friction when cold until heated up, and also with light braking that is more common in daily driving, bedded layer with track pads soon scrubs off rotors .. and one becomes idiot with loud squealing brakes each time one brakes. Yes, one can again go outside city and do several acceleration/heavy braking cycles to rebed brakes for few days, as bedded rotors with transferred layer from heated pads onto rotor should quieten most brakes, but it's PITA. Best choice possible is to have two specialized pads sets for both daily driving & track and switch prior/post track day, but well, if one decides against such and uses one set all the time, of course there will be some compromises/limitations to keep in mind. I tracked on DS2500, and for those 15min they mostly held up fine (on a bit grippier tires then primacies, eg. 215 to 225 wide PSS/PS4), rather consistent brake feel from cold to hot, it's when i kept driving more to 20min i start feeling fade. But as after 15min i also started to loose concentration and wear down myself, see no biggie in driving off for cigarette, coffee .. and brake cooling at that time :).

No coating will help if one uses brakes as they should, especially if tracking car. Though that is good too from other POV, rust on rotors doesn't matter too, as few hard braking will clean it off via abrazing as it will coating. I just wrote off non-dusting as "nice to have" but of less importance among miscellaneous pad properties. To me most important bits are for main function, braking that is, working reliably well wherever i use those pads (and if it's hybrid pads we are talking about, - then both for daily driving and track), and for them to not squeal loud. Later would annoy me much more then dusting, if i had to suffer that at each traffic light stop. Availability, price, not too aggressive to rotors, and for dust to not be chemically agressive to wheels also would matter to me more then dust itself. So by my priorities DS2500 did well, and i could live with worse dusting.

DS2500 WILL dust. But as otherwise they are rather good hybrid pad for daily driving and light tracking and are cheap, i'd probably would consider them too. Just visit more often DIY washing places for cheap & quick pressure wash

Hmm, just 3-4K .. that's very little. Due that, i wouldn't take out doubling servicing intervals though, i prefer better be safe then sorry, who knows, maybe there is also some expiring at place for some of fluids or rubber, if toyota & subaru had mileage OR time as when servicing due whichever was hit first. In my book in relation to servicing intervals is only cutting them shorter, if car is used harder then normal driving, eg. tracked, as imho sometimes vendor servicing intervals might be too lax, just enough to get car through warranty of 3-5 years, not so much for one wanting to keep/use car very long, so i'd prefer at least changing oils at higher pace. Or, i'd sell it off now for even better price then eg. +3 years +10K miles and with less frequent servicing, which will drop from it's current price. Servicing just one of expenses car needs. Insurance, taxes, trickle charger for battery (with little driving high chance for battery to go flat few times). Upkeep of undriven car will be expensive, so should you? If you ever will want to return to twins, later on buy another, just newer, MY2017 restyle maybe.

Even if it's insurance case, many insurers still may rise premiums even if not at fault from what i heard about UK, i wouldn't write it off as positive. Bad luck

Imho if aero matters enough, then one probably will install diffuser anyway, for even less drag and more dowforce then without it and just stock alike single central muffler.

Maybe also someone can hint then where to find TRD v1 like D-shaped/half-moon tips? I'm interested in one specific catback sound-wise, but it's stock tips of large diameter "buckets" turns me off a bit as screaming "ricer" 😕

That provision on wheel size in relation to LSD is there also for other cars equipped with it, but of course if it's eg. FWD one, then that is about wheels on front axle. It also can be attributed on 4WD vehicles regarding same size of wheels but now on all four ends, if there is eg. viscous diff between axles or transfer case, that can be overheated/damaged due different speeds due different wheel sizing. So in general - if it's not undriven end or at least with open diff - wheel sizing on that axle matters a lot. Of course it's usually said in user manuals for all such cars, but more often then not people don't read manuals these days or miss that sentence in few hundred pages glanced through (btw, i was of such too, noticed mention of that elsewhere and almost by chance, and only then found out that it's not some generic advise/hint but actually gets noted in manuals (which i admit of not reading back then, baselessly overconfident that there was nothing new to me from past driving experience (always on open diff cars)). Heck, when choosing spacesaver spare for myself back then, i even checked fitment/clearance of it both for front & rear )

As to why disconnect - one should never let battery run flat. Once it had, it damages/reduces max charge battery can hold, and next time it will run flat even sooner. Downwards spiral. And weight wise i wouldn't consider finding much higher capacity batteries. I don't want doubling already very heavy battery just for capability for it to last undriven for two months, rather thinking of something opposite, eg. lightweight lithium battery of smaller capacity for summer.