oedipus

I took my page offline. You can still send me a PM if you need any of these documents.

You've got personal mail...

New occurrence here. Since 2 weeks, after car went to the garage for some suspension work, the FM stereo didn't work anymore. I hear mumbling & disturbed signal. MW & LW work fine, as does the 6CD unit. I tested without aerial and that is worse, so I presume antenna is not the problem. I do have a GROM ipod adapter installed, but there is no ipod connected. If I recap the options listed above, I can: - check the wiring - reset stereo Any other suggestions welcome!

When replacing the fluid, it makes a major difference for intensive brake users to replace it with high-end DOT5.1 fluid (not to be confused with DOT5, that's for special race braking systems!). That said, your garage probably has a device to measure the boiling point of your brake fluid. If that boiling point is still within tolerance, there is no real need to replace the brake fluid. That is of course if the fluid reservoir is full (at MAX sign). Consider the recommendation to replace your brake fluid every 2 years as best practice if you want to avoid all risks. It's not absolutely necessary.

My knocking noise under light braking & steering is gone since I had the front brakes & 4 dampers replaced by my Toyota garage. I asked them to verify all bushings to eliminate the knocking/cracking noise that drove me mad. They did eliminate it, but they didn't know why. No bushes were replaced, all were still in good nick. The stock dampers were replaced by Bilstein B6 dampers, the stock springs were already tossed for Eibachs some time back. They also replaced my stock rotors that were warped from trackday driving by treated Brembo Sport rotors and StopTech pads. Since this work was done, my car is again completely noisefree. What a relief. Hope this helps you guys.

TTE's marketing and sales department doesn't exist anymore. But the techhies and engineers are still working in Köln. Here's their new website: http://www.toyota-motorsport.com/. I contacted them and they explained they don't deal with end customers anymore. "3 Nov 2010 Dear Mr ..., Thank you for your email. However, I am sorry to say Toyota Motorsport GmbH cannot help you in this matter. We are no longer in a position to supply tuning products directly to customers. Please ask your Lexus dealer to contact Toyota Motorsport GmbH and order this part. Your Lexus dealer should call Toyota Motorsport GmbH on +49 2234 1823 0 in order to order the part. I hope that will solve your problem. Kind regards, Toyota Motorsport GmbH" You can't contact or deal with them directly unless you're a Lexus/Toyota dealer. I ordered a compressor bypass cable through the dealer (TeilNr. AM 27958 - cable, compressor bypass, spare - 36,34Eu). It arrived at my dealer a week later, price was only slightly higher. Still haven't fitted it though 'cause the old one isn't in too bad shape. So for who needs TTE parts, don't give up!

No, it's FWD and not sporty. Lexus marketeers don't know what they want. A little bit of BMW, some Mercedes and now some Audi. If this thing would have been some Subaru Impreza STI 4x4 or BMW 130i RWD with a hybrid system, I would have been interested. My IS 200 s/c doesn't have a worthy successor (IS-F being out of league). If I had to replace it, Lexus doesn't stand a chance. A pity. Next please.

If you feel the vibration clearly in your bottom/feet/footwell, it's coming from the rear axle. If you feel it more in your steering, it's probable on the front axle. All tyres should be balanced well of course. My experiences: I had vibrations on several occasions... - once at higher motorway speeds (just above 65mph) it proved to be one of my Conti's that had developed a big bump on the inner side on a rear wheel. That had to be sorted immediately, it can cause the tyre to blow, with all possible consequences. At lower speeds, it could almost not be felt, which seems rather strange to me. - a second time when I had vibrations, it was at lower speeds (20-30mph). That was caused by a warped rim. It was on the back side of the car. After having the rim repaired, it was gone. - the third time it was due to one of my P Zero Rosso's that was slightly misshaped and which couldn't be balanced out. There was nothing else wrong with the tyre and it still had a lot of rubber on it. The garage has done a rear/front change, with the misshaped tyre put on the front axle. There it could almost not be felt anymore. The reason seems to be that the further away the vibration is from the steering wheel, the more the vibrations are amplified through the chassis. They had clearly made me feel that when the inbalance is on the front axle, you feel it in the steering, when it's at the back, you feel it in the footrest or on the floor of the footwell. The tyre is still on btw. - the most recent vibration occasion was after my last trackday session at the Nordschleife: warped brakes. The vibrations can be felt under harder braking and increase with the brake force applied. Solution: new rotors. Hope this helps. I'd recommend you to go to a good tyre shop. Most of the time, they sort these kinds of things quickly.

I would definitely recommend you to go lower. Not only for the optical effect, but it also improves your roadholding dramatically. My Eibach Pro kit lowered my Lex by 30mm front & rear. Optically, it is still 5 to 10mm too high, but when driving it, the balance is excellent as it is now. Only with good quality coilovers, I would be able to adapt the ride height optically, but it would undeniably have it's effect on the handling (more understeer). My setup is almost complete, now I'm on Bilsteins B6 with the Eibachs (not in the pictures) and soon with an Eibach anti-roll kit. This first picture (black wheels) is from the day after I lowered the car. The one with the silver wheels is taken one year after. Go get yourself an Eibach Pro Kit. It's well worth the money (calculate a complete geometry in your budget!) and you can always sell them for a good price afterwards if still you want to upgrade to coilovers.

Technical leader in a big financial institution in Brussels. In charge of a team of of a 15p. managing configuration of corporate network components like switches, routers, loadbalancers, proxies, secure reverse proxies, dns-systems, dhcp systems, IPAM-systems, IPS systems, firewalls and load-balancers. I love it! :P

any news?

I have no idea. Why not give them a call? But to be honest, at £41,00 it actually is a bargain. I paid half more without postage for mine. Genuine articles like this with the L badge on it, are never going to be dirt cheap. If you want cheaper, try second hand or you'll have to stick to all these other aftermarket options available.

Well in a way I think I can understand her: personally I don't like cosmetic styling much either. Tuning is different though, you don't necessarily have to show all you've got. I rather go for understatement: compressor, suspension, ligher wheels, bigger brakes, ARB's, decat downpipe, ss catback, intake, TT Supra engine swap, little or no badges at all, certainly no spoilers, ok maybe a lip or a sports grille, but no wings, custom paint jobs, double wings, splitters, fake carbon hoods, air rides etc. That kind of West Coast Customs stuff is over the top for me, I gladly leave that to others. Nevertheless I very much appreciate some of the top jobs out there. :hocus-pokus:

For future reference: http://www.toyodiy.com/ This helped me out on many occasions.

Tell the missus that an RS4 is no where near an IS 200 Sport. It might have double the power, but when it comes to ride quality, comfort, sharpness, it is no match to this refined piece of Nippon engineering. I don't understand how people continue to consider buying Audi's. They reall can't make suspensions.

I bought mine off eBay from Lexus Birmingham. Excellent communication & service, I would warmly recommend them! The package was damaged by the delivery company. After getting in touch with Lexus B, they promptly sent over another one at no cost, no questions asked. And they didn't even want the damaged one back! In fact, there's one online now: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GENUINE-LEXUS-FRONT-SPORTS-GRILLE_W0QQitemZ180461088691QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item2a0451afb3 ://http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GENUINE-LEXUS...item2a0451afb3 When I was bought mine, they just sold off theirs. I phoned them and they put a new one online for me.

I recommend an "Eibach Pro Kit" spring kit. Reasonable price, absolute top quality. You'll need a full geometry check after fitting them.

overrevving? sluggish? > clutch gone? From standstill with handbrake firmly on, try to drive away in 4th or 5th gear like you wanted to sprint away in 1st. If the car stalls (which it should), then your clutch ought to be fine. If your car keeps running, you have found the problem: clutch worn and needs replacement. That should be painful to the car, shouldn't it? I have heard that it is possible to test the clutch for slipping when driving slowly (like 20km/h), shifinting into high gear and pressing the accelerator pedal to the floor. Is it logic enough to test the clutch this way? Just something, what I heard :) The idea was to swiftly attempt to drive away in a high gear with the handbrake on. You won't be able to do so, the car should immediately stall. Obviously there are better things for a car (engine in particular), but it is the best test to confirm a gone clutch even at earlier stages.

http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/

for originals, try http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/

overrevving? sluggish? > clutch gone? From standstill with handbrake firmly on, try to drive away in 4th or 5th gear like you wanted to sprint away in 1st. If the car stalls (which it should), then your clutch ought to be fine. If your car keeps running, you have found the problem: clutch worn and needs replacement.

On the german forum, there is a guy called "celicagt" that can get you 4 Bilstein B6 dampers for the IS 200 for 369EUR excl. postage. That is a very good price for an excellent damper (much better than standard). Don't think you'll beat that. :hohoho: LOC Euro thread: http://euro.lexusownersclub.com/forums/ind...amp;hl=bilstein Bilstein site: http://www.bilstein.de/en/products/high-pe...ilstein-b6.html PS: If your German is bad, try pasting the LOC Euro thread in Google Translation for entire webpages. It works pretty well.

The piggyback (blackbox, silverbox or HKS fuelcut defencer) are located in the black box in the engine compartment. Don't cut the cables short. This is how it ought to be installed according to TTE. Follow steps in reverse order to uninstall the piggy back ecu.

In the car driving mastery school where I work freelance, we intentionally bias the car's handling to make it skid. It depends on the profile left on the tyres and the compound. For instance, when we 'program' a car to oversteer in a left hander, we fit a hard compound slick on the right at the rear. One day, we accidentally fitted a Michelin Pilot Primacy slick (no thread left AT ALL) on the right rear wheel and the car (Peugeot 307 2.0 HDI 5d) wouldn't oversteer. The front tyres were road legal Continental PremiumContacts. That's how big a difference the compound makes. You have to know that we use an epoxy skidpad to simulate icy conditions at 25-30km/h (15-20mph). Coming back to your remark: Good Year Eagle F1 GSD3 was a very good tyre. The predecessor GSD2 wasn't half as good, though. But should still be better than your "motorway home tyre". That is if you consider all factors: pressure, thread pattern condition, compound, directional or not, fit for purpose (summer/winter?). Like with the other aspects, if you balloon it, you'll be able to prove it doesn't handle right.