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Is200 Auto Mods


vudu
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Hi everyone,

I picked up my w-reg IS200 SE Auto yesterday from Lexus Canterbury. The hand-over was brilliant. I would recommend them to anyone. Even more importantly, the car was fantastic! The sat nav works like a charm, taking me right to my front door in London..

I would like to do a few mods to the engine though. I've read the discussions on TDI's UNICHIP, and it looks like on the whole it works pretty well, but some of you have had probs regarding stalling, idling, etc.. plus it's about £600 to fit I think. I spoke to the guys at van Aaken Developments, and they do a smartchip unit which can give between 5-10 hp and better fuel mngt.. the nice thing is that they'll do it for about £300+VAT.. any of you guys had experience with them? It would be nice to get similar results to the UNICHIP for half the price! Also, van Aaken have got the Racelogic Alterpower mod which uses the car's alternator to get a few more hp's when you floor the car, and it's pretty cheap to fit as well. Anyone had one of those fitted? finally, which performance air filter (long life) can I use which can give me noticeable improvements in power?

I think that's all I'll do to the car for now! oh, and I'm getting colour-coded rear park sensors fitted at a dealer this week..

Thanks for any feedback!

Vudu

PS. GREAT forum btw! I've learnt a hell of a lot about the car even before taking delivery of it! :D

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welcome to the club vudu!

you'll find that there are a lot of guys doign serious engine mods to their IS200s.

Also one of the guys from TDI is a forum regular - I'm sure he will be able to give you a lot more information on their pricing for UNICHIP.

More importantly - if you are serious about doing this - you really should look into a gold membership.

There are a lot of companies offering Gold Members discounts - I save the £25 annual subscription purely in servicing costs :D .

If you are doing additional work - you'll save even more!

One of our members has saved over £800 this year, thanks to this little £25 subscription.

Click here to join up!

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i tried the alterpower before on my is200

um....... have to say.... when the alterpower turn on....... it make your light dimmer........ so when u think abt it, it actually shut down your alternator and ur ignition system might get less voltage from the Battery........ so.......

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I'm definitely getting Gold membership ASAP if it can help keep costs down..

hmmm, so looks like the alterpower may not be worth the extra strain on the Battery, unless I get a heavy duty Battery fitted maybe?

the reason I'm looking at chipping and performance filter change is cuz I don't wanna add any significant weight to the car (it's heavy enough as is!).. plus an induction system might kill my insurance premium, I dunno.. how much will the TDI unit be?

The other nice thing with van Aaken is that they say they can remove the chip for me for no extra charge if I come to sell the car later on, which is cool. Can TDI do that as well? or will I have to be the guinea pig here?? ;D air filters come out easily too, so..

basically, I would welcome your thoughts on any light mods that can be easily removed and won't break the bank/insurance premium!!!!

:D

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A performance chip will increase your insurance premium a lot more than an induction kit. It just depends on wether you plan to tell your insurance company about it or not :unsure::unsure::unsure:

You may be pleasantly suprised though - I informed Bell Direct today that I will be fitting an induction kit soon and they only wanted £29 extra.

They also only charged me £29 when I fitted the HKS Drager

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Sorry JTT I don't know anything about the Smartchip.

Technically I have a conflict as I have my TDi hat on, and Van Aaken are a competitor.

I wouldn't say anything bad about a competitor because that would be unprofessional, but if I had seen it and knew it to be good I would tell you.

If the quality of the ecu is as good as what we use, and they can map it as well as we can, and it's half the price - go for it!

Don't forget that the Gold Member price is 20% discount of this product.

Mark :)

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Cheers Mark I appreciate the conflict of interests.

On the Unichip, if I have other mods in place (exhaust, induction etc) will you be able to get better results from the chip?

I use Optimax fuel, is it true you can set the car up to run on this octane and get more increase in performance this way?

Cheers

:question:

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On the Unichip, if I have other mods in place (exhaust, induction etc) will you be able to get better results from the chip?

I use Optimax fuel, is it true you can set the car up to run on this octane and get more increase in performance this way?

Correct on both points Mr JTT

Mark :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I dropped by van Aaken yesterday.. did any of you know that BMW go there to get their cars modified? at least that's what the guy said..

anyway, I found out that the smartchip they have is in fact a SMARTBOX which sort of plugs into the existing ecu. the guy says that the IS200 can't really be 'chipped', rather this box just alters the fuel timing or something of that nature (I'm no techie so..).. The advantage of this is that when I go to Lexus for servicing etc I can literally plug the box out and there's no trace of any mods when it goes in for servicing.. the price they do it for is £295 total.. not bad! However, they DON'T use a rolling road as TDI does so that may be why it's cheaper.. although they would recommend it at £55 per hour so you know exactly what improvement you're getting..

If any of you are wondering about experience, they've had these smartboxes for about a year and a half, the one for the IS200 for about 6 months.. no probs from other cars fitted with it (it comes with a 12 month warranty anyway).. plus they can get a Jetex replacement performance filter for about £30 (fitting free). I reckon that's all I'll do really.. don't wanna add a sports exhaust if it's gonna make the car louder (that wouldn't be the point of a LEXUS now would it?!?!).. plus mine's got the nice crome tail pipe anyway..

Oh, by the way, I DID try to drive to TDI the other day, but the sat nav made me go through the city of London.... I wasn't even half way and it had been about an hour and a half in serious traffic... I gave up. maybe I'll brave it another day.. :(

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