Couple Of Questions From A New Is200 Owner

[rainady]

Hi,

Im new to this forum because I have only just had my IS 200 SE for a couple of weeks now. Previous to that I have been driving a Rover 75 Conn SE which was lovely and comfortable to drive but lacking a little in the power and handling department. But I feel there is a handling issue with this car and would like some feedback so here goes.

At normal (legal) speeds, the car handles very well and feels like its on rails round the corner, if a little harsh at times. Go up above 80mph and things feel to go a bit iffy. The steering feels very light and the slightest undulation in the road seems to knock the car off track. I assume thats a feature of very low profile tyres, but this can be quite unsettling. I sometimes gets to the point where I cant relax driving the car because I have to be constantly correcting the steering. Sometimes, a correction of the steering can sort of lead to a sort of delay in the correction resulting in a correction in the oposite direction which gets worse and worse. The car really doesnt feel confidence inspiring, I cant relax at any time. It makes a longish journey quite tiring unlike the Rover which I could drive all day and never feel like I have been behind the wheel. I know its a different style of car but I bought the IS200 as a sports saloon. The Mk 3 Hyundai coupe, which was similar spec'd with wide low profile tyres was again a lot more relaxing to drive.

Is this how the IS200 drives or do you guys think its the tyres. Im asking this before checking tyre pressures etc, and the tyre pressures could be all wrong, causing the problem but just wanted to ask you people with more experience. The car is going to Lexus Birmingham this comming weekend for a free safety check since the car was purchased from a Ford Dealer and wanted some ammunition to use if I could.

Keeping on the topic of handling and wheels/ tyres, are all IS200's a bit skittish in the wet. After many years of front wheel drive cars (and the rear wheel driven cars being things like Spitfires, Capri's, Sierra based 7 style kit cars), the increased power through the rear wheels has been very interesting with 'interesting lines' comming out of roundabouts (and missing one junction all together because the backend skipped out too much). I thought the TC was supposed to stop all that. I dread to think what it would be like with the TC turned off altogether.

Another question, but not nearly as worrying. All the info says the IS200 SE has eight speakers, but I can only see 6, two tweeters near the wing mirrors, two speakers in the doors and two speakers on the rear parcel shelf. So where are the other two?

Please be gentle on this new IS200 owner. Front wheel drive has made me quite lazy in the driving stakes.

Andy

[Truffs]

Hello :D

I have had my Is200 for nearly 4 months now and love ever minute of it. I to came from the world of FWD cars mainly all with the red 'H' situated on it somewhere and an 'R' attached nearby

The IS200 for such a heavy car handles very well ideed and going down the Autobahrn last month on the way to Paris 'the long way round ' i have found it handles well at what ever speed and sits there so well that it would embaress some bigger prestige cars 'cough' BMW :P

Re wet and rear wheel drive. Trust me you have to change your style of driving as you have to in snow The traction control is aid and will usually catch any incidents before they happen however i think the general feeling on this board is that the IS200 can sometimes be tricky in hard cornering in the wet. You probably are still in the world of FWD cars as well i.e. push hard into a corner and understeer comes first followed by a little oversteer. This still happens in the IS200 (most of the time) in the dry but in the wet i have found there to be no or very little understeer followed by the oversteer.

HTH a little :duh:

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Hi and welcome to LOC,

Firstly rear wheel drive cars are like that in the wet, just slow down until you get used to it. Worth checking tyre tread, pressures and that if they have to turn a certain way ( the tyres ) then are on the right whyeels ( somebody else will explain this better ). This may effect the handling at speed. Do you find the car tramlines at times ( i.e. goes with the road rather than where you want it ) ? If the latter you may need somw 4 wheel geometry doing. I take it there is no accident history ( did it have an HPI check ? ).

[Gord]

Hi,

Im new to this forum because I have only just had my IS 200 SE for a couple of weeks now. Previous to that I have been driving a Rover 75 Conn SE which was lovely and comfortable to drive but lacking a little in the power and handling department. But I feel there is a handling issue with this car and would like some feedback so here goes.

At normal (legal) speeds, the car handles very well and feels like its on rails round the corner, if a little harsh at times. Go up above 80mph and things feel to go a bit iffy. The steering feels very light and the slightest undulation in the road seems to knock the car off track. I assume thats a feature of very low profile tyres, but this can be quite unsettling. I sometimes gets to the point where I cant relax driving the car because I have to be constantly correcting the steering. Sometimes, a correction of the steering can sort of lead to a sort of delay in the correction resulting in a correction in the oposite direction which gets worse and worse. The car really doesnt feel confidence inspiring, I cant relax at any time. It makes a longish journey quite tiring unlike the Rover which I could drive all day and never feel like I have been behind the wheel. I know its a different style of car but I bought the IS200 as a sports saloon. The Mk 3 Hyundai coupe, which was similar spec'd with wide low profile tyres was again a lot more relaxing to drive.

Is this how the IS200 drives or do you guys think its the tyres. Im asking this before checking tyre pressures etc, and the tyre pressures could be all wrong, causing the problem but just wanted to ask you people with more experience. The car is going to Lexus Birmingham this comming weekend for a free safety check since the car was purchased from a Ford Dealer and wanted some ammunition to use if I could.

Keeping on the topic of handling and wheels/ tyres, are all IS200's a bit skittish in the wet. After many years of front wheel drive cars (and the rear wheel driven cars being things like Spitfires, Capri's, Sierra based 7 style kit cars), the increased power through the rear wheels has been very interesting with 'interesting lines' comming out of roundabouts (and missing one junction all together because the backend skipped out too much). I thought the TC was supposed to stop all that. I dread to think what it would be like with the TC turned off altogether.

Another question, but not nearly as worrying. All the info says the IS200 SE has eight speakers, but I can only see 6, two tweeters near the wing mirrors, two speakers in the doors and two speakers on the rear parcel shelf. So where are the other two?

Please be gentle on this new IS200 owner. Front wheel drive has made me quite lazy in the driving stakes.

Andy

Hi Andy welcome, you will find that there are 4 speakers in the parcel shelf :D 2 in each one :D making 8 in total :winky:

[javadude]

Steering light at speed etc could be down to the wheel geometry being out. It was on mine even though bought it from a dealer.

[rainady]

Thanks for the replys guys.

Tyre pressures - Checked all four and they were each around 38 or 39 psi, so I have dropped each down to 33psi. Will 5psi make that much difference? It never really seemed to on other cars.

Tramlines - yep it did seem to do that especially on the slow lane on the motorway where there is a bit of a groove from all the HGV's.

Accident damage - I dont have any accident history but nothing came up through the Lexus database at the Birmingham showroom. As I said, its going in for a safety check this weekend so I will see if they can give it a check.

As for the handling in the wet, I guess I was sort of expecting it.

[Rob]

the IS has a prob with the suspension geometry - u need to get it done properly , do not use a lexus dealer! most of them cant do it properly and if they do it is set up to wear the inside edges of the tyres.

where in the UK are you???

yes 5psi makes a lot of difference to the way the car drives - you will prob find that once the geometry is sorted it will drive fine.

[rainady]

fluff34567,

Im in the midlands. Burton upon Trent, not far from Birmingham. Can somebody suggest a place I can get the geometry set up correctly.

Are you saying that I have either the choice of a properly set up geomety that goes through tyres or even tyre wear but the car handles like a bag of rubbish?

What sort of car have I bought???????

[Rob]

no no - lexus will only set it up to the factory settings - although the car handles ok it means that with the standard settings the tyres wear on the inside - with a proper geometry ( that uses slightly different settings) the car will drive and feel far better and the tyre wear issue will be miniscule if not removed.

[rainady]

OK, thanks.

So where is the best place in the midlands to get this car set up properly?

Are the geometry settings that are on the LOC website the settings to go with?

[Kremmen]

Just a point on tyre pressures.

I had my car geo setup by our resident expert - Tony in Watford.

He recommends 35psi all round regardless of usage. I had also read the manual and set mine to 33psi and my tyres were wearing slightly more on the edges, so the extra 2psi should sort that one.

Note: Set to 35psi when the tyres are cold.

It does sound like a good geo setup is required and I would suggest the trip to see Tony would be well worth the extra mileage. You will be assured of a top notch job regardless of the time it takes.