smartwave

Hi All Think last time I visited this forum was 5 years back? i have a 99 IS200 S which is very reliable until last Friday. Wife was driving on M25 to come to London to see me in the evening. Suddently car lost control and hit the left side barrier then bounced back to the central barrier. Car stopped in the middle of the motorway. Luckily wife was not hurt at all. The engine comparment and boot were in absolutely aweful state. The passenger compartment was fine without obvious deformation. All 4 doors open fine. It seems the one of the front tyres exploded. 3 weeks back we visited a tyre place and got told the front tyres still have some life left! It comes so quick! She is 100% sure it is going to be written off by insurance. Now I am back in the market looking for a another IS200 cos I love it so much! Money is very tight this moment as I am buying a new flat this moment. So max budget 2200 pounds. We need to run between Birmingham and London at least once a month. During week days wife dirves it for 3 miles a day to work I need you advice: do I get a auto is200 or manual is200? what's the MPG like for auto? How many years life I am expecting from a 10 years old IS200 auto gearbox? Thank you very much!

All four doors open at exactly the same time, I mean, after the delay. The chance of all four doors are gunged is very slim. So it is very unlikely to be gunk mechanism. Once the doors are opend, when I click the open button on the key, all doors open immediately, I mean, giving out that door opening sound immediately.

yeah you are right. The car doesn't worth more than 2K now. rather than spending 300+ quid on the belt I would gamble on it. Keep in mind timing belt is designed and made to run for more than 100K miles so in my opinion a 2nd timing belt is a waste of money. There can be one exception which is for classic cars.

Just wondering how many timing belt a IS200 deserves in it's life span(assuming 10K milage a year)? My IS200S is 10 years old and has done 100K. The timing belt was changed a few years back at 40K. I am not going to give it a second belt change. If one day the belt snaps, then I get a very good excuse to get a another car, very likely to be a lexus again. Let me know what you think.

I once visted Lexus Birmingham to buy some service parts and talked to the lady in reception area. She told me she wanted 105 pounds (that's excluding the VAT!) to diagnose the problem and extra to fix it. :tsktsk: I ran away immediately as I don't think my car worth that much.

HI everyone My 99 Reg IS200S developed a strange problem last year: When you press the Open button on the key, the door won't open until about 10 seconds later. This happens to all three keys, which all have brand new batteries. When you first press the Open button, there is a click sound in the car immediately. However the door only opens and lights flashs after about 10 seconds. I've tried to disconnect the car battery, tried to clear the ECU (by removing those two fuses). No luck. Other than the delay the car runs perfectly. Does anyone else have the same problem? What do u think the problem is? Any inputs will be appreciated. Cheers, smartwave

can u please point out how to do the wiring? cheers.

Hi Everyone I am wondering if I can put a IS200SE seats(rear and front ones) on my 1999 IS200S? I want the front e-seats to be fully functional. Cheers, smartwave

Just wondering where I can have my punctured tyre fixed in birmingham/solihull area cheap? Just got a quote from quick-fit and the price is 17.5 pounds. Thinking it is toooooooo expensive cos I used to live in Manchester last year and fixing a tyre in the garage in hyde road was about 7-10 pounds.

I work in city center and live in Salford. Gord, the hole is not cut. I think there is a cover which can be uninstalled from the big one protects the oil sink.

Gord, Thanks for prompt reply The big cover is on. There is a hole on the big cover. This hole is just a little bit bigger than the oil sink. From this hole, you can unfit the oil nut and leak engine oil. Is the hole there deliberately? If I look into the engine compartment, I can't see the road however, if I look closely, I can see the road below the oil sink. Is this normail?

Hi All I normally do service for my is200 twice every year. One samll and one big. Last month, I had a small service done by a local garage. Yesterday, I checked my engine compartment and found that the oil sink can been seen from below the car. I remember that the oil sink should be convered and can't been seen from below the car. Am I right? maybe the garage took the cover ( a small picece of plastic just under the oil sink) and didn't put it back. Can anyone please post a picture of the under side of your engine compartment . thanks.

Anyway I will try it when I start a long journey. :D

Thank!

HI Some people said super unleaded gave their IS200 some extra power and some extra mpg. I am Interested and decided to have a try. I am currently using unleaded. How can I change to super? Need I empty my tank and fill with super unleaded? Or just mix those? Thanks!!!

When I had my first look at the IS 200 which I bought 5 days later, I was astonished that the car was so clean. The engine compartment looked like NEW. Yep, I really mean NEW. there was no dust, no rust, no sign of water/oil leakage, no grease. The brake fluid tank seemed to be glossy. All the Screws were shiny, as NEW. the pipes looked great. I even checked the hidden areas which are hard to reach, for example, the area under the exhaust pipe, again, they were PERFECTLY CLEAN. The cockpit looked perfect as well. Even the joint hinge of the doors looked shinny. considering this is a 1999 IS 200, I don't it could be that clean. Does anyone know how did the deal clean this car? Afering buying this IS200, I planned to sell my Citroen XSara. In order to make the same kind of astonishing effect, I bought a lot of cleaning tools and chemicals from Halfords to try to clean it as clean as my IS200. After working on my Citroen XSara for about 16 hours, I finally learnt that this mission was impossible. You can't clean some area unless you dis-asssemble it. I guess, it will take me at least 64 hours to reach the same class of clean as my IS 200. So, how could my dealer do that considering the labour is quite expensive? Sometime later, I will have to clean it again and those experience are valuable.

Niraj, I am thinking of the way of computer because I am majored in computer science. I don't think we need continues pictures. 10 frames per second I think is OK for this purpose. The most important thing is, this system is upgradable because computer system is open. You can add almost all functions to this system gradually.

Anyway, I think it is enough to deter the other party from denying, if he sees you taking the picture. Provided it is really his fault.

Hi, I think the camera can be used only after the accident. No real-time You know, from the position of two car, normally expert can tell whose fault it it. IN fact, I was think developing some kind of CCTV camera for cars... Do you have any idea about this? Maybe it can be a big market... ← Also use your mobile phone (or mp3 recorder if it can record..)to record the conversatioin between you, polic and the other party.............

Hi, I think the camera can be used only after the accident. No real-time You know, from the position of two car, normally expert can tell whose fault it it. IN fact, I was think developing some kind of CCTV camera for cars... Do you have any idea about this? Maybe it can be a big market...

having seen so many stories about how people denied their liability when they hit other's cars, I bought a camera (Less than 3 pounds, cheap) and leave it in my is200. If there is an unlucky accident happend to me in the future, I would like to use it to take some pictures. I was also told that in UK, polic won't judge whose fault it is in accident. So we need some weapon to protect ourself. The question is, can the pictures be used as proof if there is dispute?

Bet you would look like a bit of an idiot sitting in your driveway doing this! ← Comparing to the 30 pounds to Lexus dealer, it's worth to be seen as idiot.

Got this from another lexus forum which solved my problem Basically, every lexus key has two functions: start the engine(immobilizer) and remote control (lock unlock doors, activate/deactivate alarm) to program the immobilizer bit of your new key: first, have your new key cut. Then: For 1998+ Toyota, Lexus Add Duplicate Key 1. Simultaneously depress and release brake and accelerator pedals 1 time. 2. Insert existing master key into ignition. 3. Within 15 seconds depress and release accelerator pedal 5 times. 4. Within 20 seconds depress and release the brake pedal 6 times and remove key. 5. Within 10 seconds insert new key into ignition. 6. Within 10 seconds depress and release the accelerator pedal 1 time. 7. After 80 seconds new key is registered and security light goes off. 8. Remove new key and depress and release brake pedal 1 time. For 2002+ Toyota, Lexus Add Duplicate Key Requires one working Toyota/Lexus Master Key. 1. Make sure all doors and windows are closed. 2. Insert Master key into the ignition cylinder. 3. Cycle the ignition cylinder from On to OFF five times. 4. Open and close the “driver side” door 6 times. 5. Remove the Master Key and insert the new duplicates key. 6. TURN THE IGNITION CYLINDER ON. 7. The new key will be registered after 60 seconds. The THEFT light on the dashboard will go out, indicating that programming has been completed. to make your lexus remember your key's wireless signal: For the remote part. in drivers seat WITH DOOR OPEN. start with door unlocked. first put master key in ignition, turn to on, then back off and remove. using the lock/unlock button on drivers door. press lock.. then unlock 5 times.(lock,unlock,lock,unlock,lock,unlock,lock,un lock,lock,unlock) Close drivers door, open drivers door. Performe lock/unlock procedure again. DO NOT close and open drivers door. Just the lock/unlock procedure again. insert NEW key in to ignition and turn to on, then back off and remove.(at this point the doors should lock and unlock by themselves ONCE) Now press both lock and unlock buttons on REMOTE. release after about 1.5seconds. now press just the lock button on remote. once you press the lock button, the car should lock and unlock ONCE, if it lock unlocked TWICE you messed up somewhere. now open and close the drivers door a couple times to close programming. if you did it right, remote will now work. thats it..not to hard once youve done it a few times I tried this for about 40 minutes and finally my is200 remembers all my keys now. happy. :D

Hi All My is200 has 3 keys. When I got the car, only one key can lock and unlock the door by wireless. The other two had no batteries in it. When I put two new CR1616 batteries in those, they still can not open the door by pressing the unlock button. However, they can open the door and start the engine if I insert it into the lock. Does anyone have their key battery changed? Is it as simple as put the new battery in the key? or is there any procedure to 'activate' the key after the changing of the battery? Many thank for your suggestion.

My car has the same noise. When you stop the engine and you can notice some click sound coming out from the engine compartment. it's normal. Japanese car has this kind of noise.