Hank B

No offence to what was presumably your phone, but now that you've sorted it can we see some decent daylight pics please :-) Like the wheels btw, maybe some spacers on the rear though and it'll look sweet.

Short answer, yes, a lot of people are :-)

You'd probably find that the DS2500's are overkill for an IS200, I had them on my Scooby because it was nearing 400bhp :-) and he has them on a track day car. But Ferodo do fast road pads too, I think they just call them Ferodo Motorsport or something. I'll be gettin them on mine when the time comes for new pads. FYI, most touring car teams use the Motorsport pads on the rear and the DS2500's on the front, just so you know :-)

Agreed, got them on our track Integra, the DS2500 they are amazing. It was the DS2500's I had on my scooby and they were awesome, I had Mintex on it when I got it, when I swapped to the Ferodo's the difference was night and day.

Personally always used Ferodo pads, can't fault them at all, at any temp. Just my two bits :-)

Yours do look good sparky :-) still not for me though, but not chavvy looking at least. Some of them just remind me of the late eighties when my dad and his friends were all driving chavaliers and escorts with daft fog lights stuck all over them lol

Just my opinion but those look a bit guff tbh. They only look good when built into the headlights housing, like on Audi's otherwise they just look a bit chavvy, just my opinion.

Trust/greddy stuff is good kit, but I thought they had went bankrupt a couple of years back, dunno. But like I said, their stuff was good stuff.

It helps if you have someone over there to buy things for you and ship as gifts. I'm lucky that my folks live in Canada so I get them to ship stuff from the states, like my Joe Z intake pipe :-) I once bought an apexi ecu for my impreza from Japan and got stung by customs to the tune of 70 quid, and the postie wouldn't leave till I'd wrote him a cheque for it!

I have the bridgestone re050a too and tbh I'm not that impressed with them, it's not that they're bad just that for the money they are not that good. I've had better performance from cheaper tyres. I find them no better than Yokohama s306 that I used to have and they were 40 quid cheaper per corner! Once these are done I'm planning to go for Falkens.

As others have pointed out, I wouldn't think the problem is key related, the smart money would be on the solenoid in the boot having failed.

GAB stuff is really good kit, a lot of Jap cars run them for track day cars. I had them on my old Jap import STI and the handling was outstanding, very very firm though, even on softest settings, and I mean very firm! Have to remember that these are jdm parts and that Japanese roads are like snooker tables compared to what we have here.

What he said :-)

Go for the KYB ones, they are cheaper and actually have much better handling characteristics than the oem ones, I put them on my last IS and they were great. I am planning to get them for my current car as mine are feeling a bit spongy.

LOL that first pic looked awesome :-)

Think you'd be lucky to get a turnaround in a couple of hours tbh, especially if the wheels are in as bad a condition as Rob says they are. The ones I've looked at need the wheels for a day at least, if not longer. Some do offer a hire car if necessary. Also I tend to think the quicker the job is done the more likely it is to be bodged - just my opinion. There is always the option of the mobile refurbishers but I've not heard that many good comments about them, seem ok for minor blemishes but that's about it. I've just booked mine in to have them refurbed at £40 a wheel but with a three day turnaround time. It really isn't a hard job to do and for anyone who knows what they're doing it won't take more than an hour or two. I refurbed mine myself with the help of my mates powder coating business and even for me, who doesn't do it for a living, I had all 4 wheels done within 2 hours. And they were perfect. Sure they maybe weren't in too bad condition to start with, I did it purely to change the colour, but it still isn't a hard job, and not one that could really be bodged unless they were a real plonker.

Never had any problems with my Tein's on my old IS200 and I'm planning on getting Tein's on my IS300, as soon as christmas is over and done with and cashflow is back to normal I personally don't think the TTE's or Eibach's whatever they want to be called, go low enough but thats just my opinion. And I think this story about Tein's sagging is just one of those ones that everyones heard from someguy that knew someguy that said something.

Most decent wheel refurbers will be able to do all four wheels within a couple of hours so you wouldn't need to worry about it, just see if any of them work saturdays and leave your car with them for a couple of hours, simples. You should be looking at around £40 per wheel unless you get mates rates (like I do :winky: but my mate is in Glasgow so no use to you I'm afraid).

Hi,just a thought,just because your car(according to the log book)was registered in say feb 2003 doesnt mean it was made actually made in 2003,considering it would have been made in Japan and then shipped over here,so it would probably have been made in late 2002 and this could explain why it is not affected. Good point well made. But there are people with 04 and 05's who aren't affected either, and I don't imagine Lexus had cars lying in warehouses for more than a few months let alone 2 years!

The 200 and 300 are exactly the same size, they are the same car just with different running gear? Do you mean she felt the engine was too big? Or do you mean that you tried the GS300? Sorry I'm not trying to be wide, just that, well the IS200 and 300 are the same size.

Am I the only one thinking something smells fishy? They came out and said all cars from feb 03 onwards could be affected but yet all of us who have put our VIN in are not affected? Either they were being a bit over cautious with their announcement or that VIN checker is duff.

Are you gonna get some centre caps on yer alloys? Why didn't you just get them resprayed along with the wheels?

Mine is an 03 but it says I'm not affected either, saved me a trip to the dealer ;)

tbh Enda, I don't think yours looks any higher than theirs imo.

As soon as I can afford them (just bought the car this month so I'm skint for now ) :duh: