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mike82

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Everything posted by mike82

  1. A friend told me what Lexus stands for: Luxury EXports to the United States Sounds plausable. Anyone else heard of this?
  2. Has anyone put an aftermarket leather gear surround on an IS200? If so, what make was it?
  3. Apparently only a third of our road tax actually goes towards road maintenence. It's true that our troops are suffering the lack of money put into the kit they use, if it's not boots that melt in the desert heat, it's helicopters that cant fly at night. The armed forces are still using archaic equipment, namely their radio kit which was designed and constructed in the 1950/60's. New, modern radios are in production but is having difficulties being integrated into tanks, Land Rovers etc. I feel that our policians still have an "old boy" mentality, thinking along the lines that were trodden many decades ago, when we DID have the best transport facilites in Europe for example, but now we have been overtaken massively by the likes of France and Germany in that area. The French have the right idea when it comes to their own affairs, in which they deal with internal issues (unemployment, immigrants, homelessness) before they think of things going on around the world. (Although they have had their fair share of problems in the recent years) England needs to sort out our own problems within our country, before we galavant off to cruddy corners of the world in the name of "Peace keeping"
  4. Here we go: 2002 - MK 1 Nissan Micra 2003 - Vauxhall Nova 2004 - MK 1 Ford Mondeo 2005 - Peugeot 205 2006 - Lexus IS200 Quite a variety in such a short time!
  5. Not surprising considering only women in the middle east have to take driving tests, men just get a car and off they go! Its when they are coming at you on you're side of the carrageway that things get really scary!
  6. Nice one fellas, ill be going for a rummage round the engine bay soon i think!
  7. Im looking to run cables from the battery to the interior, for switches, amp etc. Does anyone know of easy places to feed the cables through? I dont really want to have to drill any holes.
  8. When I bought my IS it had a hands free kit installed too. Although the cars are different, Im sure theres a common ground on stereo removal. To do mine, I had to remove the vents from above the set, and a switch panel from below. This revealed 4 screws which held the stereo cradle in. Whether this can be applied to you're car, I dont know, but it cant harm to have a look see. On another note, I just cut the wires on my handsfree kit and stashed them away inside the centre console, and there have been no issues with it.
  9. Heh, I guess it's just one of those things! Thanks for the info. I just got to keep on top of those cleaning chores!
  10. This may be a bit of a silly question, but here goes. Ive owned my IS200 since Feb, and only this past week or so, my front wheels are absolutly caked in brake dust, to the point where its splattered across the doors, like if I had driven though muddy puddles. I had cleaned the front wheels and calipers a month or so ago, and they stayed fairly clean until now. Im wondering if this is a sign that I need to change the brake pads? It might be a stupid question to ask, but Ive never come across such dirt buildup on wheels so quickly before, so I thought i'd put the question out to the masses....
  11. The quick and cheap way of solving this problem is to use a device which plugs into the headphone jack on the MP3 player, and transmits on usually 4 FM frequencies. You tune your 're radio into whichever frequency has the better quality reception. http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage...oduct_Id=263200 This is an example of the kind of thing that does the job. This one plugs into the cigarette lighter, but I own and prefer the battery powered versions. The only drawback to this piece of kit is the sound quality is not quite as good as a CD is.
  12. How much BHP gain can I expect from Turbo conversion, and a Supercharger conversion?
  13. Jesus, dont kids have any brains?? That girl has gotta be hurt bad after that one!
  14. Yes, but think of it comparitvley. I spent about roughly £450 to get the Induction kit and Kazama muffler from Prolex, and got about +18bhp tops. (using ad77's figures) Thats a lot of money for very little gain. Superchargers and Turbos give huge increases, but you're looking at £2,500 - £5,500 for either of those. I never said those small upgrades didnt work, they do, and every little helps, I was merely pointing out that if you want big power, you need to shell out big money. (as we are all aware of anyway) I have those mods on my motor, and did notice a difference in performance once they were fitted.
  15. It's called knowledge. Read some books, do a bit of work. It all adds up.
  16. There is truth in whats being said. Concerning the Induction/Exhaust systems, manufacturers design them with noise, or lack of, in mind. The restrictive filters reduce the noise slightly, as do the induction hosing. It isnt ribbed for the cars pleasure, its ribbed to create baffles in the air flow, which slows it down, and decreases noise. The more twists and turns there are in the hosing, the more it slows air intake and quietens the engine. The same applies to the exhaust system. We all put a new back box on to give the car a roar, but the average punter does not want this rasping grunt audable in the cabin, he wants a quiet, smooth ride. Fat silencers are applied to the exhaust to muffle the roar, and more bends in the piping reduce expulsion rates, and very marginally reduce performance. The size of you're engine decides how much noise a new backbox gives anyhow. Sticking a cherry bomb on my 1.3 205 created a horrendous racket, but fitting it to my old 1.8 Mondeo, hardly made a difference. The bigger the engine, the less time the fumes spend in the exhaust system, so less noise is created. Conversly, the smaller the engine, the more time the fumes spend in the piping, the more noise it makes. But to cap it all, the age old saying is: " You get what you pay for " You want power? Superchargers or Turbos are the key. Backboxes and Induction kits will complement one of those upgrades, but will do little on their own.
  17. What i did with my rear speakers was to disconnect them and put a passive sub in the boot. It didnt need a power supply, so all i did was put the leads from one of the speakers into the sub. Job done, and with excellent sound quality. I kept the original front speakers, and im not using an amp, so i doubt im getting the full 1000W from my sub, but im happy! If you dont want a sub though, im sure it would be a case of just replacing the old rears with the new ones. From my brief look at them, they appear to be 6x9's anyway, so should be a straight swap. If you're new ones are too big, it would probably be a case of cutting the metal rear shelf, something I wouldnt be very happy doing!
  18. Thanks Mr Singh, ill give Chris a buzz. Shouldnt have a prob fitting it as i have the instructions printed off, the hardest part will be getting the kit i think! As for the garage quote, it IS just crazy money! dont know why they thought they needed to replace the centre console, all you do is fit the arm rest into the rear cubby hole. I dont know what planet they live on!
  19. Im pretty sure something has already been mentioned about this, but Ill ask anyway. Where can I get an arm rest from, and for how much? I asked at my local dealer and he claimed it would involve replacing the whole centre console, and cost £1500, which I know for a fact is absolute rubbish as ive seen the fitting instucitions on this site. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
  20. Mines just the bog-standard S model. I had the one pink lead left over when i did my install, but leaving it disconnected had no adverse effects
  21. Its a really easy thing to do to fit a new head unit. If you are going down the ' fit a brand-new H/U ' way, then you can buy a facia adapter from Halfords for about £13. You'll need to get the part number off the AutoLead's website, then take it to Halfords and get them to order it (assuming they dont already have it in stock of course) Once you have that and the new H/U, follow the instructions for removal of the old one which is found somewhere in this forum. You'll also need an ISO adapter, again can be bought/ordered from Halfords. The most expensive item you'll get is the new H/U, but how much you spend there is entirely up to you. You can get the adapter/ISO for less than £30, so the rest is available for a head unit! (Halford's website may also have the part number for the facia adapter)
  22. It turns out that despite the top cover cleaning, and the AA man's assumption that it was an immobiliser fault, it was the ignition coil that was the issue. New one fitted, problem solved!
  23. After washing the engine cover with water and degreaser from a spray bottle, I noticed upon starting the engine about 40 mins later that it didnt quite sound normal. Id driven about 2 miles when the engine cut out, and would not restart. It turns over, runs for about two seconds then dies. After drying out all the components (spark plug area) and leaving them overnight, the problem still persisted. The AA was called out and after many tests he could only explain it as being a fault with the immobiliser somewhere. Has anyone else suffered a similar problem? Id rather seek a solution myself before I put it in the garage for repair and get my wallet sucked dry!! Having tried two ideas from the forum, ( leaving key in ACC position for six mins, and disconnecting the negative terminal ) all im left with is a rapid clicking noise when the ignition is turned. I presume the battery is now dead after multiple startups, as before the terminal was disconnected the volt meter would go to zero and the electrics would die until it was turned off.
  24. Cheers fellas! Looks like Ive got a bit of saving to do!
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