KevLex

Simon, I don't know if my reply is too late. My radiator has just gone too and I've been looking into what is needed. If you have an auto there is an A/T fluid cooler built into the bottom of the rad. If you buy an auto version of the rad you can leave the two A/T connections unconnected. There also appears to be two different part numbers for the radiator depending upon the thickness of the core. A replacement rad seems to be about £90 (£280 at the main stealer). 16400 RADIATOR ASSY 16400 70620 1GFE..GXE10..ATM; CORE THICKNESS=16mm 16400 70640 1GFE..GXE10..ATM; CORE THICKNESS=27mm I cannot see any new seals that are required other than the foam gasket around the edge of the rad. You may need some replacement M6x20 bolts if yours shear off when separating the fan assembly. You will need to plug the A/T fluid pipes to stop oil from leaking out. Kevin

All my driving is around town in traffic and to be honest I am very disappointed with the economy. No matter how carefully I drive it I get about 19mpg :-( I was looking for an Audi A4 TDi Auto Avant but couldn't find one so I bought the Lexus instead. I also find the driver's seat very uncomfortable but I suspect that this is unique to mine. From what you have said I think that you would find the fuel economy and main dealer servicing costs prohibitive. Why not look for an A4 TDi or Passat TDi? £4k would buy you a reasonable one and you will get a good torquey engine that isn't too thirsty.

It sounds as though it could be that the engine control unit is not sensing the additional load when pulling away so that either the ignition is not being advanced or the injected fuel quantity is not being increased. Or it could be the electronic throttle control simply not opening the throttle when you press the accelerator pedal. I would start by connecting a fault code reader just to see if there are any stored faults. Failing that you will need some diagnostic equipment and see what is going on. In the absence of such equipment you could make a careful visual inspection around the engine bay.

The connector is located under the lower edge of the dash on the drivers side. If you put your head down in the foot well you will see it just above the accelerator pedal. It may have a white plastic cover over it. Pull it off carefully as it is captive and you don't want to break the lanyard. It might be labelled DIAG on the cover.

Find a local garage or someone with a code reader and see if there are any fault codes. See the thread on OBD readers, you could always buy your own. It is likely to be difficult to diagnose without any diagnostic equipment.

Having looked at the Lexus workshop manual at windscreen replacement it looks like quite an involved process compared to other cars I've had. Some of the interior trim needs to be removed and the bonding area on the car needs to be 'prepared' in quite a prescribed manor. The manual then goes on to talk about the correct sealant bead diameter and how some of it needs to be shaped. I think that there are 2 piece of trim which cannot be reused and these have to be replaced. Do the like of Autoglass supply these or do they just salvage the ones they removed? I think that if I were going to have mine done I would prefer to have it done at their depot where they can spend a bit more time getting it right. I have heard of quite a few IS200 windscreen replacements leading to leaks and electrical faults, you definitely don't want that. Does anyone know whether an insurance company is likely to allow the Lexus dealer to replace the screen and it be covered under the policy?

I too would be interested in the outcome of this one. Mine smells very 'rich' on a cold start and I too suffer very poor economy around town. I thought that the engine warning light would only come on if there was an 'emissions' related problem, which this sounds like. The mixture will be enriched during the warm-up phase by injecting additional quantities of fuel. This will be controlled by the coolant temperature sensor. After the warm-up phase I imagine that it switches to closed loop control using the lambda sensor to maintain a stoichiometric ratio. On an older car it would have been possible to just measure the CO content at the exhaust. This is not possible with a catalyst. Some cars have a sample point up-stream of the cat to allow CO measurements to be made. I'm not sure whether the IS200 has one. Let us know what you find out.

I would add the following checks: 1. Water leaks in the boot under the jack and on the opposite side. These can be fixed easily but until then you will have to live with the car misting up easily. 2. That the car definitely comes with a MASTER ignition key. I believe that these all have 3 buttons on them and it should be able to lock the glove box. Without this key you cannot have new keys cut easily and cheaply. Ideally you want one master key and one valet key. 3. Make sure that you are prepared for the poor fuel economy. I get 20mpg around town and 30mpg on a run and that is driving it sensibly! 4. Make sure that Mr Creosote (Monty Python) wasn't a previous owner and that the driver's seat is comfortable. If it feels odd or uncomfortable on a test drive then it will be very uncomfortable to own. 5. If you plan to have it serviced at the main dealer be prepared for very high servicing costs. The last service on mine was a minor one and cost over £300, the previous one was a major one (cam belt, etc) and there was not much change from £1500. That said, I bought a W reg SE and it is taught and in good order even at 90k miles. If nothing goes wrong with it I'll be happy with it. Happy hunting!

From what I can tell looking at the manual the warm air is controlled by the air conditioning controller. There is a troubleshooting section that lists the following under 'no warm air comes out'. 1. Engine coolant volume 2. Air mix servo motor 3. Ambient temperature sensor 4. Room temperature sensor 5. A/C control assembly 6. Heater radiator You need to determine if hot water is getting to the heater matrix before you go any further. If as has been mentioned you have an air lock then the matrix may be cold. If there is no control valve in the water pipe to the matrix then it should always be hot. You probably need to trace the pipes and feel if they get hot. If the matrix is hot then it may well be that the air is not being allowed to flow over it. This is controlled by the air mix servo motor. It could be the motor, the controller or the sensors. You will need a wiring diagram and make some voltage measurements. The two sensors involved can be tested by measuring their resistance. The ambient sensor is mounted behind the front bumper and should measure about 1500 ohms at 25 deg C but will be higher at lower temps. The room sensor is mounted behind the 'lower finish panel'. It is not obvious from the diagram where it is located. I suspect that it may be just above the driver's or passenger's foot well. This has the same resistance values as the other sensor.

'W' 2000 91K

The battery charge indicator is a mini hydrometer mounted in one of the battery's cells. There are 6 cells in a 12V lead acid battery so it is only able to report the condition of one of the cells. When the battery is in reasonable condition the hydrometer will give a good indication of the state of charge of the battery. The problem comes when the battery ages and the cells begin to perform differently. It it not uncommon for one or more cells to no longer hold their charge when the battery is more than 3 or 4 years old. The first time you will notice a problem is when the car is not driven for slightly longer than usual and the ambient temperature is low. The only way to accurately diagnose the problem is to measure the specific gravity of each cell with an external hydrometer or charge the battery up and then perform a load test. Normally if the battery has been working well and then all of a sudden there is a problem, if you make a quick check of the charging voltage with the engine running and check that there are no excessive loads on the battery when the engine is off and the doors are closed then it is likely that the battery is in need of replacement. My original Lexus battery lasted 7 years which was quite impressive. A replacement 65Ah battery from Lexus Plymouth was about £55.

Looking at the schematic for the economy gauge it would appear that it takes signals from the engine management, the ABS controller and the speedo sender. There is some control electronics inside the dash unit which evaluates the fuel injected quantity information (from the engine management ECU) and the distance information (from the speedo sender) and produces an instantaneous fuel consumption indication. This system will take into account engine modifications as it measures the amount of fuel being injected into the engine. The distance travelled information will only be accurate if the rolling circumference of the tyres is correct, i.e. correct inflation, wheel size etc. I always find instantaneous economy indicators quite useless and distracting, particularly on a vehicle that is not noted for its frugal performance! Occasional calculation of trip economy from tank-to-tank fill up is a useful indicator that all is well with the car.

Looking closely at my rear speakers I see that there is a single pair of wires connecting to a small terminal strip mounted on the speaker (visible from the boot). The label on the magnet on the back of the speaker seems to suggest that there are 2 drive units inside the speaker as it quotes 2 different impedances and power ratings for the 2 units. This is quite common and the crossover can sometimes take the form of a simple capacitor connecting the incoming wires to the high frequency unit. The low frequency unit is connected directly to the incoming wires from the amp as no filtering is required. It sounds like my installation (2000 model year - original factory) is different to yours. Without seeing your set-up I probably can't help any further.

The rear speakers in mine have no separate high frequency units. They don't sound very good by themselves but from the front with the other speakers the sound isn't too bad.

Sounds about right from the main dealer looking at my car's past invoices. Can say that I would ever bring myself to pay that much by going to the main dealer though. My car's last major service cost more than my previous car was worth!

As far as I can tell looking at the IS200 wiring diagram there is no rear crossover mounted separately. The rear speakers are driven directly from the front mounted power amplifier via some connectors (IB2). I cannot see where these are located. I take it you have tried the obvious, like adjusting the fader so that the signal is sent to the rear? If you have tried that then unless the connector has been disconnected in the loom then I would suspect a fault in the power amp or the head unit. You'll need some test equipment to track the fault down any further. Unless you can find someone to do it cheaply you would probably be better off buying a replacement head/amp from eBay, swapping it with yours and sell any working bits that you didn't need.

Martin, I wouldn't worry about the 93mA standby current on your car. I measured the 50mA on my own unmodified IS200. There is likely to be car to car variation as well as model year to model year differences. 93mA being drawn from a 60Ah battery still equates to about 1 month. Your other readings look reasonable (within 5% of tolerance). If you have any further problems then I would get a hydrometer and test the gravity of the battery electrolyte.

Just filled half a tank after a mix of reasonable A roads and motorway and it returned 31 mpg. Not as good as I'd hoped but better than the 20 mpg I get around town :-(

Modern alternators can output their regulated supply down at quite low engine speeds. Certainly at a fast idle of about 1000rpm you should be getting about 13-14V depending upon where you measure it. Alternator regulators are normally set for either 13.8V or 14V on a 12V system. This will be the voltage that the alternator tries to regulate to at its output. The higher the current being drawn from the alternator and the further away from the alternator that you measure (on the high current path) the lower the voltage that you will measure. Quiescent standby current should be quite low. If all electrical loads are turned off you will be left with the alarm, central locking and various other controllers. The total load on an IS200 is about 0.5W, this equates to about 50mA. If you lift the earth terminal off the battery and insert an ammeter this is what you should measure. Make sure that the doors and boot are closed and that you don't activate the central locking or any other load or it will take out the low current fuse in your ammeter ;-) As for the standard running current it will depend on what is active at the time you measure. The ignition system will take about 60W and the fuel injection another 40W. That equates to about 7A but I would not be surprised to see even higher current than this. Be very careful if you plan to measure this using an ammeter in series with the supply. If the battery becomes disconnected from the the charging circuit whilst the engine is running damage may result to the various electronic modules still connected to the supply. This is because the battery will no longer be in circuit to smooth the AC waveform coming from the alternator. So in summary to your original questions: 1. 13.5V +/-0.5V 2. 50mA 3. Hard to say, of the order of 10A but I would not test this. The best way to test your battery is to check the specific gravity of the cells with a hydrometer (from a car accessory shop). The original Toyota/Lexus battery had a built in hydrometer but it only gave an indication from one cell. It is not uncommon for one cell to fail and you will see this when you measure the gravity. Alternatively if you load the battery after it has been sat overnight by turning the headlights on, it should still measure about 12V across the terminals. Each cell is 2V nominal, so if you are only getting 10V then this may indicate that a single cell has failed.

I have only had my IS200 Auto long enough to fill the tank twice. Here's what I've found so far: 1. When the fuel gauge reads empty there is about 5 litres remaining. 2. Driving in rush hour traffic from my house to my son's school and on to work results in about 20 mpg. I think that my Dad's BMW 320 Auto which also has a 2 litre 6 cylinder engine returns about the same. I knew that the economy was not going to be great when I bought the car. I was hoping it would be a little better than it has been. I am working on the theory that the reliability will compensate for the fuel consumption. i.e. a couple of garage repair bills would more than eat up any fuel saving on a more fuel efficient vehicle. I only do about 6000 miles a year so hopefully my theory will be OK. If I was doing higher mileage I would have gone for one of the VW/Audi TDi models and would have hoped for 40+ mpg.

This is what the What Car? valuation has to say: Lexus IS Saloon (99-05) 200 2.0 SE 4dr 2002 (52)80,000 miles Dealer £7,695 Private £6,545 Part exchange £6,295 Trade £5,945 Cost new £20,050 There are local variations on this. For example the prices in the Westcountry are higher than average, London prices seem about average and Northern prices are below average. I guess you want to sell in Cornwall and buy in the Highlands ;-)

What year is it and in what part of the country will you be selling it?

I found a few reasonable ones at dealers when I bought mine last month. All of them had full Lexus service history. Some of them were asking too much even for a dealer. The main dealer had a few to choose from but there prices were even more ridiculous. In the end I choose one from a dealer who had priced it right and offered me a more than generous trade in on my old car. Even though it had full Lexus service history I was realistic about what to expect from a 7 year old car. On the whole it is OK. Apart from the various boot leaks and the knackered battery it is far better than any other 7 year old, 90k miler that I have ever owned. If you look closely in places you can see where it has been painted. The colour match is good but you can always tell by looking at the edges. The paint looks like scratch repair rather than accident repair so I was OK with that. I dare say that there are immaculate ones around but I found that they were either too expensive or too far away. Good luck, I'm sure you'll find something.

I bought one of these which was already colour coded to match the car colour: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Parking-Reversing-Se...1QQcmdZViewItem At just over £20 including the drill bit to make the holes accurately I though it was a bargain. All of the wiring is done in the boot so it is quick and simple to do. If you are careful you can do it without removing the bumper and the wiring can be fed through the same grommets as the rear light clusters (just undo the tape, feed the new cables and then re-tape the grommet.

I have discovered that water in the side wells of the boot can be down to several things: 1. sunroof drain pipes not fitted to rubber outlet fittings inside boot. 2. the plastic moulded vents fitted either side behind the side boot liners. 3. the rear bumper side mounting clips not sealed with the body work. 4. a split in the seam sealant where 2 panels join under the rear light cluster behind the bumper. I have fixed no. 2 with some sealant around the outside of the vent moulding (requires bumper to be removed). No. 3 I fixed with some sealant inside the boot but I suspect there is a missing sealing washer on the outside. No. 4 I fixed with some seam sealant which I over-painted and lacquered. I think at last I may have a dry boot! No more chronic misting up in cold weather.