shanghai_stin

I thought it was behind glovebox, you can put it anywhere in car though...will take it in itself. Be aware though if its one of the aerosol ones, i used one a while ago and made inside sort of damp hence some of switches didnt work until car dried out.

thanks man! I'll leave it around the passenger seat then.

^_^

As titled, I can't find any info around where is the air intake vents when you switch your airflow to internal circulation.

Got a bottle air con cleaner, usually you leave it spray below the front seats. But the Lexus IS has outflow vents under the front seats, now the question, where does the air flow back in the air con system?

Does anyone know?

Thank you,

DD

were are you checking the level of the coolant??theirs two places....the rad and the bottle thats attached to the fan housing...it sounds like you could have an air lock..and yes your thermostat is ok mate

Yes, I checked both places for coolant level.

The little metal insert you are talking about is to help remove airlocks. As long as the thermostat is the right way round, it doesn't matter which way the insert is (as long as it is at the top)

Hmm..., didn't pay attention to the position of the "jiggle value" (found the name of the little metal insert), I'll try rotate it up tomorrow.

Thanks TigerFish.

Hi,

I have a 2000 IS200, the radiator was leaking, so I sent it to a repairer. They couldn't find the leaking point so they put some stop leak liquid into the radiator. Good news is the radiator now stopped leaking. But I noticed the engine tempreature gauge is bearly rising up. I drove about 30 minutes to work in light traffic, the tempreture gauge is only pointing at the second mark line, and the heating is not blowing air as I set fan on auto.

Checked the radiator circulation last night, seems that the water is running. Maybe it's not circulating fast enough due to the usage of stop leak? Anyone know what can be wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

DD

Update: Thermostat is replaced with new one, but the same problem as above still remains. gaining tempreture on stationary but will lose the temp during driving.

I noticed there is a tiny whole with a piece metal insert(loose but not removeable, bigger on one side, smaller on the other side. looks like a one ) on the ring of the thermostat. The new thermostat has the bigger end of that little metal insert on the opposite side of the ring than the old one. does that matter?

Anyone has any idea about what else can be wrong?

Thank you.

I posted this in the general maintainence forum, which had no replies

Thought give it a try here

I was checking the fuse box the other day, and accidently found there was a lose connector hanging beside the fuse box. and I took a look inside, found it fits into a box says "double lock control unit". so i plugged it in. suprise suprise after the weekend, my battery drained to the end (it's a new battery about 3 month old). not even a dash light can turn on. jump started it and then think, all that changed is the double lock control unit. (head light on auto, so couldn't be that).

Anyone knows what does this "double lock control unit" actually do? I can still lock my car without connecting it, and pressing the lock botton twice still disables the motion sensor. And how can a locking control unit drain the battery that bad? (I mean even the headlight was left on overnight, the dash will still light up.)

Thank you.

I would agree that your thermostat appears to be stuck open.

As far as your water leak is concerned, I would check your rad cap, maybe the seal is/has gone and the stop leak has just helped clog that seal up.

HI...

Having had heating/cooling probs in the past I have to tell you this...

If your radiator was slowing the flow of water down significantly you would find your vehicle overheating.

The radiator is to cool the hot water coming from around the engine. So if the radiator is blocked/semi blocked the water would sit around the engine longer and would get hotter and hotter.

As your car is running cool/cold I would look straight to the themo-stat.

The thermo-stat is a metallic valve that operates purely on heat.

The thermo-stat should be in the closed position whilst the engine warms up then when the thermo-stat reaches a preset temperature (hot water from engine) it opens and allows water to circulate through the radiator where it is cooled before entering the engine cooling again.

Thermo stats have no electronic components they are operated by the natural action on metal expanding and contracting with heat and cold.

Sounds to me like your thermo-stat is stuck open thus allowing water to pass through to radiator before it has been warmed via the engine.

Because of the cold weather the temperature will stay lower than usual.

Had the thermo-stat stuck closed you would find your vehicle over-heating because the water cannot pass the thermo-stat into the radiator to cool down.

I hope this helps.

I am leak hunting on my IS myself. Losing coolant but can't find out where.

Ahh~ Stuck open, never thought about that.

Thank you for the explaination which is very educational!

I'll try clean it up and see if I can find a replacement.

Good luck on your own radiator.

just to mention that there is a white plastic tap on the bottom of the radiator, which is pointing at a whole through the protection shield. if water is coming out there, you might not see the leak. hope it helps a little bit.

Thank you very much!

Regards,

DD

I bought the owner manual on a burned CD from eBay a few years ago. it was about 2 or 3 pounds with postage. you might wanna give eBay a try.

I was checking the fuse box the other day, and accidently found there was a lose connector hanging beside the fuse box. and I took a look inside, found it fits into a box says "double lock control unit". so i plugged it in. suprise suprise after the weekend, my Battery drained to the end (it's a new Battery about 3 month old). not even a dash light can turn on. jump started it and then think, all that changed is the double lock control unit. (head light on auto, so couldn't be that).

Anyone knows what does this "double lock control unit" actually do? I can still lock my car without connecting it, and pressing the lock botton twice still disables the motion sensor. And how can a locking control unit drain the Battery that bad? (I mean even the headlight was left on overnight, the dash will still light up.)

Thank you.

I bought this on eBay about 3 years ago when my radio amp fried and I have to get a single DIN fitting radio.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Lexus-200-200-Car-CD-Radio-Fascia-Surround-Panel-/270639220846?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_FasciaPlates_SM&hash=item3f035ac86e

The quality isn't to the highest, but it does the trick and easy enough to install.

Thank you for the reply, i will give this a bash aswell, this really is baffling!!!!

Also try double lock it, or try lock it with motion sensor off. (lock twice for pre 02 models and there is a bit turning key config to do for after 02 models. check your owner book for how to or search "double lock" in the fouums here, I came across one post dated in 2002 about it.)

At least you'll know it's your sensor or lock playing the trick.

I think the heating matrix water might be the same water??

When my radiator top up bottle leaked I heard gargling through the heaters when I assume are was sucked through.

So if my above assumptions are correct the radweld or such could be restricting the pipes to the heating.

I'm sure someone with greater knowledge will either affirm this or give a much better reasoning.

Iv been running my heating on manual whilst the engine is warming as the temp warming up in winter is alot longer so I get it blowing warm before the 'auto' believes its warm enough.

Thank you Davison

I have actually never noticed it's slower to warm up during winter. wonder if there was any problem before for the quick heat up (usually it takes just a couple of minutes, then I get about 3 -4 marks on the temp gauge, which means hot air coming through already)

I would doubt that your rad was leaking if a proper rad repairer couldn't find a leak. Did they test it in situ? If the water was not circulating fast enough it would have the opposite effect. As clifton says, worth checking thermostat.

It was weird, it doesn't leak while it's stationary even I rev the engine up to 4000rpm for as long as a few minutes. But just 5 minutes after I hit the road, there are water all over the bottom protection shield. And the reserved coolant bottle went down very quickly, I was filling about 1 litre water/coolant for every 20 miles I drove. (that's all before getting the radiator filled up with stop leak.)

Then a few days after the stop leak stuff was put into the radiator, the leak stoped. Another 2 days later, the heating stopped working.

As said above how could they not find the leak as they should have pressure tested it to check for leaks.

The stuff they put in could have blocked something but check the stat as above. Also leave the car to stand and see if the temp goes up above the normal level when stationary.

I thought it was the water circulation, actually I cleared the radiator just now, and filled with clean coolant/water mix. It's now heating up at stationary even on idle, but as soon as I'm on road and getting some speed, the temperature gauge actually is dropping down. feel like the circulation is not working at all, but I had coolant cap off and watched it. I can see coolant flow pretty fast.

About the thermostat, I 'm pretty sure that's not the problem, as the radiator is not heating up at all, I can touch it bear hand, it's only a little hotter than warm.

Totally no idea what can be wrong now. I might just bring it back the repairer tomorrow.

Thank you guys for the help.

Regards,

DD

Hi,

I have a 2000 IS200, the radiator was leaking, so I sent it to a repairer. They couldn't find the leaking point so they put some stop leak liquid into the radiator. Good news is the radiator now stopped leaking. But I noticed the engine tempreature gauge is bearly rising up. I drove about 30 minutes to work in light traffic, the tempreture gauge is only pointing at the second mark line, and the heating is not blowing air as I set fan on auto.

Checked the radiator circulation last night, seems that the water is running. Maybe it's not circulating fast enough due to the usage of stop leak? Anyone know what can be wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

DD

Update: Thermostat is replaced with new one, but the same problem as above still remains. gaining tempreture on stationary but will lose the temp during driving.

I noticed there is a tiny whole with a piece metal insert(loose but not removeable, bigger on one side, smaller on the other side. looks like a one ) on the ring of the thermostat. The new thermostat has the bigger end of that little metal insert on the opposite side of the ring than the old one. does that matter?

Anyone has any idea about what else can be wrong?

Thank you.

Thanks guys

Will get them all done then.

I went to the dealer did my 70K miles services, and asked them to check if the timing belt needs to be replaced, They replied to me the timing belt don't need to be replaced before 100K miles. WOW~! I know most cars need to replace the timing belt around 60K miles.

Anyone have a suggustion? should I just replace it anyway or trust the quality of Lexus and do it at 100K?

Thanks,

DD

No mate, the yellow light is for the rear lights (that you turn on when its dark) The handbrake light comes on when you have a brake light out. Check the high brake light thats normally the problem.

Stav

Thank you guys,

That is the problem. Sorted out

seconded, maybe hi level brake light ?

I'll check it. thx

you have a brake bulb out mate

I don't think so,

the brake bulb out use a separate warning light, which is a car with back light (yellow one) I've seen this before when the bulbs are out.

plus, I only fitted new bulbs last week, can't be a out bulb again.

Thanks anyway.

Hi,

A few days ago, my hand brake light in the dash came up even I have the handbrake down. during driving, there is no warning tone as if I have the handbrake up, the warning tone will sound.

I have checked brake fluid, and replaced the brake pads.

Anyone have an idea about this? all it says in the manual is if the light came up, I should contact dealer immediately and not drive the car.

But I see no problem with the braking system. so is it ok to drive it still?

Thank you,

Regards,

DD

Cheers guys!

Hi, I just replaced the CD Unit for my IS200 with a sony cd player. after fitting the new cd player, every time I turn the ignition off, about 5 seconds later, there are 3 clicks sounds like dida dida dida come out from the back of the dash board, sounds like a warning,

Any one know what is the sound for?

Did I do anything wrong with the wiring?

I couldn't get any infomation about what is this sound mean.

Thank you!