kallabungo

Does anybody know why i can't remove this crankshaft cover? It has some play up the sump end so i can tell the seal has been broke but the rest towards the gearbox end feels well and truly secured still...

Just to add... You will need a T55 torx, not a T50, and guess at which point i realised this...? I couldnt get enough surface area on the piston to tap it out with a screw driver or similar. However, a pair of waterpump pliers gripped around the very end of the piston twisting and pulling removed them quite easily. Also, to try and fit the weather seals into their channel after putting the piston in proved somewhat difficult. There was barely any room to squeeze the rubber seal in without damaging it. So i opted to install the seal and its retaining ring into the channel first then stretched the seal over the piston and pushed it home. Easy enough...

My original shocks were destroyed - i had brake wobble and the car was an asbolute mess to drive. Fitted BC coilovers last year - have knocking over all the usual bumps in the road. ARB links were changed at the same time as coilovers too. I've personally convinved myself its the pillow ball top mounts of the coilovers but im not exactly trained into the noise these pillow balls are said to produce?

Well i thought to myself as i was driving about that i had an awful amount of drag on the car. Upon further inspection i have noticed that on each front caliper one of the sliders is completely jammed - and they are the opposite ones to each other. Pistons look pretty corroded and will not push back. I attempted to clean them up with a little sanding and a light application of lubricant but it made no difference at all. What steps shall i take now? I have seen the kits for sale on ebay £333.33 for 2 front drilled and vented discs mintex, 2 pairs front pads mintex, new calipers left and right. Im thinking a garage would probably push towards getting new brakes rather than refurbing them? I need the cheapest solution but i dont really want to buy second hand calipers from ebay because they will probably be close to useless with the history of is200 calipers...! I'm pretty competent with most mechanical things on cars so i would tackle it myself if need be - what's best for bleeding the brakes etc? Clamp the hose off a few inches above the caliper before removal? Your advice is appreciated, stu.

Im now about to head off to the parents for a roastie so i'll look at swapping the wheels over when i get back...

I've taken some pics of the front, sorry on the poor quality, it's hard to see anything from this... I measured the distance from the brake disc to the face of the wheel and both front sides are an equal distance - which would suggest to me that the offsets are correct?

I have had fitted for a few months now the BC coilovers with OZ Ultraleggera 18's ET35 with 225/40/18 tyres. Now the only side that is causing me any issues is the front drivers side, it always rubs and stuff so today i've had a look into it and have found that the whole wheel/assembly is poking right out of the arch. As suggested by another member the ride height at the front is 63.5cm and doesnt cause any problems at all on the left. Yes the two tyres on the front are different, Yoko Prada on passenger and Michellin pilot sport on drivers but i've calliper measured the height and walls and they are nowhere near as far apart as the picture demonstrates. This is a pic of the car jacked up on drivers side Now the passenger side, jacked up Car sitting flat on drivers side Flat on passenger It doesnt take a genius to work out that there's something not quite right here, but what does require genious-like abilities is fixing it... What do i do...?

I've been given a pair of prada spec 2's and a pair of proxes in 225-40-18 all with good tread. I was just wondering which would be the grippiest with the current east of england weather conditions...? I intend to have the grippiest on the front, i hate understeer! Thank you :)

After i used to intake cleaner to get rid of residue on the throttle body i started the car only to find an engine check light had illuminated. I tried a few little things then as a last resort disconnected the battery, left it a couple of mins, reconnected and voila! fixed itself... Give it a try, it could save you the cost of the diagnostics report. The original stereo's come up for sale all the time http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/lexus-is-200-stereo_...=item2556dc72a9 I have one spare but unfortunately couldnt part with it incase i sell the car, i may have to put it back :D

I always blip the throttle just a little bit above 1000rpm before starting to lift the clutch and accelerate. I've found this to be very effective at staying away from the clutch judder but sometimes i still get it wrong...

Cheers Aaron. I have measured mine and the front is 63cm but the back is 59.5 :) I dont think im going to need to go as high as 66 if i cut the arches - that lip on them sticks in quite far and with 225 tyres on there now its only a few mm away. Angle grinder will be out this weekend and i'll post my results...

I was just wondering if anybody had the measurements for how much should be considered a sensible and usable drop using BC coilovers and 18" wheels with 40 profile tyres? (im thinking its a long shot but i'll at least try) Cheers.

Well thats how it was, at first... but i have raised the front to pretty much the same as what the back looks like. The back i havent had a single issue with and the guestimation on height first time round seemed to be spot on. I have raised the front twice now and used the damper settings to stiffen things up a bit and it still does it. It's not all the time, but only when i go over a lump in the road or pothole or bank it into a corner really hard. Using BC Coilovers and cusco ARB's at the moment, i love the comfort and can feel how well the dampers work compared to the original shocks - perhaps i need to play with the spring rate so i dont have to max the damper out? I'll probably try and avoid cutting holes out then...

You see, i did think about that - being at the strut towers where the hole would need to be cut - but would a strut brace then not counteract the hole making? Or am i being slightly stupid?

Well, i know its down to how low the car is but the front upper wishbones are hitting right at the top inside the wheel arches. Other than the obvious of raising the car (for the 3rd time...) is there anything i can do? Im quite tempted to cut holes out in the strut mount area where it is hitting but im not sure if that will then allow the balljoint attached to the wishbone to then go up so far that it would hit the bonnet from the inside? I dont think the car is all that low, i dont seem to be having any troubles grinding the bottom of the car out, and the ride comfort and handling is spot on... Upgradable wishbones at all? perhaps rubber bump stops...? Cheers.

How many miles has the car done? If its around 90k upwards i'd be suggesting top mounts on the rear shocks...

Yeah the front wheels do have a hell of a camber to them - in person standing next to the car it does look real evil though :) I kept catching them under bumper protector thingies on the ground but i removed them and everything seems to be ok - if im taking a corner at real high speeds though it seems to send the wheels into the arches and bumps into them... not good! But i shall be raising the front a little on the weekend - the back i think is at a perfect height though. Luckily none of my routes involve speed bumps but i did tackle the ones through town centre the other day and not a single scrape... (15mph though)

Ooooo, perhaps the diff is stronger than i thought...? I shall give it some more abuse at once!

Dont want to state the obvious but its not the battery is it ? When i got my lex it was absolutely nackered...

Well my coilovers arrived thanks to the sale from Hodaz, so on the mates driveway off with the old and on with the new. Firstly the BC coilovers have the ability to drop the car WAAAAAY below anything that is driveable. The normal adjustments on the bottom of the shock will drop it too low as it is then if you want to get technical you can play with the spring rates on the rest of the shock and then have about another 100mm worth of drop! Damping rates couldnt be easier to adjust with a twist knob on top of each shock. Well... what a difference they have made to the car - i was expecting obviously the looks and handling improvements but i didnt expect the other things that came with it. When i used to start my car i used to get a little clunk as the engine kicked over, nothing major but i thought a mount or something was loose along the lines, i noticed this disappeared after changing the coilovers. Gear changing between 1st 2nd 3rd at nice low speeds has become SIGNIFICANTLY easier and smoother, oh i cant even begin to describe how much nicer it is - so precise and smooth with no lunge from the car because of the old saggy suspension. And...! I used to have the infamous 'judder under braking' problem that many people have described - completely gone! So, all round - an absolute bonus for me, really happy with the handling and looks and super happy about the other problems it seems to have remedied :) Previous shocks had reached 95k miles. I think in all honesty i need to raise the front a few mm, it seems to be all settling in now...

Ok perhaps im going to have to change my posting due to recent hardware releases :) AMD 'used' to always be top of the market with processing speeds and reliability etc but it seems recently intel have actually taken back over the market again - how they've managed to do this after so many years of slugging behind im not entirely sure but its been a while since i was a web designer and as such i dont really keep up to date with things that well anymore, you have my apologies... SWFCDAN - all you need to do is find a laptop within your budget that fits your specification requirements, remember, they all have warranty - most with the option of extendable and as i previously said all the components inside them are the same. So judge the book by its cover, pick a nice looking one, cheap and try and head for warranty on it (accidental cover is brilliant) Edit* that toshiba one you've put the link up to is really good for the price...

I cant see anything about the diff on there...? Surely he's not putting 300 horses through the standard open diff?

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_55...074/version.asp Direct from acer - now some people may say acer laptops arent that good, but! i used to sell these when i worked at bennetts electrical and EVERY single time that a laptop was returned as "faulty" it was because the numpties that bought them had no clue about software and caused problems gallore. The components inside them are all the same, just put together by a different company... The components are as reliable in a cheap £200 laptop as they are in a £1000 laptop, if the person using it doesnt go crazy with software and clicking random things they dont take the time to understand... So the above, is about £400 as you asked and a very high specification for that price, dual core 2.1ghz AMD processor (better than intel) 3gb ram, 500gb hdd graphics unfortunately are shared but with the processing capabilities and amount of ram im sure you'll never have a problem. I've got an Acer, had it for 4 years now and never had a problem and its half the spec of the one above...

I asked this ebay member to confirm to me via the 'A' and 'B' options on the axle that it was infact a LSD because as Stav kindly pointed out to me, not all sports were fitted with the LSD. He was sure that it was a LSD coming from the sport, after i explained that he needed to confirm to me the axle readings on the plate he never replied...

I did mine all front and rears the other day as the cusco anti roll bars have helped anhilate the previous ones. You're right, it does make a massive difference and mine werent even knocking. I would seriously recommend having the other side done as well though - the other side would of had just as much wear unless it has been very recently changed...?