andyk134

As far as i am aware yes, i had mine changed and it definitley helps.

Welcome and a great choice of car. There are still some very good ones out there with reasonable mileage. Check the history and the cambelt change as the 2 main things but look after it and it will look after you. Have fun.

Completely agree, I love mine, I have had it 6 years already and never kept a car that long before. Mine still gets the looks despite being over 11 years old now. If you look after them properly they will look after you. OK so I have spend a fair bit on the enhancements, but the base is still there and the looks. Although I do feel the standard car sits too high, if you lower it so the wheels fill the arches, it looks so much better, but that's just me I know it doesn't suit everyone.

mine isn't loud either, it just gives a nice burble, I went for a powerflow back box that sounds nice but not loud. of course when the turbo cuts in it gets loud and the air filter noise takes over.... but in normal driving it just sounds a bit deeper but not much louder. Like everything depends how you get the work done.

you can push too much air through it, so a massive air intake could make it worse. the standard set up is good as it takes cold air from under the front of the bonnet, but change the panel is always good. As for the exhaust, it is an "air gap" type so a pipe within a pipe so there is a restriction there. I have no idea on bhp gains, but I do know that just changing the back box gave a noticeable quicker pick up on mine, no not massive but it was definitely there and well worth the £250 I paid. and the same with the cat if you don't mind the engine management light on. Mine is turboed now so a very different animal but you can get a slight gain by doing intake/exhaust. But beyond that it is forced induction to get anything meaningful which sure is fun!

Hi and welcome to the club, I wouldn't swap my 200 and have had it over 6 years now. It looks a nice tidy car, are you planning to do anything to it?

I guess I go the other way. I would love an ISF that looks like a 250 and no one knows what it is until you are waving goodbye in your rear view mirror. When I put the turbo on my 200 I tried to keep it looking as standard as possible and chose the closest larger wheels to standard, but the intercooler is a bit of a giveaway,....... but to those who don't know about cars they just think its granddad in his Lexus until he is past them heading into the distance lol!

I run an IS200 so a different sort of car, for me when i went to Shell Optimax as it was then, after about 100 miles or so there was definitely a better pick up in acceleration, with no other changes made to the car, so like everything try and it and see what you think in your own mind. As for cost, that's just subjective, some are happy to pay £10 for a packet of fags or £50 on a drunken night out or £500 a year on take away coffees but not happy to spend a few extra £s on fill up to potentially protect their engine or have a more responsive engine, so each to their own. Mine is now turbocharged so I will always continue to use V power and those conducting tests usually have a vested interest one way or another so I always make my own mind up.

thanks for the link. anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Well they are designed to take 156 BHP, I would imagine most gearboxes would struggle to take double the power they were designed for. Like most things in life it depends how you treat it, if you drive flat out like a boy racer all the time even the standard power would knacker the box in any car, treat it with a bit of respect and look after it and a Lexus will go on and on and be way more reliable than most. Also the 200 box doesn't fit the other engines anyway so you would have to go with the one it was built with.

How do you "delete" it and what effect does that have?

As far as I am aware yes as I have just had it done on my SE.

I would imagine not as taking all that power through a manual box would need a very strong one/

I had 15mm and 20 mm on mine and did have the geometry reset and it did make a difference in handling. Bends and roundabouts I took regularly felt much more stable and it also makes it look so much nicer filling the arches the way they should have been. I have 8 1/2 by 18 inch wheels now so don't use the spacers, so if anyone wants them message me.

I went to Eibach's when I first bought mine with a 35mm drop, but the back end was still sticking up in the air and I am not a fan of the nose down stance. I had that for 4 years with no issues on shocks or bump stops, but mine is fairly low mileage. I now have Meister R coilovers which are softer that the BC's and the Japanese ones and no idea how much it is lowered but it looks and feels great to me. Ok I also have Eibach roll bars and a full set of superpro bushes and a front strut brace but I love the way it feels and drives now, it inspires so much confidence and quickens up the steering to make it more direct.

I would imagine if you lowered it 50mm on standard shocks and did nothing else the standard shocks would start to struggle especially if the car has done a few miles. you could buy a new set of shocks to stiffen it up but then you might just as well buy coilovers for a similar price and can set the height and ride how you like it, a far better solution.

If it doesnt fit at the rear you can have the lip cut away which gives you extra space and is very cheap to do. I know we are all different which is a good thing but to me the car doesnt look right. the front is ok but there is still that gap at the rear which i have never been a fan of. try putting a couple of breeze blocks in the boot and stand back and have a look and you will find it sits flatter and the gaps are the same front and rear. To me the standard car looks very odd with the wheel/arch gaps and it looks so much better when you lower it properly, but hey that's just me. Mine doesn't catch anywhere on coilovers and 225/40/18's on 8 1/2 inch rims with the correct offsets.

Hi both. I have just had my IS200 turboed and the standard ecu doesn't give the ability to fully map the fuelling so would be very interested if you are looking at producing one.

Cheers

Try resetting the ECU. That seems to solve a few problems.

Hi to both,

John, I went for the Superpro Bush kit that does them all front and back. I think if you just did some that might make it feel a bit weird. But seriously it feels so much better and has quickened up the steering too and made it more direct when you turn the wheel. And with all 200's now over 10 years old it will benefit all of them.

Stew, yes car is going great. Not sure I would feel so secure on standard suspension and brakes though. Ok so its only half the power of the M3's and RS4's but it is still a lot quicker than the standard car, around 230bhp in a car built to take 156. yes they made TTE models, but I would imagine they would have tweaked them somehow, even the sport has lower springs and the LSD. Also for me I would always do suspension and brakes and if I could only do one thing the suspension would always be first. Mine has coilovers, roll bars, front strut brace, poly bushes, lsd and big sticky tyres on 8.5 X 18 wheels as well as 4 pot brakes. I do have my old set up of Eibach springs done about 30k, front and rear Eibach wheel spacers, (6k) and standard shocks that have only done 65k if you are interested. Speak to Simon and see what he thinks. the turbo and lightened flywheel together fitted is around £3k and he suggests a new clutch which makes sense too. I wouldnt have done it it I hadn't been able to do it all properly to be honest with you

Hi John,

Yes there are loads of performance cars around 10 grand, but its about individuality for me. I have had 3 Golf GTI's and 2 Audi Quattro's in the past and enjoyed them at the time, but I just love the way the IS looks, especially lowered and bigger wheels. And most of the other cars are 10 a penny, how many turbo 200;s are there out there? Strangely talking to the guys who look after my car where I live at Performance Autoworks who prepare and race Japanese cars, mainly Honda's, they say that bigger turbo;s are cheaper because that's what people usually want. To put together a custom turbo and manifold and all the bits for mine would have been well over twice what I paid, so it was about bang for your buck. The lag isn't that bad not like the old days where it all came in at once and you had to be ready for it, the car does pull considerably better from about 2000 but really kicks in around 4. If you are in the right gear and pull out to overtake, you are just gone! I haven't really had the chance to have it dyno'd as yet but will when I get the chance. As I said before it isn't really about bhp or 0 to 60 or top speed, its about everyday driving and for that it is excellent. In normal driving it is smooth and picks up that bit quicker, but when you want some fun on a clear road then it takes a while for the smile to subside. And on a separate note, I went to Adrian Flux to insure it with all the modifications and pay about the same as I did with Direct Line for the standard car with the same cover! But then that is also one of the few benefits of getting older!!!!!

Hi and thanks for your post. Simon who developed the kit and does all the work himself works in the family garage, so he has to work around whatever work comes into the garage. He has a stage 2 sportcross with the piggyback ECU and about 300bhp in his. Not sure I would want to go that far with the standard motor. I think mine was the 16th or 17th conversion he has done and has developed the kit over the last 18 months or so. Mine was actually the first polybush kit he has fitted, he hasn't even put one on his own yet, mainly because it is such a pain to do and took a full day to complete. Costwise it is about as much to buy as it is to fit, so around £900 all done. for me together with the LSD from the sport model, it has transformed the car. it is a bit more firm but in a secure reassuring way and not uncomfortable as you would expect, especially as I have coilovers and roll bars too. But I chose the Meister R coilovers as they have softer spring rates than BC or any of the Japanese ones that are made for their ultra smooth surfaces and not the collection of potholes and patchwork repairs we call roads!

Personally I would go manual if you are going to fit the turbo so you can make sure it is the right gear when you need it, you might find it lags a bit more on auto, but talk to Simon, he will go through the pro's and cons with you. Yes he knows his stuff and loves doing it and just wants the customer to be happy, which so far I certainly am. If you want to know anything please just ask.

I guess my comment was really saying that swapping to another car isnt quite as easy as that sounds. We have all had our experiences of selling to tyre kickers and those with no money and once you finally find a genuine buyer after all the hassle and cost of cleaning and advertising its then finding a good car to buy and the gap in between if you need wheels all the time. or maybe just buy a GS430 as you have done?

Not sure that is really an easy option. Buying and selling is never easy when you have found a "good" one and you take a chance on somethnig you know very little about and as in another post currently running, it isn't at all easy to find a good IS as they are now 10 years old or more. Also you are going from manual to automatic/tiptronic whatever you want to call it (which for me i am not a fan of). You could finish up spending more on sorting it out than you would have if you had modified the one you already have and spend months finding a good one. And the 300 is in limited colours, I wouldn't want any other colour than the one I have. Currently on Autotrader there are only 7 is300's, 3 under 100k mileage and 1 CAT D rebuild.