Jimxms

If its any consolation it gets better as you get older. I waited until I was 28 until I learned to drive because I couldn't bear the thought of paying £1000 to insure a 950cc Fiesta. Now with not even a single year NCB and several mods I can insure an IS300 - the car I always wanted - for a little over £1.2k

You mean that my "Tomy My First Screwdriver Set" won't do the job? Daamn Seriously though, I've got a breaker bar, torque wrench plenty of sockets and deep sockets. Anything else needed? Ahh just thought. I dont have axle stands :(

Right guys, I've managed to rape the bank account for a set of BC Racing coilovers. However as always in this crappy country, trying to get someone who doesn't either say "oh no, not aftermarket parts" or "ooooh yes, that'll be £80p/h" to install them is the tricky bit! I may have struck gold with a local garage though that are offering to install them and do some basic alignment for ~£200. My only worry though is that they are just a bunch of greasy wrench monkeys. So all i imagine they will do is take the old ones off and fit the new ones without any 'setting up'. So what I guess I'm asking is, I know damper settings can be adjusted easily enough, but how about height? Do the wheels need to come off to get to them? Is there any way I can pre-set them before they get installed? Or is this a job that a mere mortal such as myself with only a socket set could accomplish on his own?

Well, even if you switch from the 2JZGE to the 2JZGTE in an IS300 you need completely different engine mounts iirc. So yeah, I reckon you'll need to get something made up specially, or find some mounts that work from a different car. Don't take my word on this, but i seem to recall that mounts from one of the other Lex models worked. Like a GS300 or something like that. Have you got the electronics sorted btw, because I thought that was yet another substantial hurdle to overcome? I'm new to all this tho, so feel free to ignore me :)

Yeah it doesn't sound safe at all shaving away half the material that keeps the wheels attached to the car! Especially not when this is a bloody family car carrying 2 kids and a preggers Mrs! Anyway, if i fight this to the death and they eventually cave in and give me ET43's, they're still gonna look nice when lowered right? I guess its only 1.2cm difference, so nothing massive. Just reading what Muddyell has been saying as got me paranoid that I'll go "eww" when et42's are on.

I've seen some BC Racing ones for about £600 which seems quite cheap in comparison to what some of them cost. Any ideas if they are any good? From what I've read too I need a kit that's specifically for the IS300 as most ones available in Europe are for the IS200/Tezza? Apparently due to the heavier engine in the IS300 the front spring load needs to be different?

Strange you should say that - as I've just found out from the manufacturer that they're not ET35, they're ET30!! I also asked the manu if shaving 5mm off the hub would be 'recommended' and they said "no f**king way". The area of the wheel that the nut bolts through is 10mm deep. Shave 5mm off the back and you are left with 1/2 the amount of metal to secure the wheel in place! To answer your question muddyell, I'm looking for about a finger space gap (~1cm) between the tyres and arches when unloaded, and when I've got some fat heffers in the back, for everything to tuck neatly under the arches. Not that i've got the money for suspension mods right now, but i'm driving myself bloody insane trying to decide whether to go for springs, springs+new shocks or coilovers. I still want the ride to be refined and comfortable, with a sporty edge for when the family isn't in the car.

Anyone good with consumer law? I need to know where I stand with this... - I asked the company via email to order me the wheels in. I told them the measurements of the stock wheels including the offset of et50. - I visited them, paid a deposit and while I was there they phoned the supplier and said that they were to fit a "Lexus IS300" - but didn't mention offsets. - Wheels arrived next day, were fitted and I was very happy with how they felt. - Admittedly I haven't had any rubbing yet (although I've told them that I have), but I do think if i hit a large bump I probably would. It obviously also prevents me from lowering the car properly. - They have already said that they cannot offer an exchange/refund, and are even asking me to pay for the wheels to be shaved! Wheels were purchased about a month ago. Do I have a leg to stand on?

Yeah, I've yet to drive a car with coilovers so I'm not sure how they fair on long journeys where comfort is a priority. However, reading around the USA forums a lot of IS300 owners seem to be going for aftermarket shocks + lowering springs. I'll have to dig out the actual parts they are using, but most swear they are a better route than coilovers - lowering the car 50-60mm, without sacrificing ride quality or risking killing the OEM shocks.

You need a hot young lass in the passenger seat then! aiiii ;)

Not sure I like the sound of this. If they shave 5mm off the back of my wheel then surely its going to leave it prone to massive corrosion as they will have cut away the paint/clear coat? Also I'm guessing that if they fudge it up, I'll get some serious vibrations at speed?

Cheers for the info Bazza. I'm not sure I trust them to do it properly to be honest. Not after the way they sprayed my calipers anyway.... Spraycan + Caliper = sprayed caliper, sprayed discs, sprayed pads, sprayed CAR! Also, when they say 'hubs' is that in reference to the center hub where the wheel bolts to..or the back of the wheel? (sorry for silly Q)

Well you don't necessarily need to go manual to run a turbo. In fact, from what I understand running auto + turbo has quite a few benefits... For a start the auto trannie can hold a bit more power than a standard manual transmission. Also an auto trans can be rebuilt to take more power a lot cheaper than a manual can. Then there's the fact that auto's dont drop the boost between gear changes, and you're less likely to rodger your car up with a bad change. Sure its not as much fun in an auto, but being an auto IS300 driver I do enjoy the occasional brake boost at the lights :P

Ormi / anyone, I've just spoken to the place i bought the wheels and they've confirmed that they are et35. I kicked up a bit of a stink saying that I asked for as close to et50 as they did (which would have been et42 iirc) and they have offered to "shave 5mm off the hubs" in order to make them sit under the arches. Does this sound a legitimate method of fixing the problem? I've not heard of anyone doing this before, so I'm just a bit wary of whether it carries any implications (corrosion...etc)

I would think a LOT of work. Have you considered just boosting your tezza to get some more grunt out of it?

you might find Daves posts here useful if you find a spoiler without a boot attached to it Here & here Thanks. I think I will just go with removing my (existing) spoiler from the boot. I've whaked it on ebay. This will leave me with a roughed up boot with no spoiler. I will get the boot repainted and then put one of these on it. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Painted-Lexus-IS200-IS300-Rear-Boot-Lip-Spoiler-98-05-/270644628862?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3f03ad4d7e I know they not the sports version, but I'm staring redundancy in the face so will have to settle for the cheaper version. Any other ideas? Or should I go with this. Swapping would have been the most economically-friendly way! You could send an email to a few scappies asking if they've got a plain boot with no spoiler in your colour? Then just buy a fiberglass spoiler cheap off eBay, get it sprayed for £30-40 and fit it urself? At least that's the way I'm heading as swapsies are very rare.

Yeah there's loads of options. Most on eBay again or eBay USA. I got mine from Prolex though - Tom's Carbon Fiber one...£60 (don't tell my Mrs!)

Thats one thing I never took into consideration - the locks lol. Damn you Lexus, why didn't you use a universal mounting point for all the spoilers

Such a shame you dont have a black Lex. I'm looking to swap my boot + lip spoiler for a boot + full spoiler

I've seen Eibach for sale on eBay? Could grab some from there. TBH I'm in the same situation as you, and after evaluating all of the springs and the benefits of each I've come to realise that they are all pretty much pointless. I mean, if you go for EiBach. That's about £150+ for the springs, £200 for fitting and alignment....all for a 1.5cm drop! Apex are a little better in that you can pick up the springs for £100 and they will give you a 2cm drop, but still fitting and alignment is the killer. So...I think I'm just goign to save for a half decent set of coilovers.They may be more expensive, but I can adjust them to my tastes and they should also be cheaper/easier than springs to fit.

If its just the CD player functionality you've lost then I'd highly recommend going with jay_russell's suggestion of a GROM unit. Changing over the Lexus headunit is a bit of a PITA as you need a harness to bypass the integrated amplifier and will more than likely need new rear speakers (as the Lexus ones don't work well with aftermarket headunits). Not to mention that the readily available headunit mounting kits are tacky as hell, and to get a decent mounting kit you're looking at about £80+

Managed to do this myself over the weekend. Took about 4 trips to halfords though, and the camgear bolt was about the most stubborn bolt I've ever encountered in my life. I broke several tools and hammered my torque wrench half to death :s Just in case anybody needs to know... Crankshaft had a 22mm bolt and was actually fairly easy to rotate using only a wrench. Cam gear bolt took a 3ft breaker bar along with a lump hammer and some wd40 to free it up!

Elite (google Elite Direct) have a very good setup and are used to dealing with anything from Saxo's to Supra's. I'd deffo give them a try if WIM is too far away.

You probably wont see very much with a 30mm drop, and I doubt passers by will notice that its been dropped at all. Have a look at the Apex springs, they will give you a 40mm drop iirc. Or there are some 50mm ones floating about eBay but not sure of the long term quality.

How about some new number plates instead with domed lettering and the Lexus logo in the corner? Demon Plates do some really high quality ones which look nice if you go for black raised lettering along with a black border and black Lexus logo. Very stylish imo.