Jimxms

Yeah it's the stock one I've got and yes its cat-back. I need to give it a going over with a wire brush to remove some of the surface rust, but from what I can tell it's in good nick other than needing a spit and polish.

After installing my strut brace I noticed a couple of the strut tower nuts are badly corroded. Do any of you guys know where I could puck up some suitable replacements as they look fairly specialised.

Cheers

Jim

it will be vibrations where it is now touching as said

i hope your halfords is a distance away !

4hours ? its only six nuts and one spanner !!

glad you feel such an improvement

My install went like this....

1) Took off induction kit because it was overlapping the bolts on drivers side.

2) Realized that none of my sockets were deep enough to clear the bolts and get to the nuts.

3) Found a spanner that fitted after lots of hunting around house.

4) Got the nuts on one side off, fitted the tower part of the brace, realized that couldn't do nuts back up with spanner!

5) Put car back together and drove to Halfords to find a deep socket.

6) Only had imperial markings on spanner, Halfords only had metric. Purchased wrong one.

7) Got home. Took induction kit off again, realized that socket was wrong size

8) Put car back together again, drove to Halfords, got correct socket this time!

9) Got home, took it all apart. Had trouble with one nut that was rusted to f*k

10) Had real trouble getting it all to bolt in - one of the bolt holes was about 0.5mm out and there was absolutely no give.

11) Finally got it all bolted up nice, then noticed that a little black box (Denso Ignition) which was originally bolted on to one of the suspension bolts wouldn't go back in its original place due to its mounting bracket not clearing the strut tower.

12) Had to bend the crap out of the bracket to get it to fit nicely somewhere else.

13) Job done!

The easiest jobs are always the hardest with me :@

Well i went for the Japspeed exhaust and its loud as f*k - so I'd avoid that one if you're after a peaceful life :P

Lots of people seem to like one called BlueFlame (i think thats the name), which is a bit louder than stock.

You could also get a custom one made and have the noise levels tuned to your requirements.

Or rub down your exhaust, see if its just surface rust? Could even get it powdercoated silver maybe so it stays shiny?

I've got my IS300 exhaust in my garage still and might be willing to sell it once I've given it a clean.

Hi guys,

Just installed my strut brace this evening (took about 4hrs with frequent trips to Halfords for tools!), and wow it's made a big difference. Steering feels tighter, cornering is less rolly-polly-like. Great purchase IMO.

There are a few changes that I wasn't expecting though:

- engine pitch sounds 'different'

- i can feel engine vibrations through the pedals and steering wheel.

- everything is a bit louder

I assume this is because the strut brace sits within mm of the engine, and the vibrations get fed through to the steering etc via the suspension?

I just wanted to make sure it's normal, as I've never heard anyone else mention similar observations.

How about you and rajesh get together and 'knock bumpers' :P

I hear its all the craze at the moment :)

Welcome...to trouble-free motoring, sponsored by Lexus :)

IS300 and IS200 exhausts should be exactly the same mate - at least I put an aftermarket IS200 exhaust on my car and it sits nicely with the bumper.

The only way it would be different is if you had a bumper from a USA IS300 as they are quite a bit deeper and need a longer exhaust tip.

I can vouch for the GROM MP3 adapter. I've got it stealthed away behind my headunit with only a little USB cable going into the glove box, so I can plug in whatever USB stick i like and play away :D

If you're trying to save money, I'm not sure a Citroen is the best way to go - I remember a few years ago at a motorshow I managed to dismantle the dash of a C3 with my bare hands and no real force to the surprise of some sales people

You could have probably dismatled the rest of the car with your foot :P

Speaking from experience - those eBay knobs are absolute pap.

I've got this knob for sale at the moment if you're interested:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=69173

Its a genuine Lexus part that I had imported from USA.

Price negotiable.

Is it used? Whats the price?

Basically I had it imported from the USA less than a week ago. It was taken from a showroom car at a Lexus dealership (not sure what model). It looks brand new and in immaculate condition (and i'm a picky bastid).

£50 with free P+P

(or you can barter and not get free p+p)

Cost me £60 - and took 2 weeks to arrive. So a good deal imo.

Big shame, but seriously if it was me I'd get it fixed. Even if it was only good enough to pass over to a garage in a PX.

Look at this for example:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-LEXUS-200-2-0-AUTOMATIC-GEARBOX-03-72LS-/110445169501?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19b70b8b5d

£200 for gearbox and they do delivery / fitting service. If you could get the car down to them (not sure where you are based), you could possibly have it sorted for £300-350 TOTAL. Well worth it imo.

Speaking from experience - those eBay knobs are absolute pap.

I've got this knob for sale at the moment if you're interested:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=69173

Its a genuine Lexus part that I had imported from USA.

Price negotiable.

I'm looking to have a few bits done to the IS that I haven't got the guts to do myself.

I've found a few garages that can do it at a half reasonable price, but if there's any mechanics on here that I can give my business to and hopefully make a friend in the process, let me know :)

Hi Guys,

OK here's my situation: I've just replaced the wheels on my IS300 for some 18's and I'm looking to lower the car enough so it looks cool, but not so much that it causes problems or makes the wife moan about ride quality.

- I understand that the IS300 is lowered on the rear by 15mm, the same as a Sport IS200. So any springs I get I'll have to subtract 15mm from their rear lowering amount?

- I also understand that the IS300 engine is heavier than an IS200, so I should potentially add an additional 5mm to the lowering amount of the front springs.

- To make things even harder I've also removed the spare wheel to save on a bit of weight ;) - but this obviously makes the rear sit a bit higher.

I _think_ what I'm after is a set of springs that lowers more on the rear than it does on the front? Or given my circumstances, should i just get a set that lowers 30mm all round and just hope for a good result?

Yeah basically do the same on the black as you did with the primer.

- Soak some 2000 and 3000 grit for a couple of hours in a bowl of water to soften it up.

- Starting with the 2000, mix some water with a bit of fairy liquid to make it glide better.

- Rub 2000 over the sprayed part in straight lines only.

- Hose bumper down and clean off sandpaper every few strokes to ensure you don't end up scratching the surface unevenly.

- As you progress you'll slowly see the uneven orange-peel-like surface go to a flat finish.

- Move to the 3000 paper using some new water+fairy liquid.

- Rub the 3000 in a different direction to the 2000 so that you can see once all of the sanding marks from the 2000 have disappeared.

- Grab some cutting polish. Meguiars #83 is good stuff, but any cutting polish will do so long as it is not too abrasive.

- Apply polish either by hand or using a rotary polisher until you are happy with the shine from the paint.

- Seal you work with a good wax.

Job done :)

Nice idea mate. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to find some kind of household item to butcher.

Guys,

I'm looking to completely de-badge my sport grill. However after trying to remove the 'Sport' emblem from a spare grill I had knocking about, I have come to the conclusion that the only clean way to do it is to buy some new mesh and cut it to size.

However, every single mesh shop I've gone to sells cheap-a55 boy-racer chicken wire sh*t. Does anybody know where I can get some mesh that's as good quality as the Lexus stuff?

Thanks for the tip, got the astral black and the colour matches perfectly, only problem I've got now is i cant get a good finish. infact the finish is terrible looks like a 3yr sprayed it. i put the paint on and it looked pretty good wet but once it dried it went all matte and non-reflective, some bits were reflective but it was like a cloudy reflection and didn't blend at all to the original paintwork. I'm spraying the can at the right distance and spraying in lengths distributing the paint evenly so what am i not doing? someone told me you have to let the paint dry in warm conditions and it might be the cold that's making the paint dry differently.

After spraying you'd also need to flatten it down with sandpaper and then use a cutting polish to bring out the shine.

There's a bit more to it than this too, but I rekon there should be plenty of guides around that are more detailed then I could ever be :P

Very nice & clean mate. Once you get that front bumper sorted it will be mint (tho it prolly looks worse in pics anyway?)

For mods I'd say:

- pull out the orange lenses in the side markers

- grab a tte rear valance from the scrappy and get it sprayed at same time as front bumper

- maybe some clear rear fogs?

Bumper arrived.....snapped in half. LOL!

Luckily I've got a refund for it (apart from the painting), but it's convinced me not go for fiberglass in future. Also the quality of the part wasn't too great and it would have needed a lot of work to get it fitted properly.

So for now I'm going to improve the look of my car with some new 18"s :D

I sold my mint 17's with nearly new Kumho sport tyres on to a member on here back in Jan, i had to travel to meet him so we agreed on £250

Ouch, not much then. I've seen PX deals (old knackered for new refurbs) for £250.

Maybe I'll sell each wheel separately then as they seem to go for between £60 - 100 on fleabay.

Guys,

I'm thinking about changing my wheels and wanted to know a rough price on what I can expect to get back for my standard Lexus 17's.

They're all in immaculate condition with no kerbing or corrosion. They haven't been refurbed, so they are the stock colour etc. All four have near new Bridgestone Potenza's on them.

Any ideas?

Test that you have earthed them properly to the car!!!

Yeah you was right on the money mate. After posting this I put them back in their original position to test that they was working (and they were). So I figured that it must have been some kind of earthing issue and rubbed off some of the paint from their new position.

Working like a charm now :)

Hi guys,

Today I decided to do the horn mod and move them out of the way. I have to admit I didn't follow any official instructions, just improvised and moved them to a centre bar that runs down the middle of the radiator.

However, they no longer work! They're all plugged in OK and I cant see any visible damage to the wires or connectors.

Any ideas?

I haven't checked fuses yet as I don't know where the horn one is, but I'd be surprised if I blew one?

Jim