sprinter2012

I've got one of THESE on mine... Comes with about 4 adapters to suit different cars, and one of them is a perfect match for the IS200. Looks great and I've had no problems with reception since fitting it. :)

stick with the 215s, if you put 225/45 on they will be too wide and it will also increase the outer circumference of the tyre. Because 45 is a percentage of the width, not an actual distance. e.g. 215/45 means 45% of 215mm 225/45 means 45% of 225mm...which will be bigger

The clicking you hear under the bonnet when you turn the ignition on is just relays setting themselves. Don't think the problem is immobiliser related as a no one has mentioned seeing the security light on that I've spoken to. I now know of about 10 people with this same issue, so it's by no means a rare thing to have.

This would ring alarm bells to me. Either something is leaking into the bores (flooding with petrol) causing some restriction on compression stroke and when the petrol/ obstruction clears, reduces compression which makes it seems like compression has gone and it starts 2nd time as bores now clear. If, at 1st attempt it sounds 'normal' the sounds unrestricted, this would say to me a loss of compression which could be piston rings, head gasket, crack in head etc but I'd expect other sypmtoms like not running 100%, over heating. Keep an eye on it.. I'm not entirely sure it does speed up actually now I think about it more, I just think I'm not used to hearing the engine turning over for that long without starting.

I can't say I've ever bothered to look actually, but I'll try to remember to keep an eye on it now...

It's something the car has always done, maybe once every couple of weeks if that, I'll go to start the car, the engine turns over a couple of times, then all of a sudden it speeds up as if all the resistance has been taken away and then won't start. It always starts second time without fail, and I only remember it ever happening as I'm leaving work in the evening, never in the morning on the way to work, or any other time of day for that matter. My commute to work is plenty long enough to let the engine warm up fully, the spark plugs were changed last month, air filter is clean, battery is nearly new etc. So what could it be? Imobiliser problem maybe? I'm sure I read somewhere that another guy had this problem, and it was suggested that it may be the auto-choke sticking? i.e. It was still set in the 'wam engine' position from when it was last turned off. (I may just be remembering that completely wrong though) It makes no difference how long I wait after turning the ignition on, however I have found blipping the throttle pedal before trying to start seems to help? I'm just confused by it, as it happens so infrequently. Seems to only happen when leaving work, and then always starts second time? :confused1:

I've decided I'm definitely going to get a set of those rims, but probably not that set on eBay like I planned as I'd want to get them repainted in dark chrome (like the LFA ones in the top picture) so there'd be no point buying those freshly refurbed ones just to have them repainted anyway!

fWell I'm not really a watch wearing person, so I may aswell sell it if theres interest from people who would actually use it (or just want it for the novelty factor) I still have no idea what it's worth, as I can only find listing for that Ebel one which is around £150 on eBay. Just a quick bit of extra info if you want to buy it though, it is not a new item, and doesn't have any box/instructions etc. and the battery is flat. The stainles steel clasp on the bottom is a bit scratched, but a quick wizz over with a polishing mop should shine it back up. But the actual visible parts while wearing it, (face/metal surround) are in good condition with no damage/scratches to the glass front. So I guess it's just a case of make me some offers and I'll see if I think it's worth parting with it :)

I'm a big fan of the LFA wheels pictured below, I've always thought a twin 5 spoke wheel is the best looking, and the LFA wheels are no exception. Now obviously genuine ones are completely out of the question as I'm sure the prices are astonomical, and probably wouldn't fit anway. There are replica LFA wheels available on eBay for about £400 from america, but are only available in 19" and I'd rather stick with 18" in the interests of comfort and tyre costs. So when I saw these, I thought perhaps I've found the perfect compromise? They are the 40th Anniversary Edition Wheels from a Mazda RX8, which have the same stud pattern as Lexus and to me, look similar enough to the LFA wheels to be a definite consideration... I'm not normally too keen on black on black (I hope Jim doesn't read this) however after watching The Dark Night earlier I was thinking repainting the calipers yellow may work with the black? What are your thoughts?

After looking at the speedo of my car when I first bought it my boss said he thought it looked familiar... The next day he presented me with this and said I may aswell have it to go with the car! Forgot all about it untill today when I found it again, anyone seen one before. Or does anyone else on here own one?

Under normal driving you get a bit more growl througout the rev range, really enhances the sound of the straight 6 without being intrusive. And when you floor it, you get a noticable increase in noise which sounds very aggressive B) Honestly, I wouldn't expect it to be much at all. I have however, noticed approx 5mpg inrease in fuel economy (when driven sensibly) although the trouble is the noise encourages you to floor it everywhere.

Okay..here's what will probably be the shortest list on the forum. :) 2003 Fiat Stilo 1.2 (2009-2010) 2003 Lexus IS200 (2010-current) I'd like to see anyone beat me by getting an IS200 as their first car...:P

My opinion on lowering is that the top of the tyre should never be above the edge of the wheel arch. I like a bit of a gap otherwise it makes the arch look ovalised. But fantastic deal on the coilies!

'3M Di-Noc' is what you are looking for. It comes in loads of different effects like wood/carbon etc.

whats actually wrong with it? surely it would be cheaper/easier to get the wheel repaired?

There's loads of info/price comparisons on THIS thread. But I'd stay well clear of whoever quoted you £400!! I got mine done by a company called 'Pristine Alloys' who were the company Lexus contracted out to do all the recall jobs originally so their work is top quality! For a set of 4 you would be looking at about £270 and thats including the diamond cut faces! You can either take your wheels off and be without your car for a few days. Or they offer a wheel exchange program, where they send a new set of wheels to your local Pristine Agent, you take your car along and they swap over the wheels and tyres on the spot. So you lose your car for no longer than it takes to change a set of tyres, it's a brilliant service. Their website is http://www.pristinealloywheels.co.uk/ Here's a picture of one of my 17" 5-spokes with diamond cut face... And one of the 18" aero wheels they did for me aswell...

Like scudney said, a refurb will fix them up nicely. The problem isn't with the alloy metal istelf. It's just Lexus being tight with the lacquer again like they were on the 1st gen IS series.

The Lexus website only specifies 'IS Series' which covers IS200/IS300/IS250/IS200 etc. The only requirement I've just noticed is that the car needs to be over 5 years old from date of first registration...so it depends exactly when in 2006 your car was registered as to whether or not it is eligible. Should be on the V5 I think?

Have a look at this... http://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/lexuscare/service-your-lexus/essential-care-service-plans.aspx Lexus fixed price servicing offers. Normal price for an IS series major service is £259, I emailed my local dealer and asked if I could supply my own oils (engine, transmission, diff etc.) which I've already bought. To which they replied "Yes sir, oils are charged at £77.41 so we will deduct that from the cost of the service, the total will now be £171.58" So I'm going to get Lexus to do the 'essential major service' with my own oils to get the stamp in the book, but then take it to my local garage to get some of the other bits which are not included in their service such as coolant change done. :)

I think the manual didn't get it because for the cruise control to work the car needs to be able to change gear itself? So would probably be impossible to fit on a manual, otherwise Lexus would of offered it as an option I'd have thought?

I took mine out while I was fitting my induction kit, not a spec of dirt on it. So I wouldn't bother even taking it out personally.

Well thats 2 more mods on the list today. Finished my custom induction kit. (If you want to see how I made it click HERE) And also got my radiator panel fitted while I was at it. I've also got an IS300 air intake on the way to send air over towards the filter, and at some point I will be making a custom cold air box and engine cover too :)

We'll, I'm sure I'm thinking the exact same thing as everyone else was when starting their project thread..."I wish I'd started this when I got the car, not after 8months and a wallet full of mods" But then none of us start out planning to mod, but then you join a forum, and your done for! So here's what I've done to mine so far. So here goes... Picked up my 2003 IS200 Sport in Astral Black with 28k on the clock in August last year as a sort of birthday present to myself. It started off life as most of them do looking like this The first thing to do, was sort out the wheels. Which although they wern't too bad, couldn't be allowed to stay as they were. So 5 of these were ordered from Pristine Alloys on a wheel exchange program... And while I was fitting them I decided the calipers could do with a touch up too... As soon as I'd got the new wheels and tyres fitted, it went off to WIM for the special tyre saving geometry settings. __________________ Next lot of mods were all lighting related, I fitted 6000k HID main and dipped beams, and LED sidelight and foglight bulbs to match. This was then followed shortly by LED light panels for both the interior dome lights, and the boot light aswell. (I'll try to get pictures up of these soon) And after seeing a few of you who had changed your dash bulbs to blue I decided I liked the idea of doing it, but I went for white as I can't be bothered to change the heater console bulbs and the white doesn't look out of place with the orange. :) After that I swapped the standard clear side repeater lenses for some smoked black ones (pictures to follow), and I put some chrome coated Silvatec bulbs in the rear indicators and also fitted some LED reversing bulbs too. I got some dual filament bulbs holders off eBay aswell, so I did the fog to side light mod while I was at it. __________________ Again no pictures for this but next was the GROM iPod gadget, with extra auxilary input which I thought would come in handy for my next mod... __________________ A fair bit more technical than the previous ones so I was a bit cautious about starting it, but very glad I did it. I managed to get hold of the 7" variant of the OEM Sat Nav housing, and went about fitting an aftermarket 7" LCD touchscreen inside it. And with a LOT of fiddling and removing connectors from the circuit board etc. I managed to get the screen running with 2 x Video inputs, 1 x VGA input, 1 x USB input (for touchscreen interface), 1 x Automatic video source switching input for reversing camera, and 1 x Audio Output. And linking in with my previous mod, the unit can now play its sound output through the GROM and into my factory stereo. :) I wish I'd taken more pictures of the 'during' phase of this, but I was getting a bit pi$*£d off with it at times and wasn't really in the mood. lol But here's a picture of the unit in bits when I'd almost finished fitting the upgraded screen... And here's one of it fully fitted and displaying a VGA feed from my 10" ASUS Netbook which now lives in the glovebox and acts as my Car PC/Media Centre...(I had my chrome heater dials and clock surround at this point too) __________________ I managed to find myself a set of 18" Aero alloys on eBay, which I quickly snapped up and got sent off to Pristine Alloys again... __________________ I also got myself a fantastic deal on a TTE bumper and rear lip from ACLex, so off to the sprayers they went. And when they came back my car looked like this... __________________ I'd heard good things about the K&N panel filter (mainly the noise) so I fitted one of those, maybe a VERY slight improvement in low down torque. But a definite increase in (audible) engine grunt after 3000rpm which I love, really enhances the sound of that amazing straight 6. __________________ By this point I'd already fitted a strut brace, but I thought it could do with a proper polish and a respray. So I took it off, sprayed the towers in Cusco blue, gave the bar itself a good polish and got myself a Cusco sticker from eBay to put on after I'd polished it. I went on a bit of a mission in the engine bay, also resprayer the radiator clamps in the same colour, sprayer the fuse/relay box covers gloss black and dotted around a few anodized blue bolts for good measure. Towers after spraying... Complete strut brace after its refurb... And some of my shiny blue bolts... The whole engine bay with all its shiny bits... __________________ Gas bonnet lifters have also been fitted, and again, I'll add pictures for all the stuff I haven't done them for already, and I might update some of them with better ones when I have time. But I think thats pretty much it for now! At least it will be much easier to add single mods as and when I do them from now on. Phew. __________________ Well latest mod, bought a Modellista speedo off eBay for silly cheap money, the guy at the scrappers must have just thought it was a generic Altezza speedo! Anyway, I wasted no time transfering my white SMD dash bulbs into it and this is what it looks like fitted and lit up, and also a short video of the false 10K RPM reading it gives due to coming off a 4 cylinder car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDV-x1oqIYs

So I finally had all the parts, the time to do it and the weather behaved itself today so I thought I'd crack on with my induction kit. I took the advice of most people, and just bought all the parts myself and decided to make my own, I am after all supposed to be an engineer :) I'll put pictures of the finished article in my project thread as well, but I didn't want to clog it up with millions of pictures. Terminology: ID = Inner Diameter OD = Outer Diameter TB = Throttle Body WOT = Wide Open Throttle IAT = Intake Air Temperature So first a quick rundown of the parts I used... 1 x 63mm ID 90* Elbow 1 x 63mm ID 45* Elbow 1 x 76-63mm Straight Reducer 6 x 63-80mm ID Hose Clamps 1 x 1m 63mm OD Aluminium Tube 1 x Apexi Air Filter w/76mm Adapter Flange I haven't gone into huge detail with which exact bolts to undo etc. Because it's pretty easy to work out :) First things first, here's how my engine bay started off before the install... And then with the OEM air box and scoop removed, you'll also notice the oil catch can and some of my blue cabling I fitted last week in preparation for this... First things first, I measure up how much aluminium tube I would need to get across the engine, didn't have to be super accurate as you can lose or gain over an inch depending how far in you insert it into the silicone bends. Then time for some cutting... With the length now roughly right I test fitted the 90* and 45* for positioning... Length-wise it was spot on, but it sat a little high for my liking at the TB end which meant it sloped down slightly... So I chopped about an inch off the lower half of the 90* bend to drop it down level (you can see in the picture below one length is now shorted than the other). Once that was sorted I drilled an 18mm hole in the front face of the 90* bend, should have been 19.5 but I was worried it would be oversized due to not drilling cleanly which turned out to be a good thing! This was so I could use the proper sealing grommet from the air box to refit the IAT sensor properly and not have to glue it in with silicone. I then had to extend the IAT sensor wires about 3 inches so they would reach the sensor in its new position... Once that part was sorted I stuck the air filter down behind the headlight where I wanted it, and measured from the end of the reducer on the filter, to the 45* bend and then added an inch either end. Another session on the saw and I ended up with this... And an overall shot at the end...(with my newly fitted radiator panel too:)) It's still not properly fastened down, but because of where I routed it, it's just resting on the power steering lines at the moment which it supporting the filter end so it will be fine for now until I can find a good way of securing it. I will also now start my planning for an engine cover, which will probably start off as an offcut of 1.5mm aluminium I have laying around, and I will then cover it in carbon cloth and lacquer it.

Whatever you do I highly recommend getting the diamond cut faces put on, they look fantastic with a slightly darker shade of grey than the OEM, just makes the light metal of the faces stand out a bit.