sprinter2012

Personally I'd say you have an oil leak if it's used that much in 6 months. My IS200 didn't use a drop of oil over 12 months covering 10K. Most people just stick with the OEM Toyota filters, you can get aftermarket ones but they are no better than stock. And as far as oil, just stick with 5/30 as the booklet recommends. I use Fuchs Titan Race Pro which is a Fully Ester Synthetic oil, it's not the cheapest but its great stuff.

Thanks, it's a 2003, with about 48k on it. Only had 28k on the clock when I bought it in 2010! If that's the look you want you'll need deep pockets or a huge amount of luck (I had the latter) as the bumper is very rare, I've only seen 2 for sale since I've owned my car. Or you can buy one from Toyota for £1200 But the side skirts and wheels aren't too expensive or hard to find luckily. I see you live in Antrim? There are a lot of Toyota Altezza owners over there, it's basically exactly the same car except the interior isn't as plush, but you get an extra 50hp from the engine. And if you look carefully you might find one that has the same front bumper already fitted, as it's more common for the Japanese version to have them.

Here's a few recent ones of mine...

You would never be able to get a 1G-FE to get anywhere near those RPMs without spending HUGE amounts of money. The Altezza 'Beams' engine is very finely tuned and has lightweight titanium valves to allow it to rev higher. Supercharger can be good for 245bhp with only a bigger pulley and injectors on the stock TTE Blackbox. And it's also been mentioned that you could fit a small turbo with a boost controller limiting to low boost (similar to the boost from the supercharger) and just run that with a TTE Blackbox without having to get a piggyback ECU or mapping done. But I doubt you could get anywhere near 200hp from a 1G-FE N/A without spending more that it would cost to turbo/supercharge it. If you want speed, get an IS300 which comes with a 2JZ from stock, and convert it to manual. It's much cheaper than adding the engine to an IS200.

Another little addition turned up this morning, it's new version GROM unit which is compatible with USB/Android/iPod/AUX/Bluetooth (as long as you have the corresponding cable) I'll be using the Android/AUX functions, as GROM have developed an app so you have proper control via USB with an Android phone. Will be getting this fitted tonight along the the O2 simulator I bought from Stav about a year ago!

Next job was the dust shields, most people just cut these off completely. But being an engineer that seemed too simple, plus I wanted to keep the cooling effects of the air duct at the front of the shield. You can also just bend them back out of the way but that seemed too ghetto and again, too easy. So I put slots all the way along the sections of the dust shield which overhang the top and bottom of the old disc like this... I then bent them upwards, chopped them off and smoothed off the edge so I was now left with this perfectly fitting and still fully functioning air duct/dust shield... With the discs now able to fit properly and the mounting hardware transferred onto the new brackets I slid the discs on, put the new pads into the brackets and remounted them over the disc onto the hub... The only job left then was to press the pistons back into the calipers and bolt them back onto the brackets, forget to take a picture of them without the wheel, and then have to take a crappy picture through a very dirty wheel... I've only put about 20 miles through them so far but I'm already finding myself stopping short at junctions and slowing down too much coming into corners, so I can't wait to see how they perform once they are properly bedded in! And just for comparison so you can see the difference in size between the old and new here's a gif I made to show the two sizes...

Right, got my latest mod done this evening. Took me a couple of hours after work to get it done but I'm already feeling the benefits... Started off with stock calipers, on stock brackets, on stock discs, like this... First step is to undo the slide pin bolts using a 14mm spanner on the back, and a 17mm on the pin itself to stop it rotating. You may not need the 17mm spanner, but if you plan to re-use the dust boots it's better to use it anyway or you risk tearing them... Then put the caliper out of the way on an axle stand for now... Once they are off, you can remove the caliper brackets. This is super easy as all you have to do is undo the two 17mm bolts that hold the caliper bracket onto the hub. With the old bracket off, you can start assembling the new brackets, the first thing I did was to press the new dust boots in. Simply slot a socket over the top of the rubber boot so it rests on the metal collar, and either tap it in with a hammer, or squeeze it in with a vice like I did... I then removed the slide pins, changed the rubber bush on the pin, greased it up and put it into the corresponding hole on the new bracket (make sure they go in the right hole as they are different!) I then removed, and refitted the pad retaining/slide clips into the new brackets and greased them up too...

I doubt it's the battery, it's a known issue that some IS200 and IS300 get this problem. Where the car seems to turn over normally, then do a couple of fast turns and then just doesn't start, but will always start second time without a problem. I suspected it was the battery so I spent £60 on a new one, didn't help at all. Neither did changing the spark plugs. I mentioned the problem before, and between this and another forum I use I got about 20 people all saying they have the same problem.

Don't bother with HT paint, because firstly if you use HT paint and then coat it in normal laquer whats the point. lol But secondly, a lot of HT paints need to be exposed to high temperatures to cure properly, so unless you plan on taking the calipers off and putting them in the oven afterwards it will take days to dry. Not having a go, just trying to save you some time :)

You don't need high temp paint, if the calipers themselves are getting to paint melting temps then there's something wrong with your brakes. lol I just used standard halfords grey primer and then gloss black spray paint and it looks great and hasen't been affected by heat at all. What I would regard as being most important, is to get a good coat of laquer on after the paint, otherwise the brake dust will be hard to clean off.

cars after 2001 but before march 2005 puts you in the cheaper tax bracket. it will be £270 for 12 months as it's gone up a bit recently.

The leather seats only came in two colours, black and cream. So if it's not cream, yours are (or used to be) black :)

It's such an easy mod to do! You basically just get a set of dual filament bulb holder (the same style as in the brake lights) you wire the the 21w part back into the foglight circuit as it was before. And then just take a feed from the number plate lights to link into the 5w part of the bulb and it's done! Took me about 15 minutes. The hardest part is getting the little plastic clips out that hold the boot trim in. lol EDIT: There is a guide on here somewhere about how to do it in more detail.

It depends what you want to do, if all you want it to put a newer sat nav in there, like a TomTom or something it really easy. The touchscreen I fitted was slightly harder, but only because I had to find a way of getting all the wires for the USB, screen and sound etc. through a small hole in the end of the unit so it can rotate freely around the cables.

Well today was another busy day, re-fitted the skirts and finally fitted the bumper at last! Skirts on...(again) Bumper on... I had a slight issue where the edge of the bumper didn't line up with the arch liner, the TTE bumper has little metal bars that pull this sides in to fix this, so I made some of my own to do exactly the same thing. Before... The brackets I made... And the nice snug fit after they were fitted... And a couple of pictures after it was all finished...

Just a little something to keep the modding bug under control...

And all fitted back on the car, including my shiny new TRD oil filler cap that I forgot I bought!

Following my plans to make a DIY SC setup, I've swapped back from my induction kit to the OEM airbox/scoop so I have more room in the engine bay. But I thought I would make it a little different, just because I can :) So here's how I spent my afternoon, with a roll of aluminium heat reflective tape and my OEM airbox parts. Preparation is your friend...

Been a while since I updated this so here goes... Got an exhaust off another member a while ago, it's a Greddy Ti-C. Looks and sounds amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMJVeiya-_o&feature=player_embedded

The yellow one isn't rare because of poor sales, it's rare because it's limited edition.

If things like that were an issue then the IS200 isn't the car for you. lol

I doubt you will find anywhere that sells it in the UK as an off the shelf item. The IS300 was mostly sold in the US, wasn't such a big hit over here because it's automatic. So any mods relating to the engine will probably have to come from the states.

I'd say so yes, I was quoted a fair bit more than that when I asked them to do a twin exit system. It's a good service considering they literally build and weld the whole system while you wait!

A 'straight though' pipe means that the only thing after the manifold is just empty round exhaust tube. No silencers, no catalytic converters, just pipe. It's common for turbo'd cars, like SparkyStav who posted above offering the coilovers. He has a special turbo manifold, then all that goes from the turbo to the back of the car is an empty 3" diameter tube, which allows the exhaust to flow through the turbo much faster. If you did that on an NA car, it would be loud as hell! lol Because believe it or not, the turbo does dampen the sound slightly as the exhaust passes through the turbine.

In that case, what he's building you is known as a 'cat-back exhaust system' because the first box in the pipe (the short one at the front with the heat shield around it) is the main 'cat' so he is replacing everything from the 'cat' back.