J Henderson

The last set of tyres I bought had the new EU labels on them. The 2nd category rating is for wet grip, specifically braking performance. Not water/snow dispersal.

Welcome, and nice project. :) It looks like its TTE "Grand Prix" wheels that are on your car. 7.5 x 18 and ET50 offset. They were produced for Toyota by German company Artec.

Michelin Alpins here too and I fitted my Winter wheels last weekend. I work nights and rarely use my car during the day when the temperature is more likely to be above 7C, so it was beginning to make sense to get them on. I probably could've waited another couple of weeks to be honest, but they're pretty-much being used in their optimal temperature range all the time, even this early. Since I bought them back in June, I got my tyres for a bit of a bargain, plus the wheels (RX300 16's) were pretty cheap too. The alloys weren't in horrible condition, but since they'll be on the car for about 3-4 months, I wanted them to look pretty decent. So, I forked out to get them fully refurbished and powdercoated in gunmetal and treated them to a new set of IS-F centrecaps. I considered a DIY job using Plastidip, but once I started to measure up how much cost, time & work would be involved, it made more sense to leave it to the professionals. Total outlay for my winter setup was around £450, which imo, isn't bad considering everything is basically as new (the tyres have 6.5mm of tread remaining). If I didn't bother with the refurb, I would have spent less than £200. If anyone's interested, I'll take some pictures when I get a chance.

Same thing happened to my driver's side mirror glass, and I think the passenger side one is also on the way out as it has an area that stays clear and never darkens... Anyway, to remove the mirror glass only, there are no tools required. Just adjust the mirror angle all the way up until you can get your fingers under it and pull. Preferably in the middle as that's where it is clipped on. With a bit of patience and gentle force, it should come free. The top of the glass is held in place with hooks, so you just need to try and wiggle them out once the bottom part is unclipped. I gave up searching for a proper replacement and just bought a standard mirror glass as a quick fix to pass an MOT (the dyed/burnt damage on my mirror was pretty bad and would likely have been a fail). Presumably the replacement I got was from an earlier model though as the wiring/connector on the back was quite different. Since I didn't want to modify anything incase I could find a proper electrochromatic mirror further down the line, I just fitted the glass as is, with the heating function disconnected. Having a non-heated mirror in the middle of winter got old pretty quick, though. So, I bought a replacement glass from eBay to repair my original mirror. One of these; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370536210598 Once the old glass had been removed from the backing plate (which was a bit of a pain tbh as mine cracked into a million pieces during the process), the new one fitted on perfectly and looks OEM, with heating function intact.

I've been running 225s for a while. In a lot of cases, 225s are actually cheaper. Plus, there's a bigger choice available in that size, particularly high-end stuff. ie: Michelin Pilot Sports are unavailable in 215/45R17 fitment. In my experience you lose a little bit of responsiveness (acceleration, steering) compared to with 215/45R17, but the ride is improved since the slightly taller sidewall soaks up bumps and rough surfaces better. There's a small increase in grip, but that's only really noticable on greasy/wet roads or somethiing.

Definitely go with LEDs if you can as its such a cheap and effective mod. For £5 or so, they give the rear of the car a more modern look. Not the best photo and it wasn't particularly dark, but you get the idea. Normal bulbs would barely be visible in the same conditions. The hardest part about changing the bulbs for me was prying the holders loose since they're so tight (mine's were anyway). I was convinced they were going to snap or something but they're made of really hard plastic.

Pro-Kit will lower a car with standard suspension by 30mm. If you fit them to a Sport model, it'll only end up 15mm lower than "stock" since it's already 15mm lower from the factory. I've got a set waiting to go on my car, but haven't got around to it yet. I really need to get on top of that...

Demon Tweeks have K&N filters on special offer in their eBay store at the moment - http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_2068wt_1271

Eibach Pro-Kit. Will lower the car around 30mm without affecting the ride quality much since they're progressive rate springs and work well with OEM shocks. Quite expensive though as they retail for £200+

As stated, the adjuster is at the 6 o'clock position. Spin the hub until you can see it through one of the holes then turn the cog with a flat screwdriver. I once had this problem on an E30 BMW and it was because the springs and caps that hold the handbrake shoes in place had broken off.

Thanks for the tip. I tried this and I must say it seems to have worked a treat. ^_^ I didn't have a massive amount of slack, so I just nipped-up the nut a little; maybe a quarter turn at most, but it definitely made an improvement.

The SportCross looks great in white. Can't be too many of those about. :)

Only the dipped beam is HID. The rest of the lights are normal halogens.

Definitely don't pay too much. My RX wheels only cost me £82.

Yep, the LE is the only 1G-FE-engined model with those mirrors.

Yes, those electrochromatic mirrors are £300+ each for a replacement. When one of mine failed I just swapped it with a normal heated mirror as a stop gap...that was over a year ago, so I obviously haven't missed the auto-dimming function much. When my other one starts to go I'll just do the same again and replace it with a normal glass mirror.

You say that, but the irony is that US-spec cars don't have beeping instrument clusters. Plus, unlike here, their IS300 had a 5-speed manual option. :D My pet hates; - infamous knocking noise from front suspension/brakes/whateveritis - Gearbox whine - Clutch? I find it pretty hard to change the lower gears smoothly without a bit of a jolt or thud.

Those ebay bulbs are rated at 7500k, which will be pretty blue/purple-ish and not as effective as a lower temperature rating. They'll probably still be brighter than stock bulbs but 4300k will be a better bet if you're after the best possible performance and a "super white" output similar to factory HIDs. As for whether Xenon bulbs work...Yes they do. I've a pair of MTEC brand bulbs in my main beam and they're miles better than the normal Halogens and a good colour match for my HID dipped beam. I got them from http://www.hids-direct.co.uk/ but they also have an ebay store.

No chance. My first job as a 16 year-old was a trainee in a tyre & exhaust place and one of my lasting memories is the amount of remoulds that came back with problems like the steel cords poking through the tread and them being buckled out of shape etc. The failure rate seemed pretty high. They were also extremely heavy compared to a proper tyre and usually required loads of wheel weights to get them balanced. Absolutely horrendous in the wet too, by all accounts. That was 20-odd years ago, mind. So I'm sure the technology has improved since then. In fact, I'm certain it has, but I still wouldn't touch them.

I can't imagine it was a special deal for me personally, as I've only dealt with them a few times before, albeit on one occasion it was for a set of alloys. I would guess they maybe underestimated the painting costs when they done mine, so they've now bumped up the price to make sure it's actually worth their while doing another one. I dunno... If I was In your position, I think I'd just get the grille only for now since they come pre-painted in 1C0, and keep an eye out for a TTE bumper showing up at a later date.

Interesting...Lexus Birmingham sold me the lip spoiler very recently for less than that. When I asked, I was quoted £135 for the part and £150 to paint it, plus £25 for delivery. The total was then rounded down to £300. Since I'll never find one in my colour (1D2) out in the wild, I just went ahead and got it. I recieved it last week, roughly 2 weeks after I placed my order.

If you're going the spare set of wheels route, I'd recommend downsizing to 16" wheels shod with 205/55R16 for a Winter setup. - 205/55R16 has a very similar rolling radius to 215/45R17 so speedo reading will be unaffected. - It's one of the most popular sizes for Winter tyres so there's plenty of choice available and prices are way cheaper than 17" tyres. - The smaller wheel and taller sidewall will provide better traction & control in poor conditions. The narrower width will also help. Certain IS200 and 2nd-gen IS220d models came fitted with 16" wheels as standard and plenty of people dump them in favour of bigger ones, so a set of those can be bought quite cheaply. So too can the 16" alloys from an early model RX300. The RX wheels are probably the most desirable option. They're 5-spokes and look pretty damn good on an IS. After seeing this pic, I just had to find a set for myself and did a few months ago, along with some Michelins for them to wear. :)

Finding a genuine one will probably be hard, but good quality replicas can be had from eBay US. eg: http://www.ebay.com/...&prg=1005&rk=1

Congrats on the purchase. Is your car a manual? And is the whining mostly in gears 1-3? If so, then its probably nothing to worry about as it seems to be one of the IS's foibles. If you do a google search you'll find loads of people complaining about the same thing, even folks with nearly-new cars back in the day were affected. I don't think there's much to be done about it. As for the engine management light being on...Hmm, you maybe have a problem with one of the coil packs, but that's just a guess of course. As suggested, try and get someone with a code reader diagnose the fault properly.

Black here with white decals. Nice and subtle, which was exactly what I was looking for. For something more noticable though, I think Gold or Bronze would look good.