krisby1

hmm, the wife has been saying her car is noisy when cold too, so tonight I went out and had a listen, and sure enough there is a noise, wouldn't describe it as a squeal though, but definitely disappears when clutch pressed, and apparently stops when cold, so she tells me. I don't think clutch is end of life though as the bite point is mid range. Having the car fixed over christmas whilst we away though, had a failed attempt at the timing belt in August, so leaving it with the mechanic again to try less common ways of getting the crank bolt off, but will get him to replace fluid with MT-90 whilst he has it, I'm hoping that will get rid of the whine and smooth out the 1-2 notchiness, but I don't expect it to get rid of this odd whine at idle in neutral, but I'll let you know if it does.

£30 from empty might show as just below half, but the way gauges work it won't be half, put it this way, £1.40 ish per litre, on a 70 litre tank, means 35 litres is half, so £30 is only getting you about 21-22 litres, way down on half a tank. The wife puts £50 a time in hers, thats about 36 litres, and she only gets about 160-180 miles, about the same I get from my 528, if she was getting near 28mpg the guy above claimed we'd be over the moon, that would save us about £50 a month.

Wasn't directed at me was it? I didn't use Tony, I went to a local garage, they had all specs on computer, more than just alignment, I believe they did caster, toe and camber, took them just over an hour as everything was so far out, I don't know how the previous owner put up with it, unless they only did town driving where it was not as noticeable. I'm just surprised it is so hard to find a tyre shop in the UK that does a full wheel alignment, in NZ that is all we have, I was astonished when the first 2 garages said they only do the fronts. Unless its because NZ has a higher proportion of RWD cars with the myriad of Falcons, Commodores, Skylines, Chasers etc, but then the UK has more than enough Lexi, BMW, Mercs etc as well, so go figure.

I might be able to find the print out at home, but any decent garage should have it on computer anyway. Plus, garages do a 4 wheel alignment, the 1st two places I went to only did fronts, but as its RWD I really wanted the backs done too, and just as well, as the fronts were turning the car left, and the backs were turning the car right.

Of a smaller capacity engine you mean? I've not driven a supercharged engine, I was considering a Merc CLK with a supercharger for the Mrs, but reviews showed the Mercs to be woeful on reliability and rust, so opted for the Lexi instead, but yeah, I do understand that the power delivery is meant to be constant with a supercharger, unlike the sudden woomph of a turbo. My Cedric Cima turbo was awful, either on or off, as was my Skyline GT Turbo, but my old Ovlov 850T was pretty progressive through the whole range, those Swedes know how to tune a turbo.

To be fair though, that is not supercharging, that is just induction. And of course a bigger engine should produce more power, all depends on how efficient the engine is in converting the mixture to heat, i.e fuel and air detonation, air mixture, spark plugs, fuel quality, exhaust tuning, ECU mapping, compression ratio, rev limit, all play a big part. Heck, in NZ I had a 2.5L V6 in my 1995 Mitsi Diamante, put out 200bhp, and later I had a 1998 Mitsi Legnum 2.5 V6, but different engine, this only produced 160bhp. Some engines are tuned for low torque, some for top end power, some mid range punch, my 1999 528i seems to be progressive everywhere, low, mid and top end is all strong, the wifes IS quite weak low down, my old 2.3 V5 Toledo had 170bhp, not much more than an IS, but it was soooo much quicker, poop off a shovel in every gear. The wifes old 1.8 NA Seat Toledo was gutless everywhere, and drank petrol worse than the IS, obviously hugely inefficient in power and burning fuel. Had a Honda Inspire 2.5 straight 5 in NZ too, more low down power than the Diamante V6, but crap midrange, and once up and running, way down on power compared to the Diamante. Another comparison is my 1998 1.6 Vitara jeep I had at work, pulled harder and faster than my colleagues equivalent 2.0 Vitara, but then I think his had been molly coddled as it struggled to rev beyond 5000rpm, as did mine when I first got it, but after a daily push to redline eventually the engine freed up and my Vitara was a much better car to drive, I reckon even since I've had my 528 it has freed up from daily visits to 6k. Engines are funny things, and how they are tuned, as well as numerous other factors all impact their performance and power delivery. But please, saying that your bigger bore cylinders in the 300 is like a supercharger is crazy talk, its the way the engine was designed, and your car would be no more a supercharger than an is200, just because it is compressing more at combustion than an is200, does not make it a supercharger. Superchargers run an intake powered by the engine off the crankshaft that draw air in and direct, or squeeze the air between spinning rotors to compress it, increasing the density of air over what standard induction can do. It does help the 300 that is has the Supra engine though, but I suspect at a lower compression ratio, as I believe the "GL" models had the non turbo, and faster models with turbos, I haven't looked into it, but I would have thought that turbo'ed versions would run lower compression ratios than turbo ones. Out of interest too, the toyota altezza with the yamaha tuned red tops are only 2L fours, but they rev to 7500 and make 209bhp.

Noby does, atleast his signature says he has a TTE installed. He has an IS300 with a TTE bodykit on it, not a TTE supercharger (and correct me if I'm wrong someone please, the TTE developed supercharger kit only fits the 1G-FE in the IS200, and not the 2JZ-GE in the IS300) my apologies, you are right, and it does only say TTE kitted, not a TTE supercharger...and, no TTE s/c for the 2JZ, my haste caused me to go stupid momentarily.

Noby does, atleast his signature says he has a TTE installed.

Hahaha knoby. You are too funny! (ps, I'm not a mechanic, so there's no danger of me replacing valves on a customers car - but your concern is sweet) Ok, tell you what - if you want to feel that your car has a supercharger "like" engine, then please do so. It actually only makes is funnier to me! :D I don't quite understand your animosity regarding this, he was only pointing out what Lexus said, whether he believes it is neither here nor there, he was just passing on what they say about their own systems, whether the two systems are similar or completely different is irrelevant, lexus made a simile to try and make people understand in a very basic way how the effect of the potential increase in induction may feel, they were not quoting it as fact or describing exactly how it works. Besides all that, he does have a supercharger on his car, so I would hope it does feel like he has a supercharger. But I would disagree with Lexus anyway, not based on your reasoning though, I would not choose their term to explain the increase in power, instead, it is what I would expect as speed and engine speed increases, more air is sucked in naturally and power is increased, that is how BHP is achieved. This car feels no different in its power delivery to any other NA I've owned, from 1.6L 4s, to 3L V6s, or even my current 528, which has a very progressive power delivery, I don't feel the effect that the double vanos offers, or atleast, there is no sudden increase in power as is normally claimed on this type of tech, the only time I've felt a kick in the butt is on turbo'ed cars (never had the pleasure of owning supercharged cars.)

defo geometry, my wifes IS200 had the same thing, following it in my car I could see it was crabbing. I had a full geometry done on it and £125 later it is set up beautifully. Everything was out, and some things were WAAAYYY out, like negative camber on one side and positive on the other, like it was set up for Nascar.

I would say it will probably settle down after you next drive it. I wouldn't worry too much, just wait until the light comes on, until then enjoy the free fuel. :P My 528 did a similar thing this week, even though I parked on a level surface, it doesn't seem to have gone down much, or what I would expect, in the last 52 miles, and I am sure what I saw when I got to work yesterday and when I left last night, it was slightly higher, but then I know it will catch up between now and empty, as it normally does. OBC saying 150 miles to empty still, which is unbelievable after 78miles and only £50 of super, unless the cooler weather is giving me a significantly better mpg.

my wife only gets about 22.4 mph in her manual 200, over a 5.5mi journey through traffic and atleast 20 sets of traffic lights, so perhaps not so bad, but still pretty poor from a 2.0L, when my 528 auto gets 24mpg on my daily commute into London.

This happened to me in the wifes car last month, but the mat was not near the pedal, the pedal on our car doesn't even touch the mat. The pedal stuck down for a good few seconds before popping off itself again, by then I had turned the ignition off though. I warned the wife and told her to be careful, but she said she doesn't generally put her foot to the floor anyway. Then, the week after it did happen to her, same thing, it stuck down after she floored it to get ahead of some ***** head, as she was slowing down to the side of the road the pedal popped off and back to normal of its own accord. I've had a look and it appears all fine, but I did spray WD40 on the pedal shaft and let it seep through the firewall. Its not happened since but then I don't either of us have floored it. It does appear to be a recall, or atleast something to do with the brake pedal sticking, I did email Lexus Twickenham, twice, but have not had a reply from them (so much for legendary customer service), so I will get wife to call them in a vulnerable and scared way.

Was looking forward to taking the wifes IS200 Sportcross to Cornwall last Saturday week, I fuelled up the night before, checked all fluids, read for any codes with my bluetooth OBD2 reader, all sorted, and left OBD2 plugged into monitor the car on the way down. So Saturday morning, loaded up the car, locked house, all set, started car, and ABS light was flashing, drove it up the road, still didn't clear, read for codes, nothing coming up, damn it! so we swapped everything over to my car for the trip instead. Been bugging me all week that I would have to get an ABS sensor, but for which wheel? checked again when I got home, still no codes. Removed ODB2 bluetooth reader, light still flashing. Turned off engine, restarted, no light, when round the block, no light, hmmm, so it seems the stupid reader seems to conflict with the ECU and cause the ABS light to flash, atleast if left in for extended periods of time, maybe just leaving it for that night caused problems. Oddly though, I leave my ELM327 plugged in all the time in the Tolly V5 without issue (except last winter when I went on holiday and came back to a flat battery, doi!). So anyway, just a wee story in case anyone else gets ABS issues and has a bluetooth OBD plugged in constantly.

only name ours if the number plate allows it, unfortunately my Toledo V5 and the wifes IS200 have crap plates that don't really allow anything. Stepsons focus is called Bottom though.

he says he can do that, but if something breaks, its at my expense not his. He says as he has tried so many things he is worried the bolt will simply sheer off. I might try lexus and see if they would be liable if they broke it.

Took car in for cambelt replacement this morning, had a call this afternoon saying he couldn't get pulley bolt off, but would keep trying. He called back again just before 5 saying it won't budge, even tried a mobile coach wheel service chap, with a 500L compressor, and still couldn't budge it. He's tried all sorts and nothing works, he says he can try more drastic measures but he is worried he might sheer the bolt, or cause other damage. On the plus side he reckons the belt is ok, but as it stands, it would need to go to perhaps Lexus and if they are prepared to take all responsibility for any damage they may cause trying to fix it, something I may consider, otherwise I might run it a few months then trade it in I think.

I think smoothness is the key, but I tend to use a mix of high revs and pootling, I'm happy to floor it up to 2nd then plop it into 5th, but I'm defo not a shortshifting **** that changes up at 1500 rpm in every gear, taking 500m to get to 30mph, the way I see it is that the quickest you get to your chosen speed the better, within reason of course, I mean, no point accelerating for 20 seconds, when you can do the same in 5 seconds and then just burble along. Plus, your engine will thank you for it, don't strangle the poor thing, I know my engine feels better now than it did 6 months ago because it gets a daily dose of the 5000s, and often the 6000s too. Yet I average 27.2 at present, which ain't bad on a V5, and my daily commute into Shepherds Bush involves a fair proportion of stop start traffic. EDIT: oops, thought I was on the Seatcupra forums, but then the same applies to the IS200 as well, atleast the way I drive it, not sure the wife is the same. Though I tend to drive slightly different in the IS as well, 1st gear is too short, and the clunk into 2nd more pronounced at high revs. Not sure what averaging in mpg at the moment as only had it 3 weeks, but I think about 26 if my maths is correct. I tend not to race it the same way from lights as my V5 as it makes a lot of noise for not much speed.

Mine was £25 per wheel. Still excessive though, but I guess I am used to NZ, where every tyre shop has a laser wheel alignment set up, and it only costs <$100 (£50), I guess the benefit of more competition.

I know, and that is what they do, a refurb, and powder coat, special painting, i.e. metallic or two colours is extra I believe, and the price assumes multiple wheels, single wheels carry a £5 surcharge. The before and after wheels they had on display were a good example of what they did, not that the wifes wheels are as bad as the one they had on show.

my local tyre place quoted me £69 a wheel to refurb yesterday. I've got two sets, so I might slowly get one set done, then a second set to sell on ebay.

Took it to ATS first and they only do the front end, I said no good to me as felt like the rears were out. When I took it to Feltham Tyre Services they said the IS has full adjustment front and rear so the price was dependant on how much adjustment was needed, I watched the guy and he was playing around at the back for atleast 30 minutes, then about 20 on the front. Did seem like a lot of money but had difficulty finding a place that did full geometry near me and just wanted it done for our drive to Cornwall next weekend. I tried Sunbury tyres in January on another car and they had a queue of 5 so said to come back in 2 hours, then they had a queue of 4, waited an hour and still 4, so I told them to sod off and start operating a booking system instead of wasting peoples afternoons. Shame I didn't know about FTS then, closer and better service.

since getting the car had noticed the car felt a little...wandery, at speed, with a hint of rear wheel steering feel, decided a full geometry alignment was in order. Results today showed the two front wheels camber were the same way, i.e. both were leaning to the right, causing it to want to track left. Then the rear toe in was causing the back to push right, so that explains a lot. Odd though, the transmission whine in 1st is louder now, like bearings, so I wonder if the slight shift in geometry is putting pressure on the rear diff, I'll see if it quietens down. About to drop my daughter for a night out at the olympics volleyball, so I'll see how it sounds this time. Oh yeah, and a grand old cost of £120.

oh, big huge DOI! the mechanic, and myself, could not fit the wheel in last night, I just went out now and it fit in, snug, but it fits, so I have no idea how we couldn't do it, I wonder if the wheels were oval yesterday....

ok, now I'm real confused. Having done some scouring last night it looks some people with Altezza Gita have the same problem, but I would have thought they are all built in the same platform with different badges and spec, not changing the size of the wheel well. The Mrs has taken it to work today but I'll check it again tonight. I've ordered a 16" space saver though, so hopefully that atleast fits, though not ideal.