matt-c

I'd pay in the region of £20-£25 for a pair already painted and ready to go, but I won't pay the £50 that's asked for them. So if they are still available, that's great, as I'd be up for a pair

Only reporting what I've been told.

IS200 headlight; IS300 headlight; Alongside the visual difference where the indicator is (the 200 had a rectangular orange filter which is separate from the chrome shroud - the 300 had a different shaped shroud, with no orange filter, but instead had an orange bulb, and the front lens has different patterning to disperse the light differently), the 300 headlights were also equipped with xenon bulbs and ballasts. The ballasts fit into the bottom of the headlight housing, which means the housing itself is a different shape to accommodate this, and because the bulbs are different (D2R on the 300, HB4 on the 200), the back of the headlight is also different, with the low beam bulb not being visible as it's covered by a large cap rather than the bulb sticking out the back of the headlight. Now, if you look closely at the two headlights above, you'll see the ridge pattern in the low beam reflector is different - the 200 has many ridges, the 300 has less. This is to counter the amount of light thrown upwards with the more powerful xenon bulbs that came as standard on the 300. In terms of fitting, there's conflicting advice as to whether the wings themselves differ between the 200 and 300 - some say they do, others say they don't. I guess I won't know for sure without having one of each car next to me, and I try swapping the lights out on both. But what is certain is that the panel beneath the headlight is a different shape, to allow room for the ballast fitted to the 300 headlight, and the mounting points in the wheel arch are slightly different too. (it's worth noting at this point, that the late model IS200 LE's also had xenon equipped headlights. I'm pretty sure they were actually IS300 headlights, and that means they also have the chassis differences noted above) Here's some images of the differences between 200 and 300 headlights; This is the back of a 300 headlight; And the back of a standard 200 headlight; Notice where the low beam bulb goes, the housing is extended on the 300 headlight, in order to fully encase bulb inside it when the cap is on. Here you can see the insert/shroud of a 300 headlight - both with an without the indicator bulb filter (not the best pic - this is someone spraying theirs black); This is the insert/shroud and orange filter from a 200 headlight. You can see the indicator area is a completely different shape, as is the filter; And this is the bare front lens of a 200 headlight, where you can see the difference in the patterning in the indicator area; I could be wrong, but I think the IS300 has a completely clear, pattern free, front lens, and the indicator light dispersal is taken care of by the internal clear "filter" that has the patterning on it. The 200 outer lens has a slightly ribbed section (inside) where the orange filter lines up with, and above and below has a dimpled effect (inside) that allows you to see the chrome inside, but doesn't highlight it. And this is an IS200 LE with what looks to me to be the same headlights as an IS300 - http://www.evansautos.co.uk/files/7713/9533/9497/A_2.JPG So there you go, there are more differences than meet the eye between 200 and 300 headlights. As for the original question, you're looking at either eBay or breakers really. At least with this info you have a better chance while sifting through eBay as most of the listings say the lights are for both 200 and 300 when they actually aren't. Your other bet is this guy;

I haven't got any monopoly money, but I think my mum still has the board game at her house, so I could go "borrow" some of that!

No you don't

None

Not anymore you can't. Ricky bought all the remaining stock from Lexus/Toyota, and charges £50 a pair for them now.

That's possibly the most chauvinistic post I've ever seen... But to kind of answer your question, I've changed three IS300h windscreens, and two of those were owned by women.

Like Nigel just said - using the amp bypass cable retains use of all standard speakers. And yes, it means the stock amp is no longer in use.

If you're fitting an aftermarket headunit, it's pointless using the stock amp, as you're new headunit will have an onboard amp, meaning you'll have to use pre-outs to connect to the stock amp. Just get the amp bypass cable, which connects the speaker harnesses to the new headunit's ISO harness, effectively by-passing the stock amp (hence why it's called an amp bypass cable), allowing you to keep the standard speakers.

The Lancia Delta Integrale Evo is high up in my list of cars I'd love to own! Especially in yellow...

Mike's right - the glass is bought in, and made by one of the major manufactures, such as Pilkington, Saint Gobain, etc. The dealer logo is added, often in place of the actual manufacturers logo, for screens that are ear-marked for dealer stock. The remaining glass is etched with the manufacturers logo. Just because the glass in your car has Lexus logos, doesn't mean it's the original glass - in some cases, dealer sourced glass will be used by replacement companies, for various reasons (replacements early in a vehicles production life, dealer implied restrictions on glass sourcing, insurance/account stipulations, customer request, lack of non dealer stamped stock, etc). So it's entirely possibly that a replacement company replaced a screen on a car using dealer glass and it all looks factory - after removing the rear seats from my car recently, I found remnants of broken glass from the back screen. I checked the back screen and it's a dealer glass. Not surprising as my car spent the first few years of it's life as a Lexus employee company car. In regards to the trim, the factory wouldn't have let the car leave with a cut and glue-joined trim, so this is simply another clue that the windscreen had previously been replaced by a replacement company at some point using a dealer glass, as is the wind noise.

Here's a perfect example. I've just driven for an hour to do a Porsche Boxster, but sadly Mr Porsche isn't getting done today - despite the fact I took two screens with me, just in case. The result of the questions asked, the info provided was; has rain sensor, no top tint, no aerial, no GPS. In actual fact, the screen he has; no rain sensor, does have top tint, does have aerial, no GPS. So I guess 1 out of 4 isn't bad - must be my or my company's fault it's wrong...

Ouch!

I'd like to go LED, but I haven't found seen or been recommended an LED replacement for a halogen that actually even performs as good as a halogen, without costing 10x as much. Can you recommend me an LED replacement for a halogen HB3 that out performs a halogen HB3 in both longevity and visual performance?

Osram Nightbreakers are just 55w 12v halogen bulbs, so fully legal. Because they are halogen they don't need warm up time that xenon bulbs do, and the better pattern and non-blinding is down to the fact, again, they're halogen and not xenon (halogen and xenon bulbs do not give different light patterns; its the reflector that gives the light pattern. The only difference is that xenon bulbs are generally unto 300% brighter, so they show up the "problems" of reflector bowl light dispersal). Osram claim their bulbs are an extra 10% brighter, up to 40 m longer beam of light, and up to 20 % whiter light (all compared to standard halogen lamps). But they don't say why their 55w halogen bulbs are brighter, throw further, and are whiter than other 55w halogen bulbs... I was thinking about going for Nightbreakers as my high beam bulbs, but I think I'll not bother reading they don't last long, especially at their price (£23+ for a pair of HB3's!!!)

Take it to a mechanic

Reg numbers won't do anything fro deciphering what windscreen is in a vehicle. Sadly, even chassis numbers are not linked to a database with full specs, let alone windscreens. All we can go on are the available options, and the customer knowing what they have. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. On some cars, this isn't a problem. For example, the original shape Ford Focus - there are only two types of screen; green non heated, and green heated. However, there are two different heated screens, with a change over year. So all we need to know from the customer is if it's heated or not, and we work it out from the change over year. This only becomes a problem if the vehicle is a late registered model, although we can usually pre-empt this by asking if the indicators are in the bumper or the headlights. We still sometimes get it wrong, 1) because customers give the wrong info, and 2) because that's the problem with having multiple options on modern cars. Did you know that for the Jaguar X-Type there are 16 different windscreens combinations? Nope, neither do the owners. Lexus also have multiple combinations for windscreens - only recently I went to a CT200h (64 plate) with the wrong screen. His was acoustic with rain sensor, but he told us it had an aerial in the glass. When I got there it didn't. As for colour, half my customers think that windscreens are clear! (when in actual fact very very few cars have clear glass - the Skoda Fabia is actually the only car of recent years I can think off the top of my head that still has clear glass). Typically, UK cars have green glass, although some special models have blue glass (Golf GTi, Mondeo Titanium X), but also many models have what's called "clear solar", which you may have noticed by the distinctive "purplish" petrol effect tinge. Japanese imports are usually grey or bronze, although old UK spec Ford's also had bronze glass (mk1 Sierra, mk3 Escort for example). See how it can get confusing? Add into that rain sensors, light sensors, rain & light sensors (combined, Merc do this a lot), infra red cameras, lane departure cameras, cctv/traffic cameras, new Fords that have road sign detecting cameras, heated screens that can be fully heated or only wiper heated, acoustic and non acoustic, nano-rain treated windscreens, the list goes on. It's not simple like it used to be! NW are indeed a windscreen company, but I wouldn't expect them to be able to identify the exact windscreen specification over the phone with the answers you gave them. Just as I wouldn't expect British Gas to tell me what boiler I have if I say "it's white and square". Spend a week with a windscreen fitter - it's harder than you think ;)

Hardly NW's fault - they can only go on the information given by the customer; "Is it an acoustic screen? - dunno Is it an antenna screen? dunno Is it grey tinted - think so Has it got rain sensitive wipers? - yes" I suggest when buying a part for the car, to have the correct information to hand when asked. If you don't, check it and call them back. You'd be amazed how giving the correct specs cuts down getting wrong parts.

I'd really like to see some wide arches, maybe in the style of the E30 M3 Or possibly the still-daddy-of-them-all Escort Cosworth;

I didn't even know you could do that Dave! I learned something new today as well!

Can't help there - never even looked to see where they are, let alone removed them

Sounds like the internal cable linking the handle in the front and the boot catch in the back. Remove the carpet lining from the boot lid - you don't need to remove it completely, it folds in half. So just remove the two screws from the pull handle, and 10 or so of the black plastic push-fit clips and you can bend it down to get access to the boot lock, which is held on by two 8mm nuts. Can't tell you how to get access to the handle in the front, but I'd imagine it involves lifting the carpet. Check these two points for problems - unless the cable has broken somewhere along it's length, I'd imagine the problem with exist at either the two end points, and could simply be the cable ball end has popped out the catch or handle, or part of either has broken.

What Mike said - get it over to WiM and have it done properly

Saw this on Facebook a couple days ago