Raymond.

Right, time to install my Parrot car kit into the new car and thought I'd take some pictures along the way. (bad ones to add)..... Excuse the bad quality pictures, they were taken with a phone and it has been pelting it down all day not to mention how dark it was today. I've done a write-up on this before but on a different car. See here. The car is an IS200 Sport from 2001. It might differ from newer or older models but I doubt it. What you need: 1x IS200/300 1x Parrot MKi9200 kit 1x Sensible person that doesn't do this on a cold rainy day in December! Tools used: (not many) 1x Plastic stick 1x Philips screwdriver 1x 10mm socket and wrench 2x Plasters It was raining today, more like it was pelting it down! I took the gazebo from the hot tub and parked the car under it to keep dry. How dinky does it look compared to the 5? First thing to remove is the top of the centre dash. Stick a plastic stick as shown in the picture and the same on the other side. Now grab the unit and pull forwards to remove. Next thing is the panel with the heated seat buttons in. This just pulls out. Next is the radio/cassette/CD and climate panel. There are four bolts holding it in. Two at the top and two at the bottom. Undo them and disconnect the two plugs from the climate unit followed by the stereo ones. This has cleared some room so the first thing I installed was the AUX input cable which is going to live in the armrest cubby. For that the middle console needs to come out and the cubby removed to be able to drill a neat hole. There are six screws holding the whole assy in. The leather gaiter for the handbrake just pulls up and off. Then the middle console just pulls out towards the back of the car. With the cubby out drill a 20mm hole and feed the cable through. Mr. Lexus was expecting this as he left some handy holes to attach cable ties to. The middle console can now go back in and the next thing is the microphone which is going to live just above the rear view mirror. Take off the sun visor by undoing marked screws and unplug the vanity light plug. Next is the map reading light and sunroof controls panel. This just pos off and then there's two screws holding it in. Clip the microphone in and run the cable over the roof lining down towards the A-pillar. Use plenty of cable ties and secure it to the existing wiring already there. Next of is the SOT lead (more like SOD lead as there's NO room in these cars) Plug it into the AMP (this is where the plasters come in) and the AMP plug into the SOT. Connect the yellow wire straight from the Parrot box to the MUTE on the SOT as a secondary mute or the rear speaker will still be playing music when the Parrot kit is in use. Cable tie everything to avoid rattles etc. The blue wire from the SOT goes to any IGN. I chose the cigar lighter as it is easy accessible and it's cold outside... Stick a fuse in just in case! The Parrot control box just fits above the climate panel and I mean just.. Tidy up your mess and grab a beer! I wanted the display on the top centre dash but I'm likely to retrofit OEM NAV next summer so it's gone underneath next to the ashtray. The display clears the ashtray flap so that can still be used for storage. And the cubby to plug the kids iPods in. Hopefully this might be any use to any of you...

It might be coincidence Chris. I'm not sure and it could be a possibility but I'm thinking if you take it round the track on a track day then the brakes get rather hot too and don't let tyres down. I had this a few times and had the rim cleaned up on the inside and been fine after. Could just be corrosion of the alloy inside. Hope you get this sorted soon!

Cheers Chris, I'll have a look through his recent posts. Painting the callipers will be a dry weather job. Probably when we're abroad with it next year as all I've seen here is rain...

Cheers Chris, Did you post a list of all bulb type/sizes lately. I might have to get some LED's now Like the callipers but I don't know what colour to paint them. Blue, black, silver or red. On my last car I painted them silver. Not too 'loud' but it looked clean.

Looks like a nice day to be doing things to the car today.......... Looks like the hot tub gazebo is going to function as a make shift garage again...

Can't these be cleaned up at all? I had similar problems on a few Rovers years and years back

The blue dials look really nice indeed. I take it that the bulbs for the radio and climate are white and have orange film behind the LCD so can't be changed? Not a fan of the Audi DRL I want to be a Christmas tree light tbh....

It think the next step will be a GS300 but it'll have to wait a while as I've just bought this IS not long back. Misses is next for a new car...

That makes me thing the solenoid or switch is not working correctly. This needs to be sorted as I hate it when things aren't perfect! Hopefully something will show tomorrow unless someone comes up with a fix for it.

It's pretty bad I'd say off such a small engine. Some consolation for me is that I had a 740i before (BMW E38 7-Series 4.4L) and that was bad on fuel.

Blimey, I feel like I'm going backwards fast.. Still like the car but there's quite a few things that aren't there or are not possible to code in. Like the selective locking, adaptive locking, auto windows all round and sleep mode. Oh and folding mirrors with IGN off.. Rant over.....

I read that thread earlier yeah. Everything is in place though. Strangely enough the interior lights work fine. I say fine but the interior light comes on when I unlock the car and goes off when IGN is turned but when IGN is turned off it doesn't turn back on until you open the door?

That would be odd. If the car is locked and I press the boot unlock button I'd expect the boot light to come on. I'm sure the boot light was still off when the driver door was open and interior light was on. There is no warning on the dash to say the boot is open either.

Cheers Steve, I'll have a look tomorrow as I'm trying to fit the fog to brake light thing so all has to come off anyway. I'll report back my findings.. :)

Yeah the boot light is there. Cheap basket type thingy.. It doesn't show the door open light on the dash either when the boot is open.

My boot light doesn't work. Found various topics on here but no solution. The door open light on the dash does not come on when the boot is open so either the boot switch or actuator is at fault. Can't see anything obvious under the lining of the lid and there's a connector that I don't know of what it is. The connector is in the middle of the picture Any idea's? I'd like to have a boot light.

Happy Christmas people and drive safe over the festive season!

I don't use the motorway very often either. it does two 6 mile round trips to school everyday and the odd Tesco run. We do take it out when we all go out as misses's car only has two doors. The Celica we have is returning 40+ MPG and seems to run on air. It's only a 1800cc 4-pot but still..

I'm on 190 summit miles from full and it's 1 line below half. All town driving all below 50MPH It's as bad as the BM... But then being twice as small.....

Welcome along. Good luck with your search and enjoy your stay. Only been on here a few weeks and I think I like it.

Some people are just greedy... B) Always loved the MR2's in that shape. My misses wanted one as well but a two seater with two kids is a no go. Got a Celica instead. I know the LS is a big car but it looks HUGE next to the MR2 in that picture Very nice indeed!

Luckily everything was done before I bought it. Fitted new mats, that's all I've done to it so far... :)

I think they changed some tensioners with the cambelt and water pump for that 499 but ridiculous still. There's loads of receipts in the wallet with staggering numbers all from Lexus and Toyota main dealers. I need some aeros under mine but it won't be anytime soon. Need to save pennies to pay and build a 2nd 'shed' first. Might gather some more bits for the service today.

Cheers Chris, I'll be doing the servicing myself to save some pennies. It has done 96K with FSH and I can't see it adding any value (if there is) to the car if I get Lexus to service it. I was quite shocked to find an invoice for £499 from Lexus in the service history just to change the cambelt and water pump. Also wanted to ask you what TTE is. I know it's Toyota Team Europe but is it the body kit name on 200 's as well? No idea what mine is apart from Sport..

Chris, Do I need special tools to do this or just ordinary stuff?