chrisyg

Back in the early 2000's I was heavily into the VW scene and had a mark 2 golf with a flush tailgate and solenoid release etc. Has anyone seen a 1st gen IS without the rear fogs? I think it looks quite good but your welcome to comment! Yes, as you can see I'm bored at work and back on photoshop again!!

Those lights look evil at night, bet people move out the way!! Good job though, your idea or did you see it somewhere?

Hi Ian, thanks for the info. That would certainly save a load of hassle, did you have LED fogs? Also did you still have a high level brake light in your rear spoiler? A thought is that I might remove my rear spoiler, I think the cars without look better from the rear. If I had no spoiler would the fog/break lights still pass an mot. I thought you had to have some sort of high level brake light?

Ok an OEM light opened up with LED's fitted interesting! It's definitely an Euro spec car as it has the washer jets!

Yeah the angel eyes are a Beemer thing but the DRL's started as an Audi thing before all the others jumped on the band wagon. I'm definately going to change my lights as one of them has gone quite yellow, the other one is still ok though, bit strange! The other mod that I really like is when the rear fogs become additional brake lights. I think the car came like that in Jap/Us markets looks wicked at night. Mot failure I know, as I would have to fit a high level/parcel shelf brake light (like the early 1st gen cars had) and an import style bolt on fog light to get It through. They would come straight off later on.

Yes weight does make a difference to cars, I've not had the pleasure of driving an IS200 but the 300 certainly feels a bit Lardy in the bends. Having said that I don't think either car is particularly heavy by today's standards. The dimensions of the car are fairly small as well when you park next to modern saloon cars you can really see it. IS200's do come with manual boxes which certainly is a plus but some people seem to be complaining about clutch judder, don't know if it's a problem.

I've always liked the look of the day running lights and I think they would go well with some smoked fogs! But each to their own I suppose.

One of the slightly appealing factors is the IS300 is its rarity. Having owned mine for nearly a year I have taken interest every 1st gen car i've seen and unbelievably i've only seen one other. If you look on autotrader sometimes there's only 4/5 for sale excluding sportcross models. Would I be right in thinking that lexus probably sold one IS300 for every hundred or so IS200 sold? I think you can tell the difference between and IS200 and IS300 by looking at the rear wheels, think the offset is slightly different. They seem to look like that anyway. Going back to the transmission thing if Lexus had sold manual IS300's here would you have been tempted?

Hi everyone, before deciding on how to modify my IS300 I thought I would get a photoshop picture to see how it would look. This was when I was thinking about a Matte Grey vinyl wrap. I have since decided it might look a bit chavvy and I would be better of with a re-spray. However the wheels/lights etc I am quite keen on, any one got any thoughts?

Yes its a great car loads better than I thought it would be. I was looking at 330i beemers when I bought mine absolutely no regrets what so ever. Its actually the first car that i've owned that I genuinely love driving. Everyone talks about what the IS300 does well but does anyone have any opinions on what it doesn't? For me its the handling, I just don't think you can leave it as it is. For any enthusiastic driver its just to soft, very comfortable though. On the dump valve noise I didn't really think there was much wrong with it as some of the guys on the American forums have talked about it!

Hi Everyone just a quick question. Why when I'm in a sub forum or posting I reply, do I lose the ability to click on the paper clip/choose files attachment to upload a photo? If I start a new topic then it comes back at the bottom of the screen. I want to attach a photo in a post within the Modifying and tuning section but cant do it. If I want to start a new topic then the paperclip thing returns at the bottom of the screen. I'm no expert on computers and cant seem to work it out? Hopefully this post makes sense but its not the easiest thing to explain!

Hi Matt, welcome to the club. Great looking car looks really clean. I think £3700 is a good deal especially with 53K on the clock. What's your plans for it? Any mods in the pipeline? I know you mentioned the wheels. Are you going keep it fairly standard?

Hi John just making sure that I stay on the gearbox topic i'm sure everything is fine the shifts are really quick and precise. The e-shift was really the reason the I bought the IS300 as I no longer wanted to drive a manual car. As I understand it its the same 5sp transmission used in all 6/8 cylinder lexus's up to 2005 so it must be strong box if its good enough for the V8's. With reference to the ISF i'm in a bit of a dilemma, my plan was to throw 5/6k at the IS300 getting to the way I want it i.e wheels/suspension styling mods such as LED's, DRL lights etc possibly even a colour change respray as I think the silver is bland. I would end up with great car and no doubt be very pleased with it. But with the purchase price of 4K, I would have invested about 10k into car that is still only going to be worth 4K. O.K they enjoyment of doing it would be great and it really interests me, but is it sensible? Or do I just bite the bullet and buy an ISF with the used values now dipping 25K its looks tempting. Yes insurance/petrol even road tax are a massive issue but if you want to drive a 400bhp car then you've got to pay for it. I'm not a wealthy guy, far from it, but I am seriously thinking about it. One other really massive issue is where do you actually drive the thing!!! I live in the Southampton area and live 2 miles from where I work. With police/speed cameras and busy roads do you have to wake up at 2am and just hope you don't get caught! I've honestly not really had a chance to push the limits on the IS300, i've certainly not had it up to top speed or anything like that. Anyway about that gear box thing!! Staying on topic of course ha ha!

Hi John thanks for your reply, it's like a rush of air or the sort of noise you hear if you quickly unscrew the lid on a slightly flat bottle of lemonade! The gearbox works great and the cars done less than 50k but one of the next jobs will be transmission fluid as it's not included in the 10yr service that I recently had done! The diff oil however was included which seems a bit strange. Is the transmission oil change a difficult/expensive job and how often should it be done? My cars on a 03 plate so 10yrs old with full main dealer history. Would it have been part of a previous service? If anyone online your opinions/thoughts on the dump valve noise would be appreciated! If it's needs a new gearbox I will just get rid and just get an ISF on finance :)

Hi everyone, just wanted to know if anyone else's IS300 makes a dump valve type noise on up shifts. It normally happens when the transmission is under load/hard acceleration. I had a JCW mini before the lexus and it sounds a bit like that on gear changes. The gear box in the IS300 is one of the highlights of the car and mine is silky smooth and operating well but I was wondering about this noise? Should I be concerned?

Can't help you on that one I'm afraid! But welcome anyway, I've just joined too. Everyone on here seems really nice and you will be surprised how quickly you get replys to your questions. What were you doing posting at 4am this morning, couldn't sleep? One thing I can tell about the alarms on IS 200/300 assuming they are the same. Is if you leave a phone/ iPad in the car and it's on your driveway in reach of your house wifi it will set the alarm off if you get any emails etc. It took me about five times in the middle of the night to work out what it was. The neighbours loved it!

Yes 19" look fantastic, I really want to get some but I just couldn't live with it if they were scraping on full lock and rubbing over bumps. Everyone who has fitted 19" seems to have made some of compromise either just living with the rubbing, rolling the arches or not lowering the car! I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has genuinely fitted 19" and slightly lowered the car with no real issues! My car is used daily for about 12000 a year and it would just wind me up if things weren't right. I am a bit of a perfectionist / boarder line OCD with things! The wheels that I am thinking of getting are the TSW Brooklands in Matt black, would love to go 19x8 but I will probably bottle it and just go for 18x8. The TSW badge will remove from the middle and I will order some lexus badges for the OEM look. I would cut and paste a photo of the wheels into the this box but I can't work out how to do it on my I pad! If anyone knows the wheels or has any opinion on them that would be most welcomed? Thanks in advance

Thanks guys, not just me then! When I get the suspension done I guess it's a trip up too Wheels In Motion. Just realised that I spelt 'ware' instead of 'wear' at the start of thread, slightly embarrassing for my first few posts!

Thinking about it, I did have it mot'ed, new multi belt and front/rear brake pads. That probably went someway justifying the price. Any Toyota dealer in theory should be fine to work on the car. If you went in with a late model Supra they wouldn't hesitate. As for the engine diagnostics you would imagine that the fault code readers for Toyota/Lexus would also be very similar. Many Toyota lexus dealers share the sale retail sites and workshop facilities! I expect it's the same guys that work on both.

Hi everyone! I had two new front tyres fitted 5k miles ago because the previous ones had worn the very inner edge out. It's right on the corner and 80% of the tyre still looked new. The tyre fitter said it would be the tracking, he fitted the two fronts and did the tracking. The new tyres he has fitted have done the exactly the same thing?? Is it still incorrectly tracked or something more sinister? I'm not running big wheels just the standard 17s with 205 50 rubber. The car is still on standard suspension and has not been lowered. I do however have an increasingly loud knocking noise from the front end somewhere which I've put down to a worn ball joint/s or anti roll bar bushes. Could the knocking noise be in someway related to the tyre ware? I wouldn't have thought so but any help/suggestions would great! The suspension really let's the is300 down in my opinion and mine is clearly seen better days. I am planning a major refitt including shocks/springs and anti roll bars front and rear. I will go for Eibach or Tein stuff which should transform the car.

Hi Phil as your driving a 2001 car the lexus dealer will want to carry out the 10yr service, providing it hasn't already been done! Cambelt, water pump etc will cost around £950, more if you want new plugs and transmission oil. That's what Lexus hedge end (Southampton) charged me, then didn't fill my car up with enough coolant so I had to go back as it was running hot! I drive an is300 2003 year with full history 45000 miles.

Hi how are you doing, I've just joined myself and this is my first post! I've got an IS300 had it about 1 year and I am going to embark on a process of improvement and modification. Hence the reason for joining! Hopefully pick up some valuable information from people who have experience with the is200/300.