andykao

So i have just one key for my car (and it's the gray one, without the remote buttons). Want to get a new pair of keys, that won't cost as much as the actual car Where i live, people can only copy they key + chip (without the remote) for around 100-120 EUR. So i'm thinking, i already have techsteam + the correct obd adapter, i believe i can code the chip and remote to my car, all i need is to get the key itself cut (that won't be a problem). The problem i'm facing is that i could not find any proper info on what type of chip or remote i need. So far i found chip : TP05, TPX5, 4D68, 4C key fob frequency : 433 or 314, 315, 304mhz? Not sure what sort of blanks i need to get as there are tons of models and as with chinese stuff, descriptions are very confusing.

Looking for a set of decent and cheap coilovers for my first gen IS200 - i'm thinking about TEIN Street Advance Z or similar. Also looking for a supercharger, mounting bracket and pulley. Might also be interested in an LSD and solid (single mass) flywheel.

i know the 1g-fe engine is crap and it's already maxed out on power. love the is200 and would like to keep it running but it really needs more power. i have changed all the bushings and suspensions, now i only have to deal with the engine and exhaust. i'm looking for a cheap and easy way to make more power, i'm looking to get at least 250 bhp but the more the better. i'm not in the UK, i'm in continental europe, but i guess the same options apply when it comes to lhd/rhd. here are my options : 1. keeping the 1g-fe and adding a turbo or supercharger - cost will be around 2k Euros, i'll probably set it up myself and even source the parts separately, so i'm looking at a cost of around 1k which is decent. bad part is, when getting around 250 bhp, i'll have to build the engine (forged rods at least) and that's gonna be another 2k 2. 1JZ or 2JZ swap - will be generating more power than the stock 1g-fe + forced induction but i hear doing a swap is pretty complicated. first, i don't know if the engine mounts correctly or it needs custom mounts or other things like a custom oil sump, modified fuel lines, etc. second, there's the ecu, and since i'm not good at all when it comes to wiring, that's gonna be a pain in the a$$. third, and this is a costly one, the manual gearbox - which is really expensive. overall cost would be around 1.5-2.5k for the engine + 4k for the manual gearbox. i love the straight 6 engine - i was thinking about swapping a 3S-GTE (cheapest option) but i do love the sound of the straight 6. also a v8 (1uz or something similar) would be too heavy... which would be the cheapest, most achievable option? any other option that i may have missed? i'll start working on this as soon as spring is here, but not i just wanna start sourcing the parts...

Thanks for the reply Mike, will take the calipers apart next week and get them sorted. One thing i don't understand, if the calipers are sticking, why can the wheels rotate freely?

Fairly common issue with the first gen is200/300 - searched though the forum but could not find a decent answer to my problem. Got the car about a year ago, it was in a bad condition but i nursed it back to almost full health. Changed the entire front suspension - bushings / ball joints, shocks, etc. Also changed the wheel bearings. The brake disks were a bit worn out (but still had plenty of meat of them) but the brake pedal was vibrating like crazy when braking (almost like the ABS would kick in). Really strong vibrations in the pedal only, steering was fine. So i decided to change the front brake disks and pads (rear ones seemed rather new). New disks and pads in, the vibration was reduced by 50-60% but it's still there. I've been trying to diagnose this issue but it drives me crazy : - pedal judder on braking all the time (the higher the speed, the intense the judder). - tried changing wheels / rims / tires - same judder - checked front caliper pins, they were in decent condition (not too much rust) - cleaned and lubed them with high temp grease, put them back in - same judder - bled all brakes and changed the fluid (brake lines were in great condition) - same judder What really puzzles me is that with the new disks and pads, the disks get burning hot, and so do the rims (not extremely hot but hot enough). But the calipers are not sticking - if i do some serious braking and get them hot, i can easily push the car forward with very little force - or with the car lifted up, the wheels rotate 3-4 revolutions easily. The calipers look old (there's some rust over them) but i'm not sure if they're seized or not. Should i rebuild the calipers (or get new ones)? Should i check the fronts only or can be back ones cause something like this as well? Or are the hubs warped? Or the new disks warped (brembo disks)? Any solutions appreciated...

I have a bad ABS sensor on the front right of my IS200 (2001 model). The left one is about 15 Euros, the right one is about 45 Euro. They visually look the same, and i believe they are the same (can be rotated, only the mounting bracket, the one on the strut, may be different). Does anyone know if they're different or not?

found these but i thought i they might be wrong... but since you confirm... i see all 4 o2 sensors are before the main cat, so there's nothing to check the operation of the main cat... so strange... so it seems the car relies mostly on the precats? or what's the deal here?

didn't take it to the garage yet, will do that tomorrow, but i've asked around and no one seems to know exactly where the 2nd row of o2 sensors are placed exactly - after the precats or after the main cat...

Still not sure about the O2 sensors and if removing the precats would still allow the car to pass the emissions test...

that's probably the best case scenario, there's definitely a leak in my exhaust right under the front seats area (can smell it when the engine starts), so that all makes sense. will head over to the exhaust shop to have it checked out and hopefully welded or fixed without replacing the whole thing...

The back box on my IS200 has been damaged (it has a few dents here and there - probably the previous owner hit it somehow) and it's leaking. I might also have a leak in the middle section, not sure but i think i can see some gas escaping. I also have a P0420 error code - Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold. And also a bad O2 sensor (bank 2 sensor 1 - precat) - already purchased it and it's going to be replaced next week. The car has almost 400k kms - engine has been rebuilt 20k kms ago and runs fine. The exhaust is probably the original one, so i'm planning to replace it with a custom made stainless steel one. And now here are my questions : 1) any way to check if the precats are working ok? is the code P0420 for the main cat or the precats (or both)? i believe the chances of them still working properly are small (after almost 20 yrs and 400k kms) but i'd like to test them out first (only if possible). 2) if the precats don't work properly, i'd like to replace the standard exhaust manifold with a decat one - so question is, with the precats removed, will the car still pass emissions? 3) the O2 sensors, how many of them are there? i saw there are 4 of them, 2 just before the precats (checking the AFR) and 2 after the precats. But the 2 after the precats, are they between the precats and the main cat or are they both after the main cat? I saw a picture of an exhaust manifold the Bank 1 Sensor 2 was right after the precat (so before the main cat). And also read somewhere that Bank 2 Sensor 2 is on the Y-Pipe, just after the manifold (but also before the main cat). If that's the case, does it mean there's no sensor to check the operation of the main cat? Or am i missing something here? 4) regarding the main cat, where's that located? is it on the Y-Pipe, where the 2 pipes meet? or is it after the Y-Pipe? 5) the whole exhaust system is as follows : exhaust manifold with 2 precats (6-2) > Y-pipe (2-1) > main cat section > middle silencer section > back box section. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

turns out the levers and stepper motors are working fine, but the heater radiator is not - i have checked the 2 pipes from under the dashboard, one is hot, one is not (i guess the return pipe is the cold one). coolant level is fine... clogged radiator? can i use some radiator additive flush to clean it? or do i have to use the method Dean mentioned?

the thermostat is fine, the gauge stays in the middle all the time (once the engine heats up). tell me more about the flushing, how is that done? is it a diy operation or will i need special tools?

What's the procedure to run an AC module self diagnosis? For other Lexus models i see you have to press at the same time Auto + Recirculate. However, the IS doesn't have an auto button (just a position on the dial). Problem is i'm getting no heat (or extremely little heat) in the winter - and the AC is blowing lukewarm air in the summer. The interior temp sensor is working fine - tested it with a heat source, the temperature servo motor starts moving (as it should - i think...). So to the temperature motor / stepper / servo or whatever it's called is working fine (i even tried removing it and moving the lever attached to it by hand - still no heat, no matter the position). The ac mode position servo is also working, the recirculation servo is working and so is the fan. The heater pipes - one of them is not insulated - could not check properly if it was hot or not, but the other pipe (not insulated) was hot. Trying to diagnose this thing before i start tearing the dashboard apart... any help would be appreciated.

I have an IS200 (1G-FE engine) but i believe this applies to the IS300 as well. I got a CEL, checked it with the tester and the error code is P0155 - Bank 2 Sensor 1 Malfunction (will replace it). But then i wanted to check if the other sensors are working properly. Apparently i got this : B1S1 - normal voltage B2S1 (the damaged one) - lower voltage than expected B1S2 - normal voltage B2S2 - no reading, no voltage, no nothing. Now i know that the first two sensors (Bank 1 Sensor 1 and Bank 2 Sensor 1) are the precat sensors and are responsible for the AFR. The S2 sensor is after the cat and probably just checks if the cat is working properly or not. Don't know where the S2 sensors are, are they after the precats or after the main cat? And are there 2 of them (after each precat) or just one (after the main cat)? Don't know if i have one missing (B2S2), damaged / unplugged or the car has just 3 O2 sensors. Any help would be appreciated.

I have a ticking noise coming from the engine bay area (might even be 2 different types of ticking) - can only hear them at idle (not from within the car, but from outside, with the hood open) The first type of ticking i believe comes from the front of the engine, from the belts / pulleys area. It's not squeaking, like in belts slipping or something, but it's a ticking that's in sync with the rpm and can only be heard until about 1.5 - 2k rpm (after that, it either dissappears or the engine noise covers it). Second type of noise is the normal ticking you get in old engines - my indy mechanic says it's not the valves - although it definitely sounds like them. The engine runs fine, revs nicely, idles pretty much ok (i can feel some vibrations in the steering wheel and gear shifter at idle, nothing too bad, but i expected and L6 engine to be much smoother at idle). Some guy told me it might not be running on all cylinders - how can i check? I have an obd2 tester and there are no error codes. STFT is around +/- 3 and LTFT is around 5. The only strange thing i noticed when checking engine data was that there was always a difference between the O2 sensor voltages : the precat sensors, bank 1 and bank 2 - O2B1 was moving between 0.1 - 0.9 V and O2B2 between 0.1 - 0.5 (sometimes up to 0.7). Should they be symmetrical? The car is an IS200 2001 model, 350K kms on the clock but the engine has been refurbished about 20K kms ago (piston rings, valve seals, head resurfaced, new gaskets, cam belt and water pump, spark plugs, ignition coils). What drives me crazy is that the car sounds like at diesel at idle...

Thanks for the reply! I was expecting the angle to be different, but i know the angle is created by the glass mirror itself, not the actual housing. So what i think i'm asking is : are the LHD and RHD mirror housings similar? Coz i can easily remove the glass mirror from mine and put it into a different housing...

Does anyone know if the right side mirror on an RHD car will fit the right side of an LHD car? I read somewhere that they don't fit, but not sure why. My mirror is broken, the glass itself is ok, but the housing is broken and motor doesn't work. Could only find RHD cars for stripping in Europe, very few LHD ones and so far, no LHD mirrors...

I'm a proud new owner of a 2001 IS200 (LHD) My car has a few issues i need to sort out: 1) ABS light always on and TRAC lights us every few seconds. I know it's probably an ABS sensor (or wire) but i don't want to start checking all of them. I went to pull up codes but the code reader got nothing (was a generic code reader). Then i saw i could do an "internal" ABS test, with the paperclip method. I tried with both the OBD2 port in the car and also the diagnosis port in the engine. I don't get it. Whenever i turn the ignition to ON, i get 3 LOUD BEEPS, ABS flashes just once and then all the lights on the dashboard start to light up like a Christmas tree. Not sure what i'm doing wrong here, please let me know what's the correct procedure... 2) Parking brake light always stays on - my center stop light is not working, might that be the case or is the switch in the handbrake kaput? 3) AC not working (only blowing hot air) - and i head a whirring noise from about behind the glove box every time i start the car (stops after 5-10 seconds). I had a similar problem with my other car, it was a stepper motor (the gears inside it actually), i'm thinking it might be the same here, but not sure where to start troubleshooting... Other than that, car is great, once i get these fixed, i can start thinking about more power...