Sonu

Does it mean that these Bilstein ones also fit the front on a SC430?

https://www.bilstein-shocks.co.uk/products/24-027434

Are the rear ones interchangeable with the GS430 shocks?

Malc - It was more like, "ooh that sounds nice. I'll have it sir, thank you very much" 😛

Glyn - That service must have cost a pretty penny from Lexus. I went for a mid-priced one thinking that you have to spend a bit of money to fix up an old car regardless of the cost. 

Neil - I am sure I could have continued driving it as is with some new tyres and brakes. Even the PS leak was not that bad enough to make the fluid level drop quickly. I went for the most cost effective option when repairing the sound system. Don't really listen to music much.  There are a lot of really nice HIfi speakers that use 6 1/2" and 4" drivers if someone wanted something fancy. 

I'll see if the bushings etc make a difference, not willing to spend the money on coilovers yet. Might try increasing the preload on the steering rack a tiny bit to see what that does. Is there anything else that can be done to improve the steering?

I picked up a 2003 SC430 last year and wanted to share my experience with the members of the form. It might help out someone looking to purchase one of these cars.

The car was advertised on Facebook. It was fairly standard except for the full stainless-steel exhaust and Rays Forged 19” wheels from a 370Z. It had just over 70k miles on it. I did come across a few issues during inspection but nothing serious. There was a bit of paint bubbling up on the roof, tyres, brakes, and rear ABS rings needed replacing. Otherwise, it seemed like a nice straight car. There was no rust underneath that I could see. So, I made an offer which the seller accepted, and I drove it back home on a temporary insurance cover (didn’t want to start driving the car until the above issues were fixed).

Issues: Most of the issues I encountered are well known, or to be expected on a car of this age. 

• ABS rings: This is a relatively easy job with the correct tools. The upper control arms require a decent ball joint splitter to separate from the hub assembly, and unless you are removing the drive shaft from the differential end, you need a spanner extension because a socket and wrench won’t fit in the space. The new rings are less than £10 each and the dust caps were about £15.  
• Tyres: I have decided to go with Yokohama Advan mainly because I got a really good deal on them. They were around £600. 
• Speakers: This is something I did not check during inspection, but all the speakers in the car were blown. I was able to rescue most of them using the Simply speakers repair kit, except for the front right which was completely dead. Replacements from Lexus are over £300 so I decided to make some 6”x9” to 6 ½” adapters and stick a couple of 6 ½” 8 Ohm speakers from some floor standing HiFi units. This entire repair was only £40 since I was able to sell the working front left speaker on eBay to recover some of the cost.    
• Headlights: The headlight aim was too high. The car has two ride height sensors units. Found the front one to be faulty while troubleshooting. A replacement unit from Lexus is over £300. I decided to take a punt and order a £20 replacement potentiometer unit which was meant for IS300. Swapped the faulty unit and it worked just fine. 
• Brakes:  To me the floating calipers look horrible. So, instead of swapping the discs and pads with standard units, I decided to splash out a bit on the brakes. There was a set of GS450h  F-Sport calipers on sale in Lithuania, on eBay. I ordered this set, new pads, plus 350phi brackets, and Centric discs from the US. A bit of paint and some powder coat on the calipers and the results are as follows: Total cost ~£600 after selling the old calipers. 
• Paint: It is a bit tricky to paint the roof without taking the rear glass and all the rubber seals out. I have done the best I could by peeling back the trim as far as I could to get the paint underneath. The cost was around £100 
• Infotainment: The standard navigation unit looks very dated on these cars. Replacing the headunit can get quite costly on this car because of the adapter alone that you have to purchase over £300. I have installed a Garmin 76 and a wireless reverse camera instead. Aux out from the Garmin is hardwired to the factory headunit. My phone connects to the Garmin via Bluetooth and I can play anything I want from my phone on the car stereo using this setup. This setup cost me £290.    
• Service items: A full service kit from Lexus, plus transmissions oil, brake fluid, differential oil, sparkplugs, timing belt, water pump, the pulleys, tensioner, v belt, power steering fluid came to £480. I have not done the spark plugs, W pump and the timing belt yet, because the belt is not due until next year. 
• Power steering Rack: This was unexpected. While doing the transmission fluid change I noticed a torn inner tie rod end boot and some fluid coming out of it. The end of the rack was leaking. Upon phoning a few specialists I discovered that this is a £500-£600 job. I decided to take the rack out and send it to a specialist. They charged me £225. The power steering reservoir had lots of black baked on oil. I wanted to clean it, but found that the plastic mesh inside had big holes in it. There was no way I was going to clean it and put it back. Ordered a new one from Japan for £95 delivered (Local dealer wanted £150 and the delivery time was the same). Threw in some new inner and outer track rod ends, power steering rack bushings, lower ball joints, geometry setup. Total cost was just over £500. 
• Windscreen: A mysterious crack appeared on the windscreen. It was replaced through insurance. Paid £100 glass access. Autoglass wanted £1200 for a private repair. 
• Miscellaneous: New matts, Key case, Some new tools etc were around £100   
• Suspensions: This ride of this car in my opinion is quite bad. The steering feels like it is attached to the tyres with a rubber band. Over potholes the entire suspension feels broken. There is too much nose dive during braking, and yet the car feels hard and unsettled over small road imperfections. I have ordered some new control arms and a complete bushing kit. Along with the ISF rear sway bar, and an aftermarket front 32mm sway bar for a GS300. Hopefully I will get this done in the next few months (unless I decide to sell the car).This work is going to set me back just under £700 after I have had the geometry etc redone. 
• Possible upcoming issues: The car was purchased towards the end of Feb last year. It has taken me nearly 12 months to get the above work done. With a full time job and two kids I only really get a bit of spare time on Saturdays. The VSC light has come back on. First time since the ABS rings were changed. Noticed an O2 sensor heater circuit fault and there was a zero point calibration error logged in the computer.  

Driving experience: 

I have only done ~400 miles in the car. Mostly town driving and short motorway trips. The exhaust on the car is quite loud, to the point that it is audible at cruising speeds. Around town it is definitely fun to listen to, especially with the top down. Kids definitely love it with the roof down. Compared to an IS250 which I own, the engine feels very strong, but the gearbox is a bit sluggish. Otherwise, as I already mentioned, the ride is terrible. Would I buy one again or recommend it to a friend? A car this old is probably not for everyone, if you can find a later model with low mileage then maybe, but otherwise no.

Mine was done by Richs fabrication shop. As far as custom exhaust go it is OK, no HKS, but is mandrel bent with lifetime warranty. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=894317461169314

Buy a second hand one if the new ones are out of stock: 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275471494532

Hi,

I was interested in this upgrade so I ordered myself the rear ISF ARB from Japan and a used GS300 bar from eBay.

The GS300 bar I received is a bit thicker, ~28mm, but quite a bit lighter, ~4kg, compared to the 6kg original SC430 ARB. Does this mean that the one I got from eBay is not the 4881130560? I have decided to put the original ARB back on the car. Fitting the lighter one did not seem like an upgrade. 

According to amayama 4881130560 it is suppose to be 3.6kg. Perhaps they got the weight wrong? They also list 4881130590 as an ARB that fits the GS300. Would appreciate input from someone who has done this upgrade on their car. 

The 14" F-Sport brakes require different pad. Even though the standard 4 pot caliper pads will fit in the larger calipers. The shape, more importantly the surface area of the friction material, is slightly different. Here is a picture of the two from an online seller:

Standard Caliper

F-Sport Caliper

For sale: Forged Volk racing\Rays Engineering RE30 alloys 

Item Condition: Wheels are in great condition. Nice and straight no welds. No curb marks but do expect small imperfections from normal road use.

Price and price conditions: £1140 ONO

Extra Info:  Very Light weight, only around 7.2kg each, compared the Lexus/Enkie 18" spider rims that were ~12kg. I was certainly able to notice the difference in acceleration. 

18 X 8J
+44 offset

Aluminium Center caps and valve stems also included. The Lexus badges are stuck on using double a sided tape. I can  remove these for you before shipping if required.  

These will fit most Lexus cars. They fit fine over the 14" GS450H F-Sport discs and calipers. Pictured below with the standard 13" GS450H discs/calipers. 

I have also put them on ebay.

Pictures: 

Contact Details: Please message me through the forum. 

Location: Hayes Middlesex

Delivery & Conditions of Delivery: I can arrange delivery at cost, £45, or you can collect.  

A few years back I bought an is250 that had badly seized calipers both rear and one front. 

This is what I did to free them. 

-Removed them from the car. 

-Left them soaking the penetrating fluid for a few days. 

-Started with the rears first.  Put them in a bench vice, one at a time, and started hammering the carrier. The first one came out after a few knocks the second one required a blow torch to heat it up. The rubber boot got burned, but it came out eventually. The penetrating fluid had only gone through a few millimetres.  

-The front one was the worst. All the above did not help. The pin broke inside the caliper. I had to drill it out, starting with the smallest drill bit working my way up.

New slide pin kits are relatively inexpensive, and they come with dust boots. 🙂 If you don't to go through all this trouble, might be easier to buy a second hand one on eBay they are usually less than £50. 

They are ~£78 from Lexus direct, which I think is reasonable for genuine plugs: 

https://lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/parts/lexus-is/lexus-is-phase-ii-2006-2013/lexus-is-2-engine-service-kits/lexus-is-phase-2-spark-plugs-2-5-petrol/ 

Has anyone here tried to convert there car to run on ethanol or methanol? There seems to be lots of kits around but I don't know anyone who has tried one.

You do not need to remove the timming belt to change the waterpump but you need to take all the other belts and the bottom pulley off.

I bought Sun hyper voltage system GT and hyper ground system in gold( it has a 4 layer system instead of 3). I haven't felt any increase in power but before my car used to crank 5-6 times before starting after installation i don't feel the cranks only the first one.

very very easy but first question have you done anything like that before - i guess from your question the answer is no?

No. If it is as easy as changing the engine oil, I should be able to do it. Just need to know where the drain plug and the filler are. None of the filler caps read clutch fluid under the bonnet

I was told by my local dealer that I need to have the clutch fluid changed. Has anyone tried changing it? Is it hard to do?

Would appreciate any help.

Pictures in this LINK might be useful.

You have to remove the pulley and the radiator. I made my own tool to hold the pulley but it would have been easier to buy one.

I came across a set of instructions a while back and made a copy. Don't remember who wrote them, but here they are. They only tell you how to remove the gearbox.

1. Remove upper console panel (the bit that goes around the gearstick,has the little cubby holes in it, you also need to remove the handbrake cover, just give it a tug)

2. remove the shift boot retainer, disconnect the 2 wire harness clamps,remove the 4 bolts, and the shift boot retainer

3. remove shift boot

4. remove gearstick

5. raise the vehicle

6. remove the engine covers

7. remove exhaust front pipe

8. disconnect the oxygen sensor

9. remove manifold lower stay

10. disconnect clutch release cylinder, and earth wire

11. remove the 7 bolts, and the LH/RH stiffner plates

12. disconnect the reversing light switch connector

13. disconnect speed sensor connector

14. jack up transmission slightly.and support using transmission jack

15. remove starter set bolt

16. remove the rear mount

17. remove propshaft

18. remove the 4 transmission/engine bolts

19. lower transmission downwards and 2 the right

I've just bought a TTE Sports Aero bumper for the I200 off ebay. I got it for £40. BARGAIN!! But it does not have any mesh grilles on it. Does anyone know where I can get them from??? The seller said that u can fit the OEM grilles but that wouldnt look right would it???

Just buy a sheet of mash (you can get it from eBay if you want). Cut to size and screw it on. I would paint the mash black first but it’s entirely up to you if you like the silver effect.

Then I switched to Piaa Tera and no problems since been over a year.

Have you got any more details on these?

Thanks

Simon

There are three versions of the bulb available 4500K, 5500K(which i'm using), 6500K. 6500K is the latest one its brighter than the other two and is available in UK. Try www.priracing.com or ebay.

The third version is the easiest to fit, straight swap. The other two require cutting the wires to install a resistor(ballast).

If you want to compare the brightness with ultraleds 4X5mm LED bulb these pictures might help.

ultraleds

Tera 5500K

My LED side lights, which I bought from ultraled, only lasted a few months even with standard bulbs. Then I switched to PIAA Tera and no problems since been over a year.

I was quoted £362, back in nov of 2005, for the replacent parts(£110) included. Its not a very hard job; I just bought the parts and repaced them myself. Took no more than an hour or two.

Wow looks very nice. I wish my car was that low.

Oh and one more thing, anybody ever fitted this spoiler or know where I could get my hands on one?

This looks like TRD spoiler. I've seen then on eBay a few time. Here is link.

BA9 12V 10W straight pin version. I think this is what you are looking for. I tried the 6 LED version once, nice color, but they are not has as bright as the original bulb. Maybe its got to do with the way they fit, they project the light accross rather than downwards. You do get a nice colour. Wide angle ones might be a bit better.

I use to get that sound. Turtle wax glass polish on the windscreen and turtle wax silicone rubber/plastic protector on the wiper blades took care of it.