Hando

As above - however the veering when braking could suggest a sticky front caliper. Check your wheels after a long run and see if one caliper is hotter than the others or if one caliper is producing noticeably more dust than the other.

Nick - as far as I know that's the ver.1 typhoon - that has been discontinued due to a fault (the bracket connecting the pipe to the chasis shears away with vibrations) Search here for typhoon to see many stories of this happening. (jiberjaber, scarface, mike morse and more) ver.2 is a chrome pipe which comes with a heat shield and a more flexible (not welded) bracket. Keep an eye out for the bracket shearing and if you have a receipt contact K&N as they should be able to sort you with a free replacement. EDIT - here's a thread from 2005 with details.

I fitted mine a couple of weeks back. No pics yet. But it does make a lovely throaty growl when accelerating hard and is pretty much unnoticeable when driving normally. Makes the engine bay look a bit more serious too. Don't expect much in performance difference though - you will probably feel that the car is "sportier" but that's more likely to be the effect of the noise rather than claimed 8bhp increase. I did the throttle response mod at about the same time so it's doubly hard for me to tell the impact on performance.

Honestly - it is very very easy (and very satisfying) to fix this yourself - get yourself a Porter random orbit polisher (or similar) and some good polish. If you decide to go this route drop me a pm and I'll hook you up some good links of online retailers who can supply all you need. Also: take all the sponges and rags you have check them for grit give them a good clean.... and then burn them ;) get yourself a lambswool wash mitt (my preference) or a microfibre one. And finally - washing the car: I know it seems like a pain doing it yourself but its the only way to ensure the condition of your paint. Get two buckets a lambswool mitt and two or three big waffle weave drying towels. I can do my whole car (doing a very thorough job) in forty minutes and it's pretty satisfying. I'd never trust anyone else to wash my car and certainly not the grubby plastic flails of an auto wash (and my IS is a mere fraction the cost of yours).

All water based paints are pretty soft and prone to quickly showing swirls - although toyota paints seem especially bad. You can get rid of the swirls with a good polish - get a detailler round to do it for you or get a nice random orbit polisher and do it yourself. How do you wash your car? This is where the swirls are coming from - grit etc getting picked up in the wash mitt and then swirled around the car scratching as they go. Always give your car a good rinse before washing and rinse your mitt very often in a separate bucket of clean water. Try to make straight line strokes when washing not circles (then at least any grit trapped in the mitt will make less noticeable line scratches. Re: supaguard - I'm no expert but have heard it's no better than a good wax.

Removing swirls: you need a pretty good abrasive polish to really remove swirls and you can forget about doing that by hand. If you're serious about it get a polisher (random orbit ones like the porter cable 7424 are safest and easiest). But if life's too short then yes Autoglym SRP does a pretty good job of hiding swirls and is very easy to apply by hand. Prevent new swirls: use two buckets to wash - get a proper microfibre or lambswool mitt and rinse it often whilst washing. Try and do all your washing with straight line strokes rather than circles. (Mr. Miyagi has a lot to answer for) hth

It works very well indeed - it's not perfect though: you will always be able to see the stonechips even though others won't. Re: the scrape it depends on how deep it is but if not too deep then yes it should work fine. Seems to harden well - I've used SRP on areas that I've treated (after waiting a few weeks) and it's been absolutely fine. I had a bad experience on my first IS with chipsaway - the work wasn't very good and it was stupid expensive for what it was. However chipsaway is a franchise so it's only as good as the guy using it.

The advantage of black though is that it's by FAR the easiest colour to touch up. And nothing looks as good as a truly clean shiny black car (even if that'll only last for 5 minutes) ;)

Clicky

30mm drop versus SE/S (some) sports are 15mm lower than SE/S

For stone chips I swear by this stuff It's idiot proof, easy and the results are excellent.

Like that a lot.

I use winamp to copy over videos to my pod no problem - maybe something funny about the conversion? I use this one for converting vids - found it to be by far the best but it's not free. This one is free and does the job - have used it in the past. hth

My eyes! My eyes!! Damn, I thought the only way was up when starting with the IS-F. It takes a special type of skill to do that level of ugly.

I wonder if it was the same guy?

Aaron, you've got pm too. :)

Parth - you have pm.

Right then - couple of weeks ago someone put a really nasty dint on the top of one of my front wings whilst i was parked. :tsktsk: It wasn't wide but it was very deep and must have been caused by something with a very sharp corner - more worrying was that it was right by the swage line Did some research and arranged for a Dent Devils technician to come and look at it this morning. One hour later and the dent was gone - completely invisible. He then started on a tiny dint I had in the passenger door. Didn't need to take the door card out but got to it through the side of the door whilst sitting in the front. Couple of taps and it was completely gone. Or so I thought - he wasn't happy and showed me how he uses the reflection of a vertical white pole to get it absolutely perfect. Great job and a real perfectionist who knows his stuff. Obviously Dent Devils is a franchise so I can't speak for all the franchisees but if you have a dent and are in the area that Errol Francis covers then I can't recommend him highly enough. h

Pistonheads linky

I used to use autopia for my stuff but it doesn't make sense with current exchange rate. Now use Clean Your Car and Elite Car Care for all my needs. BTW have got the aerospace 303 from Clean Your Car before but it shows up as out of stock at the mo. oh, and as others have said - ditch the blade and get more towels.

I use :- Wash: 2 buckets (one water, one bilt Hamber Autowash solution) with a lambswool mitt Dry: Sonus der Wundertowel (love that name) Clay: Bilt Hamber Autoclay (you only need to use water as a lube which is handy) Polish: I use porter rotary polisher with Sonus 3 step kit - but I used to use Klasse AIO by hand - be warned though the Klasse SG can be tricky doing by hand - you will always over-apply on your first go. I have also used Autoglym SRP and found this to be by far the easiest polish to apply by hand with a good result Wax: used to use P21S but have since moved to Collinite Tyres: I use Sonus tyre dressing gel applied with a slightly damp microfibre covered sponge pad. Easy to do and really nice finish. Interior: Aerospace 303 Glass: Autoglym Fast Glass

1. You won't be able to access the Apple Store with winamp - but you can do everything else (and some stuff itunes doesn't let you do) 2. Yes - you can use it straight off.

Nope that's right. Use winamp or several other programs to grab the tunes and then load them back into itunes. (or ditch itunes altogether and use winamp for everything including managing the ipod)

Racewraps?