kam05

Check the audio/visual forums- there's plenty of advice there.

Sticks out a little too much for my liking, but still looks good.

Buy a set of KYB shocks from BuyPartsBuy (online). Cost is about £120 for the pair and expect to pay £60 for fitting. Always replace shocks in pairs.

Looks like my OEM Lexus one- nice.

Lexus Brighton sounds like a good dealer, not like Lexus Leeds- they wanted £99 (+VAT) to find out why I had a engine management light on my IS200 a few years ago. (Took it to a local garage who charged my £20 to read the codes. Turned out when I fitted a new cambelt, I had accidently knocked out the timing by one tooth- car didn't misfire. Removed the belt and reset the timing again and fitted the belt= no EML).

I still think the OEM 5 spoke wheels are the best looking wheels for the IS200.

Low oil? Could be an issue with the oil pump? Get a 2nd opinion.

I bet Toyota wouldn't be happy with that comment- they have spent billons over the years trying to create a preimum brand (Lexus). Your IS is a 3 series competitor. A GS is a 5 series competitor and a LS is a 7 series/S class competitor. Each Toyota/Lexus version beats the BMW/Mercedes eqvilant in my eyes.

Wow- is this thread still running??? Ok, its time to end the arguments people- those of you who want to carry fitting budgets please carry on doing so and those of your who wish to fit quality/expensive tyres then please carry on. End of the day we all need to look at our pockets etc- this will probably determine whether your car wears budget or branded tyres.

Nice looking motor mate

Why not get some roofbars? You can secure a mountain bike to them?

I echo what Mike has said. I have a 9.5 year old IS200 with 134k on the clock. Bodywork is good (reflects the age of the car). If I was to sell this I expect it would go for £1.5-£2k?- it's a 2.0 petrol car, the market doesn't want cars like this- fact. Based on this I have decided to keep it until it dies- to me its worth more than <2k. I've put 90k trouble free miles on this car and I expect if I buy a newer car it is not going to be reliable as this IS200 that I currently have. As Mike says, keep your GS.

IS200 has a cambelt- I personally replaced mine back in 2007. I wouldn't trust what your "mechanic" (I use that term loosely) or his mate says. 3 items need to be changed- cambelt, idler and tensioner. This is also a good time to replace the waterpump (as the cambelt has to come off in order to get to the waterpump, so by changing the waterpump now you save on future labour costs). Hope this helps.

So, what you are saying is, if you were driving a Corsa/Fiesta, you would be happy to drive around with ditch finders. But because it is a prestige Toyota that you are driving, the vehichle brand requires a more expensive tyre? hmmmm, interesting argument. What I meant was the IS200 has more power (some people aren't happy with 153bhp of the IS200) than some 1.2 litre chavbox- so I guess you would want to fit some decent tyres (that worked well in the wet/dry etc) to a expensive car? No?

Budget tyres are ok on a Corsa/Fiesta etc, but I for one wouldn't feel happy driving a RWD prestige car on budget tyres.

If I was in this situation, I'd fund a new set of tyres using a credit card- I know I can pay the CC bill off the following month. I'm not prepared to compromise my/my passengers safety (and the safety of other road users) by fitting ditchfinders. If I couldn't afford a decent set of new tyres, then I would park up the IS200 and use public transport (but save up for a decent set of tyres in the meantime). Why spend thousands of your hard earned pounds on a nice IS200, GS, LS etc only to fit cheap ditchfinders off ebay? If you can't afford to maintain an IS200, then don't own one- simples. As said before, there are only 4 bits of rubber between you and the road- so fit the best quality tyres you can afford. I've used both budget tyres (in the past) and premium tyres and I'd go premium every time. And yes, remounds are just as bad as budget tyres in my experience.

OK, if I was you I would get the wheel bearings checked out first. If they are OK then there is a strong chance its your tyres that are the problem?

What brand of tyres are they?

There is a TTE supercharger kit avaliable for the IS200. You cannot get these brand new anymore, but there are a few s/c IS200's on here. Your best bet is to wait for one of these to come up for sale- expect to pay about £2k for a supercharger kit. By adding a supercharger bhp will increase from 153 bhp (n/a) to about 205 bhp. If you want more power, then get a IS300 or a Altezza (JDM version of the IS200).

Its probably a 99p job off ebay?

As deckie says- you need a turbo/supercharger if you want the IS200 to go faster. Engine conversion is also an option, but be prepared to spend some serious £££ if you were to go down this route. I know of a IS200 which running a 4.0 litre V8 engine out of a LS400.

What brand of tyres are on the car? If you have budget brand tyres then thats your problem (most likely). Budget brand tyres use hard rubber compunds which can make the tyres noisy at high speeds. Is the noise there say when you drive at 30mph?

Yeah, I heard him mention Lexus. I'd gather up all these politcans and put them in a Toyota (one with a dodgy acc pedal) and set to off at a high speed in the direction of a concrete wall- Bunch of lying, cheating :tsktsk: .

Which light? One behind the sunroof or the one by the rearview mirror?

Shame the newer Lexus cars can't be described as bulletproof (where did I put that IS220d?)