Finally Got An Is200 :) Build Thread!

[r3dd3v1l]

Hello All,

as some of you may be aware, i have been looking to by an is200 recently for the past few months and finally found one. i am now the proud new owner of a gun metal grey is200 sport :), and for the money i paid for it, its brilliant!

Due to family commitments i am restricted to carry out the usual mods i am use to, so all my mods will be subtle and for mpg, averaged 40mpg on the motorway, from stoke on trent to gloucester, about 90 - 100 miles sat between 50 and 80mph.

Got the price down to 600 from 800 :)

Specs and information from purchase:

* Gun metal grey is200 on a 2002 plate.

* Overall, very good condition inside and out for a 600 quid car.

* no service history

* Small bits of damage here and there

* few missing bits and bobs.

* small hole in the exhaust but sounds really good surprisingly

*engine bay could do with a clean.

* few touch ups and paint treatment needed.

* 5 months mot.

Future plans:

*Service - Cambelt and all auxillary belt replacement, pulley and idler replaced, oil and filters, VVTI filter clean, brakes stripped cleaned and pad rears greased, tyre pressures ( i tend to run 2psi higher than required), spark plugs, coolant, grease all hinges and moving parts.

* paint brake calipers red

* Detail the car

* Yaris injectors

* reset ecu

* tidy and clean the engine bay

* Fit aftermarket cd player as the standard unit doesnt work apparently?

* fix the sat nav (didnt even no this car came with one so im really happy about that)

* fix passenger side mirror as it was hit badly a week before i bought it,

* fix central locking as it doesnt work

* Lowering springs

* New wheels

* front splitter

* custom sub install

*led lights where i can

* headlight black out

* possibly a new manifold

* Renew diff oil

* Renew gearbox oil

due to the condition of the car being alot better than i expected, as long as the mpg is some where near what i was expecting (25 quid a week is my target for fuel) i think i may keep this car for a very long time!

Some may find the above list daunting, but i love working on cars and love keeping them maintained.

Pics and updates to come :) :) :)

[James Trendall]

I put in £60 a week and get roughly 300 miles going back and forth from work (30 miles a day on hilly roads) If you drive it nice and gently it should be pretty good.

Sat nav should be above the heaters in the center (Pop up type) if its got it. I have the exact same car as you just not sport and i paid alot more for mine! :(

The grey is such a nice colour. Keep it clean and it should provide you with lots of comfort and enjoyment for a long time.

EDIT: I drive pretty heavy and like to have fun so my fuel bill is pretty high. As the price of fuel is coming down and wages go up why not have some fun.

[r3dd3v1l]

No I no where the sat Nav is but nothing appears on the screen, I don't no whether its because the cd player doesn't work?

Is there a separate drive the sat Nav disk some where in the car?

[James Trendall]

To be honest i have no idea about the tech specs etc... on the satnav. If the Satnav is not working you would need the ROM that came with the satnav.

Lexus/Toyota will cost you an arm and a leg. If you can find the part number for the DVD/CD/ROM that came with the car i'm sure someone on here wont mind letting you use it for 5 minutes if you visit them and buy them a beer.

You might even be able to find it online to download and burn yourself if you have a good Google around.

[r3dd3v1l]

Thanks mate, the problem is, some copies can damage the drive, I'm not to worried any way as I was going to replace it with a tablet

[r3dd3v1l]

Few pics of the first day I bought it, and me and the key had a bit of s fight, haha I won the fight, I'l let the pics do the talking lmao

Also done 135 miles on 25 quid, that's a mix of sensible driving and spirited on dual carriage ways, motorways and city driving quite a few hills, which is alot better than I was expecting reading alot of comments say how poor the mpg is for the is200, speed as well, yes is slow off the mark but once it gets going it's quite a quick car which I wqs very surprised about, gave a 2008 bmw diesel a scare when it couldn't get away from me :-) so I am very happy with the car!

So far, iv had the exterior cleaned, need to do the interior.

Next job will be a service when I get the funds together and paint the brake calipers, still undecided on what colour to go as I want to keep the car looking sensible, so no red or anything else along those lines, thinking silver or the same colour as the car if I can find it.

[rincewind]

Grey is a cracking colour for these. I don't use the CD player any more - I bought a Grom interface so I can connect my Iphone as that has about 6,000 tracks on it. Sounds fantastic through the Mark Levinson system, and has integrated Bluetooth.

That paintwork looks like it will come up nicely. I'd be itching to get a machine polisher on it.

[rincewind]

And the Nav works off a separate drive in the boot, so rather than swapping out the head unit CD changer it may be cheaper (and better) to get a Grom or similar instead.

[r3dd3v1l]

Grey is a cracking colour for these. I don't use the CD player any more - I bought a Grom interface so I can connect my iPhone as that has about 6,000 tracks on it. Sounds fantastic through the Mark Levinson system, and has integrated Bluetooth.

That paintwork looks like it will come up nicely. I'd be itching to get a machine polisher on it.

Just been given a cd player from a friend so that will be being fitted shortly, also has aux connection so I can connect my phone :-) don't worry, when I have some free time I will be unleashing my car care kit :)

[r3dd3v1l]

And the Nav works off a separate drive in the boot, so rather than swapping out the head unit CD changer it may be cheaper (and better) to get a Grom or similar instead.

What's a Grom? I'm not to fussed about it at the moment as I'm used to using my phone as a sat Nav, in the near future I'l be replacing it with a tablet

[r3dd3v1l]

Little update, had a bit if free time Saturday afternoon so I had a little gander under the engine bay to see what needs to be done and can be done, I removed the resonator off of the intake (5 minute job) iv taped a plastic cover over it for now but will permanently fabricate something to make it look more professional, too be honest tho, I might do away with it all together as the opening is being blocked by the bonnet, God knows how this engine gets any air.

Few pics of the bay in a sorry state, few interior and some next to me old man's car.

More updates to come, plan on doing the headlights next, as there in a very bad way, new bulbs coming too. Also ordered two new keys so I can use the central locking, also can anyone tell me where I can find an adapter to use the original cd player?

Please see last pic.

[clifton 94]

Nice to see a car brought back from the brink of ruin

[r3dd3v1l]

Haha Cheers man, it hasn't happened yet but it will eventually, I aim to have it looking good within the next few months

[lythe85]

Lovely colour, keep up the good work

[Gruntfuggly]

I'm getting 430 miles out of a tank of fuel with mine at the moment (about 33mpg) which I'm pretty impressed with.

It's the little things that I love about the IS200 - I was driving my wife's Zafira a few days ago and the wiper motors are so noisy I had to turn the (nasty) stereo up. It made me wonder why I never noticed the wiper motors in the IS200. When I tried them the next day, they're silent...

Nice colour on yours...

[r3dd3v1l]

I put 40 pounds of shell super unleaded in on Friday as I was supposed to be going to London but ended up going to Bristol instead, this brought the tank to just over half way, it's now Monday, 130 miles later and it's on quarter, that's with 60% motorway at 70mph, 20% rural at 60mph and 20%urban at 20 to 40mph, with the occasional foot to the floor fun haha, so i should see about 260 quid from 40 quid which isnt bad for this car in my eyes,

I do enjoy the drive and quietness, but my dad has the same problem as me, his gs was so quite he ended up putting a cat back on it just so he knew if it was on or not, I don't have that problem as mine has a hole in the exhaust hahaha.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys :)

[r3dd3v1l]

I put 40 pounds of shell super unleaded in on Friday as I was supposed to be going to London but ended up going to Bristol instead, this brought the tank to just over half way, it's now Monday, 130 miles later and it's on quarter, that's with 60% motorway at 70mph, 20% rural at 60mph and 20%urban at 20 to 40mph, with the occasional foot to the floor fun haha, so i should see about 260 quid from 40 quid which isnt bad for this car in my eyes,

I do enjoy the drive and quietness, but my dad has the same problem as me, his gs was so quite he ended up putting a cat back on it just so he knew if it was on or not, I don't have that problem as mine has a hole in the exhaust hahaha.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys :)

[r3dd3v1l]

Little update,

Long story short, I was given 2 dodgy keys with the car, so i decided to try and make one good one,...... This didn't go well at all, the resin I used seeped into the circuit board and locked me out of the car. So new keys have been ordered and should be with me this week, also ordered new bulbs for the headlights and interior,

Watch this space,

P.s please try not to laugh at my temporary key hahahahaha

[JasonB]

Hi, good to see a car like this being taken care of.

You mentioned Yaris injectors, I've looked but I can't find any info on this. What's the benefits?

[r3dd3v1l]

@Jason b, cheers for the comments mate, same as you hate seeing potential being scrapped so a fee hundred quid will be being spent on this. In all fairness all my friends and family can't believe the price I paid for it and said they would leave it how it is haha.

Have a look at these two videos

Have a read of his descriptions under the videos. 5cc less than oem but ecu will sort that, for all wee know cars that haven't had there injectors cleaned or replaced could be running dirty injectors causing more than 10cc drop?

[r3dd3v1l]

Little update,

Fitted some new headlight bulbs as the old ones were literally like miniature candle lights, the lenses them selves are in shocking condition but when I fitted the new bulbs, there was a massive increase in light, they are smd 5 watt for the side lights and 55watts for dipped and fogs, my 65 watt mains haven't turned up yet.

Also fitted a rubber splitter as i cant afford a proper one yet haha, the lumps up u can see in the pics are the penny washers I used, when I fit some smaller ones it will look alot better.

Debadged the grill as well, want a more aggressive look.

I also sorted my keys out finally :) two Aftermarket keys off amazon with boot release £6 delivered then £16 for both keys to be cut.

I don't know what the next update will be but I really want to get the cd player working and lights looking like new.

[JasonB]

Thanks mate, will look into that. Car is coming along well

[Gruntfuggly]

If you can find one, the sport grille looks a million time better than the standard one...

[r3dd3v1l]

No modifications so far as money has ran out, but did buy a new double din unit and gubbins to go with it to replace my factory unit :) as i cant afford wheels, going to refurb my oem ones over Xmas, I really won't to lower it but even at stock sports height it's scrapes on some speed ramps around my area.

Also done some torque app testing, 13 mile trip, mixture of city driving and dual carriage way, averaged 35.5 mpg with the occasional full throttle blast as i just can't help myself ahaha, still cant understand how people can complain about the fuel consumption on these, it's a 6 cyclinder 2 litre engine that's is a good few years old in terms of design, it's alot better than I expected, iv done nearly 60 miles on tenner and that's not driving like a granny either, I do use the snow button alot tho.one thing is was really shocked about was the intake Temps and intake manifold pressure, my theory was correct with the oem airbox, it's terrible, it looks like a ram airfilter set up but it's in the wrong place, soon as I can find an is300 airbox I can probably get some decent gains and throttle response out of the old beast.

pics to come

[clifton 94]

Don't drop it too far the is200 don't look right i don't think