Is200 coilover advice?

[isCaffrey200]

Hey folks, I have recently put apexi lowering springs in my is200 and drives lovely and sits nice height on the front. However, I have my heart set on coilovers in the soon future but there are that many different style coilovers ? I'd be looking for something for day to day driving not for track use . Something to have it sitting nicely and of good quality . Could anybody help me out? 

[MJG]

I'm interested to know how the ride is on Apexi lowering springs? Does the car become firmer or more bouncey than stock?

Check out TEIN Coilovers, its a know brand and they are a good price on eBay around £440

[andyk134]

I went for Meister R coilovers as they had a lower spring rating than the Tein or BC ones and with our roads I think I made the right choice. Shocks are 32 way top adjustable so you should be able to find a setting that suits you. Most of the Japanese stuff is pretty hard as it is made for their super smooth roads, so it just depends on how you like it to feel. One of the best mods I did was poly bushes, really tightened it all up and improved steering response too. Super Pro do a full kit. Have fun!

[MJG]

On 16/02/2016 at 10:40 PM, andyk134 said:

I went for Meister R coilovers as they had a lower spring rating than the Tein or BC ones and with our roads I think I made the right choice. Shocks are 32 way top adjustable so you should be able to find a setting that suits you. Most of the Japanese stuff is pretty hard as it is made for their super smooth roads, so it just depends on how you like it to feel. One of the best mods I did was poly bushes, really tightened it all up and improved steering response too. Super Pro do a full kit. Have fun!

Nice, always hear good praise of Meisterr R Coilovers. I've been tempted to get some Zeta R coilovers for my leggy before

[andyk134]

That is how mine is set up on the Meister R's. I have had the rear lip cut from the arches so it all fits nicely, n rubbing and can still get over sped humps with no problems. I love the ride and the confidence it gives me. Something else you might want to consider is fitting the limited slip diff from the sport, that helps a lot.

[MJG]

Nice wheels dude, are those upgraded front calipers? Do you know if the lsd locks up good? I might just weld my diff to save money, I want to be taking the car to DWYB at santa pod by sorta summer time after I get back to using the legacy as my daily

[andyk134]

Thank you, I think the wheels suit the colour of the car perfectly. They are 4 pot brakes I had fitted when the turbo and lightened flywheel conversion was done last year along with the poly bushes and lsd. it certainly gives more confidence in the wet and coming off roundabouts so was worth doing at 200 quid fitted. Mine is just my daily driver so I didn't want to go too manic and think I have it just right at the way it drives and handles. the only thing I would do is to have a proper piggyback ECU so I can set the fuelling all the way through, it isn't bad but there are a few flatspots I would like to eliminate, bit not found anyone who does one. Have fun at Santa Pod.

[MJG]

Yea that's a great deal on the lsd plus fitting, I've seen them sell for more than that on eBay.

I'm trying to keep most my upgrades on the cheap so I got some random blank front vented discs but ordered Hawk HPS pads which should be alot better than stock pads.

Out of intrest how much boost/power are you running without a piggyback ecu, just using a FDC? Stock internals? Upgraded injectors?

I'll be supercharging my car next month if I get hold of a cradle to mount the charger. I think i'll be on 0.35bar with a 135mm crank pulley on the charger which should get me around 210/220hp hopefully

 

[andyk134]

Hi, it was all part of the upgrade done by Simon at MJS in Ipswich with the turbo kit he has developed. It is running 6psi and around 230bhp. Apart from the lightened flywheel which helps reduce the stress on spool up, it is stock internals but it has only done 72,000 miles which is just about run in on that car. it does have an uprated fuel pump. The standard ECU learns, so it was just reset and a few adjustments and it runs great. for normal driving you can feel there is a bit more there but when you need it and keep the revs a bit higher, it does go very well. It has been decatted and a powerflow back box which helps too. I will have it run on a dyno one day, but because I haven't gone for bodykits and spoilers and tried to keep is as "normal" looking as I can, its more fun as no one expects to to blast past them. They just think its some old guy in his ancient Lexus until I am waving them goodbye.......

I did look at supercharging but when I saw this kit he had developed at £2300 fitted I explored that a bit more. I did then go for the flywheel and new clutch and bigger brakes along with the lsd and poly bushes. I had already done the coil overs, roll bars, strut braces and bigger wheels along with a quickshift so it put everything together. In the end it wasn't cheap but I have a lovely car which I shall keep for as long as its viable.

Good luck with yours, what are you planning for the suspension?

 

[MJG]

Ah nice one, I get that in my legacy because it doesn't look like a fast car aha

Yeah I was planning on saving up to pay more than 3k for a supercharger kit for my legacy from australia but now I know about these Eaton M62 chargers I'd rather build my own kit for under a grand and still be able to make more boost than stock internals could ever handle.

I've managed to get all the parts to supercharge my is200 for around 500 quid minus the cradle/mount for the charger

I've got lowered springs on lexus sport struts just need some new bushes before I can install them should be either 50 or 60mm drop.

I'm not really sure the IS200 gearbox will take much abuse its pretty slow on gear changes, I don't want to mash up the gearbox. Plus that ETCS I thing on the throttle body ruins the responsiveness of the car for me :(

[andyk134]

I am sure you have more planned for the suspension that just lowered springs, when I first added my roll bars to my lowered springs, that made more of a difference to changing the springs to be honest. you might want to look at using super pro poly bushes to tighten it up a bit.

What sort of BHP are you looking at when you have finished? Some on here have said around 240 is about as far as you would want to go on stock, depending on the mileage. the guy who turbocharged mine has done about 18 conversions now and only had one problem with one he didn't want to do as the car had done over 200,000, but the guy insisted and it did break. but all the others are still going strong with no problems. And of course it depends on how you drive it......

I have a B & M quickshift that was quite tight when first fitted, but loosened up and is now a really nice quick change.

Good luck with the conversion.

[MJG]

I have nothing more planned as yet...  I don't really want to accept i'll be spending so much on the car unless I know I'm keeping it for a while.

The part that needs the most improvement is the driver so I'm not rushing into doing a real project build until I've been to some drift days and see if the car survives first aha

I think the bhp will be on 210/220 with 0.35bar, I think much more would need to change to injectors from a 1zz. I don't really mind what hp figure I get, the car is always going to be slow. The IS200 is certainly not build for speed.

Someone on ojc should be getting some cradles made up soon to sell, so fingers crossed!

[andyk134]

I actually agree, I know most hot hatches would leave me standing but I love my Lexus and it now goes the way I feel it always should have. And also because its different, there isn't another one that looks like mine around and I think it looks great too, so I will keep mine as long as its viable

good luck with the conversion and look forward to seeing the pictures.