Remap

[Bondis]

What is your guys' opinion on this remap? Do you think it is more than the 2AD-FHV can handle? DPF, EGR and catalytic converters removed in this case. 

 This guy ships a tuned ECU for 300 euro, and you send him yours, or else, 340euro for a tuned ECU and you keep yours. 

Opinions?

[NemesisUK]

Keep yours. 40 euro is cheap for insurance should things go wrong, you can easily swap back to stock..

 

[Bondis]

Quote

4 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Keep yours. 40 euro is cheap for insurance should things go wrong, you can easily swap back to stock..

 

Yes if I buy his ECU I'll definitely keep mine just in case. What worries me is the curves on the graph. The powercurve is not smooth at all. 

 

[ColinBarber]

2 hours ago, Bondis said:

What worries me is the curves on the graph. The powercurve is not smooth at all. 

No worse than the original. Maybe just the way that dyno operates, or doesn't smooth out the graph like some do.

This is what Toyota provide against that engine which is definitely smoothed out (averaged):

[Linas.P]

2AD-FHV already craps itself up even on normal power, having power increased would just make it even more unreliable. Further, removal of cat and dpf is illegal and highly antisocial... just cannot see how one can benefit from spending any money to make their car worse and pollute around them.

There are plenty of success stories on other cars obviously, but the way they differ is that they had reliable engine to begin with. As such when tuning one can trade off some reliability for more power and still keep engine usable. 2AD-FHV is already unreliable as it is and there are nothing you can trade off... it either blow-up or it blow-up anyway, with more power you just make it quicker. This topic has been covered several times and conclusion is if need more power - look for another car.

The only tune which would benefit 220d would be "economy" map, which would slightly reduce the power but would make more car more reliable/economica - exactly what Lexus did with 200d (+new head gaskets and head bolts).

[Bondis]

9 hours ago, Linas.P said:

2AD-FHV is already unreliable as it is and there are nothing you can trade off... it either blow-up or it blow-up anyway, with more power you just make it quicker. This topic has been covered several times and conclusion is if need more power - look for another car.

Is it as unreliable as you say? Sure, there have been a number of issues regarding the head gasket and egr due to design flaws, but is it really that bad? How many engines which were properly serviced and taken care of had blown up? Even more importantly, since the head gasket issue has been brought to our attention, how many people had the car give them problems? 
Also, another point of note is that my car is less than 60,000miles. EGR gave an issue before my ownership from what I have found on the service history online. So I guess it was changed by lexus or something. My full lexus service history is from Lexus. 

[Linas.P]

What you even mean? Yes it is very unreliable by any measure, just look to the forum - there is thread every day with same issues over and over again... For a long time now if anyone comes saying "I want to get Lexus IS mk2" the first response they will get will be "just don't buy IS220d - it is ticking time bomb".

To be fair is not that uncommon for modern diesels, especially if driven in short distances. Compared to other diesels - EGR, DPF and Turbo issues are standard on any of them, but head gasket and injectors issues are Lexus specific. Further, IS220d only came with manual gearbox which itself is not great unit. In short IS220d has one of the least reliable engines in existence + not the best gearbox. The service history largely does not matter, because service does not include anything to do with the issues mentioned. Service won't change stretched head bolts and blown gaskets... even under warranty they used to fit entire new engines and the car would comeback few years later with identical issues. 

First thing to note - they are not designed for short journeys or small distances (like any diesels)... so basically any sort of city commuting is out of question if you want it to last. That said low mileage of your car works against you - this means that the car was driven on short distances and that explains why it already had EGR issues in the past. If you had a car with high motorway mileage you would be more in luck. The people who don't have issues with this car are the ones who commute like 50-80miles every day on motorway and do not stress engine too much + do standard routine of EGR cleaning.

Now neither of standard diesel issues really matters if you looking into the tuning - they are caused by people using the cars wrong, not letting engine to warm-up properly, not doing enough miles, long enough distances and not letting DPF to regenerate + due to stupid gearbox ratios keeping the car in too high gear on motorway and preventing DPF regen again (even if they are doing long miles).

Your issue will be Lexus specific weaknesses - head gasket and injectors. Both of them are already not up for task and you going to bring more pressure on them. It is basically like acknowledging  the car has weak point and saying - "bring it on.. lets see you if blow-up!".

So... yes - it is unreliable, 95% of faults with Lexus cars on here are to do with IS220d for one of 5 reasons mentioned and none affect petrol variants, proper service does not help, because neither of the issues are in service schedule. EGR being change in the past means nothing - even if they fitted new one it just gets clogged-up again, so you simply need to clean it routinely.

As I have already said, Lexus looked into the issue and fixed most of it in IS200d - they did completely changed the head gasket (which is by the way available for 220d as upgrade), changed head bolts and detuned the engine to 150hp instead of 175hp. IS200d still has all normal "diesel issues" like DPF and EGR, but no longer have issues with head gasket. I have not heard of IS200d having issues with injectors either, so perhaps they improved them as well. 

[Bondis]

23 hours ago, Linas.P said:

What you even mean? Yes it is very unreliable by any measure, just look to the forum - there is thread every day with same issues over and over again... For a long time now if anyone comes saying "I want to get Lexus IS mk2" the first response they will get will be "just don't buy IS220d - it is ticking time bomb".

To be fair is not that uncommon for modern diesels, especially if driven in short distances. Compared to other diesels - EGR, DPF and Turbo issues are standard on any of them, but head gasket and injectors issues are Lexus specific. Further, IS220d only came with manual gearbox which itself is not great unit. In short IS220d has one of the least reliable engines in existence + not the best gearbox. The service history largely does not matter, because service does not include anything to do with the issues mentioned. Service won't change stretched head bolts and blown gaskets... even under warranty they used to fit entire new engines and the car would comeback few years later with identical issues. 

First thing to note - they are not designed for short journeys or small distances (like any diesels)... so basically any sort of city commuting is out of question if you want it to last. That said low mileage of your car works against you - this means that the car was driven on short distances and that explains why it already had EGR issues in the past. If you had a car with high motorway mileage you would be more in luck. The people who don't have issues with this car are the ones who commute like 50-80miles every day on motorway and do not stress engine too much + do standard routine of EGR cleaning.

Now neither of standard diesel issues really matters if you looking into the tuning - they are caused by people using the cars wrong, not letting engine to warm-up properly, not doing enough miles, long enough distances and not letting DPF to regenerate + due to stupid gearbox ratios keeping the car in too high gear on motorway and preventing DPF regen again (even if they are doing long miles).

Your issue will be Lexus specific weaknesses - head gasket and injectors. Both of them are already not up for task and you going to bring more pressure on them. It is basically like acknowledging  the car has weak point and saying - "bring it on.. lets see you if blow-up!".

So... yes - it is unreliable, 95% of faults with Lexus cars on here are to do with IS220d for one of 5 reasons mentioned and none affect petrol variants, proper service does not help, because neither of the issues are in service schedule. EGR being change in the past means nothing - even if they fitted new one it just gets clogged-up again, so you simply need to clean it routinely.

As I have already said, Lexus looked into the issue and fixed most of it in IS200d - they did completely changed the head gasket (which is by the way available for 220d as upgrade), changed head bolts and detuned the engine to 150hp instead of 175hp. IS200d still has all normal "diesel issues" like DPF and EGR, but no longer have issues with head gasket. I have not heard of IS200d having issues with injectors either, so perhaps they improved them as well. 

Did not know about the redesigned head gasket. Is there anyway around the head bolts? I don't put that much annual miles on the vehicle and I plan to clean the EGR every two years or so, before it gives any trouble.

I have to be honest though, I have never ready anything about the injectors. Did you own a diesel IS? 

[Linas.P]

I believe head gasket and bolts are still the same part number for both new and revised parts (sort of Lexus deying there ever being issue), but Lexus had several "overhaul kits" PN:04111-0R070/71/211 etc. which overtime made engine more reliable - you need to check which is the latest to make sure you get improved parts. There were speculations whenever bolts are new or just replaced as standard i.e. stretch bolts are single use.

I never owned IS220d as it does not make sense for my use + Petrol/AT is in any possible way better. The only real benefit (as for any diesel car) is motorway fuel consumtion, but one needs to do a lot of miles and long to take advantage of it. For low annual mileage diesel does not make sense and isn't even that much more economical on short journeys.

Just check this forum alone and you will find endless list threads about all issues mentioned.

 

[Bondis]

14 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I believe head gasket and bolts are still the same part number for both new and revised parts (sort of Lexus deying there ever being issue), but Lexus had several "overhaul kits" PN:04111-0R070/71/211 etc. which overtime made engine more reliable - you need to check which is the latest to make sure you get improved parts. There were speculations whenever bolts are new or just replaced as standard i.e. stretch bolts are single use.

I never owned IS220d as it does not make sense for my use + Petrol/AT is in any possible way better. The only real benefit (as for any diesel car) is motorway fuel consumtion, but one needs to do a lot of miles and long to take advantage of it. For low annual mileage diesel does not make sense and isn't even that much more economical on short journeys.

Just check this forum alone and you will find endless list threads about all issues mentioned.

 

Many thanks, will look into it

 

[Texas]

The 220 has got a poor history engine wise and to pay to put more uumph into it is gonna push that head gasket to failure point sooner rather than later!

[Yorkie740]

I have the LETO performance ECU it's have good! I had a remap on the car before but it was smokey so I switched to the Leto ECU and no smoke at all and it's very smooth and I definitely can feel the power difference and it drives alot better then standard!

I will also add Matej the owner of Leto very good to deal with and it full of info and will talk you though everything and answer any questions you may have! I highly recommend this ECU 

He even give me acouple of people to massage to ask what they think of the ECU one of which I already knew though lexnation everyone how has got the ECU loves it