TigerFish

I don't believe a '96 would have a factory satnav so it will either be an aftermarket head unit or a TomTom?? Same with reverse sensors, not seen a factory fit of those on a mk1. Things to look for are wear in any balljoints and wishbones. Some are cheap (bottom ball joints), some are hellish expensive (trailing arms, wishbones, rear bottom arms etc). Good way to check the trailing arms on the front is to put the steering on full lock and edge forward wery slowly and dab the brakes on and off. If they are shot, you will feel the steering wheel tug and feel the clunk. Check for oil leaks dripping around the area of the bell housing on the auto box, reasonably common for the rear crank oil seal to go on these engines (mine did <<sigh>> ) so a gearbox off job to fix. Part is only 50 quid, but a good few hours labour. Exhausts are not cheap. You can pick up a pair of new back boxes for £100 on ebay, cats for a couple of hundred. Full custom stainless can be bought (Jemster posted about one) for about £400. If you suspect any wheel bearing rumbles, although the wheel bearing is not that expensive, there are a lot of things that can rust up and break (abs sensor, handbrake cables etc) so there can be some hidden expenses. Make sure aircon works. The previous owner of mine had a bill for £1600 dorting the aircon out on mine.

Edit: Duplicate of above

I did get both bottom balljoints including delivery for £50 on ebay, the seller still has some. Top wihsbones (with the balljoints built in) are not so cheap, although I believe blueprint do make those. Luckily I had a spare wishbone for each side already, and used one when I needed to do the the nearside (see link in sig for tutorial).

Great news on MOT mate, did you do wheel bearing yourself no mate, I don't have the equipment to press out bearings etc. Unfortunately, pretty much everything that needed to come off was corroded to hell, including the abs sensor. So lots of hidden extra costs, drilling out, stuff like that.

There isn't anything I can think of other than the standard double check for any car. Bulbs, wiper blades etc. Mine just passed with 217k miles, so your mileage shouldn't cause you any problems.

Well, after costing me an arm and a leg last week on a relatively simple wheel bearing job, she did actualy sail through the MOT today bar a new tyre. If only the ups were more regular than the downs with this car

looking good

A user on LOC called Jemster recommended http://www.mijexhaust.com/mij-exhaust-contact.html for an exhaust, it was £385 fitted. I had the front trailing links done on mine last year. I didn't find anywhere other than lexus for them, and they cost about £180 each. Maybe ebay or scrap yards as a long shot. Be aware that the front sub frame has to be dropped down a few inches to get them off as the main bolt on the rear end of the link fits through from the top of the subframe, so is obscured by the rest of the car. It also took some cutting and heat to get mine off as the bolts had rusted solid into the bushes too. I replaced my springs with RS*R springs. I got mine through Envy Performance but it wasn't a quick process as they have to come from Japan on the slow boat (unless you want to pay high shipping costs), so expect a couple of months delviery time. Monster Mat has mentioned before that he can get stuff from Japan, so maybe PM him as well. I changed the springs myself without any major issues.

Hi thanks for the reply that valve you are talking about got changed a couple of mouths ago it seems to be working when you turn the temp up or down the cable moves the valve. im getting hot water through them two pipes but not out the other side. hi mate yea two pipes connecting to the valve do get hot but the pipe coming out of the bulkhead the other end stays cold im going to try at the weekend to flush the heater matrix out. is there anything else it could be. hi i done the test you told me to do and i got code 21 and code 14 do you know what these are, thanks for the help 21 is the solar sensor I mentioned above, try shining a bright torch onto it to see if 21 goes out. 14 is a short or open circuit in coolant temperature sensor circuit. If ambient air temp is below -50°c then you may get 14 showing when there is no problem.

Hi thanks for the reply that valve you are talking about got changed a couple of mouths ago it seems to be working when you turn the temp up or down the cable moves the valve. im getting hot water through them two pipes but not out the other side. hi mate yea two pipes connecting to the valve do get hot but the pipe coming out of the bulkhead the other end stays cold im going to try at the weekend to flush the heater matrix out. is there anything else it could be. I can't think of anything else. If one side is hot, and one side cold, it would suggest no flow. If all pipes were hot, I would of gone for the hot/cold air flow actuator but that would seem unlikely going by the symptoms so far. Do try the diagnostic check before anything else though, it may throw something up.

I've just had mine done at this place http://www.mijexhaust.com/mij-exhaust-contact.html Custom made in 304 stainless. £385 fitted! Have you got any pics of the system? No unfortunately - should have taken my camera!! They made a lovely job of it though and includes a full lifetime guarantee. Shame. Some pics of it on the car would be cool, from the back and also maybe from ground level looking underneath the car.

It is a good talking point when people visit that's for sure.

Thanks Bazza. The tank is 10'x2'x2' :)

I've just had mine done at this place http://www.mijexhaust.com/mij-exhaust-contact.html Custom made in 304 stainless. £385 fitted! Have you got any pics of the system?

Hi thanks for the reply that valve you are talking about got changed a couple of mouths ago it seems to be working when you turn the temp up or down the cable moves the valve. im getting hot water through them two pipes but not out the other side. Yeah, mine moved the valve, but it wasn't moving it correctly, so I got cold air all the time. Which two pipes do you mean? The one going to the valve, and the other coming out of the valve? If you follow the pipe along, and into the bulkhead, you should see the return pipe from the heater coming back out the bulkhead. Is that pipe hot too? If it is, then you would seem to have coolant flow through the matrix, which would suggest a different problem. If the return pipe stays cold (which on face value would seem unlikely as you would in theory need flow through the matrix for water to flow through the valve), disconnect the in and out and try flushing the matrix. Be carefull when flushing that you don't spill water over the top of the engine, as water can end up in the plug wells and misfiring can occur, and the centre plug is a bitch to get out and requires the removal of the throttle body etc (don't ask me how I know....lol ). You can try the self diagnostics on the heating system, just to check for fault codes if any. If you press and hold both the "Auto" and "Recirculate" buttons down while you start the car, then let go of the two buttons. It will start its diagnostics. All of the lamps will turn on and off four times. After that, codes will be displayed. Let us know what codes come up. If you get code 21 showing, this is for the solar sensor on the dash (the little smoked plastic dome on the n/s end of the dash. This can be a red herring if light levels are low, so shine a torch on it to see if 21 goes away. Any other codes let us know.

I did a quick video of my main tank the other day for someone and thought I would share here. Hope you enjoy :) Please wait a few seconds for Video to Load! or goto youtube itself if it doesn't load <----- Clicky

Didn't DJ Wozza have them on his IS? Maybe search for some pics of his. Edit: It wasn't Wozza, his were 18's thinking back.

How have you got to the heater matrix being the problem? On the bulk head in the engine bay, virtually in line with the engine block, there is a cable operated valve that controls the water flow to the matrix. If it has come unclipped, or is incorrectly adjusted, you get no heat from the heater. Worth checking that out before going to the extent of replacing the matrix. You can also disconnect the pipe at that valve, and the pipe on the oposite side of the matrix pipes on the bulk head and flush the matrix out. If you are getting water flow when you flush, the chances are the matrix is fine.

Depends what part you need. Cats and back boxes are both available through ebay. If it is blowing from the join between the downpipe and cat section, a new gasket from Lexus and some gun-gum paste sorts it out.

Blue print do some suspension parts, but not all. Best bet is to give your local motor factor a call.

OK, I'll take your word for it....lol. Only GS I found on ebay which mentioned a heated seat/switch problem said the heating worked fine, just the bulb didn't light. So a different fault to yours. You don't say if you have checked the fuse? There are these switches for sale on ebay. switch

Cool advert. No idea on the bulbs, but maybe LED's due to the colour.

Not heard of that being a common fault. Check fuses first I would guess, followed by voltage checking at the switches and seat connectors. Mind you, they are not exactly quick on the warm up on mine, so not a whole lot of use anyway.

sorry, images now fixed above.

toyodiy don't have the diagrams any more for the parts. Did they ever do wiring diagrams?