Neil E

My V8 Soarer took 2 days including cat removal but the SC was fairly straight-forward and took one engineer about 6 hours. There are different ways of doing it depending on what you want. Have you specified how you would like it or are you going to take advice from the fitters? Sometimes I'm happy that mine is still pretty quiet and other days I wish it sounded like the Soarer did....full on power.

Thanks Craig. I've seen some of their mods. I will take a look.

Thanks Mel You could write several fascinating books on your car history. I'm comfortable with that side of it but need to establish the best solution at the steering wheel. I haven't had much time lately so there may be a delay to starting this mod.

Steve, from the little I have read in the past, SRT build high performance engines at great expense so if they claim an increase of 15 to 20 bhp with a cold air intake and a chip that's worth investigating. Improved exhaust flow by custom built headers or exhaust manifolds via 2 sports cats and a custom exhaust should make a noticeable difference, It's custom fabrication work so it won't be cheap. There were a batch of headers made in the states at reasonable cost but I believe some suffered cracks after a short while. You can't delete the cats if the car is to remain road legal but it's okay for the track. I'd say that's probably going to cost £2.5K + Swapping the torque converter to get off the line quicker, faster shifting, etc and we're really getting into competition territory now. There is a gearbox adjustment setting for faster changes, I think it can be adjusted on both the earlier and later models with the sump removed, I would need to do a search to check but that would be a cost effective improvement. Add Peter's sensible, essential, improved suspension, so coil-overs, stiffer anti roll bars, then consider wider wheels and tyres to grip the tarmac, a big brake upgrade kit and you are on the slippery slope to spending a lot of money for fractions of seconds saved. Mel I like your thinking on the 460. Perhaps the ISF set up may be the way to go. I would love to do something like that to a Soarer. And yes you and Peter make the point well, the SC is capable of going quite quickly in standard form.

Sounds like very good value for money Craig. It's a 4-5 hour job to do the cam-belt and water pump for those that are well practiced, most would book longer. I'm quite sure Toyota Lexus Guildford couldn't match that price. Genuine Toyota cam belt, drive belt, tensioner assembly, 2 pulleys and a water pump would be £300 in parts alone.

Well done John.

Hi Mel I'm not aware that anyone has developed a mod for the original ECU other than a replacement/piggy back. I agree a £30 filter on its own will do nothing to improve the performance over a clean standard paper filter but in principal, a good hi flow, cold air intake might gain a tiny increase. It's all perception but a less restrictive custom exhaust made my SC 'feel' more powerful and quicker to pick up in the mid-range but the dyno confirmed what I expected to see, max power 280.9 bhp. I think Lexus say it's 279 standard for the later car and 282 for the earlier one so I was very happy to see that figure from an engine with 101k on it. To put some rough numbers to John's post. The race tuning company that did the dyno test offered me a twin turbo solution with ECU and a tried and tested map for £10k but I think if you factor in everything that an SC is going to need to cope with 600 bhp, £15k is more realistic. Clearly you wouldn't run it at 600 all the time but it would turn a refined cabriolet into a fire breathing monster. I've seen a 5.0 litre supercharged Soarer in the flesh and the experts had no end of trouble trying to tune that to work properly. Toms do a complete supercharger kit, I think it's around £8k but that's just the start. It all sounds very expensive but if you have those kinds of funds to do track days or trips to the Nurburgring and can't quite afford to get on to the waiting list for an LFA, it's a cheap and exciting alternative.

I'd be interested to see some dyno/acceleration figures to back that up. I am aware that some of the guys in the states (and one or two in the UK) have experimented with cold air intakes. The car produces around 280 bhp and with a good launch, should reach 60 mph in 6 seconds or slightly less. It's possible to improve throttle response and slightly quicker shift changes but apart from taking some radical measures to save weight, noticeable or significant gains will require serious effort, expertise and expenditure. I could suggest likely costs but it makes me wince. :)

Yes, I've played (never to any great standard) since I could walk. Makes people smile occasionally around the Sussex league clubs. Many years ago I never got around to buying A11 OUT for not much money when the DVLA originally released it. Some years later I saw it on a small hatchback on the A1 as A1 1OUT, what a waste......

Hi Mel I think you are choosing the right option to replace the rad with a new one. They can be repaired but better to have the benefit of the full cooling capacity of a new one. If the cam-belt has been done then it's likely the water pump was done at the same time. It's correct and common practice to do them at the same time.

Peter, I really like the look of the timeless wooden dash and the option to conceal the tech behind the motorised doors but I much prefer the feel of a leather grip. It makes a big difference to how the car feels. Thanks very much Colin, your knowledge is truly impressive, that's about as far as my research has taken me so far after hours of reading. I'm drawn to the IS wheel as it has the wiring, leather grip and paddles already. Apart from the safety aspect of the airbag, the piece that I don't yet know is if I could then modify the SC connector to match the IS configuration. If it uses the same connector, it may be a case of adding pins to run connections to the gear shift, if not, then it could be a case of changing the mullti-plug and If that's the case, then fabricating the paddles on the existing wheel would probably be more favourable. Then the issue is getting the signal from the existing steering wheel to the column. More homework required. I've been distracted today fabricating a missing headlamp washer nozzle u-shaped securing pin. Lexus said they couldn't supply it separately so I had to make one. All back together now and seems to work okay. Aligning the cut outs for the headlamp washers on the body kit bumper was a bit scary. Is it really worth all that hassle? Of course it is....

Hope it's something simple like a hose spring clip failure. At least the engine didn't get hot.

I just have the tyre repair kit but the space saver Supra wheel and the RX8 space saver are two options to consider.

I quite like pushing the boundaries and I'm not afraid to try and fail if it's worth a go in the first place. The box/ecu already allows for the 'up' and 'down' shift so it should be possible to get the paddles to work if it's possible to get the signals from the wheel via the loom. I know similar things have been done in the US on the GS model by adding paddles to an existing steering wheel. (So that might be plan B + a leather grip) The button arrangement is different on the IS steering wheel but the functions appear to be the same so I think that should be okay. I've changed wheels and manually reset airbag lights before but never substituted any so that's new territory. The connections look the same but research so far hasn't confirmed if it's possible/safe to swap them.

I'm just going to throw this out there. Does anyone know if it is possible to fit a paddle shift steering wheel from an IS to a 2006 SC430? I've been busy mildly modifying the car since purchasing it in the summer and the steering wheel is the next in line for treatment. I'm not a fan of the feel of the wooden part of the grip. It's a bit thin and too slippery. It could be professionally recovered in leather and neatly stitched to look as original as possible but I thought it might be fun to fit the IS wheel and attempt to get the shift paddles working. One obvious concern is compatibility of the IS airbag as for insurance purposes, it would need to be shown to be safe. If it's a step too far, I'll have to settle for plan B.

I would start by carefully and slowly opening the roof to see if the boot closes with the same gap when the roof is stored inside it.

Yeah, that's quite a gap. Have you tried opening and closing the roof slowly to see what happens with the mechanism?

Has the misalignment affected the roof opening and closing? If you stand by the boot as someone else operates the roof slowly in stages you may be able to see if anything is slightly amiss but as you say, if the Lexus guys can't figure it out then something is strangely wrong, assuming they know what they are doing.

That's a silly price for a lock + fitting and I doubt it's just caused by the lock for it to be raised by 8 mm all around. I presume you have carefully opened and closed the roof to check it's not something to do with the mechanism getting jammed before it finally closes.

John a few questions. Can you add some pictures? Does the folding roof still work properly? If the boot is raised that much all around, it is as if the roof hasn't completely finished its closing cycle. Can you see any physical damage or bow to the boot lid or the struts?

No worries. To be honest there's little risk in and around the gear selector area but as some circuits are permanently live there is always the possibility of shorting something out particularly when removing parts for the first time without knowing what else may have been done before. e.g. fixes or additions done by previous owners. With regard to the power drain, I will take some readings from mine and let you know how much it loses.

The most cost effective way is to repair the cones. Replacing the speakers with aftermarket units is tricky as you need to be careful to match the ohm rating of the original drivers to avoid damaging the amp. I was fortunate enough not to have to replace the door bass drivers but I did swap the sub. I think Polk, Alpine and others make dual 4 ohm car speakers that can be wired as 8 ohm drivers.

The LS430 AFS lights are some of the best I've used and have an excellent dipped beam pattern. The auto levelling system should be setting the Xenons up correctly when you first turn them on. Motors in the lamp assemblies move them up and down according to the info sent via the ECU that controls them. Height sensors are attached to the front and rear suspension. If the lamp motors are working (i.e. moving them up/down as you turn on) it may be that one of the height sensors needs attention.

Yeah, looks very good.

Neil' the fact that the battery died in the short space of time that you had the courtesy light on is telling you something about the capacity of the battery. Before you go looking for the remains of a tracker, if you really think there is an open circuit, why not take Colin's sound advice and try to identify it by pulling the fuses one by one whilst reading the voltage drop on the battery? One other point (and please shoot me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs) when disconnecting and reconnecting electrical components, it's good practice to disconnect the negative lead on the battery.