ahmed24

Just thought i'd share some recent mods I did. I haven't had a chance to publish it on my blog yet but it's on my instagram. The 4 main mods here are: Hydrodip Interior Panels - I hydrodipped the centre console and steering wheel switchpad cover in black micro carbon weave pattern with a 2K clear coat on top to get a nice deep shine. I had recently wrapped the steering switchpad in gloss carbon fibre but wasn't too happy with the level of shine and depth of the pattern. So I hydrodipped it. I also took this oppertunity to finally change the outdated wooden centre console to the same design. Just have to do the window switches still. LED Upgrade - I took the oppertunity to change the LED bulbs inside the switchpad to blue. LED's are very cheap. I bought a pack of 100 for a few pounds. Plan is to change all the green LED's out on the car at some point. Aluminium Sports Pedals - I've always been after some OEM aluminium sport pedals but don't like to spend too much, so managed to finally source the whole set from a breaker for £20. Hybrid Blue Start Button - I wanted to upgrade the standard start button to the blue hybrid one to match by blue interior and exterior theme. I first purchased a hybrid blue start button from an earlier hybrid lexus for £5 but wasn't happy with the tone of blue and the backlight was yellowish, so i gave up with that. Then I purchased one from a CT200h for £10 and the blue tone of that is perfect and is like a pearl blue and the backlight is white. So in the pics you will probably see both start buttons. Some pics of all these mods below:

40-60k is a very reasonable time. Like i said in between a little trickle change will also help keep things in tip top condition. Best to use a garage that has worked on Aisin gearboxes too. I've used aftermarket filters with gaskets and haven't had any trouble. They are a fraction of the cost. Remember there are O rings for the filter inside, then their is the main sump pan gasket as well as the drain plug washer. I don't think you get out 6L at all. There is a lot of oil inside the torque converter and the housing itself. The entire transmission itself only takes around 9-10L, so it makes no sense that you can drain 6L out of the sump. If i remember correclty, if you are lucky you can probably drain about 3L or just over that. All the best.

I've heard that a lot of dealers in the states are now all suggesting customers have transmission service at 60k which makes a lot of sense. I recently cut open a filter from a 70k on original oil filter and the filter was no longer able to efficiently filter the oil. Every oil breaks down, no such thing as oil that never breaks down. I change my filter every 60k. If dropping the pan and draining and re-filling then I think the temperature dependant fill/level procedure is essential. But in between I do a trickle change just like @ColinBarber suggested where I drain and measure how much came out. Then re-fill the same amount. Then I drive around a bit and repeat a few times just to dilute old oil with new oil. The WS 1L bottles really arn't that expensive so well worth doing in my opinion. Better to dilute it a little than have completely nasty oil inside.

I did another steering wheel wrap for someone with custom orange stitching and had the interior trims hydropdipped orange carbon weave to match his orange colour theme. Also added in paddle-shifters to his car as he's original steering wheel didn't have paddle shifters. Thought i'd share some pics of that project below. Remember this isn't my car.

As @ColinBarber said it's the Aisin A960E. It's written on the side stick when you open your door. The same stick that has your paint code. I think there will be lots of opinions on this. Ive worked with a good few A960E transmissions. Just recently I teared down a 2012 A960E with 70k miles on original oil. It was absolutely filthy and metal particles were of concern. I've worked on a few with that kind of mileage and all have shown similar signs of wear. But I guess it's upto every owner what risk they want to take. I've got nearly 200k on mine while regularly servicing it and happy with that. My first service I did neglect and that's where most of my wear and tear occured.

Yes you can buy it but if you are buying second hand headlights, try and get the breakers to throw them in. They are attached to under the headlights itself. Same with the small wire that connects to the LED connector on the PCB. the breaker should leave that on the headlights. See pic below, oh ignore the two connectors that i'm holding in the picture you wont get those with it. That's my own custom connector to allow me to make it plug and play Bascally I took the original connector and converted to a connector that I had available to make it plug and play with the relay. £200 for a pair is a bargain. Regards the bumper, just make sure you have the upper grille, lower grille and fog lights etc because they are different. I swapped to the 2012 F Sport bumper to at the same time when I did the headlight. Link here: https://is-250.blogspot.com/2013/08/vinyl-wrap-colour-change-and-2012-f.html But in 2015 I made my own 3IS front bumper.

Bumper will fit, you will just need new black brackets under the headlight as mentioned in my previous post but that's mainly for the headlight. Ofcourse you will need the grille and everything to go with the bumper as the old grille and stuff will not transfer to facelift bumper

Thank you @normski2 for your kind words as always. I've done quite a few more recent mods that i will be posting about soon. I'm also very close to retrofitting the 3IS LFA Style F Sport instrument cluster on my 2006 IS. @Matt1280 that guide of mine basically shows you how to wire the the OEM LED headlights to work exactly as it should from factory. It's a simple relay job. If you buy the OEM headlights, you need to make sure the extra piece of wiring loom that connects to the LED socket on the PCB comes with it otherwise it's not too expensive to buy I think. This is how I originally wired mine in 2013 and worked perfectly fine. But in October 2019 I completely changed the wiring because after installing my rear VLAND tail-lights I wanted the front LED and rear VLAND tail-lights to go on when you unlock or approach the car. More details about that here: https://is-250.blogspot.com/2020/01/vland-tail-lights-drl-activation-on.html But for your case the link posted by @normski2 will be just fine. Oh and another thing, if I remember correctly, the black plastic bracket under the headlight has to be changed if you swap out the headlights. This is because the LED headlight wiring needs a little slot. You could probably get away with just cutting the oriignal black bracket and creating the groove required. I just swapped out the black plastic trim. Another option that others may suggest is the VLAND front headlights. I personally love the VLAND rear tail-lights. But i'm not too sure about the front. Firslty, because they don't really have proper projector lens. Secondly, the light output is worse than OEM headlights. And thirdly because the VLAND headlights LED swoosh is only designed with one fixed constant current driver meaning it only powers up the LED at a fixed brightness. VLAND front lights do not dim which is technically an MOT failure. VLAND Headlights just require constant ignition switched power going to the LED. This means anyone wanting to be MOT compliant then has to install a relay to make sure the LED swoosh lights turn off when main lights are on. This kind of defeats the purpose of the nice looking headlights in my opionion. Hence why I stuck to OEM LED front lights and went with VLAND tail-lights

I have a 2006 IS250 SE-L which 've owned for 13 years. I have worked on IS, GS, CT and RX models

Now that's a bargain for genuine Osram😀

I really doubt it's the ballast. I've worked with many Lexus models with D4S bulbs and all these symptoms have always been bulb issues. Ofcourse there is no guarantee that it isn't ballast, but all the experience i've had with it tells me it's the bulb. Furthermore, if it was the ballast then the offending ballast will still continue to do the same thing when you swapped the bulb. The fact that it's working temporarily on both sides means the other ballast is seeing the faulty bulb as not yet faulty but will soon see it as it begins to deteriorate.

No problem, keep us posted on how it goes

I would just leave it and wait and see just to be sure.

I had installed the original GFX boot spoiler (The one that comes with the SR edition). I had that for about 11 years. Recently upgraded it the wald style one which I felt suited my VLAND rear lights better. Below are a few pics. FIrst pic is of the GFX spoiler and the other two are the WALD style spoiler.

If that bulb is just on it's way out then it's current draw etc will fluctate in certain ways. The ballast will read this. Each ballast will have a slightly different tolerance of this and what one ballast may see as a faulty bulb the other one may not see straight away. If you leave it like that and the bulb is truely faulty then the bulb will continue to deteriorate and eventually the other ballast will also pick it up as faulty. Usually a bulb on it's way out starts deteriorating quite quickly. Had this issue on a friends 2012 RX450h too, he changed the bulb over and he said it was fine but I could tell there was a slight colour difference on the faulty bulb which is also a sign.

That happened to me a few times with the aftermarket bulbs but then after few days the ballast detected the bulbs issue again and started to turn the bulb off. Once it took over a week before the other ballast saw that bulb as faulty. It's the ballast that turns off the power to the bulb when it thinks something isn't right. Ofcourse there is also the chance that your original connector to the bulb wasn't on properly but if this was never touched I wouldn't think that was the case.

I personally avoid transmission flushes. If transmission flushes are done at shorter intervals from new then yes it can prolong the life of the transmission. But the reality is that most people will follow the "manufacturers" sealed for life claims and not touch their transmission until some problems arise and then all of a sudden they start looking at transmission flush. A transmission that has not been serviced and starts to develop issues which then goes on to having a flush is at very high risk of failure after the flush. The idea of a flush is to completely clean out the transmission, but this dislodges a lot of buildup materials and in worn transmissions these build-up materials are actually helping to continue to just go on. The minute it is flushed some of those materials will end up in places it shouldn't too. One is probably better of adding some friction modifier to a worn transmission just to keep it going that little bit longer. I personally do a trickle fluid change every 20k/2years and a sump drop and filter change every 60k. Trickle change is simple, just drain, re-fill then run up to temperature. Then I repeat the step a few times and that dilutes the old fluid with some new fluid giving it a better chance. Ofcourse this is my personal opinion and based on my personal experience of owning my car for 13 years and covering almost 200k miles on it.

Just saw this now. Not sure if you are still looking for the pinout but thought i'd reply. I've done some extensive work on the speedo and a lot of reverse engineering as i'm currently swapping out my second gen cluster with the LFA style 3rd gen cluster. Diagram and pinout of the 2nd gen cluster below. Hope it helps. J34: 1 - Ground (E2) 2 - Fuel Level Sending Unit Ground (FE) 4 - Tire Pressure Set A/B Selection Output (INT) 5 - Speed Signal Output (+S) 6 - Multiplex Communication Line (MPX+) 8 - Illumination Dimmer Switch Max Bright Input (TC) 9 - Illumination Dimmer Switch 5V Supply Output (ILL+) 11 - LH Turn Signal Indicator Input (B) 12 - Power Supply from GAUGE Fuse (IG+) 13 - Ground (Signal Ground, ES) 14 - Illumination Dimmer Switch Ground (ET) 15 - Tire Pressure Initial Switch Signal Output (INT) 16 - Engine RPM Signal Input (S) 17 - Speed Signal Input (SI) 18 - Multiplex Communication Line (MPX-) 19 - Fuel Level Sending Unit Signal (FR) 20 - Steering Wheel Display Switch Input (MSSL) 21 - Illumination Dimmer Rheostat Variable Voltage Input (TR) 23 - Power Supply from DOME Fuse (B) 24 - Power Supply from MPX-B Fuse (B) J35: 3 - Passenger Seat Belt Warning Light Signal Output (PBLT) 4 - Passenger Seat Belt Switch Signal Input (P/SB) 5 - Left Satellite Switch Input (RSEL) 6 - Right Satellite Switch Input (LSEL) 7 - SET Satellite Switch Input (SET) 9 - Illumination Ground-Side Dimmed Signal Output (ILL-) 10 - RH Turn Signal Indicator Input (B) 12 - Check Engine Light Signal Input (EFI) 15 - Brake Fluid Level Switch Input (SW)

Keep in mind they coming from Germany so may take a little longer to arrive with everything going on right now.

Here's a picture of part number 90981-20005 and the bulb clearly says D2S which is wrong for the Second Generation IS. You need D4S

I'm just looking up part number 90981-20005 and that seems like a D2S bulb which is the wrong HID bulb for the second generation IS.

As long as the bulb is D4S it is the correct item. The part number you are looking at is a exact specific Philips XenEco 42402 bulb. This one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152524343870 However on that Lexus Direct parts page seems like they have a more universal D4S but i'm not sure what brand they are using there but it will fit. Phlips even now do the Phlips XenEco vision which is supposed to be brighter and whiter: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152524421068 Like I said before as long as it's a reputable brand like philips or osram and is a D4S bulb it will work.

If you are not replacing it like-for-like I would personally recommend changing both as the colour wont 100% match. Even if it's like for like depending on the age of the other bulb it may differ in colour output Haha that's ECP for you. Those discounts are only for certain products that they over-inflate the base prices on LOL

They look good and at least it's from ECP so you have good warranty too. Good price too. With ECP always check for coupons 🙂