Steviewevie

Yeah as Aido said, make sure your lenses are clean. But, although your beams may well have been level before with the halogens in, when you put the HIDs in it could have thrown off the aim, e.g. the way the HID bulbs are seated in their holders might be slightly different. Best to either (a) mark the beam level on a nearby wall with your halogens on so you can make sure the HIDs point to a similar level, or (B) better to get the aim checked/adjusted again by a garage when you've got the HIDs in. I've not had anyone flash me, it sounds like your aim needs adjusting.

That thread can be quite confusing because first Mat says it's non-interference, but read it all the way through and you'll see that the original poster's engine was damaged even though it was only idling when the belt snapped, and Mat agrees that some information that's going round about it being non-interference is incorrect. Definitely an interference engine.

No, unfortunately that's not right, as at least one LOC member found out fairly recently. There was a big discussion about whether it was non-interference or interference, and the conclusion was that it is very definitely an interference engine in the IS200 in VVTi guise. I will try and find a link to the thread.

See this thread for some info about Drury Lane, which itself has further links to other relevant threads.

To be fair though, the original poster says that he doesn't know if/when the belt was changed previously. e.g. it could have been changed at 60,000 previously and this was a second belt that failed. But if it was the original belt then it wouldn't be too suprising to see it failing at 120,000 miles.

Sorry to hear about that How many miles had your car done ? It's worth emphasing, for those who might not be aware, that Lexus changed the originally-stated 100,000 miles/10 years interval for cambelt change down to 60,000 miles/6 years. I'm a bit baffled though that some garages seemed to think your car was too complicated for them to work on ? Fingers crossed that not too much damage was done, particularly if it was at startup and not high speed.

Personally I feel that it's totally up to each person to decide what's value for money and what isn't for their car, i.e. how much they can justify spending based on how much increased enjoyment they get from their motor. *However* this obviously depends on the customer getting exactly what they were expecting when they handed over their money. No doubt some will think I'm trying to make some sort of point here, but all I'm saying is that *provided* you get what you were initially led to believe, then if you're happy spending £x for various improvements then good for you.

Me too. I've never driven one with a heated windscreen, although I sat in one as a passenger once (one of the original ones). I too was worried about the effect of looking through those wires, e.g. if they'd be migraine-inducing or similar, and I would have avoided a car with a heated windscreen to be on the safe side.

According to Redz in the Group Buy thread, it looks like aaronabbott is sending out one of his rings, thanks ! :D

A lot of you may well have seen the current Group Buy thread for getting some new stainless aircon rings made up. We currently have a guy who seems like he can make the sort of item that we're after, and we're just fine-tuning the exact size/fitting of the rings. To help the guy out we're sending him a complete a/c unit so that he can test-fit the rings himself. However, what would be *very* useful indeed is if the guy could also borrow one of the original rings so that he can measure it rather than use trial and error to end up with the right size - i.e. given that we already know that the original rings look the part, i.e. are the right depth and cover the ring nicely. Please, is there someone out there who has the original rings, who would be willing to part with one for a short period of time, and to post it to this guy (details are in the Group Buy thread) ? Obviously you're sending it at your own risk, i.e. in theory it could get lost in the post, but I'm pretty sure that if disaster did strike then other members would make sure you didn't lose out in your attempts to help (e.g. by getting you some new rings from the Group Buy). We would ask the guy to send it back to you once he was finished measuring it and checking it out fully. Thanks very much in advance :D

Spot who does more cooking between you two :P Or who's more willing to type in "gas mark conversion" into Google :P

Isn't the torque vs bhp issue a bit of a red herring if you're tuning your car (as opposed to engine swaps and/or looking at a different car entirely) ? Surely if you're tuning your car then you're increasing torque/bhp together, it's not like an increase in bhp won't help your torque and vice-versa ?

Something else to bear in mind is that one of the items that needs adjusting (can't remember which) actually isn't directly adjustable on the IS200/Altezza. So the garage might say that it's not possible. However it is indirectly adjustable by tweaking someone else, which is what WIM do.

Hmm maybe not. I found a knowledge base article but it's very old so I think/assume they are the (incorrect) OEM settings.

I'm sure the geo settings are on the website somewhere, I'll try and dig them out. But like Wozza I'd recommend Tony and his gang at WIM, since those guys are ultra-professional and really do know what they're doing.

Wheels In Motion, check out their website here I also highly recommend a trip there, even if it's a little out of your way. I'm sure that a full geometry check and setup there will help your tyre wear issues and probably improve the overall handling too. The OEM geometry settings for the IS200 (and I presume Altezza too) are actually faulty, and Tony at WIM carried out some work to investigate and come up with improved settings.

Is the 100 degrees Celsius ? I presume so because I wouldn't think 100 Farenheit would be hot enough and I don't think a F-graded oven goes that low. If it's 100 Celsius, then that equates to gas mark 1/4 (that's one quarter, not 1 to 4 !). Gas mark 1 is 140 degrees.

I personally don't think there's any difference between cheaper units and more expensive ones, other than the price. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but equally I haven't seen any evidence the other way either. I'm sure I've seen others posting up links to this seller before, so although I don't have those ones myself, I'd be suprised if someone else doesn't have them.

Although it doesn't say it, that post is about the IS200, not the SC400.

Snow mode will decrease the amount of throttle applied for a given pedal position. If you're going along on the flat or a slight incline and you engage snow mode, you will probably slow down. There should be a noticeable decrease in power. Does your "Snow" light come on in the dash ?

The IS300 takes 7.8L of coolant according to the data sheet in the online manual.

I was going to use Aztec's walkthrough for plugging in the bypass lead, which involves removing the amp, so I didn't see much point putting it back in unless it was needed ! Another part to add to the spare parts box !

I put the details of your 1997 LS400 into this site, and the output seems promising, it listed different colours and also the two-tone combinations with the coloured cladding that you describe. There seem to be three combinations of green/grey (Ebony Teal, Dark Green and Light Green), have a look and see if one sounds like yours. Also try and find the plate on the car that should give the main colour code. If you can find that plate on your car (maybe in the engine bay ?) and get the main colour code, then that site should help tell you what code the cladding is (which apparently isn't specified on the plate).

Thanks for all the suggestions so far folks ! :D You mean including this one, which is rather - interesting - ?

Cool, thanks ! :D