Steviewevie

The road tax (for cars registered from the 1st March 2001 onwards, and on the IS200 too) is going up to £300 from April 2009 and £430 from April 2010.

Different gearbox or different shifter ?

There is a thread that looks like it should help you here No idea if it will be repairable or not, but obviously if you get the windscreen guys out then they'll be able to check it out. Normally on comprehensive policies you can get it repaired for free, but will have to pay an excess if it needs replacing. And the sooner you get it repaired (if poss), then the less likely it is to spread and break completely.

I'm undecided whether to change my dash lights. I do fancy blue dash lights, but I don't really like the idea of soldering on the centrol console stuff. So I wonder if it'll look odd with blue dash lights and an amber central console.

I paid £41.07 for a sports grille from a Lexus dealer a few weeks back, though that included a Gold LOC discount. Definitely check with the dealers first if you can.

Don't you also have to drain the coolant if you're replacing the cambelt ? If so, you'll probably want to get some new coolant to refill it with.

Great pics Chris :D

Not sure that's correct, is it ? Surely you'll need the tensioner and idler too, as per this thread ? A Lexus dealer will help to make sure you get the right parts for your car. Or somewhere like this website where they might ask you for your VIN number to make sure they get the right bits (I have no idea if there are any different parts for these based on model etc).

The last time I checked (just a few weeks back) they were still available via Lexus, yes. Althouggh I wouldn't be suprised if the stocks were starting to run low. And the price you were quoted sounds about right. If you join LOC as a Gold member you will probably find you get a discount on parts from Lexus dealers.

Fight ! Fight ! Fight ! :D

I find that the forums at Detailing World are fantastic for this sort of thing (e.g. they have a specific sub-forum on cleaning interiors). Beware, if you start checking it out though, you'll probably end up spending loads of money on detailing products like I did ! They've got lots of handy guides over there, e.g. this one on basic good washing practice. A clay bar is something that you can use to remove impurities from your paintwork, things like metallic particles that will have settled in there over time (e.g. industrial fallout), general grit etc. An example is Bilt-Hamber's Auto-clay, which has the advantage compared to most clay bars that you can use water as a lubricant (most others need specific products as lubricant). Auto-clay soft is reputedly very easy to work with.

The reason its not given, I'm led to believe, is that the code used is specific to that tuner so could be used for all other cars they have done. Not sure if its right or not but I'm also told all HKS PowerWriter dealers have the same policy. I might be misunderstanding this, but wouldn't that mean that the original tuner could effectively "hold you to ransom" by refusing to give you the code and forcing you to go back to there for further mapping or buy another F-con etc ?

Yes Yes to both of my questions ?

Weren't there two different blues used on the IS200 ? Or am I just confused ?

Here are the pages from my 1999 Lexus IS200 "Warranty & Care" booklet. The Full service is every 20,000 miles or every 2 years. The Intermediate service is ever 10,000 miles or 1 year. Bear in mind that the cambelt intervals were changed and are now recommended to be changed every 60,000 miles or 6 years.

Think you might mean MeMo

I really want to try and get down there but I'm going to be at a show in West London. Depending on when I can get away, I *might* make it down there late on, but I wouldn't put a terribly high probability on it :(

Good luck Chris !

What time do you think that people will be there until ? Just wondering if there's any chance I can make it down there after I finish with what I'm doing that evening.

According to the online workshop manual, the rear axle (LSD or not) should have oil which is API GL-5 SAE 90 (for down to -18 deg C) or SAE 80W/80W-90 for below -18 deg C.

For the first time yesterday, I "discovered" the radiator expansion tank and peered inside. It looked like it was empty. Is there some sort of mark that shows how full it should be ? And if I top it up is it ok to use normal tap water ? Or do I need to get a bottle of coolant from Toyota ? I'm going to be getting my cambelt and water pump changed very soon, so all the coolant will be changed soon anyway.

I'd completely forgotten about the fact that I'm having the occasional problem with starting up too. I think I'll order some new plugs and fit them.

The speed that the RAM runs at is determined by the motherboard/BIOS etc, you just need the RAM that you buy to have at least that speed specification. If it's cheaper to buy faster memory (it's often cheaper to buy almost the latest stuff and sometimes older slower stuff can be more expensive) then I would go with that, it'll still run at the speed determined by the motherboard (probably at a slower speed if the existing memory is slower).

What's Japanese for supercharger ?

I'm not sure if the spark plugs have ever been changed on my IS200 (52K miles, 9 years old). When I phoned up the garage who did the last several services, they said they couldn't see any sign of them being changed, and they should really have been changed after 6 years (or 60K miles). Should I be concerned about this ? Should I perhaps take one of them out and have a look at it ? If I did, will it be obvious if it the original plug from new ? If I'm on the original plugs should I really be thinking about changing them now rather than waiting till I next get it serviced ?