Steviewevie

Yeah, thanks, Adrian Flux will definitely be on my list of companies to talk to, whether that's now or when my policy comes up for renewal.

It's personal preference, but I'd suggest 6000K is a good compromise between having a bright light and "looking cool" :D Some might prefer 4300K for an even brighter light, some might prefer 8000K for a bluer (but less bright) light. If you go too blue you'll risk being pulled by the police and/or MoT failure. You might like to ask folks here who have bought them recently off eBay which seller they used. I used HIDS4U, not eBay, but they were more expensive.

There's a small light in the top of the boot, in the centre, near the opening. At least that's where it is on my 1999 IS200, don't know if this ever changed.

Yeah, don't get confused by the bulb upgrades on there which make out they are "like" HIDs. They're not, they just give you fractionally brighter, different-coloured lights. A proper HID kit comes with a "ballast" for each headlamp, a small box of electronics. See an explanation here Yup, they're easy to fit. You take out the bulb from your headlamp and stick the HID bulb in there. Instead of plugging the car's electrics back into this new bulb, you plug it into the ballast instead, which itself is connected to the HID bulb. You use something like a sticky pad to fix the ballast to a suitable spot inside the engine bay (normally pretty easy to find a space). That's about it !

You can get them off eBay pretty easily, e.g. here (I don't have any personal experience with that seller/kit, so am not specifically recommending that one, just one I found on there) You need them mainly for the front dipped beam. You can get them for the front main beam but I don't think there's much point personally (but some may disagree). You don't need them for the rear.

Excellent. I subscribe to Car Magazine so will look out for that.

Thanks :D Wonder how much Direct Line will charge me for that mod though ? I think I'll look into whether I can switch my policy now (e.g. get a refund for what's left), rather than wait for renewal time :tsktsk:

Blimey, even *I* can fit my own HIDs (albeit after a struggle)

Well, I rang up my insurance company, Direct Line, to tell them about my K&N air filter. They have charged me around £35 (can't remember the exact figure), which includes a £13 admin fee. I explained the filter in detail to them, told them it wasn't an induction kit, might give a 2% bhp increase, if that, but they said that was what I had to pay. And I've only got a few months left on my policy. Well I'll definitely be switching coming renewal time ! :tsktsk:

HIDs are High Intensity Discharge headlamps, these are the slightly bluish-looking very bright ones that you might see on other cars, using xenon gas instead of a filament. Not to be compared with the replacement bulbs that you can buy from Halfords which are conventional filament bulbs and change the colour of the bulb a bit but don't really make it any brighter. The difference between regular headlamps and HIDs is enormous. They don't dazzle other road users, they just let you see a lot better on dipped beam. There is a general problem on IS200s of premature tyre wear, where the inside of the tyre wears very rapidly. Have a look on your tyres and see if you can see this wear already. This is apparently caused by the suspension geometry (i.e. the way the wheels are set up, which way they point and are angled etc), which was actually incorrectly setup by Lexus. Tony Bones from a company called Wheels In Motion did a lot of work to solve the setup problem and came up with a whole set of new geometry settings. It's not a big job to do, and as well as solving the premature tyre wear issue, it actually greatly improves the handling of the car (I wouldn't have believed how big a difference until I experienced it for myself). Their website is here and Tony is actually a user on these LOC forums. The geometry setup costs round about £100 but is worth every penny in my view. P.S. I didn't understand any of this stuff till I started reading these forums only a few weeks back and I still ask lots of questions myself

Received and installed my K&N filter today. Side-by-side with the OEM filter it certainly *looks* like it should provide better airflow (although I realise that just looking at it isn't the most scientific analysis !). Thanks for the tip about the recharger kit, Imperial1952 :)

Keep it, it's a gorgeous-looking car ! :D It was good to meet you at JAE too :)

I would recommend a set of HIDs, which are easy to fit and make a huge difference to driving at night. Also getting your geometry properly set up by WIM (Wheels in Motion). Welcome to the slippery slope of modding your car !

Not sure if I can make it or not, but I will try.

Maybe Lewis should have let Kimi past a bit more before trying to overtake again, but given how fast he was catching him, the decision has made a joke of F1. If the decision doesn't get changed on appeal then I'm seriously considering whether to watch any more F1 :(

How did Red Dot manage to keep the car in the same gear, if the previous people couldn't do it ? Genuine question by the way, trying to keep out of the argument !

If you car was registered from 1st March 2001, then the band itself actually changes over the next couple of years, i.e. it keeps getting hiked up. Next year the tax for those later IS200s will be £300, then £430 the year after that

I believe that today (Wednesday), they're only doing some initial tests, sending beams around the ring they've built. They won't be doing any smashing atoms into others until they can see that it's all working ok. So maybe we've got a few more days yet ;)

Woo-hoo ! :D

How much faster will adding your mint to my car make it go ? Will I have to tell my insurance company ?

Looks like it was these guys

Could the garage have accidentally damaged that whilst fitting the new springs ?

Rubbish mate, what do you do with your lexus air filter ? and whats the cost of lexus filter ? you can wash and use the K&N filter time and time again, so saving you money :D I am stating my opinion, to which I am entitled. You only save money if you keep cars a long time - and even then what (if anything) do you save? £10, £20? Not exactly major cash in 4 or 5 years of car ownership when depreciation is going to hit you for thousands. You originally did say "you'll never make the outlay cost back" though, not "you'll only make your money back if you keep your car for a few years". I think that's the point that Gord was making ;)

Why does he need to reset the ECU ? I think I might have missed something. There's an explanation of how to do it here

D'oh ! Sorry, I forgot to take and post my own pics. But my installation is extremely similar to the one above. On the passenger side I installed the ballast in exactly the same place. On the driver's side, I installed it on the (relatively) large horizontally flat area just behind the headlight.