Steviewevie

I had my car WIM'd by Tony soon after I got it. The change in handling was amazing, it was so much better. You won't regret it if you do make a special trip down to WIM, it's really worth it IMHO, they are a very professional outfit.

My ticket just arrived in the post this morning, woo-hoo ! :D

I don't think the Sport suspension is stiffer, just lower. Although I could be wrong.

Have you seen my past work then or something ?

The interior movement sensors are inside the interior light fitting, the one in the middle of the ceiling.

The Sport gives you more extras for very little extra cost, so that's the one I went for myself.

Welcome aboard :)

Thanks for the replies. Looking at the online manual I thought I'd struck lucky with the first step in disassembly of the door, but I see that's just removing the door handle bezel and not the handle itself. Looks like I'd have to remove the door handle bezel, the electric window switches, the armrest, the door trim panel and only then can I remove the door handle. Is this right ? Looks a bit complicated to me, I'd worry that once I'd got all this apart that I wouldn't be able to get it back together properly.

After reading various threads on Detailing World I have ordered some Zaino Clear Seal (Z-CS) which seemed to have good feedback for that purpose. It's not cheap but then I guess you shouldn't need to use much so should last a while.

Possibly, but it didn't seem like madness at the time. I read loads of threads on here on HID kits and several people seemed to have used the HIDS4U kit and spoke well of it. For something like this with electrical components (especially high-voltage electrical), and being my most significant mod to date (!) and lacking experience at this sort of thing, I personally preferred to buy from an established UK-based retailer rather than an eBayer who for all I know could have disappeared by tomorrow (not saying that all eBayers are like this of course, but it does happen). Just stating my own preference at that instance, I'm not saying anything bad off eBay and buy loads of stuff myself off there. I can only guess that the connectors in the kits had been changed fairly recently because no-one else had reported a problem with the connectors in the past, as far as I could tell. The modification was very easy to do and took just a couple of minutes with a hacksaw, and they fit perfectly now, it's not a bodge job. I could have dispensed with the cutting but would have had to compromise on where I wanted to put the passenger side ballast unit. I also learned quite a lot from doing it and increased my own confidence at being able to do a bit of fiddling around and come up with a nicely-installed (IMHO) solution that works well.

I couldn't say which is the "best" oil, but the same diagram that is in the owner's manual is in the online workshop manual here. Go into the "Repair Manual" section, then "Lubrication", then "Oil and Filter", then "Inspection". There's a chart showing that the type of oil varies depending on the temperatures in which the car is going to be used.

Congratulations mate :)

ok, Speedtest.net gives results in Kbits/sec so that is very slow. I have a 2 Mbit cable connection and on that site it shows me as 1977 kbits/sec download.

The insurance company would likely point out that a panel filter is designed to give slightly improved performance, so it is something above the specification of the OEM items, so it is a mod. No because that could potentially lower the value/performance of the car. But if they replaced your Lexus oil-filter for a super-duper-improved-oil-flow one that cost extra then it probably would be a "mod". Just like if you swapped your alloys for plain steel wheels they wouldn't be too bothered, but if you upgraded steel wheels to alloys then they certainly would want to know about it. If you pick and choose what you report to your insurance company then you really are playing with fire IMHO, giving them every excuse to invalidate your policy.

Its 0.33/0.35mbs, which works out at 330kbps.....which is slow. Very slow! My iPhone in EDGE coverage can achieve a faster speed. Without EDGE its not much slower.... Sorry but that's still not clear to me. 0.33 MBit/sec would be slow, but 0.33 MByte/sec wouldn't be slow. Sorry if I appear to be insulting your intelligence here, but a byte is 8 bits. Broadband speeds are usually quoted in *bits*, e.g. where O2 are saying you should be getting 3-4 Mbit/sec (no way would you get 3-4 Mbyte/sec). If you are getting 330 KBytes/sec then that sounds quite reasonable. If you are only getting 330 Kbit/sec then it isn't. Usually when you look at file sizes on your computer, and other such info it's rated in *bytes* which is 8 times less than the number of *bits* involved. There can be a lot of confusion given the fact that broadband speeds are rated in bits, not bytes normally.

Is that 330 Kbits/sec or 330 KByte/sec ? Similarly is is 3-4 Mbit/sec or 3-4 MByte/sec that O2 are expecting ? I imagine it must be 3-4 Mbit/sec, which works out at 384-512 MByes/sec. If you are getting 330 KByte/sec then that doesn't sound bad.

I just ordered this from eBay. The photo makes it look like the same as the excellent online manual, so I'm hoping that's exactly what it is ! Not too bad for £1.45 plus £1.45 P&P (I hope !)

The inside door release handle on my passenger's door seems to have been damaged by a previous owner, a lot of the silver coating has come off from the inside of it and it really needs replacing. How hard a job is this to do ? And are the handles easy to come by ? I guess I could probably get one from a Lexus dealer or maybe on eBay. With my lack of expertise I can just imagine taking it apart and finding it too difficult to get back together again !

How many coats did you put on ?

Do the Mintex discs rust at the first hint of water, like the OEM discs ?

Took it into Lexus Guildford this afternoon. They had a look at it and said the cam belt looked fine. But they backed out of giving any sort of guarantee, contrary to what they'd said on the phone, grr :tsktsk:

What if your car was damaged in a major way, was towed off to a garage and was inspected there by the insurance company before you had a chance to do anything to it ? Or even if you did have a chance to swap the filter, maybe the bonnet was damaged and you couldn't get it open ? Up to you of course, but IMHO not worth the risk.

It's a good reason to make sure your A/C isn't on if you don't need to use it, since it will hurt your fuel consumption. Although having said that it's a good idea to run the A/C for a short while every now and again during periods when it's not in use - e.g. in the winter.

The a/c is driven from a belt that comes directly from the engine. So if the engine has to turn the a/c compressor it will take a small amount of power from the engine, and you might feel this in some situations, yes. It should only be pretty slight though, I'm talking from experience with past cars and haven't noticed it yet on the IS200. If there is a big drop then it could indicate some sort of problem with the a/c compressor (e.g. if the engine is having to work hard to turn it).

I would tell them about *everything*, including air filter upgrades, yes. If you don't tell them about something and they find out (e.g. by an assessor looking at your car after an accident) then they've got every right to say that your policy is null and void. I wouldn't have thought something small such as an air filter upgrade would affect your premium.