Steviewevie

I've got a tin of red Hammerite smooth that I'm planning to use on my brake callipers.

Got it all installed and working, woo-hoo ! :D I went back to my original solution of cutting down the connector so that I'd still have long wires to play with. I cut approx 5mm off the HID female connector with a hacksaw and filed down the edges so that it was smooth. This then connected no problem whatsoever to the brown bulb connector in the car. Could have done this on the driver's side too, but short-cutted the problem by plugging directly into the ballast, as previously described. Then it was a matter of that fiddly passenger's side lamp installation, and I ended up using sticky pads to put the ballast in the same location as WylieCoyote's picture. Oh, and as usual the wiring needed reversing too, but this was just a matter of plugging the connector the "wrong" way into the ballast, which was trivial. The lights look cool in the daylight, can't wait till it get dark ! Thanks to all of those who have offered suggestions. Feeling very chuffed now ! :D

ok, I got one side installed and working ok, yay ! Thanks to Redz_uk for suggesting plugging the brown car connector straight into the ballast. This meant that I didn't need to worry about the other connector not fitting since I didn't use it. Still contemplating where to mount the passenger side ballast though, since there's less room there. If I'm going to plug straight into the ballast then I can't mount it as per WylieCoyote's photo, it won't reach that far. Could stick it between the air box and diagnostics connector, but then you wouldn't be able to get the lid off the diagnostics connector. Hmm ...

Are you sure it's not a drive belt slipping ? That can make a screeching sound.

Attempt #2. Pushed the connectors together as far as they would go. Didn't work. Reversed polarity of 12V wiring by plugging in connector on ballast the opposite way round - didn't work. Looking at it from the side, I can see clearly what the problem is. The connectors are not going together far enough, no matter how hard I try to force it. They go in so far but get stuck. Looking at the side, there's no way the pins inside the female (HID) connector are engaging with the male (car) connector. I'm going to have to try filing/sanding down the male connector to try and make it fit further in. I wonder if they are using slightly different connectors on this kit which are a bit different thickness ?

That's the brake warning light. I'll leave it to someone who's got a bit more knowledge to tell you what's the most likely cause.

I haven't had a chance to try again yet, but will definitely be doing so at some point tomorrow.

Now, that way round requires even more physical persuaion! Actually, now that I've looked at all the connectors again, it looks very easy to reverse the way that the low-voltage connector plugs into the ballast, with very little force required. So that gives me another option to try.

Thanks all. My handbook says DOT3.

I saw from the instructions that you could do it that way, and I didn't try it but I thought it would be overly restrictive on the placing of the ballast, i.e. you have a much shorter difference from the headlamp wiring to the ballast. So I was connecting the extension lead from the bulb into the original headlamp connector, and the other end of the extention lead on the HID kit into the ballast. Did you not find your way to be a problem then ? As I said, I hadn't actually tried it. There's loads of room on the driver's side, but much less on the passenger's side.

ok, thanks. Sounds like I don't need to trim the connectors, just force them together, but perhaps I've hit the "reversed" wiring problem and that's why it didn't appear to work. So I'll give it another try :)

ok, that's one of the reasons I was asking, I didn't want to try too much force in case there was another solution. Yeah I've seen that mentioned in other threads on HIDs. Probably a dumb question, but how do I do that ? Aren't the connectors uni-directional, i.e. keyed to only connect one way ?

Ooh err Ahem. Have you got the same connectors as in my pics ? I had to really force it to get it to go as far as I did, and even then it didn't work. As I said I suppose it's possible I have a faulty component, I didn't try the other bulb/ballast.

Redz, I love the technical explanation Here are some pics of my connectors. Connector on HID kit (the pins are deep in the second "bulge" on the connector, some way down : Connector to headlamp : I did try turning on the lights to see if the contact had been made. Nothing happened. So although it's possible either the bulb or ballast was faulty, I'm guessing it wasn't in far enough to make electrical contact. Edit - sorry the pictures are a bit rubbish !

I just tried to test out my HIDS4U conversion kit, plugging it in before installing to check that the bulbs and ballasts were working ok (onto my second mod already, after my successful sports grille installation earlier ! :D ) However, I hit a slight problem. The connector for my dipped headlamp and the connector on the HID kit didn't quite fit together properly. It looks like the connector on the HID kit is slightly too recessed for the two to be able to contact properly. I had a minor panic when I got them jammed together in an attempt to "make" them fit, but after perseverance I eventually prised them apart ! Did anyone else with the HIDS4U kit have this same problem ? Don't know if the connectors have changed at all, my IS200 is a 1999 model. I wanted to check what others had done before starting to hack off bits of plastic, in case I'm missing something obvious !

ok, thanks. So going from the handbook, I top this up with brake fluid, yes ?

On checking the various fluid levels etc on my IS200, I saw something containing fluid that I'm not sure what it is. It's a small reservoir immediately to the right brake fluid reservoir (smaller than the one for brake fluid). Is it fluid for the clutch hydraulics ? I couldn't see anything on it in the handbook, or the online workshop manual (though I might just have missed it).

Thanks. Next job is installing the HIDs that I've bought, and at some point painting the brake callipers. Clear rear fog lenses after I collect them from Wozza at JAE ! :D

Woo-hoo, I did it ! :D Pics below : Getting the plastic retaining clips out was a bit tricky, three out of four of them "pinged" out and fell inside the engine bay. I managed to get them back out after I removed the original grille though. I managed to get all three of the bottom plastic clips to engage. Found it difficult at first but I managed it through putting my arm down behind the grille (I've got thin arms !) and pulling up on it whilst simultaneously pulling the grill forward to lock it in place. Not exactly a major job as mods go in the IS200 world, but a major step for me, feeling very pleased with myself now ! :D Thanks again to those who gave advice.

Thanks for the advice folks, sounds like the clips at the bottom are the tricky bit, I think that's what some of the strange diagrams in the instructions are trying to explain ! I feel confident enough to give it a try now (well not literally now, probably tomorrow if the weather's ok !), thanks again, I love the LOC ! :D

Tommy, it'll probably be about £100 or so. If you PM Tony Bones (username on here is "wheels-inmotion.co.uk" then he'll be able to give you a quote). It'll be money well spent, I'm sure :)

I've just bought a sports grille. Will it be pretty obvious how it fits, are there any gotchas ? I wasn't too suprised to find the instructions all in Japanese, most of the diagrams are pretty self-explanatory but there are a couple that completely baffle me (particularly the one showing a hand with what looks like a loop of string (?!) pulling something :duh: I'm not particularly mechanically minded so these feels like major engineering to me, and I don't want to break anything !

That does look nice. Hmm, hadn't thought about getting one welded on, that would stop anyone nicking it !

I've seen a few threads on this, and I've bought some McGard locking wheel nuts, model 24157SU. I have an IS200 Sport with the OEM alloys. Several people seem to have reported using these nuts, but they look completely wrong to me. They have a cone-shaped seat which won't fit down the recess in the wheel where the bolt goes. The guide in Halfords is very unhelpful and confusing, but the one on the McGard website here seems to be pointing to model 21156, which does look at least right in the picture (i.e. flat seat rather than cone). I wonder if there's any difference in IS200 models ? Mine's an early one, 1999. Can anyone shed any light on this ?

Mine has the lights in the corner. I thought they all did? I think that japthree is saying that he thinks the dash looks better if you have an auto because you get those lights there.