Steviewevie

Don't know if there's a spec about, but there's a wiring diagram here, that might help a bit. This is for 2001 cars onwards, earlier cars may be slightly different (their diagram is here).

I found these braided brake lines, which come in all sorts of pretty colours ! Actually, I'd be quite tempted by some of those. Doing a quick Google the HEL brand (which is what they're selling there) seems to be well regarded by bikers.

My impression is that the main purpose of grooved discs, assuming you're not a track user, is just for looks. Am I wrong ?

Yeah the rear diffuser thing is interesting, hope that gets sorted out soon, we don't want a race where a load of cars end up getting disqualified, or something like that :duh:

Sounds like you did the right thing. Don't worry, there are loads out there.

The only tricky bit about fitting upgraded ARBs is removing the old ones - sometimes the old drop links seize and have to be removed by cutting them off, which then of course means you need to fit new drop links.

How much did they cost ? I see that Prolex has some stainless brake lines for £83.

Good question. I had a look on their website recently and couldn't see any Lexus dates on there. Would be great to have another meet there.

There's a walkthrough about how to remove the amp here. I found it tricky to get it out, even with the walkthrough, but I think I wasn't pulling the dash away enough. But if you're putting in a new head unit, you'll need an amp bypass cable, which you can get off eBay. This connect the head unit to the OEM wiring and bypasses the amp.

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I think it's very difficult to judge form just on the pre-season testing. I remember a season or two ago when Honda had great winter testing and then were a disaster when the season started. Often teams sandbag so as not to give too much away. I wonder if Mclaren are employing some psychological tactics to this end. I also wonder about the apparently amazing results from Brawn given the lack of running they've had over the winter, I imagine they are running light to get those times. It'll also be interesting to see how the ban on testing outside of races affects things. As has been said though, we'll have to wait and see ! At least it's not long to wait now.

If you had your water pump changed as well as the cam belt, then the coolant will have been drained and refilled. Check the coolant level as the others have suggested. I didn't even realise you could check the expansion tank until someone here on the forums pointed it out to me. You have to lean over the radiator and look at the tank behind, there's a translucent window with level markers on it.

Great post. Is there any reason not to use a synthetic oil, other than price ?

I haven't done it myself, but some members here have upgraded their brake lines to stainless steel ones, to improve stopping power (though I think the IS200 brakes are pretty good already). Bear in mind that if you fit grooved discs, your brake discs will wear down more quickly and might create noise while braking.

P0420 is "Catalyst system efficiency below threshold (Bank 1)". It could be a leak in your exhaust, the O2 sensor or the cat. If it is an O2 sensor it could be any one of the three, since this code comes up due to a different reading between sensors. You could try the procedures detailed here to check out the three sensors, or take it to a garage for them to do it. As I said though, it could be down to an exhaust leak or a failing cat too. But the sensors do seem like a good candidate for the problem.

Use the (probable) lack of a cam belt change as a negotiating item when discussing the price, i.e. one of the reasons why you need to knock the price down.

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See this diagram for which sensor is which.

These updates are great, thanks to all, especially James. Really interesting to see the progress of this !

You can get cheap code readers from eBay, if you can't find anywhere that will read the code(s) for free for you (should be a one minute job to do so).

Got any bigger pics ? It looks like you've just posted up thumbnails, which are kind of hard to see.

Someone who has de-catted their manifold will be able to comment better than me, but I believe the two in the manifold are before the pre-cats, so removing the pre-cats shouldn't make any difference to them, I think.

If you have got some error codes coming up referring to the sensors, post them up here and I'm sure that folks here will be able to help you work out what the problem is. Two of the sensors are in the exhaust manifold in the engine bay, the third is underneath the car in the exhaust pipe.

The shipping normally kills it, so sounds like you should be able to get a great deal ! :D

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