noby76

as confirmed 97K on these Yoda engines is just breaking in period.. bought mine at 105k and currently 125K and still drives smooth, no squeaks and rattles inside the car, and MOT tester still couldn't believe how quiet the Lexus idles in fact he confirmed he thought my engine had cut off when he had it on the ramp lowered the ramp and noticed it was silently ticking over at 750rpm. one can easily loose their license as engine is so smooth 70mph feels like 40mph so check your speed gauge often as you can go over easily without noticing.. Enjoy

318 diesel or petrol shouldn't be able to out accelerate your IS250 both are about 50bhp down on power compared to yours..VVTi is what helps the engine perform better and my guess will be the ECU retards this a little when the engine is cold as to protect it from abuse as the mechanism uses warm engine oil to function smoothly hence the sluggishness when cold. No point thrashing a cold engine anyway doing more damage to it. below suggestions might solve your problem. when was the last time it had a service? as things like old spark plugs, dirty air filter and oil could rob you of engine performance when not changed when they due. have it code read to see if its firing on all 6 cylinders. Get you one of these....

to be honest JPWilson you have done a good job with touching it up from the before and after pics.. I wouldn't bother spending any more ££'s on getting it to show room condition.. as you wont make the money back when you come to sell it on.. the buyer will still pay market rate for a 2001 IS and wont pay more because its had new doors fitted or a paint respray done..keep the ££'s and enjoy your ride.. looks good and 99% of people wont notice unless you mention it or thay are looking really hard. :)

as confirmed, most people think just because Jap cars are known as 'bullet proof' cars means they do not need maintenance. i.e. mainly oil and fluid changes.. Jap cars mainly Toyota and Lexus can be very expensive cars to fix if neglected/breaks down mainly due to price of OE parts...some parts cost way more than an equivalent part on a BMW or Merc of similar year and spec.

just take another look at JP's IS for a sec..British racing green, sport body kits, blacked out rims, blacked out windows, yellow calipers and a clean valet.. the car is asking to be keyeed.. ok jokes aside..these lil chavs have no right to do that to someones car.. my wing mirrors got kicked in about a year ago for no reason woke up next morning and noticed the mirror hanging on its strings for dear life ...Lexus quoted £600 for a new wing mirror with the whole casing luckily I sourced this Lexus breaker in Birmingham who had a spare and fitted for only £40..dont know why kids these days have to vandalise property to kill boredom and what makes it worse police comes in and arrest you the victim for giving a well deserved slap to those dumb kids cause their 'human rights' have been violated. hope it gets sorted.

if the op wanted 500bhp he could still have it with the Altezza engine in GTE spec.. but mpg was his sole reason for wanting the 4 pot Avensis engine! tbh honest I actually wont mind a high revving 4 pot Altezza my self ..petrol still aint cheap these days.. @Abidali if rear wheel drive is not an issue have you considered the I-VTEC Saloon Accords in Executive trim? they are fully spec'd and in honesty looks better than an Avensis in my opinion. I have been looking at those in the 2.4 litre spec but as mpg is on top of your list then a 2.0 will do the job nicely with mid to high 30's mpg on the combined cycle. Accords are very well built cars and no one laughs at Honda drivers..

used to be ford man and still like fords.. cossie engines are masterpiece but why bother when Toyota has the Altezza? which is effectively an IS and has one of the best racy 4 pot engines? its effectively two engines in one. keep it under 6000 rpm and will drive and consume mpg like any 2 litre avensis. keep it between 6 - 8000 rpm and you have a light racing engine.. tbh abidali you better off with an Altezza 4 pot. which means you get to have the same chassis with a 4 cylinder economy/race engine..which ever one you want at a given time.. :winky:

not sure if you are joking right?? have you actually considered buying the 'real deal' (Avensis)? IS's are mounted longitudinally so not sure if the chasis is designed to take the avenisis engine without some modification. will also involve new ecu, wiring, gearbox and the list goes on.. do you really want to take this on?? if you doing an engine swap then might as well fit the GS430 V8 in there and LPG it. . maybe easier to buy a diesel Audi, BMW ??

I read somewhere the manual ecu is different from the auto gearbox ecu but how accurate that is I don't know. if you are experienced in swapping round gearboxes then not a big deal for you. but have you checked the prices of auto IS's lately..less hassle to trade yours in for an auto IS tbh if you can stretch just go IS300 which is manumatic.

nice cars the IS's... and cant really fault them.. tho they starting to get old now by todays standards even though they still hold thier own..only thing i will fault mine on is the onlimit handling when approaching sharp corners (still dont kow if its just mine or does most also experience this?).. the rears have the tendancy to kick out a lot and not as planted on the limit in very tight cornering as most BM's Merc's and hothatches but they are all newer models so have obvioulsy improved in the handling dept compared to our ageing IS's mine has been WIM'd but still no joy. cant fault the braking and striaght line performance tho. owned BMW and driven 330Ci BMW M Sport lots of times as my mate owns it and where it beats the IS is the on limit tight bend handling and sport exhaust note but apart from that cant think of why BMW would be a better car tbh so you not missing anything. like you said Lexus's have some solidity and simpleness to them and they not common which i like. am also being tempted on a 3.0R Legacy for the fact that its AWD or maybe try out turbo power for once and go AWD MPS Mazda.

thats why i always buy my service parts take it to my trusted garage sit there and watch them 'like a hawk' do the service. I never leave my car at a garage to collect it later as i dont trust any garage. had my cambelt and drive belt changed at a Lexus branch a while back and on collection I made sure i inspected at least the drive belt to make sure its really been changed. so my advise is if one takes thier car in for servicing at any garage and cant sit there and watch them do the job, always spend 2 mins after you have picked up the car, open the bonnet and check the oil to make sure its new, and also check coolant level and brake fluid levels and if they have not been topped up, then take the car back and demand a refund as the job has not been done. if both coolant and brake fluid was meant to be changed as part of the he service also check to make sure those fluids are fresh ones if not take the car back and demand a refund as the job has not been done. i save that hassle and sit there watch them service the car before i part with money. its like a production lane in garages they are under pressure to get a car in quickly and out quickly for the next one as soon as possible.

depends on how warm or cold the weather is to be honest. mine has the same engine and drive train as the GS and on a warm day takes roughly 5-10 mins and on a cold snowing day might exceed 10 mins but havenet actually timed it to the second. I would only panick if the temp guage is not sitting in the normal or middle position after say 20mins of driving but wont bother on how long it takes to warm up so long as it stays in the middle...

any 5w-30 fully synthetic oil will do but Lexus uses API oil gradings and recommends any full synthetic meeting API SL for mine based on the year of the model so i guess yours will be one up which is API SM or even SN.

wow you have a BIG knob..

getting the IS300's head light to work in the IS200 is not impossible but I read its really tricky. I just scooped the IS300 and forgot about it cus by the time I had bought an IS200 and tried to fit chromatic wing mirrors from the 300, auto dipping rear mirriors, maybe LSD and arm rest, HID's, and a supercharger for more power it would have cost me the same or even more money compared to just buying the 300 and most talk about supercharging but forget it might even be worser on fuel than an IS300 auto due to it sapping more power from the engine to make more power then the hassle of telling your insurance about all these mods and the eye watering premium they will quote you because they hear the word 'moddified'. I saved my self the time, money and hassle and went 300. all spec'd up including 18" wheels and sport body kits.

sounds like you made the good choice Gary.. watch out for speed cameras tho S mode +ECT PWR gets very addictive enjoy.

performance air filters will not transform the IS200 to start keeping up with an M3, but it sure does wake things up a little bit in terms of throttle response and sharpness. Agree with Gurmin a lot of IS200 owners tend to diss their cars on this club saying its slow compared to the competition but its not. I always say, the performance of the IS200 is the best given it makes just over 150bhp and weighs nearly 1400KG. from 0 – 60 mph shoot out, yes both IS200/300 can be classified as snails but where they shine is in gear acceleration which in my case, acceleration from 3rd, 4th and 5th gears. From a stop, most light weight turbo hothatches out accelerate it with no hope but we do the same in 3rd , 4th and 5th and it’s a totally different story. The BMW E46 320i manual is a 2.2 litre with 170bhp is the IS200’s main target competition and on paper, it looks like the BMW is the quicker car but its not true..the IS200 with 20bhp down can out accelerate it or ties with it in some gears except 1st and 2nd. Below is a link which shows these tests carried out by various car mag companies and are verified. It shows from 60 to 90 in 4th gear the IS200 is the quickest. From 60 to 90 its also the quickest in 5th. 80 to 120 its also the quickest in 4th. Also the quickest from the same speed in 5th same as 90 to 120. Even accelerating from as low as 40kph in high gears the IS200 with its 153bhp is still quicker than the BMW. And this is the same case for the IS300. 0-60, forget it but in gear acceleration it surprises a lot on how quick it is. So guys, your IS200 is quick for what it is. http://www.zeperfs.com/en/duel85-199.htm

No Petay only ECT-PWR was activated as I drive in this mode all the time.. and you right about not a lot of cars having the mat hooks so most valeters don't know or either don't remember to hook it back once the mats are cleaned. they do a nice job for a 10ner so will still use them again but will mention it to their manager would help save a life out there..

I have never been this terrified in a car until this experience rigga..I can only explain how I experienced it and it seems like once the electronic throttle control is activated it cuts of link to the brakes maybe its a way of stopping one from acceleration and braking at the same time so you can either have one or the other but not the two at the same time. I knew I could use my hand brakes to stop the car but at 70mph?? not until this situation that's when I realised my driving instructor had short changed me 11 years ago and never taught me how to stop an out of control car if the foot brakes is out of the question.. a lot of motorist do not know how to do this... a lot of things do run through ones mind quickly during this situation with 'this is it' being on rewind. tbh it was my calmness that saved my life cus any excessive panic and I would have steered into the M1 barriers but stayed calm and first thing was to reduce my speed did not have any choice than to kill the engine as using hand brake was out of the question. and with the engine off trust me the brakes were not responding..still sitting in the car thinking I pull that handbrake and I would get a train of cars ramming me from behind cus there was no hard shoulder not until a voice told me to look back down and noticed the mat was wedged under the accelerator pedal and holding it in place firmly. am here to testify cus of that last voice as it would have been a different story.

sorry mate don't have any valeted ones on my pc yet! took this during the winter months tho!! but hey it has body kits.

+ 1 with no hard shoulder in sight.

yes Noreen you right tbh if you pass your test with a manual lesson you are allowed to drive automatics aswell in UK but not vice verca. but once your engine is killed in an auto when the car is moving, forget using your brake pedal cause it will not respond to your commands. still don't know how I pulled it off cus this is my first auto as I have drove manuals all my life..

@Pete.. am Thankful man @Noreen I don't know how I managed to pull it off and I think it was my calmness which helped. it could have been a different story! tbh knowing a bit about operating a car helped the situation aswell! I had to think and act quickly and in that moment I was concentrating on stopping the car the last place I would have looked for an answer is the accelerator pedal. but managed to pull it off as all I was tought in my driving lessons was how to do an emergency stop but not how to stop an out of control car. ask around and only a few motorists know they could kill an engine whilst the car is still moving so looks like this needs to be included in driving lessons aswell on how to stop an out of control car if the brakes are not responding. on second thought does the electronic throttle control deactivate the brake pedal when the accelerator is activated? cus it felt like the brakes had failed. @Gee at least yours is a manual so in a situation like this you can clutch down to kill the revs.. an auto is a different story! I thought this was it for me..

Glad to me back home after the scariest drive ever in my life.. on my way back from work on the M1 cruising at around legal speed limit minding my own business and about 5-10 miles before exiting my junction I switched over from the 3rd lane over to the middle lane, pressed my brake to slow down and nothing happens …! hung on a minute am I pressing the accelerator pedal I thought to my self looked down and it was the brake pedal and the car was not stopping..thought OMG is this it?? How can I slow this car down if traffic starts slowing ?? looked ahead and I could see traffic building up about 5 miles ahead with my foot still pressing the brake pedal and nothing was happening and still travelling around 70mph..pulled over to the slow lane and thought I need to act quick and now.. trying not to panic I switched my hazards on and moved gear lever from D to N , turned off my engine and allowed the car to coast itself whiles speed started dropping now the M1 northbound does not have a hard shoulder so I thought it won’t be a good idea to pull my hand brakes and get hit from the back due to sudden deceleration good thing was another junction exit was approaching so kept coasting to about 20mph with hazards on.. whole thing happened soo fastI I recall I still couldn’t use the brakes due to the engine being turned off.had a sec to look down before I exit the junction and noticed my foot mat had edged forward and managed to wedge itself on my accelerator pedal. Quickly moved it away freed the accelerator pedal turned ignition on and started the car whilst coasting in N now traffic was heavily building up behind me due to doing around 20mph on the M1 with no hard shoulder available quickly stamped on my brakes moved lever back to D and all was back to normal. PHEWWW … was now thinking how the foot mat managed to come loose and remembered I had my car valeted over the weekend and after the valeter cleaned the mat forgot to fit it back into the holding hook which keeps it in place. I hooked it back in place and all was ok… I was lucky I was at the right place at the right time and on the right road in that the road was clear of traffic for this to happen as I kept thinking what if there was slow traffic ahead of me and this happened I would NOT be able to stop in time and drive into cars at 70mph on the M1. Someone up there was looking out for me today for sure.. so one advise always make sure your drivers foot mat is very secure after you valet your car as they are quiet weighty and could wedge/rest on your accelerator pedal if not hooked in place I count myself very lucky today..

Tell her I said Hi Stuart...actually I am not doing that bad then based on your figures as I also average around 30 -33mpg during fill ups when i take things smoothly.. but this involves pretty much motorway commute where the mpg needle can comfortably sit between 40 and 30mpg at 70mph..