noby76

yeh its cus you have now gone back to driving a peaky engine instead of a torquey engine. I bet like most diesels your golf pulled hard at between a low 1500-2500 rpm with maybe 300NM of torque which made pulling from a stop or low revs less of a hassle whereas the IS would pull at its hardest or come alive at around 4000-6000rpm. So you wont feel that instant shove at the back around the low rpm range in the IS until its operating within its power band which comes in at the higher part of the rpm range.

Valve timing is only on the intake side of the valves for our cars. I beleive the cam pulleys should be two for doch engines.

Twin cam so its dohc

Or fit bald tyres at the rear on days you want to drift and the car will be every where!

when i was looking for an IS300 i wanted one with body kit, satnav and cream leather but was difficult finding one with all three. either one has the nav and cream leather but not the body kit or vice versa until i decided to go for one with bodykit and live with not having the nav and cream leather. so if you have found one which ticks all your boxes, dont hold back just go for it as there is nothing which a professional valeter cant do with regards to restoring the leather and body work. most professional valeters will come to your home on a nice sunny day and for around £80 will scrub, wash, machine polish and restore your car , leather seats and wheels. infact am looking to have this done to mine this summer.

Once you go Lexus you will keep coming back right... Give Lexus a quick ring and they will double confirm the prices for you.

Lexus does the the fixed price Essential care service for cars which are 5 years or over and last time i checked was £119 for minor service and £219 for major service which means you will still get your service book stamped by Lexus but wont be worth anymore than market rate for a 10year old car when you come to sell it on. But hey that's pretty much the price an inde garage will charge if not more anyway. off topic but have you had a respray done? Not sure which of the IS's is yours :-) looking good tho!

Yeh see how it does on the super stuff but if no luck then spark plugs might need inspecting to see if they due new ones. not sure if resetting the ECU would help but worth a try. to do this, unplug your negative battery for about 20-30mins and replug back in again.

but LFA proves you and BMW wrong was only pointing this out. It does handle better than any production BMW?

BMW is not being hated here. Am making a true point about Lexus being able to set up a car to conquer the ultimate driving machine if the want to but they prefer to put comfort before handling. I don't think this should be a hard pill for a BMW lover to swallow?

I think we can all ascertain Lexus can make a car drive and handle better than the dubbed 'ultimate driving machine' BMW i mean take the Lexus LFA this car lapped the German Nurburgring faster than any Production BMW, Porsche, Enzo Ferrari or Nissan GTR. So has Lexus got the engineers in house to design a car that can switch lanes just like an angry bee? Yes they can but i think Lexus prefers to put comfort before handling whereas BMW puts handling before comfort. And personally, i prefer a bit of comfort before handling as that's where 80% any driving is done. I mean how often does one drive their cars on the limit and throw it round every corner on a daily basis? So can Lexus engineers setup the car to handle better than a BM? Yes they can and proved it with the LFA but on the limit handling is not what Lexus is about but saying that my IS300 is more comfortable than my mates 330Ci coupe and its not far off it in terms of on limit handling so its a win win for me. and i thought i was the only one seeing things but feels like ECT-PWR also stiffens the suspension because i feel every bump on the same road with ect pwr activated but i turn it off and suspension becomes softer and don't feel the bumps as much on the same road i did with it activated.

that prob explains why it stops effectively.. i find my self braking late in some distances which i would have braked early if i was in my V6 Ford Cougar.

Yep most women look at badges first before anything! oh its a BMW, Its a Mercedes so it must be good... it looks flashy!!

i know.. lived in US for a couple of years in my teens.. yeh the braking system on the IS's are quiet good am running pads and discs from Pagids i got from Eurocar parts nothing too extreme but i must say they stopping my IS quiet good..

I side with Andy on this one most people jump on engine mods first including me. until i watched a documentary interview with the chief engineer of Honda Integra Type R and he said always start from bottom up. so if I should start going into mods again, this would be mine in order of importance. upgrade brake discs and pads to performance ones upgrade Tyres to performance ones lower ride height maybe by 10mm using Eibach sport springs install rigid bushes upgrade front/rear sway bars to Eibach's fit front and rear strut braces for more rigidness have it WIM'd take car for a spin and see if stock power gets put down effectively in corners and car stops very late before approching a corner before I start throwing money into the engine. Nos will be one cheap but effective mod tho.. :)

you right Andy i have seen most IS200's hit 60mph in 8 secs which makes me believe the 9.2 claimed by Lexus was a bit conservative or maybe the engine becomes faster or more responsive once it breaks in so its still not a slow car as people claim. haven't worked out 0-60 in mine but i will put my money on 7 secs and it feels quick. keep it between 4600 and 6200rpm and it pulls. i still remember when i test drove one when looking to buy an IS and the engine note sounds like a boxer engine :) .

which translates to roughly 145bhp at the crank if IS200's came with 158bhp from factory that's only 13bhp lost from the 13year old car without service done on it . thats still good i recon a good service will restore some horses. gona dyno mine sometime too.. you still thinking of doing engine mods? oh and which gear was it dyno'd at?

really?? most tuners always say 10-15% for manual rwd and 15-20% for automatic rwd but like you said all depends on car and state of condition, mileage and tune. have you carried out the service and oil changes yet before the dyno? was the 113bhp at the crank or the wheels then?

that's why i never go on throttle in this car when taking a roundabout in the wet. when i first got the car i tried to take a sharp corner in the wet with my foot down whilst steering from left to right aggressively like a FWD car and i lost it but luckily both TRC and Vehicle stability control kicked in and helped me out. car spun 90 degrees and most cars behind me thought i was trying to show off round the bend but little did they know i was in trouble and trying to correct it and since that incident i have learnt not to drive this car like a FWD car round corners when its wet. i only do my aggressive driving when its dry and go to granny mode when its wet that's it. regardless of how grippy your tyres are, its a RWD car so my advise to all is take it easy in the wet round corners.

most tuners always say manual cars loose 10-15% drive loss and automatics loose between 15-20% drive losses. based on my maths and using 15%, the manual IS200 will loose around 22 bhp through the drive train and only have around 130bhp at the wheels to play with. below is website which helps you calculate wheel horsepower of any car. not too accurate but the results you get are close. http://www.mk5cortinaestate.co.uk/calculator4.php and this helps you find the real 0-60 mph of any car when you put your figures in the car stats calculator section on the left. and i must say the results are quiet accurate as i entered figures for IS200, IS300 and IS-F and other cars and they were about right. all fun stuff :) http://www.torquestats.com/modified/index.php?pid=calculator&action=calculate_times&drive=RWD&bhp=155&weight=1380&submit=Calculate

Yep the VVTi mechanisim needs thin oils to be able to function properly. you can also upgrade to newer oils with API-SM on them for even more protection and fuel economy but thats just icing on the cake as API-SJ and SL are the recommended ones. sure lexus loon if you notice engine burning a bit more thiner oil then 10w-40 is whats recommended by toyota. av noticed mine does burn a lil bit more than usual but then am on 117K and drive it quiet hard aswell so that might be the case.

You right luke you just cant stick in any engine oil. Toyota recommends 5W-30 or 10W-40 fully synthetic engine oils meeting API-SJ or API-SL. obviusly 5W-30 is better as it will flow better in both hotter and colder conditions than 10-40 would.

@matt Here we go again.. but will i give you that attention you yearn? NO. @Michael keeping this thread on topic for you, just go onto http://my.is/ forumn and most guys are running IS300 2JZ-GE with boost. the stock 10.5:1 compression ratio from factory is too high if you boosting so will need to be dropped to about 8.0:1 or 8.5:1 to be on the safe side but as i confirmed mate give Swift Racing tuners in US a ring and hear it from the horses mouth if what I said in post number 6 is bull crap from guys on the US forumns, SRT tuners know thier stuff when it comes to boosting and most of them are running thier parts. if they confirm the 2JZ-GE can take boost on stock internals then you are on your way... have a read through this michael http://forum.clubna-t.com/showthread.php?t=10

from what i have read off the internet and the US forums, the stock engine should be good for between 300 - 500 bhp reliable everyday car if done properly without changing cams, pistons, conrods and valves. but obviosly the higher you push the boost PSI, the more rigid parts upgrade you will need. I personally recon 400bhp should be enough for any one looking to boost the IS300. even if the Turbo parts and brake upgrades takes the weight of the car from 1500kg to say 1580kg, thats still a power to weight figure of 253bhp per ton the 5 litre V8 IS-F has 247bhp per ton power to weight. so the boosted IS300 will match it in every way. the Auto gearbox in stock form can handle upto 325bhp rear wheel horse power but will need valve body and transmission cooler upgrade to take anymore power. I havent done any of this just info i gathered from the net. see below link from SRT tuners in US regarding how much bhp you can make from the stock motor. you will need a standalone ECU to run the boost aswell and all is included in thier price. if interested best to phone them and ask if it will fit a right hand drive IS300. http://www.swiftracing.com/SRT/item.aspx?id=10&u=2000005

yeh you might be right, but definately not battery related as I am running brand new Toyota batteries and the problem was still there. worthc checking your alternator to see if its holding charge ok but trust me if alternator was faulty, your battery would have died by now..high octane is pricey as you confirmed but i have noticed it burns as normal unleaded if not floored. regarding plugs either Toyota or NGK's are recommended and nothing else. not even Bosch plugs can work in this engine as the engines is quiet fussy to which plugs its fed with. otherwise you will end up with misfire and ignition coil issues.. and regarding the piping being there, Jap car companies tend to detune thier cars from factory and leave room for enthusiasts to mod and the IS300/Aletezza RS200 engines came detuned but bits were already ready to take mods if you decided to take it there. maybe some one else can double confirm this but i was told those piping connectors were for boost.