matt-c

I don't really buy cars for their potential to tune, nor as to how common or not they are to be fair. And the IS, whilst not as common as Mercs, Audis, BMWs, I see on average 4 or 5 a day, not including my own. They're not as uncommon as people think!

I was wondering if a filter might be to blame. I realise there will be residual moisture, but I'd have thought it'd be "gone" after initial use (after the heater has not been used for months etc), and not do it everytime it's used - it's not something I've found on all the other cars I've owned over the years (granted this is the first I've had with aircon, although my works Transit does have aircon, and I've not had any misting up due to using the heater blower without the AC on at all in that over the last winter, or currently)

I'm not usually one to gush about a particular car, or be of the "this is the best car/brand ever", etc - however the IS200 I currently have, IS actually the best/nicest car I've ever owned, and I really enjoy driving it and owning it (so far, as it hasn't cost me any money yet, haha!) However, was in the pub earlier this eve and a friend and I were talking about what car he should get next; he is on his second Golf, and really likes them (both mk4's; one a V5 and the current one a GTi) so should he look at newer VW's or Audi's etc. Got me thinking about what I'd sell the Lex for, and what I'd move upto/onto if I did sell And I'm really not sure! First thing would be an IS300 - just for the extra bit of power/torque, plus I'm getting lazy and the auto box with tiptronic sounds appealing, along with the bunch of little extra's it has over the 200 would be nice. But that kinda defeats the purpose really, as essentially it's the same car... My car history has been a little biased towards Ford in the past; started out as a fresh driver with a dinky 1100 Fiat Uno - as you do - then got an '87 XR3i, and subsequently two RS Turbo's (S1 of course), then after my boy-racer phase I got a 1600 mk5 Escort saloon (basically an Orion, but they renamed it to include in the Escort range by this point), then a mk6 Escort hatch (1800), and when that died I tooled around in a 1400 Rover "bubble" 200 series hatch till I got the IS. I've always like German cars, although never owned any, like E46 BM's and Audi A4's, but, and maybe I'm getting old (not even 31 yet!!!) recently I've been looking more and more at the Jag XF! Naturally I'd want the XFR, with it's 5.0L supercharged 510 bhp V8 (wouldn't we all), but there's just something about the shape and looks of the XF that's really beginning to appeal to me - and it's not the sort of car I'd have been attracted to in the not too recent past.... I'm not really a fan of Merc's to be fair - I've just never really "got" them, as such. That said, I've never really been interested in Jap cars either, except of course the mental performance cars they've put out over the years such as the Skylines, Lancer Evo's, Imprezza's and Supra's, but that's more of a power-lust thing than anything else - just something the Jap's have always been good at is making standard family cars into bonkers lunacy machines! I'm still tempted by an E46 Beemer - I've liked those since the day they came out, and still do; I just like their lines, their shape, I think their interior is fairly nice and tasteful, they are built well; the fit and finish on nearly every one I've worked on has been good, and they do drive and handle very nicely. But they are getting on a bit now (oldest is 2004/5 IIRC, although same can be said for the IS200/300). Likewise, the Audi A4's are very similar; and of course my dream one of those would be the 2007-ish RS4 saloon; beautiful lines and shape, lovely interior and spec, and of course the super thirsty 4.2L 420 brake V8 and Quattro 4WD (massively out of my price range, but surprisingly not too expensive these days at £16k for a high miler, and in the low £20's for a low miler) Just wondered where you guys would be looking to go next, and why?

Something I've noticed over the past week or so now the weather has got a bit colder, is I've increased the temp on the dial for the interior heater (over the summer it was set on 18 and I only used it with the aircon to cool the cabin) to 21/22 and run it on the LO (or LO +1) setting, and it actually fogs up the glass inside the car. Not a lot, but a noticeable amount. However, if I press the aircon button to on, it demists very quickly. Turn it off, and a few mins later I get mild fogging again inside. I've checked all round the interior, and nothing is wet or damp, so I don't think it's a leak or anything like that, but maybe there is too much moisture coming out the vents when the interior heater is on without the AC - I know AC air is dryer, so that would explain why it demists when I turn that on. Why would the air coming out the heater vents have too rich a moisture content to fog up the glass inside?

http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk

Good price!

^ Which the IS300 also has

I understand tuning cars - I've had a variety over the years and modified most of them. However a panel filter, with no other mods, is not going to give you 2-5bhp, beit an IS or other car. You *might* get closer to that mark with a cold air intake, which is a vastly less restricted air flow than a panel filter in an OEM air box, but even then, if you can't expel the gases quicker than standard, the amount of air put into the engine cannot increase that much - the engine can only take so much volume (for example, 1998cc), so if the back pressure, or bottle neck, is there (such as the exhaust, or cat in the exhaust) the engine cannot flow that new amount of air into, and out, of the engine any faster. It's why we gas-flow heads, and why we fit larger air filters, with less restrictive, larger diameter, intakes that suck in cold air rather than hot ambient air, and why we de-cat, and fit larger, less restrictive (larger diameter, and less "twisty") exhaust systems, and why we fit larger throttle bodies to reduce the bottle neck at every available point. The engine cannot hold anymore air without increasing capacity, but feeding it colder air (which is more dense and thus more oxygen rich) air, and flowing it in and out of an engine faster, means more fuel - and as we all know; more air + more fuel = bigger bang and more horsepower. It's why turbo and superchargers works so well - you don't increase the total volume of air in an engine, but the air it's recieving is compressed, so it has more "air" per volume entering the engine. It's also forced in, speeding up the whole in and out process.

A fair point, however to clarify - there isn't an Ipswich operation; AA Autowindshields don't have branches or locations; all the fitters roam from place to place depending on the work available. So it could be a local guy, or it could be someone from further north or further south. My point being, that no-one could possibly know who the fitter is that will be coming (no one, as in from a customers point of view) - it could well be the same guy, or it could be someone completely different. So making people in Ipswich think that the guy coming to do their screen is going to be crap is not very nice, or fair, when it could be a guy from Essex, or Norfolk, or Grays, or London, or wherever, who's going to be doing their car. In regard to the work; to be fair, you should really check the car over thoroughly before signing to say you are happy with it. It's a bit like checking your change after you leave the shop! And although it's no excuse for poor fitting/workmanship, the trim along the top of the IS screen - just the same as every other windscreen out there (whether it's a flap up trim like the IS or Golf, or a fit-over trim like the earlier IS, Yaris, Avensis) - bears nothing to do with leaking. It's not a seal; it's merely a trim. It's there to hide the gap between the screen, and the car. Many newer cars don't even have this trim (go look at many Renaults, Audi's, VW's, etc - many of them have whats called floating glass - where there is no trim around the glass at all. If the trim was pertinent to leaking, then all these cars would leak from the factory. As for your colleague's car leaking; as above this is not down to the trim. This can only be down to poor fitting, and as I said before, there is no excuse for that. Leaking occurs for a number of reasons, but the common factor is the screen not being glued in correctly. The factors can be - screen not prepared (cleaned and primed) correctly, thus the glue not sticking correctly - body not prepared (cleaned, or debris being left), thus the glue not sticking properly - rust on the bodywork giving an insufficient bonding surface The only exception is of the body work is damaged, such as a vicious dent, that means the glue cannot fill the full height. In most cases this can be rectified at fitting by bending the aperture back into place, and/or adding extra bond at this point. If the damage is too severe for either of these solutions, then the car wouldn't be worked on anyway. So a leaking screen is down to poor fitting or poor preparation, as I'm sure your colleague's car has not been accident damaged and, assuming it's an IS like yours, or at least a car of similar age, rust won't be the culprit either. Fortunately, she is covered by the AA's three year warranty on the workmanship of fitting that glass - so her best bet is to call customer services (the number, along with postal address and email address) is on the bottom of the invoice/jobsheet she was given. Lastly, my source for all of the above - that would be me; windscreen fitter of the past 8 years, having worked for several windscreen replacement companies, including Autoglass and Auto Windscreens, and currently working for AA Autowindshields

You won't gain 2-5bhp from a panel filter

Avoiding dodgy workmanship is fine if you are talking about a particular garage, or a particular place - such as "Mo's Garage" in Stevenage, or "Southeast Tyres" in Hertford (both names made up - no offence to any existing company) however to say AA Autowindshields are crap and they butcher cars is a bit off. Especially with no details about it.

Slightly unfair to tarnish a company because of one or two person's work. What were the problems they caused to yours, and how did they botch your work colleague's car?

Oh ok, that's the older one then. I sold one of those recently - but I'm still slightly tempted by the later 7" screen version...

^ That's the same for virtually any saloon car over here though. No idea why, but 99% of UK market saloons don't have rear wipers

Really? I haven't seen anything to indicate there were two different height armrests, like different part numbers or anything...

Tried that - I've got two different magnetic tools, and neither could reach it (the access are very tight, and the boot lid taper narrows too much towards the seam at the back) Trade card is great for consumables, like bulbs, filters, oil, etc.

Noticed I had a number plate bulb out the other day, and since I was in town this morning, I picked up a pair from Halfrauds (£2.99 for a pair of 501 bulbs! Fortunately, with a trade card they only cost 46p ;) ) What a farce changing them! I looked up the how-to guide, but really? 4 nuts, two poppers, plus the multiple trim clips inside and taking the cover off! Madness! Plus, I dropped a nut down the inside of the tailgate too didn't I? Thankfully a spare was found in my van, but now I can hear the nut rattle inside the boot lid when I close it

And once you've done that, take the car to Wheels In-Motion and let them work their magic on the geometry - improved handling, comfort and above all, your tyres will thank you for it

And the fact your dad owns the company!

I'm 30, 2years NCB, and pay £88 a month (TPF&T) - and I thought that was bad!

LSD stands for limited slip differential. A differential (diff) goes in the gearbox (on a front wheel drive car) or on the rear beam (rear wheel drive car) (or both for 4WD) and is what allows each driven wheel to receive power. An open diff will allow a wheel with less grip to spin freely - while the other wheel with grip puts the power down - ie, coming out a corner on full throttle, the weight is over one wheel more than the other, so the lighter wheel slips. What an LSD does is limit the slip through the diff so that the lighter wheel doesn't slip as much, thus providing more grip. RS Turbo's even back in 1984 had an LSD in the gearbox (FWD) with only 132bhp, and having had both RS Turbo and the XR3i (105bhp), the difference is noticeable. An LSD in a RWD car, even with way under 200bhp is a good idea and will make a difference - however, all IS's had traction control, so the the difference of the LSD is overridden by that for the most part. The bumper in your pic is called a "Legana" bumper - VERY hard to get hold of a genuine one, but there are some good fibreglass ones on ebay if you're prepared to do a bit of cutting sanding and bonding to get a perfect fit

This looks nice in white!

Doesn't look particularly tatty SJR!

So, can these CCFL angel eyes be got in a natural looking OEM colour?

Oh of course, but I just don't like the colour of the front ones, and think the rear's just look cheap and tacky