matt-c

Ah I've got you. So in theory, I could tap into the headunit harness for an ignition power supply, and wire in a USB socket, or even tap into the cigarette lighter power wires, and do it that way (with an inline fused USB socket run behind the dash for example) The TomTom has a built in battery, so I could leave that intact and it would run even with the ignition off, until the battery dies, but I'd rather it switch on and off with power on/off. One thing that does interest me is that using the tilt button doesn't power cycle the screen/gps unit - I was told that wiring a screen/gps into the power button, to switch the screen/gps on and off with the open/close button, would mean that using the tilt button would power cycle the screen/gps, which yours doesn't. Pretty cool! Hopefully, I've sold mine, but it's still something I'm contemplating doing one day. I think I'd rather get the 7" unit, rip the screen out, fit a generic 7" gps unit running Windows CE, run TomTom navigator on it for sat nav and wire a reverse cam into it's AV input so that selecting reverse overrides the screen (ideally without affecting the TomTom software running) until disengaged. THAT would be my ideal set up (especially so, if I could get 1) it to run the later TomTom software, with the lane guidance etc, and 2) if I could get it to auto boot into TomTom rather than to WinCE and then select TomTom)

LUCKY! Little bit jel!!! Just need the rear one now to set it off - I'll keep my eyes peeled pal ;)

Where the hell is the header tank??!?! Opened the bonnet yesterday to top up the washer res, thought I'd check the oil too, and while at it thought I'd look at the coolant level, but I'll be damned - I couldn't find the header tank! I noticed on the rad was something that looked like a small res with a level indicator in it (white plastic strip) and the rad has a cap on it - this can't be the coolant res, surely?!?! It's TINY! Also, wheres the chassis plates / VIN tags? I know I've got a VIN tag under the screen, but thought there'd be a silver tag on the slam panel or something, like most cars. Had a look, but couldn't see it? Am I being dumb?

I recently had similar with a key I bought off ebay (flip key style) that I got cut by a local place, after Timpsons said they couldn't do and a mobile car key cutter let me down (read; didn't call me back and turned phone off). He cut it, I took it out to the car and tried the door, boot and glove box locks; all fine. Tried the ignition and it was a little jiggly to get it in, and it flat refused to turn even a little. Took it back in, he ran it through again, same story. Ran it a third time, still no joy. Decided to give up and went home. Week later I decided to try taking a file to it - took a little off the end (and I mean a little, cos it's just a hand file) and used the round back of the file on the groves on the face of the key blade (both sides) and amazingly it slid in and turned. Still a little jiggly, so a few more run overs with the file, on the end and the blade faces, and now it works just fine. Been using it the last couple weeks and it's been spot on

Which is the one thing stopping me from doing it - I bought this car in the hope I'd NOT spend anything on it!

No worries pal ;)

Yeah that is a little annoying. Not so much on it's own, but I could see it being super annoying for those that have reverse sensors that beep also!

Oh you got it? I was watching it myself wondering whether to bid or not - good price that! I was really tempted to have a bid since it stayed under £150, thinking it would be another £100-£120 to paint it, but decided against it for the time being (still gutted I missed the as new condition silver one being sold by a Toyota dealership a month back! WOuld have just gone straight on, no drama)

Pete that is properly awesome! Really like it! Couple of q's - the power source; what's it wired into to get power when ignition is on? I saw you said it's from an old Nokia car kit, so working on the basis that another car doesn't have that, I presume it could be wired into the stereo power wires? Also, what happens if you just turn the ignition off, thus cutting the power? Does the screen just turn off (like pulling the battery out a phone for example) and the lid stay up? I'm really tempted to hold onto my nav unit and try this....

Both him and Stav have great 200's - Rabster's was awesome too (282bhp turbo on more or less stock lump, with plenty of leccy gizmo's and toys to boot! Love it!)

I checked mine when I got it home - it loaded and played, and switched between, 2 CD's, so hopefully it isn't broken. But I never use it for CD's anyway (cannot remember the last time I played a CD in a vehicle), so first thing I got was a GROM anyway, as I HAVE to have my iPod working in there! Nearly 8 thousand tracks in something smaller than a cassette, or a bunch of annoying CD's that only hold a dozen or so tracks each, and end up getting scratched anyway - no brainer!

Pete, best thing to do is a little combination of things. I generally don't use forum hosting, because most of the time I want to put pictures interspersed with text, so this is what I do Take the pictures you want to use, and resize them to say 1024 (width) (in Windows 7 you can install this - http://imageresizer.codeplex.com which makes it very easy. If you still use XP, then use this - http://download.cnet.com/Image-Resizer-Powertoy-for-Windows-XP/3000-18487_4-10905400.html which works the same way. If you use a Mac, you can do the resizing in Preview, which is a built in app) Anyway, with the pics resized (the reason being is that not all forums auto shrink oversized pics to display them, and also they will upload faster when they've been resized) you can use an internet upload site to host and link them. For random, or singular pics, I use www.tinypic.com, or if it's a series of pics or multiples, I have an account (free) with www.photobucket.com (which also has an iPhone app, which makes it easy to upload pics directly from the camera roll on the iPhone, it resizes as it does it, and generates link codes to paste into forums. To get the pics to display on a forum, you get a bunch of different link codes - the ones you want are the ones with [img ] before and [/img ] after (without any spaces) HTH

My understanding of the 1G lump in the 200 is that it's a pretty inefficient engine, and while it can take a bunch of power through it, it can't make that power itself. Me personally, I'd love to have over 200bhp in it - I think that's what it should have had from the beginning - but it seems the only two viable options for this are super or turbo charging. If the stock supercharger adds ~50bhp, taking it to just over 200 (or even as much as 215/220 as someone on here said) that's great, but the cost of doing that here, with the scarcity of TTE kits, is about £2-£2.5k. If someone wanted 250bhp by doing these N/A mods and then bolting on a charger, that must be upwards of £4k, if not £5k - and for that sort of money, you're better off doing a turbo conversion; with a stock, healthy rebuilt 200 lump, and the right set up, turbo charging has been shown to run 280bhp all day long (and probably cost £5/£6k all in for parts, rebuilding, fitting, setting up, mapping, etc) Me personally, I love the non-urgency, the smoothness and the quietness of the standard engine, just think it's underpowered. I'd much rather a turbo conversion, done OEM style like an Audi or VW turbo engine, with little to no extra noise, except the little tell tale whistle of a turbo, and have it set up that it boost progressively from early on in the rev range right up to the redline, so it retains the smooth power feed. Whilst some say "thats what a supercharger is for!" - that maybe. But every video I've seen of a S/C IS has included a horrible whine from the charger itself, which is something I don't want (maybe I would if I was going for all out modded style, like I used to back in the day, but now it's more about subtlety and refinement for me)

^ I like that game! I hope his engine never catches fire, with that "bonnet" - or the car catch fire, and have to get out in a hurry with those doors!

Guy does know his stuff for sure! Likewise Stav and Rabster too.

Whats the thought on Tyre Weld stuff? Never used it before, and to be honest not sure I'd want to since all four alloys had a refurb and fresh paint not too long ago (I don't know if the tyre weld stuff is a bitch to get off or anything) There's actually a can of it in the boot - came with the car - which is the only reason I ask (pretty sure it hasn't been used) I think if it was a perfectly nice day, like today, then I'd run it home on the spare if it was facing the wrong way, but not sure what the effect would be if it was wet or worse, snowy

Yeah, I was trawling through the 200/300 forum last night, and posted in quite a few old threads :D

Yeah I get what directional tyres are (plus I work for The AA) So what do I do then if I get a puncture on the drivers side, seeing as my spare is directional for the passenger side? Don't really wanna scrap the tyre, since it's brand new (still has the white print on the tread detailing the size etc). Don't want to ruin or prematurely wear the spare out by running it on the wrong side - or run the risk of loss of grip because the tread is rotating the wrong way

The clock doesn't read in 24hr format

It's in safe mode (anti-trap kicking in when it detects the frame). To reset you need to remove the mech from the door, fully extend and contract a few times, then refit

Remove glass from mech, remove mech from door, fully extend and contract several times, refit mech into door, refit glass

Just had a thought - the tyres on my IS are directional - and I think they spare is too! So if I get flat that is on the wrong side for the direction of my spare, I'm screwed?

Just walk into Halfords and tell them you need a new battery and ask them to fit it. If they break it, they have to buy a new one

He's active on the Out Law forum

Very nice - what screen are you using? It seems to render/rescale really nicely, but the smaller nav screen is an odd size isn't it? (I have one here, and it's 5.3" and not actually 5" as everyone says?) I'd be really tempted to do something similar with a 7" screen and try and tie it in with a GROM unit (which I already have) so as to be able to control the music control from the head unit. The ultimate would be to somehow rig a screen up to it that supports AirPlay, which has video/display mirroring. Or even better would be a touchscreen in the Nav housing that allows control of the iPhone/iPod using the touchscreen in the Nav rather than using the iPhone. It would also be awesome if the AppleTV interface when playing back music could be replicated - or even rig an AppleTV to run in the car with a 7" touchscreen and an adhoc wifi network to connect the iPhone and ATV?