Sonu

Now listed on eBay as well.

HardRace 30mm Front Anti-Roll Bar 3PC Set. Two settings. Designed for the second generation IS. Lexus RWD IS250 is220 and IS350 and ISF Fitted over the Christmas period and removed in April when I sold the car. Used for ~4 months. I have coated the ends with some upol paint for added protection. Very easy to install takes less than an hour. I have been informed that 2009< cars will require the pre-facelift drop links to fit. Please correct me if that is not the case. Located in Hayes Middlesex. Price £190.

Does it mean that these Bilstein ones also fit the front on a SC430? https://www.bilstein-shocks.co.uk/products/24-027434 Are the rear ones interchangeable with the GS430 shocks?

Malc - It was more like, "ooh that sounds nice. I'll have it sir, thank you very much" 😛 Glyn - That service must have cost a pretty penny from Lexus. I went for a mid-priced one thinking that you have to spend a bit of money to fix up an old car regardless of the cost. Neil - I am sure I could have continued driving it as is with some new tyres and brakes. Even the PS leak was not that bad enough to make the fluid level drop quickly. I went for the most cost effective option when repairing the sound system. Don't really listen to music much. There are a lot of really nice HIfi speakers that use 6 1/2" and 4" drivers if someone wanted something fancy. I'll see if the bushings etc make a difference, not willing to spend the money on coilovers yet. Might try increasing the preload on the steering rack a tiny bit to see what that does. Is there anything else that can be done to improve the steering?

I picked up a 2003 SC430 last year and wanted to share my experience with the members of the form. It might help out someone looking to purchase one of these cars. The car was advertised on Facebook. It was fairly standard except for the full stainless-steel exhaust and Rays Forged 19” wheels from a 370Z. It had just over 70k miles on it. I did come across a few issues during inspection but nothing serious. There was a bit of paint bubbling up on the roof, tyres, brakes, and rear ABS rings needed replacing. Otherwise, it seemed like a nice straight car. There was no rust underneath that I could see. So, I made an offer which the seller accepted, and I drove it back home on a temporary insurance cover (didn’t want to start driving the car until the above issues were fixed). Issues: Most of the issues I encountered are well known, or to be expected on a car of this age. ABS rings: This is a relatively easy job with the correct tools. The upper control arms require a decent ball joint splitter to separate from the hub assembly, and unless you are removing the drive shaft from the differential end, you need a spanner extension because a socket and wrench won’t fit in the space. The new rings are less than £10 each and the dust caps were about £15. Tyres: I have decided to go with Yokohama Advan mainly because I got a really good deal on them. They were around £600. Speakers: This is something I did not check during inspection, but all the speakers in the car were blown. I was able to rescue most of them using the Simply speakers repair kit, except for the front right which was completely dead. Replacements from Lexus are over £300 so I decided to make some 6”x9” to 6 ½” adapters and stick a couple of 6 ½” 8 Ohm speakers from some floor standing HiFi units. This entire repair was only £40 since I was able to sell the working front left speaker on ebay to recover some of the cost. Headlights: The headlight aim was too high. The car has two ride height sensors units. Found the front one to be faulty while troubleshooting. A replacement unit from Lexus is over £300. I decided to take a punt and order a £20 replacement potentiometer unit which was meant for IS300. Swapped the faulty unit and it worked just fine. Brakes: To me the floating calipers look horrible. So, instead of swapping the discs and pads with standard units, I decided to splash out a bit on the brakes. There was a set of GS450h F-Sport calipers on sale in Lithuania, on ebay. I ordered this set, new pads, plus 350phi brackets, and Centric discs from the US. A bit of paint and some powder coat on the calipers and the results are as follows: Total cost ~£600 after selling the old calipers. Paint: It is a bit tricky to paint the roof without taking the rear glass and all the rubber seals out. I have done the best I could by peeling back the trim as far as I could to get the paint underneath. The cost was around £100 Infotainment: The standard navigation unit looks very dated on these cars. Replacing the headunit can get quite costly on this car because of the adapter alone that you have to purchase over £300. I have installed a Garmin 76 and a wireless reverse camera instead. Aux out from the Garmin is hardwired to the factory headunit. My phone connects to the Garmin via bluetooth and I can play anything I want from my phone on the car stereo using this setup. This setup cost me £290. Service items: A full service kit from Lexus, plus transmissions oil, brake fluid, differential oil, sparkplugs, timing belt, water pump, the pulleys, tensioner, v belt, power steering fluid came to £480. I have not done the spark plugs, W pump and the timing belt yet, because the belt is not due until next year. Power steering Rack: This was unexpected. While doing the transmission fluid change I noticed a torn inner tie rod end boot and some fluid coming out of it. The end of the rack was leaking. Upon phoning a few specialists I discovered that this is a £500-£600 job. I decided to take the rack out and send it to a specialist. They charged me £225. The power steering reservoir had lots of black baked on oil. I wanted to clean it, but found that the plastic mesh inside had big holes in it. There was no way I was going to clean it and put it back. Ordered a new one from Japan for £95 delivered (Local dealer wanted £150 and the delivery time was the same). Threw in some new inner and outer track rod ends, power steering rack bushings, lower ball joints, geometry setup. Total cost was just over £500. Windscreen: A mysterious crack appeared on the windscreen. It was replaced through insurance. Paid £100 glass access. Autoglass wanted £1200 for a private repair. Miscellaneous: New matts, Key case, Some new tools etc were around £100 Suspensions: This ride of this car in my opinion is quite bad. The steering feels like it is attached to the tyres with a rubber band. Over potholes the entire suspension feels broken. There is too much nose dive during braking, and yet the car feels hard and unsettled over small road imperfections. I have ordered some new control arms and a complete bushing kit. Along with the ISF rear sway bar, and an aftermarket front 32mm sway bar for a GS300. Hopefully I will get this done in the next few months (unless I decide to sell the car).This work is going to set me back just under £700 after I have had the geometry etc redone. Possible upcoming issues: The car was purchased towards the end of Feb last year. It has taken me nearly 12 months to get the above work done. With a full time job and two kids I only really get a bit of spare time on Saturdays. The VSC light has come back on. First time since the ABS rings were changed. Noticed an O2 sensor heater circuit fault and there was a zero point calibration error logged in the computer. Driving experience: I have only done ~400 miles in the car. Mostly town driving and short motorway trips. The exhaust on the car is quite loud, to the point that it is audible at cruising speeds. Around town it is definitely fun to listen to, especially with the top down. Kids definitely love it with the roof down. Compared to an IS250 which I own, the engine feels very strong, but the gearbox is a bit sluggish. Otherwise, as I already mentioned, the ride is terrible. Would I buy one again or recommend it to a friend? A car this old is probably not for everyone, if you can find a later model with low mileage then maybe, but otherwise no.

Mine was done by Richs fabrication shop. As far as custom exhaust go it is OK, no HKS, but is mandrel bent with lifetime warranty. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=894317461169314

Buy a second hand one if the new ones are out of stock: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275471494532

Hi, I was interested in this upgrade so I ordered myself the rear ISF ARB from Japan and a used GS300 bar from ebay. The GS300 bar I received is a bit thicker, ~28mm, but quite a bit lighter, ~4kg, compared to the 6kg original SC430 ARB. Does this mean that the one I got from ebay is not the 4881130560? I have decided to put the original ARB back on the car. Fitting the lighter one did not seem like an upgrade. According to amayama 4881130560 it is suppose to be 3.6kg. Perhaps they got the weight wrong? They also list 4881130590 as an ARB that fits the GS300. Would appreciate input from someone who has done this upgrade on their car.

The 14" F-Sport brakes require different pad. Even though the standard 4 pot caliper pads will fit in the larger calipers. The shape, more importantly the surface area of the friction material, is slightly different. Here is a picture of the two from an online seller: Standard Caliper F-Sport Caliper

A few years back I bought an is250 that had badly seized calipers both rear and one front. This is what I did to free them. -Removed them from the car. -Left them soaking the penetrating fluid for a few days. -Started with the rears first. Put them in a bench vice, one at a time, and started hammering the carrier. The first one came out after a few knocks the second one required a blow torch to heat it up. The rubber boot got burned, but it came out eventually. The penetrating fluid had only gone through a few millimetres. -The front one was the worst. All the above did not help. The pin broke inside the caliper. I had to drill it out, starting with the smallest drill bit working my way up. New slide pin kits are relatively inexpensive, and they come with dust boots. 🙂 If you don't to go through all this trouble, might be easier to buy a second hand one on ebay they are usually less than £50.

They are ~£78 from Lexus direct, which I think is reasonable for genuine plugs: https://lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/parts/lexus-is/lexus-is-phase-ii-2006-2013/lexus-is-2-engine-service-kits/lexus-is-phase-2-spark-plugs-2-5-petrol/