Jon Dee

It seems to take a while for air to work its way out of the cooling system as I have managed to squeeze another litre in to the overflow container since I have been driving the car. It has settled at just above the lower mark when cold now, Cheers...

There are a set of these RS05RR wheels for sale locally... 18 x 9 ET35. Got me thinking about square setups again, and was wondering if they would work on my car ? With 18 x 9.5 on your car, what ET do your wheels have, and are they the same ET front and rear ? Do your front wheels/tyres poke out past the guards when viewed from above ? Cheers...

When I was changing the air filter yesterday, as I wiped out a few dead insects from the fixed part of the air filter housing, I noticed that there was a flap arrangement at the back. This is operated by a vacuum servo mounted external to the box, and put me in mind of every young lad's performance mod of punching a few extra holes in the airbox to "help the engine breathe". And I admired the fact that there must be some hot-rodders in the Toyota design department Up until today I had been driving my car in much the same style as I drove my E92... ease into the gas and let the low end torque pull the car away smoothly, gliding through the gears in the lovely smooth transmission. But today, the sun was shining and I was feeling a bit frisky, so I accidentally (heh!!) hit the gas hard after I pulled onto the main road, and let the engine run up the revs. WoooOOOTTTTTT !!!!!! I wasn't watching the rev counter, but suddenly all hell broke loose Pretty sure the afterburner kicked in judging by the substantial boost in acceleration and the roar from the engine !!!! NOW... I understand why people love this car... Jekyll & Hyde... you better believe it Cheers...

Well, the car is back on the ground and running. Happy with the more conservative look and sensible height. Set the tyre pressures and went for a short drive. Right now I would assess the ride as almost identical to my 2008 E92 mSport, firm and sporty. Tyre thump is still a little more intrusive than I would like but acceptable given the ride. The E92 ran the same tyre size combination only in 18's rather than 19's. Not sure if that would make any noticeable difference. I will probably stay with the 19"s until the tyres need replacing and make a call at that time. Here is how the car sits today... Cheers.. .

I only drained the radiator (not the block) with the front of the car raised and the rear wheels on the ground. It took 5 litres to get the level between the marks once it was back on the ground. Probably no help, but it's a start Cheers...

Putting anything on top of a scissor jack when lifting a car would be an incredibly dodgy move !!! That would completely defeat the design of the slotted top and be hugely unstable. Placing a block of wood under a scissor jack to get more lift is merely dodgy. The taller the jack the more chance there is of it toppling, so make sure at least two wheels are securely chocked. If jacking the car on a soft surface, a wide piece of flat wood placed under the jack is a good idea. It is interesting to note that the ISF has sufficient torsional rigidity that when using a scissor jack under the front seam jacking point the same side rear wheel can be lifted off the ground. The jack is effectively lifting half the cars weight, and I can't bench press 850kg. So I always place axle stands or wood blocks to support the car and remove the jack before starting work. Same deal with trolley jacks. Cheers...

Was looking at this a couple of weeks ago when jacking up my ISF. The front lifting points were already a bit mangled from indiscriminate jacking over the last 15 years. The raised double seam marked for the lifting point is strong (tried straightening it ) and research indicates that the flat metal immediately to the inside of the jacking point is also strong. The scissor jack I use (not ISF issue) lifts on the flat metal even though it fits over the seam, and no problems. However the metal/plastic to the outside is flexible and should not be used for lifting. Logic says that if the grooved "puck" bears on the seam, then a suitable piece of flat wood will work just as well to reduce the point loading on the seam. I believe that the damage to the seam is caused by the "claws" on the trolley jack lifting cup. If one of these happens to be under the seam while jacking it will cause a point loading high enough to buckle the seam sideways. All the 2-post and 4-post lifts I have seen have a hard urethane lifting pad... more durable than a piece of wood. So when using a trolley jack I went with a piece of sturdy wood sitting crossways to avoid splitting. Either a little wider or narrower than the lifting cup. Doesn't matter so long as it sits level and high enough to prevent the steel of the cup contacting the seam. Works for me every time

The best way to handle crankcase fumes is to run a hose from the rocker cover vent to a closed catch can. Then run a second hose taking the cleaned fumes from the catch can to a connection on your inlet duct after the air filter and before the throttle plate. Cheers...

Ran it until the fan/s were at full speed and no leaks, so happy with that Had a bit of a panic attack when I went around to the drivers seat to check the temp gauge... the yellow triangle was lit up and the dash was telling me (in Japanese) that there was a problem in the front of the car !!!!! Turns out it didn't like the engine running for so long with the hood up... wheww Swapped the factory intake pipe back in (blue silicone one out) and will bin the K&N filter when the Japanese factory type air and cabin filters that I have ordered arrive. I was told that the car was serviced before I picked it up, so I will check the colour of the oil after I have been for a decent drive and decide if it needs changing. Hoping to get to drive this car quite a bit over summer... I'm down in NZ so summer is not far away. Cheers...

As you refer to coils in the plural. I assume that your engine has individual coils for each cylinder. Usually there are four wires... 12V supply, ground, IGt and IGf. As the engine fires up it is safe to say that the first three are correct, however for the engine to continue running, there must be an IGf signal back to the ECU after a certain number of IGt signals have been sent out. If the ECU does not receive IGf signals it will stop sending IGt signals to the coils and the engine will stop. To eliminate this possibility you need to check that the ECU is receiving IGf signals, and that you have continuity from the IGf pin on each coil to the ECU. EDIT: When you say this... "I only have something like 0.5V on the coils when starting" where are you measuring the voltage ?? With 4-wire coils the IGt signal should be a 5V pulse. Are you just seeing 0.5V flat line with no pulse during cranking ?? Now the classic one size fits all response... have you checked your grounds ?? Cheers...

Changing the radiator is the kind of job that can probably be classified as "easy" or "straight forward" after you have it done it once or twice. But the first time verges on a nightmare as you fumble your way through the removal process finding out the hard way what needs to be removed (and in what order) to gain sufficient room to finally pull the radiator. The pièce de résistance is getting access to the two small bolts at the bottom front of the A/C condenser !!!! Never the less the new rad is in and sitting full of coolant until tomorrow when I will give the engine a run while the car is still up on blocks. If no leaks I'll button it up and go for a drive. Got the OEM wheels on now with OEM tyre sizes. I'll be setting the pressures to the factory recommended 36F/37R psi and evaluating the ride :)

What is the voltage at the battery (a) with key/ignition OFF, and (b) with the key/ignition ON ? All the ignition coils I have ever encountered (not that many) have a 12V feed. Below 12V there will be a threshold, that if you drop below a certain voltage the coil will not fire. But usually, by the time your voltage drops that low the engine won't turn over on the starter either. Cheers...

Don't have any knowledge specific to your car. But generally speaking, an engine that starts and runs for a second or two and then cuts out like the key was switched off, is missing an "engine running" confirmation signal. On AFM engines it can be a switch in the AFM that closes when the flap inside opens far enough to indicate airflow into the engine. When the switch closes it provides a ground for the fuel pump relay to keep the FP running. Open the switch and engine stops. Often there is a FP pin in the diagnostic plug (pre OBD2 cars) that can be bridged to ground to force the FP to run if it seems that fuel cutting off is your problem. With this system there is a ground wire from the AFM plug to chassis ground. If this ground is faulty/disconnected/broken/badly corroded it will cause a problem On MAP engines the igniter supplies an ignition fired (IGf) signal to the ECU to confirm that the engine is running. If the ECU does not receive an IGf after sending a certain number of ignition triggered (IGt) signals to the igniter, it cuts the ignition. As you have replaced most of the ignition components and the engine actually runs briefly, the only thing left to check is continuity on the IGf signal wire to the ECU. Cheers...

Car had been sitting for ten days with coolant on the full mark and nothing leaked out. So I got the belly pan off today... couldn't see any leaks. Let let the engine run until the thermostat opened and then I got a leak. Coolant sitting all the way along the top seam between the tank and the core, so I figure the top seal has let go. Ordered a new rad... had to settle for the OEM style as there just don't seem to be any all alloy units available on AU or NZ. Should be here in a couple of days and then the fun starts Cheers...

I haven't been able to spot any telltale pink staining or leakage looking down from the top, but I can see coolant pooling on top of the bellypan. Getting underneath for a closer look will have to wait as I have just had a cataract operation, and crawling under cars is not on the list of approved post-op activities There is a local business selling alloy radiators for NZ$500 which is lee than half the price of the OEM item with plastic tanks. I just have to check to make sure they have the heat exchanger for the trans in the bottom tank (and it looks like it does). If it has and I need a new radiator, I will most likely try the alloy version. Cheers...

Went for another longer test drive today and can confirm that the factory audio still cranks hard on classic Led Zep Ride is now comparable to my previous 2008 E92 that had new Bilstein B4's and factory springs all round. Compliance over small imperfections is excellent and larger imperfections are handled without passing any sharp impact to the chassis. There is still tyre thump but that is unavoidable with big wheels and short sidewall tyres. The stiffer springs on the HKS coils would possibly work a little better on the race track. But Bilstein's reputedly give better adhesion, so for a car that is not intended for the track the Bilstein's and factory springs are a clear winner for ride quality on the road. The car now has a "firm and sporty" ride as befits a high performance sedan. There are still a few very minor rattles and noises as can be expected with a well used car. But it is now a pleasure to drive... mission accomplished Now I just have to find out why I have coolant leaking at the front under the air filter box ?? Radiator ?? Cheers...

Well, the rear Bilsteins are installed and I managed to get the boot trims installed and everything tidied up yesterday. Unable to contain my excitement, I went for a short drive even though it was getting too dark to get any decent photos. And the improvement in the ride was immediately apparent... likewise the reduction in rattles and bangs Thanks to the 35 series front, 30 series rear tyres there is still a bit more thump than I would like when hitting larger imperfections in the road surface. It will be interesting to see if swapping to the OEM wheels with 40 and 35 series tyres will show a further improvement. I'll be looking to do that when the weather improves. Rattles and bangs have now been reduced by 95% to the point where they are no longer a source of annoyance. There is far less rubber cushioning with the HKS rears than with the OEM mounting hardware, and this was obviously causing a high level of noise/vibration to be trans mitted to the chassis. Note that I can only compare Bilstein with HKS and I would expect the difference between Bilstein and OEM to be less remarkable. At this point the rear of the car is higher... not enough to bother me as it now matches the front Cheers...

Rear shocks were a bit more complicated than expected. Turns out the rear HKS were set at maximum height for the nose down a$$ up posture that is the fashion these days Result was that the shocks were about 45mm longer overall than standard and I needed to unbolt the arm from the knuckle to release them. Bilsteins are also a bit long to fit them without unbolting the arm. Unbolting it was the easy part... jacking up the arm and getting the bolt back into the bushing was the trick part. That's a lubricated self aligning bushing not a rubber bush, and getting it lined up to push the bolt back in was a trifle frustrating !!!! So just have to finish off tidying the RHS tomorrow then onto the LHS. Cheers...

Overalls are in the wash so in the interests of science I decided to take the car for a short drive to see what difference just having the Bilsteins up front would make. Entirely subjective, but I think I noticed a reduction in the amount of rattling heard when driving over imperfections. This is to be expected as softer springs mean that impacts are less jolting. Impacts are now more like thuds than bangs, so definitely heading in the right direction. The front is now about 5cm higher than it was before and that is the difference between "stupid low" and just low I am more than happy with the new look and am not expecting to see much change in the height at the back when the Bilsteins are installed. Pictures tell the story so you can make up your own mind how it looks... Cheers...

Front shocks are installed... pretty straightforward job. Contrary to the wisdom of the interweb, I was able to extract the HKS shocks and install the Bilsteins from the rear side of the wheel assembly. Didn't have to remove or disconnect anything except the wheel sensor bracket and the bolts that hold the shocks top and bottom. Can't guarantee that this would work for 100% OEM shock assemblies, but I can't see any reason why not unless they are longer top to bottom than the Bilsteins. Tomorrow I shall see if I get lucky with the rears

Just finished extracting the springs and some of the buffers that I am reusing from the factory suspension. Assembling the Bilstein version was pretty straight forward as far as getting all the bits together. Then the head ***** started... Lexus requires specific handing and alignment of bottom and top fixings, and in the rear the springs are face in opposite directions !!!! I've replaced struts and shocks on a few cars (including fresh Bilstein B4's on my E92, but never have I come across anything as complex as the instruction for mounting shocks on the ISF I guess it is kind of like the nightmare tyre fitters must have when they find out that the ISF has a dedicated wheel for each corner of the car and they have to fit asymmetric directional tyres Now to get under the car and see what has to be done to fit the new suspension. Cheers...

For sure I will be posting my opinion on how the new setup works Also some thoughts on how easy or difficult the swap is for a DIY exercise. See the next post !!! Cheers...

As fate would have it, I found a set of OEM ISF wheels in very good condition for sale. They were fitted with Potenza S007 tyres in factory sizes and had a decent amount of rubber left on them. Since I like the look of the factory wheels, I bought them The plan now is to run the car with the OEM wheels plus Bilsteins and evaluate the ride. Presently working on assembling the OEM suspension (that came with the car) with the Bilsteins. Once I have them ready to install I will be changing out the HKS coils. Probably run with the Kiwamis initially just to see what changes, and then put on the OEM wheels to see what difference they make. Cheers...

It's always good to have a plan B As it happens I found someone selling a really clean set of OEM 19" ISF wheels with good factory size rubber, so I bought them. Now the idea is to get them and the Bilsteins installed on the car so I can see just how bad or good the ride is with 19" wheels. Changing to 18" wheels will have to wait until the jury returns its verdict !! Cheers...

Received these today and fitted them to the car before I went out to do some shopping. Certainly proved that I had been hearing door latch rattle, as it was immediately evident that the most annoying and intrusive rattle had stopped Still have tyre thump and a few other less intrusive rattle, but I am no longer worried that some major suspension component is about to fall off the car !!! Definitely recommend these if you have a high mileage vehicle and and get a single, sharp, loud rattle every time you get a decent tyre thump from a manhole cover or pothole. Cheers...