PlatinumGS300

I've done a HID swap on my GS, found the bulbs, ballasts, and headlamp assemblies from a GS430 on eBay. Was rather easy (kind of a pain to take the front bumper off), but definately a good HID swap! :) Doubt that is the kind of info you were after, but I'd say that's probably the easiest route to go for a stock HID look!

I believe our hub is 60mm (maybe 60.06mm to be exact?) and most rims produced have a hub of 73mm so that they are able to fit on a wide variety of cars, not just certain ones. So unless your wheels are custom made for your application then chances are it's probably a 73mm hub. Definately worth it to get the hub rings, too. Just ask your wheel dealer, they can point you in the right direction. Sometimes if you just ask they'll throw something like that in to sweeten the deal anyway. I ordered tires and wheels and got them mounted and balanced before they shipped and they also came with an 'installation kit', which was the correct lug nuts, socket, and centering rings for my car.

You should do either 235/35 or 245/35 in the front and 275/30 in the rear if you'd like to keep the overall tire diameter as close as possible to stock (keeps your speedometer accurate and your ABS working perfectly). If you do the 245/35 in the front and the 275/30 in the rear then the front tires will be ever so slightly larger than your rear by something like .2", or vice versa if you go with the 235/35 fronts. 245/40 and 275/35 is perfect for 18" rims, but you're adding another inch overall with 19" rims so the sidewalls have to become smaller to compensate. That'd be what I would do though, try to keep it as close as possible to stock size.

Not quite a yes/no answer but you don't NEED hub rings, the wheels would just be lug-centric instead of hub-centric in that case. But from experience even on the same set of rims there seems to be a decent enough difference in ride going from lug-centric to hub-centric to make it worth the very little amount it costs to aquire the rings and put them on (if your wheels don't already come with that).

I didn't even need to pop the ball joints when I did mine, just used some creative maneuvering of the strut to get the old ones out and the new ones in! The service manual says to do it, but you definately save some time not messin with it.

Thanks for the kind words, guys! Revhard191: Are you sure the 10.5" rears would fit? These are 9.5" wide in the rear with a +38 offset and today when I was feeling around it felt like there was about a half inch between the tire and the strut. Just thought I'd ask, I'm sure you're already thought of it! :)

Does your garage door have a rolling code feature? If so (and it may without you even knowing) you would need to hit a button on the back of the garage door opener itself (the motor part, not the remote). I believe those instructions are also in the Lexus manual, but that's what I'd look for. One of the garage doors I had never listed such a feature, but sure enough on the back of the opener was a button to program remotes. On a side note, I have a gate opener that is completely unreckognized by our HomeLink, am I just out of luck or is there something special I need to do? Anyone have any experience with that?

I currently have the L-tuned shocks and springs and they're a pretty decent ride, still feels like a Lexus ride to me (but I'm on 18s, would be a bit harsher with 20s). I do plan on switching to the Tein Flex coilovers sometime in the very near future but I'm sure you'll have made your choice well before then so my input won't help much. :) From what I have read though, if ride quality is what you're looking for, the Tein CS seems to be an excellent choice. If you really want some good comparisons from people that have ridden on a lot of the different coilovers, just search around here or over at Club Lexus and you'll find plenty on this topic which is probably why there was a lack of replies. Good luck! B)

Something like that is often caused from hitting something such as a large pothole pretty hard. The only way I see a manufacturer covering that is if you bought a road hazard package through the dealer. Other than that there's really no way to tell if it was something that you did or if it was a manufacturing defect (doubtful or I would think it would have been like that the second you put air in the tire). Either way, get that thing replaced before you hit a pothole or it may bust!

Yeah actually it is. You can find their whole line at www.piaa.com/wheels, but it's only a few different wheels in very few sizes right now. I believe they just got into the wheel business pretty recently, haven't quite made a name for themselves yet. The only reason I found out about them was because of a magazine ad which I followed to their website, then found out the place I was getting ready to buy Volk SF-Winnings from also sold PIAA. It was a tough call, but I ended up going with the PIAAs for the simple fact that they'd be here within 2 weeks instead of 3 months. Otherwise the design of the PIAA Sport Mesh is pretty much identical to the design of the Volk SF Winning, split 8-spoke.

Was pretty excited when I got the call the new tires and wheels came in today! I was afraid that the new wheels might not look like I wanted since I was going from chrome to hyper black but I'm very pleased with the outcome. And also very impressed with the quality of the PIAA wheels (had never seen any in person before). Upgraded from 18"x8" American Racing Casino Chrome with Fuzion ZRi all around to PIAA Sport Mesh 18"x8.5" front wearing P245/40ZR18 and 18"x9.5" rear wearing P275/35ZR18 Toyo Proxes T1-S'. I can definately tell a difference in grip already but to my astonishment I can actually tell that it rides a bit better as well! I don't feel every single bump in the road quite as harsh as the Fuzions but still recieve plenty of feedback. The tires are great, I think the wheels look great and I just love the wide lip in the rear from the staggered wheels! Well you know I'm happy with the purchase, so what do you guys think? (don't have to hold back if you don't like 'em, everyone has their own opinion and I understand :D ) Before Now A look at how the staggered wheels line up with the fenders The staggered tires (if you can tell from the pic at all) Rear wheel closeup Front wheel closeup Now I just need to get the car all cleaned up and get some good pictures of it if the horrible weather ever seems to permit here in Indiana!

Very true, I didn't even think of the effect the wider rear tire would have on ride quality. I already have 245/40R18s all around and the ride is still comfortable, so hopefully 275s in the rear won't change much. I'm getting a custom stage 4 turbo setup from SRT this summer and figured I could use all the extra traction in the rear that I can get! B) I'll be sure to let you guys know how everything turns out after I get the new wheels/tires and then eventually how the turbo works out (photos, dyno charts, etc.)!

I have a 2000 GS300 without HID and purchased the green tinted HID assemblies with bulbs and ballasts off of ebay. Swap didn't take long at all, everything bolts right on and looks / works great. The wires that come with the ballasts are very short and pretty much go straight into a connector, so instead of just splicing in I did the expensive thing and went to the Toyota dealership (armed with the part numbers from the service manual) to order the connectors and their accompanying wires. Just spliced those in and was set! If you've got any specific questions about the swap (it's rather straight forward), just PM me!

Thanks for the quick reply! The 295/35R18 appear to be only a half inch taller than the stock tires which shouldn't be a problem, and the 295 only require a 10" wide wheel. Do you remember if the people you knew running this width had to do anything to fit them? I'd rather not make any modifications to the wheel well so I'd just run 275 if that is the case. Would just like to fit the biggest tires I can stock. :) Thanks again!

Does anyone know how wide of a wheel can fit on the GS? I have a 2000 GS300 that I'll be turboing here in the next couple of months and so I went with 18 x 8.5 in the front and 18 x 9.5 in the rear wearing 245/40R18 and 275/35R18 rubber, respectively. I've been thinking about getting an extra pair of rims for some BFGoodrich gForce T/A Drag Radials that I can swap on when I head to the strip and would like to go as wide as possible (unless of course someone knows that there is such a thing as too much traction and I should worry about breaking something in the drivetrain). Would just like to hear from someone that can confirm something like an 18 x 11 would fit for sure so that I could use 315/30R18 drag tires and keep the stock overall diameter. Anything that wide in a 15" rim pushes the overall tire diameter more than 4" over stock and I'm sure they'd have a hard time fitting (more than likely not even close) which is why I'd stick with an 18" even though I haven't looked for any rims this size yet. Thanks ahead of time for any feedback!