Tango

Well, it's just that. An adjustable camber kit should be out for the IS 250/350's in mid November. They are in a testing phase right now. THMotorsports put up a post regarding it after I called them and started asking about it. ( I just bought coilovers for my IS 350 and so I wanted to know if they were coming out with one yet or not.) And it does look like yes. That is awsome news for those who have a lowered suspension or tire wear issues!

Any update on these?

I imported the camber adjusters from Eibach USA so finally got my geometry back within specification and sorted out the minor tyre wear issues I had with the lowered suspension :)

Well, yes i understand, but buying IS350 is not option. This car is not at sale in europe. And you cannot bring that car to europe but only with couple spacial cases. So engine swap in europe is possible and still make car street legal.

We have a TOMS Supercharged IS350 in the UK. It was imported from Japan so the steering wheel is on the right side. Certainly cheaper than buying a used 350 engine and doing a swap.

A used IS-F is coming down in price too, you can pick up one with around 11,000 miles on it for around £40K now (for you Americans, yes really $58,360.00 for a used IS-F in the UK )

Yeah, I just called my service advisor, and he told me it related to certain VIN numbers, and mine is an older-model 2007, so don't have to worry about the "rack and pinion." lol.

I didn't receive anything in the mail from Lexus re the fuel lines. However, I did get a letter from them this week telling me to bring in my car for the 45k service.

Mine is very early 06. The dealer should check the VIN.

Had mine changed in the UK. It's to do with the orientation of the longitudinal seam weld possibly causing a fatigue fracture. Also had both my rear calipers changed under warranty due to seized slider pins.

Thanks rookie-- I guess I meant to say that I don't have jack stands or similar devices. I did raise it a few inches by driving onto thick boards, though, and that does allow reaching underneath the bumper and removing the obvious screws. That wasn't enough, though... There's got to be some more retainers somewhere!?

Nine screws, 2 clips and 10 tabs

Well, it's just that. An adjustable camber kit should be out for the IS 250/350's in mid November. They are in a testing phase right now. THMotorsports put up a post regarding it after I called them and started asking about it. ( I just bought coilovers for my IS 350 and so I wanted to know if they were coming out with one yet or not.) And it does look like yes. That is awsome news for those who have a lowered suspension or tire wear issues!

Any update on these?

sweet! but i thought you were gonna do black and sand the face??? i like the red tho!!!

Like this:

Okay here is the picture update. You can see how I cleaned a little part of the wheel to show the difference. This was at night so the lighting isn't the best.

Yes, that looks about normal for the original OEM brakepads. Get the TSIB actioned by your dealer for the low dust pads and your perceived problem will go away.

I read your article, but it appears you didn't read mine.

Are you really saying that the time it takes a "clamping" pad to slow the wheel/tire assembly doesn't make any difference in stopping distance? Remember at a given speed, time = distance. Would you say that the fact that pad x brings the wheel to a stop in less time than pad y makes no difference? If you do, you're just wrong. Even your expert points out that the effiency of each component in the system has an effect.

You're wrong Knightshade, because you're not taking into consideration the time it takes to apply sufficient friction up to the point that ABS activates or without ABS when the discs stop wheel rotation.

As a matter of interest I changed the high friction pads on my IS250 for a set of the ceramic based material, but recognising the reason why they were on originally ("Because increasing the coefficient of friction can allow for the use of smaller/fewer caliper pistons and/or will reduce the amount of pedal force that the driver needs to apply in order to generate a given rotor output force.") I also upgraded my calipers and rotors...more pistons and bigger diameter rotors. As a result my brakes are a lot less grabby when a small amount of pedal force is applied, and bring the rotors up to the point of ABS activation a lot quicker when a large amount of pedal force is applied.

cool, thank you for the reply...

Is that an aftermarket exhaust you got there ?

Yea, it's the Tanabe Medallion Touring stainless steel from the cat back...really well made and sounds a lot better than the OEM and a lot lighter too.

on the rear bumper, are them actual lights ? or just reflectors ?

Reflectors

I do wish it was more intuitive though. You do have to press a button more times to operate the voice command on some funtions than just changing the function directly. That is annoying. I don't know why you can't just hit the phone button, and say" Call Home" and it just does it.

Mine does..I just press the steering wheel telephone button and say 'phone home' and it does. Pressing the 'off' telephone button disconnects. What's yours do then??

Hey Tango, my block is aluminum and I'm not having any trouble getting 900+ hp out of it. Why do you think that is a power limiting issue for this motor?

Was informed by a reputable tuning company when I suggested a two stage Rotrex S/C may be a good idea. I presumed it was down to web thicknesses. Hope they were wrong but don't fancy blowing mine up proving them right.

We do not get the 350 this side of the pond and I think I told you the IS-F was like $104,000 here. One of the LOC UK guys has imported a TOM's S/C 350 from Japan, but I was exploring buying a slightly used IS350 engine from the US to modify and fit in my 250 shell

You'll want as much of the 350 as you can get-

the transmission is different for one (and so the ECU will likely not work with the 250 transmisson)

the 350 has VDIM, the 250 does not... so you'll need all the relevant sensors and wiring for that or the ECU will have issues as well.

Here in the US you're looking at somewhere in the 2-5k range to go from 250 to 350 (comparing new car prices) so it makes no sense to try modding a 250 much...the cheapest way to add power is just buy a 350.

You're looking closer to 15-20k to go from a 350 to an IS-F

And I'd suggest that by the time you got done basically replacing all the engine internals to lower compression, designing your own custom engine and fuel management system, and designing the forced induction system, you couldn't add over 100hp to the IS350 for less than that either.

you don't read my posts at all do you? I'm in the UK..we don't get the 350. I paid $66,000 for my 250 and an IS-F (if I wanted one) is $ $104,000 more or less. But after consideration, forget Lexus..the Nissan GT-R is on it's way and a lot more car than the IS-F for the same money.

Hey Tango, my block is aluminum and I'm not having any trouble getting 900+ hp out of it. Why do you think that is a power limiting issue for this motor?

Was informed by a reputable tuning company when I suggested a two stage Rotrex S/C may be a good idea. I presumed it was down to web thicknesses. Hope they were wrong but don't fancy blowing mine up proving them right.

We do not get the 350 this side of the pond and I think I told you the IS-F was like $104,000 here. One of the LOC UK guys has imported a TOM's S/C 350 from Japan, but I was exploring buying a slightly used IS350 engine from the US to modify and fit in my 250 shell

I figured the 12:1 compression was a much bigger reason they can't get more than ~50 horsepower out of their supercharger kit...

Jeremy on CL was able to run a 65 shot of N2O on his 350 without issue (and for massively less than the TOMs kit cost, though of course it's not "always on" power)

On US Spec cars the inability to touch the ECU is a major limitation to modding as well.

Changing the compression ratio isn't too much of a problem with a piston change, but the block is still going to be the limiter. The ECU limitation isn't just applicable to the US spec.

Diesel is by far a better choice all around. Mainly because it is not restricted as to the power you can create with it. Just as an example, my wife has a VW TDI and gets almost 60 mpg on the highway and over 40 in town. I've also got a chevy 2500 HD diesel with a gross weight of 9600 lbs that with very minor mods gets close to 20 mpg on 33" tires. On a dyno it created 678 RWHP and 940 ftlb torque.

Diesel will soon be bigger than ever in the US with Cadillac, Ford (f-150), chevy (1500), suburu, kia...etc all making small block diesels available as early as 2010.

But what's that got to do with the Lexus 220D?

An additional 100 hp on the IS250 is -impossible- to achieve short of some completely custom forced induction system that'd cost a ton more than just getting an IS350.

There is no ability whatsoever to change the US Spec factory ECU in the aftermarket on the 2IS.

Note the auto on the 250 gets better mileage than the manual

Weakest component on the 250 and 350 which will limit any possible power output and reliability is the aluminim block. The 350's supercharged by TOM's are restricted in power output for that reason. Either get an IS-F or something much better like the new Nissan GT-R if power is your main interest.

Sorry to sound ignorant, but what is TSB? I understand that it does something to reduce the amount of brake dust (which I have a ongoing battle with), but what exactly is it and how is it done? Are there any other reasons to have it done or is it strictly to reduce brake dust?

It's a 'Technical Service Bulletin' or more correctly a TSIB which is a 'Technical Service Information Bulletin' issued by Lexus, usually in response to customer or dealer complaints, but also from Lexus themselves if they discover a manufacturing problem that affects cars already sold.

The Brake Pad TSIB described the corrective actions necessary to replace the original high friction pads that generated so much dust with a set based on a ceramic material Part# 04465-53030. There's a listing on the site of all the TSIB's covering trim rattles, fuel pipe recall, rubber mat replacement, seat belt changeout, engine rattles from cold etc. etc.

No doubt you have the wrong pads.

I had the tsb done and there's 90% less dust.

They must have fitted the wrong pads...I only changed the front pads and there's a 90% improvement..in fact the rears dust up a lot more than the fronts now.

One deer, five deer.

One Lexus, five Lexus.

I'd agree with that

Note the comparison is between my OEM IS250 rotors, calipers and pads after upgrading with the IS350/GS300 Mk3 set.....we only have one IS350 in the UK, and that is a Toms Supercharged version imported from Japan. We do have the IS-F, but again in very few numbers (150 this year)...and as I've said before, there's one hell of a difference in cost between the USA & UK....I had to pay more for my IS250 Se-L than you can buy an IS-F for in the USA :(

That is obscene! So your saying that if the ISF sells in America for $65,000.00 which is 32,800. British pounds, or 41,180 Euro, that's what you paid for the IS250?

Yes...a little more actually 33,000 Brit Pounds fully loaded...the IS-F here is just over 51,000 British pounds Rumour here is the LF-A is going to exceed £200,000. Oh and petrol (gas) has just exceeded $10.89 a gallon, although currently 65% of that is tax and due to go to 67% in September this year :cries: . Can I come and live over there permanently :D

Yeah, I was seriously considering going to the ceramics also. I've used EBC's and have never had any problems. So, I was going to let the dealership do the TSIB brake pad change first and see how that turns out. If it doesn't, then I was going to a ceramic pad also and see how that works out. DO you drive it hard? How are they holding up? how much grab, more or less than stock? What brake pads are you using?

I have the Obsidian Black on black. I have the windows tinted 20% all around, but I think I'm going to go darker all around, then black rims with polished lip rims.Lower it, Black lip kit, no spoiler, and a black rear window visor. Maybe black out the headlights and taillights. I may take your brake caliper design though! :) That really does look great.

The pads fitted are the OEM replacements from the part number on the TSIB (which I think have a ceramic based material). It's driven quite hard, and I 've found the pads to be more progressive than the originals... they don't have that slow speed sudden 'grab' which I didn't like at all. Little or no fade and minimum dusting compared with the originals which left my wheels completely black after relatively few miles.

Note the comparison is between my OEM IS250 rotors, calipers and pads after upgrading with the IS350/GS300 Mk3 set.....we only have one IS350 in the UK, and that is a Toms Supercharged version imported from Japan. We do have the IS-F, but again in very few numbers (150 this year)...and as I've said before, there's one hell of a difference in cost between the USA & UK....I had to pay more for my IS250 Se-L than you can buy an IS-F for in the USA :(

Tango, that looks great! Good job. The caliper really sets up nice!

Thanks, the ceramic pads are pretty good too...hardly any dust compared to the originals :) Wasn't too sure of the colour coded centre discs on the Volks, but like them a lot now. I also sprayed the lug nuts to match, and have been surprised they haven't chipped at all when torquing up.

Thanks for the tips guys. The more I think about it, I do think that the red is a bit "ricer." Now I just have to decide if I want Silver or Black and what color or lettering. Each would look great w/ the opposite color of lettering but both would look cool w/ red lettering. Not sure why i'm so stuck on red though. lol.

Took a slightly better pic of mine...looks a little better on the ground :D

FYI most sport pedals are a joke and make it harder to control the brake and gas especially the clutch because of the lack of rubber in the designs.

Don't agree at all with that statement with regard to the OEM sports pedal set. One of the first things I did on my IS second gen Lux was to replace those nasty looking rubber pedals with the OEM alloy set, and yes I got them from Sewells. B)

hey guys can ya'll tell me how to install them?

Apart from the gas pedal they slip over the base pedal after taking off the rubber ones that fit in similar way. The gas pedal plate is attached to it's arm by a split pin...remove it to take off the rubber pedal and re-insert it to fit the new one. Most people remove the complete gas pedal assembly which makes fitting easier, but I did it in situ with a small 'G' clamp and press pin. Removal is pretty easy as it's an electronic connection, not cable (see diagram). The split pin isn't shown on the diagram, but you can see the hole in arm and pedal.

I have no clue how they come in the uk , i only copied the link.

Hi guys, I'm a Brit in the UK, but frequent visitor to Houston and I can tell you that it's the UK that get shafted...the car manufacturers don't call it "Treasure Island" without due cause .

It looks like the 'SR' is just an option that's available with the GFX bodykit, as everything else mentioned in the article is available here already, and the 204 bhp is stock for the gas powered models (the 220D oil burner has a slightly lower output).

For your information I paid the equivalent of $66,000 for my full spec IS250 and then purchased the GFX kit (SMG) from Westside Lexus in Houston and hand carried it back to the UK...for the reason that the GFX kit was not then available in the UK. It is now, but only in primer coat so you pay a fortune for the parts and then have to pay extra to get them painted :( .

...and to answer the last question, the price of the IS-F in the UK is the equivalent of $103,000

believe me I prefer to be a petrolhead (gearhead) in the USA