Gaugster

With the vehicle off; 1 - Press & Hold the ODO trip reset button in the IP. 2 - Turn on the ignition on without starting the motor. I.e. push IGN switch twice I think without pressing the brake. 3 - Continue to hold the trip reset button until the ODO shows "000000" The light will now be reset for another 5k. regards,

Welcome to the club. If I look real close at the pics I can see the change holder that they added for '08. B) Enjoy you new ride. It's a great car that gets really good gas mileage which is very relevant these days. I would recommend getting a clear bra if the car does not already have one. Just a suggetsion though

So what are you going to do if you have a 2nd kid? That really doesn't work--some cars cant handle an infant seat in the middle b/c of the hump (especially pre-latch, like I had in my old car, and the seat base would shift to its side around turns). I agree, as long as it fits, and the car's maunal does not caution against it, you should try to put the seat in the middle. But with 2 kids, you can't do it. Even if you wait until you kid is 3+, and you can move to a booster seat, there's no way you could fit a booster in the L or R seat, and an infant seat in the middle of the back seat of an IS. Maybe an Avalon... Don't count your chickens before they hatch. :P I will worry about a 2nd kid when it happens. The obvious solution is a bigger vehicle. I guess I should rethink about that hybrid prius then huh.

IMO - The only location to fit a infant baby seat in the ISx50 is the rear center location. The rear side locations are very close to the side air bag systems and would not be safe in the event of an accident for at least two reasons. 1 - Air bag going off. 2 - No space buffer in case of a side door impact. Congradulations on the twins but you should consider a vehicle that can work with two infants. I have a 5 month old son and my wife is hinting at having another kid. I need to space it out so that the first kid is old enough to sit in a normal seat. Otherwise, I will be in your same situation.

+1 for the Lexol leather conditioner. However, I use Woolite per the owners manual for cleaning prior to conditioning but that is just my preference. I will condition the leather at night, put on a heavy but even coat and let it set overnight. The leather is not as porous as a 'Biker' jacket is but I do it anyway. Regards,

Congrats' 1) Does anyone change their own oil? Do you know how to reset the computer so it quits saying its time to change your oil? A1 - Yes, I do. 5w-30 is listed on the cap and but there is a TSIB that approves the use of 5w-20. Lots of debate about oil type though. The Car and the Navi system have separate timers for maintainace. The car's timer is reset by 1 - holding down the trip milage button. 2 - Turn on the car's ignition but do not start the engine. 3 - Keep holding the trip milage button until is is reset to all zero's i.e. 000000. The Navi timers can be enabled or disabled as desired. The method is more user friendly. 2) Has anyone put a cold air intake on their car? If so what kind of performance gain are we talking about? I see that AFE makes one. A2 - Hot topic of much debate. Many people classify the 'open element' type intakes as HOT air intakes that can result in lower performace under certain conditions. Some people just like the sound. I have not used this type of intake on my car. I have a JoeZ intake tube that I like as it uses the OEM air box and intake tube. Also the cost is reasonable. 3) I have a small little crack on the back bumper that’s about a quarter inch. Any idea as to how much it would cost to repair? Would the entire bumper need to be replaced? A3 - I would guess about $500-$1000 if the bumper could be repaired. Probably about $1000-$2000 if a new bumper was needed. The cost of paint repairs varies a lot so you should get some quotes and weigh your options. I think that most shops will want to replace the bumper and any other parts behind if damaged. 4) The car has navigation. If the navigation DVD hasn’t been changed does it need to be changed with an updated version? A4 - You should read up on the list about this one. You may have an older version that allows some of the safety features to be bypassed. If you upgrade, you may loose these features. Lots of other solutions around. 5) What kind of know issue has people reported? Has there been any recalls on anything? A5 - As already stated, check out the TSIB section for known issues.

It is hard to diagnose but some of these sounds can be normal. Is all subjective but….. 1 – If the vehicle is not moving at all and you hear a high pitched grinding sound when the steering is turned – This is not normal and should be checked out. 2 – If the vehicle in not moving at all and you hear a slight low pitched rumble when the steering is turned – This is most likely just the sound of the tires scraping the ground as the pivot. The sound would be different depending on the tires being on pavement or cement etc… 20 years ago back in Driver’s Education, they said not to do this as it would wear the tires. :P 3 – If the vehicle is moving (fast or slow) and you hear a high pitched grinding sound when the steering is turned – This is not normal and should be checked out. 4 – If the vehicle is moving slowly (forward or backward) and you hear a low rumble/grinding when the steering is turned – This is most likely normal for this vehicle. It seems to be inherent in the design as cars from other manufacturers sometimes don’t make these types of sounds even if they have the same or wider tires.

I have been keeping up with the 350 header issue on the other forums as well. It is hard to believe that there was so little gain from the original headers. I would have thought that just removing the primary CATs would make a hugh difference in of itself. Maybe I could replace the secondary CATs with the primaries from the OEM manifolds if the flow much better. May be more work then it is worth? Good luck to you and all the other 350 guys. Once Daniel gets if figured out I am sure it will add much power.

Which was what I was going to point out if you were just wasting your money on having them chromed. BUt the ceramic coating is a good choice. Yup, it's the best thing going for headers. The primaries on the AWD headers are much shorter then the orignal design that Mazzuri made for the RWD cars. I am suppose to loose some of the benefits but am hoping that the coating will give me back a pony or two? But again, I am just being conservative and doing to aviod any possible heat related issue later on down the road.

I sent them to Jet-Hot for ceramic coating. They are doing what they call the 'extreme sterling' coating which will hold its shine up to 1700°F They might still get discolored with these DI engines running so lean but the true benifits are the thermal barier they form to keep heat out of the engine bay. Besides - it is hard to see the headers anyway so it is not for looks.

The 2GR-FSE piston crown is also specifically designed with a 'sub-chamber' for use with the direct injectors. So the whole motor would need to be changed out. Sorry, but you just can't put the DI on top of the 2GR-SE motor. There are other more cost effective solutions like N20 to get an extra few HP but all could have negative affects on reliabilty, gas milage etc....

I should get the headers back from coating in a couple of weeks. So I will probably have an 'after' dyno in about a months time.

Yes, it's an auto. I made sure the dyno operator was 'mechanically' WOT at 3k. However the Electric Thottle body, ASIC etc... have an effect on the power as well as the A/F. The pulls were done in 4th w/snow mode. All the data shown is useful AFAIK as we excluded the low RPM's where he was rolling into the throttle. Trust me, I was sitting next to him in the car recording data during the runs. I might be possible to get a smoother curve by rolling into the throttle but I would guess that it would be hard to repeat from a testing standpoint.

Hey all, just had some baseline dyno pulls done. HP=157.5 hp, TQ=159.6 lbft. I have not decided if I am happy with the way the numbers look but it is the baseline nevertheless. I have some other data to review as well. JoeZ intake and Mazzuri 'shorty' headers are next.

I just used a clay bar for the first time on my '07 IS250 this past weekend. It was a Megs’ kit. I am amazed at all the dirt it sheered off even after a good wash. It is not as hard to do as I thought it would be. I even clayed the windows. I am up in Chicago and wanted to do a good detail after the winter months. I waxed afterwards and it looks great. Using the clay before even makes the wax easier to remove. I am super impressed. :D

dude are you serious? come on i usually turn the car on...wait a minute or so to find a song on my ipod i like...then head off and i haven't had a single engine problem. and to the original post - just drive gently when its cold. works for me. Absolutely serious. There's a long long thread over on Clublexus explaining why 'warming up' is horrible for the car if you want a lot more folks singing the same song. Enough time to find a song is a far cry from waiting 5+ minutes for the temp needle to move though, which is what most folks mean by 'warming up' the car. I still think the thread over on CL is a joke and digging way too deep into the subject. As long as you maintain your vehcile and change you oil at regular intervals - warm-ups are just a personal preference or nessity depending on your location. Parade duty as it's know is a whole other subject or concern. It is best to take it easy for the first 10 minutes or so of driving until the coolant gets up to temperature. If you start the car from cold and get right on the exressway, the transmission will stay in 5th gear and not shift into 6th until the coolant gets to temperature. It's part of the design of the car but I still take it easy until it can go into 6th and drop the RPM's.

There should be a list of all the LPS that can be modifed in the manuals. You might want to confirm what the setting are currently as the original owner could might have made some modifications. I had the LPS changed for the sensativity of the auto-on headlights. The dealer recommended that I only lower the sensativity by one point. It was good advice because just adjusting it from 3 to 4 (or 2 - can't remember which) made a huge difference. Have a seat on a comfy chair and read the FM. Enjoy you new ride.

Both superchargers and turbochargers are considered "Forced Induction" or FI for short. Both will add additional power to an engine. The life span of the engine depends on how much power is added and how often the driver uses that added power. An engine designed from scratch with either of these power adders can last a very long time. A bad design could have a life span of only a few minutes worst case. The supercharge is driven from the engines crank shaft using the acceory belt. This adds a slight extra load to the engine during normal (grandma) driving but can be compensated for when the engine is at high RPM and under boost. A turbo charger does not put a mechinical load on the engine but technically does add some resistance to the exhaust flow. Again this is compensated for at high RPM and under boost conditions.

smooth1, no problem. I will share my results once I have them. I am planning to add the JoeZ intake (stock filter) and the Mazzuri headers. The remainder of the exhaust will be stock as I like it to be quite. I have the intake pipe at home and should receive the headers this week unless there delayed. Still need to get some baseline dyno numbers to go along with the time slips. I am very curious to see what happens too. Honestly, it will be a couple of months until I have before and after data.

It's simple really. Every vehicle I own goes to the drag strip - it's just my rule. Plus, the car is stock now but I will be bolting on an intake and headers (if you have to ask why then you will never know) and would like to see the before and after times in addition to the dyno charts. I like charts and graphs but a Sunday afternoon at the track with a few time slips is way more fun.

Never have the words of others been so misunderstood, twisted and abused. You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.

Well, Today I ran the quarter mile in 16.027 sec @ 86mph. The condition were just okay as there was a headwind from 8 - 13mph. That might explain why the mph is a little on the low side. Two other runs were both @ 16.047 sec. I'm happy.

It is hard for me to judge the actual distance using the camera alone. I guess that is what the distance sensor option is for but I hate the look of the button sensors so I took a pass on that option. I tend to use the painted lines in parking lots to fiind my stopping point. I use the line on the ground with the edge of my rear bumper (when viewed through the fish-eye lens of the camera) to decide were to stop. Also my garage has a line made by the transistion from the outside asphalt pavment to the inside cemet floor. I drive forward into my garage a little far, then I reverse far enough to line my reference point using the camera. Then The rear of my car is very close to the garage door when closed. This allow for the most space in front of the vehicle. Just make sure you pick a refernce line, point etc... that will never move. :D :D

Hey Randy, Again, welcome to the club. Sorry if it seemed like we bombarded you with charts and data and stuff. I am an Electrical Engineer by trade and hence do things very methodically. There is so much ‘non-fact’ out on the internet so I always like to post as much truth/data as I can. I admire that you could just walk in to a car dealer and pick a car and take it home. I could never do such a thing without hours of research etc… I just not my M.O.

Well, I would encourage you to get your car dyno'd and post the results. It’s a little hard to get numbers below ~2700rpm with the auto tranny but the My.IS was a manual. We can never have enough info about these cars so I am all for it. A few points though. 1 - Keep in mind that the graph from Japan is measured at the crankshaft of the engine and not the wheels like the graphs from My.IS. Both are valid IMO but I just want to point out the difference. 2 - Never trust the seat-of-the-pants dyno. It all over the internet but the basic idea is that the human body is better at "feeling" changes to torque output. So a level torque curve looks good for graphs but doesn't have the same emotional response that happens when a big boost in power happens. That seems to be why so many people seem addicted to 'boost' etc... Regards,