LOTS of IS200 questions.....
LOTS of IS200 questions.....
I just stumbled back on this thread I started PL (Pre Lexus) and I suppose now I've had a prod about at what I've bought I might as well post some answers to my original questions (Just in case anyone else is interested).
First off, I'll just introduce my IS200.
She's a 2001 sport in silver with the factory aero pack and satnav. She came with 110k miles on the clock but very little in the way of documented history. Because of this I went over her with a fine tooth comb. From the evidence I could see I came to the conclusion that she's been well looked after but the owner wasn't as an*l about keeping receipts for every little job that's been done to her (as I do. :drool. Just to be on the safe side, I swapped the oil, oil filter, spark plugs and fitted a K & N air filter the weekend after I brought her home. The original wheels had a little bit of paint peel going on so I got another set of Aero's off Ebay. When I picked them up I found out that they were even shabbier than my originals. So I cleaned them up, got them chemically stripped and powdercoated in a slightly darker silver than standard (I'm not overly impressed with the colour now though. They look a bit like primer grey.... Oh well). When I got them back I had some T1R's fitted to them and bolted them onto the car. Since then all I've done is wash her every once and a while and put about another 1,000 miles on her. There you go! all up to date. :tongue_smilie:
The only problems I've found so far are, compared to upgrades for my old MX5, everything's almost double the price. As an example, I bought a brand new and well made stainless cat back system for my '5, Delivered to my door for £145. For the IS' the cheapest I've seen is over 250 quid, And that's for one off Ebay that still needs a threaded section welded in for the lambda sensor before it even gets near the car..... WTF !!!!
The other problem is on long motorway trips, Even if I drive like a dithery old grey haired git and keep the "Econometer" gauge pointing at 40mpg for 95% of the run I only get around 21 MILES PER BL00DY GALLON !!!! OK, a few people said they can be a bit on the thirsty side of reasonable, But 21mpg ? Does that sound right to you lot? I used to get more than that from my old 2.8 Capri !
Right then Back to IS200's in general !
I'm 99.9% sure of what I've wrote here about the suspension setup. The 0.1% doubt is because it's late and my memory isn't what it once.... Erm..... Should have been. I'm writing this based on what I remember from when I had a good nose around under my car a few weeks ago. If anyone spots a glaring c0ckup in all this, Let me know.....
The front and rear suspension geometry is pretty much just as adjustable as an MX5's !!!!
The front lower wishbone is made up of a cast metal TCA (track control arm) with a cam adjuster at the inner end. The arm's laterally supported by a compression strut attached near the hub end of the TCA and rearward to the chassis rail.
Now to the (Much easer to describe) upper front wishbone.
It's quite a dainty little horse shoe shaped jobby. It's set right up in the wheel arch with a cam adjuster on both of the inner ends........ See? Much easer to get your head around! :biggrin:
OK then, Now for the rear setup.
The lower rear suspension has a sort of pressed metal TCA with a forward facing compression strut that make up the bottom wishbone. The TCA bit has a cam adjuster on the outer end to play with camber. The rear hub carriers are almost layed out like a front wheel drive cars front end, As in they have something that looks like a steering arm pointing forward from it, This has an adjustable tie rod between it and the subframe for the rear wheels toe adjustment.
And finally, the upper rear suspension.
This one's just a pressed metal "L" shaped wishbone with cam adjusters on both inner mounting points.
So, we can set toe via the track rod end on the front (Obviously), and the toe control bar out back. Camber front and back by "seesawing" between the 1 lower and 2 upper cam adjusters and (To a limited extent) the caster on the front by pushing with one and pulling with the other of the two upper cam adjusters. All in all, a lot more than you can do with most cars on the road today.
Anyway, I was going to go through more of my original questions in this post, But I just looked at the clock and saw that it's tomorrow already..... And I need my beauty sleep (And by that I mean "If I don't get to bed now I'll risk falling asleep while driving my van tomorrow and become hideously disfigured in the subsequent Transit shaped fireball") so the rest will have to wait for another day.
So, night night all.
Scotty B
Regarding the mpg, it can vary a lot given the type of driving (round town, motorways etc). I can get 385 miles from a tank before the light comes on, but 350 of those are generally on the motorway... That works out just over 29mpg...
With general driving about town etc, I was getting about 350 miles till the light came on. When the light comes on I generally find it takes 60 litres to fill again and it's a 70 litre tank, so logically the warning is coming on with 10 litres left. Around town the sums come out at 26.52mpg...
I work it by filling up, Doing a couple hundred mile round trip to see friends and filling up again when I get nearly home. I reset the odometer whenever I fill up so I know the mileage and how much fuel I'd used to do it, so each long trip only takes me 30 seconds with a calculate to work out what mpg I'm getting.
I only worked it out once for my MX5, But the figure was so run of the mill that I can't even remember what it was. I think it came out somewhere around mid to high 30's
It just strikes me as odd that my IS200 can burn that much fuel without feeling quick enough for me to feel I'm getting my moneys worth. I'm not saying it's a slow car, Just not as quick as the fuel gauge would suggest. ad:
Scotty B.
it's because the 1g-fe is a **** engine. Comfortable and smooth though.
I get around 360-380miles out of a full tank.
With the weight and how much the engine is almost restricted on BHP it will always feel slower then most cars,
Its one thing that let's the IS down, but its something everyone is aware off when it comes to these cars.
el_bandido it's because the 1g-fe is a **** engine. Comfortable and smooth though.
el_bandido it's because the 1g-fe is a **** engine. Comfortable and smooth though.
the 1g-fe is not in any way a good engine. It's bad on economy, it makes disappointing power and as you said, it is ridiculously expensive to tune. Even then, it's not even a good tuner engine.
I'd have to agree, I think the 1G-FE was a good engine in that it is smooth, solid and reliable but it was just so ridiculously out of date in the 2000s.
To compare, the 320i of the same era did just over 30mpg and was over a second quicker to 60. Got to admit it tells you a lot about the car that I still wanted the IS over the 320, and am happy with my decision