Lexus IS300

It's been a while since I shared anything about my car, but I got inspired last night to put this video together of clips from 2012 lol. It's finally done! One less thing off the to-do list lol.

Some more pics from my trip, since I had time to work on them today since snow kept me home from work.
 

IMG_0566 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0570 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0610 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0640 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Pics from "Tail of the Dragon"
 

IMG_0645-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0648 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0650 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0651 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0652 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0655 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

you have soo many beautiful locations around you.. im soo jelous

lol thanks, well that's what happens when you drive 2000 miles!  Bound to be some good sites along the way

 

thats true, the UK is even 2000miles from top to bottom

Finally, the last few random pics from my trip on November 3rd last year lol.
 

IMG_0525-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Saw some gas for less than $3!!!! I later found some even cheaper.
 

IMG_0601-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Pretty cheap for premium as well (I use premium). Too bad I didn't need gas.
 

IMG_0602-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Choices choices choices...... stopped in for some Wendy's Chili
 

IMG_0622 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
At Tail of the Dragon (closed during the week)
 

IMG_0644-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
lol... this was harder than it looks
 

IMG_0658-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Had a tire blow out 400 miles from home.... I guess this explained all the shaking lol. Ran over something changing lanes. Since they are low-profile tires, I didn't lose control or anything.
 

IMG_0664 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Fortunately, there's a stock wheel in the trunk for this. But the tire is original (like from 2002) and it looked kinda dryrotted. It was flat, but it held air all the way home. Didn't look too bad lol. Had to get me some Dairy Queen.
 

IMG_0668 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
The tire damage
 

IMG_0669 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Separated almost the entire way around lol
 

IMG_0670 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Time to sell these wheels and be done with them for good.

Some pics I took of just my car at today's meet
 

IMG_0866-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0865-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 

IMG_0864-2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

oh wow, looking awesome as always

She's looking clean Chris!   

Thanks guys!  Still in winter mode lol


Got some more pics (not mine obviously lol)

so clean so low so blue so awsome

Now if only you could lower yours Shehroze!!!!

hahahaha no way even on stock height my corolla scaped on bumps in my city had to dent the floor by 2 to 3 inches down.....

Well the weather is great, and I had nothing to do on the house.
 
Got a new cabin filter (never changed it, gonna figure that out soon), replaced the windshield wipers today, and picked up 10 quarts of Mobil1 high mileage 5w-30. Gonna get the Mobil1 filter tomorrow and hopefully change the oil tomorrow (definitely sometime before my cross-country trip).
 
And then I finally installed the new exhaust lol. The old one came off really easily, the bolts gave me no trouble at all. Not that there was much left of the old exhaust lol.
 
Pretty self-explanatory pic..... new Manzo vs old Greddy Evo II
 

 
Well I ran into an issue pretty quickly. Not sure if it's just because this is cheap, or because I installed the header without an exhaust connected lol. I ultimately managed to force it together. (oh and look, new exhaust hangers!! Cut off the old ones and slid new ones on... no more zip ties and wires holding it up lol)
 

 
And the exhaust is too short for the car, plus the tip is wedged up against the lip/bumper because the hangers aren't designed properly. Probably gonna melt it lol.
 

 
Done! The muffler is very hard to see, and the tip looks nice (even if it's not aligned properly). Oh well. Looks real clean!
 

 
 
I fired it up, and wow it's quiet. Drove up and down the driveway, and yep, sure is quiet. A lot quieter than I thought it would be. Oh well, I guess my ricer-sound days are over! No more backfiring or other obnoxious noises, sounds really clean actually, even with the headers.

OK update time. Did a bunch of work on the car today that actually went relatively smoothly and quickly. Which was good, because I didn't have much time after work (and it was coldish).
 
Started with the exhaust. The tip was pushing pretty hard up into the lip and to the side, so it was melting through and shifting over even more. So I went under and undid the (rusty) v-band clamp bolt on the flexpipe section that joins the headers and catback. That allowed me to rotate the entire catback so that the muffler section could hang freely/properly on the rubber hangers. I was then able to rebolt the 2 flanged sections and the v-band clamp back together, and everything fit perfectly!
 
It was hard to get a pic, and it looks better now that it's not jacked up. But the tip isn't touching the side of the lip opening anymore. As an added benefit, there won't be any more vibration noise from the exhaust against the bumper.
 
Yeah, it's still not centered looking in the pic, but that's because of the angle of the pic. It's good enough.
 
Fixed Exhaust Rotation by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
 
^^^ if you zoom in, you can see there is a gap all around the tip now. You can also see the lip damage from pressing against the hot exhaust tip.
 
With that fixed, the next task was to replace all of the old adjustable endlinks with brand new MOOG OEMs. The old endlinks are just a bunch of hardware thrown together, and they were incredibly noisy, making it embarrassing to drive lol. Plus, they didn't even make a difference to the sway bars and didn't fix the problem I was trying to fix with them in the first place (raising the car height fixed that problem).
 
I finally got inspired to fix this noise after installing the really quiet exhaust.... figured it was finally time to solve all the noise problems!
 
New front links vs old
 
Front End Links by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
had to cut one of them off since the hex nut stripped. But just look how complicated the old ones are compared to the MOOGs. Keep it simple and clean!
 
Installation was a breeze
 
Front End Link Installed by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Then, onto the rear links! You can see how much shorter the old links were (I adjusted them all as short as possible)
 
Rear End Links by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Installed, smooth as butter
 
Rear End Link Installed by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Went for a quick little testdrive up and down the driveway. No more noises!!!!!! Yessssss I looooove it now. Definitely more Lexus-like again.
 
I almost forgot, but then I remembered I had bought a replacement cabin filter (Fram Febreeze or something) a while ago, and decided to install it finally.
 
It couldn't have been easier.... just open the glovebox and pop out the old filter.
 
But I wasn't prepared for what I'd see. Sure, I was expecting dirt and discoloration, but look at all those leaves and crud!! The entire thing was literally filled with mess. It's a wonder air came through at all.
 
New Cabin Air Filter by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
So definitely check and replace your filters!!! The interior is going to smell and clean a lot better now, and the air will flow a lot freer and quieter.
 
So that's what I did today, a lot of things that made a big difference. Still waiting for my replacement intake air filter to arrive, and I need to change the thermostat and replace the wheel studs before my cross-country trip in 1 week.

Yuck at that melting, happened to me a bit before I had to adjust my exhaust as well. Your new exhaust looks a lot nicer, and wow, your cabin filter was dirtyyy haha.

thanks!  Yeah the entire lip kit needs to be repainted lol

Today's 5-minute mod was replacing the air filter.  I bought the intake (and filter) used, so who knows how old it is.  But again, look how dirty it is!  I have tried washing it before, but it never looked new.

Now the intake does suck air better, and it improved the sound as well.  Really loving the car now!

New vs Old Air Filter by gold94corolla, on Flickr

nice work chris

OK another big update today. It was perfect weather.... 68 degrees and partly cloudy. Got a bunch of stuff done that has been on my list for a LONG time. Feels good to have this all behind me.
 
Today's "mods" were easy to complete together as a group, while the front of the car was jacked up:

• Replace the thermostat
  
• Repaint the front lip
  
• Replace the wheel studs on the passenger side
  
• Put the summer Work wheels on the front
  

Jacked up the front of the car, took the wheels off, took off the front lip, took off the underbody panel, drained the radiator
 
Getting Work Done by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
The OEM Toyota Red coolant looks great!
 
Drained Toyota Radiator Fluid by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
With the coolant drained, the thermostat was very easy to access by removing 2 10mm nuts right in front of the headers.
 
Thermostat Exposed by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Yeah no wonder the thermostat didn't work lol. I have no clue how the rubber got like this, but the new one looks great! I got both the thermostat and a new o-ring gasket (which isn't installed in the pic, it slips over the edge of the thermostat)
 
New vs Old T-Stat by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Once the new thermostat was installed, I refilled the radiator and overflow tank. Then cranked up the heat and ran the car until the fans turned on. And it worked!!! Finally, the car has heat!!
 
Temperature Gauge by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Finally lol.
 
While the front lip was off, I decided to fit the JDM replica front lip to see how it lined up with the rest of the lip kit
 
Front Lip Test Front by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Front Lip Test Upper Angle by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Front Lip Test Side by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Front Lip Test Rear Angle by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Front Lip Test Rear by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Not sure I'm really a fan though, I'm sure it would be better painted. It's actually just as "low" as my current lip, so it matches the sides perfectly. I was hoping it would be smaller though I guess, so that I could make the side skirts shorter. I guess I don't have to either way! Nice.
 
So I just repainted the front lip (after sanding it and primering it) again. Hopefully I don't pull to far into another parking spot again lol.
 
Repainted Front Lip by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Came out perfect!
 
Replacing the wheel studs was actually pretty easy. I had already done the other side last November, so I pretty much knew what I was doing.
 
The wheel spacer actually came off easily, and it's nuts were in OK shape (except for 1, it wouldn't thread on). So that was easy. The calipers come out with 2 small bolts, and then the caliper bracket comes off with another two. All 4 bolts came right off with the breaker bar. And then the rotor was already loose, so it slipped right off. Then I tested the studs to see how many needed to be replaced. When I did the other side, somehow 2 of them survived, so I only needed to replace 3 of them. Well, on this side, one of the studs was OK (as in the stock lug nut threaded all the way on with no resistance). The other 4 were ruined. So, I sprayed PB Blaster on the 4 of them and replaced them one by one. This again was really easy, the old one hammered right out, and the new ones pressed right in.
 
Replacing Front Studs by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
New Studs Installed by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Then the rotor, bracket, and calipers slip right back on. Both sides of the front are done! And I'll never use wheel spacers again lol.
 
Completed Front Passenger Studs by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Completed Front Driver Studs by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
And then I was able to finally put the summer Work wheels back on the front! It's nice to see the tires from the front of the car again lol. Looking good once again!
 
Oh, and happy Easter lol
 
Happy Easter 2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr
 
Happy Easter 1 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

Well I got the two exhaust flanges in so that I could extend the exhaust by 1 inch. Installed them today with some longer bolts, worked perfectly! Each flange is 2.25" inside diameter to match the piping, and 0.5" thick. Lined up everything as best as I could.

Exhaust Spacers by gold94corolla, on Flickr

I love how it sits now, perfectly situated in the lip! It's still touching the screw holding on the lip though, oh well. Maybe I'll work on it more eventually.

Spaced Exhaust Tip 2 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

so dirty lol

Spaced Exhaust Tip 3 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

Muffler is nice and hidden under the bumper, so clean, I love it!

Spaced Exhaust Tip 1 by gold94corolla, on Flickr

every time I open this thread the car is more perfect each time.

Congrats on the great work

looking good chris

Thanks guys! Yeah this is the year of fixing things lol... not really planning on doing too many real mods. Time to make it more perfect and more like a Lexus again!

Detailed the engine today. Step one was cleaning the engine bay with a degreasing spray and then a good wash, then I masked around the engine bay with newspaper and sprayed on the black shine. The buffed it to remove the access and make it even. Looks so much nicer now, though the pics don't do it justice for some reason.

Detailed Engine Close by gold94corolla, on Flickr

Detailed Engine by gold94corolla, on Flickr