Lexus IS300

[denniegst]

So whats the scoop on the IS300? My friend wants to get one and she heard they needed alot of work done on them.

 

[Defiant]

New, or old, beat-up and cheap?

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Good car. Expensive on insurance.

 

[MyBeatGSX]

Very nice car. 2 of my friends had them and I took one from work for a weekend. That would be my #1 DD choice.

What did she mean "a lot of work done"? To make it fast? Yea I'm sure you would because they're slow as death. But as far as reliability, my friend went 90k with nothing more than oil changes before he traded it. Its a Toyota, they run forever.

 

[denniegst]

Shes going to buy it in used condition. I guess she had meant they break down easily?

 

[conceptvip]

I work at lexus as a tech. We have never really had a major problem and never seen one with a blown motor (has the 2jz which you will never kill). The cars will run for ever on just simple maintance. Dont be scared about millage 100k is nothing for one of these cars. Just make sure the timing belt was replaced at 90k along with the water pump because you dont want any valves bent. As for suspension nothing really wears out except for front upper control arm balljoints but thats very easy to fix and not too costly.

 

[zachakagoat]

These cars are great, same bottom end as a supra with the 2jz engine. Holds up to 500 horses on the bottom end. Lot of turbo kits out there too and rear wheel drive.

 

[Raph]

is 300.. sweet catr, esp in dark grey or white.

buy it, turbo it, nice alternative to a 3 series/a4

 

[JayRolla]

Man I wish they would have brought the turbo Toyota Alteza to America. Pretty much the same thing as the IS with a bad ass turbo 4 cylinder. Its a TOYOTA. They last forever!!!!!!

 

[GSX26]

is 300.. sweet catr, esp in dark grey or white.

buy it, turbo it, nice alternative to a 3 series/a4

besides the fact that turbo kits cost about 12 grand when it's all said and done and nets you about 300 whp and a 13 second pass. I guess it's better than no power, but hardly seems worth the amount spent, unless you also swap in supra tt bottom end so you can boost past 7 psi. Oh yeah, you'll also need a supra 6-spd tranny if you plan on making power with those, the stock trannies are shit for holding more power. As far as leaving them stock though, I'll agree with everyone else...they last forever and have no problems. I am looking at getting one of these within the next month. Very sweet car...

 

[zachakagoat]

besides the fact that turbo kits cost about 12 grand when it's all said and done and nets you about 300 whp and a 13 second pass. I guess it's better than no power, but hardly seems worth the amount spent, unless you also swap in supra tt bottom end so you can boost past 7 psi. Oh yeah, you'll also need a supra 6-spd tranny if you plan on making power with those, the stock trannies are shit for holding more power. As far as leaving them stock though, I'll agree with everyone else...they last forever and have no problems. I am looking at getting one of these within the next month. Very sweet car...

www.clubna-t.com will show that you can get a full turbo kit for 2000$ thats pretty damn cheap in my opinion. Also the bottom end is the SAME as a 2jz supra its the heads that are different. same rods, crank, just different pistons because of compression but adding a thicker headgasket solves the compression problem. I am DIEING to find a IS300 in my pricerange, one of the newer ones with the square headlights. FWD is sucking dick...

 

[denniegst]

yah i dont think my friend will be adding any further power to it if she was to get one. keep it the comments coming guys...

 

[GSX26]

www.clubna-t.com will show that you can get a full turbo kit for 2000$ thats pretty damn cheap in my opinion. Also the bottom end is the SAME as a 2jz supra its the heads that are different. same rods, crank, just different pistons because of compression but adding a thicker headgasket solves the compression problem. I am DIEING to find a IS300 in my pricerange, one of the newer ones with the square headlights. FWD is sucking dick...

Members of my.is argue that it can't be done for that cheap. Even diy kits aren't that cheap. Then with 2000, what kind of turbo are you getting? A POS probably. And what about fuel management? AFC...don't take the chance on a nice car like that. Standalone is the only way to go, or so the boosted guys say. Also, the bottom end isn't the same as TT supras. Even the exhaust mani stud sequence is different. That's why the supra mani's don't bolt up. Yeah, you could get a thicker hg like 2mm or 3mm. I'm not really arguing or saying you're wrong, but hell, you can't do much with 2000 on a turbo dsm, which is a very cheap car to mod. I too am dying to find one in my range, as soon as I get rid of the DSMs.

 

[JayRolla]

Members of my.is argue that it can't be done for that cheap. Even diy kits aren't that cheap. Then with 2000, what kind of turbo are you getting? A POS probably. And what about fuel management? AFC...don't take the chance on a nice car like that. Standalone is the only way to go, or so the boosted guys say. Also, the bottom end isn't the same as TT supras. Even the exhaust mani stud sequence is different. That's why the supra mani's don't bolt up. Yeah, you could get a thicker hg like 2mm or 3mm. I'm not really arguing or saying you're wrong, but hell, you can't do much with 2000 on a turbo dsm, which is a very cheap car to mod. I too am dying to find one in my range, as soon as I get rid of the DSMs.

You wouldnt need full standalone for it at all. Ive seen supras lay 700whp with just a SAFC, single turbo. Im pretty sure Greddy would work pretty good in it also. I dont know about the motor internals but I thought the bottom end was the same also. Maybe the crank and rods are the same. I would not expect it to have the same pistons because one is turbo and the other is N/A. The IS300 should have higher compression than the Supra.

 

[GSX26]

You wouldnt need full standalone for it at all. Ive seen supras lay 700whp with just a SAFC, single turbo. Im pretty sure Greddy would work pretty good in it also. I dont know about the motor internals but I thought the bottom end was the same also. Maybe the crank and rods are the same. I would not expect it to have the same pistons because one is turbo and the other is N/A. The IS300 should have higher compression than the Supra.

Yeah, it should have higher compression, which it does. But it's like link to s-afc. Ask any Link user, and they'll say F the s-afc. If I was turboing a lexus, I'm pretty sure I would want something more reliable than an s-afc. Also, most turbo kits come with standalone anyways now. I'm just saying...price out dsm mods (turbo, fmic, fuel, gauges, bov, wastegate, exhaust, intake, exh mani, tuning device, maybe internals) and I guaruntee you will come out to over 2 grand. Now just think of doing it to a Lexus n/a, the parts are going to be more expensive or custom which is expensive.

 

[Defiant]

Man I wish they would have brought the turbo Toyota Alteza to America.

Then the guys on eBay could get rich by selling normal taillights.

 

[zachakagoat]

Members of my.is argue that it can't be done for that cheap. Even diy kits aren't that cheap. Then with 2000, what kind of turbo are you getting? A POS probably. And what about fuel management? AFC...don't take the chance on a nice car like that. Standalone is the only way to go, or so the boosted guys say. Also, the bottom end isn't the same as TT supras. Even the exhaust mani stud sequence is different. That's why the supra mani's don't bolt up. Yeah, you could get a thicker hg like 2mm or 3mm. I'm not really arguing or saying you're wrong, but hell, you can't do much with 2000 on a turbo dsm, which is a very cheap car to mod. I too am dying to find one in my range, as soon as I get rid of the DSMs.

The exhaust manifold has NOTHING to do with the bottom end of the motor. The exhuast mani bolts to the head just like the DSMs. And don't diss the SAFC just because you chose to go link doesnt mean that power can't be controlled without it. Lots of power was being made before people even HEARD of DSMLink so don't give me that. And the parts for the lexus aren't that bad you just have to know where to look. If people were to go only to the vendors for parts like on the DSM field you would be screwed out of your mind. Vendor prices are unreal. And yes 2000$ could do ALOT for a DSM so saying that that isn't much money is crap too. The only difference in the 2jz-gte bottom end and the 2jz-ge bottom end is the pistons due to the compression difference that they need. A safc would be fine for a turbokit for the lexus and I will probably go with one because I am very confident in my tuning abilities as I have used one on my GST for years.

 

[joshohatesuall]

Then the guys on eBay could get rich by selling normal taillights.

Most of the IS300's come with the Altezza style lights anyways - at least I thought :\

That's the only thing I didn't like about them.

 

[GSX26]

The exhaust manifold has NOTHING to do with the bottom end of the motor. The exhuast mani bolts to the head just like the DSMs. And don't diss the SAFC just because you chose to go link doesnt mean that power can't be controlled without it. Lots of power was being made before people even HEARD of DSMLink so don't give me that. And the parts for the lexus aren't that bad you just have to know where to look. If people were to go only to the vendors for parts like on the DSM field you would be screwed out of your mind. Vendor prices are unreal. And yes 2000$ could do ALOT for a DSM so saying that that isn't much money is crap too. The only difference in the 2jz-gte bottom end and the 2jz-ge bottom end is the pistons due to the compression difference that they need. A safc would be fine for a turbokit for the lexus and I will probably go with one because I am very confident in my tuning abilities as I have used one on my GST for years.

Alright, so bottom end is same besides pistons, which matters the most. And as for an afc, yeah it can be done...it's just harder and not as good. Also, what do you think you can do with 2 grand on a dsm and make it FAST? I want to know how you can make a highly modified car with that little of money. And then do that to a n/a car, too.... a decent turbo is near or over 1000. Exhuast systems get very pricey, too. This doesn't even include all the supporting mods, either. FMIC will run you like 600-700 atleast...

 

[JayRolla]

Alright, so bottom end is same besides pistons, which matters the most. And as for an afc, yeah it can be done...it's just harder and not as good. Also, what do you think you can do with 2 grand on a dsm and make it FAST? I want to know how you can make a highly modified car with that little of money. And then do that to a n/a car, too.... a decent turbo is near or over 1000. Exhuast systems get very pricey, too. This doesn't even include all the supporting mods, either. FMIC will run you like 600-700 atleast...

So what about the Greddy Emanage. It has lots of good features and still is a piggy back. I bet it would work fine in a lexas. Also I forgot to say that yes the exhuast mani bolts to the head, not the block.

 

[droppinbottom]

Anyone dogging a IS300's abilities should go check out http://www.visionboy.com/

I would love to have a IS300 but a house right now is more important than a car payment.

 

[zachakagoat]

don't start in on the whole 700$ for a FMIC. Turbo XS has our kits for 230$ and that kit is PROVEN to be better than alot of the competition in the 700$ price range. Also Turbo XS is the makers of the turbokits for the is300 and one of the leading contributors to those cars.

 

[JayRolla]

don't start in on the whole 700$ for a FMIC. Turbo XS has our kits for 230$ and that kit is PROVEN to be better than alot of the competition in the 700$ price range.

What?? Turbo XS has a 2g FMIC kit for $230 . I did not know that. Are you sure your not thinking of the XS Power FMIC that dropped to $200 shipped.

 

[RWKustoms]

Nah, he definitely meant XS Power.

IS300's are nice cars, my girl drives an 03 that she had from it was brand new. That thing still drives likes it's new even 40,000+ miles later. I drove the 5 speed version and it drives pretty smooth but the power could be a lot better ('03).

 

[zachakagoat]

Yea sorry a typo meant XS Power but still that kit is unbelieveable. Thing is the IS300 has alot more possiblities than any DSM powerwise and luxury wise.