Pagnobito

Quite different! The Lexus was a really nice comfortable drive (apart from the gearbox being plain wrong) had loads of toys and a really brilliant multi channel stereo. It also had some stuff on it you didn't really need like an electric rear blind. It didn't really live up to the economical drive promised only realising around 30mpg. I don't think a Lexus should have a diesel really, ok it was fine on the move for the most part refined but the clatter at tickover wasn't up to BMW or Mercedes standards of noise. I see others on the road and I do miss it slightly with mixed feelings. The 350Z is far more of a driver focused car, the engine and exhaust sound absolutely glorious (but still not quite as good as the V8 Porsche I also own) The handling is very good and the traction control gives you a little bit of play so you can get a little sideways before it reins in the power, but it doesn't cut it all together. I suppose the colour is not to some taste, but I love it and I have had some nice comments from the ladies at the petrol station or other places I have stopped. One said "what a lovely colour, and a really nice car, what is it?" It is very quick, there is a 300bhp 3.5l V6 at the front driving the rear. There is the usual toys for a GT model, aircon, cruise, electric foldy mirrors, leather and shiny bits, bluetooth and Bose stereo with a 10" sub right behind the driver seat. Part electric seats (back rest and forward/backward) Optional reverse parking beepy thing fitted. I have to say though that the stereo is poor and lacks definition and warmth, it makes a noise and rattles your kidneys but doesn't really satisfy with quality so I am thinking of upgrading it. The other thing that attracted me to this car is that they are not that common. Downside is the flippin road tax £400 this year and will only get more expensive. I do enjoy getting in and going for a drive even though the Lexus was a lovely luxury car it just wasn't that exciting. Here are some more piccies; Funky interior Fat tail pipes Gold Brembos

Hello You may recall I had this Lexus; The aftermarket wheels got bent too many times on pot holes, so I after the third time (and straightening) I sold them on ebay and then I saw another car when I was looking for a replacement car for the wife, fancied it, bought it and traded the Lexus for this;

It hasn't been very clever outside to be able to find out about the handling really but it does feel a little stiffer. Maybe I should check my tyre pressures on something other than the petrol station gauge! I expect roll off to be better as the tyres have gone from 16" to 17" with lower profiles, and are also a little wider, on the rear going from 8J 245 tyre to 9J 255. I think the fronts have gone from 7 to 7.5J but still uses a 225 tyre. It still lights up the rears very easily, but then that is no surprise, the V8 has a fair amount of torque all the way through the range! The auto box by default starts in 2nd gear, however on mine it has been adjusted to always pull away in 1st so off the lights it is pretty quick and as it bangs into second I get a wiggle as the LSD locks up struggling with the power and then I am doing 60 already. One of the first things I did after getting the car was update the suspension, get the brakes checked and get the geometery checked/adjusted so I have never had any issues there. I do think that having new tyres on the front and older ones on the rear on my old wheels affected the handling on the track days, although not by much as only the tweaked or lightened or supercharged 928s overtook me. I wasn't out to race though, just enjoying the car and finding the limit, which I didn't really as the cars limit was higher than mine, except in a couple of cases where I wasn't able to power out of the slide. Hammering it round the track does show up any weakspots, and a tank slapper during the last visit to Castle Combe killed my fuel pump for some reason. The great thing though is it didn't spoil my day as I was able to get some passenger rides in other cars. It is organised as a 928 day, but we tend to get some other cars there too. I had a ride in a GT3 RS which was amazing, a real track day tool with astonishing grip. It made my car feel like an old bus in comparison, but then mine was not designed for the same job, rather a fast GT car for banging down the autobahn in comfort at 150mph all day.

I need to take some new pictures of the old girl, but I have some here; Arty shot Arty shot again (for the reflections) With new wheels, and also clear front and side indicator lenses (but you obviously can't see the front) She is Forest Green metallic. It took ages to source the wheels, I thought it important to get originals as it is near impossible to find the correct offset on replicas, the fronts being +65mm! These came from a fellow 928 owner that took 18 months to find them, and then bought a '79 so he will be fitting teledials to that, which mean't these came up for sale. He posted the offer at 10:15 and I emailed him at 10:24 as soon as I saw them for sale! They were originally fitted to the first GTS models, but also to the 968 club sport where these actually came from. I will get some more pictures at some point!

I have already done a couple of track days this year, and the car is fine, but you have to remember it is 18 years old and even ordinary cars let alone supercars need fettling to keep them in order. The sump gasket started leaking after the second track day, probably from heat, so I am changing the cork gasket for a silicon one, and I might put a GTS sump baffle in there at the same time. The original hydrolic mounts sag over time, so I just want to replace them and restore the smoothness, not that it is rough of course, but a big V8 can put some stress on other parts of the car if not dampened properly. The other bits are just cosmetic really, so I wouldn't really call it a project as in one that requires a huge amount of restoration! It is great fun as it is now, call it more of a hobby with a loved classic, but not one that I want to keep original, well updated with later model parts so true to Porsche. I have already updated other parts of the car through learning about the common points of failure, or cause loss of power. I think it is a great looking car, even amongst the modern cars today, and is one I plan to keep for some time.

I forgot to mention the tyre wear seems to be normal so I don't think the small drop made much or any difference to the set up. I don't think I will carry out any more modifications on the Lexus, I will be doing some more work on the 928, and actually I think lowering is the only thing that the Lexus needed anyway. I got some original Cup1 17" rims for the Porker so now I need to refurbish the calipers as they are on view, and get the new teardrop mirrors painted up and fitted, and while I have the doors apart I will upgrade the ICE. Before all that I shall replace the sump gasket and engine mounts!

I think it is actually 928S that is 11K, but this thread got me looking again and I found A928FLY which I quite like for the Porker. Its over 1K though so I am not sure if I think it is worth it!

To update you on my suspension... I dont think the car has settled anymore and I have now done maybe 10K since the drop and wheels. It still looks great, except having managed to scrape the outer polished rim on the rear offside, Doh! I hope I can get it polished out sometime. As for the ride, I still think it is worse than the original setup, it does not seem to cope so well with sudden bumps, but does settle quicker over undulations in the surface. It does suffer where the road surface is rough and I feel the difference, but thankfully the Lexus build quality means that I don't get any rattles. I guess that is the price of having the stiffer setup, and it isn't something that I can't live with coming from the Leon Cupra R which was very stiff on 18" rims. The absolute best surface is that porous tarmac they put down, it is so smooth, normally on the motorway all you can hear is the road noise, so when this goes it all gets earily quiet. Overall I am glad I did the modification, the compromise in ride was worth it.

I had M20VTR on my Leon Cupra R which has a 1.8 20 valve turbo engine it was split M 20VT R and really only appeals to the nerdy types like me that know what it means. I have been looking for something to go on the 928, but anything with that combination of those numbers or my initials with a prefix plate old enough (it is on a F reg) is too expensive TRU928S is something like 11K, which is more than the car is worth. I could put an Irish plate on it if I could find the right numbers, otherwise I think it actually de-values the car. I wanted P4GNO on my Lexus, but I mentioned that I liked this plate on the Seat forum when I still had the Leon and someone thought it was nice and bought it before me. There is a car downstairs with the plate FN07FER, it is on a Ferrari 460, well I think that is the model.

Actually they did mention it, and that it wouldn't be under warranty, well I was chancing a bit to see if they noticed, as it was it cost me half hour labour so not too bad considering I had not spotted what had happened to the sensor arm, but as soon as they told me, I thought Doh! They also insisted on replacing the front seatbelts which was a bit odd, some sort of recall, but they could not tell me the reason. I was concerned about the chassis balance, but after the wheel balance the car feels a lot better, so I will monitor the tyre wear for the time being I think. All I have noticed really is the car cuts power in sharp corners so the back inside must be lifting more than before causing the traction control to come on, and it will twitch sometimes, however I am not really surprised with the torque the engine puts out it is bound to happen. I don't really have to think too much about corners and power because of the electronics.

My headlights were wrong because of the link on the rear suspension. Basically there are two arms connected by ball joints to a sensor thingy and when the suspension was lowered the arm went the wrong side from the middle joint. It should be vertical from the suspension arm to a horizontal arm to the sensor and it had gone horizontal and vertical. Oh well, all sorted now.

The 250 auto is a no go, just too expensive to change, so that will wait for the time being. Having to check the motor into the Lexus dealer on Monday as the headlight adjuster potentiometer seems to be broken as adjusting the control arm makes no difference to the headlight level, in fact I can no longer drive the car at night because it is like having high beam on, other drivers no doubt cursed me, and then thought I was nuts for driving on forward fogs and sidelights! I am wondering if they will carry out the work under warranty when they notice the different wheels and springs, the former obvious, may not spot the springs, depending on how they look at it. I got the new wheels sorted out though, I had them re-balanced as they were all out, which is a bit poor, but the supplier paid for the balance costs. They are back on the car, and it is now smooth again. I get quite a few comments on the car and the wheels when I pull up at different places. I am getting quite excited as I am taking the Porsche to Castle Combe this week for some track day fun, along with some other 928 owners and some fairly exotic cars to fill the gaps from people that dropped out. I haven't had a chance to change the rear shocks yet, the front have been done so I am hoping it will not be too out of balance (the geom and ride height was done after the front shock and spring replacement).

I wanted to find out what was causing some vibration, so I put my old wheels on and the car is much smoother, especially at motorway speeds, no vibration at all now. I also found the adjusment for the headlight level, there is a little arm thingy on the N/S/R suspension arm with a nut on a slider so moved it a little, but not sure if made a difference, I need to do it at dusk so I can park the car with lights on and put some tape on the wall to mark the headlight height and then see if it makes a difference adjusting the arm. Tony, I will have to cancel my visit, unitl I get my wheel balance sorted out. I have emailed the supplier to see what they will do about it. The car looks pretty good lowered on the original wheels, far better than the oem setup. I am also making enquiries about trading the car for a petrol auto SE-L MM , but that may not happen if the figures are not acceptable, and I will have to loose my fuel card which might be the killer.

aaah ok, thanks! I have discovered a side affect of lowering, and particularly cars with the HID i-AFS headlight self levelling system, like mine.. There are two sensors fitted by links to the suspension front and rear, and this is what decides the headlight height, mine has been affected by lowering the car meaning that the lights are higher than they should be, and as I am sure you know HID lights are quite bright. I checked into this as I was getting flashed quite often by oncoming traffic or following the cars in front have flashed hazards. Tony do you have the kit to check headlight alignment? I think I will have to check myself to make sure I have not bent or damaged any of the linkeages to these sensors, I spoke to the Lexus service centre I get my servicing done at and they told me about the sensors (although I had made that guess) and that the lights can be adjusted. You would have thought that 30mm drop all round would result in the same headlight level if it is using the front and rear sensors to calibrate, but something must have gone wrong. Do we know if any of the other Lexus cars with these type of headlights have been affected, does Tango have them on his?

I think I have read most of the threads relating to Tango's car, it led to me getting the springs in the first place, and now the car seems to be sitting where it should be rather than the higher setting as standard. Drive? do you mean the actual surface or the cars on it? (you can just see the 928 at the back) :ph34r_anim:

Maybe you can see the camber (is it?) from these pictures, certainly the first one anyway. And one more just for fun. :king_right: Excuse the dirty dull wheels, it has been rather bad weather (if you didn't know). Still a fair bit of air above the rear wheel after lowering and 1.5K miles, I see other IS' on the road and when I look at them they seem as low as mine even though I am guessing they are not lowered! I think with this style of wheel 19" may have looked better, because of the lip the spokes don't go to the edge of the wheel therefore don't really look like 18"

oki doki, see you then.

12th at 10.00am is good for me.... Shall i book you in? Ok book me in, but bear in mind I will be travelling from almost exactly the opposite side of London, I may struggle for 10am as when I set out it will be the latter part of rush hour. Directions say 1hr 12min 72 miles, I think it will more like be 2hrs 12min!

I am quite disappointed after clicking on the thread to see some babes, only to find it is filled with pictures of engine bays. Not my engine bay, but same model, this one is a bit cleaner than mine, guesses on the model of car? (no prize for telling me it is a Porsche, I can tell you it is LHD)

didn't get the chance in the end to take some pictures, and I wont be able to get to TDI as I am nights over the weekend it is on. I presume you do precision wheel balancing as well as chassis geometry? I reckon on booking in for geom and balance sometime over the days of 10-12th July, so if you can give me a time on one of those days I can plan the drive up.

see here for my car; http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=1366 Busy couple of days, but I will try and get some images of the rear done on Sunday. She looks a "babe".... Any more images would be nice but at the end of the day i think a calibration is required.... The images are just to see if you can see from them how the rears are angled, or if it is just me! (If the camera lense does not distort the picture) I agree a calibration will be required, I don't pretend to understand the geometry and what adjustments the IS may or may not have, I will leave that to the professionals. Do you have any opinion on the tyre noise, can that be caused by bad adjustment? I don't think I notice any strange handling apart from maybe the rear inside lifting in sharp corners as the electronics cut the power in that situation. Something I wish was on the 928 as I accidentally slung it out sideways over a junction the otherday, lucky it was a wide road, although I caught it and carried on.

see here for my car; http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...?showtopic=1366 Busy couple of days, but I will try and get some images of the rear done on Sunday.

Tony, I will probably need to book in sometime in the next few weeks, having covered 1K or so miles since lowering etc. Tyre noise is an issue, now this may just be down to the Falken tyres FK452 model as they are on the budget list, maybe I should have gone for Bridgestones again, or is it making more noise because of geometry, is that a symptom or just crap tyres? I will post some pictures from the rear of the car, something that is noticeable is the attitude of the rear wheels, I can see that they are out vertically (they angle inwards bottom to top), is that something that can be addressed and corrected? When I changed the springs, there was no D washer just a bolt and circular washer on the lower arm just behind the brake disk, and that seemed to go back together as it was before. I also get some vibration now and again at motorway speeds, which I feel through the seat. wheel balance or geom, need to find out. How long does it take to do the geom/check balance, as I would have to drive some way and would like a while I wait pitstop. Thanks Mike

Looks stunning.... Absolutely stunning! Makes you wonder why Lexus have a ridiculous trim height in the first place?..... Shame about the split swivel joint boot.... Did you use the "how-to" pictorial here in wim? Yes, I did see the tutorial, just an accident pinched the boot, only noticed once I was putting it back together and saw the seeping of the fluid. I know some mistakes can be expensive, this one is very painful too, painful on the wallet. I suppose the OEM height is set as such for comfort, I have noticed that as well as feeling the bumps more through the stiffer setup, you can hear them more too, but that could also be down to the slightly lower profile do you think? I have driven a sport for a while and it sort of reminds me of those characteristics. It was, but even more so now a car that when you walk away from it, you have to look back and take one more glance.