BenES300

Thank you so much for your reply. This post of yours was what I was looking for. Thank you for your time and effort. I took parts of what you said, numbered them and am putting my specific questions/comments underneath each section.

1) I prefer a two tone wheel, though. You get the visual impact of the black while actually being able to see the details of the wheel.

Is that footer pic, your lexus? In case am I seeing it correctly when I say that your wheels look more machined grey/dark silver than black? Is that what you were talking about when you said two tone?
I do like that look. It works great on your lexus because you have a grey lexus. However with me having a Gold lexus (and not being into Chrome myself) I figured that it would need a strong contrast from the Gold. Matte black would be a bit of a contrast from jet black tires right?

2) up to a certain point. 225/45R18 inch wheels still give a substantial enough contact patch to absorb road imperfections. With Michelin Primacy MXM tires, the ride is very smooth with very little vibration.

I am new to this, but with 225 being the width of the tire tread, wouldn't that number depend on whether I have an 18x8 or an 18x8.5? The wider the wheel the wider the tire would need to be right? I would assume that you cannot put a 215 on a 20x10 because 10 inches would be too wide for 215's. So were you just referring to 8" wide wheels?

3)LED taillights... love my Eagle Eyes LED tails. The stock taillights are the ugliest part of the stock 02-04 4ES by far!

Where have these been all my life? Love them. These are the stock tail lights you are referring to right? http://tinyurl.com/c7ypas4

How work intensive was it to change them? Or would I have to go to a mechanic to get it done?
Also how much did it cost you to do it? Ball park figure.

4)You could debadge the front. Photoshop it!

Does debadge mean remove the Lexus logo? Wouldn't that make it lose some of the cool factor.

5) There's a nice billet grille available in chrome and black on ebay for around 200 bucks.

You feel that the front doesn't look cool? Is that because the grill is silver while the lower portion is black? I just got an idea of putting a black grill on it. Would kinda enhance the Gold and black look that I seem to be going with.

6) Chrome trim for the lower fascia. I have some ready to try when it gets warmer.

Okay I'm a med student. Fascia means something entirely different to me.
Please edjamcate me. What is the Fascia? And do you have pic of what a chrome trim for the lower fascia would look like?

7) There are chrome B pillars, if they are to your taste.
They look nice, but once again would Chrome go with Gold and the black wheels?

8) Welcome to the forum!

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You guys are really helpful and the sense of community is awesome.

PuReChaos

Well, never black, but white or silver yes. However, I am graduating from college and don't have 3-4k laying around.

At the moment, the only picture I have of my car's tints is the picture I have on my profile. Its not the best picture especially since it was at night.

As for HIDs, I've got a before and after only for the fog lights.
Before


After


And honestly, these pictures don't do them justice either. Mainly because I don't know how to use a DSLR and I was using my GFs camera. Anyways, hope these help somewhat.

BenES300

Holy monkeys that is bright as heck. Nice. Can I just do a plain switcharoo? Change the bulb to a xenon bulb? Will that do the same thing? Or do I have to go in there and literally change wiring and the set up etc?

Thank you.

PuReChaos

You have to purchase an HID kit because they require more energy than regular lights. The kit I bought was fairly "plug and play" style. I purchased a H3 Volt HID Digital kit from KBcarstuff because they have a deal for Club Lexus users for 25$ off HID kits using the code CL. So the total only ran about 89$. You need very small modifications and I would be happy to go into detail about if you would like.

I guess some useful information for you would be that, I don't have a lot of experience with cars. My knowledge doesn't go much further than changing oil, filters, and basic wiring. Yet, I was still able to install the HID kit for the fog lights. One thing for sure is you'll need to get under the car (or at least that makes it like 10x easier for you).

As for the headlights, I am unsure whether your car came with HIDs or not, but upon purchasing the car, the previous owner opted for them. So they were professionally installed by Lexus (I think for about 400$).

Chocolate

1) I prefer a two tone wheel, though. You get the visual impact of the black while actually being able to see the details of the wheel.

Is that footer pic, your lexus? In case am I seeing it correctly when I say that your wheels look more machined grey/dark silver than black? Is that what you were talking about when you said two tone?

They are machined aluminum and gloss black.

I do like that look. It works great on your lexus because you have a grey lexus. However with me having a Gold lexus (and not being into Chrome myself) I figured that it would need a strong contrast from the Gold. Matte black would be a bit of a contrast from jet black tires right?

Yes. I think that could look good. I recommend trying the Upgrade Garage at TireRack and the similar system on DiscountTireDirect, and posting some screenshots here of what some aftermarket wheels look like on your car.

2) up to a certain point. 225/45R18 inch wheels still give a substantial enough contact patch to absorb road imperfections. With Michelin Primacy MXM tires, the ride is very smooth with very little vibration.

I am new to this, but with 225 being the width of the tire tread, wouldn't that number depend on whether I have an 18x8 or an 18x8.5? The wider the wheel the wider the tire would need to be right? I would assume that you cannot put a 215 on a 20x10 because 10 inches would be too wide for 215's. So were you just referring to 8" wide wheels?

With 18" wheels, there are several widths. A given tire can fit generally fit several of these widths. TireRack will tell you the recommended fitment for the wheel you choose.

3)LED taillights... love my Eagle Eyes LED tails. The stock taillights are the ugliest part of the stock 02-04 4ES by far!

Where have these been all my life? Love them. These are the stock tail lights you are referring to right? http://tinyurl.com/c7ypas4

How work intensive was it to change them? Or would I have to go to a mechanic to get it done?
Also how much did it cost you to do it? Ball park figure.

Very easy. All you need to do is pull back the trunk liner, remove the screws holding the lights in, remove the connector, plug the new ones in, and you're good. I paid 189 plus a few bucks for some new turn signal bulbs, so around 200. The price has gone slightly up now, they list for around 220 now on eBay but a few sellers are also including some LED addons like fog lights or LED strips.

Here's a pic of the rear:

https://i.imgur.com/6PBeTVa.jpg

The cell phone picture doesn't get the true appearance and detail. They look more like this:



4)You could debadge the front. Photoshop it!

Does debadge mean remove the Lexus logo? Wouldn't that make it lose some of the cool factor.

Yes. I left all the logos on the back. It's up to you. It looks different than the other cars on the road and is completely reversible.

5) There's a nice billet grille available in chrome and black on ebay for around 200 bucks.

You feel that the front doesn't look cool? Is that because the grill is silver while the lower portion is black? I just got an idea of putting a black grill on it. Would kinda enhance the Gold and black look that I seem to be going with.

I actually do like the front, which is why I haven't bought it. It does look good on LexLutha's car, and the black billet grille might look good on your car.

6) Chrome trim for the lower fascia. I have some ready to try when it gets warmer.

Okay I'm a med student. Fascia means something entirely different to me.
Please edjamcate me. What is the Fascia? And do you have pic of what a chrome trim for the lower fascia would look like?

I meant the lower grille haha. Another user on here has done it: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...-lexlutha.html

7) There are chrome B pillars, if they are to your taste.
They look nice, but once again would Chrome go with Gold and the black wheels?

Good question. I'm thinking the pillars would probably look better stock with that color combo. The good thing is they are inexpensive, only around 40-45 dollars or so.

PuReChaos

Where did you purchase your tail lights? I'm considering buying these and the only ones I'm able to find are the blacked out ones. Thanks for your help

Update: Actually I found some, but they're for the 05-06 es300. These will work for the 2003 as they're both the 4ES, correct?

Chocolate

Yes, they will work with the 02-06 ES.

PuReChaos

Sweet, thanks for the confirmation!

I know what I'll be getting next paycheck

Chocolate

The lights look great. I would love to hear it.

PuReChaos

Thanks!

I'd be happy to write up the installation. I will do it this weekend when I'm free to take some pictures as they could probably describe it better than I could. As they say, a pictures worth a thousand words.

BenES300

BenES300

So it'll cost me $200 or so including the bulbs. Do the bulbs go out often? or do they last a long time? Can you get other colors apart from Red?

Also will this replace the whole taillight/turn signal, brake light unit? Or will it be replacing only one part of that? Say for example the turn signals.

It looks like the OEM part has 2 lights that light up as taillights
1 of them gets brighter for braking
1 is a turn signal (The silver in the middle)

I'm just not sure if this will replace the whole unit or a part of it.

Thank you.

Chocolate

Correct. The only bulbs you would need to replace are the turn signal bulbs, if you don't want to reuse the ones you already have. Reverse lights are already wired in. I put new turn signals while I was changing the lights. They have a blacked out version also but I think that works better on darker colored cars.

It replaces four pieces, two on each side. There's a connector that you unplug from the stock lights and plug into the new ones.