Hey everyone,

I've been a member of the site for a few months, however, I have just been reading not posting. I got my IS about two and half months ago, and I love it.

Unfortunately, I did not have it for about 5 and a half weeks (Story: As I was getting off I-95 in Miami, I was the victim of a 3 way car accident. Someone totaled their A4 into a minivan, and in turn, the minivan hit my car... It suffered minimal damage to the bumper and it needed a new suspension).

Now that I have it back (looks better than before!) I want to improve it a little more.

I added tints (28%-- legal limit in FL) a few weeks ago, but I still want to do more...

Do blacked out tail lights look good (my car is black on black)? Does anyone have pictures?

How can I make my car faster?

What is cold air intake?

Does exhaust only make the car sound louder?

I have the basic 6-disc CD changer... Is there anything I can do to improve the sound system? What the SLVi System... Will it let me integrate my iPod/iPhone?

Any other suggestions or mods I can do?

Obviously rims, but I'm not willing to spend $1500...

Thanks so much,
gibbs0828

 

You really should have gotten a IS350 if you wanted a faster car... the only mod that will make significant difference besides a supercharger would be getting headers (in the thousands). Cold air intake modifications (joez or fsport) will only increase rwhp only 1-5, 5 being on a perfect day, intakes are more about the sound (cold air intake is an intake which uses the air from outside the car so it is denser, while short ram intake uses the air from inside the engine bay, which is warmer, so it actually will decrease hp slightly, but you will get a much deeper sound). Getting a full exhaust system ($1500-$2000) will increase up to 12 rwhp max. Getting an axle-back exhaust like tanabe ($680) will increase rwhp at max 5.

 

uhm. I never read anywhere that he has an IS 250...

 

Gibbs's profile states IS250.

 

You might want to consider a full coil over set up and some front and rear sway bars to help with the handling and prevention of "some" body roll.

Mods obviously would depend on how much you're willing to spend.

if you do a search, I think you'll find plenty of posts of cars with black out tail lights.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

LOL you should of gone to the meet we had this past weekend & all your questions would of been answered.. where in Fl are you located?

 

I have black on black as well..IMO, i think you should leave your taillight red and just put red vinyl over the amber portion to make it all red. Clean look. Here is my opinon on making a black on black car look good

Appearance:
HID headlight
GFX kits or better
Coilover (cover that gap)
Paint your front grill to match your car

Performance
-blank-


I can't help you with performance because I dont know your budget....=P I mean you can make ANY car faster....if you have the money to burn.

But if you want just a small boost to help da car a lil bit..maybe joe z intake/ tanabe exhaust...although i dont feel any increase in performance...but i like the sound of it =P

IMO I think u should start with da look of it...RIMS/ COILOVERS/ ETC.....i once said NO RIMS..but ....i change my mind. HAHA.

 

By far the cheapest way to add a lot of power to an IS250 is to trade it in for an IS350. Seriously.

Mazzuri headers are your next best bet, but they're not street legal (depending on if you care)... still, installed, they'll give you roughly 1/4 the gain of the 250->350 cost for about 1/4 the price... The Joe Z at ~$110 for 5 hp is decent bang for the buck (and great compared to the other intakes) but not much overall gain... everything else is vastly worse in the bang/buck ratio and not worth doing from a pure performance perspective.

 

I agree. it's the only way to get a serious power increase and still have Lexus/Toyota reliability.

 

Sometimes going to a IS meet can be dangerous....Mod overload..can cause mental and financial trama..its been known to happen J/K

 

ROFL... yes it does especially when we get stockers coming to our meets for the first time pulling into our line ups just once is all it takes

 

Thanks guys for the awesome feedback... I probably should have specified that I have the IS250, not the 350.

After reading your suggestions, I have a few more questions (sorry, I'm a noob)

Darkdream:
Unfortunately, I don't have the funds to add a supercharger, headers, or a full exhaust system. The Cold air intake mods that you were referring to: if they increase the sound, then what's the difference between one of those and an exhaust (axle-back)? Are they expensive? Are joez and fsport two different companies that make this piece?

Initial G:
Another person below you mentioned a full coil over set... What exactly is this? Also, what are front and rear sway bars?

I searched blacked out trail lights on both google and CL and found minimal results... Do you know a better way to refine the search? Do you personally have blacked out lights?

RobsIS250:
I live in Miami-Dade county.

Truoutkast:
The tail light idea you have sounded interesting. Do you have a pciture of a red taillight with red vinyl over the amber portion?

I see ads for these all the time in group buys: What is the point/what are HID headlights.

What's a GFX kit?

And a coil over (just asked that to Initial G)? Have you painted the front of your grill?

In terms of performance, it seems that I'm stuck in terms of making it faster (without spending a ton of $$)

Where do you think I can find nice rims for a good price though?

Kurtz:
Can you put that into lamans terms please?

Thanks so much for all of the great response... As per my questions, you can tell that I'm very new to this. If you can answer my questions, that'd be awesome.

Thanks,
gibbs0828

 

Gibbs just jump around the threads and do some research.. its really easy to find what you need to know.. From classifields to performance to mod pics etc.. Just take your time and start asking questions, i bet each CL members will be more than happy to help you out.. Good Luck and have fun bro!!!

 

to answer your question regarding performance for the is250, as far as making more power w/ bolt-ons it's pretty much intake/exhaust. anything beyond that is one-off custom work - and that's assuming you're able to either 1) work around or 2) work with the factory ECU. and as of now, no one has been able to crack the 2is ECU code... at least not publicly. (who knows?)

as for everything else, either the 2is FAQ and/or the search function should answer a lot more of your questions.

btw, a belated welcome to the 2is owner's club.