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I have purchased a black 07 Lexus IS250 COMPLETELY blacked out... tails, emblems, rims, windows, interior, etc. I bought it wrecked (dad owns body shop) and I have to buy most the front cap to repair it. I see alot of guys going with "09 grill" or "2011 headlights", etc... My question is this... Since Im having to buy the bumper, headlights, grill, etc, can I get a few ideas on if i should go with this or that to make the car look better/newer? Does the stuff fit right in? Any ideas and opinions would be GREAT!!! Pictures would be a huge plus!
I look forward to hanging around the forum and am glad to be a member. I recently sold my 601rwhp supercharged Mustang and decided to get the bride to be a "nicer" car. She is in love with the interior, nav, rev camera, etc. Really like the car. I will NOT be doing the boost thing again or anything to do with "faster" or any of that. lol
Read up on a place called Sewell parts (may not be necessary because pops owns a shop) but input your CL sn to recieve a bit of a discount, they have the 2012 headlight on sale right now...
The 06-08' have a different grille and chrome surround. The 09' and have the newer look and nicer. 11' and up have a completely restyled front bumper. Some people like it, that's up to you. The 12' headlights have the led (Nike swoosh) on the headlights. Many people like that including myself. I'd also add a front lip if you trust her and since you're already gonna paint. There are many options for a lip. Good luck and welcome to CL.
I'm not sure how easy the 2011+ bumper will be to install. I seem to remember there being a thread with the conversion but can't find it right now (sorry I'm on my crapberry)
2011 headlights have a flat black housing, the led strips are more yellowish
2012 headlights have a glossy black housing, led strips are pure white, the lense also have what they call "eyelashes" that were supposed to help with the bubbling defect on the housing by the projector, but some members still have it.
2011+2012 front bumpers do fit on the older models, from what I read its just a slight modification around the intake ducts.
As for the grill surround the differences is the 09+ grill has pointed edges towards the bottom.
Ok... Ive been doing ALOT of research on the newer headlights being installed and it doesnt look very difficult at all. I still need to find out if I have AFS or not. Few questions...
1) If I do not have AFS then I wont have to worry about an annoying blinking light, correct?
2) '12 bumper and grill will fit our older cars? (if so, I may just go with lights/grill/bumper from a 2012)
Thanks again guys for all your help... I will be ordering the parts this week so just wanna see what options there are and what seems to be the favorites.
New lights don't have AFS. It's a sacrifice that must be made to look sweet
U can either pull the AFS fuse or black tape over the light on your gauge cluster. I pulled the fuse. Btw I think u just missed the sewell special on the headlights.
The 06-08' have a different grille and chrome surround. The 09' and have the newer look and nicer. 11' and up have a completely restyled front bumper. Some people like it, that's up to you. The 12' headlights have the led (Nike swoosh) on the headlights. Many people like that including myself. I'd also add a front lip if you trust her and since you're already gonna paint. There are many options for a lip. Good luck and welcome to CL.
The 09 bumper/grill would bolt straight up in place of the 07 goods?
Seems like all is involved is modifying the bracket, swapping the blinker relay, and some slight wire moving around. Is that correct? I see you have done the swap so am i missing anything?
09+
IMO its not a change that's significant enough for anyone to really notice so it was never worth changing to me. You can just change the grill itself instead of the grill surround and get a better look. And the 09+ grill surround and grill will bolt right up to a 06-08 bumper.
Seems like all is involved is modifying the bracket, swapping the blinker relay, and some slight wire moving around. Is that correct? I see you have done the swap so am i missing anything?
You'll need to run a wire to the IGN if you want the leds to stay at 100% brightness at all times and if you want it to turn on automatically when your car is running other wise you have to turn it on and off manually and it dims to 50% brightness at night. Sewell also sells the loaded set that's direct plug and play I don't think u have to cut the brackets with those.