Hello everyone I’m new to the Lexus family. I just bought my first vehicle on my own. I’m only 21 so it is a accomplishment for me eventho some people will be like who cares(lmfao) right? Just playing. Anyways I’m here to see what simple mods I can make for now I know I eventually want to go with exhaust and lower it on coilovers, but like what is a good cold air intake? What else do you recommend? Like a decent pair of rims cause the rims on here are well Effed Up! Just peeling like crazy. But to start what is a good intake I can buy or whatever people recommend will work. I been looking and seen diff things like use this or make your own like this. But I find it easier to get others information and go from that just how my brain works. Thanks and hope everyone is doing well.

 

I'll comment because I feel bad this has gone almost a week without anything...

First, the basic maintenance isn't that bad on this platform, with most everything you need to do to keep it running ad infinitum (sans tires + alignment) being fairly easily accomplished by the end user. The big inconveniences I'd think confronting a new owner would be decarbonizing the intake and changing the oil filter. The oil filter's not bad when you finally break down and buy YET ANOTHER specialty oil filter wrench (I have 2 entire drawers of them now, FFS. insert Billy Mays meme here), and the replacement filter kits come with fresh o-rings, whether yours need replacing or not...the fact that it's 6qts is a little inconvenient bc most bulk bottles you find are gonna be 5qt. Decarbonizing is the thing that I don't think most people understand fully on here, so I'll give you a short breakdown of what/why.

the 4GR-FSE engine is a first-generation direct-injected gasoline engine, which means it was designed before we (the royal we) knew just how important spraying fuel on the backs of the valves was--as we'd done in port injection, leading up to the advancements necessary for direct injection--at keeping the valves and ports clean from oil vapors and combustion gasses that get recirculated into the intake system for emissions purposes. So the 4GR-FSE you have recirculates the contents of it's crankcase into the intake, and has no means of cleaning it off...which is where you must come in. I recommend what I think is the easiest regular regimen of feeding a warm running engine a bottle of Sea Foam through the brake booster hose, letting it cool, and then taking it for a smoky joyride when nobody'll call the fire department on you, flooring it as much as possible...you'll be blowing lots of white smoke out your tailpipes, that's the carbon gunk burning off. You'll need to change your oil and filter soon after the decarb process, as it gets that gunk on the cylinder walls, which gets washed off by the oil squirters/piston rings, to be re-circulated by your oil pump. I say use the brake booster line because it allows you to hold the bottle upright with the line capped by your thumb, and you can easily regulate the amount you feed into the engine with such. If you let the brake line suck in too much free air, it'll kick a code for vacuum leak (reset that by pulling batt cables, hold starter to drain capacitors, reconnect batt cables), so try not to leave it open for more than a few seconds. A member on here recently found out why you want to feed the decarb solution into the intake plenum itself and not in the tube between the throttle body and the MAF sensor--the Sea Foam goes into your air box and on the ground instead of into the engine where it can soak into the carbon. I used to decarb every other oil change, but that's proven to be a little excessive (I pull my intakes off and borescope them regularly), so I'm doing every 3rd now.

If you want more noise, you're generally going to find 3 different types of exhaust...straight-through is the most common, it's just a muffler body with a perforated tube wrapped in fiberglass going through it, and they all generally sound the same from my $140 GodSnow catback to the F-Sport exhaust everyone loves spending money on; it's as close to straight pipe without straight pipes as you get. Second you'll find baffled-style mufflers like what come with the car from the factory, you can usually tell they're baffled by the presence of weld lines on the sides of the muffler body, and they're generally going to be the quietest systems you can get. Third you'll find those convoluted multi-chamber systems that're a series of the perforated-tube style bodies connected at various points to behave in certain ways, usually being relatively quiet at idle and practically open pipe at WOT. Beyond personal preference of how they sound, I gotta say the ebay special exhaust I have is probably 1/3 the weight of the OE kit.

For intake noise, you can give a vendor a bunch of your money, or you can get a 90-95% discount by buying a 30-degree bent section of 3" aluminum tube and cut it to fit like I did.


I also modded my stock airbox for more noise. There aren't many effective cold air intakes that I'm aware of, I'm one of the tinkerers that chased intake air temps a while back...we need to replace the over-radiator snorkel to take in less heat.

For wheels, I'm not your guy...I judge them by weight per dollar so I can eat a curb and replace them without pain.

Tires: you're AWD, so you have to stay same size all-round, but you definitely shouldn't cheap out here unless you're intentionally burning rubber. I haven't ridden in an AWD, but I push the ExtremeContact DWS and Pilot Sport 4 S series on to RWD folks, I can't imagine it'd be bad advice here.

Not sure how compatible all the swaybars and braces are between RWD and AWD, but someone else on here is, I bet...

Anyway, hope that helps.

 

thank you and yes helped out a lot will show my older brother who is more knowledgeable than I am in cars and do everything you recommend. Thank you so much!

 

Pro tip - keep your old filter housing o-ring... or a spare. Just in case. Ask me how I know :P

IMO - get the car in shape, understand what the mods that you're doing actually do before you go for them. Good suspension costs $$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Lower != better, etc. You have F-Sport options, for starters. That + refreshed bushings (the front LCA ones are notorious) + well... Plenty of very good 2IS build threads around here. Don't go wild, cause it's an endless pit.

EDIT: Judging by your nick, it's an AWD, a lot of things are different (same on the 3GS RWD vs AWD), research with caution.

 

AWD here:

As for intake's the stock is sufficient. Unless you want more noise up front. I experimented with the Joe Z, HPS intakes. You loose a lot of low end grunt. I think it's better to stay stock unless tuned.

As for mods if had to do it all over again to make the AWD worth while.

ISF steering ecu 40,41,42 any will do the job.
F sport Swaybars
F sport Rear Chassis Brace
FIGS 90 duro lowcer control arms press fit by yourself, or pre built.
Rear section exhaust only of your choice.
F sport lower air box, or mod OEM like mentioned by Ultra4.
Light weight wheels. My Enkei PF01's 17x8 stock offset paired with 245/40/17 tires.

The stock wheels alone are 26 lbs ea.
Enkei's are 16 lbs ea.

Last drop the car 1.00 inch on coilovers. It will look nice, and no need to slam. Below 25.00" you will tear cv boots, and get vibrations.

Optional:
IS350 big brake kit upgrade
FRS/BRZ differential mine has been in the garage for two years. My current upcoming mod. Once I clean it up, and repaint it not using a spray can.