Second Time Around

[smcgroarty]

Well this isnt my first post here but I usually just lurk.
In March I bought my second IS300. This one is a Indigo Ink Pearl, the first one was a Graphite Gray Pearl Sport Design, and I am liking the blue a lot more than I thought I would.
Let me start by saying that this car is not the fastest car out there or the easiest car to find parts for, knowning this I still went with it.
My last IS300 was completely stock and I think I only did the DRL disconnect mod.
This one is going to be a bit different, I want a bit more power out of it and some slight looks. I am not going over the top with this car, it is a daily car not my show car, so i want it to just stand out in the parking lot. While looking for it I test drove one that had an intake and exhaust and I liked the power it had.
So on to the stuff so far.
First Try on lights, just removed the orange covers from the lights,

So I ordered the Lextasy kit

I am looking to order some LEDs/Lights to make the A/C controls match, and possibly make the 194s in the gauges a bit brighter
Next I liked the full power DRLs
Before:

After

And finally the car as it sits last month

The front with Nokya Artic White stage 2, I like the blue reflection


Future plans include:
A/C controls LEDs
SRT Intake
Rims, all four are slightly bent
Cross drilled rotors and pads
Exhaust
Fix window tint

I am currently looking at different wheels and exhaust, I like the look of the RMM exhaust but I am debating the Tanabe Touring and I cant find anyone who has an RMM exhaust to hear it. Yes it is an axel back vs a cat back

[smcgroarty]

Well its been a day, and since no one said yes or no, so now its a build thread, and no its not going to be anything over the top or specail so no need to follow it.

Here we go with some more lights, I followed nyczzzjohn's thread How-to: Change Climate Control/Center Console to LEDs *pics* for changing the controls. I also ordered the lights from autolumination.com and the
super bright LEDs are really that bright


I like the "eyes" at night but not in the daytime.


Also, I was able to pick up some wheels from a local shop at a really good price. Toyota lists it as part number PTR28-52040


But the TRD ones are 4 lug, these are 5


And I was able to get 5 of them.


They are RH Evolution GT5 wheels
Only the front one there is messed up, it has been labled as the "spare" rim

Now I need to get tires and then I can mount the wheels.

[madchyers]

these rims are cool. looks almost stock, its a nice look.

[smcgroarty]

Originally Posted by madchyers

these rims are cool. looks almost stock, its a nice look.

Thanks, thats one of the reason I like them is because they are really close to stock.

[smcgroarty]

Today was pretty productive, I made my ground wire kit, it wasnt too bad, just took about 4 hours, and it is a combination of 4 gauge and 8 gauge wires, most of them I had in my garage.
8 gage to the throttle body and the engine ground, and 4 gage from the body to the junction points and the battery.
One thing I was reading was that all the ground wires would improve shifting, I didnt notice any improvement there, but what I did notice was was an improvement in throttle response, its touchy now.

Also today I did the fog light on demand mod. That was pretty simple enough, and I think I am now out of mods that I can do without buying anything.

Also no pictures for this update, but maybe with the next thing I get, my camera was dead.
--Stephen

[smcgroarty]

About three weeks ago, I clipped a pole



I had to adjust the wheel well so that it wouldn't run, but it did tell me my suspension is shot also




Just before hitting the pole I did an intake, cheep little ghetto $50 at autozone kit. With two small breather filters



Running it for about 4 weeks like that without a check engine light or a heat shield. Also, without the engine cover on you can get a pretty good view of my engine grounding wires kit.


I am not sure if i want to keep the engine cover on or off so it might be both for a bit.

Also one more image for kicks, was out on a mountain road

[VLXIS300]

looking good so far, good adventure!

[Djheat1200]

gauges look dope! keep up the good work!

[smcgroarty]

Well 2 months and i havent done anything other than changes some lights to white


The white is soo much easier to read.

[itsdr3w]

Keep up the good work, nice rims btw. you should change the whole center console to one color, IMO it looks better.

[smcgroarty]

Originally Posted by itsdr3w

Keep up the good work, nice rims btw. you should change the whole center console to one color, IMO it looks better.

Damn this is raising the dead.


I think so also, I just didn't have the tiny LEDs for changing them in the stereo, so I changed the stereo to one with blue LED buttons.


Also, how do i edit the title to show an update?

[smcgroarty]

Well this is a big update and it was done this year.
First, I finally got tires on the rims with no rubbing.

Tires: Falken ZE-912
Size: 225/40/18


The stock radio was having some issues with my MP3 player, I tried adding the AUX in, but then found that was not what I wanted. The adding the switch to for the AUX input basicly only highjacks the stock speaker inputs and means you can take the radio out completely and still have music. Since I didn't fancy having a big hole in the dash where the radio should be, I went and got a new stereo. With blue buttons.


Don't get too happy yet, it is not a high end head unit, it's a Fry's special, but it has DVD, AUX input, AM/FM, USB and SD card inputs. Also something else that looks like crap is the dash kit. The trim plates from the head unit and from the dash kit didn't fit around the deck, so that looks ugly. (ignore the hole please I don't want to talk about it)

Head Unit: DB Video DBD805
Dash Kit: Metra 99-8151
Wiring Harness: Metra 70-8112 (RCA Speaker plugs removed)

one more of the stereo playing MP3s on an SD card


Moving on...
In doing the stereo, I thought it would be a good idea to utilize all the work people have put into this forum and change the speakers.
Both Polk Audio
Front: Polk DB6501 Componant
Rear: Polk DB691
The rear speakers installed removed the back seats to get to them. I also made a bracket to fit the rear speakers and butchered the stock speaker for the fronts

The front speakers installed


Installing the front speakers was actually more difficult, had to figure out a mount for the 1" tweeter and had to find a mounting location for the crossover. I ended up removing the foam from the door panel and using velcro to mount the big crossover, but it does sound nice.

Also, I was really wanting yellow lights for the daytime running lights, just because of how they make the housing look when the car is off, I need to take a picture of that.
So I put yellow 9005 lights in finally.


Also I had changed the spark plugs back around Halloween. I went with the NGK Iridium IX and they did a lot for efficeny and responce, but that could have been just gapping them all the same.
The plugs that were in the car were gapped between .030 and .048 after gapping them all to .045 the car idled better and ran smoother. It was just a pain to remove the throttle body to get to them

Damn that was a long update and I am open for questions.

[jasonm4444]

Nice thread thus far! I think a lil drop will give you an even better stance as well as handling. I like those nokya blue bulbs...I have em too. Do want me to move your thread to the member builds forum?

[smcgroarty]

Originally Posted by jasonm4444

Nice thread thus far! I think a lil drop will give you an even better stance as well as handling. I like those nokya blue bulbs...I have em too. Do want me to move your thread to the member builds forum?

Yes I like the color that the Nokya bulbs show, and I put them as my night lights in my truck.

And since it has turned into a full build thread, if you could move it to the members builds please
Thank you

[SammyGreen]

I love the dash lights, I cant wait to get rid of my stock radio and switch all mine to white as well... IMO looks way better then stupid orange. Again looks good bud!