TRD Performance Dampers!

Ok - so it's been a couple of months since I last updated this blog, and although I have spent most of that time focussing on my GT-R - mainly due to it now being a "Speedhunters Project Car" - I HAVE been working on the Lexus as well. For example, these "dampers."

As I had had these installed on my GT-R, I know that they work, despite the loads of skepticism I've seen often on the forums - mostly if not all by people who haven't had these installed on their cars.

http://www.trdparts.jp/english/lexus/isf_ccsp.html

Made by Yamaha, when I fitted the Nismo versions on my GT-R, I immediately noticed a difference -the entire car seemed to ride smoother and handling felt a bit sharper.   But basically, all those micro vibrations (which I hadn't noticed before) were now absorbed by the dampers, making the entire ride seem smoother.

So while I knew that these work, I wasn't quite sure how they would on the Lexus, as it already has a relatively smooth ride.  In fact, the reason I ended up installing these, instead of the retrofit of the 2013 ISF shock absorbers (made by Sachs, vs the Tokicos the earlier cars have), was due to the advice by Ishikawa-san at the local Lexus dealer - the TRD parts have a 1 year warranty while installing the Sachs would invalidate the warranty my car currently has (at least with respect to the shock absorbers).  Whatever!

On the dedicated TRD website for the ISF, they claim:
Rigidity is improved by coupling the left and right sides of the body to achieve a flat and high-quality ride. In addition to firming up the body, these dampers increase the feeling of the wheels on the ground to ensure the chassis performance that enables steering to react linearly.

Here is what TRD claims (from http://lexusboutique.net) for the next generation IS cars:
Borrowed from TRD engineering the performance damper further improve the drivability of your 3IS. The Performance Damper is a chassis damping component that is set in the structural areas of both the front and rear of vehicles. It is a device that controls and absorbs minute distortions and vibrations. Mounted on the front and back of the vehicle, it rapidly absorbs the slight jolts and vibrations that road surfaces present. With this application, car body movements as a result of steering maneuvers are countered quickly, providing increased driving stability as well as a decrease in road noise.

In any case, I figured that I'd eventually install these TRD dampers at some point anyway, so might as well do it now, in the hopes that the ride quality would improve.

So when the car was getting the new front bumper cover installed, I had them also install these TRD dampers (installation requires removal of the front bumper cover anyway!).

My impressions - at low speeds, the car seems, for some reason, eerily more quiet. Was there some kind of low frequency vibration before? Not sure but for some reason the car is bank vault quiet.

Then at higher speeds yes the ride is marginally improved - maybe a subjective 10-15% better, but still not at the all around level of feel that the GSF had with its Sachs dampers.

In other words, I may still have to upgrade to the OEM Sachs at some point.

The biggest difference however was that indeed, the steering felt more direct and precise, with less on center numbness (the area of numbness seems reduced). However, after getting the Ohlins DFVs on my GT-R rebuilt, and experiencing how good those coilovers are, I now realize how much refinement is lacking in the IS-F.... what to do...

New IS200t Loaner!

So after the car's 6 month inspection, I decided to order a few parts to begin the process of improving the car. Just some minor tweaks. Yes, famous last words.

Anyway, because the car was kept overnight they offered me the use of a loaner car - in this case the new IS200t - four cylinder with single double scroll turbo (I think that is what Dino said, anyway).

The white one next to my car, with number plate 200, is the IS200T they lent me.

Since I'm not a motorjournalist, I won't bother with all the photos of the exterior and interior, etc. Just a few thoughts on the car itself compared to the ISF.

First, the car felt shorter than it really is. When I parked the car at home, I discovered that it barely fit in the garage, putting the rear wheels against the same bump stop as the ISF. I read somewhere that Toyota had engineered the car to be welded in more spots, and that they also used a new type of adhesive, in order to obtain better body rigidity. Makes sense, because my GT-R felt shorter once I had improved its body rigidity too.

Second, the engine I think is only mediocre. A car this class, I think, needs more power. I haven't bothered to check how much horsepower the car has, but at low speeds it is very Lexus like, quiet, but once acceleration happens the engine is working hard. Too hard, maybe? Still quiet but not the effortless power the ISF has.

Third, even in Sport+ mode I was not happy with how the car felt. Still overpowered and too light, although I think the suspension does a good job of a decent ride. Brakes were strong though.

Fourth, interior - I do like the new LFA inspired OLED gauges, but I think I still prefer 2 stand alone tach and speed gauges. Keep it simple.  The seats were too soft even after 5 minutes, too.

Fifth, exterior - I do like the way it looks. I do like the modern aero touches that probably came from the LFA, like this A-pillar "fin"... I think I saw something offered for the ISF which I will have to get eventually.

I like the way the front of the car looks. The rear, looks like it wasn't quite finished.  I found this, and if Lexus had offered an ISF based on the new platform and it looked like this, I may have gotten it.

why didn't Toyota offer the ISF in this new model?

Rear looks awesome!

Close up. See, that looks great!

In any case, in my next posts I'll show you what I got, and my impressions. Hint, one IS a TRD part...

OEM Navigation and TV Bypass Kit

When the car was delivered to me, the salesman, Aoki-san, mentioned in a soft voice to me that "for a small fee we can do the Navi/TV workaround..."  He explained of course that, as the OEM Navigation and digital TV do not allow for inputs/TV viewing while the car is in motion, that there are aftermarket kits available to handle this.  The installation of this kit, however, falls into a "grey zone"- that is, a Lexus dealership shouldn't really be advocating such a work around for obvious reasons.

Of course, the solution is to say that, this aftermarket convenience feature was being added in order to allow the front seat PASSENGER to make such adjustments while the driver remains focused on driving.  Of course.

In any case, I did some Internet research and found that there are several kits available, with various pricing, all purporting to do the same thing.  However, some kits apparently worked better than others, based on reviews by users and purchasers.  Beat-Sonic sells than, and even Toyota tuner TOM's has a product.  To be honest, it rapidly became too confusing to determine which brand would work without any problems. 

So, at this point I gave up and decided to go the dealership route, as presumably they had installed a bunch and would know which ones work best with the IS F.

By sheer coincidence, when closely inspecting my car a few days before visiting the dealership, I found this on the plastic next to the driver's left knee:

My first clue that the previous owners had aftermarket items on the car!
Remember the shape of the curved portion next to the white tape residue...

Given its location, my guess was that there was something, likely a switch, attached by double sided tape to this area.  It would likely be a switch because it is too low for anything visual to be mounted, and so far in my research on popular add-ons to this car in Japan, I've only seen the electronic throttle controller, radar detectors, and yes the OEM navigation/TV "jumper" kits. 

So when I visited the dealership on Saturday, they showed me which kit they use for the navi/TV jumper kit: 

Interestingly, this is not a brand that I found during my searches, so I'm hoping this works better than the others out there which had mediocre reviews.  Ishikawa-san explained to me that essentially all these kits work the same (which results in the GPS signal being temporarily lost while the Navi is used), however what is good about this kit is that it has two buttons (versus the one button for the TOM's kit) which allows separate overriding of the Navi and TV, versus having to scroll through options that a single button setup requires).

Here is the button for this kit:

The one on the left (right one does Navi only) - from: http://www.datasystem.co.jp/products/tvnavi/01.html

Now when, after the fact, I researched this product, I found that they actually had a model which used an OEM type switch, which eliminates the need for this kind of button switch, and of course looks OEM.

Initially I was annoyed, but then when I viewed the videos on its use, I realized that the two type, red and green button was much easier to use, even though yes the OEM type switch looks better. 

So, I guess I'll have to figure out another use for this blanked off switch (and yes, the "blankness" really bothers me, especially given that this car had all the JDM options):

Center switch is to heat the windshield to melt any snow on the wipers (Part of the cold climate region package)

Any ideas? Something that looks OEM...Actually I don't really need that coin tray either, huh.

And by the way here is where I ended up having them install the two button switch.

Surprise surprise almost in the same identical spot...

So given its location, and the shape of the switch (as extrapolated from the first photo)  I'm guessing the prior owner also had the same kit installed...(and this means that Lexus just made a few more bucks off me...lol)

Incidentally as I said my good-byes after having ordered a few optional extras, Ishikawa-san slipped me the TRD ISF parts catalog....

oh.... this is SO tempting...