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Looking to purchase a 2005 GS300


abtx
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Hi, 

I've had enough of other brands and remembering how reliable was my father's ES300 I decided to go for a budget Lexus. It's a GS300 from 2005 (I live in the UK, ES300 was imported). 

I read stories about people having the car over 200k miles and going strong, but there's lots of stories about carbon build up that scare the hell out of me (mostly US though).

I have few questions:

- for those who got into owning a GS300 that's potentially affected, did you regret your decision?

- there are services that offer engine carbon cleaning - do these work?

- I'd be using premium fuel, is it enough to eliminate the issue?

The car I'm looking at is over 100k and the previous owner had it for over 8 years, so I assume it should be ok, but maybe he's selling it as it's out of warranty and he's started experiencing said issue, I don't know. There are no outstanding recalls on the car. It's the £305 road tax bracket - but I don't think the higher tax has anything to do with engine redesign that avoids the issue? After all, I just want a reliable Lexus.

I'm going to go all the way south to see the car on Friday. I'll need to take it there and then or not. It will be covered with engine and transmission warranty for one year, but I understand these carbon build up issues are hard to reproduce, and from what I red Lexus dealerships avoided responsibility in the past by saying they couldn't reproduce the issue. 

I'd be more interested to see if regular engine carbon cleaning (yearly?) is a solution (I don't want to add cleaner to fuel every time I top up the tank)?

Any other advice and tips will be appreciated! 

Thanks

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Never known any problems with carbon build up in the UK. Like you say 200k is no problem for the GS300. You might get a sticky rear brake calliper and rusted exhaust but that's about it.

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@stevet Sounds pretty good then. I looked into engine carbon cleaning, it's £90 only so I'll do this just as a precaution. Found a way to check for the issue with IS250 (I reckon it will work on the GS300) here. Basically, have the car warmed half way through, go on 4k rpm for 30 seconds and then push it quickly to 6rpm and release quickly. If the engine shudders that's a bad lemon. 

Having said that, I'm beginning to regain confidence in getting the GS300.  

I think the 2008 GS300 you were/are driving had an improved engine design with DI and PI though?

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