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Getting car out the garage this morning and I have a very steep downward drive and total brake failure - absolutely nothing :( Tried the parking brake on the floor and it wasn't going to stop it, so auto box into park - that worked :) Otherwise it would have been embedded in a bungalow across the road.

Looked for fluid leak - none. Tried pumping the brakes nothing on the pedal.

Called Lexus Wolverhampton and they contacted RAC and they confirmed nothing they can do. Set it up for a rear tow after i told him it wasn't an IS200 and they didn't have IS250 on the compute. He checked with their technical and they said it was OK for a rear tow. Up and nearly ready to go and he has nowhere to tie the straps to restrict the steering wheel :( So off it comes and I'm waiting for a flat bed now to take it away.

Meanwhile sorted a loan car fro 3 days with RAC but being a Bank Holiday there is little available, No automatics within 60 miles. So expecting an Ford Focus this afternoon.

Just thankful I had my wits about me to force it to stop.

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No, t's used every day.

Funny the RAC man asked me the same question virtually, I used it yesterday for a couple of local trips round town.

It was serviced 20k a few of weeks ago ( think it had brake fluid repalced IIRC ) and had two new front tyres week before last on the front. But doubt if there is any connection.

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Aido I'm just thankful that I wasn't doing 60 mph approaching a bend with a 150 foot drop ( which I do every weekday ) or even travelling at 70 mph on a motorway. The into park manouvre ( sp ) would not have worked then :(

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interesting........glad all is ok, but ive heard there has been similar issues in the US

does the car stand for long periods

Can you point to where this info came from. My IS 250 often stands for 3 or 4 days without use. Why should this create a brakes problem?

Now I'm feeling really nervous . . . . . . :o

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New master cylinder due to arrive tomorrow am and be fitted, I'll give an update tomorrow night.

Got an email response from Lexus GB with 2 apologies but no answers to my questions. Did sat they will contact me soon to discuss further. I would have thought with an issue like this they would call my mobile the same day :( I will speak to them tomorrow one way or another when I know if the car is coming back.

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Glad you had a bit of quick thinking and avoided any damage.

But it was lucky you werent driving :ohmy:

Also, if you had hit something it might have been a lot more difficult to prove it was a fault with the car. They might have tried to blame the fault on the crash and you hitting the wrong pedal or something.

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Hmmmm. I had an IS200SE and had exactly the same thing happen. The brakes didn't fail totally but I had to force them down with some kind of force to get them to engage. I was pushing my back through the chair. I was doing 60 at the time on a dual carriageway and noticed by accident so had plenty of time to slow down. It was scarey though.

Then I took the car to the dealers they said that the master cylinder had failed. The car was out of warranty even though it was just over 2 years old as I had done 61,000 miles. The dealer said it was the first time they had heard of one going on a Lexus and replaced it free of charge. I thought it was just one of those things. I wonder how many of these actually do fail???

I hope my IS250 doesn't have the same weakness as I now have a 7 month old baby travelling in the back!!!

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Please to say I got a call from Lexus GB to tell me that this is the first failure on the new IS range in the UK. Also parts are going back to Japan for investigation. They are happy to confirm this in writing.

So I'll be back in the IS tomorrow :)

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  • 3 years later...

Sorry to resurrect such an old post.

I have a 55 Plate IS250 Auto that I had since new, and it has 145k on the clock. I think my car was one of the first of the production line, as I ordered it months before launch and got it a few days after launch.

Well today, on the way to the dealership to get my bonnet replaced under warranty (bad paint job during production) my brake warning light came on. I asked the dealership to check it out, and very quickly, they called me to advised the master cylinder seal had gone and brake fluid had corroded the servo and they both needed replacing at a cost of £1200 :ohmy: :ohmy:

Once I had picked myself up, he should have asked me first if I was sitting down!! I started to question if it was reasonable for this to happen on a car that's only 4.5 years old. Guess what? He has to call Lexus GB for advise.

End result.. Lexus GB agreed very quickly to pay for the parts, leaving me with a bill of £237 for fitting and sundry parts such as brake fluid etc.

Why did Lexus agree so quickly and without any fuss? My car is way way out of warranty (expect for bodywork...thankfully :))

Does anyone know if anything ever came from steve's master cylinder being sent back to Japan?

Have I missed a recall or have I just been unlucky? or maybe lucky depending how you look at it, as I didn't have total brake failure!!

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I'm not surprised given all the negative press they've got lately related to brakes - replacing the parts FOC is a much better result for them than the risk of any more bad press.

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Sorry to resurrect such an old post.

I have a 55 Plate IS250 Auto that I had since new, and it has 145k on the clock. I think my car was one of the first of the production line, as I ordered it months before launch and got it a few days after launch.

Well today, on the way to the dealership to get my bonnet replaced under warranty (bad paint job during production) my brake warning light came on. I asked the dealership to check it out, and very quickly, they called me to advised the master cylinder seal had gone and brake fluid had corroded the servo and they both needed replacing at a cost of £1200 :ohmy: :ohmy:

Once I had picked myself up, he should have asked me first if I was sitting down!! I started to question if it was reasonable for this to happen on a car that's only 4.5 years old. Guess what? He has to call Lexus GB for advise.

End result.. Lexus GB agreed very quickly to pay for the parts, leaving me with a bill of £237 for fitting and sundry parts such as brake fluid etc.

Why did Lexus agree so quickly and without any fuss? My car is way way out of warranty (expect for bodywork...thankfully :))

Does anyone know if anything ever came from steve's master cylinder being sent back to Japan?

Have I missed a recall or have I just been unlucky? or maybe lucky depending how you look at it, as I didn't have total brake failure!!

I ordered my IS250 SE-L in March 2005 and received delivery in December, so it was also one of the first off the production line. Apart from the well known recalls it's been brilliant, although the mileage is nowhere near yours (47K). Be interesting to see if the master cylinder problem is a common fault, as was the rear brake calipers.

What exactly was wrong with the bonnet?

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The paint had started to bubble around the front lip. After having a proper look at it, it had started from the underside of the bonnet, and worked its way round to the top side.

Lexus GB asked the dealer to measure the paint thickness on the bonnet, which both me and the dealer were surprised at, as its aluminum and the paint thickness can't be measured. So the dealer just measured the paint thickness elsewhere and told them that figure. After that they agreed very quickly to replace the bonnet under the 12 year corrosion warranty. All very easy really, which surprised me. I was expecting a battle :)

So far that's 2 items (Bonnet/Master cylinder etc) i have had covered under warranty, when I did not expect them to. Maybe I should try for a third, and ask for my alloys to be replaced, as they are in a dreadful state. Not because of kerbing, but the usual lexus alloy bubbling problem. Maybe that would be pushing it to much :)

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The paint had started to bubble around the front lip. After having a proper look at it, it had started from the underside of the bonnet, and worked its way round to the top side.

Lexus GB asked the dealer to measure the paint thickness on the bonnet, which both me and the dealer were surprised at, as its aluminum and the paint thickness can't be measured. So the dealer just measured the paint thickness elsewhere and told them that figure. After that they agreed very quickly to replace the bonnet under the 12 year corrosion warranty. All very easy really, which surprised me. I was expecting a battle :)

So far that's 2 items (Bonnet/Master cylinder etc) i have had covered under warranty, when I did not expect them to. Maybe I should try for a third, and ask for my alloys to be replaced, as they are in a dreadful state. Not because of kerbing, but the usual lexus alloy bubbling problem. Maybe that would be pushing it to much :)

The paint thickness can be measured using an ultrasonic thickness meter. However, the cheaper option is the cheaper Elcometer type instrument that is essentially a comparitor, not a direct reader as it is calibrated using a plastic sheet of known thickness to compare it against the total thickness of coating on a magnetic substrate. As aluminium isn't magnetic, this type of instrument doesn't work.

Your bonnet problem obviously isn't rust, it's most likely salt corrosion of the aluminium similar to the wheels, caused by the coating being breached. Perhaps the clearcoat was missing from the underside of the bonnet lip? Wheels are normally on three year warranty, but I'm surprised Lexus/Toyota haven't sorted this by now. The BBS wheels on my IS-F haven't suffered from the problem, but they're manufactured in Germany.

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First time I have read this thread. Surely a warning light comes on if the fluid level has dropped. Am I missing something?

That's the point, the fluid level didn't drop as there was no leak. If the fluid by-passes the piston in master cylinder it just displaces without pressurising the caliper pistons.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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