is200 Newbie

Nice colour Nice cars

Car now on 79762 miles. Picture of the reading this week shows its lighter than last weeks reading ... I took the reading last week after it had sat for just over a week in an airport carpark. I guess with a weeks driving round the oil has had a chance to disperse the crud it has collected. This is the second time I have found that the oils darker when left for a period and becomes clear again when driving it. I would not have expected to see any change really ... with the dirty oil molecules being "heavier" than the ones not saturated yet, would they effectively "sink" lower than the oil that's still clear. If this is the case then you could say that there is a degree of separation going on here? In saying this, and in order to give the engine a good clean next oil change, would it be better to drop the oil first, engine cold, then fill with a cheap oil with an engine flush, run that for the time specified, change this and add the good stuff? This would only be a one off to give it a good clean

Apologies for the terrifying post ... I was in your position with a low miler and finding all sorts wrong - its running well now with a lot of care and attention... The exhaust went on mine last year and I was quoted £2700 fitted from Lexus - the exhaust is not available from the likes of ATS etc - its only a dealer part. I had a stainless steel one made instead for £450 but have found it very noisy compared to the OEM one but I guess that's the compromise. One of my fuel sensors went last month and this has seemed to "coke" the exhaust up a bit and it has quietened down a bit - noticeable but not much. If you can I would recommend getting it looked over as explained above, calipers etc ... will save money now if you can sort any issues early on.

Shepherd.... that's a good link to a good write up Almost gives me confidence to do it when mine goes ...!

There's quite a few things to consider ... Top of the list for you would be to consider what the 2 year warranty would cover you for.... Bear in mind its a relatively low mileage car but with it being 6 years old it has not been used as it was intended - an average of 2k miles per year on a V6 is in my opinion quite damaging to the car itself as it is quite evident that it has not had a good run throughout its life. Using the car for short runs .. stop/start ... can bring on the carbon build up issue. Make sure if you get the warranty through Lexus that they will cover the top end rebuild for this if it happens. This just depends a lot on what fuel it has been running on previously but with it having being used for what looks like was short runs its a possibility it will occur. There's applications coming on the market now that will clean the carbon out from affected engines. I would however question the spark plug change - although this is a requirement for changing at 6 years (assuming the cars covered around 60k) the plugs should last 100k easy. Again, short runs and heat could damage them. Its a major job replacing the plugs and £200 is a reasonable cost. I think for the 6 year service the main work done is on changing the plugs - all others apart from fluids / filters are just visual checks. If you want the visual check then get the car MOT'd which is what a majority of the visual checks will cover anyway. If I was you I would ask for the garage to go through the car thoroughly and check things such as brake calipers (front and back) / exhaust definitely as this is a £2700 part to replace. Again, short journeys will rot the exhaust quicker than if used on longer ones as its not getting up to temp to burn off any moisture. Coolant, check for leaks or low level - leaks around the water pump indicate its on its way out. usually around 70k miles - not too sure about the effect a low mileage car vs age of the fluid. Not too sure if it degrades after time, I would have thought it would. Also - if you have the means to, get the oil changed as soon as so you know it has been done. Lastly, tyre wear, 24k miles and the car will be on the limit of needing the tyres replacing but just check one sneaky think garages do. Check they have not rotated the tyres to make them look better than they actually are - the ones on the back are a different size to the ones on the front. If they are fine then just do a quick check on the side walls to see if the rotation arrow runs correct with the wheel. Sorry - not trying to scare you out of the car - I always believe in buying a car that has done the correct mileage or just under for the year as there are less issues with it.

Have a look at this ebay listing for the coolant 281146222065 from the USA

The only reason I think it could be a sensor is that I just experienced the same thing but I also had the traction light on as well as the others. The lights on mine went off / on intermittently for a week or so and then they came on permanently. It indicated a sensor was on its way out and when the lights came on permanently then I knew it had blown. Yours being a diesel I don't know if it will be the same but my exhausts sooted up when the sensor went, I have a petrol. Where is the smell of burning coming from, engine area or around the wheel arches ... are your alloys hot after a run?

Can you read the error code if any?

Is your traction control light on also? Could be, actually it is probably one of the fuel sensors gone. Is the smell more like rotten eggs?

When your lights are on and you wash the windscreen then the headlight washers will activate once. If you have not stopped driving since washing the screen the first time and wash the screen again then the headlight washer will not activate. They will only activate at that point if pressing the headlight washer button. Also, while on the topic of headlights, did you also know that they are adaptive ones?

Had been snooping around on ebay lately and found and bought one of these black pearl lexus logos. Bought the IS-F grill and am going to give this a go as the end result looks really good.

Don't use the washer at night ... WHAT They may have just said don't use the car at night when its raining. With the headlights on when washing the screen then there is a feature on the car that will, only once, operate the headlight washers as a default setting when cleaning the screen. This only happens when the headlights are on. When the headlights are off, cleaning the screen does not initialise the headlight washers. I am pretty sure that's its an MOT failure if they are not working as if the car has HIDS then it needs to also have the washers fitted as standard so they do need to work. My question to the garage would be, if they also gave you a full years MOT when you bought it, why did they pass it if they were not working?

Definitely - I have not long replaced both of mine (on a 250) - mpg has increased and also the responsiveness has noticeably improved

Pilgrim Any issues with the car up to the 100k point?

Mouser, As Allan said in the above post - I have been putting it off but will do it at some point. I believe there are 6 gaskets in sets of two, so 3 are required. I have read on other forums that they do need to be replaced when changing the plugs but like you said - if not damaged do they really need to be? Did you replace yours when you done it?

Car is now on 79,682 - done 445 miles since the reading two weeks ago (car has been standing for a week while on holiday) 2693 miles have been done since the oil was changed back in June. Oil seems darker than the last reading but this could be due to it standing for a week - reading was taken before I started the car. Will have a look to see what the colour is next week. I am planning an oil change in December (6 months usage) so there's just over two months left until the 6 months running on this oil is up.

No doubt looking after the car helps a lot. Dare I say it that I think it would be possible to get a bit more from the tank. Yes, I was driving on both occasions with the cruise on, set to 70 but its impossible to keep to that speed these days so it was a bit up and down but a majority of the time was set to 70. It was all motorway miles with approx. 50 miles in total around town. This was running on Shell normal unleaded so I expect a fill up on the V-Power will increase the mileage. All motorway at a constant speed should?? get around 20 to 30 miles more but there's no real opportunity to do that these days due to the amount of traffic on the roads. Also - there were no passengers in the car which I guess helped. A long trip early in the morning or late at night should prove the mileage when the roads are quite empty. Also, Dazed is right, When I filled it up this morning I noticed the range has increases to 391. I usually get 360 on average after a fill up. The car must learn your driving style and adjust the range accordingly.

Lee - Is this treatment only for petrol cars? Have noticed that 'Tannoy' has a diesel. Your IS300 will not have a DPF, these are specific to diesels.

I knew I could get to the 500 mark but didn't think it would go past it ... I initially got to around 305 miles last week after a good run on the M6 motorway on a round trip to Birmingham with the range stating when I got back home that I could get a total of just under 500 miles. I have just done another 220 mile trip on M56 / M6 with approx. 15 miles around town. So its all motorway miles mainly. I am pretty staggered at this - the picture below is of the mileage when I parked up at home. Yes the tank is on 9 mile range left (garage is around the corner so will be filling up first thing in the morning), maybe I should not have taken it that low but I eeked every fume out of the tank I think in getting home but I wanted to prove I could get to the 500 mile mark. There has definitely been a big big improvement from when the sensors were replaced - that, along with a clean air filter (K&N oiled) relatively clean oil and tyre pressures set correctly have I think all contributed to this, you could also add the exhaust to the mix I guess as this is not an OEM one. I will be on a 750 mile round trip in a few months time so I will be able to verify this is achievable again....Maybe not take it down as low this time though !

Lost the IS200 I had (2004 LE model) - looked after that car, no expense spared on it and was more upset it was written off than the house being flooded !!. Left it at the top of the drive, wife said to move it but the water was never going to reach us I kept telling myself but it did (she lost hers as well) ... car was under to the door handles and when the water disappeared the inside of it was all sludge - tried to start it and it was almost firing and I reckon if I left it to dry out it would have but to be honest it was ruined. Splashed out on the 250 but still miss the 200. Never looked at the LS models to be honest.

St.Asaph - Try river water - killed the last Lexus I had ...

Noticed you are from Denbighshire - I thought I was the only one with a Lexus in North Wales?

Certainly the way you have described it sounds like a bearing - I looked at prices for the fronts (just the part) a few weeks ago as I had a suspicious noise from the front passenger side - stripped the caliper down and traced the noise back to a brake pad guide tab on the caliper not seated properly, rubbing on the disc and causing a metal to metal grind / rumble noise at low speeds. Don't think that will be your issue though. I looked at prices of replacement front bearings at around £120 per side, for the front. The price for the rear is roughly the same and they come in assembled kit form (bolt on / bolt off (nothing is ever that simple though) These prices were not OEM I suspect the price Lexus has given you is to do both sides as, some one correct me if I am wrong, they would do these in pairs? If not then that's a fair old whack for a job that an indie garage can do for around a fraction of the cost. JUST NOTICED YOU HAVE AN RX - the above was for an IS 250, looking at the web then the bearing cost is approx. the same.

Have a search for this topic on the forum posted by CMC ELECTRICAL ISSUES AFTER JUMPSTART MISHAP Think this will help you out

This weeks reading Car is on 79237, done 305 miles last week. 2248 miles travelled since the oil was changed on the 7th of June 2014 Colour and level is still the same as last week. The only difference so far has been the drop in oil the week when I had used it in the manual mode. Also a change on the car recently in having the fuel/air sensors replaced..