CiaranMcK

Thanks everyone - there’s a Lexus independent up in Yorkshire I might go to for it I reckon, just with the gearbox being such a pain in the arse. 
 

I’m Manchester based and we don’t seem to have any Toyota/Lexus independents here!

I have an is250 that is about to hit 150k miles.

I’m due an oil service, but I’m also thinking about asking them to change the auto box and differential fluid as I’m not sure it was ever done.

Thoughts? Do most people do this regularly? And how much should this cost me?
 

Thanks!

CMcK

Hi,

Sorry to revive such an old thread, but since installing the WALD spoiler my boot has been absolutely smashing down.

Did you just buy the standard SGS is250 struts, or struts intended for a different car, and where did you get the springs? I want to order the exact same combo, then will probably do kick open too. 

Thanks!

Honestly!
 

Even the Lexus specialist didn’t think it would be that. They fully thought head gasket. It just happened they had some parts on the shelf so did some swapping as a last resort. We were gobsmacked when it did the trick. 

5 hours ago, Texas said:

Pretty rare for a HG to go on a 250, a 220 now you’re talking!

”P.S. Just make sure you actually have blown head gasket, it would be kind of waste otherwise. Head gaskets don't blow on these cars often and this must be 2nd case in over 8 years.” Linas.P

so back down to 1 case then😀

Yep! 
 

First garage diagnosed head gasket. Lex Tech initially diagnosed head gasket too, but the more he looked for confirmation the less he thought it was actually head gasket! 
 

It turned out to be this, at some point it has been put on backwards. There must be a directional valve in the cap, or just some sort of pressure difference with the different lengths of hose on either side. 
 

OK - so I didn't go ahead with this as the car was actually a simple fix - the pipe leading from the Thermostat to the expansion tank, and then from expansion tank to nothing seemed to be the problem. I can't explain why, but once I changed this with another it stopped losing coolant immediately. 

I did all the research though, and the swap is 100% viable, and probably the cheapest way to add c50bhp! 

12 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Removing the plenum to access sparkplugs is 15 min job max, 5mm hex, 10mm and 13mm sockets and that is job done. Apart of 1 annoying bolt behind the throttle body the rest takes literally as much as it takes to unscrew the bolts. I have done it like 8 times just last week (I rather not to, but such is life). 

I don’t have a compression tester, but with it being that straight forward I can’t imagine why the garage is so reluctant to do it. 
 

If they don’t I’ll just buy a kit! 
 

Thanks! 

10 minutes ago, Texas said:

Trouble is they are Not! 50% of them anyway!

Yeah exactly this. Could compression test the 2 or 3 that are easy enough to get to, but realistically I’d need to strip it down to get to the spark plugs to fully diagnose. 
 

If it passes sniff test maybe I’ll go that way. But by that point I might as well just have an engine waiting to pop in. 
 

Out of interest - would you sniff test from the thermostat or the expansion? 

5 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Nobody has done this swap before, so I doubt you find much information on that. What I can confirm is that the engine does not use same ECU, in other hand you can get whole GS300 for probably £2000 and from there on it should be mostly plug and play because IS came with this engine and was called IS300. GS300 used different gearbox (A760e instead of A960e), but again so does IS300. In short - if you just get the engine then it will not be plug and play, but if you have entire car (maybe write-off GS is even cheaper - https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/52264852/clean-title-2006-lexus-gs300-se-a-sandy), then it should be fairly straightforward as IS250 body/chassis is identical to IS300 chassis which used same engine and gearbox. 

Thanks mate. If I pull the trigger and do it I’ll let you know how it went! If I spend £1000 on an engine and a few days fitting it though it’s still very cheap per HP added! 

I keep hearing this scepticism about the head gasket. It’s with a garage at the moment and he’s reluctant to strip it down to definitively diagnose it. I’ve asked him to do a sniff test to be sure. Do you have any tips on how I could fully diagnose HGF without spending hours stripping the engine down? 

40 minutes ago, Texas said:

Gotta ask….are you saying you have a IS250 ( 2.5L V6 lump) that has had a head gasket fail? as you say ‘suspect head gasket failure’  what makes you come to this conclusion? Symptoms?

cheers Tex.👍

Air in the coolant, pressuring extremely quickly, eventually getting pressure in the expansion tank and p***ing coolant out of the pressure relief hose in the expansion tank lid. No hot air through the front facing blowers (although I do get it from the foot blowers). No overheating or mayo or anything, so I'm thinking just a very mild leak right now letting exhaust gasses into the coolant.

Bled the system a few times and air seems to re-appear. A blockage isn't 100% ruled out yet, but short of removing the radiator and getting access to the heater matrix to check for blockages there I'm out of ideas. 

I've asked my MOT garage to check for gas in the coolant system with his exhaust probe to see if we can fully diagnose exhaust gasses in there for now. 

45 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

Nobody has done this swap before, so I doubt you find much information on that. What I can confirm is that the engine does not use same ECU, in other hand you can get whole GS300 for probably £2000 and from there on it should be mostly plug and play because IS came with this engine and was called IS300. GS300 used different gearbox (A760e instead of A960e), but again so does IS300. In short - if you just get the engine then it will not be plug and play, but if you have entire car (maybe write-off GS is even cheaper - https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/52264852/clean-title-2006-lexus-gs300-se-a-sandy), then it should be fairly straightforward as IS250 body/chassis is identical to IS300 chassis which used same engine and gearbox. 

Thanks mate

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, I’m looking at the 3GR-FSE to replace my IS250s 4GR-FSE. The IS300 didn’t come with the 3GR-FSE I don’t think? Only the Euro GS300 (2006+) and Toyota Crown/Mark X

I’ve seen the engine swap done before, generally people use the 3GR block with the original 4GR intake manifolds, Throttle body etc. They share the same injectors, sensors, throttle bodies etc so the ECU in these cases has worked like normal. The only times they’ve reported needing the 3GR ECU/the 4GR mapped is when they’ve added a supercharger. 

I’ve not heard anyone have issues with the gearbox and engine matching up, but obviously if they’re different units I’ll definitely have to look into that as a potential  issue! I’ve mainly seen this done with 6MT but also a couple of autos too. 
 

If it’s NOT as straight forward as I’ve been LED to believe though, I’ll just put another 2.5L back in. 

Hi all,

After suspected head gasket failure I’m seriously considering an engine swap from the 2.5 V6 to the 3.0 from a 2006-2011 GS300.

From what I can tell it should be plug and play, using the same ECU, manifolds etc with no real downside. 
 

It’s be good to speak to someone with direct real world experience in this swap before I pull the trigger! 
 

Any known complications?

Thanks! 

Hi all,

I’m looking to source a 3.0 v6 3GR-FSE from a GS300 to transplant into an is250.

Ideally with history 

Let me know if you have one or know of one I could buy! 
 

thanks 

Thanks for the review. I was looking into switching out my vline for this but I don’t think I can stomach spending £100 on cables, and with the reverse camera and built in car play also not working 100% it just seems like a lot of messing around for only a small improvement.

My only real gripes with the vline is that the factory screen is pretty small and if I reverse it will revert back to factory UI once back in P or D. My music seems to keep playing and once I press audio again I get my vline screen back. It’s not the end of the world.

The xtrons does look lovely though. The extra screen size and quality makes all the difference. 

1 hour ago, CiaranMcK said:

Hi,

 

I’ve noticed a water flushing sound behind the dash on start up. The water pump is fairly new so I’m guessing air in the system. The expansion tank is full so I don’t think I’m losing any coolant and so far I’m not getting any overheating but it’s still not ideal. 
 

I’ve seen references to running the car for half an hour with the cap off to rid the system of air. Can someone give me a walk through of how I do this? Which cap I remove, if I could do with any equipment etc? I also have a sloped driveway, so I’m guessing nose up would be best?
 

I don’t just want to run in there all guns blazing and mess up. 
 

Thanks in advance! 

Correction, expansion tank is nearly empty when cold 

Hi,

I’ve noticed a water flushing sound behind the dash on start up. The water pump is fairly new so I’m guessing air in the system. The expansion tank is full so I don’t think I’m losing any coolant and so far I’m not getting any overheating but it’s still not ideal. 
 

I’ve seen references to running the car for half an hour with the cap off to rid the system of air. Can someone give me a walk through of how I do this? Which cap I remove, if I could do with any equipment etc? I also have a sloped driveway, so I’m guessing nose up would be best?
 

I don’t just want to run in there all guns blazing and mess up. 
 

Thanks in advance! 

7 hours ago, Alfalfa said:

Soldered one like this to the lighter wires.

Nice idea!

where do you have it coming out?

I was looking for some inspiration for a good phone charging solution, and how to run the cable with minimal wires on show? 
 

The centre console doesn’t have enough height in the cigarette lighter to close the door over it when plugged in, and I really like the sleek look of the console with all closed up. 
 

The arm rest won’t close properly with a cable coming out of it, and would need a mega long cable to reach my phone at the front.

I have a 2008 is250 with ML, so no USB ports. 

Any inspiration appreciated! 
 

Thanks

I’ll do it. Can’t hurt! Thanks for the input. 

18 minutes ago, chr15gb said:

Get it from Ebay like everyone else, about £30 with an OBD cable included.

Hero. That’s ordered! 

6 minutes ago, Texas said:

To ‘get in deep’ you need to use TechStream software on a laptop preferably running XP.

That’s well outside my price range unfortunately 😞 I just wanted simplecoding like you can do on BMWs, VWs etc. 

10 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

You'll have more luck with an android phone. IPhone bluetooth is shyte and doesn't communicate with anything else but iPhone. 

Yeah I’ve been using the Bluetooth dongle with Iphone! I’ve been able to code my BMWs with BimmerCode, Carista etc using it but Lexus doesn’t seem to have the same options. 
 

Android not an option as I don’t have one, but could use a windows based programme perhaps? 
 

Me again!

Is there an app I can use to customise settings in an 08 Lexus is250 via Iphone? 
 

I have the OBD vLink wifi dongle, I can read do a basic ECU read using Carista and Car Scanner but I can’t seem to do anything else. Is it not possible?

Thanks! 

2 hours ago, J Henderson said:

I imported the official one.

The only difference is the lack of ribs/fins. I guess where the hole is, it doesn't see much in the way of water spray.

 

How much and where from? I’d prefer OEM!

27 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I think it will be closer to this:

- Air box does not need to come out when changing the water pump, only "snorkel", but that is assuming mechanic knows what they are doing, which isn't always the case. As well to replace bulbs you may need to remove airbox, so mounting points being broken may not be big deal. That is how I broke mine on last IS250.

- It may have been small accident, or maybe just general wear an tear, bumpers get's scraped all the time so it is not unusual

- bonnets are aluminium and they are common problem, but generally it is front of bonnet which tends to bubble-up and peal. But I guess possibility is that front was pealing necessitating repainting entire bumper and job was not done very well.

- on all used Lexus I had they were missing clips and had broken cover clips. At first I was replacing them, but even after dealer service I would find few broken every time, so just stopped bothering... I had bag of like 20 clips in glovebox and I would replace them as they would get misplaced overtime.

Very hard to see it in the pictures to be honest. The only thing I can see is that your passenger side headlight was likely replaced. 

- Cannot see any issues with the gaps, but that does not mean they don't exist, maybe they are clearer in person.

- The bottom splitter is two part, so it is not broken, that how it should be - that said it should be matching colour.

- The edge of the bonnet looks weird - it may be repainted, but needs paint gauge to check. As well it is weird that front edge of bumper is so clean, most of the time they are "sandblasted", again indicating it was repainted, but not necessary due to accident. 

Now in summary, let's see where you are legally with this - when buying from car dealer you have statutory rights to return the car or to request for issues to be fixed unless they were clearly identified during purchase. So you don't need to rage or make a scene, you simply need to show dealer what is the issue and request them to fix it, for example broken ambient temp sensor would squarely be dealers responsibility to fix. 

What I would advise - get second opinion from body shop, many even going to give you free inspection before giving the quote. Then go back to dealership with quote in hand and point out what you expect them to fix, be reasonable - I am sure they won't repaint half of car, but you can easily point out 3-4 things which are clearly not right and you could reasonably expect be fixed when buying car, like ambient sensor or broken airbox. Worst case scenario, if body shop going to discover previous accident and more bodge job you could reject the car and return it to the dealer - that is your right. 

You’ve said exactly what I wanted to hear! 
 

Thank you.