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I have a Lexus is250 auto 2005 which has an issue with the brake servo & brake master cylinder. Lexus have informed me that both need replacing as brake fluid has leaked into the servo. I have questioned whether this repair should be covered under the recall from 2011 even though the car was taken in for the modification. I have sourced a 2nd hand unit on ebay but i'm unsure of the part number. The part number of my unit reads: 1310B0 - 15241 and the 2nd hand one reads: 131010 - 15241 does anyone know if this unit is compatible

My car recently have developed interesting fault. I cannot say it came unexpected, for a while it was intermittent i.e. washer fluid didn't come on the first pull of the leaver. Over the time I was associating it with maybe half empty washer fluid bottle, rare use or air in the washers tubing.... until recently. Now I can confirm that washer bottle is full, but noting comes up from the jets.. even after 10-20 pulls. Windscreen wipers starts swiping to clean the fluid (which meant to be there), but nothing come out. I would like to note that head lamps washers works fine, only the windscreen washers are affected. Any ideas? I guess there should be fuse, so might need to start from that?

HI, got an is250 2009,both brake calipers on front have broke, is it possible to upgrade to the bigger isf brake calipers, I know I will need new disc,and possibly bigger wheels, but are all the brackets the same?

Hi all, Just wanted to hear some opinions about engine (oil) flush. I have seen few people said they have done it on IS250 and they have good results. I was never big fan of this stuff as it is not standard procedure and are not required unless there are certain situations where engine gets gunked-up for some reason e.g. sticking valve lifters. Then there are some horror stories as well... and I guess for a good reason. Generally, if engine was neglected for long time, flush can raise all the dirt and circulate it around the system, which is obviously not good. As well if engine is old and gaskets are just holding on actual gunk... cleaning it might blow the engine. So for a while my opinion was that regular oil change should be sufficient, especially if one uses premium oils (which has all kinds of additives). When it comes to my engine I "believe" it was never neglected. It is high mileage, but does have FLSH and since I have bought the car (last 30k miles) I was changing oil every 5-6k miles. The only unknown is the very first oil change from the dealer who sold it to me (non-Lexus), as they did change the oil in front of me, but after 2-3k miles it turned quite dark - I know it is normal to certain extent, but it was more than that. Now this could indicate that engine was neglected, but again based on service history that is not the case, last service was done like 3k miles before I bought it and it was just the case that car was on sale for one dealer to another for around 5 months, so dealer agreed to change it not because of the miles, but simply because of the time and peace of mind for me. So then I though... because last 2 changes were very low miles I might pull 10k miles, but after 7k engine started rattling when cold and under acceleration (I believe sticking valve lifters) and I did oil change straight away and rattle was gone for a while. Maybe only 2 points to highlight here... From service history I can see that at some point Lexus had put wrong oil.. That was Castrol GTX 5w30 C2 (not even fully synthetic) and later Mobil 1 5w30 C3... Finally, seller put some no name 5w30 from the barrel, so I am not sure what was that - barrel had Shell Helix on it, but nobody can tell what was inside... maybe rapseed oil from local grocery. As all were 5w30 I believe difference is very little and could not harm engine much... but who knows. Now few weeks ago I have ~6k miles since oil change and engine started rattling again. So I have changed the oil and rattling is gone again. However, ever since the first time I was considering engine flush to make sure engine is clean. As well oils like Castrol Magnatec or EDGE are bit of overkill for this engine especially considering my frequent changes above recommends service intervals, so I would expect it to last much longer than 6k miles, or especially I would not expect any rattling. So I kind of think that for some reason my tactics so far doesn't work. Additionally, I know that engine flush is one of the best ways to clean sticking valve lifters and eradicate rattle, so it sounds like perfect solution. However, there is one caveat - when the guys were changing oil I have checked the old one and it had little bit of petrol smell... Obviously, that is not great, but it is high miles’ engine and it was nothing excessive and finally I don't know maybe they used to keep petrol in that pan. But you know my paranoid mind now wonders, maybe the head gasket is on the edge of blowing and I just make it worse when flushing the engine... Finally, from reviews and recommendation it seems everyone recommends Wynn's flush. I don't know if that is because it is actually good, or because it is cheap. What you guys use and do you see any difference between the brands, what do you recommend? Many thanks in advance...

I have an IS250 with 18" rims which are badly in need of refurb. I am thinking that if I go for a refurb I might as well get some new tryes are the same time, as the ones that are on at the moment are going to need replacement soon anyway. I understand that the IS, being rear wheel drive, is not good on snow or ice unless it has winter tyres fitted. It's not practical or affordable for me to swap wheels according to the season so I was thinking I might fit all season tyres as a compromise. However, I can't find any 255/40R18 all season tyres, no one seems to make them. So I am thinking I could fit 245/40R18 instead. Has anyone else done this? What are the implications (if any?)

Hi all I've been scouring the web for atleast 2 months now and have still not managed to grasp the general market value of these cars. They seem to be so inconsistent that I am often telling myself that I could get a better deal for my money. I'm only 20 therefore I don't have a massive fortune to spend. I've found several however came across one that caught my eye and wanted to know general thoughts - 2007 IS 250 SE-L, All options including a Sun roof. The price was listed for 7000 but i negotiated it down to 5500..is this a good deal? Please let me know your thoughts and experiences!

Hi all, Just want to know - what are the differences between the 2006 IS250 SE-L and 2007 IS250 SE-L? Are there any differences at all? Am I right in assuming some changes such as auto dipping wing mirror on reverse etc was added on the 07+ models?

Hi all, I used to post on here many moons ago when i owned my beloved IS200. Had a change of car back in 2008 and since then I've always been longing to get back into the Lexus fold and now i'm finally ready. Wish i had never got rid of the IS200, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Due to a house move, a baby and generally growing up I'm on a limited budget, but i'm on the lookout for an earlier IS250 SE-L Auto, ideally with MM, but not a deal breaker. I have up to £7k max, but there are a few that are well under that on Auto Trader at the moment. I do about 10-12k miles per annum and had considered a IS220, but from what i can gather they seem more trouble than they are worth, so happy to stick to petrol. Are there any particular problem areas i should look out for when viewing the petrol variants? I'm assuming that, like the IS200, a well looked after higher mileage (80k plus) shouldn't be discounted? The ones i have seen are circa 2006/7 with 60-70k on the clock but towards the higher end of my budget. Anyway, i thought i'd re-introduce myself after a few years away from the forum and welcome any comments. Cheers

Hi all, Still deciding between the IS250 and a 325I however I have a potential IS250 that I may be interested in. It has all the features I want - fully loaded SE model - however it has done 123K miles.. full service history though - is it worth buying? Or is this too high mileage? What price should I be looking at for it? Its a 2006 auto Thanks

So, today I got the news that I've driven my IS250 F-Sport for the last time as it's now been declared a write-off by the insurance company. A week ago I was hit pretty hard by an oncoming Ford Transit that was in my side of the road for some reason, so it was no fault of my own and unavoidable. In fact, I give myself some credit for avoiding a proper head-on collision since I swerved just enough for most of the impact to happen on the B pillar & rear door area. Thankfully no-one was injured. In fact I was completely unhurt much to the surprise of everyone who witnessed the collision, so full credit to Toyota on building such a safe and strong car! As soon as I stepped out and saw the extent of the damage I suspected it would indeed be written-off, so I was prepared for this news. Still sucks though as the car had only covered 27K and was in really good condition. Now I just have to wait on the insurance payout so I can start to look for a replacement. I think finding one of the same spec and standard (low miles, FLSH, ML/Nav) without me being seriously out of pocket is going to be difficult though, if not impossible...

Just wanted to share one subtle "enhancement" I have recently installed on my IS250. This is purely cosmetic and really depends on personal taste. Some might like it, others hate it... So my front rotors were up for changing - probably still more than 25mm, but dealer would mark them as amber (or even red) due to the pronounced lip. The decent update would have been getting IS350/GS350 brake calipers and rotors (which I still planning to do in my dreams), but for time being I wanted to upgrade that dull and rusty part with something more suitable looking. I wanted for brakes to look more "performance" oriented so I was considering "drilled" design. Never liked Slotted/Dimpled brakes too much (again personal taste). The only rotors I have found for reasonable price were MTEC made p/n: MTEC1576 Front 296mm and MTEC1621 Rear 291mm (check if you rear ones are vented or not as vented ones are 310mm - p/n: MTEC1614). Additionally, I added protective coating "gold edition" ... anyway that comes to the taste... I knew that the face going to wear out when quickly, so it is really just nice detail around it... essentially replacing rust with some "gold" coating (other options were silver/grey and black). Parts: http://www.mtecbrakes.com/mtec1576.html http://www.mtecbrakes.com/mtec1621.html http://www.mtecbrakes.com/special-edition-brake-disc-coating/gold-edition-2-discs.html I throw some Brembo low dust OE-equivalent pads on front and some Mintex cheap stuff on rear (in fact Mintex front pads were more expensive than Brembo). The end result (as expected) is very minimal difference and in my opinion subtle.... I know I know ... I need to refurb my rims before taking any more pictures .. they are really poor right now. Generally, I am happy with this tweak, but I would not recommend MTEC coatings. This is because I expected the coating to be more like "metal plating" - essentially some hard wearing coating which protects from rust, but does allow heat dissipation etc. In reality is some kind of heat resistant paint, which can be easily damaged when installing, secondly only outside of the discs is covered i.e. face and the back, but not inside vents. I do understand that covering vents in this coating would prevent rotors from cooling and therefore they are left naked, BUT the surface which rusts the most is exactly the inside of the vents... so protection vise this is not great design. P.S. Dealer was not impressed with this and gave amber. In fact they might have been missed them but the re**rd who installed them threw away anti-squeal shims. I have noticed that some time after I have left the garage, but it was little too late. Next time when installing the pads I will make sure these are not missing. So lesson learnt - don't allow id**ts near your car or watch them carefully. I must admit I had no space to upgrade myself and I was foolish enough to allow the mechanic to fiddle with my car unsupervised. The replacement part is: 04945-30140 and it is £30-70. The relief ... so far there are at least no squeal. P.P.S. Obviously, I wanted to spray calipers and dust shield (on the rear) matching colour. But I only have 2 options: either pay fortune to do them properly ~£150 per caliper (removed, prepared and professionally sprayed with heat resistant caliper paint) or do them for reasonable price ~£20 by same person who lost my anti-squeal shims (using spray can... which will bubble-up and burn after 100 miles). The third option - doing myself properly, unfortunately unavailable for now.

Hello All, My car just developed interesting fault. Surely expensive to fix, but interesting in a way to investigate and nail the real cause. So to start with - few days ago (like Tuesday this week) my A/C started making some noise ... like squeakyish/grinding noise, but it was intermittent (happened like 2-3 times altogether). I had a service coming up 2 days later so didn't really bothered to investigate, nor had an opportunity. Thought, "if there was something obvious Lexus service will pick it up" and if not I will take a look over weekend. So Lexus Woodford did service an MOT, got all green except one amber. They said my drilled rotors are far too lavish, hence they put amber to accompany them (to clarify it is amber for "non-genuine front rotors and pads", they are Mintex drilled discs with Brembo OE-equivalent low dust pads - will post new thread in Modifications forum). The rest are all green including "Aircon / heating / ventilation" as below: On my way home from the dealer, I have realised my windows are starting to steam-up and the air from A/C is getting hot... clicked on "Windows Defogging" and the realised that A/C light is flashing > stopped by traffic lights and clicked "Off" and "Windows Defogging" again to restart A/C. This resulted in the weirdest thing ever in any car I have owned > the engine RPM started jumping and when I have clicked on "Off" again the engine cut-off as well (see video below). You can notice A/C light is solid while RPM is jumping. From under the bonnet it looks like compressor clutch tries to engage unsuccessfully or that compressor is actually completely stuck. Actually, I can see little sparks coming out of the pulley (see video below - sorry it is bit dirty ... Lexus panels does great job keeping all that dirt and rust inside). It only happens on idle, if I am cruising at speed then A/C light starts flashing straight away. Now based on the fault description I have found that this fault can be caused by faulty compressor clutch coil. I do believe this is not the case, because faulty coil would result in flashing A/C light and as well would fail to engage compressor, but in my case it seems it is trying to engage compressor and after multiple failures gives up and starts flashing. If I drive at speed trying to turn A/C results in flashing A/C light straight away - no impact to RPM etc. So my second guess would be that compressor itself is mechanically faulty/stuck and engaging clutch causes stress to the belt and RPM starts dropping. This would be sad news.. as replacing compressor would cost 10x more than just replacing coil. Any other thoughts? As well wouldn't you expect Lexus dealer to pick up such faults? I am not joking .. it happened 3,5 miles away from dealer after “All Green verdict”... Any help or opinion would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Hello All I have been enjoying my IS250 for the past 6ish months now. I am not sure if I have been picky but I could hear a slight grinding noise coming from engine when the car is gold. Once temperature is in the middle, its quiet. Wondering if this is normal? I have been trying to run through a can of BG44k but haven't got a chance yet. Would it rectify the problem? Thanks

Hi all. I just picked up a 2006 IS250, serviced on a yearly basis, with only 31000 miles on the clock. It blew me away on the test drive! I've never driven anything with cam chains before, and the sound they make at high speed is amazing. Is the sound system any good?

Hello Everyone, I was planning to decarb my engine for a while now. Emissions is one thing - I am sure I will still be within limits, but engine sound and fuel economy is another thing. I do use Premium fuel every second time to prevent excessive built-up of carbon etc. but at least in my opinion neither fuel additives off-shelf, nor the ones in premium fuel are sufficient to really clean all gunk, especially in IS250 before injectors. I know there are several companies offering "hydrogen decarb" service ~£100. I have hear very good opinions about it , however I am not sure how it is better than DIY cleaning by pumping steam via air inlet. There are million videos how it is done showing before and after results. Can somebody give any recommendation from personal experience? Second thing, I am not sure what impact that can have if engine have large carbon deposits already... wouldn't it block something down the line e.g. catalyst converter? Any opinions/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Hello All, Just did pre-service (at Halfords) of the pre-MOT pre-service. Few advisory items come up - rear brakes pads 8mm, one parking light bulb and failed 12v battery. No surprises there, knew that battery is not in best condition already - just nice to find out why. So the report says that battery failed, performance 0%, the cells shot and short, voltage - 10.29v. Funny enough as car is garaged both at home and where I work I have no issues with battery. Furthermore, it is Halfords own battery (some kind of Platinum with 4 years warranty) and Halfords doesn't want to fulfill their obligation to replace it under warranty. To be fair I don't have a receipt, but the battery is made only 2,5 years ago and fitted just over 2 years ago, quite obviously within the warranty. That said I decided not to replace it until it completely fails. However, already doing some research for the day of failure. My personal opinion is that battery is bit under powered for car with so much gadgets and especially mine being SEL just drains even more power, obviously living in UK have its own benefits e.g. no cold winters, so even cheap batteries last (or at least should). Based on all the information I though that I might go for Exide or Bosch. Cannot say much bad about Halfords, especially considering that it doesn't develop much issues even in such condition, but it is principal for me now not to get one from them, because I feel like their warranty is rather unfair .. Any other opinions or suggestions? Thanks in advance,

I am thinking of fitting a Lexus towbar to my 2014 IS 250. Does anyone have any photos showing one fitted. I believe the bumper has to be cut. Does this look OK? There is a photo in the IS brochure but not taken form a very good angle. Any help is appreciated

Hi, I have recently been given an IS250 SEL 07 through family. It is a lovely car, apart from a few issues that I would like to try and resolve. The first is the touchscreen is not working, however there is plenty of information online on how to fix it, so hopefully that should be resolved soon. The other issue/issues is that the car has a number of rattles and creaks, it really ruins the experience. It has only done 62000 miles so it is a little surprising how rattly it is. I have identified 1 of the rattles coming from the centre of the dash, around the speaker grill. The main noise other than the dashboard seems to be coming from the back, and its like a cracking sound generally at low speeds (doesnt even need to be a bumpy road). However, I am struggling to work out where it is coming from, does anyone have a list of common causes of rattles and creaks in the IS250 that may help me try and identify where some of the other noises are coming form? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello there, today I picked up my first Lexus! Though my other half has a Toyota Yaris 1.8, so kind of a stablemate in terms of 'brand'. I went for a 2008 IS250 SE-L Multimedia with just 35k miles and full service history. It seems to be amazingly well equipped with the ML sound system and Sat Nav Reverse Camera etc. I noted that the first part of the car registration is GY58 and have seen a few GY registrations on the car reviews etc that I looked at (like here). Is there any significance to that as possibly being a press car or a head office car? The service book has in the back Lexus (GB) Ltd, Epsom. Looking at the documentation I got with the car, the second owner bought it after 5 months and 2500miles. Really looking forward to the car, working out how to use all the gadgets! It's got a few less cylinders than I'm use to (last two cars were a 4.6 V8 Mustang engined MG/Rover and a 4.2 V8 Supercharged Jaguar S Type), but I'm looking forward to reliability rather than rapid driving!

Hey guys, seen on the forum a while ago that on the lexus is 06 onwards you can change the centre console display unit lights from there factory green option to white & blue - to match the speedo cluster. Does anyone have any ideas how much this is or how easy it can be done? From what i understand it involves some soldering etc. any info is much appreciated. cheers, Simon.

Hi all I'm a new Lexus owner and have already found the forum a useful place, so much good info and advice. Driven nearly everything (ex delivery driver), owned a few classics and always more than willing to learn, if you're heading to Barton On Sea cliff top, my kettle is always on. Good to be here.

Hello All, This is my first post in Lexus forum so sorry if I have missed similar thread. My main question is - where to buy IS (2nd gen.) "Windshield Mouldings". There is thread in US forum how to replace them, but first I need to find where to buy them and it seems there are nothing available in UK. (e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEXUS-DRIVER-PASSENGER-WINDSHIELD-MOULDING/dp/B00RDLRU5C) Part numbers are (at least US ones, probably EU/UK ones are the same): Right - 75551-53020, Left - 75552-53020, Clips - 75545-53011. There are few in ebay and amazon from US and the shipping costs more than the moldings themselves. Breakers are not a good option either as I assume used moldings not going to be much better than the ones I have. Additionally, it seems they are kind of disposable. For this reason I would prefer to go for a new ones. I guess Lexus meant to design them so blue clips breaks when removing and the moldings can be re-installed, but in reality every second clip of molding breaks as well. If there is anyone in UK who have replaced them please let me know where did you get them from, maybe somebody knows the price from the dealers? I guess my final option is to glue the broken molding pins to the clips and instal the clips as normal. If anyone have any suggestions or have experience with this thing please let me know, thank you in advance, Linas

Hi Guys, I'm new to the forum and I wanted to ask the experts for some advice. I have decided on a IS250 SEL Auto as my next car as apposed to a BMW 325 auto (e90 shape), it will be my first Lexus (currently have a Nissan Juke and before that a v6 Merc c240). I searched Auto trader and Gumtree found independents/private guys selling them for around £6.5 - 7.5k with 60k(ish) on the clock on a 06/07plate. I found dealers offering similar for £8.5k- £9k ish. My questions are; 1. Are dealer cars worth £1-1.5k premium? 2. Is there a notable difference between the 05/06 cars and 09 cars? I would naturally go for the newer cars but it seems as the IS250 seems to be reliable, well built and without any major changes untill 2010ish.... so why pay extra? I would really appreciate some guidance and experience. Thanks for reading

Hi guys, I bought a beautiful mica red 06 is250 back in February and since then it has gone through oil pretty quickly. The manual says anything up to 1l per 600miles is acceptable and mine is probably using about a litre per 1.2k. This suprised me at first because my previous is200 never used a drop. However, seeing as I am going to have to top it up regularly, what oil does everyone recommended? Lexus' own is £70 for 5l which isn't too bad but any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, James