My IS300h thread

Jayw13702 · June 18, 2018

I’ve owned my 2014 300h for about a month now, celestial black SE with 16” wheels, premium nav and black interior. Whilst it’s almost poverty spec it was exactly what I wanted.

Bought it with 58,000 on it, ex fleet car so it comes with its own host of ex fleet war wounds, many of which I’ve already taken car of.

The car

First thing when I got it home was a good wash and polish, that’s when I discovered it was metallic rather than normal black, that was a pleasant bonus.

The Prius was the 300h’s predecessor, and from a reliability pilot of view a very difficult car to replace, 130,000 miles in 26 months and not one mechanical failure.

Now I wanted 16” wheels because of ride comfort, free road tax and cheaper tyres, this will be used as a taxi so like the Prius will be doing serious mileage, as it stands I’ve done just shy of 4000 miles in 5 weeks so far and have been very impressed.

First job, mats, something just to set the interior off a little

Then I have to take car of some marks on the interior, these panels were badly scratched so out came the piano black vinyl.

Next it was the two way radio and data head. I hate having things on the windscreen, and I wanted this to be as discreet as possible

The data head is my meter but also all my job info comes through this.

After that, wind deflectors,

I’ve had to grind down one of the faces of the deflector on the drivers side as it was causing the window to drag too much.

The only other thing fitted was a nextbase cctv camera, I decided to use the hardware kit that was supplied, it was dead easy to fit, took about 30 mins to fit.

That was all within a few days of getting the car, the plan was to run the car, find out what needs doing mechanically and set about adding my own touches along the way.

First job this week was mudflaps. The Lexus has soft paint and I knew that in a short space of time the mudflaps would rub the paint away in those areas where contact takes place, so I made up some paintwork protectors out of clear vinyl I had in the garage

You can’t see the protector very well but it runs parallel with the profile of the mudflaps.

Still have the rears to do, that will be the weekend.

So jobs to do very soon

60k service

Transmission oil

Rear axle oil

Discs and pads all round

Egr cooler cleaned

tinted rear windows

And then there’s the modification I would like to do....but those I’m still investigating

Updates to follow

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Farqui · June 19, 2018

Nice upgrade and write up there Jason.

How does the 300h compare to the Prius?

rich1068 · June 19, 2018

Yes. Keep us up to date. It'll be interesting to see how the IS handles serious mileage.

Jayw13702 · June 19, 2018

Nice upgrade and write up there Jason.
How does the 300h compare to the Prius?

The principles of hybrid driving are the same but the cars are so very different.

The 300h is a smaller car in the cabin but a far more comfortable place to be, a lot quieter and the feeling of better quality materials being used in the car.

From a spec point of view both the 300h and my Prius which was top of the range were the same spec, the only one difference was the Prius had auto wipers but no auto lights.

Fuel economy isn’t much different, less than 5-8 mpg but the way the 300h delivers the power is so much nicer, the e-cvt box is easier to live with.

The Prius was aimed at a different market, and that’s apparent when you jump from one to the other, the Prius was well put together and even with 170,000 miles on it there were no squeaks or rattles from the interior. I’m hoping the 300h is the same. If it is I may run this one to about 250,000 miles

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Jayw13702 · June 19, 2018

Yes. Keep us up to date. It'll be interesting to see how the IS handles serious mileage.

By the time I get to the end of the year I’m guessing we will be close to 90k on the clock and I will have a good idea of how this will perform long term and high mileage

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Jayw13702 · July 29, 2018

wow I can believe that the last time I posted was 6 weeks ago, and about 9,000 miles!!

I do nearly all the work on the car myself, father in law works in a motor factors and as a rule I buy parts from him, im fussy what companies I use, they have to be OE spec or better, and 9/10 times I get it cheaper than I can at Lexus, but that's also because the box doesn't have a Lexus badge on it.

I know that the lack of Lexus stamp will have an impact on the resale value, but again I don't expect top dollar when I come to resell.

Service at 60K, so filters all round, 0/20 oil, plugs and rear diff oil. My only query was the plugs.

Lexus will sell me the plugs, with my discount as a Taxi driver I could get hem for about £57 for the set. Now I know they are Denso FR20HBR8, my father in law who works at a local motor factor couldn't find a listing for the IS300h so we concluded that the plugs were a Lexus only part. A quick call direct to Denso though and they provided me with a superseded part number IKBH20TT, now these are available over the counter at a factor, and the cost, £24. When I got them I went over them thoroughly and they look identical. I appreciate that they could be different heat range and I wouldn't be able to tell just by looking.

Getting to the plugs was pretty straightforward, remove the plastic engine cover, the plastic wiring rail I held on with 3x10mm nuts

undo those and you can then get at the wiring for each coil pack

the coil packs are held on with 1x10mm bolt per pack

I swap out each plug one at a time, that way the coil pack goes back in the cylinder it came out of, I always make sure the coil pack is clean and dry at the plug end as well.

Once the plugs are swapped out then its all back together.

The service took me about 1.5 hours to do, im still finding my way around the car and whilst I was underneath I was looking at things that may present issues long term, one that caught my eye was the front grille and how large the holes are in it.

My chief concern here is how easily stones could get through and puncture the A/C condensor, so I will be trying to find a solution that will sit behind this, not stand out and also protect the A/C system.

Once the service was done there was a noticeable change in the MPG, I have gained about 4-5 mpg so its fair to say the car needed the service, sadly I ran out of time so didn't get time to do the diff oil change, postponed for a later day.

Jayw13702 · July 29, 2018

Next big job was the discs and pads all round.

I had noticed how crappy looking the callipers were so I planned to paint the callipers whilst I was at it, before that though I also wanted to paint the non contact parts of the brake discs, again I can't stand rusty looking parts.

Father in law came up trumps again, just shy of £250 for discs and pads all round.

Ive used Blue print (ADT) brake parts in the past and had no issues with them at all, good value and last as long as OE

First job, degrease and mask the discs

once the inner and outer face of the disc is done then time for some paint, I use silver smoothrite

And the same with the rears, but I have masked the contact area where the wheel mounts against the hub as I don't paint that surface

once all of this was done it was time for the swap over

Jayw13702 · July 29, 2018

the basic idea behind the front and rear pad change is exactly the same, as is the disc change, the only thing to remember on the rear discs is that you have handbrake shoes, ill come on to that later.

i'll start with the pad change as its the more common of the two.

jack the car up and support with axle stands

first job is to push back the piston and ensure the sliders move smoothly, I have a set of water pump pliers and a large flat bladed screwdriver.

The caliper carrier is held onto the hub with 2x17mm bolts and then there are 2x14mm bolts that connect the caliper carrier to the main caliper body

once you have undone the two 14mm bolts you only need to remove the top one, leave the bottom one loose and it will act as a pivot

Prise the old pads out, clean up the stainless steel pad springs

make sure they are clean to the point of being shiny again, I smear a small amount of copper grease on the flat surface, other people use more specific things like 'padgoo'

On the end of each of the old pads is a little curved piece of metal that slides onto the end of the brake pad backing, remember to remove them from the old pads and swap them to the new ones, if you don't you will certainly get pad rattle.

Slide the pad into the caliper and put a small amount on copper grease on the backs of the brake pads to stop brake squeal. If you have aftermarket pads you may find them very tight to fit, sometimes the shoulders that sit in the caliper carrier need a little filing down, do it a little at a time until they fit with a small mouth of resistance, don't overdo it.

refit the caliper body and do up the 14mm bolts to the required torque, I also use thread lock, again thats a personal preference.

Repeat for the other side.

Rear pad changes are the same as the fronts except the pads are slight smaller.

Disc changes.

If you are doing discs then you are also changing pads at the same time, I remove the pads in the same way as doing a pad change, and also push back the caliper, but in order to remove the disc the caliper carrier needs to be removed, this is held on the hub with 2x17mm bolts.

once the carrier is removed the disc will not just pop off, it needs to be remove using two 13mm bolts that are screwed into the holes on the disc face

it will let go.....eventually and sometimes with a Big Bang!, just be aware of that. I used a couple of old manifold studs to remove mine

Clean up the hub assembly where the disc sits, it will allow the new disc to sit squarely on the hub.

The rear discs are the same principle except for the rubber grommet needs to be removed in order to gain access to the adjuster mechanism. pop the grommet out and then place the hole at about the 10 to position, shine a light in the hole and there will be the adjuster, in order to back the adjuster off you will need a flat ended screwdriver and you will need to spin the adjuster anticlockwise until the handbrake shoes back off enough to allow the disc to slide over them.

readjusting the shoes is the reverse of this, its a bit of trial and error, I try to set them up so theres a bit of drag but not too much, it took me a few attempts to get the right.

whilst I had all my brakes apart I decided to repaint them all, first job was cleaning them all, I use trolls breath to get rid of the worse of the brake dust etc

leave it to soak in for 5-10 mins and then agitate it with a small brush, then wash off with warm water, it works very well.

I stripped the caliper carriers off the car and painted them on the bench

the caliper was don't on the car, I didn't want to get into the joys of having to rebleed the brakes, I also took the time to really clean the pad springs

a couple were damage so had to be bent back into place.

then reassembly,

caliper carrier

all fitted up and ready to go

at the same time I had cleaned the inside of the wheels, getting rid of 60K miles worth of crud and brake dust, sadly I didn't get any pictures of that

I am really pleased with how they came out, the callipers now stand out a little and don't look all rusty and crappy

Jayw13702 · July 29, 2018

Final job recently, one that I didn't have time for at the 60K service was the diff oil change.

The hardest part here was getting the car high enough that I can get underneath and also level so I get the right amount of oil in the diff.

You will need a 10mm Allen key for both the fill and drain plugs.

2 litres of diff oil and two metal o ring washers for the plugs

I also have a hand pump to put the oil in the diff, its a lot easier than messing with bottles and filling spouts.

I always undo the filling plug first, no point in draining the diff if I can't get the filler open.

both the filler and the drain and on the right hand side of the diff (viewing from the back of the car)

the one circled in black is the drain, in yellow is the filler

don't forget to clean the magnetic trap at the end of the drain plug

put the drain plug back in, fill the diff up until the oil is flowing out of the fill hole and then reinsert the fill plug.

its not a hard job to do, just awkward because you are working upside down and dealing with slightly smelly oils.

the next big job will be the transmission oil change or the EGR cooler......be back soon

matt8 · July 31, 2018

Thanks for sharing!

Great to see how it's all done.

Farqui · August 2, 2018

Well done, it's good to see you getting this done yourself - very rewarding

Jayw13702 · September 6, 2018

Mileage just over 72,000 now and climbing steadily the jobs are now starting to mount up a little as I order little trinkets to add to the car.

Did a service recently (70,000) and at the time realised that the oil filter housing had pretty much welded itself on. it wouldn't move for love nor force.

At the service before I had changed the filters and. followed the instructions on torquing the housing back up to 25nm +/- 5nm. however in 10,000 miles it had stuck solid, not even the proper tool could remove it, the housing actually broke one of the pegs on the tool as we were trying to get the housing off!!

Now I have done many many services on Prius and Auris, with the exception of the bleed valve the housing is the same and the tool is as well, I have never had one go solid on me like this had.

So after some deliberation, and a lot of swearing I decided there was only one way this sucker was coming off............... in pieces

a combination of a Dremel a hammer and a small chisel made easy work of it, I was surprised how little resistance it gave.

So with the alloy part of the housing all cleaned up I fitted a new oil filter and housing (£53 from Lexus) and made sure it wasn't done up quite so tightly 😉

Next jobs to to, illuminated door sills and alloy pedal covers, they've just arrive from the Far East so im just looking over them and making sure there's no little nasties in store when I come to fit them

Edited September 6, 2018 by Jayw13702
moving pics around the text

route66 · September 20, 2018

Thanks Jason - fantastic thread!

Of your list of jobs, I'm very interested in these 2:

Transmission oil
From what I understand, Lexus do not recommend you ever change the transmission oil and therefore do not make it easy - as least for a DIYer - to change it. Apparently dealers can do it but they have a special gizmo that allows them to extract the oil. I've read lots about peoples plans to actually do this but sadly noting at all about an actual IS300H transmission oil change.
Egr cooler cleaned
I've only heard of this being discussed as a Prius activity. Like the above, I have never seen anything about it being done on an IS300H, other than vague comments about how it should be. I've also read that the IS300H is a next generation Hybrid - as in newer hybrid technology than the Prius that you owned in the above pictures - and therefore this is not applicable.

I did basic servicing on my last car - a Honda Accord 2.0 VTEC - but other than straightening a gearlever gaiter on my IS300H, I haven't touched it.

IRLLexus300 · February 10, 2019

One quick question if you don't mind:

What is the recommended oil grade to use in the diff? And when should it be changed? My IS300h is coming towards 60k.

ColinBarber · February 10, 2019

8 minutes ago, IRLLexus300 said:

One quick question if you don't mind:

What is the recommended oil grade to use in the diff? And when should it be changed? My IS300h is coming towards 60k.

Rear diff - The European schedule states every 4 years. UK may be different, should be stated in your service book.

Oil grade is 75W-85 GL-5.

IRLLexus300 · February 10, 2019

30 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Rear diff - The European schedule states every 4 years. UK may be different, should be stated in your service book.

Oil grade is 75W-85 GL-5.

Thank you

Jayw13702 · March 3, 2019

one of the niggles I have with the 300h is the poor lighting in the boot and rear footwells, so I bought some LED lights.

I bought a pack of 10, I may only need a few of them but I was working on the basis that I can hack them about or a few may break along the way.

So firstly I removed the rear interior light and the rear parcel shelf cover. there are about 10 expanding plastic rivets holding the shelf cover to the shelf itself.

sorry for the poor pic there

figured out where to place two of the lights so I get a good spread of light in the boot.

the lights still need to recoloured so as to hide them a little.

With the lights positioned I then made up a small loom to connect it all together, I used a bit of hot glue to hold the loom in place, its not the prettiest I have done but it is effective.

refit the shelf cover and hook it up to the existing light supply

so much more light in there now

Jayw13702 · March 3, 2019

flushed with the success of the boot I then started on the rear footwells, I had also bought a pair of doorstep lights as well online, time to wire it all up.

The power feed was the front footwell lights that sit under the dashboard, the lights will then react when the doors are open.

the LED lights were placed on the rear of the front seat frames, it was one of the few places I could get the lights to adhere to, I measured back to the powered and made a loom to run back to the power supply.

the illuminated door steps were added

The inner door sets cover removed and the wiring routed along the current wiring loom up to the power supply.

all the work on this I have pictured is on the drivers side, its a more difficult side to dismantle.

there are two screws, one on each side, holding the trim panel in place, undo those and then pull the trim panel

Ive collected all the wiring under the dash and terminated it into a female connector

the passenger side is a lot easier, there are no screws holding the trim panel.

so with it all put back together, the finished article.

really pleased with the results, the back of the car lights up so much better now.

Jayw13702 · March 3, 2019

finally had a chance to give the car a wash and polish this weekend.

considering its now down 95,000 miles the paintwork isn't too shabby, although the front bumper will need repainting this year sometime.

part of the reason I love Celestial Black is the way it reacts in the sun

Jayw13702 · August 15, 2019

I can't believe its been nearly 5 months since I last updated.....

So, firstly this happened in April

its been service work over the last few months that's been carried out, as ever the IS does its thing well, customers comment on how smooth it is and how smart the interior looks. I still chuckle when I get MPG figures like this on a run to London from Plymouth.......

Currently its now sat at 118,500.

The only niggle have ever had with the IS has been the lack of spare wheel. This was reinforced when I caught a kerb a few weeks ago and gashed the sidewall of the tyre, the Lexus repair kit would have been useless there and I had to limp the car about 3/4 of a mile up the road to a tyre centre.

I know that there are space constraints and that's one of the reasons for not having a spare, but its still something that haunts me and is one of the downsides to Lexus ownership.

About 3 months ago I needed new pads fitting to the car, being low on available time to get them done I asked a local garage to do them for me as I didn't have time to get in the garage and do it myself, how I regret this.....

Over the last few weeks I have noticed a brake wobble that's been getting progressively worse as time has gone on, the discs were only fitted last July so I was a little surprised to find the discs were warped. Whilst I do a lot of mileage I don't make a habit of hammering the brakes and the last time I warped a set of discs was about 30 years ago on a old ford whose discs were as thin as wafers.

This week I bit the bullet and decided to fit new discs and pads, however I didnt use genuine parts.

Some would say a little over the top, however I have used EBC items on other cars and find they give off little brake dust and the discs have an excellent wear rate, and they look nicer than standard discs as well 😉

This should be an easy job was my first thought, an hour or 2 and we should be back on the road with new brake bling installed. oh how wrong was I 😞

When the car went in last time I was clear to the garage, check the sliders and if there are any issues let me know and get them sorted.

The sliders were seized solid, as a result the pads are binding on the disc and the thinking is this is what's been partially responsible for the warping of the discs. the other contributing factor would have been some idiot who decided to visit lane 3 of the M4 whilst I was doing 80mph, however he wasn't 😳 so they went from being warm to very hot quite quickly, and the air went very blue in the car as well.

But that wasn't the worse of the shoddiness....

These are the bolts that hold the calliper carrier to the hub, I remember some comment when I picked the car up about having to remove the carriers, im guessing to un-seize the sliders, both of them have damaged thread and as a result

There is next to bugger all thread left on the carrier and the bolt no longer does up tightly, it just spins and spins 🤬

and this is why I don't trust garages, its a total bodge, and im guessing they knew something was amiss because one of the bolts was full of thread lock.

this was Monday, a few phone calls to Lexus and a parts supplier have got me the new carrier bolts, a new carrier as well as a slider kit for the other carrier. At the same time I bought 4ltrs of WS fluid and all the washers needed for the sump plug and refill plug, that's a job for when I get back off holiday.

Next jobs (end of August) will be the gearbox fluid change, diff fluid change, anti freeze and inverter fluid change and a 120,000 mile service which will include the plugs as well

so far I have done about 60,000 miles in 18 months and have averaged 49mpg in real terms. Servicing is still the biggest cost and this issue with the calliper carrier has been the only non-scheduled day off work due to item failure (faulty workmanship). Ive used Continental tyres and have been getting about 27,000 miles out of them, which at £75 isn't bad value in my eyes.

The cabin is still nice and rattle free, I feel the set cushion on my seat is losing its firmness, im only 14 stone so am a bit surprised by that, when I hoover the car ive noticed bits of foam under the drivers seat

Currently i'm still having a battle with Lexus to sort out the rust on the chassis leg of the car, I posted about it here

Lexus GB are now having another look at this since it was picked up as an advisory on my MOT, needless to say I was not impressed when Lexus first refused to deal with it however they had a change of heart when I went back to them with the MOT information.

I can't complain about the car, according to auto trader its still worth about 10K, and that would be achievable if the bumper and bonnet and repainted and the stonechips dealt with.

rich1068 · August 15, 2019

Extremely impressive.

route66 · August 15, 2019

I know what you mean - I replaced the cabin air filter myself recently and found that the Lexus mechanic who last replaced it put it in upside down. There is even an arrow on the filter stating which way up. Really!

I think you have a love-hate relationship with your overall Lexus ownership experience but that it appears to suit your needs 100%

Can't wait to hear how you get on with your next scheduled jobs - particularly your gearbox oil and inverter fluid change. Any plans to replace your services belt?

Jayw13702 · August 15, 2019

I know what you mean - I replaced the cabin air filter myself recently and found that the Lexus mechanic who last replaced it put it in upside down. There is even an arrow on the filter stating which way up. Really!
I think you have a love-hate relationship with your overall Lexus ownership experience but that it appears to suit your needs 100%
Can't wait to hear how you get on with your next scheduled jobs - particularly your gearbox oil and inverter fluid change. Any plans to replace your services belt?

You’ve summed it up well, mine is a love/hate relationship.

The boot is about 6 inches too narrow is my only other niggle with the car, aside from that I love it, it’s individual, good looking, total reliability and very economical. And for all of that I speak really highly of the the Lexus product.

The dealers however [emoji17] no!!

I had forgotten about the Services belt, I need to check that, thanks for the reminder [emoji106]

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route66 · August 15, 2019

Official recommendation in the attached is "Inspect 105,000 km (63,000 miles), after 105,000 km Inspect every 15,000 km (9,000 miles)"

Official IS service schedule.pdf

Jayw13702 · August 15, 2019

Official recommendation in the attached is "Inspect 105,000 km (63,000 miles), after 105,000 km Inspect every 15,000 km (9,000 miles)"
Official IS service schedule.pdf

Thanks for that, I’m going to print that off and keep it in the garage

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