Rust

[Vlad]

Hey. I bought my lexus is250 couple days ago and just noticed this rust in the bottom. I don't like what i see and thinking to return the car. What you recommend?

[Linas.P]

Hi and welcome,

I would not worry about surface rust like in first picture, after all it is 13 years old car. The second picture is little bit difficult to workout what it is, but I assume it is place where anti-roll bar is held by the bushing? Again what is important to check is if anti-roll bar is actually compromised or if it is just surface rust.

I would expect most of suspension components to have good layer of mud and grime stuck on them over 13 years and everything metal (some suspension components are aluminium) to have surface rust, exhaust will have load of surface rust as well. I haven't noticed rust on my old car anti-roll bar, but there were some surface rust on shock-tower covers and under the Battery tray. 

What I would not expect is to have any rust on the body panels or any structure parts of the car. So I guess your next step would be having car lifted to the air, check underneath and take good quality pictures of that. 

In short, I would not want to see that on my car (second picture), but not something which I think is very concerning.

[Vlad]

Thanks for reply. Im not expert in cars and don't know how parts are called, i was looking to find the name of anti roll bar actually haha. So i just checked now the price of the anti roll bar and is not that expensive. But hopefully the place where it's attaches is not rusty, which is the body i suppose.

Yes I'll go to mechanic tomorrow to check underneath also and scan it also.

I was thinking to change the oil coz its a used car and it's good to be done, but the oil is so clean on the dipstick

[Linas.P]

I always plan to do filters and oils when buying the used car, so that cannot hurt - good idea.

In terms of anti-roll bar, as far as I can see (and assuming it is actually it in the picture), it seems it is only the anti-roll bar has rust, then there is bushing fitted into body rail and I cannot see any rust on body rail. Whenever you actually need to replace anti-roll bar is equally questionable. - maybe replacing rubber bushing, cleaning off rust and painting it over will be enough. At least I have never heard about anti-roll bad rusting the the level where it needs to be changed.

[Vlad]

41 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

I always plan to do filters and oils when buying the used car, so that cannot hurt - good idea.

In terms of anti-roll bar, as far as I can see (and assuming it is actually it in the picture), it seems it is only the anti-roll bar has rust, then there is bushing fitted into body rail and I cannot see any rust on body rail. Whenever you actually need to replace anti-roll bar is equally questionable. - maybe replacing rubber bushing, cleaning off rust and painting it over will be enough. At least I have never heard about anti-roll bad rusting the the level where it needs to be changed.

Thanks mate. I'll let you know what mechanic says tomorrow. By the way the car has done 62k miles and i think spark plugs never been checked either, should i go for that too? 

[scudney]

If the plugs haven't been done already l personally would have them done.

[Linas.P]

Yes I agree as well - although plugs don't need to be done @60k, considering the age of the car this is one to add to the list. As well water pump if not done. If I not mistaken these are recommended for 80k.

[Vlad]

Thanks guys, it's my first lexus btw. I suppose you can do lots of repairs by yourself on this car isn't it. 

[Linas.P]

I would not say Lexus IS250 is very simple car to work on, but it never goes wrong. I guess depends what you compare it with. I would say electrical part and engine/gearbox is rather difficult and access is award - but again you won't have issues with that and if you do it is unlikely to be worth replacing anyway.

For example replacing spark-plugs is nightmare, when I did it neighbour thought it am trying to reassemble engine from bits - it certainly looked like that. Changing gearbox oil is not simple task either. The only things which I do by myself regularly is basically brake calliper greasing-up (should do at least once a year, preferably two times), pads, discs and air filter.

Suspension is not difficult to work on, I replaced lower ball-joint and anti-toll bar drop-links myself, but be prepared to fight rather rusty bolts on 13 years old car. I broken the first ball-joint extractor and barely done it with second one - metal ball-joint shank had welded itself to aluminium suspension arm.

[Vlad]

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I would not say Lexus IS250 is very simple car to work on, but it never goes wrong. I guess depends what you compare it with. I would say electrical part and engine/gearbox is rather difficult and access is award - but again you won't have issues with that and if you do it is unlikely to be worth replacing anyway.

For example replacing spark-plugs is nightmare, when I did it neighbour thought it am trying to reassemble engine from bits - it certainly looked like that. Changing gearbox oil is not simple task either. The only things which I do by myself regularly is basically brake calliper greasing-up (should do at least once a year, preferably two times), pads, discs and air filter.

Suspension is not difficult to work on, I replaced lower ball-joint and anti-toll bar drop-links myself, but be prepared to fight rather rusty bolts on 13 years old car. I broken the first ball-joint extractor and barely done it with second one - metal ball-joint shank had welded itself to aluminium suspension arm. 

That's why i bought it coz everybody says it's reliable. But i guess if you do service every car on time and what it needs then it will be reliable. Also some people say you should service the gearbox and done say no, that's another completed thing lol.

Hahah image. And it's even expansive to buy the tools i think, better but the parts and let a mechanic do it (if you trust him) coz plugs needs to be done once every 60k if im not wrong.

And yes looks like breaks are issues on this car coz its heavy. I drive it on S mode and downshifting so won't use much break.

To remove rusty stuff is a headache for sure lol

[Linas.P]

15 minutes ago, Vlad said:

But i guess if you do service every car on time and what it needs then it will be reliable.

Also some people say you should service the gearbox and done say no, that's another completed thing lol.

And yes looks like breaks are issues on this car coz its heavy. I drive it on S mode and downshifting so won't use much break.

To remove rusty stuff is a headache for sure lol

There are cars which need maintenance to be reliable and ones which are simply reliable  - IS250 is later. It is hard to believe how little this car costs to run.

I am on the camp who say - "don't fix it if it ain't broken", but I think ~100k miles AT fluid will need changing. Just refreshing ~4l which is in the pan should be enough. I did a lot of engine breaking with manual downshifts and I reckon that had an impact on AT fluid as well (meaning it got dirtier quicker). Now helped new owner to change the AT fluid and car shifts an accelerates noticeable nicer (it was done for a first time at 193k miles!).

Regarding weight of the car, yes - it eats front discs very quickly, so when refurbishing callipers it is quite good idea to upgrade both discs and callipers to IS/GS350 ones. They wear much slower and there is less dust. The calliper greasing is required, because IS250 has not the best design of callipers and slider pins tend to seize. The more they seize the more they rust and then they seize even more - never ending cycle. Preventative maintenance is just getting red rubber grease and greasing all pins once or twice a year.

As I said - the areas you have showed does not look bad for me. I would probably get new bushings for anti-roll bar, clean the rust when replacing them and just spray paint the roll-bar to prevent further corrosion.

You can check list of items I changed on my car in 190k miles... not much to be honest - you your car has loads of life left for sure:

 

[Mr Vlad]

Blimey that makes 3 of us Vlads on here lol. I see you're in Greater Manchester too. And also the SE-L model. That's spooky lol. Which garage are you going to use? What service history has your car got? I recommend go on the Lexus website and register your car. You'll need the log book by the way as proof of ownership. Once you've registered with your cars reg number you can see if its got any Lexus dealer servicing. As to surface rust no sweat. Use one of those brush on rust killers, Hammerite make one and it's excellent. Kills rust and turns it blue/black and act's as a protective coating. 

[Linas.P]

6 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

Use one of those brush on rust killers, Hammerite make one and it's excellent. Kills rust and turns it blue/black and act's as a protective coating. 

Just don't do it before reaching out to seller, if you still planning to do it 🙂

Funny story with my name as well. I checked if there is private plate L1NAS and indeed there is - fitted on Black Lexus SE-L in London (exactly like mine).

[Vlad]

2 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Blimey that makes 3 of us Vlads on here lol. I see you're in Greater Manchester too. And also the SE-L model. That's spooky lol. Which garage are you going to use? What service history has your car got? I recommend go on the Lexus website and register your car. You'll need the log book by the way as proof of ownership. Once you've registered with your cars reg number you can see if its got any Lexus dealer servicing. As to surface rust no sweat. Use one of those brush on rust killers, Hammerite make one and it's excellent. Kills rust and turns it blue/black and act's as a protective coating. 

Haha Indeed im supposed about Vlads in here. The service history it's from lexus and and the car looks like it's been in good hands. Just gonna go to a local garage on Wednesday to check everything up and see what they saying.i guess i got the car at the wrong mileage coz its the service time and i didn't know about it lol feeling a bit stupid coz need to spend extra money now. But i think break pads needs changing, oil, filter, spark plugs and put that thing for rust if the metal is not destroyed and the car is fine.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Vlad

[Mr Vlad]

Lexus Stockport quoted me £25 per spark plug to change. That's parts and labour. The Hammerite stuff is KURUST. Don't use it straight from the bottle. Pour a little into a small shallow container like a bottle top. 

[Vlad]

3 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Lexus Stockport quoted me £25 per spark plug to change. That's parts and labour. The Hammerite stuff is KURUST. Don't use it straight from the bottle. Pour a little into a small shallow container like a bottle top. 

Where can i buy the original plugs, it's Denso but ik20 or ik22 ?. I guess is about £20 per plug and £30 to put them on. And you sure they change them? Lol.

Pour out then use clean brush for next time also?

[Mr Vlad]

Lexus Stockport will supply the spark plugs and replace the old ones. £150 all in parts and labour included. 

[Linas.P]

That is good value, I would definitely rather pay that than do it myself, but sadly Stockport is far away from me...

[Vlad]

Yeh that's not bad at all if they really change it lol because as we know some mechanics can lie  and you can't check if it's done unless you see it yourself

[Vlad]

On 2/23/2021 at 7:42 AM, Mr Vlad said:

Lexus Stockport will supply the spark plugs and replace the old ones. £150 all in parts and labour included. 

Just called and asked they told me £270.

And the plugs is £80 

[Mr Vlad]

Really???? Thats weird. Maybe the quote I got is because I'm a regular customer and got a service plan with them. 

Well if you feel confident and comfortable doing it yourself then first look at YouTube where there are loads of videos how to do it.

[Linas.P]

It is not impossible and it does not require any really specialised tools. However, the amount of parts coming off is quite scary and it is important to keep track of all parts, where they go and how to put the thing back together. In a sense, this is just tedious job of keeping track of parts, but not otherwise difficult, complex or costly.

[Vlad]

If it's really £80 then it's cheap. I can just buy the plugs and give to a mechanic to do it for me. 

Which model you guys have?

[Mr Vlad]

Same as yours. Mines 07 plate 84k miles full lexus service history one owner from new. Was lucky to find it and get it. 

[Linas.P]

I used to have 2008 IS250 SE-L, got it ~122k miles, sold it ~193k miles... still goes strong with minimal service and as far as I am concerned drives better than my RC200t despite being nearly 10 years older. Sure modern conveniences are not the same, like adaptive suspension, LED lights, infotainment system and looks, but mk2 IS was more solidly built car and for it's time very well equipped.