Buying a 2009 MY SE-L in 2022. Folly?

[Mr Vlad]

The teyes CC3 is perfectly compatible with pre face lift is250. The unit itself looks like the standard headunit. I'll be getting one this summer for my 2007 car.

[SeanR]

On the subject of direct injection, guess this is all that can be done to avoid issues.

 

[Linas.P]

To be honest video correctly identifies issue with DI engines, but the advise is completely useless. The guy even acknowledges that himself, but still goes ahead advising to waste money on spark plugs or premium fuel which has literally no impact on carbon build-up on intake valves. All the advised in the video is not justified by any logic (apart of advising "throw more money at it and hope") and even basically states - this will be useless, but "it can't hurt". It would basically apply to any engine, DI or non-DI. Now to be fair, nothing that was suggested would hurt the engine and most of it was just normal maintenance - so yes... do it but don't expect to avoid DI specific issues.

What was not mentioned was catch-can, which would be way more beneficial than anything else he mentioned. But again don't be mistaking - catch-can cant remove carbon build-up, it would only slow down accumulation of it, so if the car already did 100k miles without it, then it is unlikely to be useful, unless you clean all intake valves before installing it.

Finally, how much of the problem it is? frankly not much - just looked at my 102k miles engine and the valves are basically clean, before I had checked my old car at ~ 180k and valves were clean (but some cleaning was done to them so.. who knows). In short, this is not as much of an issue as people may suggest and before doing anything about it simply look at how your valves looks and you may not even have this issue.

[SeanR]

Good to hear your engine valves are clean at 102k!!

Out of curiosity, what would a garage charge to clean them up nowadays?, thats if they were bad.

[Mr Vlad]

Pity you didn't take photos of those valves Linas. They would have given fellow owners much piece of mind.

As for getting valves clean Sean I'd guestimate around the 500 quid mark. The labour to remove the inlet manifold then the stuff they use, walnut shell, and the machine use. Probably be half a days work too.

[SeanR]

Not a price you want to pay but not a disaster should it happen

Lets hope we dont

 

Cheers

[Linas.P]

Vlad is right - to do it properly you basically need the heads removed and it would be extensive job. I was told £350 to get them "walnut blasted", which doesn't require the head removal, but at the same time it does not address exhaust valves. 

I did TerraClean on old car, but as I said it was kind of waste of money, I don't know how the valves looked before, I don't know if it cleaned them at all and I felt same as before. Not saying it does not work, but at the same time I haven't done it in the way that could prove whenever it did or didn't. One thing it definitely didn't do - my fuel consumption was a bit up and one of the claims was that by cleaning all the engine components it should improve fuel consumption, but it didn't. Suspect was "lazy", but not yet faulty o2 sensor, but it never been bad enough to bother me to investigate and get it fixed. 

[Mister Rockets]

Well, folly or not, I bit the bullet and collected the car from Buxton on Saturday  and drove back to Bristol with my eldest riding shotgun and playing with the infotainment. A 2009 MY SE-L. Not completely without issue. A front parking sensor appears to be duff (parking sensors were switched off) and the o/s wing mirror behaves slightly erratically and clicks ominously suggesting an expensive repair is looming.

However, I am not too disheartened and following a 3 hour return journey (better than the 8 hours it took to get there via public transport 😡), I emerged from the car feeling fresh-ish and pain-free which is always a bonus. Comfy car.

It's my first Lexus experience and so far so good. There's a small PDR 'opportunity' otherwise the car appears to be in overall good mechanical order. Plenty of history (although do Halfords an KwikFit count🤔) and previous keeper had it for over 8 years. Hopefully it will last another 8.

 

[markeyszoo]

2 hours ago, Mister Rockets said:

Well, folly or not, I bit the bullet and collected the car from Buxton on Saturday  and drove back to Bristol with my eldest riding shotgun and playing with the infotainment. A 2009 MY SE-L. Not completely without issue. A front parking sensor appears to be duff (parking sensors were switched off) and the o/s wing mirror behaves slightly erratically and clicks ominously suggesting an expensive repair is looming.

However, I am not too disheartened and following a 3 hour return journey (better than the 8 hours it took to get there via public transport 😡), I emerged from the car feeling fresh-ish and pain-free which is always a bonus. Comfy car.

It's my first Lexus experience and so far so good. There's a small PDR 'opportunity' otherwise the car appears to be in overall good mechanical order. Plenty of history (although do Halfords an KwikFit count🤔) and previous keeper had it for over 8 years. Hopefully it will last another 8.

 

What is MY?

[Texas]

Model Year.

[Mister Rockets]

6 hours ago, markeyszoo said:

What is MY?

MY = Model Year

[J Henderson]

Looks like Cadoxton Slate? For me, one of the best colours that these cars come in. 👍

The mirror mechanism might just need cleaned and re-lubricated. There's a Guide on the site if you fancy pulling the mirror apart to investigate.

[McShmoopy]

13 hours ago, Mister Rockets said:

Well, folly or not, I bit the bullet and collected the car from Buxton on Saturday  and drove back to Bristol with my eldest riding shotgun and playing with the infotainment. A 2009 MY SE-L. Not completely without issue. A front parking sensor appears to be duff (parking sensors were switched off) and the o/s wing mirror behaves slightly erratically and clicks ominously suggesting an expensive repair is looming.

However, I am not too disheartened and following a 3 hour return journey (better than the 8 hours it took to get there via public transport 😡), I emerged from the car feeling fresh-ish and pain-free which is always a bonus. Comfy car.

It's my first Lexus experience and so far so good. There's a small PDR 'opportunity' otherwise the car appears to be in overall good mechanical order. Plenty of history (although do Halfords an KwikFit count🤔) and previous keeper had it for over 8 years. Hopefully it will last another 8.

 

Congrats on the car it looks rather good! Unsure about the mirror but for the parking sensor try turning it off and on a few times and getting close to an object or have someone stand in front to activate it. When i picked up my mums is250C I noticed the parking sensors weren’t beeping as they had been turned off but it took a few minutes of messing around with them to get them operational 

[F.A.]

Looks like a MY10 facelift 

[Mister Rockets]

5 hours ago, F.A. said:

Looks like a MY10 facelift 

Date of first registration is 21 October 2009

[SeanR]

Like the wheels, they 18" ?

[F.A.]

12 minutes ago, SeanR said:

Like the wheels, they 18" ?

Yes, standard fit on the SE-L of that model year, until the next MY11 facelift. 

[Mister Rockets]

9 minutes ago, SeanR said:

Like the wheels, they 18" ?

Yes, 18". It still seems to ride okay with these but I have no other reference. It came with 4 new 'nasty' tyres but I will run with them for now. At least they are all the same brand. To be honest, I'm not sure you buy one of these to rag about but by the same token I'd prefer to stay out of ditches if possible...

[Mister Rockets]

12 hours ago, J Henderson said:

Looks like Cadoxton Slate? For me, one of the best colours that these cars come in. 👍

The mirror mechanism might just need cleaned and re-lubricated. There's a Guide on the site if you fancy pulling the mirror apart to investigate.

Yes, 1GO

[SeanR]

Same colour as mine, and model, if i remember right.

Mine has 17" multi-spoke wheels but think it would look better with 18"

Been keeping an eye on eBay but not much about.

Quite like F sport wheels.

Dont want any hassles changing over wheels with fit, pressure sensors etc so looking for Lexus.

 

ps, always a few small things when you buy a used car, i had the rust chips to sort out.

You just want the car to start and run good until you get some confidence about how its running.

I have a few small issues, noticed brakes are squeaking at slow speeds when i have window down and none of the parking sensors work. After reading this thread its probably because they are turned off.

Any issues i want sorting before the 3 months warranty expires, thats if they are covered.

Ps, seller on eBay selling 1GO touch up paint, done a few chips and seems to match ok.

[GMG]

...lovely car and colour and not sure what you paid but could have purchased my 46 k miler,FLSH and  ...totally issue free...hope the fixes are cheap...Take care buddy...

 

...so it's not folly so if anyone is thinking...check out my advert...