First Time Lexus Owner, Help Please!

[Tim17]

Hi guys, so im new to the forum and a first time Lexus owner!

I bought a Lexus is200 a few days ago, it's an X reg with 138k miles on the clock.

There's a few things which are bugging me and making me wonder if buying this car was a bad idea as i get the feeling it's going to give me problem after problem :/

But anyway; - She has quite bad 'clutch judder' sometimes, in first and reverse, will this lead to worse things or is it just a character of the car?

- When steering is on full lock, regardless on temperature, it squeels like a pig and also yesterday after starting the car im reversing out of a space and the steering goes lumpy(no power steering for a few seconds) which fills me with great confidence.. so any ideas on this? New power steering pump? Or just belt adjustment? The auxillary belts look pretty new, it had a new cambelt 2years ago so i presume that they were changed at the same point. **EDIT -After an inspection about this, my power steering fluid is below

minimum, also, i got someone to put it on full lock to make the noise, what's happening is the belt is slipping and the power steering pulley stops spinning because of the slipping belt, so i'm guessing maybe the belt just needs adjusting/tightening?**

- Last but not least, on cold starts in the morning it puffs out some blue smoke for the first 15seconds or so, which im presuming is the valve stem seals, not particulary looking to get these done so just wondering if it'll be ok for a few years if i keep an eye on the oil level?

That's all i can think of for now, thanks for reading and all advice/comments are welcome!

Cheers.

[GME]

Welcome to the Club!

Lexus are the most reliable cars - highest MOT pass rate in the world. Any car after 100k will get their issues here and there. Obviously depends on pre owners, how they treat the car. Power steering fluid was my first shout, to make sure its full.

Otherwise thats it from my side apart from that the Car won't let you down in the long run. But would always recommend to buy Cars below 80k miles max but obviously depends again on everyone's budget. And you should avoid buying cars from London (no offense but these Cars been raped lol, you will see their driving behaivors which I do all the time).

Best advice, just look after it as much as you can and it will look after you ;).

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Hi and welcome to LOC.

Clutch judder.... Caused by the dual mass flywheel. Nothing wrong. Get used to it, some did this from new. If the judder is horrendously bad then change the flywheel (£1000 part only for dual mass) or just fit a solid mass flywheel for a lot lot less.

Power steering squeal... Check belt is not slipping and at the right tension (99% sure that's your problem) if it's wearing out, replace, they're only a tenner.

Lumpy steering:- flush power steering fluid. Lumpiness caused by air getting in the pump through a leak or fluid is rubbish and needs changing.

Blue Smoke:- this is not good and should not just be left! Valve stem seals sounds like a good bet but get it sorted ASAP. Blue smoke is burning oil. These cars don't burn oil or use a drop if all is well. Keeping and eye on the oil level and Topping up now and then is not a solution.

[Tim17]

Thanks for the reply guys, so i've sorted the power steering issue simply by topping up the fluid which is a result! No more squeeling or slipping even on full lock which i'm chuffed about as i was expecting the worst! Yeh unfortunately my budget only allowed me to get a high milage beast lol.

Ok so i guess i will have to get used to the juddering then as i'm not paying that much to sort it lol.

I really don't know what to do about the blue smoke, i know keeping the oil topped up is not a solution but i know its going to be a big and expensive job, any idea on how much that set me back by the way?

The CD player isn't working, which by the looks of it isn't an uncommon thing, just a bit annoying, i have a headunit i'd like to fit but its a single din one so i guess i need to get a fascia adapter or something.

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

Did you buy the car knowing it had these issues?

Always check everything on a test drive, the power steering problem would have been evident as would the clutch judder, blue smoke maybe not if the engine was already warmed up before your arrival ( common trick of the trade).

Stereo would have also been noticed if you had tried it.

What's the service history like? Bit suspicious if the PS fluid level had not been checked regularly.

If you knew about these faults and got a good deal all well and good.

[Tim17]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

Did you buy the car knowing it had these issues?

Always check everything on a test drive, the power steering problem would have been evident as would the clutch judder, blue smoke maybe not if the engine was already warmed up before your arrival ( common trick of the trade).

Stereo would have also been noticed if you had tried it.

What's the service history like? Bit suspicious if the PS fluid level had not been checked regularly.

If you knew about these faults and got a good deal all well and good.

Hi Steve, i was aware that the CD player did not work, weirdly enough the power steering issue went un-noticed as it did not make any noise or any problems on the very short test drive i had so i was a little annoyed about that when i found out shortly after driving it. The clutch judder is kind of intermittent sometimes it does it sometimes it doesn't and when i had the short test drive it didn't have any judder (just my luck), but it seems from what people are saying that it's just a trait of the car and not really anything to worry about. Onto the blue smoke, the engine was cold when we arrived to look at it (made sure of it), and it did puff out a little blue smoke on start up but it cleared quite quickly, (the car hadn't been used for a few weeks so thought maybe that could be why) and once the smoke was gone after maybe 15seconds it didn't produce any more even when revving up, so it's only after the car has been sitting which is why i'm thinking valve stem seals, however first i will change the PCV valve and take it from there.

There's no other faults with the car and to be honest it drives really nice, no knocks/bangs or anything unusual.

[GME]

Halfords do sell the fascia, just provide your car details and they will find it and order it if not in stock. Do you know whether you've got a pre amp in your car? I think thats the case with certain models like Sport and SE I believe. Mine is a SE so did have one which means you will need to get a by-pass cable to hook it up to your head unit. And if you got a Sat Nav built in, then you got some more work to do lol.

[Tim17]

Halfords do sell the fascia, just provide your car details and they will find it and order it if not in stock. Do you know whether you've got a pre amp in your car? I think thats the case with certain models like Sport and SE I believe. Mine is a SE so did have one which means you will need to get a by-pass cable to hook it up to your head unit. And if you got a Sat Nav built in, then you got some more work to do lol.

Ok cool thanks for that, i'll get round to looking into it one day lol. No idea about the pre amp to be honest, i think mine is the SE also so i will need that by-pass cable by the sounds of it, where do i get one of these from and rough price? Nope no satnav unfortunately haha.

Anyways, back to my 'blue smoke' on cold mornings, i've took a video of a cold start from this morning, because to be honest i'm trying to convince myself it isn't blue it's more white, so it would be good to know all of your opinions please on the colour of the smoke and how it is compared to your car on a cold start?

Here's the link (put it on high quality);

She's a little noisy as i think the middle silencer is blowing a tad, sounds worse in the video than in real life to be honest.

So yeh, comments please! I will also start a new topic with this video if i'm not breaking any forum rules.

[IHgs300]

Hard to tell, but all is200/300 have some smoke on start-up in the mornings due to moisture build up in the exhaust. Seems more noticeable on the lexus due to the stainless exhaust (fitted from factory).

[Tim17]

Hard to tell, but all is200/300 have some smoke on start-up in the mornings due to moisture build up in the exhaust. Seems more noticeable on the lexus due to the stainless exhaust (fitted from factory).

It is, however I'm sure it's not just moisture as when it warms up a tad and then the moisture starts blowing out it looks completely different. Thanks.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Mine smokes when cold as Ian says but it's always white smoke and just condensation blowing off. Once the car is warm no visible smoke whatsoever even in winter.

[Tim17]

Quick question which isn't worth starting a new topic, does the car have automatic locking after a few minutes if you exit the car without locking it? Or something along the lines of that..

Thanks

[scudney]

what it has is if you unlock with the fob and don't open any of the doors within 30 seconds it locks them again

[Tim17]

what it has is if you unlock with the fob and don't open any of the doors within 30 seconds it locks them again

Oh right :/, when i bought the car it has only 1 key (the master one i think), and the previous owner warned me about it 'auto locking' because once he left the keys inside the car and the car locked itself with the keys inside? :/ So he had to call a locks person to get in through the boot or something (i think he might of said he left the keys in the boot actually but can't really remember), but it doesn't really make sense to me!

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Yeah I've done that^

Easily done. Went to the car, unlocked it using the fob, didn't open any doors. Popped the boot also with fob, put the keys down in the boot with my stuff by mistake. Shut the boot and got distracted by something in my garden. Few seconds later I hear the clunk of the car locking itself! Lol!

Luckily I have a spare and you really should get a spare too :)

[Noodoo]

I don't want to start a new thread with this but I have the same issue with my IS. From cold, it puffs out some blue smoke for a few seconds, but after a minute it clears. It also seems to smoke more the longer I leave it.

Any idea on how much the stem seals would be? And where to get them from? I also read somewhere (I think on another thread on here) that you need to buy some grommets too?

Only other issue with the car is that it has the infamous error 3 code, and the belt was squealing a bit when loaded with people and shopping, but it was in 35-ish degree heat, so I'm not worrying too much about that.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

^Belt shouldn't squeel under any circumstances, heat or a fully loaded car!

[asharb123]

Hi, re the blue smoke, I had a BMW 3 Series which was smokey and I as dreading that the value stem seals would have to be changed. I used Stop Smoke from Halfords and changed the grade of engine oil from 0w 30 to 5w 30 which helped.

[Noodoo]

I've been advised to use Forte seal conditioner with an oil change, so when I get round to it I'll let you know how it goes!