My New Lexus Is250 Se-L

[toffee_pie]

Here are pics, I do like it.

I am making up a list of parts and fluids i need, which i am going to take to an indy to put on.

will this coolant do?

Halfords OAT Ready Mixed Antifreeze 5 Litres

The manual says

IS250

10.9 qt. (10.3 L, 9.1 Imp. qt.)

Use either of the following.

• “Toyota Super Long Life Coolant”

• Similar high-quality ethylene glycol-based non-sili-

cate, non-amine, non-nitrite, and non-borate cool-

ant with long-life hybrid organic acid technology

Do not use plain water alone.

[toffee_pie]

:doggy:

[james250]

Stick to genuine toyota super long life pink coolant. Not worth the risk using any aftermarket stuff. Plus, if you go to any independent dealer to flush the coolant, the chances are they wont drain the entire system because there are two drain cocks on each side of the engine block that are extremely difficult to get to. So you might end up doing 50 or more percent change and mixing is no good. A friend of mine used some non toyota coolant and was told it contains the same stuff and not very long after his thermostat started acting up followed by a failed water pump.

[toffee_pie]

good tips.

[toffee_pie]

I notice a clicking sound after the engine is off, i can hear it when the door is open after coming back from a drive.

is this normal?

[james250]

yeap its normal, mines done that since it new. have owned it for almost 8 years and over 160k miles

[aly-g]

the clicking noise is probably the exhaust cooling down nothing to worry about

[Gramera flash]

If it helps you decide what way to go I was quoted £140 at my main dealer to change coolant

[toffee_pie]

140 is a tad excessive, I know the car is crying out for a service, I am getting or trying to get the parts.

I want to do all the following, in one go.

I think the car is pretty much fantastic, and badly needs a going over.

OIL, OIL FILTER, SPARK PLUGS

AIR FILTER (i got a k&n typhoon ordered, need to check insurance first)

Pollen Filter

Brake Fluid (replaced)

Coolant (replaced)

Differential fluid (replaced)

MTF fluid (replaced)

and

* check the caliper slide pins, regrease

I think that is about it, I appreciate its quite alot but it will do for the next several years.

I am going to get onto lexus for coolant, oil filter, pollen filter.

There are many garages around where I am I am sure they can do the service (inc the coolant which i heard was tricky plus the plugs)

cheers.

[aly-g]

Eric, I got in touch with Toyota on eBay when I saw the red coolant for sale at £26. They replied that this coolant was not recommended for my car they sent me the part number for the correct coolant which is 08889-80072, the price is £39.42 per 5ltres so about £80.00 to change the coolant yourself make sure you flush the system with distilled water before putting the coolant in. If it was me I would prioritise the most important jobs, to me that would always be the engine oil change first then the brakes knowing how the calipers can seize quite quickly if not greased properly I would check these ASAP as noo bie advised. Then just work your way through your list, I would not worry to much about the plug change yet but when you do the iridium plugs are available from eBay in the states for about £50 with postage for the 6 plugs. By the way I was quoted £120. For the coolant change £76.00 for brake fluid change. Trouble is can you trust the workshop to change all the coolant ? Or even all the brake fluid ?

Allan

[toffee_pie]

fantastic

you got valid points about trust, there are so many garages here. I went to a garage here that did my CL9 for the MOT, it was about 40/50 hour labour, i needed ball joints and a drop link put on.

what do lexus charge per hour? maybe i can get them to do the coolant, i mean i will be fine taking the car to a indy for the oil stuff.

I should have plugs in a week, i could get toyota to do the plugs and the coolant, leave all the oils to a (chaper) local garage.

thoughts?!

[toffee_pie]

can i use this for both the differential and the MTF?

Castrol Universal 75W-90 1L

or should i get toyota 75w85 for the rear diff?

cheers.

[aly-g]

Where did you get the plugs from ? You know the plugs are probably good to 60 k or more. If you are going to get Toyota to do the coolant then you might as well get them to do the oils and filters, the coolant change done properly will probably take longer to do than the oils etc, I'm not to sure about the gearbox or diff oil (long time since I did this so I would not want to put you wrong ) have thought about checking the brake calipers yet ? Nag nag nag .

Allan

[toffee_pie]

aye, next thursday the car has to hold out till..!

Its fine i am sure, i only do 10 miles a day to work :p

I will have all the fluids then, everything but the plugs, no idea when they will be in but as you said not of major importance.

i will make sure he flushes the engine with distilled water and get him to check the calipers with grease as well as all the other things.

he quote me about 200quid labour for all that work, inc the plugs. was not too bad.

* my gear change is a bit jumpy, any experience of this? could be due to it needing a service, just 1st gear really. takes a certain amount of motion to get the car off smoothly.

[aly-g]

Sounds like a good deal to me

[ChumpusRex]

I will have all the fluids then, everything but the plugs, no idea when they will be in but as you said not of major importance.

i will make sure he flushes the engine with distilled water and get him to check the calipers with grease as well as all the other things.

he quote me about 200quid labour for all that work, inc the plugs. was not too bad.

* my gear change is a bit jumpy, any experience of this? could be due to it needing a service, just 1st gear really. takes a certain amount of motion to get the car off smoothly.

I wouldn't flush the engine coolant. The IS250 needs toyota Pink coolant which must not be diluted.

If you flush the engine with water, some will be left behind and dilute the new coolant.

It says in the lexus service manual that the radiator should not be flushed with water. If flushing is required, it must be flushed with pink coolant.

In general, the pink coolant is good stuff - you won't have any corrosion issues in an IS250 yet, even if the coolant has never been touched. Just drain the coolant out as much as possible, and fill it up again. That's all that lexus do.

[is200 Newbie]

Eric

£200 for the quoted work and supply of plugs seems very low - you sure the garage knows how much work is involved in just changing the plugs and the coolant?

The plugs alone will cost £80 and the coolant will cost over £100 when you take into account that you will need more that just what fills the system as its also needed to flush it as well...

[toffee_pie]

that £200 is the price for labour, i told him i got all the parts, he knew it was a v6 lexus etc.

he said bring the parts in monday so i can see what you got and he can do it thursday, price about 200.

I wont have plugs at all by then so it will be all the above minus plugs so should be less than 200gbp.

[aly-g]

Mark I'm sure I read somewhere that you should flush the engine cooling system with distilled water, maybe that's if the engine has had some other coolant in it.... The trouble is if you have have brought a car over 5 years how do you know what coolant it has ?, do you reckon that I could get away with just draining coolant then refilling with the pink coolant ? Cheers, Allan

[toffee_pie]

I am pretty sure it is stock coolant? it has 4 lexus stamps on the car, current milage is 54k, so it is due a service.

While I am here i want to mention the gears, they are bad!

The car runs perfect, but 1st gear is jumpy, its not good enough for a car like a lexus and not good enough for my £500 of road tax.

I read on a US forum that it is a common fault with MT is250s, which is shocking, however one guy said after changing the fluids (diff & mtf) the gear changes were totally different.

which is a relief, so as you can see I am dying to give this car some service... :$

Also the guys on the US forum mentioned a uprated (lighter) flywheel, has anyone done this.?

I would definitely look into this, smooth gear changes are crucial to me, I need my car to be spot on and responsive.

I should point out the car is faultless apart from this so its well worth from my point of view looking after this now as i expect to keep it a few years.

cheers.!

[ChumpusRex]

The pink coolant was used in all new toyota/lexus 2004 or later model year cars, and is good for 5 years at least, and 10 for the first fill. In short, if you have an IS250, it will be intended to have pink.

The lexus service manual does not recommend flushing for normal maintenance, because flushing will dilute the pre-diluted coolant. If you use a concentrated coolant, then it doesn't matter if you flush and leave water behind - you add the correct amount of concentrate, then top up with water.

The pink coolant is a vivid "hot pink" colour. There is no aftermarket coolant with a similar colour - they are all red, red-orange or deep purple. If you shine a torch on the coolant expansion tank, you will see the colour clearly.

In general flushing is only needed if you have a corrosion problem, and the cooling system is full of crud. The pink stuff is really good at preventing corrosion, so I would be rather surprised if a 2006 model had a genuine need for flushing.

The lexus recommended maintenance is draining the coolant and refilling without a flush. Ideally, you should drain the whole radiator and engine. The radiator drain is easy. The 2 engine drains are difficult to find. (One is behind the alternator, the other is behind the dipstick)

If the coolant has been changed, then you may as well just flush it - you can then, either flush with pink, then drain and refill with pink (very expensive, as it is nearly £10 per liter for pink). Or flush out with water and use a generic coolant that is similar to toyota/lexus specifications and just change it regularly (perhaps every 3 years instead of every 5).

Annoyingly, there is no generic or 3rd party coolant on the UK market that has similar specifications to toyota pink. Cheaper options are the use of toyota red coolant, or a generic OAT coolant (a "G30" formulation is probably better), but note that the reason toyota switched to a their formulation was that their red was designed for 5 year changes, but didn't work quite as well as they had hoped.

[aly-g]

Thanks for that info quite informative

[toffee_pie]

I got 10L of the toyota coolant ordered.

Can I just get the old stuff drained and put this in?

[aly-g]

Sounds good to me after reading Marks post.....

Allan

[toffee_pie]

The Manual gearbox is pants, I need a clutch and/or DMF asap.

that is providing my fluid change does not fix things.