300,000 Mile Report

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

IS300's in good condition below 100k and with good history are still fetching £2-4k

[jpac]

I was just wondering if anyone on here had kept their Lexus IS200 from new for over 15 years. Got mine Jan '00 and to be honest I've had a lot of trouble with it coming from several Honda Accords. One day I'll compile everything but seriously congratulations getting to 300k, mines only 125k.

[shane3265]

I'm sorry, what? Did you say 36 MPG!!!?

[eddiea1]

You must live in a quiet area not to hit traffic on your commute, or do you work nights?

Never known a clutch to last that long lol
You must have very good driving habits :)

I'd like to think so, but I guess the biggest factor is that 90% of my driving is on motorways and fast A-road dual carriageways where the car just sits in 6th gear and I don't need to touch the clutch or the break for mile after mile.

[HoodRich]

300k miles...wow...that is certainly an achievement. Congratulations!

Chris - those pics of the ball joint failure are scary! Are there any symptoms or warning signs that one would need to replace those? My Is200 has done 60000 miles but is now 15 years old. Should I be concerned?

[greg4f_2]

wow, 300,00 miles!? that is 480,000 kilometers! mine is currently at 310,000 kilometers and going strong. great car.

[greg4f_2]

On 10/19/2014 at 8:37 AM, bondms said:

I've had to replace amazingly little. In terms of replaced non-service items the full list consists of two items:

• There was a leaky shock absorber that was replaced under warranty during the second year.
• There was a faulty crash sensor that was replaced a few years ago when the air-bag warning light came on.

That's it for non-service items that have been replaced. The alloy wheels were refurbished (but not replaced) when they started to corrode. A common problem with Lexus I gather from the frequent posts on this site.

Even service items have done well.

• The rear disks are still originals.
• The front disks have only been changed once.
• Even the pads have only been changed once on the rear and twice on the front.
• The ball joints are all originals.
• The battery has only been changed once.
• The tyres have, of course, been changed several times. But even these do well. The first set got 50,000 miles for those that started on the rear and 70,000 miles for those that started on the front.
• The radio has suffered the common ERR-1 or ERR-3 fault twice, but in both cases it was easily fixed at home without having to buy any new parts--just took the device out, freed the stuck disk, added some grease to the moving parts, cleaned the CD lens, and put it back together.
• All the indicator, brake-light and tail-light bulbs are original. The other external lights and some bulbs for back-lighting the dashboard switches have been changed at least once.

I guess some of this has been due to the way the car has been driven, almost exclusively on motorway and A-road journeys causing little wear on the car. But I've still been impressed. The car has also been garaged most nights.

Petrol has been by far the highest contributor to running costs. I've spent £39,000 on fuel averaging between 36 and 37 mpg.

ok. im not sure i believe that. in the last 90,000 kilometers i have changed several bulbs, i have changed the rear brake pads twice (they are tiny so wear out quick) and the front ones are due a change now. the front lower ball joints are famous for going bad, so im surprised you didnt have to change yours. im also surprised mine have never failed a wof, they may be responsibly for my heavy steering and weaving in a straight line, along with a bit of bump steer and loud squeaking over speed bumps. and im not sure i consider changing brake discs normal maintenance. i mean, its not that hard or expensive and i suppose they wear out. but they shouldnt really. and if you have changed the front discs once but only changed pads twice that sounds odd to me. fair enough on having to change the front discs though, mind shake the steering under braking so pretty sure they are warped. doesnt bother me much though so i have never really gotten around to doing it.

good job though, making a great car last that long. i consider that an achievement. waste not want not etc. too much waste in this world. some cars get thrown away over very minor issues.

[greg4f_2]

On 10/20/2014 at 5:27 AM, andyk134 said:

300,000 is very impressive but have to agree that more than a few of the parts will not be performing their best anymore no matter what the MOT says, that is a very basic test.

Like others my tyres last about 20k and I never let them get anywhere near the limit either. I am at the other end of the scale with only 65k on the clock and a 6 mile daily commute. Apart from the usual things to replace and all the suspension I have upgraded the only thing to go was a split cv boot so am very impressed and very happy.

How long do you intend to keep it now?

youre nuts man. even the head of bridgestone once said 1.5mm was more than enough. run those puppies down as low as you can. care for the environement. and when they are toast, go do some burnouts to make sure they are done for. my tyres last at least 50km, but those were dodgy cheap tyres. i had a few get punctures that i repaird with a 4x4 tyre repair kit, kept them going for a while, one i had to replace though as it had damage to the sidewall from going flat and started developing bulges. i still have one of those tyres on though which was new about 5 years ago, 90,000 kms ago. still has over 2mm of tread and passes wof's. i agree on replacing the front lower ball joints though. (which is ironic as i have not done so on mine yet..)

[greg4f_2]

On 4/25/2015 at 12:46 AM, jpac said:

I was just wondering if anyone on here had kept their Lexus IS200 from new for over 15 years. Got mine Jan '00 and to be honest I've had a lot of trouble with it coming from several Honda Accords. One day I'll compile everything but seriously congratulations getting to 300k, mines only 125k.

i used to own a 1994 honda accord SiR myself. with the 2.2l h22a dohc vtec. damn nice car. the engine was still going strong at 250,000 kms when i sold it. had lots of semi minor issues with that car though:

radiator leak. - bought second hand replacement

alternator fail - bought second hand replacement

both window regulators failed - bought second hand replacement (initially used fishing wire wrapped around arm rest to lift and lower windows until i finally bought replacement regulators, lol)

heater control panel failed - bought second hand replacement

high pressure power steering hose burst - paid company to replace it. failed again shortly after. so i just brazed it up myself. (failed at the crimped banjo bolt) - wish i had just fixed it myself the first time, lol.

 

pretty affordable fixes since i went second hand and did the work myself. but only owned the car for 2 years and did very little k's on it as my job was like 5 minutes away at the time. (as opposed to the 50 minutes to 2 hours away it is now. average about 1 hour.)

 

[Tony1452]

I wonder what Mr Bond is driving these days.

[greg4f_2]

my car is at about 330,000kms, i would love to make it to 482,000 kms (300,000 miles). 

so far i have replaced: thermostat, coolant, flushed heater core, replaced 3 ignition coils, replaced all 6 spark plugs, replaced engine oil regularly, oil filter only once...., atf once, bought a timing belt, but couldnt get crank pulley bolt off, and the current one looked okay, so left it on. replaced front brake pads once, rear pads twice, replaced internal motor in the fuel pump, replaced Battery, replaced rear suspension spherical bushings, replaced wihdscreen, now i have a dead starter motor to replace. 

 

also someone visiting the neighbours reversed into it so it has a new door, then at work a truck rolled into it, so the boot and bumper has been repaired and a new tail light

pretty sure once the starter motor is new the car will continue to go on for ages.

only thing wrong with it is a slight oil leak from the cam cover, which i need to get around to fixing.

 

and i have owned it for about 6 years, it had 224,000kms when i bought it. so it has done 106,000 kms during my ownership.

[Malc]

best to remember that bondms  bought a 2001 car brand new and at that time I would think the technology potential failures just weren't with the car from the factory

I'm thinking later cars with issues might be arising from simple teccy electronic stuff upgrades that make all cars more susceptible these days ..  and stupidly expensive to fix and to maintain

 

Malc