johnatg

I wouldn't worry. Deterioration of these parts will be very slow and gradual. If you are not aware of any problem in the feel of the steering now it will most likely be just the same when you get back home.

Here's a pic of the assembly. This is actually for the IS250, but the GS will be very similar - almost all cars have this arrangement.

It most likely won't be the rack - it's probably the ball joints at the inner ends of the track rods. They just screw into the rack and are easily replaced after removing the gaiters. The usual reason these wear is turning the steering when not moving - that puts enormous stress on the inner ball joints and the track rod ends.

I've now done my Intermediate service - here are a couple of things to report. Note that I've done about 4500 miles since my last full service at Lexus Stockport. I bought 5 litres of Mannol Ultra Legend 0w20 oil (£21.03) (the GS300h engine takes 4.5 litres of oil) and a genuine Lexus Oil Filter (£12.99). All items on the Lexus Intermediate Service list have now been covered either with my recent MoT or by me - except for the 'Service Wash and Vac' and the Hybrid Health check. And of course the Relax warranty. First - I was surprised at how clean the old oil was. Usually when you drain a sump the old oil is jet black. This time the old oil was a dark reddish-brown colour. Very impressive that Lexus engine design has reduced the combustion products which get into the oil so much. So the main oil drain went without a hitch. Now - excuse me - a rant. I'm attaching a pic of the instructions for changing the filter as printed on the side of the new filter box. The unusual feature of these filters is that there is a drain plug to drain the oil before you undo the filter cover. You remove the cap then insert the pastic spout which comes with the new filter, and that opens a valve in the filter cover to produce a neat stream of oil. Well, I inserted my 3/8" drive into the cap and turned - it was extremely tight - the cap didn't unscrew but the whole filter body did. Now the design of the oil system is such that there is a considerable head of oil above the filter. So removing it without draining causes an epic uncontrolled flood of oil - it did mostly all end up in my drain pan. I held the filter cover in my Workmate and needed a long breaker bar to release the cap. That was a bit worrying as the filter cover is made of plastic and I had to hold it very firmly indeed. 4500 miles after the cap had been torqued to 9.5 ftlbs? I don't think so. I suspect that the Lexus 'technician' didn't bother to tighten the drain cap properly but just used a 3/8" drive to tighten the whole filter cover to their usual torque setting of FT (T = tight if you're not familiar with the expression) - instead of using the proper filter tool to remove and tighten the filter cover. The torque spec for the filter cover is 18ftlbs and for the cap 9.5 ftlbs. Does it matter? Maybe not really - but there's a right way and a wrong way to carry out this service operation. Can't we expect Lexus technicians to use the right way? Perhaps it's as well that the Service listings (Full and Intermediate) note 'All checks and inspections are visual - No dismantling of components takes place' So your expensive service gives your car an oil change and a good coat of looking at. Rant over. But it's not the first time I've become aware of Lexus 'technicians' work irregularities. So my service cost £34 + MoT £35 and was done properly. I've foregone the warranty deal - my choice. Your mileage may vary!

A sad tale. It would be OK to have it on a transporter whilst SORN'd, as you would obviously be in the process of selling it. Hopefully someone will take it on and love it again!

In my experience - the more owners the less well cared for a car is. By the time you get to 4 or 5 - watch out.

It's a while since I had my IS250, but here is a pic of the components you'll need to remove:

That is the oulet from the blower (fan) unit. There shouldn't be any water there at all. I'd suggest that you have a blockage in the scuttle area which has caused heavy rain water to build up in the scuttle area and overflow into the air intake. Look for a pile of leaves!

Interesting that it failed the MoT December 2020 for 'Front reg plate Inscription missing' - that's the BSAU145d bit at lower right of the plate. (Rear brake pads wearing thin as well - that's been an advisory since 2018. Possibly a not-too-caring owner recently?)

Looks like a decent car. It's MoT history only has advisories for worn tyres and a windscreen chip and that's some years ago. Maybe the chip was repaired or the screen replaced. Recent MoTs are clear. It's probably been used for long distance motorway driving so should be in good nick overall and I wouldn't worry too much about the mileage for the price. Do get a garage to check that the brake sliders, especially the rears, are not seized and check the condition of the exhaust, especially the y-piece in front of the silencers. I had a 2006 for over 7 years - great car, no real problems.

Here's a post of mine from November 25th, 2019: <Quote> When I got my 2014 GS300h a couple of months ago the map update screen showed 'last map update was cancelled'. That irritated me no end so I resolved to do something about it and came across this thread. I visited the link: https://toyotamaps.online/map-updates/toyota-lexus-navigation-gen7-update I paid my $79 (£64.10) via PayPal and received a link to onedrive files. There are 8 of them and the total download size is about 14Gb. You then need to extract (one of the files is an extraction program) the files to a 64Gb Flash drive - I had a 64Gb SD card and a USB card reader but that didn't work. I contacted the vendor and he confirmed what I had already suspected - the car is fussy about the flash drives it accepts. So acquired a 64Gb San Disk Cruzer (other brands are available!) and extracted the files again. The total extracted size is just over 32Gb. You plug the flash drive in to the USB port in the cubby between the seats. Now you go to the map update screen and plug the flash drive in - this time it showed it was ready to update. You take a picture of the screen and email it to the vendor - he then sends you an activation/licence code. When you start the update the first thing is it asks you is to key in the code then it does a software update. This takes about 10 minutes, then you have to stop the car and restart. Now it's a bit worrying - the screen goes black for quite a few seconds but then it comes back and tells you the map update is ready to start and will take approx 98 minutes. (So you'd better be driving somewhere, even aimlessly, if you don't want the car to be idling on your drive for a couple of hours!) At last it tells you the update completed successfully. The map is updated to April 2019 and it was issued in October 2019, so now is as up-to-date as possible. Very happy! I know the navigation is nowhere near as good as you get for free on your phone but now my car is working properly for a reasonable cost. I suspect this isn't quite kosher but hey! it works, it's a reasonable cost and Lexus should offer this service (they used to, but have discontinued it) rather than tell you to go and be ripped off by a dealer! <end quote> PS I received a letter this am (27/9/21) from Lexus Stoke offering map updates for £159.99 until 30/9/21.

Is it a face-lift? My pre-facelift mk 4 GS300h definitely only has the nearside one.

No

If you mean do you get a dark screen at night - mine does.

You don't need to get updates from a main dealer. You can get them here: https://toyotamaps.online/ Not exectly cheap but much more reasonable than main dealer prices. I updated mine from there - no problems. The latest update I got was about May 2019 - not sure if there's a newer one.

It's for design symmetry of the rear light clusters. The nearside 'clear' section is used for the reversing light, the offside 'clear' section is used for the high intensity rear fog light (it shows red when lit). It's very common now right through the price range of all cars (in fact it's a de facto standard because you are only supposed to have one rear fog light.) At one time they used to have two rear fog lights on many cars but they left the bulb out of the nearside one.

I'd also suggest you change the fob battery and don't leave the ignition on with the engine not running - that can damage components in the ignition system. Jump starting also does the car electronics no good at all - should only be used in emergency - certainly not as a regular proceedure.

Indeed - it's what I have used for many years on many previous cars. But then I got offered a pittance for my IS250 by a Lexus dealer. But I saved a fortune doing my own servicing over 7 years. It's just that My GS300h is a bit more valuable at the moment. Maybe it won't be by the time I come to sell it, probably a considerable way down the road!

I get my MoT done at a trusted local garage down the road - £35. Now the thing is that the MoT includes all the basic safety checks that are covered in the intermediate service. As Vlad said above, the Lexus intermediate service is really just an engine oil change on top of that, plus a few trivial and probably unnecessary (after 4K miles) things as well. How much is a stamp in the book and a year's warranty worth - Lexus wouldn't be giving the warranty away for free if they thought that there was a serious chance of a claim (Yes - I know - some people have saved thousands and been really glad they had the warranty) The hybrid health check is of course worth while - I'll be geting that at least. I'm veering towards diy service, a local MoT and a Lexus HHC. My MoT is booked for Monday, 20th Sept, service due Oct 9th.

Vlad - are you sure you picked GS450h - my computer says £315. It's £285 for a GS300h (like mine). (The Essential service was £215 until they ditched it.) And don't forget the hybrid health check is included in the Lexus price. My 70K/7 years is due next month and I too am trying to decide what to do. Do it myself and just get a hybrid health check? That would come to not much over £100. Go to an Indie to get the stamp? (I do have a stamp of my own but the telephone number is old style before they stuck ones in)? Or pay the full whack. I have only done about 4000 miles since the full 60K/6 years service.

See here: https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/vehicle-service/ There is a fixed price service charge for each model. The cost of an intermediate service for a GS450h is £315. Do you get a discount if your car is still in warranty or if you have bought a warranty? If not, you'd be paying twice for the same thing. Ah - no - maybe not because the 'Relax' warranty is 'no extra cost to the customer' 🤔

This thread is turning into a mini-forum all by itself! Might be better to start a new topic for new questions! Anyway, looking at the drawing of the diff for a 2012 GS450h, the relevant part is described as 'Case sub-assembly, Rear Differential' and it has part number 41301-50031. A bit of googling reveals that to be a Torsen LSD insert. So it looks as though yes - GS450h does have a LSD. But I can't be absolutely certain about your car. Now the traditional way to find out if you have a LSD is to jack the car up so that both rear wheels are off the ground, have the gearbox in Neutral and turn one rear wheel (by hand). If the other rear wheel turns in the same direction you have a LSD. If it turns in the opposite direction, you have an open diff. That is not an absolutely watertight test, but it's a pretty good indication. Certainly works for my MX-5 which used to have an open diff but now has a LSD. Just for reference, here's a pic of my MX-5 LSD - it's a Tochigi Fugi Super LSD, but they all look similar. Why is it there in bits on my Workmate? - don't ask - long story!

Thanks - a very useful link indeed. You can home in on your particular model - eg GS300h 2014 in my case. Loads of stuff you'll hopefully never need but good drawings of every part of the car.

There are 9 or 10 on Autotrader at the mo.

Modern iridium plugs with a coil per plug run at higher voltages than plugs used to and they just last longer. Lexus plugs are good for 60K miles at least - probably 100K in fact. Dealers equate 60K miles with 6 years - quite unnecessary if the car has done less in that time. Change plugs at 60K mile intervals - I changed them on my IS250 at about 67K miles at 11 years old - no problems at all - and they would have been good for much longer. No noticeable improvement after the change either. Dealers charge extra for the change - I declined for my GS at 6 years as only done about 40K miles.