rossv

Maybe the Sydney places are offering kickbacks for personal referrals? ;-)

Hi gfs250, Thanks for the excellent write-up! Another person here posted about this just last year. He also had some excellent information (pasted below). To be honest I'm really surprised to read the Lexus Dealers are now offering this service, what with it being a "sealed system" and all that. I'm in Sydney and planning to get the same job done early next year. My mechanic agreed that it should be done, and says he can recommend a transmission specialist in Parramatta. I'll report back how it went and who it was once I get it done (for the benefit of other owners here, not sure why mentioning a place is such a big "secret"?).

Lack of Bluetooth music streaming is easy to fix, you can buy a bluetooth to audio jack device like this one: http://www.amazon.com/HomeSpot-NFC-Enabled-Bluetooth-Receiver-System/dp/B009OBCAW2 .. there are plenty of devices like that around. Like others have said, there is NO bluetooth audio streaming except in the last models at the end of the 2IS's life (late 2012+). It is definitey not present in any 2007 models, regardless of option packs or what anyone (dealer/seller) tells you. But you can fix this easily with your own plug-in audio device. There is usually a 3.5mm audio input jack in the centre console (AUX). That second car is definitely over-priced IMHO.

Hi st87, No idea but the oil sipping is a separate issue to the carbon build-up and happens for different reasons and under different circumstances as far as I know. For the carbon build up there are many many threads and websites that talk about it, if you search it out (Google). The same with the oil consumption. Hours of reading :)..

st87, For the engine getting warm "story", that was in a different car (my current one) which had carbon build-up. The dealer told me that since the car was taken on short trips only, it never got warm and was "always in choke". He said that when the car is cold its more likely to have carbon build up but when it gets hot, it "burns it". (Bull*BLEEP* alarm starts to go off at this point) After lots of research I learnt it's just a symptom of the DI engine, my friend's 100 series BMW has the same problem (Turbo with DI) and he told me that BMW even offers a special tool to de-carbonise the engine.. Also it has been said in many forums that the IS350 doesn't have this problem due to the different engine design (DI + port injectors).

Forgot to mention to OP that there are two Bluetooth features. One is support for phone calls, the other is support for Bluetooth audio into the radio. All the vehicles with a display have Bluetooth for phone calls. Only the most recent 2IS vehicles (2011+ IIRC) have the Bluetooth audio function, it has nothing to do with Prestige vs Sport Luxury vs whatever.

Thanks too! I'll try it out tonight...

There is also the Sports model that sits in between the Luxury (Prestige) and SL. Perhaps if you post your budget, then someone can suggest a particular year/model to suit. For example, a 2005-06 Sports model with NAV/ML pack could have most of the features in your first list, and would be fairly "cheap". That would save you a lot of effort. Regarding your first question, 1) Installing a nexus tablet as a head unit is probably totally unrealistic. Sure you could try to shoe-horn one into the dash, but how will you interface it to the air-con and radio controls of your vehicle? You need an intimate knowledge of the vehicle electronics to do that. If you could do that, you would also need to write your own software to control the radio and air-con.

Would you be willing to share the code for the seat belt chime? Had no idea it could be disabled..

Hi Chris, Thanks for that really useful post. I used to own an '05 IS with ML and the sound was pretty decent. First thing I noticed when I moved to an '09 IS was that the ML stereo didn't sound "as good". i thought I was going insane and imagining things.. I notice that you said you placed a second sub in parallel, wouldn't it be possible then to use a an older dual-core sub and just parallel the two cores off the two wires from the post-09 amp?

Sorry for replying a bit late to this thread, but I figured I'd throw my 2c in... I previously owned an '05 IS250 Sports and it definitely did show the "oil burning problem". It was fine when i first bought it (as a second hand car with 80k), but once I reached around 100k it did indeed start to consume more oil than usal. In fact I had the "Low oil level" warning come up twice even though I was servicing it every 10000 kms (so I regularly changed the oil). I found myself topping up the oil a few times between services.. Carbon build up is a separate issue, and is also real. When I inspected my current ('09 IS250 SL second hand) the engine was basically chucking soot out the back tail pipe. Fortunately I bought it from a Lexus dealer and they cleaned it up. They told me that it was caused by the previous owner never taking the car on any long drives, but always just using it for short trips to the shops so that the engine never got warm. Don't know if they were being honest with me, but after they de-carbonised it was clean.. If you want to save money on servicing costs, then take it to a licensed motor mechanic (not the dealer!)..

I found the manual for the US version, looks just like the 2013 AU one so probably the same one. It plays DVDs, but they dumped the stacker, only plays single CDs. I guess digital audio (BT, USB etc) made the 6-disc stacker pointless.

Thanks for the replies guys. Still mulling over it.. Plankton: I noticed that the radio in the final 2012+ models is three buttons instead of four. I understand this headunit has the HDD based navigation and Bluetooth audio streaming, but it looks like they got rid of the CD stacker, DVD playback or something?

Hi, I am currently considering an upgrade to an IS350 (last generation - GSE21R). I was just wondering from any owners or experienced people if the F Sport or the SL is the preferred vehicle? I generally do not modify my vehicles and rely on the factory options. From what I can see the F Sport advantages over SL: - Sports tuned suspension and steering ratio from the factory (my preference) - Better sports seats and sports pedals SL advantages: - Radar cruise control, parking sensors, rear electric shade but loses the sports tuning and seats It seems that the F Sport is the better overall purchase since I don't see much use in the radar, parking sensors or shade. But I am very keen to hear opinions. Thanks.

Hi all, I've got a GPS navigation ECU from a 2007 IS250 for sale. This is the unit with the DVD drive that sits behind the clock display and is the ECU that generates the GPS navigation. Part number: 86421-53010 (AU). If you see the message "External system not connected" or colour bars/reboots instead of your navigation display, then this is the unit that is at fault. This unit may also be used in other Lexus vehicles from the same time period, but please confirm the part number of your current unit. An example of this part: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-2009-LEXUS-IS250-IS350-IS-F-ES350-NAVIGATION-DVD-ROM-86421-33040-BRAND-NEW/300881626195? Dealer price for this part is in the thousands. Price: $500 Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

Hi SL Bee, Where did you get your car 'tested' and who did you speak to? Just curious because my 06 IS250 has been burning through oil like crazy ever since the odometer went past 90000km (it's now at 105000km). It also has a lot of other issues that are all mostly covered by TSIBs in the USA (not here of course) including i) Bad smell from the catalytic converter, ii) Disintegration of the rubber seals on both sides of the windscreen (actually covered in a TSIB!), iii) Side mirrors changing position after I reverse (also in a TSIB), and both the DVD stacker (ML) and the Naviation ECU have failed. I am an Electrical Eng and I verified that the Navigation ECU failed due to cracked joints on the BGA processor (similar problem to the red-ring-of-death and other failures in game consoles). Replacement cost of that part alone is phenomenal. My father has a Toyota camry from the same year with similar mileage and nothing has failed in his car at all! I'm really turned off by the poor quality of my 'premium' vehicle and the lousy way that Lexus treats this market and probably wouldn't buy one again. Regards Ross

Thanks for the update. Looks like "Check VSC" can basically mean a bunch of unrelated things :-\

As far as I know, the fault codes are stored by the car for an indefinite period until they are cleared. This means that your car might've stored that code previously and it has nothing to do with the "Check VSC" error. Just a theory. In any case please let us know how you go, I'm keen to get it fixed on my car and I never had any fault codes so I never had any idea what to look for..

In my case they could never send me a letter because I bought my car privately and I never told Lexus that this car changed hands. They'll probably send a letter to the original owners. I'm sure there are plenty of others in my position, and some won't even know about a recall. Time to ring the consumer hotline I guess...

Hi all, I've also got this problem, but it only happens rarely. Usually seems to happen when I brake my car too, so I wonder if it's the same "faulty brake light switch". I have all the Lexus service documentation, can anyone who had this fixed provide more details on this "switch"? (Anything at all) When it happens to me, the error goes away if I stop the engine and start it again. Also I bought an error code scanner (CAN Bus) to plug into the diagnostic connector and the car logs no errors for me, I even connected it when the error was displayed and still nothing. I used a low cost device from EBay and it works well. MOZ: You could consider buying one of those scanners off ebay if you wanted to do some self diagnostics and see the error code for yourself. It costs about $30.

Hi Bill, Does your touchscreen have the well known problem where it does not respond to touch but otherwise works?

Hi Leo, I've had the same problem. In my case the unit would simply ignore the Eject and Load buttons and would state "No Disc" if I tried to select CD player mode (although there were 5 discs in it). After many months it suddenly worked for two days. It then died again. I took it out of the car, opened it up, and removed some CDs from it. Unfortunately it now just makes a bunch of noises but it won't eject my discs or play any, or load any. I think the unit must have a mechanical problem (the electronics look ok to me). A real shame that a "premium" audio accessory fails after 7-8 years when my dad's Toyota Camry from 2006 (with 5-CD stacker) has no problems at all. Guess it's just bad luck. If you have nothing to lose and are brave, you can try to dismantle your unit but be very careful not to damage the interior of the car when removing the head unit. When you remove the air vents, do not place any prying tool above them at all, instead pry from in between the vents and the top of the display (after jiggling the vents out a little with your hand). The interior is like a sponge and falls apart if you put any force on it. Really stupid that. Good luck. dis-lex-sic: I assume you mean that Lexus service can sell us a refurb unit?

I'm pretty sure it can be done. I was looking at the techstream device, and if you have the credentials you can do a master code reset. See this thread too: http://my.is/forums/f139/key-fob-programming-is250-442857/ A Lexus master tech from Miami is stating it can be done too.

Hi all, I noticed recently that the top half of my rear demister doesn't heat up. I can see a small area in the middle (below the part that doesn't heat up) where the track seems to have burnt itself somehow :-(. Has anyone ever seen this happen, or know whether it's possible to get it repaired? Thanks..

Depending on the version, you usually just push down the nub in the middle and it should pop up.