Gaugster

I think the dealer is BS'ing you. The IS250 has direct injection so the throttle body, intake manifold and the back side of the intake valve are all dry. No fuel/carbon should ever reach these areas. There is some EGR stuff but only mis-fires or back-fires would place carbon on these components and your car seems to be running fine. Don't give the extra money to the dealer. If you are still concerned then you could run a fuel injector clreaner through a tank full of gas and it would only cost you like 5 dollars.

Yes, you must keep the O2 sensor(s).

Cool ride - How do you like the Greddy SP2 exhaust? Is that and axle back or did it come with a mid-pipe of some sort?

Yup, the CEL will turn on if you remove the primary CATs. Maybe high-flow aftermarkets would help but I don't know for sure. I heard a rumor about people making some sort of electronic simulator to trick the car into thinking that the CATs are still installed. However this is very illegal and I would not know anything about perpetrating such violent and hatful acts against our dear Mother Earth. :D Regards,

You are gonna need more then the shop manuals but good luck. http://techinfo.lexus.com/

Yes, I am refering to the cross hatching (45° or 60°???) performed during cylinder honing. I do believe that they wear away completely and have seen it with my own eyes on many types of engines. Attached is a picture that I 'snarfed' from CL. Special thanks to CL user Carchitect!!! It is a IS350 engine with unknown milage. I don't see any honing marks but as you stated, it is possible that they weren't included in the first place. Judge for yourself.

My Toyota truck at 178K miles still showed the honing marks (crosshatch) very plainly. I always thought the typical 45 degree crosshatching was to help hold oil in the cylinder walls..... but I am far from an expert engine builder!! I'd be very blown away to see any typical production engine if the orginal factory hone marks in the cylinders are gone (worn away under normal operation) on a new engine with only 10K miles!!!!!!!! :o Yeah, I am no expert either but I always assumed that the honing marked had to go. It is all part of the rings seating from what I know. Stupid question - but were you looking at the top/bottom of the cylinder where the rings wouldn't actually be making contact or was your observation from the center part of the cylinder?

The information is on another forum. Again the WOT shiftpoints change for some reason which hurts the ET. Normal mode allows for a few 100 rpm higher shift point when going through the gears. I can't image why they would do this other then it being some soft of software mistake. http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showthread...p;highlight=ECT http://www.clublexus.com/forums/showpost.p...mp;postcount=38 Regards,

If it became jammed with store bought CD's then take it in for a warrenty fix. It is not easy to gain access to the CD changer and that still might not solve your problems in the long run. You have to take the whole center stack out and remove the changer from the backside. This means taking our the whole A/C, Radio & Nav part if equipment. It is not very easy. If it became jammed with a burned disc or some other "non-standard" media then........ I would try to reset the CD changer in hopes that it will spit out the CD. I think this can be done by disconnecting the vehicles battery and then reconnecting it after a few minutes. Maybe there is some technic in the owners manual. I have also heard of people getting a jammed CD out by inserting another one into the changer. It must be somthing to do with moving the CD's around or somthing. Good luck

It's better to keep it in the Normal mode for pure straight line acceleration. The best 1/4 mile times are alway done in normal mode. I guess the shifting RPM points change at WOT which actually hurts the overall ET. Obviously, the ECT mode was intended for going through the twisties and what not. Regards,

The bump is due to the AWD system. There is a front drive shaft that powers the front wheels and the body was shaped to make room for the extra stuff. That alone would not make it hot but it is also very close to the exhaust/catalytic converter. The cat' could be the source of the heat but I myself have not noticed it being hot. But I don't wear shorts much either. Regards, PS welcom to the club.

I guess there are a few "break in" intervals that should be noted. 1 - Technically, the motors are run at the factory for an initial start up and probably the most important break in period. When the engine is new it can make a lot of internal heat (localized heating) as the parts are brand new and have not "polished" themselves together. This period is very important for the longevity of the engine and is therefore performed before the vehicle is sold. Duration = ??? 2 - The break in period as described in the owners manual. A period in which the engine is supposed to be heat-cycled by normal used. This means to avoid long cruises at the same RPM as well as avoiding heavy loading of the engine. Again to limit the internal heating. At this time the cylinders still have honing marks and the piston rings are being seated as the wear. Duration ~ 500 miles (Whatever the manual says.) 3 - At some point in time (Around 10k from my experience) the cylinders and piston rings are finally polished together so that all the original honing marks are gone. The same would be true for other bearing surfaces in the engine as well as the complete drivetrain - trans, dif', etc.... This represents the full potential of the vehicle. IMHO :D

My answer to your question in in post # 9.

Do what you like but the octane boosters are cool 'cause they make your plugs pretty colors.

I think the OP meant that his engine/drivetrain had broken-in and was now running hard, loose and clean. Just like that song from Metallica. :P I would probably describe that feeling as a bit more pep then before but it could just be my imagination.