Questions About Gs300 - 1998 Maintenance

[dg11lexusgs]

Hi,

I bought a 1998 gs300 with about 118000 miles on it and am wondering about how best to take care of the car without spending more money than necessary. I would really appreciate any thoughts you folks may have regarding the following issues:

1) The previous owner did not change the timing belt, so I understand I should have it done. The local Lexus dealer quoted me $1040 and the Toyota dealer quoted me about $600. Both of them said that the water pump, coolant and a couple other things should be replaced along with the timing belt. Can I stick with just the timing belt being changed or do I have to do these other things as well?

2) The 120k maintenance is coming up and again the Toyota dealer mentioned a bunch of stuff:

engine oil and filter

adjust valves

set idle speed and clean choke

replace spark plugs and pvc valve

replace fuel filter

replace transmission fluid

tune engine

emission service

inspect belt and hoses

inspect clean and adjust brakes

inspect exhaust system

inspect steering linkage and gear box

rotate and balance tires

replace air filter

My question is whether all these tings need to be done?

3) Is a Toyota or any ASE certified good enough for servicing a Lexus or do I have to take it to a Lexus dealer?

4) Does anyone know of reliable mechanic that works on Lexus in the Kansas City area?

5) The previous owner said that he used regular unleaded mostly with an occasional fill of premium. Should I stick with regular or switch to premium?

6) Sometimes when I brake I hear a hissing sound that seems to be located around the left side of the steering wheel. The sound last all of 5 seconds or less and does not happen every time I brake. Any ideas as to what it may be?

I apologize for this long post. Hopefully, as time goes by and my questions are answered/resolved, I will have fewer queries.

Thanks in advance for your responses

[lenore]

Personally I would have the timing belt and waterpump replaced together, the rest can be done at your leasure. I would change the transmission fluid, but make sure it is the correct fluid. Of course the brakes etc should be checked for safety reasons. The toyota dealership is perfectly fine to use. Why pay Lexus the over inflated costs?

[darrylg33]

Hey DG, I just did the timing belt on my car myself, and you can get away with not doing the water pump, but since it is recommended you should do it while you have nice easy access to it. I think the main reason to do both is if you just do the timing belt, and your water pump fails, then you have just doubled your labor costs--doing two jobs at two seperate times when you could have just changed the water pump while you had the drive belt off as it is right there. So the question is, do you want to roll the dice, hope your water pump lasts to your next timing belt change, or just change the $140.00 part and include it in the labor of the timing belt change. If you are changing the water pump, your going to loose coolant so you may as well have it drained and replace that as well. So basically it all goes hand in hand....hope that helps....as far as Toyota vs. Lexus you can search here and find many threads regarding both good and bad experience with both Lexus and Toyota service...and some horrors regarding getting your Lexus serviced by a Toyota dealership. If you can ask at the Toyota dealership if there is a service tech that knows the 2JZGE engine then the Toyota dealership would be fine as the engine in the Supra and the Lex are the same. The premium vs unleaded debate is also well represented here, search and you can form your own opinion on that one...I did and it will be premium for mine when it is up and running...good luck...D