25k Service? Additional Warranty? Tires?

[kade714]

Hi All,

My first post. Great sight. I plan on trying the Dvd bypass I found here soon. At least the passenger will be able to watch a movie while I drive.

Anyway, I have a '05 LX, coming up on 25k miles. I don't have the manual in front of me, but do you guys recommend Lexus service at this point? Should I just follow what's recommended in the manual? What should I plan on having done at 25k? Which services should be done at the Dealer?

Also, if I remember correctly, this car has 50k factory warranty? Is it worth it to buy the extended warranty? That would cover it until 100k, right? Is this a "bumper-to-bumper" warranty? What does it really cover?

Oh, and when do the tires need replacing? A person told me I might need alignment because one of the tires looks a little worn at the outside edge, but thats hard to believe considering the low mileage, and the ride feels fine.

Thanks a bunch!

[Jim_Chow]

Hi All,

My first post. Great sight. I plan on trying the Dvd bypass I found here soon. At least the passenger will be able to watch a movie while I drive.

Anyway, I have a '05 LX, coming up on 25k miles. I don't have the manual in front of me, but do you guys recommend Lexus service at this point? Should I just follow what's recommended in the manual? What should I plan on having done at 25k? Which services should be done at the Dealer?

Also, if I remember correctly, this car has 50k factory warranty? Is it worth it to buy the extended warranty? That would cover it until 100k, right? Is this a "bumper-to-bumper" warranty? What does it really cover?

Oh, and when do the tires need replacing? A person told me I might need alignment because one of the tires looks a little worn at the outside edge, but thats hard to believe considering the low mileage, and the ride feels fine.

Thanks a bunch!

When you have your tires rotated, ask them to cross-rotate them rather than front to back. At 25K mi, there's really nothing to do. The main service is at 30K mi. At 30K, you'll need to do the engine oil/oil filter, front bearing repack (not really needed that early unless you drive in water or offroad, but it's spec'd in the service manual), engine air filter, cabin air filters (2), lube driveshaft, rotate tires. You should be okay on the tranny fluid and coolant since the '04+ models have the long life tranny fluid and coolant (toyota claims 100K mi on the ATF and coolant, but I'd change them at 60K mi to be safe. There is no such thing as a lifetime ATF. BMW had one, but they changed the service interval from 100K to 60K when they found the ATF was toast). I did my 60K service last year...took a couple of days to do, but I saved $1.4K even after using all synthetic fluids.

For the warranty, the new car warranty to 50K mi covers everything, even creaks and cracked moldings. The extended warranty and CPO platinum warranty to 100K don't cover anything cosmetic, creaks, or anything associated with the glass (like the plastic molding on the leading edge of the rear quarter windows tends to crack. That piece is only sold with the window; I have the warranty to 100K, but dealer won't replace it under warranty, wants $900 to replace a window with a broken $10 piece of molding!) The extended warranty is mainly good for electronic stuff that might go wrong like power seat motors, antenna motor, dvd, etc. The only mechanical things that tend to go wrong on all landcruisers/lx470's is the exhaust manifolds tend to crack around 100K mi ($1500 each to replace), starter contacts wear out around 80-100K mi (starter is under the intake manifold, so non-trivial to replace), a plastic piece keeping the front driver's window in the track tends to break eventually (not covered under extended warranty). Oh, and on the LX, the motor that retracts the steering wheel goes bad. I had mine disabled to save it. It will still work when you adjust it manually or use the memory seats, but just won't retract/extend when you remove/insert the key.

[kade714]

Thanks for all that great info!

I'll just change the oil at 25k then. Thinking about having a local mechanic do most of the services, like the 30k. Would this be a good idea?

I'll try to find out how much the extended warranty will cost. Sounds like it might not be worth it...?

Thanks again. I live in south CA, if that matters.