New Owner Is300

[purechop]

Hi im new to this site and i am a new owner of a 04 lexus IS300. Im am just curious what to look out for in my lexus? what are common problems with the car. I know that the car has a great review but im just wanting to kno a little more about common problems and trouble spots

[749_dark]

Yeah!!!! Just found out from the rest of the veterans here: DON'T buy Bosch spark plugs. Stick with Denso...just learned Bosch were crap.

[Lexus300Stock]

yes NGK and denso irdiums plugs should be only used in this car,

[smooth1]

Hi im new to this site and i am a new owner of a 04 lexus IS300. Im am just curious what to look out for in my lexus? what are common problems with the car. I know that the car has a great review but im just wanting to kno a little more about common problems and trouble spots

[gerbilphooey]

If your hood rod clip hasn't broke yet, it probably will. Thats the only widespread prob I know of.

[Tyr]

If your hood rod clip hasn't broke yet, it probably will. Thats the only widespread prob I know of.

That and a new water pump every time you do a timing belt. This should only be roughly every 60k miles so if you're an "average" driver it should be about every 5 years (assuming you own the car that long). I work at a Lexus dealership and own an IS 300, this is pretty much standard on all of the IS 300's we see coming into the shop. Sure its pretty spendy if you pay to have it done at the dealership but its not all that difficult of a procedure if you are even slightly mechanically inclined. I did my last one for about $240 in parts, this was with employee discount of course and I did the labor with the help of a friend being that it was my first on the model. You should also replace the Accessory belt and thermostat while your at it being that both of those are pretty cheap and just good preventive maintanance. Most of all, please please please replace the rod clip, it's extremely cheap and easy to fix :D

[dragr13]

i don't know about the 04 specifically, but i see a lot of people with the 01's replacing HID headlight 'igniters' or 'ballasts'. this is the control unit for the HID headlight and is RIDICULOUSLY expensive from lexus (think $1500), but you can find the box used on ebay for around $100. so if one of your headlights starts dimming..

also, i've heard that lexi' tend to 'sag' and that its a good idea to rotate tires regularly and to stay on top of the alignment; i just rotated my new tires after 25k and the inside edge is pretty badly worn on the front tires.

[bartkat]

Thanks. It's good to have that documented here. It will show up if anyone searches on shimmy.