Knightshade

YOU being in Arizona with the hotter climate would be a good candidate for a fluid failure. As for changing it I wonder what type they are using now. The older Lexus used Toyota Type IV. A full synthethic could hold up longer in a sealed system.

As for doing it yourself you could drain it in containers that could be measured and pour in exactly the same amount for those concerned with over filling. Draining would at least show contaminants. Ford did this exact same thing I understand on some of their trannys, and had to revert back after having failures. Time will tell. I think keeping those fluid temps down to about 160 degrees would help also.

Except, as I've mentioned 3 times now, it's impossible to drain more than 15-20% of the total fluid without taking much of the car apart. Considerably more work than it would take to just swap the entire transmission in fact.

You could replace 15-20% at a time dropping the tranny pan. But you're more likely to contaminate the fluid swapping the pan half a dozen times than just leaving it alone, and even then at only a 15-20% change of fluid each time you'll still have a fair amount of old stuff in there after 5 or 6 changes, and spent a fortune on WS fluid.

In regards to what transmission it is-

The IS250 AWD uses the A760H

The IS250 RWD uses the A960E

The IS350 uses the A761E

This is actually the norm now in todays cars. However if you feel you need to do the service, you can try and do it. There is a fill hole, drain hole, and an overflow tube hole. Personally I would never try this myself as underfilling or overfilling can be bad for the transmission. It is a bit of a process, kind of typical such as level surface, use the correct fluid, fill pan til it starts to trickle out the overflow tube, plug overflow hole , fill transmission, circulate fluid, get fluid to certain temperature, check fluid level, add more fluid if necessary.

To be honest, the only time we've ever done a transmission fill on an IS was when a customer doing his own oil change drained the transmission instead.

Good luck.

It is physically impossible to change all the transmission fluid on the car without taking most of it apart.

You can change the fluid in the pan, but that would be a small fraction of the total fluid in the system.

The fluid in the transmission cooler is inaccesable without removing the cooler entirely, as is the fluid inside the gearbox, torque converter, etc...

Removing and replacing the transmission pan entirely will only require replacing about 1L-1.5L of total transmission fluid.

Full capacity of the transmission system is just under 9 liters.

Yup, you never change it. If you ask Lexus they'll tell you it's good for the life of the car.

The 60K Scheduled Maintenance indicates that the transmission fluid needs to be changed (although in parens it doesn't include the IS). A friend who's wife also has an IS250 2007, said that he heard or read that the transmission is "sealed", and was wondering what that means. Question: Is there an fluid pan to drain the fluid, and a spicket hole to refill it like other transmissions, or is there more to this service? He is doing the maintenance on his IS now.

Any info will be appreciated. Thank you.

The reason it excludes the IS is because it's impossible to change the transmission fluid. It is, indeed, a sealed system.

There is a rather difficult way to add fluid in case of a leak or something, but there's no practical way to drain any significant percentage of the systems fluid.

Have you already had the dust TSIB done?

If not just have the dealer do that- free pads and they do the labor :)

The nav overide only works on the original (for the IS) version of the firmware. Update to newer firmware/maps and it's gone entirely. And yes you have to do it every time unless you want to physically hack the wiring, or drop $300 on the no-cut wiring solution.

LPS stuff has to be done at the dealership (or by someone with a Lexus tech tool at least)

There's a couple of simple things, like if 1 or 4 doors open with the fob, that you can change...but things like light delays and such are LPS only.

"warming up" a modern engine is about the worst possible thing you can do to it.

Once the engine has oil pressure, which takes about 5 seconds, it's best to just drive it gently for a bit. Idling is bad m'kay?

dude are you serious? come on i usually turn the car on...wait a minute or so to find a song on my ipod i like...then head off and i haven't had a single engine problem.

and to the original post - just drive gently when its cold. works for me.

Absolutely serious. There's a long long thread over on Clublexus explaining why 'warming up' is horrible for the car if you want a lot more folks singing the same song. Enough time to find a song is a far cry from waiting 5+ minutes for the temp needle to move though, which is what most folks mean by 'warming up' the car.

You don't go anywhere near the head unit, 100% of the wiring is done in the back...the wiring is very easy

There's a little tool in your toolkit in the trunk, insert it into the two tiny little holes on the clockface and remove, there'll be a DVD drive behind it that the nav disc goes into.

"warming up" a modern engine is about the worst possible thing you can do to it.

Once the engine has oil pressure, which takes about 5 seconds, it's best to just drive it gently for a bit. Idling is bad m'kay?

Ask him how thick the rotors measured.

If he tells you he didn't measure them he's ripping you off (and at 26k he's probably doing that anyway)

i have a luxury package..its a 2007..i have all that u listed above except the auto steering wheel

i really dont think thats in any of the packages..

Power tilt and telescope with auto fold away is part of the luxury package and the sports package, it's one of the items that the memory buttons remember (along with the seat position and the side mirror positions)... the auto fold away feature can be turned on and off however.

What I would like to know is why they have a new F-sport clutch and a new short shift adaptor that is suitable for the 06-08 IS 350. Am I missing something?

Those parts are for the manual 250.... now, I agree it makes little sense to offer a stronger clutch for a car that has little power to begin with, but TRD-derived stuff rarely has a real useful purpose.

When I turn I can hear the seat creaking a little. Is there a way to fix this? Can this just be tightning the seat somewhere? Should I tell the dealership next time I bring it in?

Thanks

Jeff.

Yup, just tell the dealer... probably just something needs to be tightened... though I think there's a TSIB for something on the seat rails as well.

hey guys ... any idea wat the "Ground Effects Kit" accessory is for IS 250/350 models? the description in the Lexus website is pretty vague. any response would be appreciated!

Pretty much exactly what you'd expect... front and rear lips, and side skirts... the front lip part of it also comes as part of the X package option. Hope you don't have speedbumps where you live :P

Yes they do.

The both force pressurized air into the engine.

HOW they do that is different (one is driven by exhaust gas, one is driven more directly off the engine itself)

They are both in essence an air compressor, they're just powered differently.

Here, this might help your confusion-

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question122.htm

Superchargers shortens lifespand of engine correct? Turbos doesn't and gives you better mpg if you put it in vacuum right?

They're the same thing.

A supercharger and a turbo both do the exact same thing.

The only difference is the turbo is powered by hot exhaust gas, and the supercharger is powered by a belt.

A turbo is more efficient, since it's using "waste" product.

More relevant though is that neither is available for the ISx50 in the US.

There are 0 turbo kits worldwide. There is one supercharger kit available in Japan (doesn't work on US models).

LMS used to do a supercharger in the US for the IS350, but they sold like 3 of them since they're $6000 and only add about 40 horsepower.

With a 12:1 compression ratio and a very complex, and uncracked, engine management system, don't expect any more kits to show up anytime soon either.

I spoke to the dealer in Salt Lake today they are going to have part numbers on OEM kits for the IS250 on the 15th of May I guess lowering kit, intake, wheels, and new brake and wheel kits. They said they have no pricing, has anyone heard anything?

He means the new F-sport line.

Which has nothing to do with the IS-F besides having F in the name.

The F-sport line is stuff designed for the IS250/350.

There's several threads, including the supposed pricing of parts, floating around...have been since SEMA several months ago.

How to reset your windows is in the owners manual

Adding the Lexus XM unit should make it work exactly like if Lexus had added it. (though as noted if it's an 06 the antenna requires placing somewhere since there's no shark fin to plug into)

Yeah...quite a few GPSes now have built in mic and speaker for handsfree bluetooth.... many also include an FM transmitter or some other way to use it wireless via the car stereo, though I think that's mainly used for things like listening to audiobooks or mp3s you have loaded on the GPS

and yes, hold down mode for a few seconds and it'll turn the stereo system on or off :)

Oh, I meant aftermarket GPS when I asked if you didn't want navigation... the factory nav is a -horrible- value for what it offers

I guess I'd have just bought a newer GPS (with newer maps) and bluetooth built in to have it all in a single device... I store my GPS in the center console when not in use to avoid the visible theft magnet theft issue.

I do think they should have a mute button on the steering wheel stereo controls though, but I guess it's nearly as easy to just hold down mode to turn the thing off.

Did you absolutely not want navigation?

because for $179 you could've had a Garmin GPS that also did bluetooth...

dude i had the same problem until i came upon some website.

basically u need to make mp3 discs rather than CDs.

1. get a blank disc and put in ure cd drive

2. open so u have a folder where u can drag stuff in it

3. drag music into the folder (u can drag like a 100 mps or more)

4. write the files to the cd by clicking "write files to cd" or something like that

then just put the cd into ure lexus and wala

Really? MP3 tag info shows up on the console? Mine doesn't and all I play is mp3's. Is there a setting for this? I can see file name and folder under Audio menu but that's about it.

Oh, I have an 08 with Mark Levinson.

Are you sure the mp3s have good id3 tags? I don't recall off-hand which version the player supports, but it definitely supports em... manual probably says which version they support, I'm just too lazy to check... pretty sure most of my mp3s have both v1 and v2 tags on em anyway.

No setting on the head unit, they just work... (mine is mark levinson without nav, so I just hit the text button to look at the various tag info (title, artist, etc)

He's not playing burned discs, he's playing store-bought CDs.

Do they have the CD-TEXT emblem on them? If not you won't see text even if you press the text button.

You can see the logo you're looking for here-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CDTXlogo.svg

The engines in the 2IS haven't been in existence long enough to answer the question. There's probably a tiny handful that might be in the 100k mile range, but the vast majority are still under 50k.

If the engines turn out anything like, say, the NA 2JZ that went into the older GSes then yeah, 500k isn't impossible...I rarely see those have any issues at all upwards of 250-300k miles or more. But it's simply too early to know.