IS250_rookie

How dirty was your old fluid, and at how many miles did you do this?

2IS auto transmissions are sealed - you cannot drain the fluid. So that's why there is nothing in the maintenance handbook, and why Lexus consider it a lifetime fluid.

I bought 4 different polishes from Poorboy's World: SSR1, SSR2, SSR2.5 and SSR3. I also have 3 Lake Country Pads (an Orange Medium Cutting Pad, a White Polishing Pad, and a Red Wax/Sealant Pad). The polishes go from most aggressive (SSR3) to least aggressive (SSR1). What pads should go with what polish? When I was buying the polishes on Autogeek, they suggested to use SSR3 with a White Pad because it has a lot of cutting power, instead of the Orange or Yellow...

Btw, I have the FLEX DA polisher.

Thanks. :)

Damn that's rough. The worst I've had is I left the two front windows open over night and it started raining in the morning so I had to run out and close them. But I wiped down all the water and never had any issues.

Salesman probably recommended so that the car 'learns' this driving mode and sets everything around it. I did it the other way, drove super conservatively in normal mode and found that I did not like how it shifted. I took it back, they reset it and I drove it in "power" as it re-learned. Now I like it even out of power mode.

You can reset the car yourself. Disconnect the battery's negative terminal for a minute, it will reset your transmission shift points. Your radio and odo readings will stay the same, which is nice.

Back on topic, the PWR button doesn't actually decrease your fuel economy it just makes you drive more aggressively since the pedal becomes much more sensitive to driver input. You can have the same MPG with the PWR button on, it's just harder to do it.

Park Sensors On/Off switch

Missed this thread. Happens. Nevertheless, I have a neighbour with an A4 and a friend with a Q7. The A4 is a very stiff car. From the suspension through to the seats. On the otherhand, the Q7 is a vehicle I would consider buying myself. Every feature you would want. A great ride, good performance, more room than others in this class, etc.... Nevertheless, the history of this storied marque leaves much to be desired. Have you ever noticed which brands have burned out tailights/brake lights? The rep is that as long as you have a warranty and don't mind your car in the shop for days on end, by all means buy the "Ultimate Driving Machine"! A disclaimer at this point ... I have owned a bimmer with (surprisingly) no issues! Mind you I doubled up on the service schedule to avoid issues. I also have neighbours who have an A4, S550, M3 and a Q7 with no issues at all! This is obviously not the norm when it comes to the reputation of German cars. Love the performance of any of the German marques when they're in peak mode! However you really have to love the brand to put up with the maintenance issues that accompany the mistique. IMO, if you're a diy, an M5 is a machine that's worth any time you might have to put in to keep it in top form!

I've seen at least 5 Audi's, newer and older generations, with those issues in my area alone. Some Mercedes have those issues too. Def makes me feel worried about their products. But the thing is, they weren't burned out, they were just not working properly. The tailights were always very bright as if the person was applying his brakes, but the top brake light was off.

Lexus IS 250 AWD (2008) oil change

I finally got to this task and found out as the previous contributor noted, the WIX 57047 filter does not fit. I think it fits a number of other Toyota products. The WIX data base is WRONG ! The 57047 part number is what the WIX data base lists for the noted car.

I think the correct filter, at least what you get when you use the manufacturer part number cross reference is a 57173 filter.

I called WIX and they seem like they could care less. Told me to to go back to where I bought the filter and to try to swap it. I always liked WIX filters but their customer service stinks.

Yes you're right. I used the WIX#57173 for my second oil change and it's exactly the same as the stock one. I dunno why but WIX has 2 different filters for RWD and AWD IS-sedans. But in reality, only one of them is correct(57173).

I don't think so. It's either 5 or 7.5k

Especially if you wanted to decapitate your dog or your kid.

That cant happen. The window would stop and go down if it sensors any resistance going up.

You willing to try it? I put mine down to flip out a cig and hit the express up too soon and it like to smashed my arm. I couldn't get the down button quick enough. The feature may be there but they aren't 100%.

The system works, I tried it with a notebook. I'm too scared to have my arm/fingers in there though :P

Also your comment about pets, why would you close all of the windows if your dog was inside? I would use it if I forgot to close the windows and shut off the engine already.

I know that the regular audio system has a fake speaker in the middle of the dash(under the windshield), you can pry open the cover and there is an empty space inside. It's used for the ML audio.

I've used Lexus of Pembroke Pines for parts and their prices are the lowest I've seen. They're located in Florida so I dunno how much the shipping cost would be for you. It's obviously best to buy in bulk to spread the cost of shipping. One thing to note, they don't pack very well...but I never received anything broken. The coolant jugs were bent at the cap, and other stuff was just free to move around inside the box. But other than that, they're great.

Hey IS250_Rookie, thanks for your great information.

I just did the oil change for my 2009 RX350. rx350 has very similar oil pan and oil filter as IS250. I couldn't get the small bolt off the oil filter housing. When I opened the small bolt, the whole metal casing came out, not the small bolt. Do you have any tips to open the small bolt?

It could be just on there too tight. My only suggestion is to use some elbow greese. I personally have a problem with it too. I torqued it to spec last time I did my oil change and later on I couldn't open it again(stupid me)....should've just hand tightened it like usual. The only downside to not being able to open the drain bolt on the filter housing is that you can't drain the filter before opening it up, so it's just a bit messy.

I reset my ECU today, just to try it out. My radio stations stayed the same. I only noticed that I had to go around the car to get the windows to work again.

You'll probably need to get a special filter removal tool. It's a little cup that attaches to your socket wrench. I just don't know the size for 2010 but our 2008 uses a 65/67mm that I bought at Walmart for around $3.50 while Lexus sell it for like 40. You can check out my car's DIY oil change I made. It is essentially the same as the RX we have.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=51010

HI,

I just recently purchased a 2006 IS 250, AWD, automatic. I am noticing in the last few days when I first drive it the transmission gets hung up in 3rd gear for about a 1 minute or less. I can see this being normal in cold weather but its been 50 degrees in the mornings lately so I wasnt sure if this was normal or not?

Thank you

Try resetting the ECU(disconnect the negative wire on the battery for about 30secs). Keep in mind though that it will erase your preset radio stations and probably your trip meter.(Not 100% sure, since I haven't done it).

I heard that the car's ECU remembers your style of driving and does so accordingly to your pedal input.

For instance, I used to use the manual mode and ride down hill in 4th gear to not use my brakes and to keep a constant speed...after a while I noticed that once I touched the brakes, just a little, while riding down hill, the car would automatically shift from 6th to 4th(while in D). I'm not sure if it was like that before though. Also, while in PWR mode if I floor it, it will downshift and go, but when I let go the gas it stays in 3rd for a while before figuring out that I don't want power anymore. But in regular mode, it upshifts right away in the same situation...because that's what I always do...I might floor it for a few seconds and then let go.

So my point is that you might've done something(or somebody who test drove the car at the dealer) to make it believe that you wanted to stay in 3rd gear. So everytime you do it, it stays in 3rd. By resetting the ECU, it will go back to normal. Also I heard it makes the car feel faster.

Are you allowed to do such a permanent mod on a leased car? My guess is no....

p.s.: Just wondering.

Yeah def keep a good tire guage(one of those clock-like ones, not the cheap pen-like) in the car and check once in a while. My guess for the tire pressure difference is that the car is rear wheel drive and IS250/350 have wider tires in the rear so they need more pressure to compensate for the larger area. Then it brings me to a question, why is AWD 35/38, if the tires are the same size? Is it because it's rear-biased and puts more stress on the rear tires or were the Lexus engineers too lazy to replace the sticker?

I wouldn't consider brake pads a major repair. I've been doing everythinig myself since last year and I'm self-taught by the internet. Oil changes, all filter changes, brake fluid bleeding, radiator flush, now I will try to do the front brakes over the weekend. It's all very simple, just takes some patience to try it for the first time.

Yeah I just recently used Sewell along with a discount code(CLUBLEXUS)...much less expensive than at a dealer. I think I should've bargained more though, since I was shopping for brake pads and made the dealer bring the price down from 73 to 60 because of the quote I got from another place. But I purchased them at Sewell for 53(without shipping).

Never mind. Cleaned the whole engine, will post pics later.

Just used two plastic bags to cover the fuse boxes(on the left and on the right). I couldn't find the alternator so I didn't bother with that. Sprayed some water at low pressure, applied a degreaser, let it soak for 5 minutes, scrubbed with brushes, then washed it all off. Dried off the water with a leaf blower then took off the bags. Oh and I cleaned the engine covers seperately. Let the engine run for a couple of minutes just to drive everything off and make sure that it still works :) Then sprayed some CD2 Engine Detailer and wiped off the excess. Looks amazing.

please rehost the pictures

p.s.: Nevermind, I found this guy's tutorial website.

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/cooling/coolant.html

I'm thinking of cleaning the engine bay. Is there anything I should watch out for, any wires or parts I should cover up?

I've never done this before but I have researched it a lot in the last few days. Found a useful guide and a video. Seems like I would need to cover up the alternator and the air intake. And avoid using a high pressure stream. Also it says to apply some wax on the fenders to protect the paint from the degreaser.

How safe is it to do on a Lexus, since they have a lot of electronics under the hood?

Here is the site and the video I used.

http://www.properautocare.com/prencl.html

too bad you can't close them from the outside...would be really useful if it was raining or something and you wanted to close the windows real fast.

My rear view mirror only vibrates when I have the bass up, but I think that's normal. One thing that annoys me is the second wipe of the windshield wipers after you spray the washer fluid. And also how badly timed the wipers are, they come on before the fluid, basically wiping a dry windshield. So to go around it, I pull the stalk halfway which makes the fluid squirt but doesn't turn on the wipers and then I pull it all the way... but there is still that automatic second wipe that comes on about 3 seconds afterwards and just *BLEEP*s everything up.... anyway this is really minor lol