Stanky's Car Fixing Thread - Fixing the worlds most reliable car 10/4

[Stanky]

49 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Yeah, I was wondering if there was a 2nd gen IS that wouldn't be in that 675 quid bracket. With the GS you can at least avoid it by getting a pre-April 2006 car or the 450h.

Counterintuitively, the automatic IS250 is comfortably inside the £395 bracket, but the manual version runs into the top tier at £675. I wanted an automatic anyway, apparently (and Autotrader prices seem to bear this out) the manual version is actually way less appealing than the auto.

[Alan G]

The auto box suits the character of the car far better and is utterly reliable. I had one for 2 years and it was as reliable as you'd expect. Watch out for the job of changing the spark plugs though - it's a bit of a mission. One bank is easy but the other involves taking off the inlet manifold.

 

[MrBiscuits]

Excellent choice - they are lovely cars, mine was an SE-L too, though a 2008. Spec was incredible - does yours have the motorised sun blind in the rear window? Some really nice touches too like auto dipping the door mirrors when you select reverse to help see the kerb. They're better on fuel than you'd think, I got 33mpg round the doors and over 40 on a run. The only things mine ever needed were a water pump at about 100k and a battery because a previous owner had fitted a shitty ECP Lion one. I sold it when I had a 90mile a day commute for a while and often regret it.

If you're anywhere near the south coast there's a really good independent Lexus/Toyota guy in Wickham.

[Stanky]

15 minutes ago, MrBiscuits said:

Excellent choice - they are lovely cars, mine was an SE-L too, though a 2008. Spec was incredible - does yours have the motorised sun blind in the rear window? Some really nice touches too like auto dipping the door mirrors when you select reverse to help see the kerb. They're better on fuel than you'd think, I got 33mpg round the doors and over 40 on a run. The only things mine ever needed were a water pump at about 100k and a battery because a previous owner had fitted a shitty ECP Lion one. I sold it when I had a 90mile a day commute for a while and often regret it.

If you're anywhere near the south coast there's a really good independent Lexus/Toyota guy in Wickham.

Mine doesn't have the sunblind, though two that I tested out did have it, its probabaly for the best because my youngest daughter would definitely burn the motors out once she found the button that controls it! its a really impressive touch, and equally impressive that it still functions perfectly on cars that are nearly 20 years old!

Wickham is literally 10 miles away from me, I'm just the other side of Fareham - is that Lex-Tech in Droxford? I've heard good things about them if so. I want to drive the car for a bit, then sort out some servicing that I'll probably do myself, I would like to change the spark plugs and use the opportunity to have a good look at the inlet valves for the crud you get with direct injection, which seems to be the only real issue these suffer with. 

I need a bit of time to go out and play with all the buttons really and get it just right for me!

[MrBiscuits]

15 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Mine doesn't have the sunblind, though two that I tested out did have it, its probabaly for the best because my youngest daughter would definitely burn the motors out once she found the button that controls it! its a really impressive touch, and equally impressive that it still functions perfectly on cars that are nearly 20 years old!

Wickham is literally 10 miles away from me, I'm just the other side of Fareham - is that Lex-Tech in Droxford? I've heard good things about them if so. I want to drive the car for a bit, then sort out some servicing that I'll probably do myself, I would like to change the spark plugs and use the opportunity to have a good look at the inlet valves for the crud you get with direct injection, which seems to be the only real issue these suffer with. 

I need a bit of time to go out and play with all the buttons really and get it just right for me!

There are certainly a lot of buttons to play with. Think I had mine for a year before I worked out it had a little heater at the bottom of the windscreen to stop the wipers sticking in the frost.

Yes, Lex-tech is the one I used. Stuart I think his name is, seems to know these cars inside out, so handy if you get any issues (unlikely though!)

The carbon build up worried me enough to bung some injector cleaner through every couple of months but I had no issues. What surprised me was how noisy the injectors can be when cold, almost like an old school valve train knock, always quieter once warm though.

[Stanky]

So I've had the Lexus for a week and a half and have had some time to get to know it better. Headline is that its comfortably the best car I've ever owned! Its well built, comfortable - especially at motorway speeds, and literally everything works. I've only used about 1/3rd of a tank of fuel so far and if the trip computer is to be believed then its returning about 34mpg in mixed use. 

Today I removed the wheels one by one and gave them a thorough clean with the autosmart alishine cleaner which has brought them up very well. This also allowed me time to inspect the state of the discs and pads (all fine) and also check the operation of the rear caliper sliders. This is a weak spot on the car, and they are prone to seizing the bottom slider pin. The passenger side moves fine, but the drivers side seems a bit stiff, though it was parked close up to a wall so access wasn't great. I plan to strip both sides down and silicone grease the sliders to keep them working as they should, but I didn't have time today. 

I've also lined up bits for an oil and filters change, pleasingly oil, oil filter, air filter and cabin filter come in under £60 which I'm not grumbling about! I'll get that done after payday and sort out the sliders at the same time.

I gave it a quick wash but it really wants a seeing to with the clay bar, there are lots of little tar speckles all over and it just wants a bit of hard work to get it up to top condition. Also, why does no-one ever clean inside the fuel filler flap? The rubber round the filler neck was covered in brown gunge and the rest of it was coated in dried mud, it looks a lot better now!

Oh, the only other thing is that it currently wears 4 mismatched budget tyres which are a bit worn. I'll probably get a set of 4 matching midranges before too much longer so at least one rear tyre is at the 3mm wear marker. Surprisingly the road noise isn't too bad on the motley budgets and it handles fine even on greasy roundabouts.

I shall end the update by saying that I have missed the best aspect of owning an auto, pulling out onto roundabouts while eating crisps. Extensive testing in a manual car has shown that you need at least 3 hands to steer, change gear and shovel crisps into your pie hole all at once, and this doesn't work and since the crisp-eating bit is non-negotiable then you either end up banging off the limiter in 1st gear or navigating the roundabout more like a hexagon - much to the alarm of other road users

[Stanky]

The last documented service on the Lexus was in January 2023, mileage unknown but probably about 5k miles ago. As usual for me, I want to get a few things done on the car to get it up to my standards* - so since its been a nice couple of days I set to with some general fixing.

First thing was an oil and filters change. I got 10L of Mannol 5w30 FS oil, and a set of Ashika filters for under £60 delivered on ebay which seems good enough for the time being. The air filter and cabin filter were a bit dusty - not outright filthy so its definitely been cared for, but probably not changed for a year or two so they were duly slung on. Then it came to the oil change. I had the car up on the lift and was able to easily access the oil filter housing through the little trap door in the undertray (thanks Lexus!); I'd bought myself the Toyota oil filter tool and so got stuck in. However, this is where I came a bit unstuck. The oil filter housing is underneath the engine and looks like this:

You use a 14-fluted cup thing with cutout 'teeth' to unwind the leftmost bit so you can replace the element filter

I got a semi-decent ally removal tool with a 3/8" drive socket, it should be done up to 18lb/ft or 'about hand tight' in old money. So I started with my stubby 3/8" ratchet, no dice, it wasn't moving. So I stepped it up to the 3/8 > 1/2" adapter and a 1/2" ratchet, still no dice. I triple checked that I was definitely undoing it, pulling towards the front of the car - yep, correct. So then I went to DEFCON 4 and used my big 1/2" bar, heaved with all my might to undo the thing and shattered the square drive socket into 4 pieces and sheared two of the 4 teeth off the cup tool - so thats that fucked! The housing of the oil filter remained undamaged, but very much still attached.

Obviously I had already undone the sump plug and drained the sump of old oil by this point, so I was a bit miffed. I duly replaced the sump plug and put a new crush washer in, and then refilled with fresh oil, but using the old filter which I wasn't super pleased about. Are there any grown ups among the assembled brethren who have encountered this before? I am given to understand this is a common oil filter housing for lots of Lexus and Toyotas, is there a knack to it? There isn't room to get an impact gun on it with the undertrays fitted, though they could be removed I suppose? I could buy another cup tool, but I suspect I'll get the same result if I heave on it again and it'll just shatter. My current thinking is that I can ask the garage to do an oil and filter change on it when I take it for its MOT in about 3 months time and ask them nicely if they can get the housing to undo, then please only do it back up to 18lb/ft so I can do future changes.

The next task was to have a look at the fogged-up front foglight, after a lot of fiddly disassembly (I know how to do it now) I got the foglight unit out to find some ape had been at that too, and it had been modified* with a new ventillation hole in the side where the retaining bolt hadn't been undone and someone (not me!) had snapped it getting it out. It seems to be a fairly common theme, because there is this one on ebay right now which has been vandalised in the same way

I removed as much of the water from it as I could, and put it in the oven for 40 minutes at 60c to try and get the steam out - its better, but still a bit steamed up. On refitting I made a special* bandage from gaffer tape to cover the hole which should prevent more water getting in, but also prevents the remaining water from getting out. I think it'll need replacing with a 2nd hand unit TBH, this one is wrecked basically.

I checked the tyres and topped up the front nearside which was noticeably lower than it should be. I'll need to keep an eye on this.

The next job is to remove and grease the rear brake caliper sliders, its a common issue on these apparently so I want to get them apart and greased ASAP to prevent them seizing. I know the passenger side one moves like it should so I'll start there because it should* come apart easily, the drivers side seemed a bit less willing to move under hand pressure, but since I was up against a wall and with the jack in the way it might just have been a bad angle or something. Anyway, the recommendation from the forum beards is to have the rear wheels off and grease the sliders at least annually and they'll be fine. I have a brake slider and rubber grommet kit for both sides as a precaution. Assuming I can get them apart I'll clean it all up and refit.

Otherwise i'm really happy with it. As others have said I'm seeing a real-world 34mpg round the doors and 39mpg on a 350-mile run to see family which isn't bad at all from a petrol 2.5V6 IMHO.

[SiC]

Makes me wonder if it's been seized for a while and everyone who was supposed to change it decided to avoid actually changing the filter. 

Presumably it's bolted on the block? Just thinking maybe that a (second hand) spare is needed if your garage struggle too and risks cracking it. 

[SiC]

The other option, which I'd only do if I had a spare to hand, would be to bash those ears round with a screwdriver and hammer. 

[Stanky]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

Makes me wonder if it's been seized for a while and everyone who was supposed to change it decided to avoid actually changing the filter. 

 

I had thought the same thought! It might be a bit old. 

The entire housing bolts to the block, and is available 2nd hand, I was thinking that if I go down to the MOT garage in person a week or two in advance and talk to them about it, and offer to buy a replacement threaded end bit like this:

in case they totally wreck it getting it off, then they have a spare part to hand (assuming they are able to separate the spin-on threaded bit from the housing). I think there are a couple of options - knock it round using the tabs that the 'teeth' engage with, or use a 14-sided cup thing ONLY, possibly in a combo with an impact gun and/or freeze spray to try and loosen it. Obviously heat isn't an option. 

[SiC]

Makes sense. 

Let's face it, they're facing the same problem as you. They aren't going to want it stuck on the ramp or yard if it breaks. So much less risk if they have something to bolt off/on if it all goes wrong. 

Personally I'd probably see about a second hand complete housing if they're not too expensive. Then fresh gaskets from Lexus. Possibly cheaper than an hour or two of garage labour trying to get the thing off. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Those Lexus/Toyota oil housings have defeated me before being so murderously tight. It's a SHIT design. 

I've never actually had one break the proper tool though. I've used a normal 14 flute tool in the absence of my original special tool which sadly went missing (probably loaned out.... 🤦‍♂️) - and on one occasion I had one shatter a generic tool but that didn't come as much of a surprise to me because it was only gripping half of it. 

I've managed to undo them with a drift before, it didn't break on me but maybe it wasn't done up as tight as yours is so it would be worth getting a replacement to hand just in case. 

My tool is a Sealey one: 

https://www.sealey.co.uk/product/5637206248/o645mm-oil-filter-cap-wrench-14-flutes---lexustoyota

I suppose it might be slightly better quality than an eBay one and less likely to break? I only say that because I had to actually grind it down a little bit because the external size was slightly too big to slot into the gap. 

Laser advertise their one as being resistant to/durable enough to deal with previous overtightening... ?

https://www.lasertools.co.uk/Product/4880/Oil-Filter-Wrench-3-8-inch-drive-64.5mm-x-14-Flutes

[Stanky]

1 minute ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Those Lexus/Toyota oil housings have defeated me before being so murderously tight. It's a SHIT design. 

I've never actually had one break the proper tool though. I've used a normal 14 flute tool in the absence of my original special tool which sadly went missing (probably loaned out.... 🤦‍♂️) - and on one occasion I had one shatter a generic tool but that didn't come as much of a surprise to me because it was only gripping half of it. 

I've managed to undo them with a drift before, it didn't break on me but maybe it wasn't done up as tight as yours is so it would be worth getting a replacement to hand just in case. 

My tool is a Sealey one: 

https://www.sealey.co.uk/product/5637206248/o645mm-oil-filter-cap-wrench-14-flutes---lexustoyota

I suppose it might be slightly better quality than an eBay one and less likely to break? I only say that because I had to actually grind it down a little bit because the external size was slightly too big to slot into the gap. 

Laser advertise their one as being resistant to previous overtightening... ?

https://www.lasertools.co.uk/Product/4880/Oil-Filter-Wrench-3-8-inch-drive-64.5mm-x-14-Flutes

Thanks, some googling has also come up suggesting the Laser 4880 is the best tool for the job so I will have to swallow the £18 for a new one I think. The one I got previously wasn't as expensive as that, somewhere under £10. By the looks of it, its not a bad design per se, but seems vulnerable to having been done up ultra tight previously, or the threads not lubricated which might be what we have here. 

Out of interest, do you use the inner square head bit, or put a 27mm socket on the outside of the hex? I see you can do either, earlier on I broke the cup adapter by using the inner square drive bit with a 3/8" ratchet, should I have put a hexagonal impact socket over the outer instead?

[RoverFolkUs]

5 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Thanks, some googling has also come up suggesting the Laser 4880 is the best tool for the job so I will have to swallow the £18 for a new one I think. The one I got previously wasn't as expensive as that, somewhere under £10. By the looks of it, its not a bad design per se, but seems vulnerable to having been done up ultra tight previously, or the threads not lubricated which might be what we have here. 

Out of interest, do you use the inner square head bit, or put a 27mm socket on the outside of the hex? I see you can do either, earlier on I broke the cup adapter by using the inner square drive bit with a 3/8" ratchet, should I have put a hexagonal impact socket over the outer instead?

I suppose it's probably not entirely a bad design, but it's there to hinder the process as it could be made a lot easier

No I use the external hex portion, I would have said it's going to lose too much torque by using the internal 3/8 square drive, but it must have transmitted a fair amount of torque if it managed to break the tool! 

A 27mm (I think? Can't remember!) shallow 1/2 socket on the end of an extendable 1/2 ratchet has always worked for me with the tool. I always undo them with a sharp yank as well, rather than applying gradual force where it may end up smacking you in the teeth once it eventually gives (that's a learned habit you see 😉) 

So yes, I would say use a hexagonal impact socket next time 

[Stanky]

1 minute ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I suppose it's probably not entirely a bad design, but it's there to hinder the process as it could be made a lot easier

No I use the external hex portion, I would have said it's going to lose too much torque by using the internal 3/8 square drive, but it must have transmitted a fair amount of torque if it managed to break the tool! 

A 27mm (I think? Can't remember!) shallow 1/2 socket on the end of an extendable 1/2 ratchet has always worked for me with the tool. I always undo them with a sharp yank as well, rather than applying gradual force where it may end up smacking you in the teeth once it eventually gives (that's a learned habit you see 😉) 

So yes, I would say use a hexagonal impact socket next time 

Thanks, I've ordered a Laser 4880 which should be here next week and I'll have another crack at it, even if I can just loosen it off a bit this time I'll call that a result, and change the filter the next time I do an oil change. I'll use a big hex socket on the outer instead, I ended up like this using the inner square

(not my pic, but had the same thing happen) 

I'll see how I get on, and if this fails again then it'll be garage time I think. 

[tooSavvy]

Is there room to wrap a 'chain strap' oil filter onto the end.... Harder you pull >>> more it grips 🤔

🚙💨

[Stanky]

3 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Is there room to wrap a 'chain strap' oil filter onto the end.... Harder you pull >>> more it grips 🤔

🚙💨

Possibly, other than the flutes bit and the two tabs that the cup teeth grip onto it's quite smooth, so not a lot to grip onto. I'll try with the new improved cup tool and then go from there.

Best case it's been like this for about 5k miles, worst case it's been using the same filter since 2013 or something!

[Stanky]

Set to on the rear calipers tonight, these are a known weak point, with poorly-sealing slider boots resulting in seized sliders. The recommendation is that these are removed, greased and refitted annually to prevent this from happening. I though that the passenger side one moved ok from a bit of a wiggle when I had the wheels off the other week, but that the drivers side wasn't awfully compliant. Turns out I was about on the money.

I started with the passenger side, the wheel came off fine, caliper top bolt undid, removed the pads and pins and things and the caliper hinged down beautifully on the bottom slider. I removed it, cleaned up the slider,greased it, fitted new rubber boots and reassembled it, other that getting the new bottom slider boot to seal over the barbs - which was a bit of a fiddle - all was fine.

Next up was the driver side. Wheel off, top caliper bolt undone, removed pads and pins and the caliper wouldn't budge. The caliper is pretty much seized to the slider. I can see that the boot isn't correctly seated and so its a bit b0rked. Using a big screwdriver I was able to get about 40 degrees of rotation so I squirted some penetrating oil under the boot and tried to work the caliper back and forth, but didn't really have much luck. It moves, but not much, and needs a lot of leverage so I decided to call it a day, reassembled it all, cleaned down the disc and caliper with brake cleaner and refitted the wheel. The wheel moves freely so its not dragging, but it obviously needs looking at.

With this and the oil filter malarkey I'm probably going to phone the lexus specialist that @MrBiscuits recommended upthread, and ask them to have a look at both the rear drivers side caliper and the oil filter in one hit. I'll also get them to check my homework on the passenger side rear caliper to make sure I've not made a dogs dinner of that inadvertently.

mildly annoying, but the only real alternative would be a new caliper and carrier kit for the rear drivers side (£160) and bin this one - which maybe isn't too bad? I'll discuss with the lexus specialist what they think, because if they just say 'seen it all before, its new caliper and carrier time' then I'll just do the job myself, if they reckon it can be freed up and rebuilt in <1h (possible?) then its probably cheaper to go down that route.

[Stanky]

I had a day off work today so made use of some tinkering time.

First job was replacing the rear inner light lens. One of the previous owners has reversed into something I think, there is some scuffing on the bumper, a very small ding in the metal quarter panel, and a crack in the rear light lens which is hard to see, harder to photograph but easy to replace.

Its not too bad, but water has got in and its going green in the cracks, and is only a matter of time before it mists up and makes the car look tatty and uncared for. I bagged a replacement unit for £16 on ebay which arrived earlier in the week. Easy enough to do, open the boot and remove the sound deadening felt

undo 3x 10mm nuts through the access holes and gently lift it out

I took the opportunity to clean the muck out of the stamped recess in the panel before reassembling it all with the new unit. 

Much better.

Then onto some other jobs. The Laser 4880 oil filter tool had arrived earlier in the week too so I lifted the front end up and had another go at getting the oil filter housing to release. I followed @RoverFolkUs advice and used a 24mm socket on it, rather than fitting the cup tool direct to the 12" breaker bar. I used the Power of Grayskull and amazingly it undid - I was sure I'd trashed the cup wrench again, but astonishingly it survived. I drained the oil out of the filter housing (maybe 1/2" litre?) into a washing up bowl and then replaced the filter and o-ring, making sure I cleaned up all the threads and mating surfaces with a rag, put a tiny bit of copper grease on the mating surfaces on the not-threads side of the o-ring, then refitted it. I did it up hand tight, then a tiny bit more on the ratchet. Hopefully next time I need to undo it it will come off without a fuss. 

I got given a BIN offer on a caliper and carrier so I took the lazy route and just bought it, and swapped the whole shebang. It was £150 which I could have done without, but the old one was basically fucked - I could have spent a significant amount of time heating it up, hammering it and getting it to free off, then replacing the slider and reassembling it all, but I'd probably have broken something in the process and immobilised the car so just took the easy route and assembled the whole caliper and carrier on the workbench, removed the old one and swapped the brake flexi over, refitted the pads, pins and wire retainers and then enlisted my eldest daughter to do the pedals end while I did the caliper end and bled it through.

All sorted out and working fine - so thats another issue off the list.

I think the next thing is to get some tyres, it has 4 mismatched budgets on currently, and they're all at, or close to the 3mm wear markers. it looks like I can get a full matching set of Kumho Ecsta tyres for £300, or Uniroyal Rainexperts for £340. I know and trust the uniroyals, the Kumho's are supposed to be just as good in the rain as the Uniroyals, so might be worth taking a punt on, thats something for next month though I think.

I had to go up to Manchester for work last week and the Lexus handled it all beautifully. 550 miles there and back via Telford, it behaved impeccably and delivered 38mpg, and 35mpg over a combined 20 gallons of 70% motorways and 30% crawling round local roads.