I have a 2007 IS 350 and plan to take my car to the dealer for the 'throttle induction service'. The cost is $149. What exactly do they do? what are the benefits?
Also, my car is 3k miles short of the 37k mile service and was wondering if this is a minor/major service interval. They mentioned on my last service my brakes were 4mm in the front and 7mm in the back. When are those usually changed and how much have people paid at the dealer and/or can you recommend a third party?
I have a 2007 IS 350 and plan to take my car to the dealer for the 'throttle induction service'. The cost is $149. What exactly do they do?
They take your $149 and put it in their pockets. Then they spend like 20 minutes cleaning your throttle body, which is probably not dirty at only 35k miles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerel2k5
what are the benefits?
Well, for the dealer, an extra $149. For you? Probably not much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerel2k5
Also, my car is 3k miles short of the 37k mile service and was wondering if this is a minor/major service interval. They mentioned on my last service my brakes were 4mm in the front and 7mm in the back. When are those usually changed and how much have people paid at the dealer and/or can you recommend a third party?
Thanks for the information!
Here is what your car actually needs done as far as scheduled service. If you're paying for more than this you are getting ripped off.
One sure way to get ripped off BTW is to ask for the "X miles" service rather than just as for the things you need.
Every 5k miles: Oil change- ~$50 at a dealer, cheaper elsewhere (see below on this)
Every 15k miles: Check air and cabin filters- you can do this yourself in 5 minutes for free.
Every 30k miles: Change brake fluid ($100-150 or so to have done). Change air and cabin filters (again, do yourself in 5 minutes, $50 in parts maybe.
Every 60k miles: Change spark plugs (honestly dunno what they charge for that one, I'm not there yet)
Every 100k miles: Change coolant (also not there, but this also shouldn't be more than $100-150).
That's IT.
re: oil changes- in normal driving (ie not a lot of short trips, not a lot of idling the engine) you can go a fair bit longer than 5k miles safely... 7500-10k on normal oil, 2-3 times that on a good synthetic. But "the book" says every 5k, so depends how paranoid you wanna be.
Regarding the brakes, pads can go down to 1mm before you need to replace em. It's around $65 for a new set of front low-dust pads from Sewell and they are VERY easy to replace. (the rears aren't quite as easy but they last a lot longer too since the fronts do most of the work).
I contacted CityGarage which seems to be getting pretty high marks re: service and they offer the throttle induction service for $149 also -- they said they clean the valves, etc. I called the dealer to verify what they are doing and its an apples to apples comparison.
I'll ask the dealer if they recommend doing a service at 37k since that is what is showing on the window sticker. I've got another 3k+ miles before I hit 37k though. I'll find out what they do and cost. That way if its just an oil change or specific things as you indicated I can probably get an oil change cheaper than $50.
I contacted CityGarage which seems to be getting pretty high marks re: service and they offer the throttle induction service for $149 also -- they said they clean the valves, etc. I called the dealer to verify what they are doing and its an apples to apples comparison.
I'll ask the dealer if they recommend doing a service at 37k since that is what is showing on the window sticker. I've got another 3k+ miles before I hit 37k though. I'll find out what they do and cost. That way if its just an oil change or specific things as you indicated I can probably get an oil change cheaper than $50.
Oh, they're basically doing a cleaning system kinda like BG44 or seafoam... I still don't see any value in doing it with mileage that low unless there's something obviously wrong with the way the car is running though.
The sticker on your window was put there the last time you had service, they generally just add 5k to whatever miles your car had the last time they serviced it.
Your owners manual lists the actual mileage when various services are scheduled to be done, you can also go to lexus.com and get the same thing.
Click on the PDF on the right hand side. It's for 2010 models but scheduled service intervals haven't changed since mechanically the IS350 hasn't really changed since introduction.
Knightshade: Are you implying that on a good synthetic oil it is safe to go 20-30k between oil changes? Do you have any research to back up this claim such as oil analysis performed after X amount of miles etc? While engines certainly do burn much cleaner, and oil's and filtration have come a long way, I think your oil change recommendations are far from safe.
I've seen the results of lax oil changes (every 6, 7, or 8k miles) on avalons, camry's, siennas and highlanders and the results aren't pretty. These engines either require a total desludge, or enginge replacement if the sludge was not caught in time.
That being said, for the most part your other points are right on track. Although, we are starting to see alot of the smaller 4cylinders struggle with carbon buildup in the throttle body's with as little as 20k miles, alot depends on driving habits and quality of fuel used though. One thing that you do need to keep in mind is that on the new cars the throttle body is all electronic, in other words a motor moves the throttle plate back and forth. So even if you don't notice any driveability concerns, if you get excessive buildup inside the throttle body or on the throttle plate, you are working that motor harder, and like any motor that becomes over worked, it will fail. With throttle body's being well over 1000.00, a fuel induction cleaning every 40k or so seems like cheap insurance to me, but thats just my opinion.....
Knightshade: Are you implying that on a good synthetic oil it is safe to go 20-30k between oil changes? Do you have any research to back up this claim such as oil analysis performed after X amount of miles etc?
Yes, actually.
There's a many pages long used oil analysis thread over on CL... folks get very clean results from conventional oil after 10k miles, and no issues at all with annual changes at 20+ thousand on synthetic.
These are very clean burning engines.
Plus, Amsoil has been running safely up to 25k miles for decades in many many cars (including several I've owned).... In fact, they guarantee it's safe for that long, and in 30 years in business have never had an engine failure from it. Their higher end stuff is guaranteed to 35k nowadays, but still annual changes so you'd have to be a pretty heavy driver to need that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cargill
While engines certainly do burn much cleaner, and oil's and filtration have come a long way, I think your oil change recommendations are far from safe.
I've seen the results of lax oil changes (every 6, 7, or 8k miles) on avalons, camry's, siennas and highlanders and the results aren't pretty. These engines either require a total desludge, or enginge replacement if the sludge was not caught in time.
That'd be the old 3.0L V6 that Lexus hasn't used in years (and Toyota doesn't either for the most part anymore)... apples to oranges.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cargill
That being said, for the most part your other points are right on track. Although, we are starting to see alot of the smaller 4cylinders struggle with carbon buildup in the throttle body's with as little as 20k miles, alot depends on driving habits and quality of fuel used though.
Also hasn't been a problem on the GR motors... now, the GR engines that only use DI (like the 250, but not the 350) have had carbon build up issues at higher mileage in some cases (and Lexus does a free top end cleaning as part of a TSIB for it) but the original poster has a 350, which doesn't have that issue either since the port injectors keep things washed with fuel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cargill
One thing that you do need to keep in mind is that on the new cars the throttle body is all electronic, in other words a motor moves the throttle plate back and forth. So even if you don't notice any driveability concerns, if you get excessive buildup inside the throttle body or on the throttle plate, you are working that motor harder, and like any motor that becomes over worked, it will fail. With throttle body's being well over 1000.00, a fuel induction cleaning every 40k or so seems like cheap insurance to me, but thats just my opinion.....
The TB takes like 10 minutes to physically get to on the GR motor and you can clean it yourself with $5 in cleaner at autozone.
For $149 I'd expect they're doing a whole top-end cleaning (intake, valves, etc), which is a fair bit more extensive, but a bit excessive for a 40k mile engine otherwise running fine. (and the 250 valve build up does show signs when it happens, usually a rough/low idle event)
I use Amsoil extended drain oil in my 350 and have been doing so since the first year of ownership,...great products! However, on the advice of an Amsoil distributor who told my son to change my filter every 7500 miles because there is an issue with our engine building sludge. The oil will last >25K miles but NOT the filter. Toyota says it's Amsoil, Amsoil says it's Toyota Actually Amsoil STOPPED making their filter for our engines, if you use a Wix or Mann they are only good for 7500 miles. There is nothing wrong with Amsoil or any other brand of synthetic it is the Toyota V6,...great engine design but it still has issues that have not been corrected,...yet.
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Safe Flight Dad R.I.P. 1930-2010.
I use Amsoil extended drain oil in my 350 and have been doing so since the first year of ownership,...great products! However, on the advice of an Amsoil distributor who told my son to change my filter every 7500 miles because there is an issue with our engine building sludge. The oil will last >25K miles but NOT the filter. Toyota says it's Amsoil, Amsoil says it's Toyota Actually Amsoil STOPPED making their filter for our engines, if you use a Wix or Mann they are only good for 7500 miles. There is nothing wrong with Amsoil or any other brand of synthetic it is the Toyota V6,...great engine design but it still has issues that have not been corrected,...yet.
There's been quite a few 10-12k UOAs posted with no filter change (even using lower grade oil than Amsoil) with out issue... but changing the filter every 6 months is what Amsoil has always recommended (at least going back the 12 years or so I've used their stuff) when not running a synthetic media filter, and AFAIK nobody makes one for the GR series engine.
The GR engine isn't anything at all like the Toyota V6s that had the sludge issues (and that sludge problem was primarily in 3.0L V6 engines in cars from 96-2002... well before the 2IS engine was put into production). Those motors were closed deck multi-port injection engines... the GR is an open deck motor and (in the 2IS) direct injection (with the 350 having a dual system).
If you have a reputable source reporting oil sludge issues in the 2IS (or any GR series engine) I'd love to see it though.
Amsoil used to make filters for our cars but they have stopped. Like I said I've been changing their extended drain every 20-25Km without issue but our distributor is the one that mentioned the Toyota sludge issue with our engines,...so it could be nothing and it could be something. I don't think he's about to give out too much info
If you change your filter every 6 months then I'd say you're pretty safe,...not to worry.
Didn't mean to high jack the thread
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Safe Flight Dad R.I.P. 1930-2010.
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Actually Amsoil STOPPED making their filter for our engines, if you use a Wix or Mann they are only good for 7500 miles. There is nothing wrong with Amsoil or any other brand of synthetic it is the Toyota V6,...great engine design but it still has issues that have not been corrected,...yet.
