Lexus IS350 & IS250 Most Common Maintenance Issues Explained!

What is up guys , so of Canadian Rider today , I'm going to be walking you through and explaining the most common mechanical issues you'll have on your Lexus is 253 150 .

I've obviously made some videos already on the Lexus is 350 gave it a full review .

This is a wonderful car .

One of the most reliable daily drivers , you could find luxury features , economical and honestly , you could find these cars between 5 to $10,000 .

Now they provide a lot of bang for the buck , but I want to walk you through some of the main problems that I do have with it .

That's actually common between the Lexus is 350 the Lexus is 250 .

So my car is , is 350 .

It's a 2006 with about 300,000 kilometers on the clock .

And my fiance's Lexus is 250 is a 2009 with about 300,000 kilometers .

And you know , for the most part , these cars are phenomenal , great reliability , no major problems or concerns on the car but there are some quirks and issues that every car model or revision has .

And in this case , for the Lexus is series , the 250 and 350 for the gen two model years , there are some common problems that we've found over time .

There are small problems , but I want to make a video to update you guys on that and give you these points that you should think about when you're actually looking to possibly purchase this car in the future or for your daily maintenance on your current car right now .

So I think number one and I've said it in the review , one of the problems on both of the models is fuel consumption .

It is pretty , you know , bad in terms of fuel consumption .

It's not great at all .

You have to use premium fuel for both the is 250 Lexus is 350 .

There's no getting around that .

Otherwise you may have some knocking , which is actually not good .

So you need to use premium fuel on both .

And in that case here , I'm still getting around , you know , I fill up my tank .

It's about 70 to $80 to fill up with premium fuel in Canada .

Right now .

Prices have dropped down significantly since , but I'm roughly getting in terms of , you know , mileage on mixed city , I'd say 50 city , 50% highway .

I'm getting max 520 kilometers roughly on the Lexus is 350 my fiance on our Lexus is 250 is actually not that much better in terms of like the difference between both cars .

I don't really see any difference in fuel consumption between the two models at all .

So that's why I made in the first video I said if you had a choice between Alex is 352 150 you think about fuel economy , it's a wash .

There really is no difference between fuel economy for both of these cars .

So fuel economy , aside , the other issue that we found that's common that's been happening is oil consumption and oil burn .

This is normal for so many cars that are getting older , especially for these cars with this type of mileage .

It's nothing that's surprising .

Actually , for my car specifically , I've had less oil burning issues since I've switched over to a full synthetic oil change and changing my oil every 10,000 kilometers on my fiance's car .

The Lexus is 250 .

Those have issues with some fuel sludge and build up if you're not using quality oil and they also burn oil .

In the case for my fiance's car , the 2009 Lexus is 250 .

We've seen a little bit more oil burn on that car from car to car .

You're going to have different amounts of oil burn .

It's honestly hard to say that all the cars in this model generation will burn a set portion of oil , but just be aware of that .

Like I check my oil every month right through the dipstick .

So does my fiance just be aware of that eventually , you'll know over time as you drive the car when it needs a top up of oil .

I'm topping up my car about a liter , you know , every month , a month and a half that it's burning and I'm driving , you know , every day right now with the car .

So just be aware of that oil burn is a thing on these cars .

The third thing I want to call out is the plastics again , a lot of age on this car so far , a lot of kilometers .

But what we're finding right now is that a lot of the plastics around the car , the plastic trim and stuff , they're starting to dry rot .

So I had to replace the windshield molding on the side , left and right side .

Some of the molding by the windows of the car started to dry rot .

We needed to replace those .

You're going to have these issues .

Honestly , do I think it's a deal breaker of issue for these Lexus cars .

I think it's kind of expected in a way , but I just want to let you know , me and my fiance both seen that on both our Lexuses .

So at around this time frame for a car of this age , you should expect , you know , dry rotting on a lot of the plastic pieces that you're going to have to replace .

I replaced mine , I got some parts off ebay , so I went ahead and replaced them all .

But you should still be aware that this is going to happen and it's going to cost some money to fix it if you actually care to fix it .

Nothing , performance wise , nothing dangerous because that it's happening .

It's just , it looks pretty bad .

So you want to get that replaced .

Number four , it's kind of annoying .

Number four , the the head unit for your audio .

So for your radio or everything will intermittently not work anymore .

So me and my fiance kind of have this joke game going on right now .

I'm just going to do a turn here that , you know , every time we get in the car we want to listen to music , it's really up to the car to decide if we're going to listen to music today or not because just randomly and it's about 50% of the time you get in the car , your audio will not work anymore .

It's just everything will work , but you won't hear any audio in the speakers and I haven't found a solution to it .

I looked online there looks like there could have been some solutions .

I went ahead , I tried to look for those and apply those solutions here .

I didn't get to a fix unfortunately , but me and my fiance both suffer from the same problem .

Right on .

My Lexus is 352,006 and her 2009 is 250 .

So just be aware that you may encounter that problem with this car .

There are some kind of hack fixes online that could help .

It didn't help me , it didn't help my fiance .

So right now that's a problem we deal with .

Is it a game changer ?

Is it a big deal ?

No , but it's something that I think you should be aware of , especially if you like music and you listen to music in the car .

You know , sometimes you're rolling the dice some days , you listen to the radio , some days , be able to , it's not a big deal , but I just let you know anyway .

And then finally , I think this issue isn't so much of an issue .

It's actually a testament to Lexus quality is rust .

My fiance's car has no rust on it .

That's amazing for a car that old or that many kilometers .

My car has no rust on it minus a small portion on the trunk where the license plate is .

There's a little bit of rust that has started to develop there for the most part though .

You know , you look at some older Mazdas , they would rust like pretty quickly .

These cars have been very good in terms of rust .

So it's not a big issue .

Here to deal with , but we may see rust start to develop over time as these cars get much older .

Do I think it's a significant issue ?

I don't necessarily think so , but it's just something to be aware of .

Again , if you're buying this car and again , I'm just talking about the more common issues that I have that I have found for the Lexus is 350 Lexus is 250 .

These aren't the biggest issues .

You should be aware of .

One of the bigger issues that's not really big .

But one of the core issues that people look at when they look at the is 250 is the sludge build up , but that can be rectified with consistent , reliable oil changes using a great quality oil , a high synthetic oil .

Um But in terms of common issues , these are the main issues that I found in these cars .

We love these cars .

By the way , I love my Lexus I S3 150 .

It is a workhorse , it is a machine , it takes me everywhere .

I don't think I could try to kill it even if I tried and same thing for my fiance's .

Lexus is 250 .

These are outstanding cars for the price , amazing value , great performance .

But they do have these common issues and flaws that I want to bring up just because I want to make sure everyone is aware that over time these things may develop and change .

But I still , obviously , if you're looking for a car that's a great , you know , family sedan , it's sporty looking , reliable , has good power .

These Lexus is 350 s and is 250 s .

The gen two models are outstanding cars .

I love these cars .

This car is amazing .

I just dropped down the hammer bang that V six , about 300 horsepower just takes you there really reliable , really fast .

I'd be terrified if I had , let's say an Audi 300,000 kilometers with maybe a turbo to crank it up all the time at that mileage .

But with this car , I feel like I could do anything to it and it's going to be rock solid steady .

If you guys like this video , give it a thumbs up .

Do you own one of these cars ?

Do you find one of these common issues in your Lexus that maybe I didn't talk about or do one of these issues actually ?

Are you dealing with right now ?

Maybe with the audio unit ?

Leave it in the comment box down below .

I'd love to hear actually for a lot of people in the future looking for these cars , leave those comments down in the comment box down below , but obviously love this car .

It's amazing if you haven't subscribed to the channel already , guys , make sure you subscribe a lot of great videos coming up for 2020 I just want to say again , thank you guys so much for being part of the channel and I just , I'm going to be driving this car until who knows , maybe 400,000 kilometers .

I love this car .

It's amazing .

Let me know your thoughts again .

Thank you guys so much for watching .

I'll see you guys in the next video .