Fixing Up an IS-F After 220K Hard-Driven Miles
Packing over 450 horses and a ton of tales, 2008 IS-F gets new bearings, control arms, and high-pressure fuel pump gaskets.
The Lexus IS-F is one of the brand’s greatest machines. With four doors, room for a few friends, and a ton of power from the V8, everyone will have a blast around the track or the street. Combined with the legendary Toyota reliability, and there’s nothing to stop the high-performance sedan.
Of course, even reliable luxury machines like the IS-F need a check up now and again. Such is the case with a 2008 model belonging to Jared Pink of YouTube channel Wrench Every Day. His 450+-horsepower ride’s been through a lot over 220,000 miles. Thus, it was time to fix a few things.
“Behind me is my 2008 Lexus IS-F,” said Pink. “Today we are gonna go over what a 220,000-mile performance Lexus sports needs in maintenance. I’ve had this car just over 40,000 miles, 40,000 very gentle, adult-driven miles. Definitely no rallies, race track events, nothing. It’s been, you know, ‘Old-lady-to-church-on-Sundays.'”
Pink, of course, is the opposite of a church lady. Thus, all four wheel bearings are getting replaced, as well as the valve cover and high-pressure fuel gaskets due to roaring noises and oil leaks. The front bearings were hard-to-find from Lexus at the time, so Pink had to turn to the aftermarket to take care of business there.
“Sometimes, projects don’t go quite as simple as you thought they were gonna be,” Pink said. “But then again, the car has 220,000 miles, and that wheel bearing has never been taken off the car.”
Alas, the nightmare was just beginning. After working to remove one of the wheel bearings on the other side, “the mileage revealed itself” via the left rear upper control arm. In short, the threads of the bolt on the arm’s ball joint wound up completely stripped. However, an upgrade was on its way overnight to replace another hard-to-find OEM arm.
“With the battery out and the insulator off the fuel pump, I think we can pretty safely say that gasket, its life is about 220,000 miles,” said Pink. “That’s a pretty substantial leak getting down on our nice wrapped headers.”
The gaskets themselves turned into crunchy, plasticky rings over those miles. Thus, off to the trash they went, while the new ones took their place. The engine, though, was as clean as the day it first entered the engine bay.
“A quick trick when you are adjusting these arms to preset,” said Pink, “[is] you can line them up and use that bolt to hold that center. You want to match length of the other end of the rod.”
However, Pink plans to run the other end shorter than stock for increased negative camber. With this setup, cornering should be easier.
“That goes to show as long as you keep your maintenance up,” said Pink, “and use your cars for what they’re meant for, that engine’s gonna keep looking clean for many, many miles.”
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