spineman

I was wondering if anyone had their dealer try to perform a service that wasn't necessary.

Recently took in my CT for airbag recall. Got a call from my service rep and was told they wanted to do $1200 in service.

First they wanted to do Fuel induction service??? Reason: Excessive carbon buildup. How the hell do they know this? I'm sure they didn't take apart intake manifold

Second a "Hybrid CVT" service. Reason: Due on maintenance schedule. I don't see anywhere in the maintenance schedule where you need to "service" the CVT. In these cars I believe is isn't recommended at all.

Third, Brakes at 25% need to replaced asap due to safety concern. Well they are the original brakes so if I have 76k on them, I still have another 25k miles to replace them...lol Curious how many miles ya'll get out of your original brakes

Is this place a stealership or is this just common place everywhere these days???

LRCSALES

iTrader: (1)

did they do the service without consent and they are charging you for it?

If not they are recommending service to maintain your Lexus properly. IF you have not done and induction service in awhile it is recommended and everyone has carbon build up.

SalsaBoiii

In my opinion, as much as it sucks and is probably expensive, I say stick with doing your service at a Lexus dealership. At least there you know what you're getting is credible.

ALTHOUGH, I must say, always look at what service(s) you're getting. They may add services in that are unnecessary at the time. Always question, and don't forget that you can bargain a bit.

Good luck hunting.

lexusrus

I have a 2013 Lexus CT200h with around 45K miles.

$1200 is a lot of money AND you can DO A LOT of car maintenance with the $1200 on the CT200h!!!!

​​​​All I remembered was the routine oil changes at recommended 10K miles intervals, but I do it between 6K to 8K miles. I also replaced the engine air filter around every 15K miles or so (I don't remember what the owner's manual specified, but it is fairly cheap, $18 at Amazon for the Toyota OEM engine air filter). Literally it takes like 45 seconds or less to pop the old one out and pop the new one in.

Brake fluid flush at every 30K miles (NOT A BRAKE PADS/ROTORS JOB)......THIS is just a drain of the old brake fluid and refill. I did not do this myself bc I don't have the TechStream software (I know I can "rent it" from "Toyota" for a small fee for a few days). Plus I don't think I can get either my wife or kids to press the brake in coordination with me at each wheel calling out instructions. .. I foresee this will be a disaster. So I get my local Toyota dealership to do it for like $100 while I wait.

The brake pads on the CT450 "SHOULD" should last A LOOOOOONG TIME UNLESS YOU JUST DRIVE LIKE A MANIAC AND ABUSIVE. Even if needs changing......you should be paying Toyota Prius/Corolla prices, not the inflated crazy Lexus Stealership prices. Also most reputable brake shop should be able to do it at a fair price...... it's a VERY COMMON SERVICE ITEM!!!

CARBON build up IS NOT an issue with the CT200h. If this was an issue, then Toyota will have A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE UPSET with the Toyota Prius!!!! Because these two vehicles share the same engine and drive train. On the prior gen IS250.......IT WAS AN ISSUE. I don't know if still an issue on the IS250? Just get a CONCENTRATED Chevron gas treatment and put it into your gas tank and run it on a full tank until empty. Do this every 5K miles or so. If you use quality TOP TIER gas anyway, you really don't need to do this.

That's all. The CVT transmission I believe is "lifetime". But NOT REALLY LIFETIME. If you are only keeping the car to like 100K miles, then I would say, don't bother. But if you intend to keep the car way beyond that, then yes, do the CVT transmission fluid change. This is "relatively"easy to do as well, but will require some tools that you may not have. At least 4 jack stands and a laser thermometer to measure the CVT transmission temperature once warmed up......new gaskets for the transmission pan and torque wrench.......

Call up your local TOYOTA dealership and sign up for their coupons notification on their website. Or sometimes they just posted their Specials online.

The CT200h uses the same engine and drive train as the Toyota Prius. Just because IT IS A LEXUS, it DOES NOT necessarily HAVE TO COST THAT MUCH MORE FOR SERVICE. Unless you just don't mind paying more and ACTUALLY FEEL GOOD ABOUT JUST PAYING MORE.

Just look at your owners manual and it will spell out what services needed to be done at what intervals. I WOULD ASK them to show me and VALIDATE where on the owner's manual specified whatever services they are talking about.

If I were you, I would just go for the airbag recall and shop around.

ADDENDUM:. MOST reputable tire shops (those that only sells and install tires and do not do brakes, hence NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST) will give you a free brake pads check if you ask them. They will look at the pads while the wheels are off the car. If you ask them to get you so you can look at the pads with them together.......most will be happy to demonstrate their expertise. Now, they may not have a caliber to actually give you an exact measurement, but it is relatively easy to do a visual inspection. I have had EXCELLENT experiences at America's Tires in SoCal (sister stores Discount Tires elsewhere) and Firestone shops.

Raidin

They do seem to be trying to cheat you. I would call Lexus' hotline and leave a complaint, especially since they called out a service in the manual that isn't actually there.

1. Fuel injector service is not necessary for your car, but makes them some money. Unless you noticed an issue with your mileage or had it looked at, avoid it.

2. There is no CVT service, just a fluid change you can do if you want to, like others have mentioned (should be $200 or less).

3. At 25%, your brakes are still fine. Once they are below 10%, or 5% if you're willing to keep an eye on them, is when they would need to be replaced, imo.

My dealer never tries to sell me anything like this, so this is definitely an issue with them.