philip fra

so are you saying that i should not flush the transmission on a regular basis? what you are saying makes sense, i would just like to clarify. how about water pump and such? should we just address issues other than oil changes when needed?

you guys that do a lot of miles in a year must be in sales. i am in sales and do about 25,000 per year in the local DFW area including a 5 hour road trip here and there.

morris

iTrader: (2)

Phillip, remember on the Internet everyone has an opinion, no disrespect is meant to anyone, but Phillip you may want to gather some additional input before you decide to scrap the Lexus recommended maintenance schedule. They know that the water pump will go around 100K miles so they practively replace it at the same time that they do the timing belt, they gather statistics too. Lexus put togehter this maintenance schedule for a reason, they did the research and know what needs to be done to extend the life of there cars. The schedule is the schedule for a reason.

JUst my 2 cents.

johnee78

iTrader: (4)

I agree that you can go 250,000 and beyond but make sure you perform preventative matinence..I'm not saying to replace things before they break but try to stay on top of things that normally go around the mileage that you at, at the time..

XYZLexus1

The reason why flushing an automatic transimission often causes excessive wear is as follows: Automatic transmission have clutchs in them. A clutch needs friction to work. If you have new fluid with no clutch material in the fluid than the coeffecient of friction of the fluid is very low and the clutches slip alot during shifts wearing themselves out. This means the friction required to shift gears comes from the clutch. As miles are put on you fluid clutch material builds up in the fluid increasing the coefficient of friction in the transmission fluid . Now during shifts we have the friction ability of the clutches and the friction of the clutch remanents in the fluid to perform shifts. Your clutches last longer.

Now there is an extreme. After 100K miles the fluid is saturated with clutch material and the fluid should be partially changed as the Lexus service manual indicates. Lexus dealerships who are in business for themselves will want to change every 15k miles.

Back to the human factor. My certified lexus had the fluid changed just before I got it. They overfilled it by 10 oz. overfilling causes foaming and creates a number of problems.

I only change oil prior to 100K. At 100K miles when the timing belt is do, I might change the waterpump just because I already have to remove it. I would never bleed the brakes until it was required, a defective master cylinder, caliber etc even if the car had 200K miles on it.

philip fra

i am on board with all of you. thanks for the input. this is a great resource for info. i want my gs3 to last a LONG time. i'm at about 55k now on a 98 i bought recently. i love the car.

PrlWhiteSC

There was an article in a mag. about a guy who had an early 90's LS400 with 555,000 original miles on it and it still ran perfectly and had no problems.... I know you have a GS but still.... this is a typical lexus we're talking about here it will last way past 250k.

Hameed

Just as a frame of reference, I had an 89 Maxima about 5 years ago and it had 204K miles on it when I sold it. It was 12 years old then and the transmission had given up just 20K before then. The engine itself was running perfectly. Always started on the first twist of the key, never leaked any oil. I maintained it regularly and that's all I did.

For sure your GS will outlast 250K miles easily. If I can't sell mine, I fully intend to keep it forever. It will obviously not be my daily driver once it gets very old, but if I cannot sell it in the next three months, it will be with me for a very long time indeed!