jvah1980

You guys rock here, I picked up a RX330 earlier in the year and had a ton of questions and concerns addressed.

Now I'm most likely picking up a used 2006 IS250 AWD (premium package and nav) tomorrow. It has 120,000 miles, and the cars service records from new to about 100,000 miles are all accounted for in the Lexus owners portal.

the FAQ was super helpful.

Here are my few concerns :

rotted windshield trim (saw this and looked for it from the FAQ) - check.

Missing roof trim on one side (see these are not terribly expensive) - check.

Sunroof was acting a bit strange (not closing, stopping in the middle, etc) - the RX330 had the same
issue and there was a 'reset' procedure in the 330 thread that worked perfectly to fix. Is the IS the same?

My two major concerns are looking through service records, it does not appear the car was ever serviced for the TSB pertaining to piston rings / valve spring issues. Should I be concerned? Is it safe to say if the car is 10 years old with 120,000 miles there'd likely be symptoms by now? It seemed in the forums many of these cars were having issues before 50k miles.

The second major concern, and perhaps just being paranoid, there is a slight shudder when stopped in gear. It's consistent, not variable. It 'almost' feels like it could be normal. It feels like the RPM's are just a TOUCH too low. Reading threads here is head spinning on this issue - I've seen it could be a carbon build-up issue, a transmission failure, bad piston rings, it could be completely normal, it could be a shifted drive shaft from lowered suspension?

It does have lowered coil-overs (not very low, just slightly lowered) - many people mentioned this, but is there an explanation as to why a lowered car might vibrate more at idle?

There are a few little things I don't really care about and can deal with later :

Hole in the driver seat.
Worn steering wheel leather.
Wheels are pretty scuffed up (but it drives smooth when I had it up to 60, no shimmy at all).

Lastly, the service records show brakes and rotors being replaced three times. Does this seem normal? I have a 2013 Pathfinder I needed brakes and rotors after 20k miles (because metal on metal ripped through the rotors). However, that was bizarre and I rarely need brakes done on my smaller sedans. Ended up dealer woul do covered it but I had already done it.

It looks like there was a throttle body cleaning at dealer around 60k miles. Spark plugs were done at 60k (I'm guessing I should plan on this soon).

I don't plan on keeping the car for 100k miles, I typically keep a car for a year or two (15-30k miles).
Water pump was replaced at about 70k miles too. I noticed this seems like a fairly common issue, should I expect the water pump to go again soon?

The 'carbon' build-up issue has me cautious overall - it's always extremely hard to tell in forums how 'common' an issue is. Is it a real problem, or a real problem that affects 5% of cars? Do I do a top-engine cleaning once a year and not worry about it?

Thanks for any advice! Greatly appreciated. Hopefully I roll in here tomorrow morning as an official (and happy) owner.

Thanks,
Justin

RandyIS250

How much did you pay Justin ? If the car is cheap then you should not worry . Plan to keep for 2 years ? Man just drive till it dies !

jvah1980

$8k. I love in Northeast. It seems most dealers are charging between $9 and $11k for same car.

I'm fully prepared to dump another $1500 into if need be and feel good about it.

Justin

bbaugher47

Were you able to run a carfax? I feel cars from snowy regions may be more prone to issues with rust etc. But the car seems like a good deal. Even if it needs a little work.

jvah1980

Yes. Ran carfax. Was one owner car serviced at Lexus nearly the entire life of car barring the last two months.

Everything looked pretty good. No excessive or abnormal rust.

Justin

jvah1980

I'm now the owner of a 2006 IS250 AWD.

Thanks for the input here.

Taking it to Lexus for a recall that is still open (Fuel seal/gasket?).

Also having them do a free inspection of the car to see if there is anything I missed.

Wondering if the vibration at idle could be a motor mount? The RPM's seem to stick right at about 750 while in gear, but there is a slight shake at that speed- put in neutral and it goes away.

-J

RandyIS250

1st of all, Congrat Justin with your new Lexus, 2nd yes it's the engine mount that Vibrate your steering wheel when in Gear D and goes away in N .