I'm looking to buy a 2008 IS 350 with 44,000 on the clock. One owner car with excellent service history. It has an intermittent high idle and the airbag warning light was on when I drove it. Even after a 30 minute warm up, it was idling at 1000rpm. The airbag warning was also on. After shutting the engine off and restarting, the airbag warning light shut off and the idle settled down to about 700-800rpm.
The battery was recently replaced and the owner thinks the car may need some re-programming. I love the car....took it up to 100mph and it was solid as a rock but the high idle and airbag warning light worry me. Probably very expensive to repair?
I've owned 9 BMW's but not anymore.

 

Both fixed at the push of a button?
There could easily be a logical fix for these. Any chance the CEL was on? The engine temp could be a bad sensor. The airbag a bad connection. There are several threads on the air bag. Those are not the kind of things that fix themselves so this may be the bad connection that is easily fixed.

As for the high idle, if for example you only drove it low RPM and its start up temperature was under 40F, they do idle high for a long time if not doing any work. Like if it starts and idles, it could idle for 10min in the cold and not come off high idle until you drive on the flats or up a hill. Mine does this for about 5 miles as most is down hill.

Take it in and get the codes looked at. Maybe it has some pending codes?
GL

 

I'm considering the purchase of a 2008 IS350. Low mileage (44K) and excellent documented service history. Last weekend I drove it for about 20 minutes. The engine was thoroughly warmed up but still wanted to idle at 1000rpm. The airbag warning light was also lit the entire time I drove the car. When I returned to the sellers home it was still idling at 1000 and the airbag light was still lit. I turned the engine off and restarted it. At this point the idle dropped to around 700 and the airbag light was off. Any thoughts as to why I had the two problems? I loved the car. but I'm worried about any 'gremlins' that might exist. Any advice will be appreciated.

 

Its really hard to convince yourself to walk away from a car your really want but in this case you should keep looking. If its a private seller, they know exactly what caused the problem and that's probably the reason they are selling it. High idle could just be a dirty MAF or bad gas and you can probably live with it. Airbag lights sounds like a money pit waiting to happen.

 

+1.

Idle could be a number of bad things. As Honda said, dirty MAF, bad gas, etc. Could be a vacuum leak as well. Wouldn't know without a proper inspection. As for the airbag light, while possible it could be related to a bad airbag, it is most likely the harness. If the seller would agree, I would get the codes read and see exactly what the light is for. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...ution-tsb.html If this is a car you want, I would highly recommend getting an inspection from a mechanic. Otherwise, I would move on and look for another one.