When I bought an Infiniti G37 coupe years ago, I stopped posting on this forum. But in that I gave my G37 to my daughter two weeks ago and bought a new ’16 IS200t F Sport for myself, I figured it was time to come back. Interestingly, my wife’s ’06 IS250 finally failed by needing a new transmission (estimated to cost $5,000) so at 123K miles we traded it in on a ’16 IS200t for her. So here we are, with two IS’s in the garage and loving them both.

 

wow. so you have two 200t? base for your wife and f sport for yourself? awesome! Btw, Welcome back!

 

Great. The 200t is fun to drive IMO. Welcome back! What colors?

 

Mine is white with the red interior. Hers is silver with a black interior.

 

Congrats ... Welcome back to the club!

 

welcome back! Do they hook you up with an awesome deal for purchasing two cars?

btw what happened to the is250 causing tranny failure at 123k miles?

 

Welcome back! I just traded my '08 IS250 for a '16 IS200t F Sport about a month ago. I really love it but I miss a manual Everything else makes it all worth it though. I just put an Injen intake on it along with a custom cat back exhaust (remove all the resonators and mufflers and added two Vibrant resonators). I can really hear the turbo and the stock bypass valve now! It is great to have a turbo in my life again.

 

If my Lexus needed a transmission rebuild after 12x,xxx miles I wouldn't buy another one.

 

Did you perform the transmission flush every 60K miles?

 

Yes, I believe so. It’s a bit of a long story, but here goes.

We took the ‘06 IS250 in for service at the dealer as requested intervals for its entire life. Interestingly, at 103,000 miles in 2014 the dealer did a major overhaul of the engine under warranty, stemming from her complaint of rough idling. They diagnosed carbon misfire and replaced some major components including, pistons, rings, valve springs, lash adjuster, and valve seals. It was virtually a new engine so we planned to keep the car indefinitely.

Then this year at 121,000 miles in October my wife apparently ran over a curb going too fast. We ended up with a leaking rear axle and needing new front struts, costing us $3,900. We still planned to keep the car because she loved it so much. But when the transmission blew last week, that was the last straw.


We’re retired now, and do not plan to drive our cars to such high mileage anymore.

 

that's the thing with the lexus transmissions that are sealed -- they require no servicing according to lexus, but that realistically doesn't work; the fluid needs to be changed at some point. the system is really complex, though, in that changing the fluid is prohibitively complicated.

 

if the transmission is sealed, the dealer would not service it even if they ripped apart the engine. Did you buy it used certified therefore you have the warranty at 103k miles? If the car is bought used there is no way to tell how the previous owner drove it to cause the issue. Even worse case scenario, you bought it as a demo or dealer loaner as new. We all know how loaners are abused. I can guarantee your wife also never rev pass 3k rpm resulting in carbon buildup. There are too many factors in your case to determine what caused the tranny failure

 

if you look on autotrader or any used car site, there are plenty of is250 with originally tranny with over 200k miles still running fine.

most auto tranny these days are sealed. My 370z had a sealed no maintnance one and I had to call 5 dealers and see if they are capable of changing the fluid. They had to manually suck/drain and fill the oil then kept it overnight to remeasure the oil temp and quatity in morning. The car didn't shift as smooth compared to before the change. I can only guess since Nissan didn't recommend tranny fluid change, there are no manuals or instructions. Therefore the tech just used his prior experience. I wouldn't do it again if I can have a do over.

 

The IS250 was purchased new in 2006. The free engine work at 103,000 miles was, as we were told by the service manager, due to an engine design flaw that promoted carbon buildup for which Lexus was obligated to fix.

As for the transmission, we were getting a VSC light on the dash, so we brought it in to fix what we thought was a minor problem. But they told us that caused the transmission to lose pressure that could only be solved by its replacement. I didn’t understand it either, but after they did major engine work earlier for free, we trusted them. Were we taken? I don’t know, but at least she's enjoying having a brand-new car, with features not available in 2006.

 

You probably just had a dud..

Every car maker pumps a few out in their lifetime..

Just the luck of the draw.

Welcome back into the fold though!