Bws1994

I'm looking to buy a Lexus as my next car, I need something bigger and I'm very partial to Toyota so a Lexus would be perfect. There has been a '91 Lexus ES 250 for sale in my area that I have been looking to buy. The body is straight and he claims it has no engine problems. Granted I will look at it if I'm thinking about getting it. It has a small oil leak but that is easy for me to patch. Now for the real deal, the car has around 286,000 miles. So I was wondering if a Lexus with 286,00 miles is worth the buy. This thing will be a daily driver and I will have some time and money in the future to work on it but not for a few months. Opinions?

LeX2K

The 2VZ-FE engine is known to develop head gasket problems, so watch out for that. The engine also runs hot because of the exhaust design and the small engine bay. But if you keep it cool (properly functioning cooling system) and regular oil changes are performed, the engine is extremely reliable, as is the transmission.

It would depend on the price and service history.

On the HG issue, this is what typically happens on these engine (3VZ engine shown but the block deck is exactly the same).




Notice on the edge of the block how the HG material has degraded. Signs of a blown HG are low coolant but no apparent leak, white exhaust smoke with a sweet smell to it, rough running engine, spark plugs that are coolant colour and washed clean look to them.

Bws1994

The person provided hardly any information about the car, and he only wants $800 for it. When I go to check it out I'm bringing a compression tester and hopefully the seller will let me look at the engine and test compression. When the engine went out I wanted to do a 3VZ-F or a 3VZ-FE swap.