2012es350

Hello Club Lexus. I live in the southeastern portion of the US and just purchased a 2012 ES 350 with 69K miles from a private seller. I bought it from a little old lady who babied the vehicle. In recent years she was only putting about 300 miles per month and changed the oil every six months. Before recent years, the car got more regular use but has always been well maintained from what I can tell. I've obtained service records/vehicle history from MyLexus which is a really cool feature. She was the second owner and obtained the car in early 2014 with about 30K miles on it. The 1st owner had all the recommend 5K services done at the Lexus dealership that they bought it from. I'm cautiously optimistic that I finally found a decent used vehicle after a lengthy, stressful search. Now I am curious what common issues I should be on the look out for and if there is any preventative maintenance or replacements I should look into to help prevent these issues. I have heard from pretty much everyone that I've talked to that Lexus are essentially bulletproof and regularly reach 200K miles or more. I'd certainly like to do everything I can to achieve that. Is the transmission fluid something I should look into changing? I have read and heard mixed opinions about changing transmission fluid. Some say it is best to wait until you are actually experiencing any issues to change it (which seems a little counterintuitive to me) while some say to stick with whatever the owner's manual says. Currently there doesn't seem to be any issues shifting gears, going into reverse, etc. (knock on wood). I don't want to do more harm than good by changing it. Admittedly, I don't know as much about cars as I would like to. Thus the reason I am here. I did look at all of the fluids that I could see from the engine bay and everything was well within acceptable levels. I clicked through a few articles on ClubLexus about this model year range and read a bit about water pump/coolant issues. I've also read things elsewhere about people experiencing oil leaks. Next time I run the car I plan to put an old towel or something underneath to see if any oil is currently leaking but the oil level was full when I checked. The owner's husband (who I primarily interacted with in the purchasing process) said that the last oil change was two or three months ago. I'm really hoping because 2012 is the last of this model year range, that Lexus had worked out most of the kinks by the time my vehicle came off the assembly line. Thank you in advance for any knowledge and/or advice that you are willing to pass along.

ESh

Contacts on your purchase.
I would replace all the fluids (engine, all the filters, transmission oil and the filter, brake fluid, coolant, steering fluid, clean the reservoir and check the return hose). It is the right time for the transmission to get serviced.
I don't think you should do anything more to it. They are among the most reliable cars on the road today and all the problems that this generation had were fixed until 2011 except for the timing cover leak which here is minimal or nonexistent. Also, you need to clean the throttle body and MAF sensor.
Use Toyota parts and you will be happy.

Clutchless

I agree with everything ESh recommended for you to perform to maintain this rare low mileage vehicle.

You should change the transmission fluid now. The key to keeping a transmission working great for a long long time is to change the fluid while it is still somewhat clean and before you have any deterioration in function. Debris builds up after miles as the clutch plates wear etc. This increases wear that only speeds up. By changing the transmission fluid now before there is wear you stop or greatly slow down this wear cycle. The owners manual maintenance schedule is based on the fact that Lexus wants your car to only last until the warranty runs out and then they hope you trade it in for a new one rather than repair it when something breaks.

The same applies to the power steering fluid. Brake fluid absorbs water and so should be changed every few years to prevent corrosion of expensive brake components. The coolant is good for 10 years so change that now. Yes the water pump can fail at any time but there is nothing you can do to prevent it, just wait. If the engine starts to sound like marbles rattling in a can, then that may be the water pump failing.

FYI this is a mechanical twin to the Toyota Camry and a Toyota dealer can do all these services for less than a Lexus dealer. However if you have a great independent Toyota specialist they can do the work. FYI I took my Mother's 2010 ES350 to the local Toyota dealer to have all of these flushes done in 2018 at around 50,000 miles and it is still running great at over 110,000 miles after being gifted to her granddaughter.

2012es350

Thank you both, ESh and Clutchless. All of this info is great news. Especially the fact I can go to a Toyota dealership. There is a Toyota dealership in my city but the two nearest Lexus dealerships are an hour away. My plan was to get my initial service(s) done at the dealership, then look into a local Lexus/Toyota certified specialist. I've changed a few of the fluids myself in my previous vehicles (2010 Chevy Malibu, 2011 Chevy Malibu, and 2016 Kia Sportage) to try and save a few bucks. But with this one I want to do everything by the book and have a professional perform the work as opposed to me, the prototypical YouTube mechanic, who watches a few videos and then dives in.