Deepa

Hey guys, I've had a few BMWs over the years but missed not having to do so much damn maintenance so I decided to go back to a Lexus for my most recent car. Previously I had an SC400 and loved that car, a growing family made me sell it. I still have my E36 M3 Cabrio for summer though.

Anyhow, 3 weeks ago, I picked up a 08 IS250 RWD manual with 60,000 kms for the wife to drive. Off lease, clean, no hits, Lexus maintained it's whole life and purchased from a reputable dealer. I test drove it before I bought it, seemed ok but a bit weird in shifting, I thought I just wasn't used to the shifter/clutch feel of a manual Lexus. Lately my wife was complaining that she can't get used to the car, doesn't like it. Being a dude, I assumed she was whining about something new.

So I said I'd drive the car for a day or two to see if I noticed anything. All I can say is that I'm shocked, and she was right. It's been chilly and raining here, about 5 Celsius in the morning. When I start the car, it sounds like a diesel until it warms up... which takes at least 15km of driving. Thermostat? Secondly, it makes a grinding noise from the tranny with the clutch out, faint but noticiable, goes away when I clutch in. Clutch engagement is really high, feels like a worn out clutch at 60k. If properly driven, a clutch could last the life of the car.

The single most annoying thing... the car doesn't like to shift smoothly between gears. In every other car I've owned, I take 1st to 3000rpm and shift to second, second to third at about the same, about 2500 for the rest. In this car its impossible to shift smoothly unless I wait 2 or 3 seconds for the rpms to drop before I let the clutch out, otherwise I feel like the engine is trying to hop out of the car, not how a sport sedan should feel.

Anybody experience this? I'm not sure if this is normal for these cars or if I need to have Lexus have a look.

Thanks, sorry for the longish post.

FiLtHyGS

iTrader: (1)

hmm.. with the warm up ya i do notice that as well... but i do normally shift at 2500 rpm and it seems fine to me
but ya i have a 08 is250 manual

Deepa

I tried shifting at lower rpms and its still a very jerky shift, like a 94 civic with bad engine mounts. The other thing I noticed was that if I blip the gas to 3k, it takes at least 3 seconds to come back to idle.

Lexus is gonna have a look tomorrow. I guess we'll see.

Thanks for the reply.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

1. I would recommend getting the F-Sport quick shifter...makes a whole lot of difference.....

2. The ticking noise is normal, that's the sound from the injector

3. The high clutch engagement is also normal.....I had my mechanic adjust the clutch pedal so it's not as high

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

A lot of people that actually do have the manuals have similar issues too. The transmission for the 2IS was borrowed from a Toyota truck (Tacoma I believe) so it wasn't really designed around a Luxury-Sports sedan really. I've seen a good number of complaints about reliability and performance of the 2IS manual transmission unfortunately.

kumquatism

iTrader: (10)

Sounds normal. There has been several complaints about the feeling of the manual 2IS. As mentioned earlier, try the F-Sport quick shifter. I really like the F-Sport shifter feel much more. If you still don't like it, maybe the car just isn't a good fit for you. Good luck!

Deepa

Well then...






That sucks.

Deepa

Problem solved! I traded the car on an 09 330i M/T Sport/Premium!

So Lexus decided the car needs a tranny, clutch/pressure plate along with a new flywheel. Its a case-by-case 'recall' apparently.

They happened to have a 2nd hand IS M/T with the same setup on the lot which I asked to drive, still feels like crap..