Hey everyone! -- My 2014 F-Sport is due for the 100k Factory Recommended Service, which basically consists of a tire rotation, oil change, and checkup for brakes, floor mats, windshield wipers, fluid levels, road test and maintenance message clear. Lexus dealership quoted me $457 which includes free wash and loaner car, another reputable shop quoted me $400. I can have a free tire rotation from Discount Tire, I can do the oil change myself (got the oil and filter from $50 to $20 at AutoZone), can check fluids, clear message and some googling (Club Lexus?) can help me with an appropriate brake checkup.

Here's the thing, the car has a full dealership service history for every 5k miles plus other minor stuff, I plan on keeping this car and thinking for at least 5 years, maybe 10, maybe until it breaks. Does it make sense to break the dealership service trend and do maintenance/fixes either myself or other small shops and add records of my own? Is there another pro of keeping doing dealership services other than resell value?

 

Haha I'll do literally all that myself for pennies. Realistically $27. Extra $40 if you want to do a transaxle service.

at 100k, all you'll need is an oil change (as usual), transaxle fluid would be good to change.

isn't due for engine and inverter coolant and spark plugs til like 130.

Rotate tires, do with your hands and arms
check brakes use your eye *****
floor mats use your eyeballs and hands
wipers use eye *****
fluid levels use eyeballs (newsflash, you won't need fluid)
road test, just use brain. you drive to work i'm sure, so drive to work again and go "hmm is this good?" and that's it.

no value at all to spending $457. zero.

 

And sure change cabin air filter ($4 rock auto) boom done bam wham. eyeballs are a beautiful thing!

 

Took the car out for tire rotation, did the oil change, I already had bought the oil filter tool... pain in the butt this first time. First of all, my RhinoRamps don't fit it, car is too low (just found out it has the blue F-Sport springs, nice) so took out my years old jack and stands, removed the cover, oil plug was pretty tight but manageable, oil cap was extremely tight, had to use a metal tube over the wrench for extra leverage. Almost 5 quarts of still good looking oil came out, was used to my Focus giving me about 3 out of 4.5 quarts. Cabin air filter still clean, I replaced the engine air filter for a K&N because why not :P

Everything else, like you said, just visual inspection, car is running good, nothing weird other than minor rough starts on cold weather. Also found out that the car can play DVDs lmao, popped in Top Gun, navigated the DVD menu with the remote touch control, movie looked ok but sound was glorious!

Back on topic, I got Mobil 1 and had a minor doubt about going with the Advanced Fuel Economy, High Mileage and Extended Performance. I went with High Mileage because it made more sense for me, car is over 100k miles so taking care of the engine > fuel economy. Didn't go with Extended Performance since I'm planning to do next change after 10k, this one is made to extend this to 15k but I'm going to keep up with Factory Recommended services.

 

FYI the engine coolant needs to be changed at 100k miles, then every 50k after. Inverter coolant is at 150k miles, then every 50k after.

 

Hi Raidin, big fan. Thank you for the heads-up about the engine coolant, it wasn't mentioned on the factory recommended service but I'll take the advice anyday from somebody with car with more than half a million miles on its CT. I just read that the coolant loses some of its properties over time and might acquire contaminants.

 

As the original poster says their car had been maintained at every 5K interval this is the same as my 3GS all through Lexus, I as well relies these prices are insane. Since 90-100k all my self have done a throttle body cleaning, pcv valve, coolant, 2 oil changes 2 tire rotations one balance, diff fluid, brake fluid, as states for 90k internal that costed me $132 at a specialty Lexus place everything else was done on my own I have not tallied up all the services but I know I have saved a lot of money.. also had to get a new radiator cap cause mine rusted out and fell inside that’s another forum on here haha be carful I fishsed mine out. Good luck! 2011 GS350

 

The issue with not changing your coolant is electrolysis -- which develops over time in coolant due to all the chemistry with the metals and will corrode metals internally. And the only way you prevent that is completely changing the coolant. If you do it twice within the car's lifetime, you'll be fine. That is as said above at about every 100k, or 5 years.

In the BMW world, my personal recommendation on a car you really like, is change it at about 60,000 miles or 3 years. Most would say that's overboard and I wouldn't argue. But for a car that has HG issues, new coolant will help prolong the HG life.

I was about to do a full coolant swap on my 2015 with 60k miles but I traded the car in.

If anyone DIY'd this, they'd need to be careful bleeding the system in maintenance mode. The Carista or DR Prius app has these options

 

hey ct experts, my 2014 just hit 95k earlier this month. time for that notorious EGR system work. think i have all the gaskets needed for intake system, egr system, to do cleaning service. i notice in the 2014 ct200h maintenance log booklet, for 100k service "replace engine coolant", oil/filter(10k), tire rotation(5k). need to go buy the Toyota coolant about $23.99 each. system holds 7-7.5qts. only like $3-5 more than non Toyota brand. i watch most how-to videos on youtube and i have the repair/service tech manual. doesn't seem too difficult. but i welcome any tips or advice.. lol

btw should i do or get a fuel system cleaner, (injectors & fuel lines). brand or type?

 

First of all, thank you!

Second of all, it's odd you should say that, because the coolant change is listed in the maintenance book. It's all the way at 100k miles.

I was doing it every 50k miles like the book stated, but my mechanic noticed no indication of "wear" if you will in the fluid at 50k miles, and suggested I should be safe going further. I change both every 100k (every 1 year) now.

 

I just checked after reading your post, yes, it is mentioned in the book, I was going by the Lexus website and it's odd that it's not mentioned at all there, and the website services have been down for a few weeks...

Thank you for that!