All, hoping to get some opinions on whether we were misled by a Lexus dealership. My mother (75, not knowledge of cars) has a 2010 Lexus ES350 with 71k miles on it and took it to a Lexus dealer North of Chicago. The service manager told her that Lexus recommended having the engine cleaned to get rid of carbon due to stop and go driving. He went on to explain that because it was a "performance engine" this was recommended. She allowed them to do this thinking it was part of the regular maintenance and paid $170. When she explained this to me it did not sound like something Lexus would typically recommend, nor anything I have ever had to do on any cars I have owned.

Does Lexus recommend some type of internal engine cleaning as part of regular service? Thanks in advance for the help!

 

NO!.......it's not in the Maintenance Schedule. The dealer is full of it in more ways than one. Decokeing might be used if the engine had performance or emissions issues.

 

With preventive maintenance you should rarely, if ever, experience carbon deposit performance issues.
Use full synthetic motor oils
Change the oil promptly - generally, 5K for dino oil; and 10K for full synthetics;
Use Top Tier gasoline
Use a quality fuel additives every 2-3 oil changes - Chevron Techron, Lucas Fuel Treatment, Red Line, etc...
Replace/clean spark plugs at recommended mileage;

I do all this and our engine has over 200K miles with no performance issues related to carbon buildup - and we've never had that type of service done.

It should also be noted that short drives pose a great risk of carbon build up - the above maintenance steps should be completed more often if that's the case here. At least once a week the car should be driven to highway speeds for 20-30 minutes. My wife drives 20 minutes each way to work five days a week; so, that is a contributing factor for keeping the intake and combustion chambers clean.

http://www.autotechwestislip.com/wha...orry-about-it/

 

I have done SeaFoam treatment before on my cars at high mileage... But as you can see here, there are differing opinions on this topic...