Did my first visit to a real auto shop today after taking care of my 03 GS430 with 161K miles on it for the last few months on my own and here are all the things they recommend I do because it may have been a long time since the previous owner had done it (bought the car 6 months ago). The total for the below ranges between $550-650 after taxes. They also said I am developing an engine oil leak and need to have the valve cover gasket replaced (which is another $450-500 additional).

- Rear Differential fluid drain and refill
- Brake fluid exchange
- Power steering fluid exchange
- Fuel Induction service

I really would just like to know how to figure out which of the above if not all services I need to do to my Lexus to insure it stays running as well as it does now over the next few years. It guzzles gas so the better it runs the better for my pockets in the long run. I am going through the service records and saw the timing belt (90k) and tranny fluid exchange (160k) were performed already. The most difficult part to figure out is about the engine oil leak - is this a sales move here or is that something legit? I attached some photos the shop provided to show me the leak but I have no idea what to look at.

With that said please let me know if I should invest the money to get the above done - I assume there could be other things that can go wrong but these services are only needed every 30K miles or so and thats going to take me a while to get to. Thanks a lot for reading.

 

Look to the left of the alternator in the second picture - notice how it's relatively shiny? That's the oil leak.

If it does turn out to be valve cover gaskets, be sure that they replace the spark plug o-rings as well, or else you'll be back in there again in a few years for another set of gaskets.

 

i'll have to take a closer look - do not know what I am looking at here :/

As far as the other items above, are any of those emergency items if they have been done in the last 2 years or less than 20K miles?

 

None of those things are things you need to get done immediately if you don't have the money, not changing those fluids isn't going to harm anything, it would be a good idea to do them at some point but wait until you can comfortably afford it, it also doesn't look like you're losing much oil

 

Really appreciate all the responses - would you say the price I got as an estimate was fair for all of these services? I think I will get them done as frequently as I can afford to just want to make sure none of this stuff will affect me in the immediate future.

 

Late to this thread, but yeah I agree with the other posters. Check your oil regularly and make sure you are not losing too much. Probably best to get the issues taken care of sooner than later. Enough your GS!