Just got a letter in the mail from Lexus saying my 15k mile service is coming up. I skipped the 10k mile service (except for the oil change of course) since it was pretty much a joke as far as what they do. Is the 15k service more of the same?

 

Inspect and replace if needed, the air filters, both engine and cabin air conditioner. Replace the oil and the cartridge oil filter. Rotate the tires, if required. Inspect the disk pad wear. Replace the wiper inserts, with Lexus OEM.

 

Sounds like a joke to me... Have them change the oil, that's it... Then change the engine and cabin filters and wiper inserts yourself if you want...

 

Buy all those things and do them yourself. So easy to do. Lexus just wants your $$$.

 

but that's how dealers are..

 

so how much does it cost for the 15k service to be done?

 

There is a supplement schedule maintenance book with your owners manual it will tell you what is needed for every recommended service.

 

I asked my local dealership and they said about 300.

LOL the list of things they check are

Oil
Filters
Balance Tires
Wipers
Clean Fuel Injectors
Clean Throttle Body
Check Fluids

and some other odd ball things. That sounded ridiculously high to me ... so I asked my father, and he says to wait until 30k till any major maint. on the car. I'll go with what he suggests since that is how he has treated his Toyotas and never had a problem.

All of that work I think can be done in less than an hour, maybe a little more and it certainly isn't worth $300

 

There is absolutely no reason your fuel injectors or throttle body should need cleaning at 15k...that's insane. It's doubtful your tires even need balancing, and you can buy wiper inserts for cheap. That leaves a simple oil change. I wonder sometimes if they even do the work they claim on these services. I know they're 100% aware that a 1-year old car doesn't need a throttle body or fuel injection service...

 

Instead of everybody carping about what a ripoff Lexus/Toyota is why not appreciate the fact that most Japanese automobiles today are so finely engineered and assembled that they require very little maintenance for many miles. Those old enough to remember cars from the 50's or 60's will indeed remember that they were mostly toast by the time they got to 50,000 miles with a long maintenance history of 'stuff' that broke or went wrong. Quit your complaining .... no one forces you to take your car in for any mileage service. If you want to save money just buy the items separately and do it yourself. Or just ignore the mileage and keep driving it .... maybe it will never break.

 

^^^ Exactly.

 

Just as a follow up, I dragged out the maintenance schedule for my IS350. I leave out tire rotation, as most of us throw up a big N/A for that one, and leave out "road-test vehicle", because as far as I'm concerned, I shouldn't have to pay Lexus techs to run 1/4 mile times with my car for fun, especially if it's just there for a friggin oil change. Just to be clear, I only pay for tangible items. I haven't paid for an inspection of any kind on any car I've had in the past 10+ years, and I've never had any issue, warranty, leasing, or otherwise. YMMV

5,000 miles

- oil and filter
- retorque axle flange bolts (?)
- visually inspect brake pads and rotors
- inspect axle shaft boots, ball joints and dust covers, engine air filter, nuts and bolts on chassis, steering linkage and boots.

NOTE: most of these made me laugh out loud, especially "inspect nuts and bolts on chassis". Give me a break.

10,000 miles

- oil and filter
- measure thickness of front brake pads and rotors
- replace air conditioner filter
- re-torque axle shaft flange bolts
- visually inspect brake pads and rotors (first they measure them, and then they "inspect" them?)
- inspect (another list with things they won't actually "inspect")

NOTE: I'm convinced item 4 is on every service list so they can say, "Yeah, but does Jiffy Lube re-torque your axle shaft flange bolts? I didn't think so."

15,000 miles

- oil and filter
- clean air conditioner filter on IS250 (huh? what do they do, bang it against something? does the filter stay cleaner on the IS350?)
- inspect engine air filter
- re-torque axle shaft flange bolts
- visually inspect brake pads and rotors
- inspect (another list with things they won't actually "inspect")

20,000 miles

- oil and filter
- measure thickness of front brake pads and rotors
- re-torque axle shaft flange bolts
- visually inspect brake pads and rotors
- inspect (another list with things they won't actually "inspect")

This goes on ad nauseum for awhile. Once you cull out all of the BS, the actual service items are:

- oil and filter every 5k
- re-torque the hell out of the axle shaft flange bolts...alot. Can someone chime in on this?
- replace air conditioner filter if necessary every 10k
- replace brake fluid, air filter every 30k
- replace spark plugs and differential oil (if you have a LSD) at 60k
- replace engine coolant at 100k

By the way, I noticed that they'll move items from the "inspect" list into the main checklist if they want to make it look like a particular service is really adding value. For instance, the 30k service moves "inspect nuts and bolts on chassis" to item 2, because we all know how important that is. They also take care to check the fuel tank cap gasket as often as possible. I'll let you all draw your own conclusions on some of these items.

Priceless.

 

I think we can appreciate reliability and still have a discussion of necessary service items. This thread is valuable, because it might help some people sift through their service book and come to the realization that some items are pure profit centers without tangible benefit to the driver. There is no prohibition on throwing away your money, if you choose to. This, in my opinion, is a good discussion.

 

Here's my maintenance schedule for most of the vehicles I own, including the IS350:

1) Change oil, oil filter, AC filter, engine filter and wiper blades - Every 12 months or 15k miles

2) Change spark plugs, brake fluid, tranny fluid, coolant - At 6 years or 100k miles (But I rarely keep a car this long so I'll probably never get to this point)

PS - Brake pads and rotors I usually can get the dealer to do for free under warranty every 30k miles.

 

So how much did you end up paying for your 15k service on the 350?