got the call....they are putting in new pistons and rings since the computer showed misfires in cylinders 1 & 3. wish me luck!!!

 

Car still in there, for those who've had the pistons replaced, how long did the dealer keep your car?
Thanks

 

For us its about 2-3 days for the overhaul including the roadtests. Typically you get it back in a week. The pistons are getting replaced with shorter skirt ones, the rep said that the other pistons had too much slap and eventually led to the oil control ring failing. I hope it all goes smooth, im sure your IS will be just fine.

 

Thanks a lot! Funny thing, the loaner they gave me is a twin of my car, minus the mods of course. So when I pulled up at home, my wife almost flipped seeing the LED running lights. She thought I bought them .

Thanks!

 

they had mine for over a week but they also found a leaky water pump which they replaced.

 

Took my '07 in for a CEL and they just called back with the "we'll have to replace your pistons/rings". I tried to convince him to do the top cleaning now and wait on the pistons until later, but they said Lexus told him the top cleaning isn't working as well as they hoped.

They want me to schedule it for a few weeks from now, because the parts are on order and they have 4 other IS250s on the schedule in the upcoming weeks for the same service. Also, I asked them to replace the spark plugs (for cost of parts) since they have to take the whole thing apart and his answer was "Well...I'll let you know." ???

Anyone get the piston work done recently with any problems? I'm very skeptical they can get all of the tolerances and everything back to factory quality in the repair shop...

 

Well, honestly an engine can be built/reassembled better than factory. It depends on the technician working on the car. I just recently got mine replaced at Lexus of Concord and I couldn't be anymore happier. They also replace my spark plugs at cost of the plugs. Honestly, if the tech is doing his job right, the engine should be reassembled at or exceeding factory tolerance and expections.

 

got the car back today. Feels nice and strong, no rough idle. So now that I have new pistons and rings, do I need to break them in like I would a new car? Also, do they change the oil when they do the TSB?

 

Well, that totally sux

I just got to experience first hand on the rough idle that everyone is talking about.

This is the second time it happened... It has only been 2-3/4 years of owning my car. I bought it brand new in June 2010... I thought I was safe.

I was coming off of 237 during traffic hour... with fan on, and pulling up to the stop light on. The car was downshifting... once I was completely stopped, the car sputtered bad and rpm dipped close to 200 RPM before bouncing back up to around 800 - 1K RPM.

I'll get my iPhone ready to record it next time so I can show the dealer.

Time to dig this thread for the TSB and double check my VIN.

 

Ive never asked, and havent stumbled upon it, but what is the difference in the engines of the IS250's that are within the TSIB VIN range and the ones that are not?

 

I've asked the same question a few times here, even weathering a mild amout of flame attempts in the process, and have yet to see a conclusive answer posted.

I have a 2010 model with a post-TSB VIN and would love to know, just for curiosities sake (I've never had any problems with my car, engine or otherwise).

There has been some speculation that there wasn't really a design change to the engine, that Lexus just limited the VIN range as sort of a cutoff so that they could limit service incidents to the older models and not deal with newer owners who weren't experiencing issues but wanted an engine cleaning or whatever just because they could.

It seems like with all the knowledgeable people here we could collectively do better, but if there's ever been a confirmed response posted to this ever-growing monster thread, I missed it.

 

You shouldn't be skeptical, what tolerances exactly? Theres no cylinder hone or bore, no decking block or heads pistons, all bearings are still factory. The only thing is lapping the valves. Torque specs yes ofcourse. But it's not hard to exceed factory quality, assembling an engine is easy just time consuming

 

Theres some things that get overlooked at the factory, the front covers leak oil right between head n block & coolant galley plugs in the head leak out, I reseal them every time

 

I have read through most posts on this thread but don't feel like there is a best solution favored by the majority to fix this issue on IS250 if your car is out of warranty. Seafoam cleaning seems to be favored by many but there are some risks to o2 sensors and spark plugs.. and it does not guarantee to clean the backside of the valves and may be not effective at all because injectors are not before the valves on IS250.

My wife's 06 IS250 started experiencing all the symptoms of this issue, before 70k, but back then when i took the car to the dealer they did not want to do anything before the have seen check engine light.. Now the car is at almost 90k and we get VSC on/check engine/loss of power every couple of month or so, which is remedies by pulling over and simply restarting the engine.. but low idle at stoplight is very much present most of the time..

I am still thinking in cleaning the engine with seafoam via pcv on driver's side.. it would be helpful to see some step-by-step pics of the procedure on IS250, but I guess it would not be much different from any other vehicle.

I would really like to see Lexus do a recall on this issue, especially after seeing so many is250 being affected... I walk a lot through congested city streets and every time i see 06-07 is250 i try to walk by and listen to the engine sound and let me tell you many times i do not hear the most healthy sound..

 

BMW dealerships perform wallnut shell blasting on the valves on their DI engines. The procedure costs few hunder. They have a special adapter that goes on the intake port of the head that blasts the wallnut shells and sucks them in at the same time. It completely cleans the valves and resolves any carbon build up issues on the valves and intake ports.

Has anyone done it on the 4GR-FSE?