Is there a site that I can use to track the maintenance done to my car by giving my VIN#? I'm getting ready for an overhaul, but I don't want to spend unnecessary money.

 

I know Carfax shows some vehicle maintenance history depending on where the owner gets the work done. It shows all dealership maintenance/service.

You can call the dealership and ask to see if they can give you a print out for the VIN# of all work done to the car through any Toyota/Lexus dealership.

Other than that you need to inspect it and see for yourself anyway.

 

i would go through the dealership :] just be nice and they will just give it to you :]

 

Just Call Up The Local Dealer There Is A Data Base That All Dealers Use You Just Call Up The Dealer And Give Them The Vin # If There Is Anything In The Data Base On Your Car They Will Up Date You.

 

I did the dealer look up thing a few days after I purchased my '98 back in August '07. The service manager at Pleasanton Lexus told me that they can give me a general printout with no line item specifics.

I don't know if this was a privacy matter with respect to the previuos owner or just the way the data is collected.

She did tell me that the car did receive all maintenance on schedule thus far, but there was a history of battery charge related problems. Probably due to the low mileage on the car.....it had 37k when I bought it; the car probably sat in the garage for most of the past 10 years.

It just turned 40k miles a few weeks ago.

 

I tried to get a printout from Lexus a few days ago but the woman said there were no records for my car in the national database...

 

Carfax does not show all dealership maintenance. It only shows maintenance from facilities that subscribe to their service. It will show recalls, but not whether or not they have been performed. I recently pulled a Carfax on a car that showed multiple oil changes from a place called Ken's Pit Stop in Montrose, Colorado. That's because Ken's subscribed to their service and the information from their computer was downloaded to Carfax.

Additionally, a national manufacturer database is somewhat confusing. I sell used cars and I specialize in Hondas and Toyotas. I can't get any information from any kind of national database from either of these. Only local dealerships who will not give the information, but more likely don't have it because the cars I sell are old and from all over the country. They haven't been serviced at the local dealer.

I worked for a Chrysler/Dodge dealership for over 24 years. The Chrysler database seems to be much more complete than the imports. We could run what's called a 46 report on our computer on VIN's up to about 18yrs old (when the 17 digit standard went into effect) and find any warranty work or recall work that was performed on that vehicle at a franchised dealership. Plus some maintenance work depending upon the computer system of the dealership.

Dale

 

So in a nutshell, I can go through the dealer and they will tell that work has been done, but just not what, or I can go through carfax and get an incomplete list?

 

no, the dealership may tell you what has been done, but sometimes the info is incomplete.

ive never seen a carfax that had lexus/toyota maint. info.

 

Right, and only what's been done at that dealership. People move, cars move etc. The Carfax will tell you in what city and state the car has been registered. You can call around and find a dealership close to there and see if they ever serviced the vehicle.

 

I ran a carfax b4 I purchased my 95 recently.They show very general info if vehicle has been serviced.I emailed the dealer that was listed as having worked on it but I guess since I was not buying they were not too interested in cheking the service history.I signed up with the official Lexus owner's site from the manufacturer but didn't really get any mor info than carfax gave me.

 

lexus wont check unless you are the registered owner most of hte time.

 

Here you go guys. Just register as Lexus Owner with your VIN # and you get your service history from Lexus. You can also add your own maintenance service too.

https://auth.owners.lexus.com/lexuso...OwnersLogin.do

 

I didn't figure this out till later but a used car dealership was telling me how AutoCheck is better than Carfax for showing more detailed info and problems. One of these was a car that didn't show problems on Carfax but on AutoCheck it reported frame damage at auction! Yikes