Hi guys!

I live in Montreal and I’ve being waiting for the right car at the right price for about a year. LS-430 are extremely rare here. I finally found one:

2004, 77 000km (~48K miles) – 23 000CND - A bargain here.
Single owner, retired snow bird (spending winter in FL) so the car never saw our winters. The car is showroom clean.

But here’s the catch: It was always ran on regular gas and was never serviced at Lexus. Apparently one of their sons owns a garage… And he was doing the “regular” maintenance.

Two things for you guys-
1- What do you think about doing 48k miles on regular? (Any risks?)
2- Is there any weird/unusual maintenance scheduled within 48K?
(That was probably not done and potentially problematic)


Yaff - Soon to be a new LS-430 owner.

48K probably brakes are done if they are original. Any air filters (engine, interior, etc.) should be looked at to make sure they are clean.

Nothing major really needed until 100K, so you're good with anything of those nature.

If the care was really as good as the car looks, then you'll be enjoying the car for a very long time.

Thanks.

"Care" was a typo... I meant car.
The paint is perfect, not even cleaning scratches. (Simonized 3 times a year)
No stone chips on the hood or in the radiator. No typical dents in the windshield and the interior is perfect too.

The mags are scratched. They were rubbed on sidewalks more than once. Apparently the wife was not great at parking.

Brakes were done recently (new rotors and pads). Not sure about the callipers but they are clean.

According to the manual, it is supposed to run on premium/super. Running on regular doesn't bug you?

Anyway, I told the man I will sleep on it. I'm really tempted to buy it.

Did ya ask him why he did not run premium gas as indicated in the manual? Hope he got regular oil changes as indicated in the manual also?

Other than not getting full horsepower out of the engine, I doubt the regular fuel would do any damage. Regular fuel might tend to pre-ignite under load so if the car is run hard, maybe, you would notice some knocking. Probably not though.... the electronic ignition probably adjusts for the regular fuel just fine.

With everything else looking so good on the car, i wouldn't hesitate to buy it.

Yeah... same reason why he was servicing the car at his son's garage.
-Cheaper.

That's why I was wondering about special maintnance schedules.

I'll ask for the VIN and check with Lexus if the car was subject and serviced for the fuel pump and tranny recalls.

Oh... It has this goldish color I don't like too much and it would be a sin to do a paint job on it.

I agree running regular gas wont have any detrimental affect on the life of the motor. These things are bullet proof. You have nothing to worry about.

my 05 just turned 47k and it has ALL been on regular gas,, best mileage yet on a trip was 28.4 at a constant 63 mph on level ground,,

had a 7 series beemer and a S500 benz prior and they also were fed regular and ran fine,, would burn the tires any time I wanted them to,, have had dealers "head mechanics" even tell me to run regular,,????

if your wanting that last 1% performance (which I do not) then use premium,, of course I also run Mobil 1 and go 7k on oil changes and get flamed by those that live by the 3k oil change,, I still run my cars to way over 100k with nary an issue and keep them exceptionally clean,,

Derry

my thing on that is if it was run on regular from day one i wouldn't worry to much but if say the second owner at 30k started to put regular from super than that might mess with it in my opinion.

My 04 is approaching 121k (bought it with 80k in 06) and have always used regular gas - no problems at all. I have gotten near 28 mpg on a trip. The whole "knocking" myth was probably true in a 1981 vehicle, but modern cars have computers that adjust for varying types of gasoline...

Uh... I beg to differ. My 2007 Subaru STi needs 94 octane. It will runs ok on 91-92. But it WILL knock below that.

Had a lot of fun with that STi but now I’m getting tired of the harsh ride. That's why I'm switching to a nice ride and probably the best car ever built :-)

And good news, the car was not part of any recall campaigns.

i switched for 2 tanks of fuel on my previous v8 lex (gs400) and heard knocking halfway through the 2nd tank of regular (and noticed a noticeable performance hit) so i immediately switched back after putting in some 44k stuff and was golden from there on. i vowed to never switch a cars gas after already running the good stuff again after that.

Knocking is no myth, even with today's electronic monitors and things. If you put in 87 and run it hard enough in a "high performance" engine, you're going to get knocking soon. Sensors can compensate for only so much, then it'll just knock every so often.

No worries whatsoever on the regular gas.

I actually called Lexus Customer Service on this issue. They had stated to only use regular gas "in an emergency" (if premium is not available). Premium must be used at all times as the LS430 is a high performance engine. If you use non-premium on a regular basis, you can damage the engine.

Anyway, this is what they said.