Hey everyone. I’m new to this forum and wanted to get some feedback on my new purchase. I have always liked this model year Lexus and found a pretty good deal. It’s fully loaded, has 80k miles on it. I believe the sticker was 93k when new. This vehicle will be used a few times a month, maybe 3-4k miles a year. It was purchased as an extra vehicle. I want to see what I should do regarding the maintenance on the hydraulic system. That was one thing I was worried about when buying, heard some bad stories on them. Anything I should be looking for? Also anything else on the car I should focus on in regards to overall maintenance? Thanks in advance for your help and support.

 

This is a great question- I am in a similar boat- 2013 with just 46k miles. All regular maintenance was done annually, even if the miles did not indicate it was due. The service rep at the dealership said they already did the 90k maintenance, but I’m not totally sure what that covers, it seems most of those maintenance intervals require oil change and cabin air filters. I am wondering about the ACH drain and fill as well since the fluid could be 12 years old.

 

For the hydraulic system, first determine its state. I.e., does it go up and down? I have a 2015 and did not do the AHC service (myself) until 120k miles. It seemed perfect before, but I knew the hydraulic fluid had never been changed, so I got two cans of the Toyota suspension fluid (08886-01805) and did a complete fluid change. I just followed some of the instructions on IH8MUD. Essentially, the key is to NOT run the reservoir dry. Note, mine ups up, from one height to the next, in about seven to eight seconds. Down is almost immediate. I noticed on some trucks that I've been test driving lately that it takes well over 15 seconds for them to go up meaning the systems are NOT in good shape. After doing my complete fluid exchange, mine still goes up quickly but rides even better, which I didn't think it could do.

For things like the radiator, you'll need to see if you have the original one (will be failing at some point) or if that's been replaced (currently at version four (4) of the new style). I bought mine directly from Toyota dealer through their parts site and then got 20 more % off on July 4th (great time to buy).

Probably the biggest pain in the ****, so far, was repairing the valley plate. Mine leaked for at least 40k miles before I decided to address it. You can tell you have it if you don't see any leak, but your coolant reservoir slowly goes down over time and you constantly have to top it off to the Max line when it's cold. Also, after driving, you can smell coolant from the front grill. When doing the valley plate, there are several other things to do. I bought the parts, but mine were all great, so I didn't change a lot of them. I'll do them as they start to show signs of 'issues'.

Congrats on the trucks. I've had some truly amazing trips to/through the mountains in this thing, and it's behavior on a long roadtrip is awesome.