We have a 2012 RX450h and it currently has about 60500 miles. These engines are direct injected correct?

If so, has anybody done any intake cleaning due to carbon build up? We also have a 2008 335 and everybody on the forums say that these direct injected cars will require some kind of cleaning at some point in time. It seems that walnut blasting is the recommended method on the bimmer forums for bmw's but I can't say that I've read anything on these Lexus forums about intake cleaning.

Can anybody shed some light on this matter as it relates to Lexus and if the dealers offer walnut blasting?

 

No, the RX engines are not direct injected, and therefore do not have a history of carbon build up.

 

Oh. I didn't realize they weren't direct injected. If that's the case, then I assume using injector cleaner additives such as Lucas Oil will actually benefit the injectors then correct?

I was doing a little research and just discovered that because of the direct injection, using the intake cleaners will actually not make a difference on the carbon build up for direct injected cars because the build up occurs on the back of the intake valves.

On non-direct injected cars, since the fuel injector lies just outside of the combustion chamber, using fuel injector cleaner should help then, correct?

 

Yep, no carbon build-up for us!
I never did injector cleaning on my IS300 in the 11.5 years I owned it.
It is close to 100K and is running like a champ.
I did do a throttle-body cleaning, but it was pretty clean to begin with.