[Will I. Finish]

I purchased my 2004 Lexus in November of 2003 after a lot of research, comparisons to cars in the same price range and test driving it as compared to other cars. What attracted me to the car was that it drove so smoothly but most importantly was the fact that it was rated at the top of the list for reliability and that has in fact been proven by the past 20 years. A little back ground information:

• I have never taken the car back to a dealership based on the fact they over charge and rip people off and according to the maintenance schedule, service a lot of things that really just don't need to be serviced
• Beside regular maintenance have only had a couple of repairs over the past 20 years, bad front wheel bearing and a high pressure power steering line - not bad, eh and the car has never broken down on the road.
• The oil and filter is changed every 5000 miles, conventional oil - oil change place says 3000 miles and the manual says 7500 so I split the difference
• Regular maintenance has pretty much been confined to having the timing belt changed around every 115,000 miles along with the water pump and all of the other things recommended for this major project
• Other regular maintenance preformed by me includes: replacement of the brake pads, recent replacement of all of the brake pads and the rotors - replacement of air and cabin filter, drain and fill the transmission fluid at 50,000 miles intervals, free tire balance and rotations at Discount Tire every 5000 miles, regular wash and wax,
• At 230,000 miles everything works and works well and the car still looks really good both inside and out
• So after all of this time I took the car in to my trusted mechanic and had my 230,000 mile maintenance done which included the complete timing belt replacement service which includes everything using OEM parts at a cost of 1,550.00. I considered doing it myself but decided to take the safer route
• I took a trip to NC a few days later and was very unhappy to find that the car was not driving right, that is it did not feel right. Upon acceleration the car shuddered. I googled it and based on what I read engine mounts appeared to be the most likely culprit. I took it back to the mechanic and they replaced the upper engine dog bone mount which was completely worn out and that did not fix the problem but helped. I did more research and was convinced that it must be one of the other mounts. Not so - the mechanic replaced the axle assembly on the passenger side as it was worn. With my permission he used a generic replacement at a cost of 195.00 as compared to a new OEM part at a cost of 786.00. The car drives like a dream - still feels great. Hoping that the generic part holds up, if not I will change it out myself the next time and do the driver's side at the same time and have it realigned, which my mechanic did yesterday at no additional charge

So was hoping to hear your thoughts on how to best preserve this car by perhaps replacing things that are likely to go bad, based on mileage and age, so as not leave me stranded on the side of the road. My first thought is to go ahead and replace the radiator as it is past the amount of cold starts that it is guaranteed for, way past. And while I am doing that I can replace the front motor mount as to get to it you have to remove the radiator. This car has zero rust and has a great looking original paint job with only a few blemishes, only one small dent that could easily be repaired with out paint, anyway overall in great shape. I had the windshield replaced a couple years ago as you can imagine the original was very pitted. So Like my Opel GT I have developed a desire to hang on to this car. No it does not have the sexy sports car thing going for it but it has solid bones and something tells me that the newer cars are not going to be as good. I truly believe that during the period of time that these cars were made that Lexus was trying to prove just how reliable their cars could be to help secure the market place. Now that has been accomplished it is likely, or so I have been told, more parts are being made in china. So I love my Lexus and plan to keep her. In addition to your ideas on preserving this car do you have a similar story to share.

 

[BillConger]

Congratulations on getting past 200K on your car. I think quality cars can go a long way, especially in areas where corrosion is low. Almost every car I have owned since 1984 has made it past 200K, and most of them were Fords (not quality cars). And I live where corrosion is very high and corrosion was a major part of their demise. We own a 2011 Volvo XC60 that passed 200K on Christmas night, and we don't want to think about selling it yet. We just like it.

It seems like your dilemma is to do preemptive maintenance or wait until something is obviously about to fail. Tough choice. There is some truth to the saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Maybe you can get the radiator checked to help your evaluation.

I like to compare the cost of repairs to the cost of car payments. If the annual cost of repairs (not maintenance) is less than half of what car payments would be, I fix the car I have and that I think I know.

I don't know if this helps you, but good luck on your decisions.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

I would keep making it good. I bought a 1991 Honda Prelude Si. I bought it from my 80 year old neighbor lady. It was her baby. She bought it back in 1993. She and her husband put a ton of money in it. I am in the process of adding up all the receipts from over the years to see how much money they put in it. They took amazing care of the car and it shows. It just turned 183,000 miles yesterday. It has a tiny bit of rust but looks great. I am planning on keeping the car forever since it is a rare car. It also handles amazing! It out handles all of my parent’s cars.
Here is a pic.

But my neighbor also has a 1996? Lexus Es300 coach edition. It has a bunch of miles on it too. She had a ton of engine issues with bad carbon buildup. I think part of the problem is that she probably doesn’t go over 3,000 rpm, but nobody knows what happened. But that was the only problem that I know of that she had with that car. It is in super nice condition and the interior and rust free exterior shows that. It has been garaged its whole life. She will probably keep that car until she dies. My dad was thinking that it would be a perfect car in the future for one of my siblings.

Just think a new Lexus is a ton of money and they probably cost a ton to fix. Your Lexus is older so it is probably easier to work on and easier to fix. The newer technology makes stuff harder to work on. And since your car‘s body is nice I would definitely keep it around.

Just my thoughts, Sam

 

[Will I. Finish]

1991 Honda Prelude S

I would keep making it good. I bought it from my 80 year old neighbor lady. It was her baby. She bought it back in 1993. She and her husband put a ton of money in it. I am in the process of adding up all the receipts from over the years to see how much money they put in it. They took amazing care of the car and it shows. It just turned 183,000 miles yesterday. It has a tiny bit of rust but looks great. I am planning on keeping the car forever since it is a rare car. It also handles amazing! It out handles all of my parent’s cars.
Here is a pic.
View attachment 454784

But my neighbor also has a 1996? Lexus Es330 coach edition. It has a bunch of miles on it too. She had a ton of engine issues with bad carbon buildup. I think part of the problem is that she probably doesn’t go over 3,000 rpm, but nobody knows what happened. But that was the only problem that I know of that she had with that car. It is in super nice condition and the interior and rust free exterior shows that. It has been garaged its whole life. She will probably keep that car until she dies. My dad was thinking that it would be a perfect car in the future for one of my siblings.

Just think a new Lexus is a ton of money and they probably cost a ton to fix. Your Lexus is older so it is probably easier to work on and easier to fix. The newer technology makes stuff harder to work on. And since your car‘s body is nice I would definitely keep it around.

Just my thoughts, Sam

Thanks Sam. Nice Prelude......I appreciate your feed back.

 

[Tomzgt]

Toyota owns a lot of top tier parts makers such as Aisin, Denso and others. So it is likely that using OEM parts are going to help you keep your Lexus performing and feeling like a Lexus.

In addition to Opels I like Suzukis.. My Suzukis only get OE parts. For example, there is a huge difference in quality between Japanese NTN cv axles and aftermarket stuff. If you had both OE and aftermarket parts in hand you could tell the difference in bearing smoothness and production tolerances. even without a micrometer. On a keeper car, I dont hesitate to pay a premium to use OE drivetrain parts.. or to pre-emptively change a cv boot and grease, leveraging my investment in specialised factory service tools, to avoid the most common cause of cv failure in the first place. (grease/dirt contamination)

PS.

I agree new cars are lower quality, built to be recycled and assembled by robots or lower paid unskilled assembly workers than 20 years ago. New gasoline cars are not meant to ever be restored.

Just look at the plastics replacing alloys in engine parts. And the huge amount of networked modules with thin wiring that will corrode easily when the warranty expires.

 

[Timbo]

You can go through the mechanical stuff but is it worth the cost? You will still have a high mileage car that is twenty years old. I would worry about the electrical side of the equation. Between all the modules and miles of wiring, failures will start to happen and things will get expensive fast. My friend has a 1998 LS300(?). Low miles and runs great. Every time he brings it in for inspection, everyone is the shop tries to buy it off him. It has an auto-retract ash tray that he stuff too much change in it and it jammed and broke. It kills his battery always trying to close. They want $600 to replace it. I bet there are many such systems in your car that could leave you stranded if they fail. Drive it, enjoy it, fix it when it breaks until it breaks too much. It could still outlive you with little intervention.

 

[Lil Red GT]

I owned two T4R's back-to-back, each had over 230,000 miles on them when I gave them up. The last one, a 2006 I gave to my son and he's put another 15K miles on it. And like your ES, everything still works. You can't beat the reliability of Toyota and Lexus.

If you plan on keeping the car then I recommend going through the front and rear suspensions. To me a great handling vehicle ranks right up there with raw horsepower. I replaced the front and rear suspension pieces on the 2006 using all genuine Toyota parts (except the front struts; I went with Rancho's).
Check out this site below. It's factory parts for 1/2 the cost of the dealer. Of course shipping times are longer.

Lexus Car and Auto Spare Parts - Genuine Online Car Parts Catalogue - Amayama

Online catalog for Lexus OEM spare parts. Buy online. Wholesale prices, proven reliability, fast shipping from Japan

www.amayama.com

 

[Will I. Finish]

I owned two T4R's back-to-back, each had over 230,000 miles on them when I gave them up. The last one, a 2006 I gave to my son and he's put another 15K miles on it. And like your ES, everything still works. You can't beat the reliability of Toyota and Lexus.

If you plan on keeping the car then I recommend going through the front and rear suspensions. To me a great handling vehicle ranks right up there with raw horsepower. I replaced the front and rear suspension pieces on the 2006 using all genuine Toyota parts (except the front struts; I went with Rancho's).
Check out this site below. It's factory parts for 1/2 the cost of the dealer. Of course shipping times are longer.

Lexus Car and Auto Spare Parts - Genuine Online Car Parts Catalogue - Amayama

Online catalog for Lexus OEM spare parts. Buy online. Wholesale prices, proven reliability, fast shipping from Japan

www.amayama.com

Thanks for the link much appreciated. Considering that I don't drive as much as I use to perhaps the car will outlast me. I know things will start to happen but also hoping that with parts being available and with your tube I will be able to fix a good many of the issues that come up.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

Well this is interesting. I just got done adding up all the receipts that the PO had for my car and all the work that has been done to it. This is from 1994-2021 $15,982.52! That is crazy! I am guessing around that is what they payed for it Back in 1993. She had 5-6 alternators replaced in 2 years. Because the shop just couldn’t figure it out.

 

[Nitromancer]

Wow 20 years.
Instead of working on that car I would look for another one that was well taken care of with low miles. If you find one it may seem like it costs too much but you already know you’ll get ten or twenty years out of it.

 

[opelbits]

If you want to keep it, just keep an eye out for good used or low mileage spares. You could even pick up a spare low mileage motor and trans and either swap them now or wrap and store. As long as the body and wiring are good, you can keep changing parts....but you have to have them.

Nitromancer makes a good point, but the question I always have is: I already know my high mileage car, what do I not know about a low mileage car? What has or hasn't been done? How was it driven? How was it maintained.

 

[Autoholic]

What I would worry the most about is the fuel system on an old car. Even though you should be fine to use E15 in a 2004 Lexus, what honestly is the condition of the fuel system in a 20 year old car? All it takes is crack in a hose and you could have a fire. At some point, the fuel system needs to be properly inspected on an old car.

 

[opelbits]

The brake system as well. Newer cars, 90s an up, are pretty bad for brake lines rusting thru at clips and brackets. Crud builds up around them and the rot starts.
I have had hard lines on 12 year old cars get pinholes or complete separation. It's not fun changing out hardlines, but you definitely don't want to pay a shop to do it.
Late 2021 I replaced all the hardlines in my Safari van. Luckily I found a place that had all 11 hardlines pre-bent for half price. That saved me a weeks worth of bending and fitting, but it was still two days to remove and replace....not including bleeding (the brakes, not me!).