Toyota Lexus

I have a lexus ES 330, with 75500 miles on it. How easy is it to change/flush the coolant/antifreeze, fuel injection, power steering, brake, and transmission fluids? Thanks!

Coolant – there’s a stopcock on the bottom of the radiator to drain the coolant. Make sure to open the top of the radiator when you do this and do it when the engine is cold. It’s not difficult.

Flushing the cooling system is easy, but time consuming. After you drain the coolant, replace it with water, drive around for 15 minutes to bring the engine to operating temp, let it cool, then drain it again. Then add a flush chemical (Prestone makes a good one) and follow the directions on the bottle. Drive another 15 minutes, let it cool, drain it, add water to rinse out the flush, drive 15 minutes again, let it cool, drain it one last time, then add your coolant. Add the flush, water and coolant directly to the radiator, not the overflow bottle. Make sure to dispose of the used coolant, flush and rinsates according to local regulations. You can’t just dump it on the ground or pour it down the sewer or sink.

Fuel injection – there’s no need to drain or flush anything here. It gets flushed with new gas every time you drive. You could add a fuel injector cleaner to your gas tank. I do this every 10, 000 miles or so. Valvoline and Chevron make good ones. Follow instructions on the bottle.

Brake fluid – unless you are having brake problems, leave it alone.

Power steering fluid – you shouldn’t need to change this either, unless you’re having problems with the power steering pump.

Transmission fluid – not too difficult in theory, but getting under the car and not spilling the fluid everywhere makes this a tough job. Unlike on the manual transmissions, there’s not just a simple drain plug. You have to remove a cover plate and catch the draining oil, usually on your arms, shirt, pants and garage floor.

As far as materials are concerned, Genuine Toyota (or Genuine Lexus – same thing) coolant and transmission fluid is basically the same stuff as you can get at Kragen/Checker/Schucks with a bigger price tag. If you do the coolant flush and completely remove the old coolant, you can put in any ethylene glycol or propylene glycol based coolant.

Lexus: $15K, 100K miles 99′-02′
Jeep: $15K, 30K miles 03′-04′

Ok, so the Jeep clearly looks like a better bet. However, I feel like…not neccessarily if the Lexus (toyota) can last 200K-250K miles, and the Jeep only lasts a little over 100K miles.

The lexus is my dream car, and I need to know if it would be worth it to get it over the Jeep. Thanks guys!
I’m really not sure on how long Jeeps can really last…

Lexus why would you pay the same money for a car thats not your dream car. I had a Toyota(makes Lexus) and I drove it 264,xxx miles before I sold it. The life of the car I had to change the starter once and regular oil changes thats it.

Definitely the Lexus, I’d say.
I never knew Avalon to be a luxury model …
Afterall, if the name is Lexus, it’ll be more prestigious than Toyota.

2008 Lexus ES350…. I can’t seem to turn the navigation into a night mode. This navigation screen can be freakishly bright at night….really annoying and distracting.

Thanks.
djaca70 – take it easy! not listed in a manual. ever owned a lexus before? or better yet, do you drive a 2008 ES350?

lemons – i was thinking the same thing… but my ES350 nav doesn’t turn into night mode automatically. any pre-setting that i should be aware of?

Alex W – mine doesn’t even have a "DAY MODE" option. i guess you work for Toyota and I can only assume Toyota and Lexus share the same nav system…. have you seen the nav on a ES350?

First, check to see if your instrument cluster light switch behind the left side of your steering wheel is all the way on maximum. If so, adjust it downward so that it is not in the maximum detent position but close to it. Secondly, press the "DISP" button on the navigation unit and make sure "Day Mode" is not highlighted. This should resolve your concern.

EDIT

The day I answered your question, I was driving a ES350 with Navigation. The day mode button on the screen is at the top, once you have pressed the physical DISP button on the side of the screen. Toyota and Lexus navigations systems are similar. But you also have to make sure that your instrument cluster lighting isn’t at it’s maximum. If you have done both of these and your screen is not dimming when it is dark, then you should take it to the dealer to have them look at it.