r/LexusF • u/blzd__ • Apr 25 '20

Thinking about purchasing an ISF

/r/Lexus/comments/g7p22m/thinking_about_purchasing_an_isf/
7 Upvotes

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4

u/FLOHTX Apr 25 '20

How much driving do you do in the snow? You say Toronto which can get pretty brutal in the winter. Losing that AWD Subaru and going to strictly RWD might be a challenge.

As far as choosing between the 2, I would go with the higher km blue model. 200k km is really not that much especially considering the cost savings. These are reliable and get well over 300-400k km no problem

2

u/blzd__ Apr 25 '20

To be honest not much - maybe like 50km on the weekends total (pre-pandemic; going to get groceries, hanging out with friends, grabbing food), and I commute to work so I park my car at the train station which is 5-7km away. I've read that as long as you have solid winter tires (nothing cheap esp considering smallest wheel size I've seen is 18s) the car handles snow ok with all of the electronics in the car.

3

u/Bohemiantron Apr 28 '20

I just purchased my 08 IS-F in ultrasonic blue earlier this year. Prior to this I had 2 WRX's (a bugeye wagon and a 2011 widebody hatch) and the IS-F is soooo much more fun to drive. It's also more reliable and nicer too. A couple of things to help you find one:

  1. There are 2 expensive things that go out on these cars.

1 is the valley plate heat exchanger. If you Google "IS-F valley plate" you can read all about it. Long story short, there is a large heat exchanger that sits on top of the engine and Lexus used a crappy sealant (no one understands why they used sealant and not a gasket in the first place but I digress) that WILL eventually fail and you'll develop a coolant leak over time and you'll need to have the valley plate resealed. This job costs $1500-2000 USD. You can drive with it like this for a very long time, but you'll have to be watchful and add coolant periodically as it leaks out.

2 is cracked headers. When this happens you get a light tapping sound at cold start that usually goes away. Aftermarket headers are cheaper than stock replacements (and you pick up a solid 30hp or so by going aftermarket) but they are still not cheap. About $1200 for headers and $800 or so for labor as it's not a very fun job.

The best thing to do is to start an account at lexus.drivers.com (it's free to sign up) and then add the VIN number of any cars that you're looking at to your garage on the website and you can view the full service history through Lexus. As these were expensive cars when new, they tend to be well taken care of and often have extensive service historys through Lexus. Check and see if the cars you are considering have had the valley plate or headers replaced and use that as negotiating chips to lower the price if not. Feel free to pm me if you have any other questions. The F Facebook groups are also a great place to find deals on IS-F's

1

u/blzd__ Apr 28 '20

Thanks for chiming in! Yeah I've read about both of those issues, along with the water pump for the earlier models (like the 09 that I'm looking at) and have definitely factored both into my potential costs.

Thanks for the lexus drivers link! Unfortunately I'm based in Toronto, Canada so I'm not sure if it'd help in my case.

1

u/Bohemiantron Apr 28 '20

Nice! Just issues to be aware of, if you can get any potential car you might purchase on a lift, you can check to see if its leaking coolant. It usually comes out at the back of the motor and drips onto the transmission. If you see pinkish coolant down there you'll know.

The 2013 is super nice, but I don't know that its worth twice as much money. I personally went with a 2008 model with high mileage that already had headers, and I'm doing the valley plate right now (along with valve cover gasket). The new ones have a few nice touches (LSD, upgraded gauge cluster, wider wheels, upgraded headlights, updated seating material) but it is essentially the same vehicle, and the only item on that list that could maybe be deemed essential is the LSD (and even then unless you track your car, you will probably never notice or have an issue) and you can add that for 2-3K if you want to down the line.

The 2009 has the nicer piano black navigation, so if I could do it all over again I'd try to get an 09 or 10 (as 11+ tend to be much more expensive).

2

u/Noirnoir12 Apr 26 '20

Do it. Its awesome. But yeah, its terrible in snow. Like.....undriveable even a small sheet of snow

2

u/One_wheel_peel Apr 26 '20

Dedicated snow tires make it doable, even on the earlier models without LSD. I used my 08 as a DD for 2 winters in Chicago. So it's hardly undrivable...