nautilus11

Hi All,
I am new to this forum. I wanted to share my current ordeal with my ES 350. I was driving my 2008 ES 350 on freeway when check air conditioning words flickered on my NAV and started getting warm air. Not sure whats going on, i switched it off. After few minutes i got Check VSC and the sign for VSC lit up on the display. At this point i called my lexus dealer while driving. They told me that i should bring the car in etc. After few minutes, the check engine light came on, then i pulled over on the shoulder and called Lexus again. Then i thought i should at least get off the freeway (I am in Los angeles with too many crazy drivers . But when i tried to start the car, nothing happened. Brake pedal was stiff and nothing when tried to start the car. I just called AAA for tow, called Lexus dealer again and explained to them that i am bringing the car over.
I have platinum extended warranty on the car, so i was not overly concerned.
The dealer called back and said engine overheated and needs to be replaced and possibly transmission too. I was really surprised, WTF. this got me wound up because this is the exact reason i paid top dollars for the platinum warranty. I dont expect to be stranded by side of the road when driving a well maintained lexus. Still waiting to hear from them.
My car has 86K on it and all services performed as expected.

Tpcorr

Sorry for your misfortune. What possible reason could they give as to why the warranty wouldn't cover this repair?

Tom

nautilus11

Hi Tom,
i am still waiting for a confirmed decision from the dealer. they are "investigating"..

SW17LS

Yeah the warranty will certainly cover it...

Sometimes in situations such as these the dealer doesn't want to make any promises since it isn't their decision. I don't see how the warranty wouldn't cover it...

Rogarven

Sorry for your misfortune!! I agree, Lexus should cover it and if not, I smell lawsuit.

garsarno

Extended warranty should cover it. Just make sure you have all of your service receipts in order and ready to display.

christcorp

You mentioned all the "idiot" lights that came on. Did you notice the temperature gauge getting extremely hot? Unless an engine got so hot that it resulted in cracking the block, I can't see how they could quickly say that the engine overheated and needs replacing; and possibly the transmission. I've seen oil pumps fail and valves and pistons take a beating. I've seen water pumps go out and watched engines overheat. Obviously we don't have all the information, but engine and possibly transmission needing replacement because the engine overheated, seems pretty ignorant.

Anyway, I hope your warranty covers it. It should. As long as you did not abuse the vehicle, there's no reason that a warranty wouldn't cover such issues.

oldgrump

This is not the first time on this very forum where engine overheating has resulted in the scrapping off of the engine. Unfortunately once an engine with an aluminum block has "badly" overheated, it it basically junk (this is not your grandfather's '70s Buick that had a cast iron block). The first indication that the drivers noticed was also the same (the AC notification on the Nav). At least in those previous cases the root cause was a loss of most of the coolant caused by a slow leak from the coolant pump (shaft seal). A "slow" leak can be missed because the coolant loss is such a small amount of "liquid" over a short time that is simply not spotted, or it can leak past the seal in the form of "steam" or vapor. This may be another case here. The drivers in the previous cases also never noticed the temp gauge getting into the hot range. Possibly because the coolant level was so low that the coolant temp sensor was not in contact (submerged) with the coolant.
I'm going to repeat myself, but........these cars DO NOT HAVE a low coolant level sensor like most other cars. The coolant level (in the coolant tank) has to be periodically checked (with these cars, it should be checked everytime the hood is opened!!). It's in your Owner's Manual. There is also a TB related to the inspection for coolant leakage at the coolant pump seal.
Not that long ago someone upon seeing that the coolant tank was empty (he was lucky, I believe he had noticed an increase on the temp gauge) also had to add a good quantity of coolant to the radiator fill port just to bring the level to the top of the radiator (plus a couple more qts. for the coolant tank). Also......don't assume that because your car is being regularly serviced at a dealer or service garage that this cannot happen to you.
AND......if you get the AC warning message (Nav or cluster), or the Engine Check Light or Master Warning light on when you are driving/engine running.......stop (when/where it's safe) and investigate. This applies even if the dealer tells you to "bring it in".

christcorp

But all cars have a temp gauge, and the OP didn't mention the temperature going up. Only idiot lights.

SW17LS

He may not have noted the temp gauge because he was distracted by the lights...

nautilus11

may be true.. when i looked at the temp gauge, it was all the way at "C" which didnt make sense to me. it should be between C & H and normally closer to "C". it was as if it is not working.

liquidz

Maybe your thermostat was broken prior and you never notice that the temperature gauge stopped working for some time? This deficiency can lead to masking engine temperature OR there was lack of coolant that the temperature element wasn't reading anything.

mlacomb

If the temperature sensor is high up on the engine and you're low on fluid (as a leak might suggest) then the sensor would register low since it's not immersed in the fluid at that point. I've read that several times when people have overheated engines that the engine temp shows "C" and not an overheat condition.

nautilus11

i am pretty observant (i think and pretty familiar with cars and engines. i think i would have noticed if it was not working for some time.
Right now dealing with new issue. Dealer says that they will have to tear down the engine to find the root cause of failure and in case the root cause is not covered by warranty then i will have to pay the cost of just finding out the cause. the cost, thousands. This is messed up. shouldnt it be warranty's cost as part of investigation?

jagtoes

1st I would ask them what basic diagnostics will they do. I suspect you have a bunch of codes in the MIL so I would ask what they were. I would also ask if there are any external leaks that would be visible from either the top or under the car. Anything found there would be indicative of where a problem would be. All of this should take no more then an hour. If nothing was found my next step would be to do a compression test. Based on those results then determine the next step. Is there any water/antifreeze in the oil or did they check this. Their plan to just tear down the engine does not make sense considering there are many things that should be done prior to that move. By the way did you ever get the sweet smell of antifreeze during the course of the last month or so. Usually your vents would pull in the smell during driving or you would smell it from outside the car. Strange that you didn't.