Shinchan

Yesterday I took my car in to check the strange noise coming from the right front suspension. Clonk Clonk on all crack/bump/imperfection of the road. Got the RX300 to drive to work.

I have explain them the Service consultant to fix the suspension, even if its not cover under the warranty. Knowing that the suspension was not the factory setup (Bilstein Sport). When I pick up the car at 5:00PM, I was not a happy man.

Here is the explanation by the service consultant first time:
“Because the car has aftermarket Strut, we will not work on it.” There was no other explanation which part was having problem. Here is what I told them: “Yes I know that its not cover under the warranty, but I need it to be fix and glad to pay for the labor.” “Well, you need to take it to the place that you install to have them fix it.” Dead silent….

Think: “WTF the Bilstein was install by reputable Auto body repairing shop. Not a garage to fix problem with car.. WTF”

My second try asking them to fix the car:
“Why can’t you fix the car?? I know it has after market parts. I am not asking you to cover under warranty. I am asking to find out whats wrong with the car and fix it out of warranty.”
Another bad answer from service consultant: “Its aftermarket part. You need to take it back to the shop that you installed to fix them.”

Now I am really ****
“You are telling me that you are willing to install aftermarket part, but won’t fix them afterward? I have my SS Brake Line install by you guys. You are telling me you won’t fix them too???” “or you will fix the SSLine because its install by you and if the struct was not install by you, you won’t fix it?” Stupid B. Finally, she got up to see the service manager/technician and try to explain to her boss what the situation was.

Real explanation:
“Your Strut is broke. Bilstein has great warranty on the strut. You should take it back to the shop that you purchased/installed to have it cover under the Bilstein warranty. Since we don’t carry/stock them, we can’t fix it for you. Unless we can order a new one and fix it in two weeks when the parts arrive. Now I am regret purchased these w/ the CL member, since I don’t have the receipt, I will need to purchased a new one and we will fix it for you.

When I got home, I contact the CL member that I purchased the strut from. He was very very nice and helpful. He promised that he will contact Bilstein and explain to them what the situation was. Also he has the receipt for the strut, so I should be cover under the warranty. Thanks to the that awesome nice CL member, I am now happy again.. knowing that I don’t have to pay another $120 to purchased the front sport strut. Since the broken strut is still on the car, he will call Bilstein to find out how to do this.

Long story short, I thought there was a law that they will need to fix the car, even if the car has after market product. Even if the after market product cause a down stream problem, they will need to fix it??

Mean Gene

Well, I'm not a lawyer but I don't THINK there's any law that states that the dealership MUST repair the car unless it's a factory defect or a warranty issue. I know that some dealerships don't want to work on something with aftermarket parts that THEY didn't install. Having working in a stereo shop years ago ( & still play there occasionally ), it's a pain to try & correct a problem that someone else created because U don't know exactly how the stuff was installed. I think U were just getting the usual BS from a service writer that had NO CLUE! That seems borne out by the technician explaining things to U truthfully - he/she probably has been in the same situation before with a modded car of his/her own. My suggestion is to make friends with a Lexus tech who either has or had a modded ryde & specify that only that person work on your car. U may have to wait longer for him to become available to work on it but the hassles it saves will be well worth it. Don't forget to show your thanks in some extracurricular way - maybe buy them lunch or a nice present of their favorite "beverage"!! I'm lucky that my guy currently has a high 11 second MR2 that's been in Sport Compact magazine so we've dined together frequently!!:eek:

Richie

I hate it when people at the dealership are stupid!!

KKelly

Do you have aftermarket swaybars? Often on BMW's, that clunking is simply the swaybar link. Even though it seems tight, sometimes they will clunk over bumps at low speeds.

My car is doing it right now and I usually just loosen the bolt and re-tighten, moving the car up and down on the jack to try and relieve any tension on the bar while tightening.

The chances of a clunking sound actually being a shock problem are slim.

Johnny Mo

I had a friend who bent 2 rims on his Avalon and rather than take it in the A$$ from Toyota to get new stock rims at $375 each, he got set of 4 from Tirerack. He obviously needed an alignment as the original rims were bent due to major NYC pothole. 3 Toyota dealerships refused to do the alignment because of the aftermarket rims. I later found out they don't want to be responsible for aftermarket stuff because they can't easily replace certain items i.e. aftermarket rims, if they get scratched etc, but easy for them to do with OEM as a "warranty" claim through the factory. The other reason is "another place was good enough to install them originally, they f'ed it up let them fix it." I hate cleaning up someone else's mess and expect that dealerships do as well. I can see why they do it, but if you ask me they are cutting off their nose to spite their face. Service revenue is service revenue and if you make a customer happy and don't give them ***** about their mods they just might keep coming back. My 2 cents.

RacingAristo

Same here.

They mistake the my intake to supercharger. I was like, "I don't have the SC. You must mistake my car to other's". They insist I have SC installed in my GS. I open the hood and asked them where this "SC" is. They pointed at the intake and I laughed so hard.

salimshah

Don't forget that the dealership after making repairs, becomes responcible for the work they did. So if the repair is minor, one hose vs another that might be an OK risk. On the other hand suspenssion work/repair may lead to tire-wear or worse loss of control, then the delarship is hosed.

Shinchan got the polite answer to begin with, and a straight forward answer would have been better.

Salim

RON430

shinchan - What a hassle but very hard to avoid. Once your vehicle gets to the point where antyhing other than one party is responsible for it you stand the chance of playing "It's not my fault, it's the other guys fault." In Lexus defense, they cannot honor Bilstein's warranty so it really is not their problem (assuming the strut is bad and I have to tell you that with Bilstein that is very, very rare). If they believed the strut was bad about all they could do is replace both struts with Lexus parts and charge you for it which I doubt would have made you very happy either. It also points up that a lot of these warranty's are not worth the paper they are printed on. If the Bilstein strut has failed, my guess is that you will have to take the strut off, send it to Bilstein and they will either repair or replace it. You will just be out of luck for the use of the vehicle while the strut is gone. I doubt that anyone will reimburse weeks of rental car usage for a $100 strut, their liability will be limited to repair or replace while you hassle with being without the vehicle for who knows how long. I am not trying to defend anyone but after being around for a while (Mean Gene, you want to add anything?) you look at things a little differently. Your blood pressure benefits greatly.

After I got the Bilsteins from gs4will, I had them installed and about a month later I developed a really strange creaking noise (might not notice in a bimmer but in a Lexus it drives you nuts). I came to the conclusion that one of the bilsteins had failed ( I was wrong, happens a lot) but went back to my installer. They immediately got under the car and said that it was due to the springs and they could wrap the springs to make it stop. I made an appointment. Problem is that about ten days later, the noise went away and has yet to return. I paid a lot for installation but it is a shop I have used for a long time who do excellent work (more kudos for Custom Alignment) and they were very willing to stand by their work and did not say the bilstein had failed. I could not in good conscience let them spend any of their profit on a problem that had gone away so I cancelled but did tell them the noise went away and everything was fine. By the way, if the bilstein has failed there is about a 99% chance that you are going to see the trail from the oil that leaked out of the strut. If there is no sign that the oil has leaked out I would be very reluctant to say that the strut failed, be prepared if you take the strut out and return it to bilstein that they might say it is fine. Wish I had better advice but this is a problem we all have once we leave the Lexus dealership for every bit of service including tires and wiper blades. Still think its worth it, wouldn't give the bilsteins up for anything other than the bilstein coil overs. Hope everything works out.

gsnav

Custom Alignment is awesome! They helped me make my coilover system work well with my new wheels and stuff. THey are a great place, not cheap but very very good at doing stuff. They do everything from the new 996 to Ferraris and a lot of american cars with tons of aftermarket stuff.

RON430

gsnav - Hate to tell you how many years I have been going to Custom Alignment but let's say it is over 20. Everyone can have a bad experience at any time and at any place but for what they do, they are very, very good. You are definitely right about not being cheap but having things done right can be a lot less expensive than getting into a pissing contest with someone who will never be able to make things right. Just glad other folks are having good luck with them. Wonder if they have figured out where the problems are coming from with coilovers on the Boxters yet?

Shinchan

Its not creek noise.. Its a loud clonk clonk.. feels like something is going to fall out... I don't think its leaking oil.. but the noise was really really really loud.. clonk.. I can live with creek.. but not clonk... Oh well, they will replace with another bilstein in two weeks. I should finally found out whats wrong with the car. can't blame my custom shrut when Its brand new one.. if the noise continue, they will need to find out.. I don't think its strut..personally I think there is a loose somewhere... but I do have to trust them to fix the car.. so there is nothing much I can do other than change the strut. I don't think its the spring.. cause no way a spring can make a loud clonk.clonk...going over a man hole or a little pothole on the road..

ceoart

It seems to me unless you are a mechanic or have those skills it is far safer to have the dealer install all parts. This way you will know they will take care of any problem you have. May cost more in the short run but will save you untold grief and added expense in the long run.

RON430

shinchan - I think I understand. Hope it gets straightened out. Struts are pretty simple devices. Basically there is a rod with some type of seal or piston on the end sliding up and down in a tube. Oil provides dampening and in the bilstein there is nitrogen gas pressurized in to reduce foaming in the oil to maintain better control. Normally, failures in these things will always cause a seal to fail and the oil leaks out. In a bilstein, or any strut or shock that is pressurized, the gas makes things worse. Looking for the trail of oil is one of the giveaways that the strut has failed. I hope bilstein is fair with you. They make a quality product and have been around for a while.

ceoart - Most dealers will not fool with aftermarket parts pretty much because of what is going on here. While there are good and bad installers outside of dealers, there are also good and bad installers inside the dealerships. I don't want to start any bimmer flames but you can make a lot of visits to have the same problem fixed. I know I am lucky to have something like Custom Alignment local, definitely trust them to do whatever is required and I have learned the hard way that at least around here, they are superior to the vast majority of dealerships for suspension work.

Shinchan

Thanks to Ron430's advise on how to determine if the Bilstein if failing. No leaking of Strut oil at all. this has made me toss and turn all last night. Finally got up at 4:00Am. Ron430 cause me a sleepless night... Bitkahuna's post on how your TRD Sway.. made me to crawl down to my car at 4:30 trying to help out a fellow CL member has pay off.

I start to tear apart the MOD that I DIY. Front Strut was first removed and reinstalled with Engine Cover off.

As soon as sun rises, I use ramp to raise the car....

Anyway, the cause of the problem was not the Strut.. but.. the TRD sway bracket.

I will post the detail of the problem in a new post. Thanks everyone for helping.

Thanks again.. Shinchan

gsintensive

I have TRD sways bars clinking on me once, it was scary as hell, I had the car towed to Tustin Lexus. The service consutant was really awesome to help me out, and when the mechanic called, he was totally cooh with it. He told me that there has been serverl GS4,3, 430, with the same problem. The car was fixed the next day, and I was a happy man.

It all depens on the dealer, I am lucky that so far all the Dealers I've been in CA are A+ quality.

Be selective on the dealer, once you found a decent one, stick with it ^^.