BinaryJay

Well the amount of days they told me it was going to take has come and gone, I called to figure out what's going on... was told it's not ready and apparently they are now waiting for "some parts". Well, they had all the parts needed in before I booked the appt. so ... uhh... new short block incoming?

2GR conversion please? :P

BinaryJay

I was supposed to pick my car up today for this... I get there and the car is driven up for me and some kind of fluid is pooling underneath the engine... my god. I get sent home in the loaner again... what a waste of time. The car has been finished since yesterday, you would think that the service techs would look under the car after major service and notice a big pool of whatever before signing the car off?

So now I wait until Monday or Tuesday or something for them to take apart whatever needs to be taken apart to figure out and fix whatever is now leaking all over the place. Probably just a coolant hose somewhere not plainly visible that wasn't properly connected, who knows ... I should have examined the puddle a bit more but I was a bit annoyed at the time. But it was leaking enough to create a few sizable puddles on the ground within only being parked there for a couple of minutes.

But still, this doesn't exactly make me feel super comfortable about the rest of the delicate work that had to be done, what else was not as carefully put back together as it could have been? I wish I didn't see it and they just fixed the problem and not said anything about it before I had to go in and see it.

I swear I have the worst luck for warranty service with Lexus, the last time a different dealership did the valve springs (for the same problem before the rings fix was around) they gave the car back to me billowing out a thick white smokescreen on the highway when stepping on the gas. It felt like I was a jet leaving a contrail in my wake. I never did get a believable story from them about what that really was.

I'm trying to keep my cool about it because after all they are helping me out a lot here and I didn't pay for the vast majority of the work that was done out of warranty, but still... I hate that the seed of doubt has been planted now. Good thing there is a 1 year warranty period covering everything related to this that was done. I just wish I drove more to help flush any issues out faster.

I politely wrote the service manager who wasn't in about it hoping that it results in at least somebody authorizing another few hours to check EVERYTHING over again thoroughly at the very least.

BinaryJay

And my final entry in the saga... I got the car back. Seems to drive smoother, don't really feel the engine vibrating when idling stopped any more. Not a huge huge change but definitely better - some people made it sound like you got an extra 50 horses out of the deal lol, definitely not the case for me smoother but no faster! Was told the leak was a coolant line "pinched", which I was glad to hear was not some major thing.

But... they gave me the car back with my passenger side fog light not working any more, which I have an HID kit for with a relay. They would not even look at it when I mentioned it, said they don't touch the lights blah blah blah... fine. Clearly it was working when they got it and it's not now so something with the relay didn't get hooked up - I will just have to inspect all the wiring myself again, whatever.

I would have preferred they just said they're not responsible for any aftermarket modifications to the car instead of flatly denying that they could have anything to do with it (come on, the whole engine was out of the car you're telling me that it's impossible that one of the wires on the relay in there got damaged or otherwise disconnected and never reconnected?).

Overall, I am appreciative of them for doing the work on the car for me at all but it seems like every time I leave my car with Lexus something comes back not quite right. I really hope the HID kit is the only thing I discover int he coming weeks.

Bottom line thank you Lexus for taking care of my out of warranty car.

warandcar

great report… congrats binary jay

BinaryJay

After digging around with my multimeter I determined that 12V are indeed getting to the ballast that is no longer working, so Lexus did not at least miswire anything leading to the ballast... the other connection down to the factory harness well... I don't know because I didn't feel like taking the fender liner off to look at it. Chances are it was just a big coincidence that it decided to give up the ghost while it was in Lexus' possession.

I've relented and decided this is a good enough excuse to throw away that xenondepot HID kit that has been giving me problems on and off for years and turned around and ordered their LED kits for both fogs and the DRL (finally). If I'm going to get back into that bumper area might as well change it all out and get rid of those stupid ballasts and all the extra wiring to the battery nonsense.

I did email them to ask what might be up with their kit... truth be told I have grown tired of the 3000K I chose for the fog lights anyway. Still, I have put very little actual hours on the kit/bulbs in the fogs and I expected them to last and perform much better than they have.

Anyway that's neither here nor there, the car is still running amazingly well I can hardly believe it's my car every time I start it. It has been a long like 5 year long road of two prior attempted TSBs and occasionally feeling like I was driving a diesel smart car... hopefully this engine remains trouble free for as long as I keep it from here on out.

LS4point5

Glad that they found the issue with the car.

Stephon937

Did my oil consumption test and they told me "it only consumed 1qt which is acceptable by lexus standards". He had to be lying because in the 1800 miles I drove the car since buying it I've put 2 1/2 quarts in and was still a half quart low when I took it for the test. The previous owner who traded it in said it was using a quart every 500 miles. I didn't know this until I went to the dealer for a misfire test. So as I left the dealership I reset my trip meter and at 1200 miles I'll check it myself to see what's really going on. My extended warranty covers all internal engine parts so I'll just wait a few months and return to a different dealership

BinaryJay

Ouch, that sucks. They ought to just do them all considering it's not a manufacturing problem it's a design problem. But not much else you can unless you're willing to try multiple other dealers and find someone with a different opinion.

Still pretty stoked that I was finally taken care of myself it seemed like it was not going to be easy in Canada compared to Lexus USA.

Stephon937

What makes it even worse is out of the 3 dealerships close to me 2 are in the same city owned by the same guy (Germain lexus of Dublin and Easton in columbus ohio). So to get a different opinion I'd have to visit lexus of Dayton (centerville) which is even further and I wouldn't mind it but working first shift getting off at 3:30pm an every service department closing around 4:30pm makes it tough especially with me working in a rural area further from each one. This car has been like wanting a beautiful woman and finding out she smokes crack after you're married. Yeah I want her, she looks good but now I'm committed an unsure of her next move plus she's addicted to to taking my money. This will be my first and last lexus I'm going back to buick soon as possible.

johnnyslyw

So I bought the car didn't notice anything, lexus said it needed to be done, two days after the procedure the car starts to act up and now I can finally feel tge rough idle, I talked to lexus and they keep telling me everything is fine, its very frustrating because its now getting worse after this supposed fix

CaptSlow

I bought in my 2006 GS300 to Lexus dealer 2 weeks ago for the engine misfire issue and were told to corporate 'cuz it's over the 9 yr period for 1 month. Called and told me to bring it back for inspection on the issue. Dealer performed the test and found the misfire, but got a call from dealer that they won't cover it because I missed it by 1 month.

I had explained to the rep that we moved around quite a bit and found out about this not too long ago.

What happened to Lexus's reputation for taking care their customer? Any suggestion on how I can appeal this?


-CaptainSlow

Stephon937

I gave up on them helping me at this point. I'm going to just buy another car for work an occasionally my gs3 it keep oil in it and trade it in after a couple years.

hypnotiq

ok. to the point 1. you must have an 06- GS or 06-09 IS and certain 2010 IS models.
2. you must let them know your car misfires. (characterized by vibrating, shuddering or shaking, and in a bad scenario...... limp mode(check engine light flashing)which is your car misfiring so bad the computer down grades your ability to put the pedal to the metal as a fail safe to save your Cats)
3. Lexus performs a duplication process and advises you if your a pass or fail.
from what I've seen, the csp(customer support program) covers 9yrs from your purchase date regardless of mileage. ask your dealer if these engine repairs are a regular at their shop. they might not know how many are done, but they do know if it's a regular occurrence at their shop.

if you want to perform the duplication test yourself : 1. warm engine until temp gauge reads approx. center between cold and hot.
2. rev engine to 4000 rpm for 30 sec
3 immediately as you get to 30 sec, rev the **** out of it to 6000 rpm very quickly and immediately release gas pedal.
4 let come back to idle and if misfires are present you will know by the unmistakable shaking/shuddering. you may not get misfires the first time around either or codes, but the dealer near my house sometimes keeps the cars overnight to try what they described as a cold soak.
Bonus: 06 GS & IS owners get new top engine parts also, like valve springs ect. the key is finding the dealer that knows this repair from paper work to repair. good luck all... oh yeah last bonus. have your water pump checked for leaks..... you shouldn't pay any labor when having it replaced which is usually 3 hours.

BinaryJay

Why bother just having them check it for leaks, just put a new one in, the part isn't that expensive. I just had them install a new one even though my car only has less than 70,000 miles on it.

Prior to getting this repair done I was just going to trade the car, but now I just dropped a wad of cash on maintenance items... all new fluids (that didn't get replaced already as part of piston rings repair), new rotors and pads all around, the new water pump, new drive belt. Both sets of my tires are all still good as new... I really have no choice but to drive this car for another 5+ years now no matter how much I might like anything else that comes out.

In the spring I might have to bite the bullet and do a full on machine polishing of the thing again, as much as I loathe doing it.

ayb88

I had the ZLA service done at the beginning as well as had my waterpump, sparkplugs replaced of August on my 08 is250 RWD.

Mid september, my check engine light came on. I thought it was a loose gas cap because i noticed it wasn't tightened all the way. However, after tightening it and driving hundreds of miles, it did not go away. Additionally, two weeks ago the battery light came on intermittently. It would go off when driving at highway speeds. I called lexus and they told me it was my alternator and a o2 sensor. Then I took it to my own mechanic and he confirmed it.

I had my own mechanic do it to save a few hundred dollars. I felt comfortable letting him do this job since he used to be a master mechanic at Toyota for 8 years before he opened his own shop, plus i've been using him for 4-5 years. Yesterday evening he called me to come in to the shop. He had pulled out the old alternator and showed me the positive terminal on the alternator. The nut that was on the positive terminal was chipped off and broken, and had not been tightened all the say he said. He asked me who the last person was to work on this car and I told him Lexus had done the ZLA service. He told me to call them and demand that they pay for the repair due to their negligence. Apart from the positive terminal nut being broken off, one bolt on the valve cover was also completely loose. They clearly did not carefully reassemble the engine.

I took pictures of the broken bolt on the old alternator. Since Lexus did the ZLA, no one else has touched the car.

So i'm thinking the following:
1. Does the alternator get removed when the ZLA service is being performed?
2. clearly, they must have seen the broken bolt, or broke it themselves and did not bother to replace it and just left it broken.
3. if they indeed did not break the bolt, but did see it, which i'm sure they would have, they could have easily replaced the bolt since it's a standard 10mm.
4. Even if it was broken before, and they were not necessarily REQUIRED to replace the bolt as it wasn't their fault, they still did not tighten it all the way, which caused the intermittent connection, and eventually caused the alternator to short out.

What are your thoughts on this? Should I call the dealership or call headquarters first?

sorry I know this slightly off topic.