355F1

LEXUS NA denied the claim.

Going to trade the car in next week on something else at a dealer.

LexusLive

Ouch, I'm really sorry man. Best advice I could give is post on CL, advertise as a mechanic's special. In the normal used car market, a 10 year old luxury car with a bum engine is pretty much scrap value, but I'll bet there are plenty of skilled Lexus/Toyota mechanics who would give you something for it, say $5-7K (wild *** guess there) and they could do an engine swap themselves. You just have to make the right connection. You might even try local Lexus / Toyota repair specialists directly, and see if anyone is willing to buy it. The rest of the car really does hold up well, save for the squeaky dash. But somehow those squeaks aren't as loud when the car is 10 years old and you only paid like $12K as opposed to people like me who shelled out $35K when it was practically showroom fresh and still under warranty.

BinaryJay

Wait, you've owned the car since 2008 how come they didn't do the job for you while it was still covered? If you actually tried and failed to have it diagnosed while the warranty was valid, I do feel for you, because I got the run around quite a bit and pretty much finally found a dealer that was willing to actually diagnose it and fix it at the last minute (had some pretty bad experiences with other dealers including one that admitted I brought the car in with misfire codes but wouldn't do squat for me until I paid them $700 for a battery of unrelated diagnostics such as compression tests first). Needless to say even though the dealership that helped me with the piston rings is not convenient to me, I will be taking the car there for anything I need a dealership for in the future and would probably go out there to buy a replacement in the future if I ever needed one. They're going to get the fuel sensor recall next.

I'm pretty sure I'm on the trouble maker list myself... if there is such a thing, for holding them to fixing problems under warranty and not bringing the car there for anything else because the price for many of the services is nowhere near competitive in this city compared to other options for regular brainless maintenance tasks. Long before the piston rings work was even a thing, I hounded many lexus deaers in the area to fix whatever was wrong with my engine that was causing it to bog down and feel like it was going to stall at stop lights etc. My persistence in not accepting that this was normal behavior lead to three separate attempts to correct the issue by lexus:

1) Replaced valve springs/seals... helped a bit, never really fixed it. Valve cover off, messed around with valves, valve cover on again...

2) Top engine clean, the second official lexus "fix" for the issue which the TSIB included all of the same symptoms again as #1, an #3. Valve cover off... smothered top of engine in some corrosive GM product, clean clean clean.... another new valve cover gasket, weeee! Made a big difference immediately for the performance of the car. Of course, did not fix underlying problem, it eventually started getting symptoms again but not as bad as originally.

3) Piston rings (and valve springs, if you didn't already have #1 done which I did lol). Guess what, new valve cover gasket AGAIN... (along with every other gasket you can think of)... my valve cover at this point is starting to feel pretty violated... so far car still seems great... definitely lost fuel economy after this job. 6 months later, oil pan leaked oil all over my interlock as a result of the previous repair but dealership fixed it fast under their 2 year repair warranty. Crossing my fingers that all of the other gaskets are good for the long haul. Also had them throw in a new water pump while they were at it inexpensively.

So much of my old car is new again due to various warranty work/recalls, that I am pretty much committed to making this thing last as long as I can. I've never had any problem with the 300's performance, it goes as fast as I ever want it to especially since I live in the city. As long as it doesn't start turning into a rust bucket (no indications yet) or the transmission doesn't eat it on me (I am maintaining the hell out of that replacing the fluid every few years with low mileage)...

LexusLive

Remember, it never exhibited the misfire or CEL lights until after the 9 year window had expired. Can't diagnose what isn't there. And it's never exhibited it since, and it's never, ever done it while sitting at at stoplight, or while decelerating, or at any other time. It only happened one time, after sitting for 2 weeks, in very cold weather. The service advisor at Smyrna dismissed it by saying "that has nothing to do with why it misfired. Your engine is bad, and needs the ring job." I'm thinking, really? I've started this car thousands of times in 7 years, driven nearly 70K miles and it has never, ever misfired except for that one time.

But, I posted somewhere here that on Tuesday when I had it in for the latest fuel system recall that I discussed the history with the service advisor and he gave it a clean bill of health. He said it could have been a bit of carbon that got stuck and the engine just coughed it out basically. Just need to keep an eye on the oil level, but in no way do I need a $6300 ring job. Different dealers, different answers. You gave me the same answer a few months ago, and I really appreciate that. Just keep an eye on it, it's an older engine, and give it reasonable maintenance. Maybe a top clean is in order, I just want to find a good independent shop to do it. I presume I'm better of doing this before it starts to idle poorly.

I will never go back to Nalley Lexus Smyrna (and I'm sure they won't miss me, heh). I'm probably on every red flag list in the company at this point. I think the typical Lexus customer doesn't know a camshaft from a valve spring, and when they have to deal with paranoid gearheads like us they don't really have a good protocol. I'm sure most Lexus customers are rich enough (or more likely "pre-rich" and not very good with money) and just roll over and give 'em the gold card for every little thing. Or better yet, just walk over to the leasing dept. and sign up for a new round o' monthly payments.

One final note, and this is totally my fault. Incredibly, I missed the 60K spark plug change, and drove it to nearly 90K on the originals. But I had them replaced on Tuesday, and I suppose that could have caused that one misfire. Even in the short distance I drove it after the plugs/fuel recall, I've seen the tank average go up by 3/10ths since then. And I'm down to about a 1/4 tank, where it becomes harder to affect the mileage number either way. I'll be interested to see how the next full tank fares.

Anyway, I'm feeling exhausted from wasting the past 7 months obsessing and worrying about this issue when all along it's just not that big of a deal.

355F1

Traded it in last weekend to a used car dealer.

Got her a Black/Black 2013 IS 250 w/Nav+Prem Pkg with 16k miles.

Gotcha350

You do know that the IS250 suffers from the same problems...right?

355F1

Not all of them. Lexus changed some parts inside the engine mid-2010 MY.

I have a late 2010 IS and have put 130k miles on her in less than 5yrs with no problems. (I drive all over the state for work).

Gotcha350

They changed the rings...but it still has the same DI setup...that's what I was referring to...it doesn't have the Port along with DI.

But anyway...congrats on the purchase and GL

mmsigner

We just found out about the engine misfire CSP two weeks ago, when we took the car to the dealer for service. We never received the notice that supposedly was sent to GS owners. When we noticed the problem several months ago, we called the dealer--Lexus of Rockville--and were told we might as well wait to service the car when the part was available for the fuel system recall. Now the car is 4 months out of warranty for the engine misfire CSP.

Lexus has said it will cover the parts for the CSP, but we're on the hook for the labor--more than $3,000. We've owned 6 Lexus over the years--2 LS, 2 GS, 1 ES, and 1 SC--and the 2 LS were bought from Lexus of Rockville. I expected better from both Lexus and Lexus of Rockville.

Gotcha350

Get with your service manager...***** and complain...see if they will possibly reduce the labor if nothing more...

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

^^^^^^^^^ That's the best advice.

BUSHTAIT

Can someone please send me a copy of the letter as the local dealership is insisting they are unaware of this issue. However they have asked that I take a copy of the letter in so they can check with corp. PLEASE HELP! I am so disappointed how my great find is turning into a lemon!

BinaryJay

Nobody got letters about it in Canada. Doesn't really matter, if it had the symptoms during the campaign period you would have been responsible for taking it in for diagnosis and found out about it. If you didn't have the symptoms during the campaign period or chose not to take it in for diagnosis during that period you're out of luck.

Even several months ago was long past the period they could have done anything about it for free. Last summer or thereabouts was probably the last call in terms of 9 years from the in service date for all 2006s that were sold. Getting copies of the letters that were sent (and only if you had your car registered with them and a valid address on file of course) won't really change anything I'm afraid.

LexusLive

That dealership insisting they are" unaware of the issue" is a bald faced lie. It's not a misunderstanding, it's not a miscommunication between dealer and corporate, it is a lie. Everyone with an internet connection and just a passing interest in Lexus knows damn well that these engines are oil burners. There was a freaking corporate sponsored CSP!

They are trying to take the path of least resistance and hope you'll give up and go away. If the dealers keep acting like this, along with the benign support / blind eye of Lexus corporate who wants to bury their collective head up their *** and pretend this isn't a problem, then more Lexus customers WILL give up and go away. Right over to Cadillac, Audi, Mercedes-Benz or even Acura. I know BMW's are ridiculously unreliable and they treat their well-heeled customers like dirt, so I wont include them. Mostly I don't include BMW because the product just isn't as competitive as it used to be, model for model.

mveale

iTrader: (5)

Pardon my ignorance on the matter and forgive me for digging up a month-old thread instead of searching for hours, but I'm considering buying an '06 GS300 and am curious about this engine issue...

Worth noting: I am not planning on buying it for daily transportation, my GS400 is doing just fine in that department. The car I'm looking at is a former show car that has been vandalized, but is a coat of paint/plasti-dip/vinyl away from being a cool car again, so it could be a fun winter project for me. So with that in mind:

- From what I've read, this is something that will affect EVERY GS300 at some point in time. Is this correct, or is it possible that a few cars got lucky?

- If it's had the recommended service performed, did they correct the problem and it's unlikely to start burning oil again, or did they just rebuild it the same way it was and say "Best of luck, now get the hell out of here."?

- Once it starts burning oil, is it just a "add a quart, check the tires, and party on!" situation for the next 30,000 miles, or is massive failure imminent?

- Swap-ability: Is dropping in an engine from a 350/430/etc. fairly straightforward, or is lots of custom fab/wiring required?

Thanks!