BinaryJay

Noticed a small puddle on the driveway this morning... looked and smelled like motor oil. The oil pan nearest to the front of the car looks kind of wet around the gasket.

Given the transmission goes behind the engine, and the fluid looked and smelled like motor oil... this is the motor oil pan right... I'm guessing WS transmission fluid is colored red or something as well (and it is new in my car).

So ... it looks like an idiot job of draining the oil, unfastening a ton of bolts, replacing the gasket and refilling oil... am I being completely ignorant to this being a simple straight forward job? It's friggin freezing outside and I have no indoor space to work with so it is going to the dealer on saturday so I'm trying to figure out in advance what kind of repair quote they're going to give me on this one.

I suppose it is wishful thinking that this gasket may have been touched by lexus during the piston ring service.

Gotcha350

Yep...transmission pan is the furthest one back...

BinaryJay

Left some cardboard under the car overnight, it looks like it didn't start dripping again after my wife parked it until well after it had cooled down. I still couldn't see exactly where it was coming from wiithout lifting the car... but it appeared to be just forward of the oil pan on the passenger side... the oil didn't seem to be coming from the drain plug on the oil pan like I was hoping and it didn't seem to be coming exactly from the seal of the oil pan either from what I could tell... but, it was close to the corner of the oil pan.

Anybody have any ideas? Oil loss is pretty small so I'm letting the wife continue to drive it to work until I take it in on Saturday, but that means there are no daytime hours for me to actually really check it out by removing the engine covers etc.

I'm guessing (hoping?) valve cover, which lexus monkeyed with at the end of august for the piston rings, and such should result in no out of pocket expense on my part since it is within 12 months of them messing with it.

BinaryJay

So.... somehow they would not give me a diagnosis about where the oil was coming from (really? didn't think it would be that hard to tell if the car is on a lift)... they put in a fluorescent tracer into the oil and told me to go back after a week of it dribbling. Their guess is oil pan gasket. Wonder how much this is going to cost... I wish I didn't have to wonder until the weekend.

Gotcha350

I would assume that the repair would be on them since you are still under warranty for the ring replacement even if it is from the oil pan gasket

BinaryJay

Why would they remove the oil pan to do the ring repair? Not saying you're wrong, but do they really need to do that? I can't think of why they would need to touch the oil pan? Don't they do everything from the top down?

Othic

The entire engine is disassembled when rings and pistons are replaced. The rod bolts are on the bottom and both oil pans cover them and therefore need to be removed.

BinaryJay

Good to know. It would seem that there is very little chance this oil is coming from somewhere that they didn't have to re-seal as part of the ring job 6 months ago. Also... at the same time, not that great of a feeling either. It's got me thinking, what's next and will it be out of warranty by the time I notice it?

Also, anybody have any suggestion how I make a case for warranty repair if they try to deny the involvement of the ring repair as the cause?

And who do I send the bill to for cleaning of my interlock driveway of all of this fluorescent oil? :P

Gotcha350

I dont think they can deny it....they practically had to replace every gasket to do the ring job...

warandcar

this will be a good one. you know how the dealership always denys its their fault. please keep us updated and i hope the dealership takes ownership of this mistake...

BinaryJay

The car is actually being checked out by a different dealership than the one that did the ring replacement (I just went to the closer one out of laziness about the leak). It shouldn't matter in terms of warranty for the other job, I shouldn't think.

Anyway, Saturday morning the black lights go on the car...

BinaryJay

At Lexus on the park now, they are resealing the secondary oil pan for me right now. Taking care of me no problem. I burnt the cost of an hour diagnostic at the other closer dealership not realizing they couldn't repair another dealers work even if that work was done under warranty, lesson learned.

Hopefully this car is good for a while again, jeez.... But good yo know all the work done related to the rings is covered here for another 1.5 years so I'm currently happy with Lexus again... Still a battle between love and hate with this car and the brand though.