GreggyG

it's in for timing belt and water pump at 100k. they are recommending the theromstat and want to charge $115 for the $25 toyota part. they are also recommending diff fluids at $300 (but they were done at 60k-I can't verify that 100 % because I bought it used), and recommending drive belt at $80, front cv boots/axles at $1060 and radiator and hoses for $900 (said not critical, small seepage at the top corner). Am I being over charged?

new2012jee

Thermostat part and replace = YES OVERPRICED; BUT...THEY ARE ALREADY THERE, EAT THE COST AND HAVE THEM DO IT.
Diff fluids = WAY OVERPRICED, DO NOT HAVE THEM DO THIS WORK IF YOU OWN A TOOL, YOU CAN PROBABLY DO IT.
Drivebelt = WAY OVERPRICED, BUT WORTH HAVING THEM DO SINCE THEY ARE IN THERE ALREADY.
Axles = OVERPRICED, BUT VARIES IF INCLUDES LABOR. MY SHOP WAS GONNA CHARGE $125 A SIDE TO DO THE BOOTS.
Hoses = WAY OVERPRICED, ANOTHER SHOP CAN PROBABLY DO THIS FOR YOU, FOR $200-250.

GreggyG

Thank you sir, that's exactly what I was thinking about all of your points.

chiph9

When they do the water pump, they have to drain the coolant. And they're already working at the front of the engine where the thermostat is. So ask if the $115 takes that into account, given that the housing is held on with a couple of bolts (maybe it includes a new gasket?)

If the radiator is seeping, it's time to replace it. Mine did the same thing at the same location. Again, they're already working in that area of the engine, so there ought to be a labor discount. Ask them if they can give you half a jug of Toyota coolant to take home with you - after the system gets refilled, it'll burp air over the next few days, and you'll want more coolant to top-up the overflow tank.

Ask them to check the hoses for soft spots and wear points. Otherwise you're probably fine on hoses -- they last forever these days, unlike back in the 80's...

Replacing the accessory drive belt ought to be part of the timing belt service package. They have to take it off to do the timing belt service, so labor ought to be included. If it's not part of the package, do it.

CV boots - is this a replacement boot, getting a new band put on to stop seepage, or new axles?

Chip H.

GreggyG

forgot to mention that they are charging $895 plus tax for the timing belt and $350 for the water pump.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

yeah they are way overcharging you on stuff. whats wrong with the CV boots? did you actually look at them or taking their word for it, they like to replace them even if they look fine sometimes, even when all it needs is a $2 clamp. take a picture and see if they actually even do it (I am a bit skeptical of who I let touch my cars).

the timing belt job should be around 900 with the waterpump, the whole timing belt and waterpump kit from Aisin costs a whopping $190. the drive belt probably costs like $40, and they do have to remove it and put it back on so they shouldn't be charging more than cost (unless they marked up the cost to 80) the rest is whatever labor they feel like charging you.

never heard of charging labor for a thermostat while doing a timing belt job, I think they see dollar signs when they look at your lexus.
on our cars you simply remove the upper radiator hose neck thing, couple bolts and there is not even a gasket, they use rtv there.

radiator is actually a known problem, they start to seep, and even worse the trans cooler line will fail internally eventually and leak coolant into your trans and if you don't catch it in time it will take out the torque converter.
check your coolant is red and not mixed with black oily dots (old trans fluid) and then it even becomes a milkshake looking thing when its really bad. if I see any radiator seepage, just replace cause your transmission is more costly than all that stuff combined.

that being said the labor on changing a radiator shouldn't be that much. even the oem radiator is a couple hundred bucks and takes no more than an hour to install labor wise. again most techs pull the radiator to do a timing belt job anyways (its literally the second step) so unless they are flushing the whole transmission fluid out at the same time which they never do I would say that is pricey.

I am just assuming by the prices you went to Lexus, have you considered taking your car to toyota for the timing belt job and telling them to squint and imagine its a limited 4runner v8?
Toyota has so many vehicles with these v8's in them that they do them all day long and usually have a special on them unlike lexus.
The radiators between the 4th gen 4runner V8 and the gx470 are actually the same (Whaaaaat? yeah they are)
I know I take my lexus cars to toyota if it has to go into a dealer and its always about 1/3 less than lexus right off the bat on the same parts. they are also usually more friendly and willing to work on certain things, like after I lifted my GX 2.5" I needed an alignment and the techs there took special care to get it as close as they can on a lifted vehicle, wasn't even extra.
I am not sure if Lexus would even know where to start, they would probably tell me I have a height sensor problem or something silly like that.

The funniest is when Lexus doesn't have the part in stock, they usually get it from the toyota dealer, and the prices can be quite different. all their parts come from the same warehouses so just give that a minute to sink in.

diff fluids I know its sad but I don't think they always do it. if you had it done at 60k there would be no reason to do it at 100k, I would do diff's every 100k but the only way to know on those is to do it yourself. its not like trans fluid where you can see how red it is. you can kind of smell how burnt it is but thats not very scientific to go off of.
Plus at those prices you could do it yourself with Royal purple fully synthetic and still come out way ahead, and that stuff is like liquid gold, or just take it to an independent place for the less important things like that, they should be able to do that stuff no problem.

Diff fluid and re greasing the driveshaft to keep away the clunks anyone can do really its not many tools or parts needed to do the job. you can get it all at the local auto store.

GreggyG

thanks for the help and guidance. I spoke to the mechanic working on it and he said there was just a little crust on the top right corner and that it was evidence that coolant sat there and dried. he was wishy washy about whether it need to be changed. As far as the inner cv boots, he said that some grease had spun out and you see evidence of that, but that maybe just a clamp was a little loose or something, some dry rot on the rubber but I don't think any major tears, etc. And on the diff fluids, that he opened the fill plug and some came out and it was brown but there is not real way to tell/test it. he figured it needed it at 100k, but if the mine was really done at 60k, it should be fine. I agree with the over charging but I'm stuck because the toyota around here is no good and it's hard for me to trust other local shops or the parts they use. I went with the tbelt, the drive belt, the thermostat, and the water pump $1400 out the door. not happy with that but I guess it is what it is. I'll inspect the radiator and the cv boots myself and leave the diff fluids for a while.

BradTank

Find an independent shop to get service.

You're not being singled out, that's likely what everybody gets charged at a Lexus dealership, but if you're going to spend that kind of money at the dealership, you might as well just make a new car payment instead of throwing that much money on service.

chiph9

I wouldn't say that - he's going to spend about $2400 when it's done, and that's about 4 months of car payments on a new GX 460 Premium. If he keeps the vehicle longer than that, he's coming out ahead.

Chip H.

BradTank

I was being sarcastic I didn't literally think this one service trip would be the same as the cost of a brand new car.

chiph9

I don't want to be That Guy, but there are stories about IS250 owners with manual transmissions that need a clutch replacement ... who have traded the vehicle instead.


Chip H.

BradTank

No worries, I definitely am not saying someone should buy a new car to save money, I can maybe see how that was misinterpreted.

I will say there are people that can unfortunately be "slaves" to dealership service and seem to be perfectionists and will go along with everything the service advisor (salesman) tells them. Ask someone who owns an out of warranty Mercedes or Audi, their service bills can get pretty insane.

If you throw thousands of dollars in service at the dealership every year, to the point where it's getting close to a new car monthly payment, it almost negates the financial benefit of driving a used car.

I think the cheapest car is almost always the one you already own, but you definitely need to find a cost effective way to get it serviced and that's rarely the dealership.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

alot of the time the red crust on top of the radiator that they show you as the "leak" that needs replacement, is just from someone topping off the radiator overflow bottle on the passenger side and some coolant splashes on the top metal part of the radiator and if not wiped off it will crusts over from the radiator heating up.
If you take a good look at the location, you will notice they are less than 2 inches away from each other, I know cause mine has the same small little crust spot and I even bought a replacement radiator to find out that it was just a spill later. even on the drivers side the filling neck is within spill distance of the top of the radiator. Its really ingenious one time you are in they spill coolant on the top and don't wipe it off, only to use it as an excuse for an expensive radiator replacement the next time cause any sign of coolant they just say, well lets replace it.
It looks like a leak to the untrained eye, but if you look closely there is no part for the radiator to fail on the top cause its all metal on the top, these radiators only really fail on the sides between where the plastic end tanks and the metal radiator meets. so if you see crusty stuff on the top, that's just a lazy tech that spilled coolant on the top of it and didn't wipe it down. if you see it starting from the sides then it could be a real leak.

generally speaking though radiator leaks get worse, so if you see an old crusty spot of coolant, its more likely a spill then a leak, cause if it was leaking it would do it whenever the vehicle is fully warmed up and shortly thereafter it would get much much worse, not go away and leave you wondering if you have a coolant leak.

if the diff fluid is brown its probably good and been changed. with gear oil as long as you have some in there they are pretty robust for regular usage. if you were offroading I would say replace often and with full synthetic. I have royal purple in the transfer case still need to do my diff's haven't quite gotten there yet.

its not the worst thing ever to take it into the dealer, I've just learnt it pays (literally) to be a little skeptical and ask questions cause more often than not the diagnoses seems to change once they figure out you know more about your car then the color it is.

vxphan

"alot of the time the red crust on top of the radiator that they show you as the "leak" that needs replacement, is just from someone topping off the radiator overflow bottle on the passenger side and some coolant splashes on the top metal part of the radiator and if not wiped off it will crusts over from the radiator heating up. "

Like this?

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

that alot of fluid but yeah sort of like that, mine had like a 1/5 of that on the top of the passenger side (not the drivers side) and I wiped it down and there was no leak afterwards, I guess it could leak sometime in the future but it doesn't. If it does I am surprised they fail right there cause normally the end tank is the one that fails.
I did mention that its likely a spill if it doesn't get worse, did yours always look like or did it grow one day and was it getting worse, that info you cannot tell from a picture, so if it was getting worse and overheating then yeah you have some sort of leak. I would certainly suspect you might have a leak with that amount of fluid or someone spilled alot of fluid, but I would try cleaning it off and seeing if there is an issue if there was no overheating, cause the plastic part looks ok from this angle but obviously its not in front of me so I can't say for sure.

edit, so the radiator in that pic has a crack at the bottom by the drain plug. not sure about the fluid on the top there could have been a crack by the filler neck we can't see up there.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gx-...adiator-2.html

unless these radiators do fail on the top metal part, has anyone had a radiator fail on the metal part on these cars? I haven't seen one but have seen many cracked plastic end tanks on all kinds of cars. I already purchased a backup radiator just in case its actually messed up somehow between the fins and metal part on the sides, If its a known fault to fail there then I take back what I said but it is entirely possible for a spill to look like a small leak, espescially if that leak does not grow, and both fill spots are right by the end tanks on the side.
Not trying to say that everyone crusty coolant buildup on their radiator is a spill, just saying its a possibility so hose it down and see if it is a spill or leak if you have one.