swtjen01

I have a 2004 Lexus IS300. I have loved this car like it was my own baby. About a year ago I started noticing that there was a "pop corn" sound behind the dash. Also sometimes a rushing sound of water - strange but no matter the car drove perfectly.

On the way to beach I was at a light listening to a comedy cd when suddenly my car shut off. It all happened so fast; I looked down and looked up to see a shz ton of steam rolling out from under my hood. My radiator had burst. I was told that my head gasket was fine though. The car cranked normal and after we replaced the radiator everything was fine - for a while.

Popcorn noises and water sounds continued until one day the car over heated - AGAIN! This time it didn't reach nuclear reactor status but the temp got pretty high. Found out the second radiator had a leak. Replaced it again!

A couple of weeks and then she starts overheating again, loosing water and :/ not wanting to crank because there was water in a cylinder. Then I learned she had a blown head gasket Here comes the part where I made a fatal mistake. I let someone who was family repair my car (this person has been a mechanic for over 30 years) but apparently that doesn't cut it.

I get my car back and it cranks right up! and runs great. Then four days later it starts to overheat . He said it was a loose hose and added coolant. Then days later the radiator (remember the one I replaced twice) burst and the car overheated. Now the car takes forever to crank and I know why :/ He swears that the head gasket is not blown on my car and always has some excuse. Yesterday the car died. It didnt overheat. It just stopped staying cranked. I dont' know what to do at this point. I don't want to spend a couple thousand dollars to fix my car only to have it do the same thing. Has anybody ever heard of this???? I'm at a loss here and need some help. I wish I would have just gone to the dealership. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!!

konaboi808

Sorry to here that. U might need to see if your head is warped.

svv323

Post this on my.is you'll get a lot more help there

swtjen01

I will check out the other site. Just wondered if I would be throwing money away at this point to get the head fixed again :/

az989

hmmm, i think yull be better off doing a complete engine swap instead of rebuilding the head

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

Without knowing exactly what was done, it is impossible to say, but I would guess that most of the time people cheap out and instead of having the head checked and cleaned / checked for flat-ness, that the head gasket was just replaced and the head ignored... if this is the case, with the super thin metal head gasket these cars use, any variation in the head will cause the symptoms of a blown head gasket, though not truly be blown...

if it were mine, pull the head, take to machine shop and have them go through it all - have it checked for true, have the valves machined and checked, have the whole thing pressure tested to check for potential cracks... I will bet you will find 2-3 thousandths variance or more across the head surface... if so, have it machined, put it back together... Here's the kicker - what head bolts or studs were used? Some will cheap out and try to reuse the factory head bolts, but, it generally is not a good idea to - you can measure them to make sure they are within spec, but these are pretty important - buy a new set, or install ARP head bolts that are reusable...