fitchs

Hey CL,

This is my first post! I have been a viewer of the forums and I finally decided it was time to start engaging with everyone.

Anyway, I have a mostly stock 2009 Lexus IS250 AWD. I purchased it Summer 2015 and have put about 16,000 miles on it in the past 8 months. I love this car (just wish it had more power).

My passenger-side exhaust pipe between the primary and secondary cats has broken in a nearly perfect ring due to salt/dirt buildup at the beginning of the heat shield. (see pictures)

I have found one or two other posts on various forums and some people said this was covered under the 8yr/80,000 mile Federal Emissions warranty while others said it was not due to it not directly being the cat that goes. The pipe comes permanently connected to the secondary cat.

What are your thoughts / experiences with this? I have an appointment on Monday with the stealership for the Fuel Pressure Sensor recall and to get my exhaust fixed. The question is, will it be warrantied or will I have a ~$2500 bill?

Thanks for your input CL!

Fitch

toyoman29

Hello and welcome to CL, I would check to see about a warranty on the pipes but probably going to charge you big time. I would get a price and check around some other places, also maybe a good used exhaust or cats online. The pipes are so thin it's hard to weld them but that might be a option, good luck.

synrgy350

One of my mid pipes were cracked halfway around, a local exhaust shop welded it closed for me. It cost me $10 and its been good for over 2 years now. i would look for a good exhaust shop in your area.

Tro209

Dont take it to the dealership if they dont cover you under warranty. I recommend just having a reputable exhaust shop take a look at it. Im sure they can weld it or something for a lot lot LOT less money than whatever the dealer will charge

fitchs

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll look into having shop doing the work after hearing what the dealer has to say about it seeing as it has to go in for the recall anyways.

fitchs

After going to the dealership, they told me the exhaust crack / leak would not currently be covered because there is no CEL code coming up for them to report it under.

It sounded like it would be covered if I were to have a light come up - which confirms others reportings of it being repaired under warranty.

The crack is ~6 inches after the second O2 sensor and there are no sensors behind this point on the exhaust pipe. This explains why no CEL codes are being triggered.

Called and am opening on a case with Lexus Corporate to see if they'll be any help.

Any other suggestions to try and get this covered under warranty?

RustyIS

Hi Fitchs,

I have the EXACT same problem on my 08 IS250 AWD with 70800 km (44000 miles). Same passenger side centre pipe, same point of failure at the forward heat shield clamp.

At first, there was an engine growl which over the span of 2 weeks became an atomic, ghetto hole-in-exhaust system fart. There was significant power loss too but no Check Engine Light. I pulled into a local shop on my drive home. The head mechanic gave me an estimate of $1300 for Lexus replacement parts plus labour. In the end, they recommended and installed an off the shelf stainless pipe section with clamps at either end.

When I got home I was quite angry at Lexus that a section of exhaust piping could completely fail from corrosion in only its 8th year of service so I started looking online for other documented cases. I ended up finding a thread here on CL:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...-warranty.html

OP there suggests that he was able to get a warranty repair (Lexus warranty for Major Emissions Control Components at 96 months/ 130,000km) owing to the fact that the centre pipe includes the catalytic converter.

The darn pipe should not break apart into 2 pieces from corrosion in the first place, but now that it has, in order to fix it, that section of the exhaust which costs $1300, presumably due to the fact that it contains the cat, must be replaced. In real world practical terms, this means that I'm buying a new cat! So God help me if someone tries to argue that this doesn't fall under the Major Emissions Control Components Warranty.

Anyway, my car is at the local dealership now as I try to get them behind me to make a warranty claim. They have so far been very difficult to deal with but after much insistence on my part, they agreed to make a claim to Lexus Canada.

Let me know what your situation is.

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

I believe I have a leak from the same area on my passenger side. The front passenger window keeps getting that "exhaust fog" to it on the inside.

MelYW

Decided to go the least expensive route.

A muffler shop cut out the effected areas and replaced with new piping.

$140 all in. They estimate that it will last 3 to 5 years.

I plan on driving this car until it drops. Might have to do this again...maybe two more times. Still far far less than replacing with an oem part of $1500.

Couldnt find enough information on the davico products to be convinced that it would last beyond a patch.

LXMEUP

Do you do lots of short trips?

This is usually the exhaust killer.

Condensation builds up and never clears the pipe.. water sits in there and rusts out the exhaust.

IS250VAN

Hi crew,

I had same issue on my 2006 AWD IS250.
Was an easy fix just find a decent muffler shop that has a skilled welder.

Mine had some previous patch job that have failed again. I took it to a muffler shop in Vancover ( Kingsway muffler ) after inspection we could see the two front mid pipes were completely rusted and no point spot welding. He cut out the 2 rusted pipes and fabricated new ones. Cost around $400 CAD should last around 5 years. New OEM parts cost would have been $1k. Car sounds like a Lexus again!

RustyIS

IS250VAN, that's exactly what I ended up doing as well. The off the shelf clamp failed about 1 year after installation. A local skilled welder cut out the rusty sections, fabricated replacements, and welded them in place for BOTH sides for $240. That was nearly 2 years ago.

To summarize what happened at the Lexus dealer, DVN Lexus here in Toronto ended up providing an estimate for over $2k and refused to honour their Major Emissions Control Components Warranty. At first, DVN claimed to be advocating on my behalf with Lexus Canada for warranty coverage. It soon became clear that their strategy was to stall indefinitely, and in the end, they simply stopped responding to my email requests for updates. They were condescending and extremely unpleasant to deal with in my experience. 2 thumbs way down.