litesoarer

You don't like Sewell?

satiger

iTrader: (1)

Based on the timeline, car has been owned by you (your wife) for past six year. Not sure when Firestone service was performed. Besides that, where do you take your car for regular maintenance such as oil changes etc?.

If you have been using Lexus / Toyota, they record technician's notes and it is be available through Lexus owners website or you could ask dealer to print that for you. At this time, you might need such receipts from Lexus or other wise to see if anything has been noted or communicated to your wife.

Its hard for me to believe Lexus/Toyota transmission to be fried less than 100k miles due design/build failure. If you have been using Lexus/Toyota for services, most likely some would've noticed any leaks and noted or told you during visits.

As others suggested, speak to Lexus Corp and see what they could offer. Where are you in TX?. Getting a second opinion is best but I guess towing is a big hassle. Remember, even with Lexus / Toyota, no two technicians are same when it comes to workmanship or diagnostic skills.

Good luck!.

Doublebase

It looks like they didn't tighten a bolt on the water pump and the coolant leaked down the hose to the radiator. Wow, that's crazy.

satiger

iTrader: (1)

I was thinking the same, however if that were the case someone should've noticed leak and/or low/no coolant in the reservoir. When he took the car to Lexus with first issue, they should've observed that and put that as a required service.

Unless timeline is established, its hard to say one way or other.

All I could say is I have combined 420k miles on all three cars and they never saw Firestone, Midas, Meineke, Walmart etc or ebay parts. No burns, no refills between services, no leaks ever, again its just my personal take. Each to their own.

fuad384

Update:
Spoke to the service advisor this morning. They have reached out to Corporate and waiting to hear back. He informed me that it will be until early next week before they hear anything back. I am currently going through all service records and establishing a time line for discussion next.

I have also made notes of some of the important comments made on this thread to bring up as a topic of discussion for when we hear back from them.

I have also reached out to AAMCO for possible transmission work in case what we hear back from Corporate is not promising. Reaching out to Firestone today as well to discuss thier work.

Additionally I am also searching for an indy toyota/lexus shop that I can get a second opinion from.

Thanks to all for your input.

fuad384

We have had issues with Sewell in the past which is why we took it to Park Place.

fuad384

Thanks Satiger,

We just got the work done by Firestone at the of April of this year. We have done all oil changes/maintenance only at Lexus and I have all those sercice records. We are in Dallas. Spoke with the service advisor this morning and they have reached out to Corporate and waiting to hear back from them. Says it will be early next week on what they will be able to do for us. So fingers crossed.


Being a newbie I started this thread and realized it should be over in the LS forum. I didn't know how to move it over there so I just started another one there. I iwll be making updates on that thread only.

It is called 08 LS460 Transmission Dead in the 4th gen LS 460 forum. Thank you everyone for your input.

litesoarer

Have you considered Davenport Motor out of Dallas in case Lexus Corp doesn't come back with a favorable result?

comotiger

Has the SA explained why they are talking to Corporate about providing a discount? Is it purely a goodwill gesture or is there any indication of culpability or negligence on their part? If it's dealer negligence, then why would Corporate oblige them? Unless there is some manufacturing or parts defect...

Regardless, I hope it works out to your benefit. Good luck!

fuad384

Funny you mention Davenport Motor. I was just on thier website yesterday. What have you heard about them?

fuad384

That's a good point. From what I gather it sounds like a goodwill gesture but I think they know that the transmission going out this early is not normal especially if they have looked over the service records for the car. We have always gone to Lexus for regular maintanence. The work done at Firestone was the only time we have had work done on the car outside of the Lexus family. So I am sure he reviewed that with his supervisor and they know they need to make it right somehow. He hasn't explicitly said that but that's the feeling I get. Thanks agian for the kind words. Hopefully we'll be able to get our second vehicle here in a few weeks regardless of what happens. Trying to get a minivan to tote the kids around in.

litesoarer

Prices are lower than dealer and they do good work.

CRowe14

What I also find strange, is the fact that there seems to be evidence of an on-going leak of coolant.
I could be all the way wrong here, but its a well understood fact by any of us here, that our coolant, when it leaks and has been leaking, turns into a gunky/crystalized mess.
Perhaps its there and the photos don't show it, but I don't see anything that would indicate the leak has been on-going. There should be evidence of a leak, at least a small one, on the floor of your garage, but more so, on the inside of the cover that protects the underside area of the front of the car. There should be a large pink puddle and/or residue on the rad-side of that cover. Did he show that to you/did you see it?
I have a bit of a different experience here than some of the others regarding the water pump, because when I did mine in my garage, my torque wrench wasn't working properly and I thought all the bolts on the pump were sufficiently tightened.
When I started the car to do the rmp test, my engine temp rose, went mid-way, then kept rising.
I immediately turned the car off, looked beneath the car and saw that the coolant was leaking right beneath the area where the pump resides. Came back to the top and it was plain as day, the coolant was coming out. I checked the bolts and a few weren't very tight at all!
What I am saying is, from the photos, there seems to be a sizable leak with evidence of "coolant drips" in a few places. With a leak that seems to be that bad, the car should have over heated some time ago.
Something just doesn't seem right here...

CRowe14

Regarding Davenport, I have heard the same.
Though I am not in the area, I was doing quite a bit of research about who was not only a great indy shop, but who was familiar with the Lexus control arm issue, and the car in general (this was before I understood how relatively uncomplicated replacing the control arms were).
Anyways, Davenport came highly recommended for the area, as the Dallas location (I believe), the manager or head guy there used to work for Lexus for several years, and decided to open up a shop to provide customers a cheaper but just as knowledgeable alternative.

litesoarer

They are also quite adept and knowledgable about AVS on the 4LS.