Gohawks63

My wife calls me today and tells me that she is getting a message on the multi-function/Nav screen that says "Check System", and "External System Not Connected". By pressing buttons, she got it to eventually respond, but every time you restart the truck, it reoccurs.

The worse part about this is that when it's malfunctioning, the climate control is disabled, and we're set to getting single digit temps around here.

I have 43K miles on her, which puts it out of the factory warranty, but thankfully I purchased the extended warranty. Call the dealer and he knew what it was about. Told us to bring it in so that they could "check the connections". When my wife got there, he had already contacted the warranty company and got everything approved. He looked at it, but said he knew it wasn't the connections. He's seen a few of these already and each time the connections weren't the problem.

It was 8:30pm when my wife got there (I had to take my son to his hockey game), so it was too late to order one tonight, but he said he would do it tomorrow or Monday.

He told me that I was fortunate that I bought the warranty. Parts and labor would have cost me at least $1,000 MORE than what I paid for the warranty. So it looks like I came out ahead with purchasing the warranty.

He even printed a copy of the TSB and gave it to me, even though he told me he wasn't supposed to.

The TSB stated that this problem occurs with '04 LCs, Highlanders, and the Prius. It went on to say that they have redesigned the unit to resolve the problem. It doesn't mention the LX, but since the part is the same, I would venture to guess they are affected as well.

Quite honestly, I'm a little disappointed that a $55k+ vehicle could have cost me $2k-$3k in repairs with only 43K miles on it if I hadn't purchased the extended warranty.

The upside is that my wife said that the service manager was awesome. Let's just hope that it limps along with this cold snap until the new unit comes in.

AyM

U know, mine was only with 7 miles on it ( LX 2004), and my external system mulfunctioned one day, and I paid 2800$ to replace the computer under passenger seat. When it was detached Audio and Climate functions still were indicated on the display and operated correctly, they are independent from Nav computer which also is responsible for rear view camera, telephone and etc...

I think in yr case is display and something else if no climate buttons on it.

Gohawks63

This isn't the underseat unit. It's the system in the dash that controls the climate control, audio, BT, NAV, trip computer, etc.

Latest update.

This is now going on almost two weeks and here is the latest.

The service called me a week ago Monday stating that he's been going back-and-forth with the warranty company. The WC wants a remanufactured unit used in the repair. The SM tells him that there aren't any out there (the TSB states that a redesigned unit is the fix). The WC then tells him that they want to repair the old unit. SM responds that repairing the old unit isn't feasible. Pulling out the old unit will essentially leave the vehicle unusable while the repair is taking place. Additionally, since the TSB states that a NEW unit has been designed, we're back to the fact that it may not be repairable. So, the SM says he's awaiting a call back from someone higher up in the food chain, and that he'll call me in a day or two.

The next evening, I got the call during a meeting, and by the time I got out, they were closed. I'm now getting a little pissed at the WC. So Wednesday morning I call the SM again. He tells me that he has good news, he just got off the phone with the WC, and they acknowledged that there aren't any remanufactured units out there to be had. (No **** ). Apparantly they were even looking for a Lexus branded unit as well since they are both the same.

Reluctantly, the WC company approved the order for a brand new system. Apparantly the reason why they've been reluctant is that a brand new system is $4,800!!!!!

The SM went on to say that they told him that they want to send an "inspector" out before they do the work to confirm that a repair is actually needed, so the SM has to coordinate that before the repairs are done.

The part finally comes in. I drop off the truck this morning so that now we wait for the inspector to examine the system.

Just got off with the SM. He said the inspector looked at the truck, and then looked at the SM straight in the eye and said, "it's broke".

The good news is that everything got approved and it should be fixed by tomorrow. The total repair tab to be picked up by the warranty company will be just over $5,000!!!. I paid $1,400 for the extended warranty.

Definitely got my money's worth on this one and I still have 60K miles before it expires.

V8_Fan

Good job on the warranty! I took delivery of a certified '03 LX a few weeks ago and noticed that the wheel would be slightly to the left of center (about 5-10 degrees) when driving straight. Vehicle tracked straight. Brought it into the dealer and the service manager said it was probably a toe-in issue, which is not covered under the certified warranty (alignment is covered for 12K mi or the first year only). I told them to align it anyways. They called me back later saying the service tech said it was a VGRS ECU that was improperly calibrated, and that is covered under warranty. Dropped of the rig on tues am, was in the loaner RX in only 10 min, got a phone call a couple hours later saying it was fixed and had been test driven. Low and behold, all is well, service was excellent. Took a look at the bill (had to pay for programming a new master key) and it said the VGRS ECU (there are 3 of them, according to the FSM, but this was for a single one), part only, was $817+labor! Glad I paid for the extra 2 yrs to make it a 5 yr/100K platinum warranty (still got 50K mi to go, and this being a road trip car, pretty much sees highway miles).