bagsbie

Ran over a concrete partition with the left side of the car. At the first glance, the damage was not severe - scraped the bottom of the bumper and what had appeared pushed the bottom of the fender splash guard in a bit. I was changing the oil on the car, went under and discovered that the trans cooler plastic air duct was completely shattered with the outer bracket to which the air duct is mounted snapping off the cooler (see pics).

I called a local dealer and was informed that I cannot purchase the air duct alone and need to buy the cooler, a $400 part! What a nonsense, I think. The air duct is attached to the cooler, so one would assume it MUST be sold as a separate part.

Anyone could recommend a place or suggest something? A friend of mine is coming tomorrow to solder the bracket back to the cooler, so all I need is the air duct.

I presume, the air duct is there for a reason and without it I am running a danger of overheating the oil or am I? I have asked my wife not to drive the car around too spiritedly for the time being until I figure out the next steps.







UPDATE: Tried Keystone parts and did a national search that produced no results, i.e. no used trans oil cooler with the air duct. So, the only option to obtain a piece of plastic is to pay for the oil cooler assembly, $368 with my dealer discount! Ouch! Did not expect such a nonsense from Lexus/Toyota.

Word to the wise, avoid any left-front fender-benders. It'd cost you at least $1000 in parts and labor just to replace the oil cooler assembly alone. End of rant. On a positive note, I guess, I'll be replacing the tranny oil sooner than later when putting the oil cooler in place.