Is there a water pump issue on RX and others ...?
02-07-13, 08:38 AM
#1
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Is there a water pump issue on RX and others ...?
With only 51k, the water pump started leaking on our 2008RX350 and fortunately the repair was covered by the Lexus drivetrain warranty but come to find out a number of other car owners with the 3.3L or 3.5L V6 engine (e.g. ES, RX, GS, Highlander, Camry, Avalon, ...) all have similar early WP failures. Typically WPs are designed to last the lifetime of a car so it is virtually unheard of having a failure with only 40k to 65k miles especially on a reliable brand like Lexus.
In our RX, I told the dealer to tighten the drivebelt since there was quite a bit of belt chirping noise when the engine was cold thinking it was just a loose belt but it turned out that the belt noise was caused by the coolant leaking from the WP and thus covering the whole belt. Dealer told me there was no recall from the factory on this issue.
Did a search on this forum and found a number of people were reporting early WP failures on various makes. Just curious as to what current RX owners have experienced so far.
In our RX, I told the dealer to tighten the drivebelt since there was quite a bit of belt chirping noise when the engine was cold thinking it was just a loose belt but it turned out that the belt noise was caused by the coolant leaking from the WP and thus covering the whole belt. Dealer told me there was no recall from the factory on this issue.
Did a search on this forum and found a number of people were reporting early WP failures on various makes. Just curious as to what current RX owners have experienced so far.
02-07-13, 09:18 AM
#2
Will have to disagree with your water pump comment. They are not designed to last the lifetime of the vehicle. With that said...
Lexus dealers in this area were just inspecting the water pump and not necessarily replacing when it came time to replace the timing belt on the 3.3L engines in the RX330. I believe the water pump in the RX330 to be a good design and not prone to early failure. You could probably get to your second timing belt (180K miles) before needing to replace the water pump, but I would not push it beyond that. Many just choose to replace at 90K miles while everything is apart.
As for the RX350 -- yes, I am hearing far more complaints about water pump failures before 90K miles than with the RX330. I also see and hear more complaints from those who drive Toyota products with the same 3.5L engine having water pump failures. Something about the 2007 and 2008 model years.
Lexus dealers in this area were just inspecting the water pump and not necessarily replacing when it came time to replace the timing belt on the 3.3L engines in the RX330. I believe the water pump in the RX330 to be a good design and not prone to early failure. You could probably get to your second timing belt (180K miles) before needing to replace the water pump, but I would not push it beyond that. Many just choose to replace at 90K miles while everything is apart.
As for the RX350 -- yes, I am hearing far more complaints about water pump failures before 90K miles than with the RX330. I also see and hear more complaints from those who drive Toyota products with the same 3.5L engine having water pump failures. Something about the 2007 and 2008 model years.
02-07-13, 05:15 PM
#4
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Actually that (water pump lasts the life of a vehicle) came from a Lexus engineer at a Lexus sponsored event near Chicago several years back while I was talking to him and the regional manager about Lexus in general. If I recall he defined "life" as something around 100k/125k miles. Even GM designed to that "life" while I was attending an SAE conference in Detroit. Of course nowadays "life" of a vehicle can mean 200k miles or more. The service dept did say Lexus was very good in many times honoring the warranty even if it occured past the warranty period by likely paying for the parts. The service advisor said he had seen a number of WP failures with low miles but didn't know the cause.
02-07-13, 06:42 PM
#5
Toyota/Lexus used the same water pump in the RX330/RX350/RX400h/RX450h from approximately 1/2006 through 3/2009. Then they made a change to the one they are using today. What did they change? Who knows. It is definitely a new part number. It also seems that those having problems with early failures are in that range. Before or after those dates seem to be less problematic. However, without any real data it is hard to say what is going on and with which ones.
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