rx350lemon

I'm trying to help my uncle out who owns a lexus 2010 rx350 with about 80,000 miles on it. I believe the warranty is 4 years or 70,000 miles and is therefore over.
Basically there was some sort of issue with the fan hitting a cover (perhaps the battery cover) and not working, therefore the car over heated and now the engine has failed. Perhaps siezed?. I'm not sure how this happened since he was driving on the freeway when it happened and my basic understanding of cars is that the air flow through a vehicle will keep the engine cool and the fan is only critical at lower speeds. There also should of been some sort of overheating warning?!? I've driven a couple of klunkers and even these cheap cars had big red warning lights come on when the engine was about to go Chernobyl on you.

Lexus dealership in Charlotte, NC quoted him $11,000 to get a new engine replacement.
Independent shop quoted him $5700 for used engine.
insurance company said they wouldn't cover it.
NC lemon law doesn't seem to apply due to age of car.

Any advice on what we should do. Is it possible to sue lexus for this for implied merchantability?
Looking on lexus' web site the vin falls under the BOS recall for unintended acceleration of toyota vechicles.

I told my uncle he should just sell the POS, but wanted to hear from more experienced owners.

this is my first post so I appreciate any advice.

Cruiter

Very sorry to hear that your uncle's car has this problem. It's true the car seems to be beyond the warranty period. Out of curiosity, do you have a repair order write up that more clearly defines what happened and the cause? I don't believe it could have been a battery cover it was hitting. And I'm guessing if it quit working there would have been one or several warning light indications something was wrong as the fans are electricity driven.

jdshaw

Send a detailed, factual, professional, unemotional, and non-threatening letter to:
Mr. James Lentz
President and CEO
Toyota North America
19001 South Western Avenue
Torrance, CA 90501

vlad_a

Have you considered this to be a driver neglect? How is Lexus responsible for your uncle ignoring the engine overheating? If he had a flat tire, kept driving and got into an accident, would Lexus be at fault too?
Unintended acceleration? Really? Talk about beating a dead horse.
I suggest your uncle owns up to his own actions and learns from it.

raylor4

RX350lemon - If your uncle's car is deemed a POS, why did he drive it for 80,000 miles? No mention of any other problems. Personally, I like to keep my side of the street clean.
Ray A.

gr8fulRed

sucks to hear of this for your uncle...but I have little doubt that in order for the motor to get hot enough to "seize".....there HAD to have been warning lights going off like a Christmas tree. That's what they are for....to WARN YOU. You keep driving ANY vehicle to the point the motor seizes and warning lights are on...you're running the risk of a denied claim under factory warranty, extended warranty, etc. It's called "neglect" or "failure to prevent further damage by continuing to drive and impaired vehicle".

A potentially small inexpensive issue has turned into a galactic one.

SteveCraig

The V6 in the RX is Toyota's workhorse engine with countless applications on the road. 80K miles is nothing to be concerned about given reasonable maintenance.
Car has no value without a working engine. Might pay to spend a few $$ to see what happened & just how bad the damage is. Get the oil, filter & coolant analysed for particle suspension, specific gravity, cross contamination. The fluids will usually tell quite a story.
Could it be the engine shut itself down as a fail safe measure ? I don't know the engine management systems enough to answer but perhaps someone here can.

fastnoypi

section 2-2 of your uncles owners manual would have shown him where the engine coolant temp gauge would be.
Anywhere above the normal temp level witnessed during everyday driving during his prior 79,999 miles would have told him something is wrong, pull over, shut down and contact someone to diagnose.

Depending how long he drove it in an overheated condition and shut it down, he might have warped the heads and blown the head gaskets. It is repairable but costly.

JHCameron

It could make sense to buy a good used engine from a written off vehicle. At least that way you would have a usable car...otherwise you are only going to be able to see it for peanuts.

Clutchless

This is such a strange story. It is apparent we are not getting the WHOLE truth. I wonder what the service history of this vehicle looks like. I wonder if there was other neglect. How often was the oil changed? I bet it was full of sludge. I wondered if it hit something that caused damage to the fan or radiator, but ruled that out as the insurance guy would have noticed.

If the history is within service recommendations, he may want to consider a used oil analysis, if he intends to pursue a claim. However, it may find evidence to support Lexus's defense. You never know.

Or the uncle never looked at the temp gauge. Many people (my wife) never do. When I was in college my mother who never looked at the gauge either, had her 1972 Mercedes 250 sedan overheat and it needed a new cylinder head afterward! It had less than 40,000 miles but was out of the short warranty they had back then. Back then when thermostats failed, they failed closed leading to instant overheating, now they fail open and this has greatly reduced overheating of engines in such situations. Afterward they drove it another 100,000 miles then sold it in the mid 80s, still running great.

SteveCraig

Clutchless,
Similar story with my sister. Dash light ??? What are they for ?
Her SUV threw a belt last Summer after the alternator seized on the highway on a hot Summer day.
ALT. light came on, she ignored it.
Belt also ran the water pump.
TEMP light came on, she ignored it too.

Drove another 2-3 miles down the road & couldn't ignore the steam coming out from under the hood coupled with all the alarm bells going off. Had to sell the car as scrap as it was an older model with many miles.She still doesn't understand what she did wrong.

A quick stop + a call to CAA could have had a tow,a new alternator & belt put on at a reasonable price.

sc400

Not sure if I would get any reactions over this type of posting.
It's the poster's 1st post with a name of rx350lemon. Most of the time it doesn't deserve my reading.

kitlz

rx350, I'm sorry to hear about your uncle's RX. Regarding your comment about implied merchantability, I assume you'e talking about implied warranty of merchantibility. That would be difficult to prove if your uncle has driven the RX 80,000 miles. Even lemon law, as you have already mentioned, is limited to a certain amount of time and/or mileage. Lexus' warranty is 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. You can contact Lexus Corporate to appeal the dealership's decision.

This thread is being closed because you have not been online since you created this thread on February 26th. Please PM myself or any of the other moderators to have this thread reopened, hopefully with more information to share.

rx350lemon

thanks for the replies everyone gave to my previous question.
Like many of the responses I'm a bit skeptical of what happened. but i've been told that a piece of the battery cover came off and got stuck in the fan which caused the engine to over heat and steamup and then my uncle pulled over. whether or not he saw an engine temp light come on I have no idea, even if he did I doubt he would admit to it.!

I dont' know how this can happen if he was driving at 60mph down a highway then the air from the front grill of the car should of been enough to cool the radiator without a fan.

Regardless I've given up playing sherlock for now. I have a broken engine that needs to be fixed. What are the tell tale signs of a blown head gasket vs something more serious like a siezed piston?

I just called up a competing shop to see what they would quote me for replacing the engine. Current only quote I got is $5700 to swap out old one.

The shop told me the core fee was $250 for the old engine, given how cheap that is, is there anything I should do /check before the engine is sent back to the engine remanufacturing plant?
thanks.

SteveCraig

I can see this happening if the same plastic shard bound up the water pump, broke the belt. Pretty sure it's belt driven but not positive.
$5700 sounds reasonable to replace the engine with a used one. I say "reasonable" as the RX is a pretty nice vehicle, but worthless without the engine.
If you can wait a bit, do some research with local salvage yards, even some further off. My bet is you can find the same engine with a Toyota intake cover on it for less. They can tell you what will fit/not fit. Worst case I see might be mounts but just thinking out loud.
As always, however, buying a used engine can be hit & miss. A late wreck with the same or close to same miles is what you want. Lower the miles on it the higher the price will be.
Core.........don't worry about it. Once it's out it's no longer your problem. Turns into an issue it's only $250.00.