mz430

Hi. I have been having problems on my SC430 2002, with one tire continually leaking air. Every other morning I have had to put in 10 lbs of pressure to get the sensor light to go off.

About 6 weeks ago, I took it in, and they said they found a nail and removed and patched it. That cost about $35. A couple of days later, I had to put more air into the tire. I called and they told me to let some air out and drive the car around for 20 minutes. No luck. As if.

I took it in and they took a few hours to tell me that there was a second nail in the tire, and this one was in the sidewall, and I needed a new tire. My tires have about half of their useful tread so I really didn't like having to buy a single new tire (and a whole new set was out of the question). I did give in and buy a single new tire. They moved the tires so the new one was moved to the right rear.

I get home and a day later, the warning light was back on. I put 10 lbs of air in and the light went out. I called the dealer and the service advisor asked if there maybe a patch of nails somewhere that I drive through that may have given me another flat. Sigh. Yes, all in the same wheel - in its new position.

Today I went in and spoke to the service manager. He assured me that he would get to the bottom of this. An hour later he tells me that there is a crack in the rim. And it cost $550+ for a new rim. I told him how dismayed I was that I already spent ~$400 for a new tire I didn't need and now I have to pay for a rim. He corrected me that the tire had two nails in it. "Says you", I said, "I never saw the nails, so I am not sure if I buy that story". I hate to imply that someone on his team is making things up, but from my point of view, they missed a cracked rim, put me out on the street with a dangerous rim, and that keeps me from giving them the benefit of the doubt. By the way, I was shown the crack today. I can't believe that they missed it before. And the car got a recent major service there too.

Now, I go online and see that not only can I buy a replacement original rim for less than $200, but that these rims have a lifetime warranty.

My question for you out there is: Does this lifetime warranty cover my existing rims? And how much should I have to pay to mount these rims once I purchase them for $200 over the Internet?

By the way, I also had them replace the original battery today for $140. This is before I knew that to fix the tire I would have to pony up $500+ more. I could easily replace the battery myself for less, but at the time I thought I might as well give them the business if they're going to fix my tire for free.

joeyb

Buy a wheel on Ebay. Your dealer can install it for around $40.

FALCON1

LEXUS parts are double.

Buy your battery yourself and have the shop install it and save half......better battery and lots of bucks for gas.

Same with RIM...................hell, if you don't find one on ebay I am sure there is someone who either has a spare or one will turn up on ebay again.

FALCON 1

howdybob22

Better yet, you have a good excuse to pick up some new wheels. Anything out there got to be better than the pie plates OEM wheels.

bbatts

For $600 you can have a whole new set of stock wheels with tires. See the items for sale for SC models here in club lexus.

BB

SHOLEXMAN

Yeah Lexus prices are out of the water crazy! They should have dunk tanked the rim in water to see where the leak was coming from that is easy. Those runflat tires crazy prized too. Next time they tell you have a nail ask to see it! If it is father then a inch from the sidewall and they don't want to fix it take it somehwere else. That means they just don't want to do it. Buy the ebay rim unless you can get the rim from the dealer for free. I don't know the length of your warranty ,but ask other dealers in the area about the rim.