I'm starting to become terribly irritated and thought I would ask you loyal Lexus vehicle owners of your thoughts regarding an issue I'm having with a local dealership. I'll try to keep in concise...

We have an 07 gs350 that started smelling like fuel in the cabin a few weeks ago
We take it in and turns out it needed two recalls done..one for the fuel pressure sensor and another for the vvti/cam sensor
While doing the work the service manager calls to say the fuel rail bolt had sheared off, causing the leak (not the fuel pressure sensor gasket, as I had thought..)
Quotes us $980 for the job.
I tell him to pause the work. Do my research and turns out that fuel rail was recalled a few years back and was replaced in 02/09. Then in 10/2010 it was removed again to do a valve recall. And again some time after that there was another fuel service done.

I call Lexus customer care, Jimmy, the financial guy one step above the friendly customer care woman, gets back to me after a week basically saying they're not liable, but maybe the dealership will work with us (they won't). He's sending an engineer to the dealer in the coming week. He was being quite wishy-washy with his replies.

Dealer is charging $460 for an entire fuel rail system with $500 in labor, even though labor overlaps with the current recalls being done and the parts are actually off of the car (both recalls being performed involve fuel rail removal)

I can understand certain parts have wear and tear to them, and it's up to the owner to be vigilant to the upkeep of parts, but if a bolt on the fuel rail (which doesn't get stressed) has been removed+retorqued 3+ times in the past by certified Lexus mechanics and happens to shear off, am I, as the owner, responsible for the $1k+ bill that follows? And to be charged labor when they're already doing overlapping recall work?

I would love to get your guys' opinion and thoughts on the matter!

Thank you

 

2007....... Single owner? Multiple Owner?

 

2nd owner..

 

Typical stealership total bullcrap

And they keep asking me why I won't let them service my cars...............so they can shear my bolt and charge me for it? No thanks.

 

The guy (Jimmy) had the audacity to say "well it seems you haven't been taking the vehicle in for servicing.."
Ya, that's why older people like my parents buy Lexus vehicles. Fill fuel, change oil, brake pads, and tires..and you're good.
Seemingly not for the 3.5V6 though. They have been riddled with fuel issues.

this gs350 has been a pain in the ***.

I get better and more honest dealership support from my VW dealer than Northshore lexus, which says a lot...

I hope a rep is reading this...

Or should I find a way to hunt down Lexus NA executives' emails and forward them my story? Hmmm

 

If you've paused the work at the time they quoted you (good move) and you have the car, take it to another dealer as this one is uncooperative. Not all (Lexus) dealers are "stealers". Good luck.

 

I'm assuming the car is in pieces BC I had them pause the work during the time they were doing the recall work and told me of the failed/sheared bolt.
It's still at the dealer while we have a loaner. It's been nearly two weeks now and they have not been in touch with us to get their car back..

 

I would tell them to finish their recall with the sheared bolt in place, tell them you will have someone else fix the sheared bolt later if they don't have the courtesy to fix something they broke before at the same time while they are at it. F them.

 

push them. Bolt shearing off is not customer's problem. It is not a "serviceable wear/tear" item.

 

Fuel rail will still be susceptible to vibrations, so it's not accurate to say it's not stressed during vehicle operation. (Not to mention that if you're not servicing your car at all, you're going to have a lot more vibrations so I don't think it's necessarily wrong for Lexus Customer Care to bring that up.) Even something as minor as worn motor mounts or mounts out of phase can cause fuel rail issues and leaks - just ask people who run production car races.

I do agree that if a dealership is already doing recall or TSB related to the issue in question, they should not be charging additional labor for work covered under the recall/TSB. It's unethical because they are getting paid off for Toyota either way, so they are double-dipping just to pad profits.

 

That is how they judge how much of a sucker the owner is, they help sucker more here and there. If you let them rip you off $1000, they would give $10 back.

Direct injection seems to be a PITA for every companies.

The higher you go the better, but usually they don't care, is not their job.

 

It's a stock car driven by a 60 year old, it's not being put through its paces by any means.
The vehicle does get the regular routine maintenance done on time.

 

Ya dude is talking as if the car is sitting on coils and has solid mounts installed.

Bolt removed and retightened 3x by Lexus shears off during regular driving. I'm trying not to be swindled into $1k in repairs due to their F-up.

 

They know exactly what happened, they are just trying to steal that $k from your pocket

Just say no, tell them to F off.

 

If you don't think that a production vehicle driven for years and thousands of miles in wildly varying environmental conditions on public roads can't undergo the same stresses that a production vehicle goes through in an hour on a track, then you haven't worked on too many cars.

In any case, welcome to CL and hope you get the assistance you need.