Sanncaputo

My 2008 ES350 would not start or charge after replacing battery. I had it towed to Firestone Complete Autocare who advised it was my alternator. They replaced it and then told me I had no brake lights and determined the brake switch needed replaced. They ordered it since I honestly couldn't say yes or no if I had brake lights. Once they put in brake switch they call and say car is ready but then asked how long my check engine light has been coming on and I reply Never!! So then they blamed it on a sensor that might be failing but I could get the car and I'll know if sensor failed when car acts like it wants to stall. So we pick it up and once we start many sensors lights came on! So we gave keys back to them and said figure this out because these sensors did not come on before bringing car here. They couldn't figure it out and offered to refund the 1029 we paid for alternator and brake switch which I found odd since they offered it up. We towed to Lexus and now they are saying whatever has been done on my repairs has basically caused the replacement of the wiring harness at 3400. I love this car and it's in perfect shape but is this worth the investment especially if Lexus IS not sure this will resolve the issue. We also will fight with firestone to pay if truly they caused this damage but unfortunately the person I'm working with at Lexus has yet to give me the estimate or summary so I can show Firestone. Very frustrating

ES300NZ

wow. I'm not sure how this could even happen.

I do know from my own experience with a much older lexus (1999), that a failed alternator can cause of a number of other lights to come on, (park brake, rear light warning etc).

The cause I believe (in that case) is that the failed alternator, is sending power back up the warning light circuit which results in back feed power back up to the warning light system causing them all to come on.

I very much doubt that your car has a single failed sensor. I think someone needs to run through the systems with some good knowledge and test them. I bet the power system for sensors has probably stopped working, they tend to all run on the same power feed.

I haven't seen your car, but I suspect that it needs specialist attention to resolve it's problem. just throwing expensive parts at it without knowing the cause is a bit silly. I think it might be worth investing in a very very good automotive electrician and paying for a appraisal, not a solution or fix, just a serious opinion on the cause and possible solutions.

If I were to do this, it would take about 4-5 hours of serious testing to find out what is working, what is not working, and were the real problem might be.

mjeds

they pinched a ground wire somewhere would be my guess.

ES300NZ

I really couldn't say but replacing an alternator doesn't really require work which would 'cause' issues like this, and the ground wire youre thinking of is at the back of the engine, or above the gearbox, it's not really something which they would need to go near.