How does Lexus handle technical service bulletins.
Do they send something in the mail? Can I sign up with Lexus to get an e-mail? There is one website that I believe charges you to look these up.
I am on the road often with my car (away from my mail) and would like an alert or a website to check.

 

I haven't heard of any car company that will send customers alerts when a TSB gets sent out.

TSBs are different from recalls. There's a website that has most TSBs for all cars out there that you can check. I have it bookmarked on my other computer. I'm sure someone will post it, or I'll do it in the morning when I get to the other computer.

Here it is: http://www.aboutautomobile.com/tsb

 

The expression... will take an act of Congress ... may apply to automakers where this is concerned. I think they should be required to give owners a heads up on things and it is good PR in the long run to do it.

To find out about passenger airbag sensors not working right, oil leaks and transmission issues from third parties just creates more problems than release of the info directly to owners IMO.

 

Can give techinfo.toyota.com a try.

 

TSIB's and Recalls (or campaigns as Lexus calls them) are different.

Campaigns relate to safety issues, which is why you are notified by mail. Lexus is pretty good about it and usually sends out stuff in a wider range of vehicles than they think are affected to eliminate the possibilities of something slipping by.

TSIB's are produced in an attempt to help technicians diagnose problems quickly, and more acturately. Just because your vehicle qualifies for the TSIB, it does not mean that your vehicle has a problem.

Since I have been here, I have had a few customers bring in their cars with lists of things wrong. Its like they literally read through the list of TSIB's, and made a list with the service writer of complaints. What we as technicians have to do, is verify there is actually a complaint before the repairs can be made. On one case, I rejected probably 90% of the complaints due to them not being true concerns.

Theres a difference in using something for benifical knowledge, and just abusing it. I think if Lexus ( or any manufacturer for that matter) sent out notices for TSIB's the customers would just bring in their vechiles without there being anything wrong. Its just not a good idea on the big scale.

 

one...,

I think there is another perspective to this you might want to ponder.

I am all for notifying buyers by mailing TSIB out to them and here is why.

Those who think, rather than know for sure they have an issue outlined in one can be weeded out by your expertise as you mentioned.

When they are withheld it looks shady or causes major reactions when an owner discovers something on their own they could have been given a heads up about...the why didn't you warn me factor kicks in...., especially regarding the transmission acting up.

Then another example is the airbag sensor on passenger side, not warning people they can be and may need to be adjusted just sets up a potential problem when people discover this was known to Lexus yet they were not told about it and in the case of the airbag on ES causes a lawsuit, all a headache and PR nightmare not needed by Lexus with more thought about disclosure.

I cannot say for certain, but the guy with the oil leak, I really want to believe he would have been less paranoid and less angry/excited if he had been given a heads up by Lexus in a mailing rather than it happening and his detailer being the one who alerted him.

I do see your point, but also see it from above to, don't know if there is a equalizing medium approach, but I believe some things buyers should be alerted to look for.

 

I agree with you on that level, but think of this too.

Have you seen the size lists of TSIB's? Just the volume alone can present an alarm to a customer. "All these things may be wrong with my Lexus? That is unacceptable, buy my car back." There are simple TSIB's, like PDI information, things like making sure the steering boot is in place on an ES350 after transmission replacement, ect. Keep in mind, a majority of Lexus customers are not mechanically inclined and do not know what these issues are.

Then look at the volume of cars that MAY be affected. There are thousands and thousands. This poses two problems. A.) you alarm a lot of customers about potential problems that may not even exist, and because of this B.) your dealers get swamped with cars being checked out for, once again, problems at do not exsist. Remember, I do not get paid for looking at a car that is covered under warranty when I find do not find a problem.

You also have customers who will come in with a TSIB number and say, "This is whats wrong with my vehicle, please fix this." when in fact, there is something else that is wrong.

All in all, its just a huge headache. I think the internet is great because is gives people who want to know the TSIBs a chance, and the people that just want their cars fixed, to just have them fixed.

Either way, its just my opinion, I do not have an impact on what Lexus does with this. I do understand your side of it though.

 

I've read through the Toyota/Lexus/Scion TSIB list that the techs see. There's no way in hell that it's reasonable for Lexus to send out something for every TSIB on there. And I'm the consumer. The lists are that long, primarily because they have a TSIB for what might only be a tiny range of cars that fall under that TSIB.

Yes, I understand that your car may have that problem even if it's not in the right VIN range, so it'd be nice to get a letter warning, but that's sorta like killing a forest to give breakfast to a hungry kid.

A middle ground is needed, but I don't see how one can reasonably be implemented. A car company would have to hire someone to determine which ones should bear a cost of scaring customers. However, who's to say which TSIBs should qualify for such a measure?

I don't have a problem with the burden being on the customer. It's like maintenance. Ultimately, it's the customer's responsibility to keep up with their car.

Yeah, I'm annoyed at Lexus cuz of the tranny and engine noise thingy. However, that doesn't mean I think I can dump my car on them and have them do everything. They're not gonna call and ask my mileage to make sure I get an oil change on time. The dealer might contact me every now and then to try and get my service business, but it's really up to me to find out when I should get my oil changed and do it.

The info is out there. The customer just has to get off their butt and go do it. It's kinda like internet shopping. It's gotten so easy to do it one way (order online), people don't want to do it the old way and expect not to have to do it the old way (get off their butt and go get the thing themselves).

 

one and codex,

Some middle ground maybe for things that would really PO a customer if not disclosed yet known to be a potential for that run of VIN # maybe.

And...LOL...codex I agree, they are lengthy just maybe the facing page or synopsis as yota recently posted in TSIB thread at top of forum. They have enough info yet are not the laundry list of a procedure.

 

I totally agree with you, but the difficulty is in deciding who's the judge. I mean, at first blush, Lexus should be. However, if they're going to be shelling out the bucks to be notifying customers over something that "may" PO a customer, they're going to be extra gun shy. First, it costs them money - both in terms of mailing cost as well as negative publicity. Second, they don't wanna "scare" customers or may delay things while they "gather reports" to see if something turns out to be a legit complaint.

I don't have much faith in Toyota doing what's best for consumers. Particularly seeing how they've been in the past with the oil sludge problem. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on the tranny and cold engine noise in that I think they know they have a problem but have no idea on how to fix it so they won't put anything out just yet.

 

Serious? I dont know how other dealers are, but we have given away more motors than I can count. Most of them I will go on record of saying should not of been covered under warranty. I have done 250,000+ mile cars with poor service history, where I replaced heads/cams/ and the bottom end. That job is over $7,500 before you tack in the 32 hours of labor.

I spent most of last summer doing nothing but sludge jobs, and I mean literally, one after the other. I personally think Lexus (atleast my dealer) is more than generous when it comes to gelling issues. They have sent out a couple waves of notices to customers, covered thousands of dollars in repairs per job.. ect.

Maybe I am out of the loop on this for the customer's side, and Im not trying to derail this thread, but I was just utterly shocked to read that statement.

 

Partially out of the loop. For many it took a class action lawsuit I think is his basis for sharing his view.

In my own experience with it I had to prove I had the oil changed in order not to be charged and/or be given less of a hard time over the valves needing to be redone. I went to Mobil Lube Express in the loaner I was in and the manager said give him their phone number he would handle it and was furious as even if had not had it's oil changed which it had, it was otherwise only 1,000 miles over the suggested had it not had it's oil changed.

 

From what I've read, your dealer is very good. Also, Lexus is much better than Toyota. Most of my experience is from Toyotas, being related by marriage to two Toyota techs. And Toyota dealers do NOT have a good rep IMO. Also, I asked around before I bought this car. Yes, Lexus has a pretty good rep, but in CA, they've definitely got room for improvement. It's just that their competition is BMW and Mercedes, both of whom have service departments that are just reviled. Local Merc dealer recently tried to scam an 80 yr old lady we knew.

I'm only pretty calm about all these issues b/c I have those two Toyota techs in the family. If anything bad happens, I can just hand the car off to them. I dunno how bad the sludge problem was with Lexus, but a lot of the Toyota dealers put up some fight about it. And yes, it took a class action before they even started bending a little. That left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not sure I would have even bought this car if I didn't have the comfort of knowing that I had Toyota techs who could deal with all the problems for me.

 

Hm, I guess I could see that. I have a friend that went to a Toyota dealer after he left my Lexus dealer. He was telling me some of the things they do with the gel repairs, and they are definitely not to standard as we were. We bought a $12,500 machine basically just for cleaning heads/blocks from gel repairs.

I could tell COUNTLESS, and I mean countless stories of owner neglect and abuse that just went out the window for a free engine replacement/rebuild. I even had one lady's car that I did twice. She came back a year later after I had personally done the sludge job to her car with the same concern. After I had done some digging, I found that she hadnt changed her oil ONCE in the year she had the vehicle after my repairs. What did we do? We warrantied another one.

Where do you draw the line? I will say, I see it to be no problem to have to provide one oil change receipt from the past year.

Im sure there are dealers that put up fights, but my personal expeirence was that Lexus, and my dealer, definitely went beyond just going the 'extra mile'.

 

I would not call what I went through a fight, awkward maybe but not a fight.

I was confused by it though since I was within warranty and the oil had been changed so I know they can gel or could gel even if you did change it.

Mine needed a valve job as a result of it, not just cleaning.

They had trouble with it too as I got a call, something about an air bubble formed after they were finished or finishing up and they needed to keep it a few more days.

Maybe even back then there was only so many warranty work items per month per dealer or something so that may explain some of the pushing or even the awkward experience I had to maybe delay some work into the next month.

I agree with codex comment on your dealership, it is no doubt very different, as helpful and straightforward as you are.