My 20 year old son, a US Marine, just returned from Afghanistan and set out to purchase his first car. He wanted a nice ride at a reasonable price and asked Dad to check out some he'd found on the internet. Our family has had past experience with Lexus owning a '99 ES300 for several years before passing it on to our oldest son who is still the proud owner. The '99 was a reliable sweet ride. Anyway, we looked at a couple ES300's that were within his price range and opted for a 2001 model with 107,000 miles. It had a 92% score on AutoCheck, sounded good, rode nice, good sound system, needed an AC condenser we learned, but seemed like a reasonable deal knowing the dependability of Lexus. Before he got home on the 200 mile return trip, the oil light had come on. He added a couple quarts (we thought maybe we hadn't checked it properly at the lot) he had the AC condenser installed at a shop the next day and took off for a trip from Ohio to Georgia on his leave. During the ensuing 1800 mile round trip he added over 4 GALLONS of oil. As he called home to inform me of his problems I became very well acquainted with this forum as I learned of the monumental sludge situation with the 3.0L if not maintained properly. In addition, the engine started running rough, the check engine and Trac light came on and he paid a mechanic $200 to install new plugs. (Code 301 and another code came up) (one of the plugs was completely carboned over) This evening we did what was advised in this forum before you buy a Lexus...pulled off the front valve cover. I have not seen that kind of crap at the bottom of a waste oil barrel! I wish I knew how to post the picture. He now realizes that he is faced with $2500 to $3000 additional expense for a used engine and install. He is sick and said he didn't feel this much stress in 7 months on patrol in Helmand Province. In 40 years of buying used cars I have never been so bamboozled. I appreciate that the experienced DIY'ers on this forum are rolling their eyes at my ineptitude, but the vast majority of used car sales in this country are executed without removing the valve cover to check for sludge...any brand that forwards that as a prerequisite has a problem. I strongly suggest that anyone looking at a used Lexus take my warning...Buyer be ware!

 

I'm sorry, to hear, could you possibly pay a shop to simply try to clean the engine out?

 

Buyer beware indeed... Hopefully he can source a motor for cheap.

That would be like paying a bodyshop to repaint a rusty fender.

 

^Ya, thats not true. I've been to mechanics where they would apart engines and thoroughly clean an engine of sludge and be able to restore the engine to running condition, just takes time and some man hours. Just a quick example http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/sludg...ng_sludge.html

 

I have been told by a mechanic that when you take a Lexus engine apart, every bolt has to be replaced and that makes it prohibitively expensive to rebuild. Is that the case? Also, to the above example of a Camry engine being cleaned, I suspect that with the oil usage my son has, and the number of miles on the car, the piston rings, etc are not OK.

 

Any good sources for used 2001 ES300 engines??

 

Definitely not the case. The only bolts that should be replaced are the head bolts because they stretch and are not designed to reused.

Check out Ebay for used engines, like this one although it's not cheap.

 

Yeah, it is true. What you posted is a off-chance miracle. The motor was like new with <10k on it... hence being able to rebuild it. Mind you it still cost a pretty penny, but do-able. It comes down to cost, its not a Honda motor, that you can source all day long for <300$ or in the event of a rebuild, it would cost you <200$ for all new OEM hardware... Different ballgame with a high'er' mileage Toyota V6 that was obviously neglected, or using ****-poor quality oils, or being driven on 'cold' oil [common issue in certain BMW's & Chrysler products], but you knew that

Read the reply below...
Maybe not all of the hardware, but some i woulkd definately change, as mentioned above, head studs, perhaps misc gaskets & trinkets 'while you're in there', would be a good time to do a timing belt/misc services... perhaps you can get in touch with this guy, since he may direct you to where to get parts? Since he rebuilt his motor.

good luck!

 

Look it up, there are many examples of where mechanics have cleaned the engine to new condition, but if you truely do not believe me, thats fine to