I am writing this to inform you of a unique problem that occurred this week.

An ES came in with a check engine light on. Codes set were for fault on the oil control valves. (There is a TSB that exists for this)

It can cause the engine to run rough stumble, but it may just set a code.

The car idles a little high, and codes won't clear. Pull the front valve cover (this is the bank where codes were set. Turn the crank to TDC, and low and behold, find that the primary chain has jumped two teeth on the intake cam.

Further inspection shows that the little deflector piece on the valve cover had been broken off and could see it down by the chain. Assumption is it broke off and caught in chain, causing chain to jump.

Will try to get pictures before getting it back together.

But to those who get their oil changed at places that may be unfamiliar with the oil deflector piece... please inspect it!

This particular customer is lucky, because jumping two teeth luckily caused no internal damage, however, it did damage the secondary tensioner, as well as scraped the valve cover...

 

Wow...what's year was it?

 

I will look next time at work. I believe a 2010 with approx. 40k miles

 

Is this deflector/baffle visible (assuming that it's still intact) when looking in the oil filler port? Was there an indication that it had been cracked for a period of time before it broke off?

 

When you take off the oil cap, it is a thing piece of metal that looks like it is blocking part of the fill hole. By the looks of it, it had not been cracked for an extended period of time, but that the last time the oil had been changed, it is assumed they broke it either part of the way or all of the way off and did not notice?

 

the piece you are talking about is broken by force. it is broken by oil fill nozzles. there is a service bulletin for this. seen it quite a few times. whoever changed the oil needs to pay for it. and if you've ever taken that engine apart, you will know that the chain is pretty much impossible to get to jump. moving it one tooth by hand with the tensioner completely out is about impossible. i don't know what damage was done but whoever bent that baffle plate should be paying.

 

What is the purpose of the deflector? I noticed it today during my first oil change. Never seen one before on my other cars.

 

It's to keep people from contacting moving parts when taking the filler cap off. I see these bent all the time at the shop, usually from folks that go to "quick-lube" places with a coupon and then come to the dealer when they don't have a coupon. The new models have changed this piece to be stiffer and now have slots to allow the hole faster passage when filling. Lexus gives all of us special funnels that screw into these engines along with the LS as well. This is to prevent ever putting the filler nozzle down into the hole. But time is money and the funnel is rarely used but any tech with common sense knows not to bend that piece.

 

Thanks for the explanation.

 

Thanks for providing the additional information.

I knew and had seen the updated baffle on newer ES's and RX's, but had not come across a car that had experienced this problem yet or the TSB.

We ended up repairing the vehicle under warranty. I don't know what discussion was had with our shop manager, corporate, etc., but whatever it was, they covered it for the customer.

 

My local garage uses a plastic funnel on our 2011 when emptying Mobil 1 plastic quarts. There should not be a problem?