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What is going on did you ever get lexus on phone and talk to them did you just spend money in the repair yourself did they aprove it.
Buy a new car or what's going on with your situation
What is going on did you ever get lexus on phone and talk to them did you just spend money in the repair yourself did they aprove it.
Buy a new car or what's going on with your situation
Hi All,
Thanks for the wishes. It's actually my wife who has been detected with something serious and we been battling it for past few weeks. really appreciate the prayers!
Hi Thumperpup, i was able to spend some time on this issue now. I contacted Lexus corporate and they basically told me to resolve it with lexus warranty company.
I reviewed the details again with the service manager at dealership and couple of things came out
- he said that they never discussed any leaks from water pump or radiator with the warranty company and was confused where this talk about leaks came from. I know that the service tech who is very new at his job, was talking about possible leaks with the warranty company. The service manager said that they believe the radiator cap failed while driving and the coolant leaked out.
Talked to an attorney and got his input on first giving a chance by contacting them via letter.
I sent a letter detailing sequence and my stand to the lexus warranty company (attorney reviewed it) and just found out that apparently they have denied again and sent me a response. Havent seen the response yet.
in the mean time, i had to get the car repaired on my own since i needed a working car while dealing with the emergency at home. Spent almost $5800 on the car.
I know that i did take all the right steps and thus i am fighting. But looks like it is not going anywhere. next step is twiiter campaign/ facebook / or may be small claims court..
Any suggestions or additional contacts in Lexus to whom I can send letters would be great help. Thanks
Last edited by nautilus11; Mar 20, 2014 at 02:13 PM.
before going to small claims court make sure you look up your state max that you are allowed at small claims court some of the states have stupid low amounts as the max for small claims which is
anywhere from 1000-4000 could be more might be less
so you spent 5800 and then you had to spend money on a lawyer to do this paper work for you
then you might need to spend more on a lawyer to go to court with you for small claims
because you better believe lexus warranty will have a good lawyer going for them if they don't decided to just settle
might be best to go to a real court proceeding will cost you more up front but better return also
before you do this
make sure that your able to get the dealer service department and tech and also the shop that did the work for you to sign and affidavit swearing to the fact they don't belive or that they don't agree with the claim being denied and how the hole thing came to be if the dealer thinks it was a fualty rad cap then they need to be able to swear to that being the issue and it needs to be leagaly sighned document showing that
oldgrump - I am hoping you are still on here. I have an 07 ES350 with 100K miles and I just cooked the engine. I'm the 2nd owner (had 70K on it when I purchased it), so I don't have any warranty. I've never had any issues with the car and have had it serviced regularly, although not at the dealership.
I was driving across Kansas and the VSC and check engine light came on. The same thing happened in my 4Runner earlier in the week and the Toyota dealer (also the Lexus dealer) told me that if the check engine light was not blinking, it wasn't critical. So when those lights appeared, I was not overly concerned. In less than a mile, the car started losing power and then quickly died.
I towed it back to Missouri to the dealer. They just informed me that I had a radiator leak and all my coolant leaked out and I toasted the engine. As other posters indicated, my temp gauge never got hot because there was no coolant for the sensor to read. It was actually pegged on cold when the engine overheated.
You post leads me to believe this is not such an uncommon occurrence. The dealer says I should have been checking my coolant. Maybe this is true. But this is an 07 Lexus, not a 77 Chevy. I really don't think that most people even check the oil in these cars, much less the coolant level. I've never seen water or coolant in my garage floor. I feel like Lexus has some culpability here. The dealer wants approximately $9000 to replace the engine and radiator (with a salvage engine, mind you). The car has a $12K Blue Book value at best; it would never make sense to fix it.
Any idea if Lexus has had a problem with radiators?
Here's the dash shortly before the destruction occurred.
Car guys check their fluids once a week along with tire pressures. A coolant temp gauge reading dead cold or red zone hot is indicative of a problem. This is not a Lexus issue but an owner maintenance concern. Any time the MIL lights up the normal practice is to stop and check the engine bay for any obvious issues.
Car guys check their fluids once a week along with tire pressures. A coolant temp gauge reading dead cold or red zone hot is indicative of a problem. This is not a Lexus issue but an owner maintenance concern. Any time the MIL lights up the normal practice is to stop and check the engine bay for any obvious issues.
Would a "car guy" actually be driving an ES 350? It's the Japanese equivalent of a Buick; it's a grandma car. I only bought it because it was a good deal and I wanted something reliable so that I wouldn't have to perform maintenance. I have plenty to keep me busy with my 1980 CJ7. I've had dozens of vehicles over my 30 years of driving; many of them required significant maintenance and regular checks of all fluids, tire pressure, etc.; which I was more than capable of performing. Never have I had a vehicle that ever needed a radiator this early. Not my 66 Chevelle, my 51 Chevy pickup, my 88 Chevy Blazer...the list is full of vehicles that don't have near the reliability record of a Lexus. I didn't expect that it would be necessary to be as vigilant with a Lexus, and nor would the thousands of "non car guys" who drive a Lexus. You buy a Lexus so you don't have to worry about doing a weekly inspection. And the motor was cooked by the time any light came on; I could have shut off the engine as soon as the light came on; wouldn't have helped. And opening the hood on these cars doesn't do much good as the manufacturer has decided to cover the entire engine compartment in plastic shrouds, further discouraging the owner from performing any maintenance whatsoever. Owner maintenance concern? Give me a break.
If you bought the ES because you wanted "something reliable that would not need any maintenance" then you were very foolish. It's a machine, it requires maintenance. Every car does.
Check engine light, temp gauge pegged at cold. Lexus owes you nothing.
Personally, I would of expected lexus to put a low coolant sensor, pretty much all the cars I've driven had that, even my 1995 mercedes had that... its a very cheap sensor that avoids very expensive headaches. Knowing that it doesn't, I make sure to check my coolant about once a week, something i truly hate doing because it's a waste of good time, even if it takes less than a minute.
Would a "car guy" actually be driving an ES 350? It's the Japanese equivalent of a Buick; it's a grandma car. I only bought it because it was a good deal and I wanted something reliable so that I wouldn't have to perform maintenance. I have plenty to keep me busy with my 1980 CJ7. I've had dozens of vehicles over my 30 years of driving; many of them required significant maintenance and regular checks of all fluids, tire pressure, etc.; which I was more than capable of performing. Never have I had a vehicle that ever needed a radiator this early. Not my 66 Chevelle, my 51 Chevy pickup, my 88 Chevy Blazer...the list is full of vehicles that don't have near the reliability record of a Lexus. I didn't expect that it would be necessary to be as vigilant with a Lexus, and nor would the thousands of "non car guys" who drive a Lexus. You buy a Lexus so you don't have to worry about doing a weekly inspection. And the motor was cooked by the time any light came on; I could have shut off the engine as soon as the light came on; wouldn't have helped. And opening the hood on these cars doesn't do much good as the manufacturer has decided to cover the entire engine compartment in plastic shrouds, further discouraging the owner from performing any maintenance whatsoever. Owner maintenance concern? Give me a break.
Don't get so defensive as we are just telling you what you could have done. You chose to take a different path and you got what you got. If the coolant was low then you could have looked for the reason especially on a high mileage car. We assume that the normal maintenance items like coolant change and other fluid changes were done per the maintenance schedule?
Personally, I would of expected lexus to put a low coolant sensor, pretty much all the cars I've driven had that, even my 1995 mercedes had that... its a very cheap sensor that avoids very expensive headaches. Knowing that it doesn't, I make sure to check my coolant about once a week, something i truly hate doing because it's a waste of good time, even if it takes less than a minute.
I suppose they expected that when people were confronted with a "check engine" light, they would check the engine.
