Cam Shaft Gear 2008 ES
 

Looking for any input on an issue that has come up with my vehicle, 2008 ES350. I have owned the vehicle for 5 1/2 years, have never experienced any major issues, the vehicle has run fantastic and we love it, and every service ever required has been done at our local Lexus dealer. The currently has 127,000 miles. I recently fueled up and within minutes, with the car in gear as I was stopped at a drive thru waiting to place my order, the vehicle began to shake and the engine was not idling properly. When I placed the car in park or began to drive normally, the issue seemed to subside. Several minutes later the Check VSC message, check engine light, and rough ride light all came on. I contacted my local service department and was immediately asked if I had recently fueled up and told that I probably did not tighten the gas cap completely. I was told to check this and that the vehicle would reset itself and messages would go away. I did this and the vehicle began to run more smoothly, but not perfectly. At the end of my day I parked the vehicle for the night with the messages still on. When I got back in the following morning all the messages were gone and it appeared as if they were reset. The vehicle ran well for several hours but around midday it began to react poorly again and eventually the messages came back on. I took the vehicle to the dealer and they ran a quick diagnostic check and I was told it was a bad cell in one of the oil control valves. Later I was notified and warned that if this did not fix the problem that there was a 1 in 10,000 chance that it could be an internal engine malfunction with the cam shaft gears. Sure enough, the repair of the bad cell did not fix the issue and I am currently awaiting confirmation on what the next steps will be. I apologize for the long post but wanted to provide a detailed explanation of the history of the issue. I am told I am potentially looking at a $6K repair. I had had the vehicle in for its most recent service less than 2 weeks prior to the issue. Can something like this occur so instantaneously with no prior warning signs of the vehicle driving poorly? Is this a driver performance issue that could have lead to this occurrence? Even though it is out of warranty, might Lexus actually repair it at no charge? After all, I was told it is a 1 in 10,000 chance. I should probably go play the lottery! Any advice, commentary, or otherwise is greatly appreciated.

It's an know issue with the 07-09 2GR-FE engines. The official TSB for this one is L-SB-0028-09. The camshaft and gears need to be replaced because they self-destruct. This requires a complete engine teardown. Given the amount of defective engine parts on the 2GR-FE engine made before 2012, I'd just get a low mileage, used post-2012 2GR-FE engine from a V6 Camry, Highlander, Avalon, Venza, ES 350, RX 350 from a salvage yard and use it to replace the engine. A used engine will cost you around 3-4k and install will be between 1-2k. There is no cheap fix.

For the Oil Control Valves, the TSB is EG001-08 MIL ON VVTI DTCS - OIL CONTROL VALVE (OCV).