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That's all very valid for your mileage - ours is nearly 7 years old (2019 ES350 FSport) with lower mileage. At your prompting, I went and looked carefully for any leaks and have none. I also realized that I'm past any power-train warranties, so any future issues are mine to fix. I replaced the spark plugs a few weeks ago and I'm going to see if my local Toyota dealer will do the transmission fluid soon. If they won't, I may try and tackle it myself. I recently replaced brakes pads and rotors (along with all of the shims and hardware) and flushed the brake fluid. Our brakes were just about gone. The best news was the brake squeal that we would get when backing out of the garage is gone. I followed the CCN videos for both the brakes and the spark plugs. I've done brakes on our cars for years and luckily have all of the needed tools to do it right. I use my "do it myself" work to justify buying tools. I have a new digital 3/8' torque wrench and a subcompact impact wrench that made the work really easy. I've also stuck to OEM parts and purchased them directly from a Lexus dealer. Our car looks and runs great.
Actually, I agree with him 100% about the transmission fluid drain & fill. That's exactly when I plan to do it, along with the scheduled spark plug change. Available evidence seems to suggest that the fuel-saving design heat-stresses the fluid and hastens the loss of its protective qualities.
I reread my post…to clarify it is the plugs I’ll wait on for evidence of degradation; the transmission fluid will get done at the 130-140k km mark as I’ve done in the past. I use a Toyota dealer for this stuff (10 km away vs 200 km for Lexus). By far most of my driving is highway stuff rather than stop and go commuting (just one benefit of retirement).
Last edited by Tootsall; Feb 28, 2026 at 09:12 PM.
Job completed. They left the dashcam connected the whole time so I was able to see the work being done plus the test drive. Timing cover gasket replacement, water pump and serpentine belt replaced, brake fluid flush and replace, 4-wheel alignment, $5350Cdn.total for everything (well, except sales tax which is not under Lexus control). Labour, $3,500. Parts $1,800 includes water pump @ $318, belt @ $83, and a whole bunch of gaskets and sealants, coolant, oil & filter, plus 4-wheel alignment and "shop supplies". All $ Cdn, multiply by 0.7 for approx US$. They even cleaned the engine! 200 km drive home yesterday with no issues noted, no leaks, no vibrations, no shifting issues. No reprogramming of anything needed (must have left battery connected except for starter & alternator...also hence full cam recordings). I'll be looking at transmission fluid change in another 10-20,000 km. Should be good for "lifetime". Nice shop, well laid out. Almost as nice as the reception/sales area.
Now, the car in the bay next to mine was getting a new engine(!!). Hope it was a warrantee job..
Decorative cover removed for clarity.
In your video did you see how they prepped and cleaned the sealing surfaces and applied the sealant for the timing cover install with special attention at the leak area?
When engine was pulled there was AC disconnect and refrigerant evacuation required. Not mentioned in your summery so I assume that was part of the reassembly of the engine to recharge the system check for leaks, etc and all in the total job cost? Were there any parts required for the AC system reconnect like the dryer, etc ?
Happy your car is ready for the next long years of service
Afraid not, the car was up on the hoist and the hood was up blocking the view of what was going on down on the floor in front. I could see the tech walking around and I had a good view out the back camera of the rest of the shop. I am pretty sure I saw the tech bringing in the cart/ machine for capturing the refrigerant though. No other special charges noted on the itemized list so…possibly in the “shop supplies” catchall item? That cost was the total, out the door for everything just the way they broke it down. I wondered the same about a/c myself…maybe I can ask the service writer when they are back on Monday…were off for a long weekend when I picked it up Friday. i can’t see how they could pull the “lump” without disconnecting the compressor. The work was actually completed Thursday but it was blowing 60 kph gusting to 100 “crosswind” that day and I didn’t feel like doing the 200 km trip up and 200 back home from Calgary in that…or asking my wife who had to go along to drive her car back.
Afraid not, the car was up on the hoist and the hood was up blocking the view of what was going on down on the floor in front. I could see the tech walking around and I had a good view out the back camera of the rest of the shop. I am pretty sure I saw the tech bringing in the cart/ machine for capturing the refrigerant though. No other special charges noted on the itemized list so…possibly in the “shop supplies” catchall item? That cost was the total, out the door for everything just the way they broke it down. I wondered the same about a/c myself…maybe I can ask the service writer when they are back on Monday…were off for a long weekend when I picked it up Friday. i can’t see how they could pull the “lump” without disconnecting the compressor. The work was actually completed Thursday but it was blowing 60 kph gusting to 100 “crosswind” that day and I didn’t feel like doing the 200 km trip up and 200 back home from Calgary in that…or asking my wife who had to go along to drive her car back.
Thanks for the info. Your feedback appreciated when you inquire with the service writer on AC service with engine pull and reconnect.
Thanks for the info. Your feedback appreciated when you inquire with the service writer on AC service with engine pull and reconnect.
At first the service "writer" said that they never(!) remove the refrigerant. Of course, they must or they could not remove the engine. The photo of my engine on the shop floor and marked up shows the compressor with the pipes disconnected. It appears that they must then reinstall the original refrigerant as it is too costly to just dump new stuff in. If you view any of the YT videos about the timing cover work you'll see them hooking up to pump out the refrigerant (red and blue connections) at 4:12 in
video from CCN or in any of the other vids involving removal of the engine. It also goes to show that the service "writers" don't always know what they are talking about so don't necessarily take their words for gospel; check with an actual mechanic (they call them "technicians").
Anyway, I'm done with this subject; time to get on with doing the annual income tax. Cheers.
At first the service "writer" said that they never(!) remove the refrigerant. Of course, they must or they could not remove the engine. The photo of my engine on the shop floor and marked up shows the compressor with the pipes disconnected. It appears that they must then reinstall the original refrigerant as it is too costly to just dump new stuff in. If you view any of the YT videos about the timing cover work you'll see them hooking up to pump out the refrigerant (red and blue connections) at 4:12 in this video from CCN or in any of the other vids involving removal of the engine. It also goes to show that the service "writers" don't always know what they are talking about so don't necessarily take their words for gospel; check with an actual mechanic (they call them "technicians").
Anyway, I'm done with this subject; time to get on with doing the annual income tax. Cheers.
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Thanks for the obvious feedback that AC was disconnected no other way to remove engine without doing so. Yes the service writers do not know what the techs know. Agreed time to move on and I also need to start on 2025 taxes.
Enjoy the lease of life on your car.
@Tootsall thank you for posting this, it's excellent advice for any ES V6 owner to have their car checked when close to the end of the warranty period.
What year is your 7ES? I have been wondering if the '20 '21 model years were dinged in CR for this leak.
Is this from a 2026 CR?
Interesting the 2024 CR shows same Red down arrows for major engine issues for the 20 and 21. The 2025 CR shows Green double arrows symbol for the 20 and 21, and if 2026 CR shown here the Major engine problems are back. Would like to see the data they used.
You're not the only one. Last year Alex Dykes, principal of Auto Buyers Guide, did a detailed YouTube takedown of the Consumer Reports reliability survey I found highly believable. As full disclosure, I am a decades-long subscribed to the CR print magazine and have defended it in numerous message boards against what I felt were ignorant attacks, but he scores some body blows to the midsection.
One of the biggest is that CR is going the way of all print magazine dinosaurs with circulation that's slipped by nearly half to 200,000. As a result, that they no longer receive as much data as they'd prefer on many models. They've responded by essentially extrapolating/guessing on those, and they're being less than candid in their disclosure of how and when they're doing it.
With all that said, I also suspect there's a very high overlap between the ES audience and the CR readership, so they probably have a much richer database on this car than on most others. So I'm curious which of the ES powertrains had trouble in 2020 and 2021, since it was probably only one of them. Weird that it didn't happen to the 2019's, but did to apparently identical '20s and '21s. One wonders if pandemic-related assembly flubs were a factor. I'd bet Lexus knows but won't say.
You're not the only one. Last year Alex Dykes, principal of Auto Buyers Guide, did a detailed YouTube takedown of the Consumer Reports reliability survey I found highly believable. As full disclosure, I am a decades-long subscribed to the CR print magazine and have defended it in numerous message boards against what I felt were ignorant attacks, but he scores some body blows to the midsection.
One of the biggest is that CR is going the way of all print magazine dinosaurs with circulation that's slipped by nearly half to 200,000. As a result, that they no longer receive as much data as they'd prefer on many models. They've responded by essentially extrapolating/guessing on those, and they're being less than candid in their disclosure of how and when they're doing it.
With all that said, I also suspect there's a very high overlap between the ES audience and the CR readership, so they probably have a much richer database on this car than on most others. So I'm curious which of the ES powertrains had trouble in 2020 and 2021, since it was probably only one of them. Weird that it didn't happen to the 2019's, but did to apparently identical '20s and '21s. One wonders if pandemic-related assembly flubs were a factor. I'd bet Lexus knows but won't say.
Thanks for the detail and the interesting video link that Alex does a great job describing data development with lots of behind the scenes math and info they keep private. As it was in my Civil Engineering work with many major flood control project designs, dealing with lots of factors AND the weather and too many Unknows - It was always the data amount and reliability - the data drives the models - as always "GIGO"!
