Has any one heard of a cracked flywheel? My friend has a 98 GS300
If any one knows how this might have happen please let me know.
The crack is in the middle not the teeth.

 

I have the same on my 99 GS300. Cracked flywheel in the middle as well.
Not sure how it happened since I don't exactly do burnouts or anything. Not like the 2jz-gte has enough torque to do so. What kills me is my engine has only 78k on it.

 

Let see it! I might have a spare fly wheel? If I know what it exactly looks like!

 

How did you guys find out that it was cracked? What problems did it cause that made you guys get it checked out? Thanks.

 

Well I finally got my car back from Luxury Motorworks and they gave me the old flywheel. It was cracked all around the center and was on the verge of breaking apart.
I'll take pics of it when I get a chance. I'm amazed that my pretty much stock lexus had this happen. As for how to determine to get it checked...I had a horrible rattling coming from my car that would go away whenever I stepped on the gas. My local Lexus dealership had two techs take a quick glance and say it must be the timing belt tensioner.
Well Steve, from Luxury Motorworks, proved them wrong and showed me the flywheel while my car was on the lift. You could hear the the rattling coming from near the tranny. He then stopped the engine and showed my the crack in the flywheel. Little did we know that it was cracked all around the center though.
If you have the same sounds as I've had you should get your car checked. If you're in Socal then I recommend going to Luxury Motorworks. Great service at a reasonable price. Much better then any stealership....errr I mean dealership.

Chris

 

Do you know how you did it? Or just wear and tear?

 

whoa this is interesting.. i wanna know also, if it's just wear and tear or if something else caused this? how do you know if the flywheel is bad? just by the "rattling" sound?

 

Not quite sure how mine cracked. As I've said previously, I've never driven the car hard or tried drag racing it. I have done a speed jaunt to see how fast it'll go (disclaimer: done on foreign soil), but other than that just regular Socal driving.
This is my daily driver and even then I only have a tick over 78k on the odo. I figure it's just my luck that it happened. Oh and they also noticed that my front main seal was leaking a bit.
Not entirely sure how to check for a cracked flywheel besids listening for the rattle. I guess you could put it up on jacks and check for yourself. You don't have to pull the tranny to do so either.
So far there have been 2 2nd gen GS's that have had this happened according to CL. I know Luxury Motorworks said they've seen it twice, but they were on high mileage 1st gen GS's.
Hope none of you have to go through my troubles. I know the dealership quoted $1250 for part and labor. Where I took it was considerably cheaper. Hence why I call them stealerships.