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Check VSC light came on. ODB2 reader showed me that the codes had to do with emissions and gas tank pressure.
I check the gas cap and sure enough, it slips right off. Tightening it doesn't help, it unscrews off with no friction.
Service manager tells me it's probably the gas cap design flaw. Says the issue is common with the GS - the spring in the gas cap wears out.
My car is out of the 4yr warranty, but they're replacing it under emissions warranty, which is longer than the 4yrs.
Was reading other people had this problem and were spending money buying new gas caps, gaskets, or making modifications to their gas caps - your dealer should be replacing these under the emissions warranty. Known design flaw with the spring wearing out.
Also, I took it in late so they're holding it over night. Driving a new loaner RX - this thing drives great. If I were to buy a small SUV, I would strongly consider one of these.
Interesting, when I asked my service advisor if the cap is covered under the emissions warranty, he told me it is not covered. What gives ? Thanks for the info.
Yeah? That sucks. Me and my service manager are pretty buddy-buddy, but I caught him at a bad time (he really wanted to go home).
Even with all that going on, I'm pretty sure he didn't "hook" me up. Told me straight up that it's covered under the emission warranty. He's seen this issue often, and usually fixed under emission warranty he tells me. If I were you, I would quiz your service manager on that one.
My service guy is @ Westminster Lexus - hands down, the best service for Lexus in Southern California.
I've been to Cerritos, Longo Lexus, and Newport Beach Lexus - Westminster provides the the best service I've had, have the most parts in stock, most honest, and most value.
My most hated Lexus dealership and service center is Newport Beach Lexus - I hate that place so much - they don't have much items in stock (weird because they're the biggest and most expensive Lexus dealership) and everyone who works there is an ****. I'm not alone in this either - everyone else I know tells me the same. My friend's ex-girlfriend was once engaged to one of the owners of Newport Lexus - she said they KNOW how bad their service is. They have the lowest customer satisfaction marks.
Why the hell would you open up the most expensive Lexus dealership in the nation only to treat your customers like crap?
Anyways, this 2010 RX is nice. I love the back-up camera: it pops up as a small screen in the rear view mirror. Smaller, but much better placement from the Nav screen.
Edit: Oh yeah. Thinking back, I asked my SM for the gas cap back so I could mess with it, but he said he needed to send it back because it was covered under emission warranty. So - yeah. For anyone else.
The new gas caps have a different seal - the gasket is much thicker and the spring is stronger.
Also, spoke to my SM to get clarification about the emissions warranty - he says it's 8years/80,000miles in California by CA state regulation. This includes things like the gas cap, charcoal canister, catalytic converter, etc.
He tells me that if your catalytic converter breaks and you live in an adjoining state and your emissions warranty runs out in, say, Arizona, but is still effect in CA, it would save you $900+ dollars to drive to California to get it replaced under warranty as the state regulations trump federal in the emissions warranty regulations.
Just an FYI guys.
He also relayed to me a story of another customer, who was at another Lexus dealership service center and called him - her water pump broke, and the other dealership was trying to charge her a lot of $$$ for it because they told her that she was past her 4yr/50k mile warranty time. She called my SM and informed her that it was covered under the drive train warranty. She patched my SM over to the SM @ whatever dealership she was at and my SM set the other SM straight. I guess they tried to sell her more services, but she only wanted warranty service done - she lost faith in the other dealership. It's good to keep your customers happy and operate with integrity. That trumps everything else in my opinion.
My 06 GS300 had this same problem and it was the gasket that went dry and probably has shrunk as well, and that lost its grip to the inside of the fuel filler port. All I did to fix it was replacing the gasket with a new one. I took the gasket out of my 1997 Ford Contour gas cap and made sure it was a good fit to GS300 gas cap and went on the GS300 filler port securely. Then went to parts store and picked up a gas cap for the Ford Contour (cheap) and use it as a gasket donor, and all has been well, though it did take a few days before the car was convinced the problem went away and decided to turn off the malfunction lights.
Had the same issue with my 2006 GS300..Lexus of LV took care of it and was covered with my extended warranty. Changed the gas cap because the service consultant said through the years the gasket on the gas cap gets stiff and hard. That is why it cant hold the pressure anymore and pressure leak from the cap. It's all fixed now and thanks to Lexus LV.
For those that are interested, you can keep the gasket on the fuel cap nice and soft and keep it sealing as it should by applying some silicone grease to it once a year. Take the gasket off the cap (it's an o-ring) and grease it up, and put it back on. Been doing this for years on several cars. Works well!
No part number off the top of my head. I'll find the receipt and post what it is if it's there later.
As for the gasket, it's not so much the nitrile gasket as it is the spring mechanism. You can compensate by messing with the gasket, but in the end, what keeps pressure for the gas cap is the spring - since they thought they were so clever when they first designed it without the screw cap method.
I have the same issue (Check VCS / Engine / Traction Off) on my 2006 GS 430.
I just did an OBD scan, which resulted in: P0455 & P0456 trouble codes.
Based on what I have read, I hope this is just an issue with my gas cap. The original one did seem to come off easy with 1/4 of a turn. I replaced the gas cap with a generic brand that fits my car. Its now been 3 days and the lights are still on.
Do you think its necessary to us a new Lexus OEM gas cap? The OEM one is $50 CAD, but I cheaped out and bought the generic brand from an auto parts store for $15.
Lexus dealer obviously recommended getting OEM and they said it would take a week to clear the warning lights. I am trying to solve this issue asap as I am currently trying to sell the car.
Should I just buy the OEM gas cap and wait up to a week, or do you think the generic gas cap should be fine and I just need to be more patient?
Do you think its necessary to us a new Lexus OEM gas cap? The OEM one is $50 CAD, but I cheaped out and bought the generic brand from an auto parts store for $15.
Should I just buy the OEM gas cap and wait up to a week, or do you think the generic gas cap should be fine and I just need to be more patient?
Thanks for your advice.
2006 GS owner here. No I never buy gas cap or anything of ripping-off prices, dealers or not. What I've been doing was buying the cheapest gas cap (size matters) from CrappyTire or PartsSource, taking out the rubber sealing ring and replacing the one on the OEM cap with it. I'm on 3rd ring now.
You can tell I'm cheap. I did not even buy my first replacement. I simply swapped the sealing rings between a Ford Contour and the GS, and the old ford ring lasted 2 years on GS. The failed ring off the GS would last forever on the Ford as the gas cap on the Ford is a multi-turn type and a ring never fails even if it fails on a Lexus.
It usually takes multiple engine starting/running cycles for a check engine light and the code to go away by themselves after a problem causing the code and light to pop has never recur. If you can erase the code with a scanner do it and see if the codes come back.
01-12-10, 07:17 PM
Check VSC Light - gas cap spring
) from CrappyTire or PartsSource, taking out the rubber sealing ring and replacing the one on the OEM cap with it. I'm on 3rd ring now.
