Originally Posted by ayb88

I had the ZLA service done at the beginning as well as had my waterpump, sparkplugs replaced of August on my 08 is250 RWD.

Mid september, my check engine light came on. I thought it was a loose gas cap because i noticed it wasn't tightened all the way. However, after tightening it and driving hundreds of miles, it did not go away. Additionally, two weeks ago the battery light came on intermittently. It would go off when driving at highway speeds. I called lexus and they told me it was my alternator and a o2 sensor. Then I took it to my own mechanic and he confirmed it.

I had my own mechanic do it to save a few hundred dollars. I felt comfortable letting him do this job since he used to be a master mechanic at Toyota for 8 years before he opened his own shop, plus i've been using him for 4-5 years. Yesterday evening he called me to come in to the shop. He had pulled out the old alternator and showed me the positive terminal on the alternator. The nut that was on the positive terminal was chipped off and broken, and had not been tightened all the say he said. He asked me who the last person was to work on this car and I told him Lexus had done the ZLA service. He told me to call them and demand that they pay for the repair due to their negligence. Apart from the positive terminal nut being broken off, one bolt on the valve cover was also completely loose. They clearly did not carefully reassemble the engine.

I took pictures of the broken bolt on the old alternator. Since Lexus did the ZLA, no one else has touched the car.

So i'm thinking the following:
1. Does the alternator get removed when the ZLA service is being performed?
2. clearly, they must have seen the broken bolt, or broke it themselves and did not bother to replace it and just left it broken.
3. if they indeed did not break the bolt, but did see it, which i'm sure they would have, they could have easily replaced the bolt since it's a standard 10mm.
4. Even if it was broken before, and they were not necessarily REQUIRED to replace the bolt as it wasn't their fault, they still did not tighten it all the way, which caused the intermittent connection, and eventually caused the alternator to short out.

What are your thoughts on this? Should I call the dealership or call headquarters first?

sorry I know this slightly off topic.

Originally Posted by BinaryJay

I think the failure of an alternator due to a loose positive connection is tenuous at best... I personally don't think an alternator cares if it is spinning with no electrical connection at all. A loose positive will certainly not cause anything to short internally ... it will intermittently cause it to not charge the battery.

Originally Posted by bluec2

Hi all,

My 2006 GS300 clearly has this problem. Oil consumption is 3.5 quarts every 4k miles and very occasionally the idle will drop out at stoplights, dirty black exhaust pipes. Anyway, I had Lexus of Richmond VA run the tests and they did not get any misfires. We are doing an oil consumption test now but if you need to lose more than 1 quart every 1,000 miles it is considered within spec (completely crazy). When I asked if they would do the job without the misfires and just high oil consumption they said no but wanted to do the oil test anyway - which I dont see the point if they are not going to do the CSP.

My question is this: Has anyone here been able to get them to do the CSP with just high oil consumption and not misfires?

I am not very happy with the service rep at the Richmond, VA dealer and may consider driving up to one of the DC area dealerships if anyone here can make a positive dealer recommendation for a dealership competent enough to deal with this.

The real gotcha is I do not have much more time on the 9 year period.

Thanks for the help.
Ryan

Originally Posted by bluec2

Hi all,

My 2006 GS300 clearly has this problem. Oil consumption is 3.5 quarts every 4k miles and very occasionally the idle will drop out at stoplights, dirty black exhaust pipes. Anyway, I had Lexus of Richmond VA run the tests and they did not get any misfires. We are doing an oil consumption test now but if you need to lose more than 1 quart every 1,000 miles it is considered within spec (completely crazy). When I asked if they would do the job without the misfires and just high oil consumption they said no but wanted to do the oil test anyway - which I dont see the point if they are not going to do the CSP.

My question is this: Has anyone here been able to get them to do the CSP with just high oil consumption and not misfires?

I am not very happy with the service rep at the Richmond, VA dealer and may consider driving up to one of the DC area dealerships if anyone here can make a positive dealer recommendation for a dealership competent enough to deal with this.

The real gotcha is I do not have much more time on the 9 year period.

Thanks for the help.
Ryan

Originally Posted by jdmek998

I would at least call and *****. They might goodwill it if they want too. Or maybe you pay a percentage of it they cover the rest. Good luck on that battle.

Originally Posted by LexusLive

We'll see, I love how they can twist things to make a 2006 model year car 10 years old in the year 2014. I called the customer help line, and it turns out the car was actually assembled 4/2005. So by the time I got the letter, which I think was around May/June, it would have been automatically out of the 9 year 'grace period'. And more to the point, it did not exhibit the rough cold start idle until just a week ago, so it was a catch 22 from the start.

But, the Lexus rep did say he was surprised the dealer claimed it was beyond the 9 year period based on date of manufacture and he's set up a case file. So we'll see, should hear back in 2 days. Thanks for the good thoughts!

Originally Posted by Gotcha350

That's good that they are attempting to help you with that. Its odd that they are referring to the build date and not the in service date. Good luck!!!

Originally Posted by LexusLive

yeah, that's what the Lexus Corp Customer guy said too, he didn't think that sounded right. As a consumer, my car is a 2006. It's only 8 years old! What diff does is make when they built it? By that logic, you could buy a 2006 and your 3 yr bumper to bumper factory warranty would only be good until 2008.
What I really don't get is... doesn't the dealer just get reimbursed by Lexus for the $6,300? What's it to them to make me jump through hoops? I'll know in 2 business days. This car is pretty mint for something with 80K on the clock and 8 (or 9 ) years. I want to keep it for at least 5 or 6 more years. That's why I bought a Lexus, they are reputed to run forever! Well, thanks for the support.

Originally Posted by BinaryJay

Your 2006 was almost 100% likely to have been purchased new in 2005... it is 9 years old. They should use the in-service date, not the production date, but chances are pretty good that by now all 2006 on the road were driven off the lots more than 9 years ago.

Originally Posted by LexusLive

Hmm, but seing as how I didn't get the letter until May or June of this year, and it was targeted for only 2006 models, that's an awfully narrow window to get the service performed if they start counting it from the production date.