Yeah I feel you on the neighbors. I was doing the same changing out some GSF/RCF bushings on my GS350 recently. Trying to put the nut back on the the 17mm bolt. I didn't have clearance needed to get underneath. My ramps are too steep for the lip on the car. I had to stack pieces of plywood I had laying around. Jacked up the front wheels, and slid them under.

Well I hope after all that work done your car runs well for 1/2 million miles.

 

I used distilled water but the seal was probably trashed either way.

 

This is what the dealership quoted me. Seems pretty steep no?

Using the water pump I supplied them, it's going to be $1895 to install the water pump, the four bypass hoses and clamps for the pump and coolant. That seems absurd.....

 

So the dealership replaced the water pump for me 2 weeks ago. Car ran fine the first week or so. Then engine started overheating again up to like 240-250 but then would go back to normal 15 seconds later. I also kept getting P0305 & P0303 misfire codes. Replaced plugs and swapped around coils but P0305 & P0303 were still misfiring. The last 2 or 3 days, I would get white smoke from the exhaust for 15-20 seconds whenever I started the car for the 1st time each day. It would only happen after that 1st start. Then today the car wont start. It tries to but next fully starts. So I had the car towed to the dealership again. The radiator hoses were pretty hard even after the car had cooled down a bit. When I opened the radiator cap, after the engine was cool enough, there was still a lot of pressure in the system and released all the air. Then when I would squeeze the radiator hoses with the cap off, this white smoke came out of the radiator where the cap would be. It wasnt a lot of smoke just a quick little puff. Could have been steam or whatever i dont know ha.

I have a feeling it's going to be a blown head gasket.

 

Temps higher than 220F was not good. It could of been any of those high heat times that did it. At one point you mentioned it had hit 284F?

 

Yeah that was in the beginning of this disaster when I was getting P0117. After I replaced that it never went higher than like 260-265

 

Dealership left me a voicemail a little bit ago saying the technician "found some head gasket damage and wants to talk about pricing out a used motor" 166k miles on the car. Never had any major issues until recently....

 

Here is the voicemail Lexus sent me yesterday.

 

$10,000+ for the engine replacement

$18,000+ for the head gasket repair

the feeling of being bent over............. priceless.

 

It's a lot to take in. At this point your best bet is to get a used engine off ebay, and find a reputable indy shop willing to do the install.

 

What made it was was an hour before a got that quote, a tube for my irrigation system burst underground during the day. So I checked my security camera and it was spouting water about 2 feet into the air fro 10 hours straight lmao. Then a few hours after getting the quote, I lost my wedding ring helping an old lady load sod into the back of her van.

I have looked on ebay but I always have trust issues when getting something this large. Do you know of any other engine that would fit into my car that wasnt the stock engine? Something with a little more power that is compatible with my car. That 210 HP sucks lol.



EDIT: Screw it I am just getting a new car.