Hey all

Lately, I've noticed a very strange sound coming from my IS250 AWD.

It sounds like theres someone in the engine bay, gargling water in their throat. Another way to describe it is that it sounds like something is bubbling in there. I'm very concerned. The car has 85,000 miles and is a 2007. It's been a terrific car so far; I love it.

Anyways, does anyone know what I am talking about. Could it be normal? My 02 M5 is loud at idle from the engine due to the VANOS (I'm told it's normal), so I'm wondering if the Lexus comes down with a similar problem

Thanks all

 

Loose heatshield? Crawl in there with a cup of water, have friend stand out side, and gargle while hittin' the shielding?

 

wow... 07 n 85kmi? hehe im not even at 20k yet with mine

 

I'm not surprised! It would be a little harder to put mileage on a car in Oahu! My wife drives the hell out of the car, going back and forth from Pittsburgh to NYC once or twice a month (she's not a graceful driver, either).

ANYWAYS, it was a water pump problem. It needed replaced in the worst way. The last few days before I got it fixed, my wife was reporting hesitation at around 1.5k RPM. Replaced the serpentine belt, and the tensioner is next.

Oh yeah, just replaced stock HID's with Garax 6000. They look great! But when I started the car up again, the "Check VSC" message came on. I turned off the car, disconnected/reconnected the MAF sensor, and started it back up. All messages now gone. Hopefully it stays that way

 

psssh, my 07 has 118k

may i ask you what you paid to have that pump replaced? Did you pay a dealer price, local shop, or have a buddy help?

 

Wholly Jesus! Do you guys drive while sleeping too?

 

I think it's in part due to location, in my case at least. The dallas/fort worth area is ..like whoa kind of large and spread out. Daily commutes plus errands combined with my fondness of joy/riding and willingness to always be the one to drive all add up fast.

That many miles in 3 years and i'm very satisfied. I did have to replace a catalytic converter that went bad JUST PAST my warranty but lexus did a 75% goodwill discount. Now I need a new water pump like the O.P. but I suppose at 118,000 it's about that time.

 

I'm also curious about the cost. My 2007 started doing this recently and I was wondering what it was. How did you determine the sound was caused by the water pump?

Thanks

 

I heard a noise. A friend said that it was obviously a pulley. Checked each pulley (you can take covers off and reach most of them to see if they are loose). One drive belt pulley was a wee bit loose but not to an extent to make that noise (this one will need to be replaced within a year but it's one of the cheaper $105 ones whereas the tensioner pulley is a full assembly and 3 times as much). THe water pump cover had coolant buildup inside of it...clue #1 so it was obviously leaking, and the water pump pulley was very very loose so that was the culprit.

Lexus quoted me about $800 in labor. That with the part from them would have been over a grand. A local shop would probably do it for less. Regardless, I just did it myself at home. After looking at the technical service site I noticed that they do a LOT of unnecessary things that rack up the labor hours (remove refrigerant, oil, radiator, clutch even, etc. etc. none of these were really needed to replace the water pump). The water pump itself was $262 from lexus but you can find it for $100 less online. Being that I saved labor charges and it was a holiday weekend I just paid the full price of the part from the dealer so I could knock it out that weekend.

To the O.P.:
What was wrong with the water pump itself that would cause a gargling sound? Or was the pump just so far gone that it wasnt working, i.e. not running and not cooling your engine, causing overheating and the coolant to boil/gargle? I'm guessing that is the case and that you had to replace your belt because that pulley eventually seized up and caused damage to your belt. After 118k my belt was like new. Had my water pump actually gone out it would be another story. I guess after all this I'd recommend that people check their pulleys after 100k. Noticing it before it went out (and replacing it myself) saved a lot of money.