hmm.. good thing i searched.. i was gonna just order the parts and do it myself before I searched

I may as well try taking the LS to a toyota dealer too.. see what kinda quote they give me for the valve cover gasket...



lexus tried to charge me $1100 for the job... wtf.

 

wtf ...indeed....yep the free loaners, car washes, and coffee and donuts have to get paid for somehow and add up at the Lexus dealer. They have no shame and are used to well to do folks who for the most part don't question the prices being charged. Call around for better labor price, the Toyota guys should be able to quote it also - Toyota sells a fairly similar V8 (cast iron block instead of all aluminum) on some of its trucks.

 

ah yes.. i suppose that can be the reason. Time to get on the phone with the next closest dealer. hopefully their prices are a bit more realistic

 

please stop scaring people and giving them bad advise. Camshaft/crankshaft seals rearly leak in UZ engines. I have 230k miles on 00 gs400 and my buddy has the same milege same year gs. We did his valve cover gaskets at 200k miles, its now bone dry for the last 30k miles and my just started seeping at 225k miles under the car its actually dry but i can see some oil spots on exhaust manifolds and around the valve covers when looking from under the car.

 

It happened to me and many ppl... Trick is not to let it stand for too long. If you drive it every day (or nearly every day) you're safer than if it stands still for a month and stuff dries out.

 

The oil leak saga continues. Saw another spot of oil on my garage floor after they "fixed" it. Took it back and they said it wasnt leaking but was dripping from an accumulation of oil that had accumulated on the bottom engine shield or cover. So next day I was going an a trip. Smelled oil and stopped. Smoke coming from the back of the engine and the dipstick shows almost 3 qts low.I bt 3 qts, put 2 in and limped back home. Its back in the shop now and I will report what they find. Maybe taking it to Toyota was not such a good idea.

Harry

 

Sounds to me like they will be doing these gaskets again. If you do not get them to sit properly or overtighten them they will leak like worse.

 

Yikes - good luck. If that Toyota service department can't manage to do valve cover gasket thats pretty bad. Maybe the tech rushed the job and did not prep and clean up the old gasket before installing new gasket. I would ask them to steam clean your motor and undercarriage given that they caused a huge oil leak with their poor repair work. Tell the service manager you expect them to show you a clean undercarriage and motor (with the car on a lift) when you go to pick it up.

 

I just found an oil leak on my '05 with 99K and it turned out to be the crankshaft seal. What a coincidence that it started to leak after only 4K miles from the when I had the timing belt replaced. Oh well. You're lucky that you only had to do the valve covers as my indy Lexus guy had to quote me $1200 for the job! YIKES! I think it was Lynzoid who said that it happens rarely and the part itself is not something the dealers stock all the time so it now sits in the shop waiting for the part to come in. Not an easy job or fix.

 

I think I have a final on my oil leak. They now say it was a washer or seal that seals the valve cover bolt to the cover. Hope someone knows more about this seal or washer because i really didnt understand it all. Any way, they changed my oil since i had mixed oils on my limp home and filled it up with gas at no charge. I went away pleased but will never get that day of vacation back. Hope this helps someone else. If you have your valve cover gaskets done insist that they replace theses seals or whatever thay are,

Thanks for all the replies.

 

the gromets that go in the holes of the valve cover gasket and the valve cover bolts go trough them. They are a seperate part from the valve cover gaskets but should of been changed at the time as well.

 

well it should not be 1200 dollars, first of all the timing belt R&R book time on 1/3uz is 4hrs. Lets say your dealer charges 150 per hour thats 600. After you remove the timing belt the crank gear that drives the timing belt is right there it simply should slide off or you press it off using a pulley puller tool. Then the seal comes off with seal puller and new seal gets installed. I would say no more then another hour to do the crank seal on top of the 4hrs of the t/b R&R seals shouldig be more then $30-40 list. Should not be more then $800 total, oh yeah toyota pink coolant add another $40

 

#$%^ Still have a very small leak. 2 drops on the floor this AM. Its been to the Toyota dealer 3 times for this.I'm now at the point that I may even put some store bought sealer in with the oil. What would you guys do now? Take it back to Toyota? An independent shop or add the sealer.

Can anyone recommend a sealer?

Thanks

 

NO! Add a sealer and you'll ruin the engine. Go to another shop. The one, that CAN work on 3UZFE...

 

Agree - please don't use a sealer in the LS430 engine. I might put sealer in a rusted 1998 Cutlass with 200k miles that smoked like a mosquito truck but not an LS430. You may have to tell Toyota they blew their chance to work on your car and take it somewhere else. Unfortunately you'll likely have to pay to fix this twice. It is possible that you have more than 1 oil leak so maybe a trip to Lexus to have their top LS430 guy look at it is warranted before declaring that Toyota ooched the pooch.