I have my 2001 lexus ls 430 160k on it, for about 2 month, before I bought the car, I check the maintenance record, it looked good, every single repairs was done at the dealer till 153k about a year ago. Also timing belt job was done at 123k.
So got the car, it start to leak coolant, i open radiator cap, and saw there white staff mixed with very old coolant, the whole cooling system is durty with big oxidation, the radiator hoses is fat near the connections to the engine.
But the record said that they check all fluids at 150k and 140k make flush.
Next scam, i change all spark plugs a week ago, the old ones look like never was changed, but they do 120k service.
And the most thing that pest me off, how they change the timing belt, the record said, new water pump, new seals, idler, new thermostat.
In real what i see on my car, water pump is original, thermostat, seals are old, idlers make terrible rolling noise and what for 40k miles? Only new thing that they did change is the timing belt, every thing else is old and never was changed.
I don't have any if work receipts, I pool the maintenance records from lexus.com.
So its looked like, charge people for nothing.
I don't know what to do with this situation.

 

It happens. Hard to prove never replaced unless you document with some marking that is there before and after replacement. Really, even after 20k miles anything can look "old"

 

In California you can tell by the look on the part, is it new or not, I change the water pump on my wifes car 3 year ago, and it still look more clean then entire engine.

 

Who did you buy the car from - the previous owner, the servicing dealer, or some other private or commercial party? If you purchased the car from the original owner or the servicing dealer AND the seller represented the car as having all the indicated service performed (not that you just noticed it on the service history from Lexus.com), you may have reason to request some recourse from the seller in that they mis-represented the car. It would have been worth the $100 fee to have an independent mechanic inspect the car, verify the service history, and confirm the condition of the vehicle.

 

That white stuff in the coolant is probably those "leak fixers" you put in to stop the radiator from leaking looks like crack rocks

 

I bought the car from old chainese lady, who had he car since 2007 and was paying for repairs.

 

May be, is any way to clean it from the system, looked like the radiator is clogged with that stuff.

 

This is the reason why I would like to work on my car instead of paying someone else. At least I know who to blame if something goes wrong..Hope things work out for you. The LS is superbly made, over-engineered car and I love every minute of driving it.

 

I always do everything by myself, I like to work on cars, but I cant expect to get a car, with good record but only on paper, I mean it drives good, but don't like what I see under the hood.

 

unfortunately its very hard to clean the system if you get that stupid gunk in there.. i mean if its all inside the engine ..wow..

 

I think this happens more than people realize, but I don't believe it's a sinister conspiracy on the dealerships part, it's probably a few disgruntled techs that are cutting corners in areas they think they can get away with in order to pad their hours. It happens in every industry.

I would definitely bring it to the attention of the dealership though. You won't get any sort of refund since you didn't have the work done, but at the very least it could maybe get the techs fired so the next victim doesn't get screwed.

If you've ever seen those "stings" news stations do, it's pretty astonishing what some people will try and get away with.
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