• I’ve seen a few of you mention looking into an Indy shop. What would be the Google search criteria for something like that. I’ve never heard of one before.

 

Indy means independent. A privately run shop. Go to yelp.com and enter your town, then type Japanese auto repair or Lexus or Toyota. You should get a few listings with consumer reviews. Even if labor rates are the same, they are usually flexible about parts, such as owner provided and not doing things strictly per Lexus dealer protocol. Meaning they will hear your concerns.
If you read some of the thread links, I think you'll find no one does what this dealer suggests.

 

Thanks swfla! Sorry for being a little “slow” on the Indy reference. I’ll check it out. Will be curious to hear what misterkey’s final resolution and cost was.

 

Picked the car up and have been in and out of it for the last few hours. I had the service advisor start it while I watched so that he could verify! Everything appears to work as it should. The master technician was able to identify the nonfunctioning servo, replace it and initialize it. He signed off on it as working properly before he went back to Chicago last night. I was told that these types of issues may be foreign to newer techs.
If I were you, I would request the support of a regional master technician to diagnose and fix before I replaced every single one of the servos!

 

On my 2007 I had the exact symptoms described by the op. ( but i had no codes) . I replaced the ac amplifier with a used one from ebay. 5 years later it's still working perfectly. There have been a few other members which replaced the ac amplifier to fix startup issues. It takes roughly 20 minutes to replace. The ac amp wire harness doesn't have much slack in the 07. I think that somehow contributes to the ac issues.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374407156687

Checking the filter door within the glovebox for correct operation would be my first step.

 

I read that solution as well, but didn't try it. I would certainly try everything I could think of before dropping $6k. I also swapped out the filter and was really hopeful that was the fix, because it had this heavy K&N filter in there. But it didn't work. Also, if the OP does try to check it on his own, he needs to follow the correct process for opening the cabin air filter door... DO NOT pry it open!

 

Thanks misterkey! So they just replaced the one problem servo and nothing else? For my quote, in addition to replacing all 16 servos, they were going to replace the evaporator core and the expansion valve too. Do you know if they replaced those too? And finally, the million dollar question (literally)…how much was your bill for just the servo replacement (and labor) if you don’t mind me asking? I realize it may be difficult to figure out the labor costs specifically since it was in and out of the shop a few days I believe. Thanks for updating me!

 

Yea, my problem started long before I (or anyone) did anything with the cabin filter. I replaced it later, but was aware of things to be careful about.

 

Just some thoughts. I've only done this job twice, and both times owners went cheap and done cabin filter change at some random place (like a car wash).
Obviously a peasant brute, when met with closed blower unit cover, only gets one idea - FORCE IT, because IT'S PROBABLY JUST STUCK.
Completely lacking sheer intellectual capacity to project that onto complete dash off job further down the line, or just in essence totaling the car by making it unfeasible to purchase for any sane person.
Hell of a job...

 

Wow pweist! No, they didn't touch any of those things. I just bought the car in July. I didn't notice the AC issue until after I purchased it and drove it home from Michigan (of course). At any rate, the first time I took it to the dealership, they replaced one servo that was "bad." Immediately, when I went to pick up the car and start it, it did the same thing. They made another appointment for me to bring it back in. They replaced another servo and said it was fixed (but did not charge me, because of the repeat issue). It did the same thing still! And I expressed concern that they charged me for a new servo that didn't even fix my issue, so should you keep charging me for parts that aren't likely bad and don't resolve my issue? That is when they scheduled the master tech. And they did not charge me for this most recent service that resolved my issue! He said that one of the first ones they installed wasn't working correctly. I only paid for the first servo ($450 plus labor... like $180ish). I am more than happy with their response and they have a customer for life!
Good luck my man! Like I said, I would ask about the master tech. It sounds to me like they want to replace your entire system and we all know that isn't likely necessary. Every component isn't failing!
Someone mentioned going to an indy... but it is very likely they won't have experience/expertise with this sort of thing! I would certainly use an indy for many things... but not this. And I also factor in the dealership part warranty aspect of it all. If there is a problem, bring it back and they will fix it... with a loaner vehicle for your trouble!
Keep us posted!

 

Uhm correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds really sus. 180 is what? 1? 1.5? 2 hours billed? There are no servos that can even be accessed in this timeframe afaik. And ik.

 

Thanks misterkey. So just to confirm…in the end, they ended up replacing one original servo?

 

Getting that second opinion could save you thousands. Which you'll need for other repairs in time.

 

*hides* Yep I definitely haven't ever dealt with this.....

 

Used to be when you ran into something that was giving you grief you could call technical assistance, well only a couple of people would be "communicators" because you were speaking to an engineer and you had to have all your ducks in a row with those guys.
Then they changed and it was called ETAS instead of TAS and there was a list of checks and procedures to be done and then a case was opened and basically you were working for them...they'd tell you what to check/do and the results were sent back, took too long.
They have had a searchable knowledge base for quite a few years now, key in a couple of keywords and usually bob's ur uncle. A lot of the info is from other techs from USA or Canada.

But, if the dealerships don't spend money on training all you get is a shop full of timing belt/brake experts.