So I took my wife's 07' 460L in for the 60k service a few weeks ago. During that time I scheduled the open recall fix for this week. So I drop the car off yesterday, today we get a call saying the hose was pretty bad and now I have a leak in my radiator. I'm on my way there now to look at my warranty paperwork to see if it's "covered"....I'm guessing it isn't. I'm just curious as to why a radiator would fail with only 66k on it. Any thoughts?

 

My understanding is when they do the fuel recall they have to disconnect a coolant hose (or do something with the coolant). I just have a sneaky suspicion that they messed up something.

Read this thread by roadfrog, especially post #10. Maybe he can shed some more light on this for you.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ost-a-diy.html

 

Well, it depends where the leak is. The weak link in these rads is the expansion tank fitting on the top driver's side of the rad. The rad top is plastic as is the fitting, and if one leans on it (as myself and several others have done), the fitting can break.....and not completely, nor cleanly. This results in a slow leak. So.....it's possiblle that, as a result of the fairly significant amount of work that was done, someone leaned on, hit, knocked, elbowed, or otherwise caused some kind of stress to this fitting (provided that's what's leaking).

The good news is that these rads are VERY inexpensive and relatively easy to replace. I paid around 100 bucks for mine on Ebay with a lifetime warranty. I thing Lexus charges 400 - which is still reasonable.

 

Thanks for chiming in RF. Nothing like hearing from someone with firsthand experience!

 

Ok, so I just picked up my car and they showed me what was wrong, it was the fitting that the hose connects. I'm thinking maybe someone broke it but I have no way to prove it. I also pulled out my extended warranty...6yr/100,000 "bumper-to-number"...(I love that they call it that :thumbed says its supposed to be covered but there's platinum, gold and certified. I have certified but it doesn't have an explanation as to what's covered. I'll be giving Lexus/warranty company a call tomorrow. Wish me luck

 

Wow, got to say it stinks to hear this. I'm taking my car in for the recall in a few weeks and these are things I worry about when other people work on my cars. And I can see why it would be so easy to break something like this, or something else.

To jmsmiff...hopefully they'll cover this for you, because clearly they're the ones who broke it.

 

The only way around this, is to have a walkaround of the vehicle and underhood (checking the rad fitting), before any service and making sure everything is up to snuff in front of the service advisor. Then, if something goes wrong, it's documented. Too bad it comes to that. Like Doublebase said, it's pretty obvious they broke the fitting.

 

Well if the fitting had been broken before he drove in wouldn't coolant be gushing out? If so that would be proof enough that it was fine when he dropped the car off.

 

It's more of a slow leak type of thing, the radiator would slowly lose coolant.

 

As Doublebase said.....slow leak. When I broke mine. it was a very small leak underneath the fitting, the only reason I noticed it, was because of the pink fluid I saw forming on the bottom rad support. I had to run my finger several times around the rad to finally find the leak. It was at that moment that I suddenly remembered the post by another member in a thread......"be careful of the expansion tank fitting"......