I’ve got an 11 GS 350 with only 76500 and began smelling antifreeze a few months ago or so. Checked coolant and saw the reservoir went from full to low over a 2-4 week period. Put the car on a rack looked and looked was never able to find anything. Just this week I had it out to my mechanic and he found the leak coming from passengers side head gasket. I am beside myself and now stuck trying to figure out what to do. Seems ridiculous that a Lexus with so few miles would be experiencing this.

 

Thanks for your posts. I’m in the St. Louis area and looking for a qualified independent mechanic to evaluate my anomaly... very frustrating!

 

any update on your problem?

 

...I just returned from a long Caribbean cruise... and haven’t had an opportunity to take more steps.... My last step was contacting Lexus Corporate. They asked me to return to the dealer I purchased the vehicle and have the car checked again, since it had been more than 30 days since the dealer had evaluated the anomaly.

We currently have bad weather, but I will be following up with the dealer and posting all results. I want to take the dealer tech for a normal day-to-day ride and be right there with the tech when the smell occurs again... none of this, “we checked it out and didn’t find anything...” I can consistently encounter the smell on any typical/normal use of the car during the course of a day.

 

The reason I'm asking is because I have just picked up a 2019 model in December and my son and I also smell coolant smell every time the car is in the garage from short/long trips. I have been checking the coolant level on both tanks and it seems to be good.

 

Same thing happened on my 2019 es350! I am really pissed!! 60k car and smells like it has 400k miles on it. Took it in to dealer and same thing, they could not find a problem so they called lexus and was told that is "characteristic " of 2019 and 2020! WHAT!! They said it is a valve that opens and closes. I tried to get them to buy the car back but was not successful! If you know someone that wants to start a class action lawsuit let me know because they know is a problem but not even telling the mechanics! I'm in if you get attorney.

 

I bought my 2018 LS500 today and drove it home (a bit over 200 km). I noticed after I got back that there was a slight coolant smell when I got out of the passenger side of the car.

My 06 Jaguar XJR also had a coolant smell at almost all times when you walked by the front of the car after it was running. I haven't had that car in a while but it never actually turned into a problem.

It seems like it could be a characteristic of the car?? A class action lawsuit over this issue? I hope you are joking, you should be. If you are told it's normal and then the coolant drops and wrecks the engine, that's one thing. But a coolant smell with no problem, no that's a waste of people's time & money (lawyers).

 

Well... I've had my car for about a month now and I've checked the coolant level a couple of times. Today the level in the reservoir was below the Low mark by about 5mm in the morning (after sitting overnight). I will call the Lexus dealer next week and get it looked at.

Remember folks you have two reservoirs, the passenger side one is the engine coolant, that's the low one on my car.

 

Have you tried topping it off with distilled water?

 

No, I stopped at the local Toyota dealer and they topped it up with coolant. I don’t want to dilute the solution.

 

... which is why I came back to this thread months later. Yep, more additions to the discussion. And yes, I have reported this issue numerous times since I took delivery of the car last year to more than one dealership. They all say the same thing, that they have gone over the car meticulously and discovered no leak, nor do they ever smell any coolant, so no issue exists, except in my mind. After idling in two drive through lines I smelled coolant and checked the recovery tanks today...the passenger side is low.

The dealer will disavow any problem, so if I take the car to an Indy shop and a problem is located, what is my recourse in this matter? I know first-hand that Lexus dealers selectively "can't find" problems that they don't want to
sink extensive time and money into fixing, and Lexus case managers are skilled in browbeating and stonewalling customers.

 

My coolant smell also still persists and I will be picking up where I left off with the dealer/Lexus last fall-2019.

I haven’t been that active, because my car hasn’t been driven much or very far over the last few winter months. However, my wife and I drove the car during this coronavirus distancing period for a “fresh air” getaway ride..., but of course riding around for awhile introduced the dreaded coolant smell when we stopped the car and opened the passenger side car door.

I always planned to address the smell problem again when the weather was warmer (now...), because that’s when the smell was most prevalent.

I contacted Lexus and they informed me that since it had been over 30 days since I reported the problem to the dealer, I had to reinitiate to concern with the dealer and have the dealer document the problem.

I’ll post what happens, IF ANYTHING!

A VERY frustrated Lexus “family fleet” owner...
LS500 (smell problem child), LX570, RX450H, LS400, SC430, RX300...

 

Bought new 2020 LS500 this morning in Plano TX. Idling outside a restaurant this evening (take-out only), I began to smell the antifreeze after 5 minutes.
This is in-tolerable and must get fixed. I mean...I got the smell on my first errand!!!

 

Well I took my car to the dealer today, tech said he could smell the coolant but couldn’t find a leak, so that was kind of a waste of time. The coolant level drops below LOW so I have no idea what else to do. I guess I could put some UV dye in there but sheesh I shouldn’t have to DIY repair a car under warranty...

 

a “next step” would be to make sure the dealer document the smell (document on the service invoice), then call/contact the corporate office/district office of Toyota/Lexus with the complaint.

This is what the corporate office instructed me to do within 30 days of taking it to the dealer.

Between this Coronavirus dealer operation and my in town availability, I’m still looking for the opportunity to followup with another visit to the dealer.