Took the car in for the 100k service and the sales rep reported the seal between the engine and transmission needs to be repaired.

Cost of repair is $750 (mostly labor). Does anyone know what the problem would be (what is this seal the sales rep was talking about?)

 

He's talking about rear main seal. A big job and I think $750 is a good price. On your car, they have to hook up some kind of engine support on the top and remove the sub frame from the bottom in order to remove the transmission.
The seal just getting old( rubber seal) by mileage and age.

 

tell them to check out your car (get an oil change and maybe theyll review for free) and see if they notice anything. (don't tell them about the issue). if they find nothing tell them about it and have them look again and see if it's really necessary. ALSO - ask them for a price. I bet it's 1/2 to 2/3 the cost at toyota vs lexus deealer. good luck.

 

If your rear main seal is leaking, then you're dropping oil.

If it's not too bad, and you don't mind leaving a few spots
wherever you go, you have time. Start saving your money.
Please note: It will get worse, but you may have a couple
of months before you have to repair it.

Just keep a close eye on your dipstick and buy a case of oil.

 

if your rear main seal is in need of replacement, you should have a major oil spot on your driveway. park your car at a "clean" section of the road overnight. make sure you have dino oil, not synthetic oil in your car. when you wake up in the morning, your fresh oil spot should be no bigger than the size of an american quarter (25 cent thingie). if it's smaller than a dime, you are still relatively "ok" but any bigger than a quarter, you need to keep tabs on your oil level every other day, at least. this happened to my ES btw, and it cost about that much to fix.

 

Wow, thanks a lot for the help you all provided...


I'll observe the garage floor frequently to check for any problems. Interestingly, I have never noticed oil leaking, and the garage floor is clean as a whistle.

Perhaps they were predicting the seal would give way soon?

 

ahhhhhhhhhh!!!

I spoke to soon. This morning I noticed oil on the garage floor. Now it's a problem.

I'm taking the car to a Toyota dealer Saturday morning to see what price they will quote.

 

that is what was leakinefore i sold on my es300 before i sold it along with the cam seals. If you know of a good, reputable shop that does work on imports then you may also get an estimate from them. For fixing my rear main seal, and all the cam seals they wanted like 850.

 

These are the quotes I've gotten:

Lexus Dealer: $750
Toyota dealer #1: $700
Toyota dealer #2: $750
Toyota dealer #3: $680-720
Toyota/Lexus specialist: $850-900

I'm going with the Lexus dealer mainly because of the peace of mind provided by a loaner...even though I'm not old enough to drive one yet


--Is this a common problem among ES300s of this year? Is this a common problem among Lexus vehicles?--

 

tell the lexus dealer you'll give them 600 and tell the toyota deale you'll give them 500. show them the checkbook/crredit card/cash if possible.

 

Ihave the same problem with my GS3. Now I am getting a low knocking sound from the engine. It is the same rythem as the exhaust though. Do es anyone think my engine may be starting to knock? Is there anything I can do to prevent it from getting worse or starting to knock if it is not knocking yet? I know that I can keep tabs on the oil but is there anything else I can do ? Let me know.

 

you just said your engine was knocking. have you ever gotten a tune up?

Xenon: yeah, it is a moderately common problem (if there is such a thing). i believe i paid in the $700 range.

 

Nope. Where should I go for a tuneup, a GOOD one?

 

Hey XenonES3 it sucks that you live all the way in Illinois, because out here in LA I had my Mechanic replace my rear main seal for $300. I think that you should shop around a bit more because the Lexus dealer always tries to rip you off.