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Hello all,
I found this forum looking for info on the cooling system of our car so I decided to register and see if anyone could help out. Before I start I am not here to bash lexus as we love the car but the lexus service has REALLY let us down.
Short version of why I am needing cooling system help.
The car went into limp mode the week after labor day. Towed to the dealer and they said the vacuum pump had a internal short. Waited for them to get one in stock and they finally called us saying it was ready. Now my wife has driven this car daily (34,500 miles on the odometer) so she is very familiar with it. When she got there to pick it up it was making a ticking sound as she called it. She got the service manager and had him listen to it before she left and he informed her that the nx220t is the low end model and these cars are loud. Hmmm....she has drove it for 34k miles and it has NEVER been loud. They insisted she take it and that it was fine. Reluctantly she took it and was very unhappy. The next day it was louder and she told me on the phone it sounded like someone under the hood trying to beat thier way out. Had her call the dealer and they were unhappy about it but sent a tow truck to pick it up. 2 weeks go by and they determine that they think the noise is coming from the balance shaft. They order it and replace and nothing changes, couple more weeks and they change timing gears and it still doesnt quiet the car down. Then they call in a coporate lexus guy to come look at it with a scope and some other fancy tools. Now we are into late october and they call and tell us that they pulled the data from the car and it shows 4 starts with no oil in it? No oil in it? Doesnt even make sense because Lexus is who had changed the oil AND the data shows oil pressure for days and then all the sudden no oil pressure for 4 starts and then miraculously it has pressure again. No oil leaks, they confirm that the oil looked great when they checked it. No metal in the filter etc etc. BUT it was our fault because we ran it without oil for 4 days. First off.....any motor that will run for 4 days without oil pressure is a miracle motor and oil that left that good of a coating to keep it running till we decided to put oil back in it! Not......
At any rate warranty would not cover it since they deemed it our fault some how. After fighting with lexus coporate also we were not getting anywhere as no one would own up to it. So there we sat with a car at the dealer that run perfectly fine but sounded like it had a rod knocking. They gave us some quotes for options, new motor installed $18k, a used motor they found with 13K miles on it installed for $12k or they would tear ours down for approx $4k and then add on whatever parts were needed and labor to reassemble. They were guessing around $8-$10k this route. Well we honestly could not afford any of those options so we picked the car up with a trailer and took it to my brothers house as he is a mechanic and has his own shop with a lift and everything. I opted to find a used motor myself and paid $4100.oo for it. It had 25K miles on it. I helped him change the motor and although it was a pain in the *** over all it wasnt terrible. Nothing I would want to do on a daily basis though!
This brings me to my question about the cooling system. How the heck do you burp the system? I cannot find a bleeder on this thing for anything. I have filled up what I could, started it and let it warm up with the heater on high and then shut it off so the system could pull from the tank. It did this about 3 times and I thought all was good, but it isnt quite cleared out yet. I cannot get it to take any more coolant from the tank but yet the temp guage while driving flucuates alot and sometimes will get up near the red for a second and then drop. This tells me there has to be a air bubble in it still. Besides that the car runs perfect like it should, just got to sort this out. We just finished it last night and my wife is glad to see her car back since labor day! I just wont let her drive it yet till I get the system burped correctly. Any suggestions? Am I blind and cant see a bleeder somewhere? Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED since I am kind of at my whits end with this car! LOL.
Sorry for the long read but I kind of needed to vent about it and wanted everyone to know the reason I am needing to burp the system. Thanks!!!
Ugly copy/paste from the shop manual on how to add coolant:
ADD ENGINE COOLANT
(a) Remove the No. 1 engine cover sub-assembly.
*1
Engine Side Bleeder Plug
*2
Heater Hose Side Bleeder Plug
[img]Resources/A326195C01.png[/img](b) Install the vinyl tube to the engine side bleeder plug
(c) Place a piece of cloth, paper, etc., below the heater hose side bleeder plug.
(d) Loosen the engine side bleeder plug and heater hose side bleeder plug.
HINT:
Place the end of the vinyl tube into a container before performing this procedure, as engine coolant will spill out of the vinyl tube.
(e) Add engine coolant to the radiator reservoir assembly filler opening until it is filled to the B line at the base of the radiator reservoir filler neck.
Standard capacity:
7.9 liters (8.3 US qts, 7.0 Imp. qts)
NOTICE:
Never use water as a substitute for engine coolant.
HINT:
The B line is the lower edge of the inner wall of the filler neck.
TOYOTA vehicles are filled with TOYOTA SLLC at the factory. In order to avoid damage to the engine cooling system and other technical problems, only use TOYOTA SLLC or similar high quality ethylene glycol based non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrite, non-borate coolant with long-life hybrid organic acid technology (coolant with long-life hybrid organic acid technology consists of a combination of low phosphates and organic acids).
[img]Resources/A112307C01.png[/img] [img]Resources/V100135.png[/img]B Line
(f) Tighten the engine side bleeder plug and heater hose side bleeder plug by hand, in that order, once engine coolant is discharged from the hose installed to the bleeder plug.
(g) Remove the vinyl tube from the engine side bleeder plug and tighten the engine side bleeder plug.
Torque:
12.7 N·m {130 kgf·cm, 9 ft·lbf}
(h) Tighten the heater hose side bleeder plug.
(i) Install the reservoir cap. [*1]
(j) Start the engine and warm it up until the engine coolant level of the radiator reservoir assembly has stabilized. [*2]
CAUTION:
Wear protective gloves.
Be careful as the radiator hoses are hot.
Keep your hands away from the cooling fan.
NOTICE:
Perform the engine speed with 2000 rpm or less.
Make sure that the radiator reservoir assembly still has some engine coolant in it.
After starting the engine, if the radiator reservoir assembly does not have any engine coolant, perform the following: 1) stop the engine, 2) wait until the engine coolant has cooled down, and 3) add engine coolant until the engine coolant is filled to the B line.
If there is not enough engine coolant, the engine may burn out or overheat.
Pay attention to the needle of the engine coolant temperature meter. Make sure that the needle does not show an abnormally high temperature.
(k) Stop the engine and wait until the engine coolant cools down to ambient temperature. [*3]
(l) Check that the engine coolant level is between the FULL and LOW line. [*4]
If the engine coolant level is below the LOW line, pour engine coolant of the specified concentration into the radiator reservoir assembly until it reaches the FULL line, and repeat the procedure from steps [*1] to [*4].
If the engine coolant level is above the FULL line, drain engine coolant so that the engine coolant level is between the FULL and LOW line.
11-21-18, 06:21 PM
2016 Cooling system questions
