RX300 99 2WD running rough, took it to the local Toyota shop. While there, they had it running, am told it backfired and blew a hole out of the cat converter and shut down. Upon further exploration, the found sludge and recommended an engine change for, shall we say a lot of money.
Questions . . . . any suggestions for a non dealership in central North Carolina who may be interesed in doing an engine swap without needing one of my children for payment?!?!
Any idea what an engine swap would cost and a donor engine would cost?
Thanks

 

If you have all your service records you may be able to get your engine changed for free or a very discounted price. Look up sludge problems for this engine and you'll see what i am talking about

 

Thanks for your quick reply, unfortunately this is a vehicle I picked up used from a Lexus dealership about 6 months ago out of state. One owner, daughter turned 16 last month so it has been driven probably 3k miles since the purchase was made and none of the records were offered.

 

the records are recorded electronically, you can go on the lexus site and access them or call the service dept at any dealer with your vin and get a print out.

Once you have that done check and see if everything was kept up at the dealer. If so then you have a pretty good case against Lexus and could get it done free or pretty cheap from them.

 

I saw this the other day, I don't know anything about it at all but might be an option.

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/pts/1529239603.html

 

Well, if it's from a Lexus dealership, they should help you out and if they don't, call Lexus anyway. You pay a premium for buying from a delaership and you shouldn't be sold a Lemon.

You could try Phil's Toy Store in Cary, for a second opinion, but I'm not sure he's much cheaper than the dealer. I'd go after Lexus for this one.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Just really sick about it at the moment.

 

Understandable, just call the dealership, don't wait any longer because 6 months isn't that long since purchase