I have a 2007 RX350 with 130,000 miles on it. I was accelerating on to the highway when I heard a bang and got a racing sound on the engine which lasted about a second. This was followed by what looked like oil on the back window and a cloud of gray smoke. The smoke continued lightly for the next 5 miles and stopped. The engine appeared to run fine after this with no overheating. About 7 miles from the incident to my home and I confirmed the back of the car was covered with oil droplets when arriving. The engine compartment looks clean from above, however the oil pan and skid plate appears wet when looking underneath. The car starts fine, no odd or loud sound, no blowing of smoke, even revving it a little does nothing abnormal. As it sits there is some oil pooling on the floor but I cannot tell if that is from the original incident or is a constant flow.

Past experience on other vehicles would suggest to me I blew a head gasket, but I am not seeing other symptoms. So I am open to suggestions.

 

Congrats on the cajones, if my car did all that I would have been on the side of the road whining like a 6 year old within 30 seconds of the bang.

 

Could have just been an oil line or such and I would not necessarily think a head gasket. Doesn't sound like it is internal either as you state nothing was coming out of the exhaust pipe.

Would have it towed, not driven, to the shop for an extended look.

 

Sorry but I could not resist commenting on your post. There were too many things that sounded...... 1. As said by others, I would pull over safely and figure out the cause/issue without any further driving.
2. Constant flow of oil pooling on the floor - I would recommend finding the leak and fixing it (gasket, oil pan, whatever the case might be). If there is already oil on the floor, you can try wiping it out dry and see if more oil collects up over 2-3 day period.

I am glad your RX is still running well. I would suggest:
1. Take some pictures of the oil spill and the rear of your car with the droplets.
2. If it does happen again, pull over and have it towed/examined by your mechanic/Lexus.
3. Check oil levels regularly
4. Dry the oil droplets from the rear of the car and see if they come back again.
5. Notice any abnormal engine RPM fluctuation or coolant temperature.

Stay safe

 

Did you check your oil? Have you had the oil line recall performed? You really need to get your vehicle to a shop, there is obviously something bad wrong and you could really be in for a big expense if you continue driving it and destroy your engine, transmission, etc..

 

If your head gasket was blown, you would likely find some water in your oil pan (and likely on dips stick as oil would look milky).

I would start vehicle and listen VERY closely for any odd sounds or clacking. It sounds as if you could have ran over something causing the oil pan and oil pump pick up screen to be disrupted or even the exhaust pipes to be affected.

It would be very strange for that much oil to come FROM your engine and not have some sort of internal engine issue. There is almost no way those symptoms were caused by your engine and there not be some sort of issue or damage within your engine. Definitely check it out. You could have an issue with a piston ring set breaking and causing oil to be burnt and expelled through the exhaust. Engine wouldn't run as efficiently but wouldn't make a ton of racket after the initial failure.

 

Sounds to me like you hit something and knocked a hole in the pan or oil line. Please check your oil level on the stick before driving, and get it to the dealer pronto!

 

That's exaclty what I was thinking after he stated he kept driving it after the bang and smoke, You got guts subotai1

 

okay....DO NOT DRIVE IT UNTIL YOU EITHER FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED, OR YOU HAVE IT TOWED TO A SHOP!! I can not be responsible if you disregard my advice.


Thank You,
Ryan

 

Thank you all for the posts and comments. I thought I would reply back to you all and let you know what the issue turned out to be.

After getting the car on a lift we found out that we had a hose that had ruptured. That hose comes out of the oil cooler and explains the sudden out flow we had immediately and the smoke (from hitting the hot bits).

A little more info... The original equipment for the hoses to and from the oil cooler have those as rubber leading to metal connections. However, we live in Minnesota, and the weather extremes play hell with rubber (and other things) leading to much faster degradation. Apparently this is a not-uncommon issue up here. Lexus has a repair/upgrade kit that replaces all the metal components with aluminum (I believe) to prevent the issue from reoccurring.

Thanks all for your help and compliments on my cojones. :-)

 

And that should be a tsb if I`m not mistaken! Which means it`s free of charge. You might want to check that out.