Hello - I'm considering purchasing a 2008 SC430 with about 88K miles. It looks solid and has a good maintenance history, or so I thought. Upon closer examination it looks like the dealership changed the radiator in March of 2016, in June of 2016 there was a catastrophic overheating of the engine, followed by an engine replaced at keyes lexus in Van Nuys, CA. That happened somewhere in the 65K miles range. It looks like the vehicle was covered by an extended lexus service agreement. This makes me wonder:

1) Where do they get a replacement engine in 2016 for a car that hadn't been produced for 6 years?
2) What else might have been damaged by that event?
3) Might this work be covered by an additional warranty?
4) Would the communal wisdom of the forums look at this as a pro (engine might not have that many miles) or a con (who knows where they got that engine)?

I appreciate your input.

Thank you

 

Something failed on the cooling system as mentioned and the driver probably overheated it pretty good. This usually causes damage to the upper half of the engine. Lexus had and has plenty of engines / parts in their hands.

If the car is in good shape I would go for it. Having a major part of the car relatively new is a good thing. Are you sure the whole engine was replaced?

 

In general, a car that had its engine replaced would be somewhat concerning. At a minimum it would seem that you need to more due diligence:

1. How do you know the engine overheated, is that what they said or is that what was listed in the maintenance history?
2. Did they replace the engine with a new or used engine? If it was new, then obviously it has 23,000 miles on it, great news.
3. If it was a used engine, how old was it and how many miles were on it. In addition, if it was used and over ten years old or now has 90,000 miles on it you may need timing belt and kit. The dealership or repair shop that did this work should have all of the engine information.
4. Was the engine put in at Lexus dealership with their certified technicians or a third-party repair shop
5. Put the VIN in Google and see what comes up
6. Do you have complete maintenance history and is it from Lexus?
7. Order a Carfax or similar report to try to obtain more information about it. Eliminate accidents, flood damage, etc.

 

Was at the Luxlink guy in Monrovia, ca. shop(luxury Motorcars) and Steve’s guys were swapping a complete Sc 430’s engine because the radiator failed and the customer drove it a short distance.

He said the temp sending unit was on the radiator not the engine itself.

We here might think about looking into some kind of a warning system?

engine temp not radiator temp?

 

I have attached the Lexus maintenance recorded covering the engine replacement. I’d love to know more about what all of the acronyms mean. The carfax is clean. Thanks, all, again for the assistance.

 

"replaced engine with supplied engine" -- This is the way they usually phrase things on my invoice when I bring parts to a shop for them to install (instead of them providing parts & labor). Meaning, if I'm correct, the customer got the engine from somewhere and they installed it for him.

I could be reading too much into it because it doesn't say "customer supplied engine" but that would definitely make me dig deeper. Can you get the VIN off the engine itself and google it/carfax it? That would give you whatever mileage was recorded if it wasn't new. I've never bought a new engine, I wonder if there is a VIN on it if it's brand new from Lexus or maybe a serial number?

Here is where it's located on the 3uz:
https://www.autozone.com/repairguide...96b43f80379256

 

If you call the servicing dealer and ask them nicely you can usually find more information. If the engine was through the owner or Lexus. I usually go directly to the service manager.