I'm a newbie. I hope I'm posting in the right location. Original owner of a 2007 IS250.

My passenger floor carpet was dripping wet. Dealer said there is a TSB regarding an Evaporator Drain Grommet. They say it is out of warrantee, so it will cost me $1381 out the door to fix the drainage problem and the carpet. Dealer said it is not a widespread issue. Only 2 known occurrences. My internet search suggests that might not be true.

Also my dashboard has within the past 6 months gotten very sticky sections. The material seems to be breaking down. Dealer said he's never heard of it before. My brief search online suggests that that is not the first time for an IS. He said they can rip out the dash and put a new one in for $2850 for parts and labor.

Any insights? Does this all sound fair? It is tough to get a bill for many thousands of dollars for a vehicle that only has 34,000 miles of wear and tear on it.

Thanks,

B

 

First off, that dealership is full of it! If you can, never go back there if they cannot be honest about things.

About the dash, that does happen ALOT in HOT climates. You'll find MANY FL 2IS owners posting about their dash problems. Even mine here in SC has gotten softer, but not acutally melting...yet.

About the swimming pool in your car; the previous owner of my 2IS acutally had this happen to them at only 25k miles and Lexus paid to fix it all. It is/was a TSIB, due to the drainage tube becoming blocked I believe from debris. If you search on here, there are several threads about this problem and how to correct it. The carpets and sound deadening materials ARE recommended to be replaced though. And if you're a handy at DIY projects, you can do this yourself.

 

i never had a problem with my dash "melting". now about that drainage tube being blocked. I once had a customer's car come in with soaking wet carpets. turns out spiders got in the tube and made it their home. just took a long dip stick and stuck it in there, out came a gallon of water. problem solved. Clogged drain because of dirt or insects isn't a warranty issue.

 

IS250 famous for the sticky melted interior. I am located in Asia. Lexus sticky melted interiors are very common problems. The plastic technology is only up to a certain period of usage and it will start to be sticky and melted, of course not all cars will face that problem. I know nothing about the sticky melted till 3 years ago when my car dashboard started to melts. I got so involved in trying to solve this melting problem,, to date I had since treated many cars. Lexus seem to have a lot more of such problem. Even the supercars like the Lamborghini. Ferrari and Maserati all got such problem. Recently just parked a 3 years old Lexus 460 in the sun for an hour. Some of the interior melted and becomes very sticky. Did a video on the before and after treatment . will post it on the youtude to share the experiences Actually the Maserati got more melted problems. Just posted on youtude Maserati sticky melted interior treatment, as the melted interior was worst thn Lexus 460.

 

^Wow, that is truly horrible! The god of the sea would truly be disappointed!

 

As a follow-up, I would recommend that folks with either the sticky dash issue or the evaporator drain grommet issue contact the national Lexus customer service, and go above their local dealership. I presented my case to Lexus National, they deliberated for several days, and we came to an arrangement that saved me a significant amount of money. Each case will be different, and the longer one gets off warranty, the less accommodating they will likely be, but it in my case it was worth doing some research and presenting an argument. I now have a new dash, and the evaporator drain issue has been resolved, and the carpet cleaned and dried.

National Lexus worked directly with the dealership to coordinate the arrangement. Interestingly, when I went to the local dealership and talked to my service representative who I thought had not been entirely honest with me, and who would have charged me $4000+ for the repairs, he said, "that was a good idea to contact National Lexus. We are not allowed to tell you to do that." He then said, we'll be sending you a survey about how we did in our service on this job. If we don't get all fives, it's the same as failing" (hint, hint...give us all perfect scores). The local dealership will definitely not be getting all fives on the survey!

My thoughts now turn to how to prevent my new dash from melting after another 34,000 miles. Any ideas? Should I: (1) tint my auto glass, (2) get one of those subtle carpet dash covers custom measured for the IS250, or (3) should I use some sort of UV protecting coating, or (4) is there a high end manual dash shield that you put up when you park that is extremely effective at reducing heat, UV, and other issues...(I was using a cheap sun shield intermittently, but that was clearly not sufficient to prevent melting...)

Thanks,

 

^Glad they took care of you!

I've seen others tint their windshield, but I'd start by using a custom-fit sun shield AND crack your windows open any chance you get. Having JDM or AVS window visors are perfect for this; I did this all summer with mine and never had any leaking issues.

 

Congrats! Glad you have it resolved. Tint and windshield shade will definitely help. Also try Protectant 303. I've been using them for years on all my cars and boats with great results.

 

I contacted Lexus Customer Service about my dash and followed all of the steps they requested of me and received a brand new dash at no charge to me. This was only a few months after purchasing the car used and not even from a Lexus dealership. I was very impressed by the service that I received.