2nd Lexus Gs - 2nd Breakdown

[Mark W]

hmmm....if I were to be suspicious.....I collected my GS from Lex Wolverhampton on Tuesday....their report was somewhat strange....one document stated low compression on cylinder 4, the other cylinder 8. They also stated they had found coolant in one of the cylinders (still not sure which one), also said the MAF sensor had gone and had diagnosed the "rough idle" (which I hadnt noticed) due to the fact that I probably had a bent piston - wanted to charge me approx 1K to check - and over 2K if they had to replace.

After excellent advice from other memebers of this forum decided to get a second opinion and took the car to a specialist only a mile away (not lexus specialist but Bently/Merc/Range Rover/Rolls specialists - so used to dealing with larger engines).

When I collected the car from Lexus - noticed the engine mgmt light was no longer lit - and car seemed to drive fine. Took car to specialist - they have called today to state no loss of compression anywhere and cant find any fault with the car...infact stated the engine pretty perfect......

So close one to costing me >2k if i had listened to Lexus Wolverhampton........and i now have my car back running fine....

[TigerFish]

The next day I look under the bonnet and see a water mark on the top back left of the plastic engine cover the mark ran down to the bolt head of plastic cover (back left) so I take the cover off and have a look but I dident look very closely, I think if I got a flash light and looked down to the bottom of the spark plugs I might of seen a rain water flood down there shorting out a few plug leads or coil, when the lexus technician took out the spark plugs the rain water ran into a few cylinders.

I had the exact same thing happen on my BMW '92 325 Coupe. Some how rain water was getting past the cover over the plugs and filling up the plug well on two cylinders. The engine ran like a bag of spanners 'til I found it. Sucked the water out and dried off the coils (seperate coil on each plug, no HT leads) and the car ran perfect. Each time it started miss-firing I'd repeat the procedure and the car was fine.

[doog442]

Ive just read Mark W's post and if correct is a scandal. :tsktsk:

[newport]

Well Im in shock, I took the plasic cover off my engine which still has the water mark on it and followed the mark down onto the top of rocker cover and then it runs down to the spark plugs and coils hence flooding the plugs and coils and has nowhere else to go. :tsktsk: it was that very heavy rain storm that did it.

I got my old head gasket back with the car there is no sign of leaking anywhere on it.

I am now going to apologize to you guys here on the forum for slagging off Lexus, and I apologize to my GS also as she DID NOT FAIL, she drives real nice with new plugs and cam belt I love her to bits.

I simply trusted Lexus Wolverhampton as Ive been dealing with them for years, I have noticed alot of new people there now, I will not be useing them again

I had a paper with the bill saying I have brake judder, which I dont, I still have wheel wobble at 60-70 MPH :tsktsk: I shall get the locals to see if they can sort it, after all what can it be ? wheel balance, tracking, ball joint ? I have all new brakes (disks & pads all round) but it was doing it before then, new tyres also, so what can it be ?

I take it all back guys, and Im glad im staying with my GS, I will be taking steps to stop rain water doing this again.

I hope Lexus UK reads the posts on here and takes a long hard look at there dealers as a result, or maybe Lexus Wolverhampton would like to make a comment about mine and Mark W's cases, but im not going to hold my breath.

Thanks TigerFish for your post, I think this rain water thing is more common than we think, I know a Vauxhall owner and he said it happen to him twice.

One thing I can say is the car came back very clean.

Rule No 1 aways listen to the guys on LOC and do what they say. :winky: I feel a real tit now

[kam05]

Newport,

What you are saying is that you have paid Lexus Wolverhampton £1300 for a repair which was misdiagnosed, they replaced a perfectly good head gasket which wasn't damaged, the only fault was that rain water has flooded the plugs, due to heavy rain. This problem could have been fixed by simply drying out the rain water and replacing the plugs.

£1300!!! That's scandalous!!!!! :tsktsk:

IMHO, where you went wrong was that you didn't find out exactly what the error codes were, when your car was on the diagnostic reader. Armed with the error codes, you could have posted them up on here, someone would have known what the error codes meant and how you could have fixed the problem in a cost effective manor. Could have saved yourself £1300.

Go back to Lexus Wolverhampton with print outs of this thread/posts and kick up a fuss, demand a refund, ideally a full refund, if needs be contact Lexus GB.

No need to feel like a tit, most people would have done the same thing if they were in your situation.

[newport]

The service manager told me on the phone they dident have any print outs as water was found in cylinders and coolant was low (did not say how low) and the head had to come off.

So what can one say? I cant prove anything a few water marks on the engine is not much to go on,

I dont see them admitting they got it wrong so it would end up in big shouting match, broken windows and me draged off by the cops. :shutit:

The botton line is I did not listen to you guys and get someone else to look at it, I just trusted Lexus Wolverhampton, like I said a right tit

[Mark W]

I had also left my car in the work car park - which is on about a 20 deg incline.....plus it had been raining all day prior to the problem....so appears same issue.

If you need a decent garage in Wolves....can certainly recommend Castec Motors - Certainly not furnished as a lexus dealer but then again their hourly rate is somewhat lower and they diagnose your car correctly.....friendly and honest.....know where I'll be taking my car in the future......ask for Ian or Fred.....

Sorry to hear you got stung - dont feel an idiot - I very nearly did the same....

Very short sighted of the dealer - as they have now lost any future business from you, me - and because of these posts - possibly quite a few more.

[newport]

Thanks Mark W Ive noted that, I would say my parking is about a 20 deg incline also, i now park the other way round.

Yea it dose sound you had the same problem and you did the right thing, your V8 must be amazing I cannot imagine more power than I already have, Ive never ever put my foot to the floor I hate to think what would happen :shutit:

[Mark W]

its nice to have that amount of power under your foot......after driving my old car for a few days I'd got a bit heavy on the pedal again....when I collected my GS from the garage had to re-adjust.....you very quicky find yourself doing 90+ and dont think Mr Policeman will buy that as an excuse ;o)

of course, you pay for it in fuel (currently costing me £80-90 / week in fuel) ....but hey.....you only live once....

[newport]

Yes keeping to the old speed limit is not easy in these cars, and my mk2 GS does use a bit more fuel than my old mk1 dont know why, its got the same engine, but does have more power than the old mk1.

My GS is not so good around town (mpg) but shes very good on a run, as good as the old mk1.

These cars are worth it, I dont do loads of miles about £30 per week.

We just must keep an eye on the rain.

[FastLemon]

Well, Well !!! This topic has certainly backed up my opinion that Lexus Wolverhampton are more than a little expensive. I took my newly acquired GS300 Sport Series 2 to them and the first service bill was near £1400 !!! Ouch !!! :tsktsk:

Since then I switched to my local Toyota dealer who was perfectly happy to do the regular services at well under half the costs quoted by Lexus Wolverhampton. The car has run perfectly and the bills have been similar to the 5 series Beemer I had before.

Like you - I'll never go back to Lexus Wolverhampton.

[88b]

newport if you can spare the time I'd talk to your local citizens advice and or trading standards. I had some problems with three sofas we bought and the shop was giving me the run around. CAB gave me all the advice and info I needed to screw them. They also told me of how many other complaints they had about them. If trading standards get involved the stealer might just want to make you go away happy. I doubt Lexus will do much I know Ford and Harley Davidson won't until it gets to things like BBC Watchdog.

[newport]

Thanks guys, I will report this to the Trading Standards, and give them the link to this thread and see what happens, but I wont hold my breath.

I do run the cost of all my car repairs and services through my business books which is a big help, but alot of people cant do that, I see over 2000 people have read these posts so Im sure Lexus Wolverhampton have lost some business as a result.

Im just sad that this has happend as I had pride in the Lexus customer care thing, but now Im not so sure, Ok maybe one bad apple, but maybe not.

Its a shame Lexus GB does not get involved with this website and start kicking some ***** out there, If I owened Lexus I would be fireing people.

I will be useing Toyota in Telford from now on, but I will be keeping a eye on them, I just thank *** for LOC and you guys.

[Monster-Mat]

i would seriously consider speaking with Lexus GB about this issue, when i read the original post i was going to post, be carefull as someone else was mis diagnosed serious engine problems at this dealer, however, ive read to the end, and its become apparent, that the technicians at Wolverhampton, need sacking, or the service manager needs sacking.

they seem to now be covering there arses by saying there was low coolant........rubbish

toyota/lexus coolant is red, the fluid in the cylinder would have been clear, if they looked down into the cylinder, which there hinting they did, they would notice this.

also, toyota coolant changes colour when it detects a blown headgasket, they stated compression was low on cylinders, erm, why would it be The gasket obviously hasnt failed, it will be obvious on the gasket if it has failed or not........... and they stated coolant was spraying out.......my arse

and yet they actually only really use as a fact statement, "FLUID, IN THE CYLINDERS"

[Mark W]

To add to my mis-diagnosis by Lexus Wolverhampton - prior to going into the dealer (whilst I was waiting for the recovery vehicle to collect my car) I opened the bonnet and checked all the fluid levels.

All were perfect - including the coolant - bang on maximum.

On collecting - the coolant level had dropped to below minimum and only just reached minimum when engine had reached running temp.

Since then - coolant level hasnt dropped at all (Ive done around 1000 miles since then).

As no work has been done on the car that could possibly resolve the loss of coolant (only work is change of plugs) then make your own judgement.

I'm also somewhat surprised that they did not top back up as part of the "repair" rather than give back to me with a low coolant level......given its pretty important.

Whilst I didnt get stung for a huge amount (just over £200) as I said I didnt want them to continue - I do have all the paperwork from them stating what they believed to be wrong with the car.....including loss of compression.

[88b]

Before I retired I worked ( no honestly I did sometimes ) for Ford, a lot of their customer care like Harley Davidson's is contracted out. Most of the people working for these companies could be doing and possibly are also doing customer care for Hotpoint fridges or washing machines or any other business. Basically they have little product knowledge and at times I thought they were actually there to discourage customers as opposed to help them. After the original Mondeo BBC Watchdog farce, Ford would panic at the mention of Watchdog. I've lost count of the times I've had to go to dealers to look at disgruntled customers vehicles, when all that was needed was for the dealer to do his job properly. 9 times out of 10 the problem can be resolved by doing the job or repair right. The problem is most dealers work on bonus so the mechanics rush everything because they are on low wages, and if the jobs not right it rarely comes back to them. The dealer doesn't care because for the £100 an hour the mechanic gets £10 and they get £90.

Ever notice the service reception is nearly always staffed by women ? that's so disgruntled customers are less likely to shout and swear at them or worse. I remember one snotty bitch at a dealers near Southampton who was rude to me and the customer, so I booked her onto a customer care course at the training school in Daventry.