250 Sport Clutch Nightmare

[N1NLT]

My 2006 250 sport has now had 2 clutches and 2 flywheels replaced in less than 6 months and 13,000 miles on the clock! Firstly I complained about clutch judder to RRG Bolton who then proceeded to replace the clutch and flywheel. Less than 50 miles later the cars transmission shattered in the middle lane of the M6 motorway and I was told that this was simply coincidence! mmm. The car was away for 2 weeks and was returned to me with a cracked alloy and split tyre and a constant judder on the clutch! The tyre split had been tyre silked over to try and disguise the damage although the RAC report specifically showed no damage as i'm always very carefull.

The car went back for a review and to have the wheel replaced, I was then telephoned by a very embarrased service manager explaining that they had caught the wheel again and would have to order a 3rd wheel. 20 miles later the car went back for its old split tyre as the steering was misaligned due to replacing only 1 tyre and was pulling over to one side.

I was also told like some of you to let the clutch bed in! WHAT? So 3 weeks ago I contacted customer service who agreed to send the vehicle to Lexus Carlisle, however the clutch completely failed on the way there and it took 2 weeks for Lexus to authorise replacement as initially they were trying to charge me £ 1700 to have it fixed. Just got the car back and you could smell the clutch from 20 feet away! Even the driver agreed the clutch was burning. I telephoned Lexus Carlisle who informed me that this was a residual smell and their technician smelt this every time he walked past the box on the bench.

Funnily enough, you cant smell it when the engine has been switched off for 5 minutes or more. In 13 months of ownership the car has spent 3 months at the dealership, its had new door seals and the rear window wasnt bonded in properly and had to be replaced. I had an IS200 Sport for 3 years from 99 and it was a great car and the service was always first class. The pursuit of perfection seems a lot longer road than Lexus think!

I have contacted Lexus GB today and told them the script and their technical department cant phone me because they are none customer facing. Lexus finance wont get involved even though the car is paid for through them and I have had to drive a Passat for 2 weeks as Lexus didnt have any cars available even though I'm paying for a 30K car. I'm now being told that if the clutch fails again I will have to pay to have it fixed and Lexus deem the fault to be driver error - incredibly insulting and hard to stomach!

Any ideas from anyone other than office of fair trading or a serious legal case and bad publicity for Lexus

[Steve ( West Mids )]

What have you to confirm events? Letters / emails etc? Independent engineers report? Print of cars history at the dealership (s)? Have you got it in writing about dealer error? id you pay a deposit or anything ( over £100 ) on Credit Card?

Depending on above I would, without question, follow your last sentence i.e. Motoring Press, Trading Standards, Motoring Organisations, Motor Arbitration people, strong letter to dealership (s) Service Manager, and Lexus GB and send recorded, reject the car if you have the balls ( not easy and may take time and may need letter and returning car and keys to dealership you bought it from ). Not necessarily in the order listed ;)

[N1NLT]

What have you to confirm events? Letters / emails etc? Independent engineers report? Print of cars history at the dealership (s)? Have you got it in writing about dealer error? id you pay a deposit or anything ( over £100 ) on Credit Card?

Depending on above I would, without question, follow your last sentence i.e. Motoring Press, Trading Standards, Motoring Organisations, Motor Arbitration people, strong letter to dealership (s) Service Manager, and Lexus GB and send recorded, reject the car if you have the balls ( not easy and may take time and may need letter and returning car and keys to dealership you bought it from ). Not necessarily in the order listed ;)

The full case is documented and after seeking legal advice yesterday due to the fact that the car is leased from Lexus Financial services, I have been advised to reject the vehicle on the grounds of breach of condition. The service from the Bolton dealership was extremely dissapointing with the only positive side being their salesman Bill Noon in the first instance! I have pursued Lexus GB after being advised by Financial services that this was the only route available. This is catatgorically incorrect as we purchased the car from Lexus Financial and they are two completely different companies.

LFS are trying to arrange an "independant" inspection as they are working on my "behalf" now. As a company we are going to arrange for our own inspection seperate to this one funded by Lexus. I have been a Toyota Lexus customer for 10 years now and have never experienced such an appaling service. The car was ordered from a brochure and I took a test drive some months later such was my confidence in the brand quality that the company is obviously now loosing at a rapid rate.

Our legal adviser stated that any financial organisation governed by the Financial Services Authority found in breach of condition must put the purchaser back into an indentical position as if the contract had not been started. ie a full repayment of all monies and the car collected ad taken away. We are under no obligation to accept a replacement and can indeed pursue for further damages if required.

Having a car spend 3 months out of 13 at a dealership and with the usage of 3 clutches and flywheels in that period gives us an extremely strong platform for this case without even going into all the other faults with the car.

I really hoped this case was isolated but I have read other members indentical issues and a trend seems to be being uncovered here. The dealer service manager told me that most clutches judder and Lexus clutches are "agricultural" at best! The PASSAT that I had no other option to use these last 2 weeks drove fantastically. Pristine gear changes, no burning clutch and the capability of driving from A-B without breaking down.

It would suggest that the "Pursuit of perfection" has a lot longer to go than Lexus GB think!

[Rob]

[ The service from the Bolton dealership was extremely dissapointing

now there is a surprise.... good to see that they have kept the service level unchanged

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Let us know how it progresses, but you definitely have to reject to the people you bought from, so if it's LFS that's your route.

[N1NLT]

Monday saw an independant test on the car by ACE assessors, on his return the driver said it was one of the worst cars he had driven and was looking forward to getting back in his Mondeo! He said it is impossible to drive smoothly within slipping the clutch and there is obviously a fault. He will be asking Lexus for another model to verify whether its car or model specific. Why cant we have a sport in automatic!!!!!!!

My last car was a 480bhp UK supra automatic and ran perfectly for 4 years, I had a IS200 Sport from new that managed 60,000 miles before I changed it yet i'm being told the fault is driver error by a dealership that admitted never taking a box out of a 250 sport before!

The pursuit of perfection continues.......... just awaiting the response from LFS now!

[ibby]

Dual massfly wheel faliure ?

Bad pressure plate...?

[N1NLT]

Lexus GB have now received the report and have offered to collect the car and take it to Gatwick to their engineering centre for their own technicians to work on. They were concerned about the "judder" comments in the independant test and would like a final opportu nity to rectify the situation. It will take a week to sort the paperwork, in the mean time the clutch is still juddering and the smell is appalling. I will keep you all posted with the outcome!

[Rob]

i trust LGB will be refunding the cost of the report??

[Steve ( West Mids )]

and any repairs / inconvenience so far? Also a new written clutch guarantee?

[N1NLT]

Lexus paid for the independant inspection believing their dealer to be correct and find me at fault, yet the inspector found all of my concerns to be correct and thebasic fact that the car is impossible to drive smoothly due to the clutch judder.

The car has been away for a week and as yet no reply!

[tuscan]

Nov 18th 2007

Clutch nightmare No 2

Lexus IS 250 Sport was leased by us on Jan 2007 from Lexus Coventry. The car was a pig to drive from day one. First service at ten thousand miles we complained about the smoothness on take off. They said they would install a new clutch and fly wheel and that would cure the shudder. We have found out now they did not replace the clutch - just the fly wheel therefore the problem was still there. The car was still a pig to drive and we were just not happy with the car and we did not feel like driving it. We reported it back to Lexus and told them how we felt. They had the car in again and replaced the clutch and the fly wheel and guess what it hasn`t solved the problem. Booked the car in to be checked over on Friday 16th November 2007.They said they would have a courtesy car waiting for me and try and solve the problem. Their technician took the car out for a trial run. On his return he said there was nothing wrong with the car and it only shuddered on take off on low revs and that we were to give it more throttle when letting the clutch out. As they have said there is nothing wrong with the car thats how Lexus are, I asked them to put it in writing that there is nothing wrong with the car - they refused point blank. They refused to give me a courtesy car and do anything to the car as they said there is nothing wrong with the car. After a car having three flywheels and two clutches and is still a pig to drive we have no confidence in the car or Lexus! They have told me Lexus GB would investigate this but the assessor is on holiday and would be getting in touch with me in the future. Lets hope they can come up with something or I also can see a legal battle coming on. Lexus Coventry told me on 16th November 2007 that my car was the only one they had ever fitted a clutch and fly wheel to. Any comments appreciated.

[savageimports]

Yes, I and all the other American owners have had the same crappy issues with the clutch/flywheel/transmission. My car is currently in peices with the transmission out of it and the flywheel and clutch are being used to develop a new single peice light weight flywheel and a dual dampened clutch to fix these annoying issues... The production is low here but there are enough that aren't satisfied with the clutch.. do they make/sell alot of 6-speeds in the UK?